America’s Richest Self-Made Women JAMIE KERN LIMA topped an estimated $1 million. “It took us a while to say, ‘Let’s give this a shot,’ but it was an instant success from the beginning,” Burke says. In 2011, Kern Lima and her husband, who is co-CEO and largely handles the operations and finances, moved to Bayonne, New Jersey, from California to be within driving distance of the network’s studios in eastern Pennsylvania. Investors began calling. “You’re so tempted, especially if you were a poor entrepreneur like I was,” Kern Lima recalls. “You’re just hoping for someone to help you grow your infrastructure beyond what you can do yourself.” But she hesitated and did due diligence, ringing up every entrepreneur and CEO who had previously worked with the suitors. which took four years and more than 200 attempts to perfect. By 2014 sales hit an estimated $117 million. Another top seller took even longer: Superhero Mascara, which lifts even the shortest lashes by catching hairs through a proprietary elastic-stretch technology and has anti-aging ingredients in the tint. Launched in February 2016, it took three years and 275 tries to formulate. ternally” (though she did bring IT to Australia in 2014). After meeting Carol Hamilton, the head of L’Oréal’s Luxe Division, at an industry conference in 20<strong>13</strong>, Kern Lima followed up with a handwritten thank-you note, which is currently on display in Hamilton’s office. Hamilton visited IT later that year and walked out the door thinking it was the most powerful brand she’d seen in a long time. “I realized the connection that Jamie had with women was authentic,” Hamilton recalls. “She absolutely has a fierce desire to make every woman realize her best self. A lot of women might say that, but her commitment was what made me really convinced that her brand was going to continue to be on fire.” While both parties were smitten, there were several false starts. After talks fell apart one time, Hamilton called Kern Lima to give her the bad news and told her not give up. Kern Lima’s response: “I am certain someday we’re going to be part of the L’Oréal family.” Kern Lima considered taking the company public and also went ahead with plans to expand into Southeast Asia, the industry’s fastest- growing region. One week before that launch, the sale to L’Oréal finally went through. TSG founder and CEO Chuck Esserman recalls Kern Lima telling him IT would be the best investment he ever made. “Every entrepreneur tells me that. In Jamie’s case, she did it,” says Esserman. <strong>Forbes</strong> estimates his firm made 25 times its money on the sale, while Guthy-Ren ker pocketed approximately $150 million. Under the L’Oréal umbrella, IT Makeup Mergers Cosmetic conglomerates are snapping up smaller brands at a record pace. Here are some of the biggest recent deals. NYX Cosmetics Bold colors, drugstore prices ACQUIRED BY L’Oréal $500 MILLION 2014 Glamglow Facial masks and skin care ACQUIRED BY Estée Lauder EST. $100 MILLION 2015 IT Cosmetics Problem-solving makeup ACQUIRED BY L’Oréal $1.2 BILLION 2016 Too Faced Millennial fave for lipstick, eye colors ACQUIRED BY Estée Lauder $1.45 BILLION 2016 Becca Cosmetics Highlighters and bronzers ACQUIRED BY Estée Lauder EST. $200 MILLION 2016 She focused on a couple: TSG Consumer Partners, a $5 billion private equity firm best known for investments in Planet Fitness and Glacéau Vitaminwater, and Guthy-Renker, the directmarketing powerhouse that built Proactiv into a billion-dollar acne-treatment brand. Both said no. She waited. “You have to hold your gut and your own belief on a pedestal,” Kern Lima says. “All the ones that had said no finally said yes.” It wasn’t until 2012, after Ulta Beauty signed a deal to sell the brand, that TSG invested an undisclosed sum. A year later Guthy-Renker followed suit; it got an estimated 20% stake in return for the right to package and market discounted kits to be sold on infomercials. Guthy-Renker has spent about $50 million a year buying infomercial spots, according to cofounder Greg Renker. In 20<strong>13</strong>, IT Cosmetics rolled out what became its top seller, CC Cream, Interested in re-creating that success outside the U.S., Kern Lima began thinking about a buyer early on: “We could [go internationally] on our own for sure—it would just be so much slower. Every entrepreneur learns at some point that you don’t know what you don’t know. From a capacity and infrastructure situation, it would be decades longer if we did it in- Cosmetics will have the resources to ramp up quickly. In addition to international expansion, there will likely be stand-alone stores and more products, such as its first face wash, called Confidence in a Cleanser. Days after the sale, Kern Lima and Hamilton got on a plane for Singapore, followed by Thailand and Malaysia. Hamilton admits she was anxious to see how IT, whose acquisition she’d championed, would translate in Asia. She got quick relief inside Singapore’s biggest mall, where women who had just met Kern Lima were suddenly crying. Back at L’Oréal’s headquarters, Hamilton smiles, promising the deal was well worth it: “She allows herself to be vulnerable in front of women. She knows how to tap into that and make us believe in ourselves. Confidence is not something that is defined by national boundaries.” F 84 | FORBES JUNE <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2017</strong>
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