How to Quit Your Corporate Job & Build a Million Dollar Empire with Vicky Tsai, Founder of Tatcha

Vicky Tsai, founder of Japanese beauty brand Tatcha, had a
nontraditional path to eventually founding one of the top
skincare companies today. About 10 years ago, Vicky decided
to leave her thriving career and travel the world in search of
happiness and meaning in her life. 


In her travels, when visiting Kyoto, Japan, Vicky had a
life-changing meeting with a Geisha. She learned some of their
natural skincare secrets which healed her skin & soul in the
truest sense and she wanted to bring the same experience back
with her to the US. 


However, Vicky’s success did not come easy. She struggled
for years to get the brand off the ground and was over $600,000
in debt at the time. When she started the company, there weren’t
many direct-to-consumer brands, Asian beauty and skincare wasn’t
a thing and no one was interested in clean formulas for their
skin. Fast forward to today, Tatcha is available in Sephora &
QVC and is the second fastest growing women-led company on the
Inc 5000 list. And last year, Unilever acquired Tatcha for a
reported $500 million dollars. 


Vicky is passionate about giving back. Since inception, they have
partnered with Room to Read in their mission to educate girls
globally and have sponsored over 3 million days of school. 


In this episode, we’ll talk to Vicky about: 


* How 9/11 impacted Vicky’s perspective on life’s meaning and
purpose [4:26]


* Vicky shares how she used business school to do introspective
work on herself [6:54]


* Vicky discusses her career trajectory and why Howard Shultz,
CEO of Starbucks, played a big role in her leaving her corporate
career [11:23]


* Vicky shares how she thinks about social entrepreneurship and
using business as a vehicle for social change [16:18]


* Vicky describes why Kyoto, Japan made such a big impact in her
life & truly healed her from the inside out [18:28]


* How Vicky thinks about money, risk & success and key tips
she shares with entrepreneurs when starting a business [20:54]


* How Vicky sold her engagement ring to buy 10,000 blotting
papers and bring Tatcha to life [24:58]


* Why Vicky decided to not raise money from investors early-on
& the personal sacrifices she made to keep the business
afloat [27:20]


* What Tatcha looked like in the early days and how she
eventually got the product in Sephora & QVC [34:11]


* Vicky shares her advice on raising money with institutional
investors [45:03]


* Vicky describes how she felt when stepping down as CEO and the
immense growth the Company saw when she stopped caring about what
others think [46:14]


* Vicky shares what it was like to sell her company for $500
million dollars and the legacy she wants to leave behind [53:46]


Follow Tatcha:


* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tatcha 


* Website: https://www.tatcha.com/





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* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/


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