3 Self Funded Brands That Are Worth Millions Now
Starting a brand from nothing can often feel completely out of your reach, especially when you’re just making enough to make ends meet. It's so common to hear about successful million pound brands, but they always seem to have received large lump-sums of money via loans or grants at the beginning of their journeys. So we identified 3 brands who started small, and are now worth millions.
Tatcha
Known for their cosmetics inspired by Japanese beauty rituals, the Founder Vicky Tsai sold her engagement ring, car and some furniture to buy her first batch of products. The now-cult beauty brand loved by makeup artists, is now worth $500 million.
Spanx
The original shapewear underwear brand loved by all women around the world, started off with a self-funded investment of $5,000 from Sara Blakely’s (the founder’s) personal savings.
It all stemmed from the entrepreneur growing frustrated with pantyhose, a dresscode her then employer enforced. She liked the control-top element of the garment, but hated the panty lines and that the seam was visible through her open-toed shoes. This frustration birthed the beginning of Spanx, which is now worth $1.2 billion.
The Dollhouse & Huda Beauty
Mona Kattan left her career in finance, and was self-employed for three years. During this time she formed a service-based PR, marketing and business consultancy taking on as many clients as she could to save enough money to start The Dollhouse (a beauty salon based in Dubai). When her and her sister founded Huda Beauty, Mona took care of all departments of management to save on costs.
Huda Kattan worked days and nights taking on makeup jobs to help fund Huda Beauty. Once the company started growing really fast, their father sold his home in Baghdad to fund new stock as they kept getting rejected for business loans. Huda Beauty is now valued at $1.2 billion.
