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Elana Drell- Szyfer, CEO of ReVive Skincare, Algenist and This Works board member joined me on the Reboot Chronicles to dive into what’s happening in the beauty industry.
Elana Drell- Szyfer, CEO of ReVive Skincare, and Algenist and This Works board member joined me on the Reboot Chronicles to dive into what’s happening in the beauty industry.
A Startup Journey
ReVive Skincare was founded in 1997 by Dr. Gregory Brown, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who crafted the luxury skincare company. Before its founding, Brown spent most of his time dedicated to researching how to accelerate the healing process of burns on people’s skin. During the span of his research, he discovered restorative benefits to speed up healing damaged skin. Building on that research Brown built a solid foundation creating specially formulated products that rejuvenate customers changing skin behaviors. Elena calls it the “twenty-three-year-old startup” , because during its lifespan the company has been owned by Amway, while I was on their venture board, acquired by Shiseido and then acquired by private equity firm Tengram Capital Partners.
Corporates To Startups
With a long corporate career, Elena decided to make the switch to working with startups. Like me, she found that she really enjoys the challenge of working on startups. She worked with L’Oreal, Avon, Estee Lauder, and spent some time with Kenneth Cole. Before joining ReVive, she also worked with Laura Geller, where she learned the ropes. In 2017, Elena joined ReVive Skincare, taking on the role of CEO, where she rebooted the company instilling a strong sense of company culture, while keeping true to the company’s roots. For those of weighing the pros and cons of corporates vs. startups, remember to look for what will keep you professionally sustained and stimulated—while you balance Fun-Money-Purpose.
How To Survive The Retail Apocalypse
2020 has accelerated the already in progress “retail apocalypse”! Elena shares some advice about how to always stay one step ahead in retail. As retail is being disrupted, companies need to establish their next steps as the shopping mix is everchanging, especially during COVID. China is a country to look to, especially in the beauty sector. They have been successful getting consumers back to brick and mortar shopping, and more importantly unbundled casual shopping. ReVieve came to this realization as they entered into China through cross-border e-commerce, which has been huge for the company and helped shape Elena and her team’s business mindsets.
Don’t Look Back
Getting caught up in the past is easy to do, but now it is crucial to hyper-adapt to change. In the ever-shifting world we live in today, it is important to let go of what was and look to what is. The quicker this is done, the more it can impact your business.
A lot was unpacked in this action-packed episode, watch it here or tune in wherever you listen to podcasts.
About The Reboot Chronicles Podcast: Hosted by Dean DeBiase, The Reboot Chronicles is a popular no-holds-barred podcast on iHeartRadio, iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts and YouTube that has been bringing together CEOs, entrepreneurs, authors, and global leaders, for over a decade, to discuss how organizations are rebooting their leadership-competitiveness of everything from growth, innovation, and technology to talent, culture, and governance. Tune in wherever you listen to podcasts or at https://www.revieve.com/rebootchronicles
Named a “Growth Guru” by Inc. Magazine, Dean DeBiase is a Faculty Member at Kellogg School of Management and Silicon Valley serial CEO, where he has served in chief executive and chairman roles of more than a dozen emerging growth companies, CEO of Fortune 500 subsidiaries, and a director on public, private, family-enterprise, CVC, PE and VC boards. He is a Technology Fellow at Northwestern University, a Board Leadership Fellow at The National Association of Corporate Directors, and an Advisor to the National Science Foundation. A Forbes Contributor and co-author of the best-selling book The Big Moo, Dean, is working on his next book, Dancing with Startups. Connect with Dean here: www.linkedin.com/in/FollowDean
