{"podcast":{"title":"How I Built This with Guy Raz","slug":"how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258","podcast_index_feed_id":714258,"rss_url":"https://rss.art19.com/how-i-built-this","website_url":"https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/?utm_source=rss","image_url":"https://content.production.cdn.art19.com/images/56/ae/46/57/56ae4657-2aa7-4cfc-8ddf-9be24410d5ed/a42755c24a721ea0aaed99c400150d8e67da266430f4bf312684a4bd64e5a1b2f4be14f56746ce0633855e356d7a41a0973d96be2dd0f1d4a174bbe7f456aa4e.jpeg","author":"Guy Raz | Wondery","episode_count":842,"summary":"Guy Raz interviews the world’s best-known entrepreneurs to learn how they built their iconic brands. In each episode, founders reveal deep, intimate moments of doubt and failure, and share insights on their eventual success. How I Built This is a master-class on innovation, creativity, leadership and how to navigate challenges of all kinds. New episodes release on Mondays and Thursdays.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-15T16:17:51.485190+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258"},"episode":{"title":"Beautycounter: Gregg Renfrew. She Built Beautycounter to $1B… Then Got Fired From Her Own Company","slug":"beautycounter-gregg-renfrew-she-built-beautycounter-to-1b-then-got-fired-from-her-own-company","published_at":"2026-05-04T07:10:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/beautycounter-gregg-renfrew-she-built-beautycounter-to-1b-then-got-fired-from-her-own-company","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258","url":"https://rss.art19.com/episodes/70b30f1f-238b-4be4-8893-291de5af52a1.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","audio_url":"https://rss.art19.com/episodes/70b30f1f-238b-4be4-8893-291de5af52a1.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","summary":"Gregg Renfrew started a movement by making better-for-you cosmetics, then enlisted an army of women to build the business through direct sales. But after selling Beautycounter, she was pushed out of the company she created. Then she got to do something almost no founder gets to do:  She bought her company back. Then lost it again. Then took the risky step of rebuilding it into a new brand, now called Counter.   This is a story about ambition, humility, and second chances.   Gregg learned her first lessons by launching an early online wedding registry and selling it to Martha Stewart. She briefly led a clothing company and was summarily fired—by messenger. In this candid conversation, Gregg talks about the bold innovation she brought to the beauty industry, and the lessons she learned from working with difficult people—including, at times, herself.  What You’ll Learn: How to build a movement—not just a product The hidden risks of “growth at all costs” Why direct sales (done right) can outperform traditional DTC The emotional toll of being fired from your own company How to rebuild your identity after losing your business What it takes to come back—and do it differently the second time Timestamps: (00:06:15) – Selling Xerox machines and getting doors slammed in her face (00:08:09) – The early inspiration for an online wedding registry. (00:16:44) – The brutal lesson of the dot-com crash: “growth at all costs” (00:21:58) – Standing up to Martha Stewart: “I was cocky.”  (00:23:51) – Getting fired as CEO… by messenger… in front of her team (00:32:47) – The moment she realized the beauty industry had a massive gap (00:35:25) – “Clean beauty didn’t exist”—and why that made it so hard (00:47:04) – Building a 60,000-person sales forc…","meta_description":"Gregg Renfrew started a movement by making better-for-you cosmetics, then enlisted an army of women to build the business through direct sales. But after…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4367,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/episodes/beautycounter-gregg-renfrew-she-built-beautycounter-to-1b-then-got-fired-from-her-own-company/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/beautycounter-gregg-renfrew-she-built-beautycounter-to-1b-then-got-fired-from-her-own-company.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}