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Dear FoundHer...

Building a $150MM Brand on the Foundation of Passion + Purpose with Karissa Bodnar, Founder of Thrive Causemetics

Season 2, Ep. 180

“I wish there was a beauty brand I could go work for that was rooted in philanthropy.” It’s the desire that led Karissa Bodnar to found Thrive Causemetics, the leading direct-to-consumer luxury beauty brand. As a child growing up on her family’s farm in rural Washington, she mixed her own beauty products and would go on to travel the world working for L’Oreal’s luxury division. Following a friend’s death from cancer, Karissa was inspired to create a line of clean products which people with health concerns can feel safe using. Since its founding in 2015, the company has donated an astounding $135 million in funds and products to 500 giving partners in order to help deserving communities thrive. 


With empathetic leadership and a dedication to social action, Karissa is on a mission to change the way we think about the power and potential of beauty. 


Key takeaways:

  • Ignorance is bliss when you’re starting a business 
  • Don’t raise money if you don’t need to
  • Start slowly - especially if you’re low on capital
  • Rely on and trust your community to guide you in making pivotal decisions
  • Ask for help, you can’t do it alone
  • Find friends outside the business


Quotes:

  • “I often say that ignorance is bliss when you're starting a business, because if I had known how hard it was, I wouldn't have done it.”(11:47 | Karissa)
  • “I had to work on it for many, many years, much longer than your traditional product development cycle. That spirit of creating products that are truly solving problems still rings true in all of the products that we're creating. Because at the time the world didn't need another pair of false eyelashes or lash glue. There were great ones on the market, but we needed to solve a very specific problem.” (13:39 | Karissa)
  • “We always say everybody's on the giving team at Thrive Cosmetics because one of our values is one team, one score.” (24:11 | Karissa)
  • “I did not think that it would get this big. I did not think it would happen the way that it did and when it did, but that's one thing that always inspires me, Lindsay, is that I didn't dream that big, but our community did.” (34:34 | Karissa)


Connect with Karissa Bodnar:

Instagram:http://www.instagram.com/thrivecausemetics

Instagram:http://www.instagram.com/karissabodnar


If you like what you're hearing, please leave a rating or review at https://ratethispodcast.com/dearfoundher 


You can now work with Lindsay 1:1 to build and monetize your community through the same method she used to grow and scale her business. Fill out the form here and set up a FREE 30-minute consultation.


Make sure you sign up for Lindsay's newsletter and have all of the takeaways from every podcast episode sent straight to your inbox. PLUS, you'll get a tip every week to help you grow and scale your own business.


Don't forget to follow Lindsay on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindsaypinchuk



Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm


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