Deepica Mutyala Built Ulta's Fastest Growing Makeup Brand

0:00Hey, business besties. Welcome back to Female Founder World. I'm Jasmine. I'm the person behind all things female founder world. And today I'm chatting with Deepika Mudiala. She's the founder and CEO of Live Tinted. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. For people that don't know Live Tinted, what are you building? I am building a beauty brand, I guess I would say specifically a makeup brand that is focused on making it so everyone feels seen across all of our products, something that I feel like I didn't have growing up. I feel like we're most known for our complexion products and our protection products, which is SPF products, which is kind of my goal and dream that I've always wanted to be the case.

0:37So yeah. And you started the brand in 2019. 2019. Since then, I'm going to like rattle off some milestones that you've hit because it's super, super impressive. And I think it helps people understand just exactly what you've built. So your skin tint product, one of those sells every three minutes. And you are the fastest growing cosmetic brand in Ulta, which is incredible. We are. It's crazy. It's exciting. And I feel like we're just getting started. But to know that the growth is happening at that rate is the best. You you're kind of, I guess, like beauty career started really on YouTube. I mean, you worked at Birchbox, you'd worked at it, you'd interned at L 'Oreal, but you really made a name for yourself on YouTube.

1:21I did. I did the corporate side first because I felt like it was parent approved. You know, my parents were like, if you want to work in beauty, go be an executive. in the beauty industry. And while I was working at a beauty startup, I had a video go viral on YouTube. My second video I ever posted using a red lipstick under my eyes to mask dark circles. 10 million views later, I got asked to be on the Today Show. I did the segment on air. I quit my job, became a beauty influencer, built an audience. Three years later, started Live Tinted. I love that story of just this opportunity came and you just went for it.

1:55I did. I think at that moment in my life, the biggest risk was not going for it. Yeah. You know, I was young. I was in my 20s. And like, I think about it now. And I have so much more fear that exists in me at 35 than I did at 25. It just felt like low stakes at the time. It was like, whatever, I'm in my 20s. I'll figure it out. But which is weird, because I think at any moment in your life, it is your reality. So it's shocking that it wasn't scary to me at the time. But it wasn't. To me, it was like, I don't want to look back and wonder what if. I love that. I'm also just, it like blows my mind this era when 10 million views would get you on the Today Show and you could like quit your job.

2:32Isn't that so funny? It's like people can breathe on TikTok and get that now. Although it's funny when I feel like I'm trying and I think I have the good video, it doesn't pop off. But yeah, in 2015, getting 10 million views on a YouTube video. No, that was wild. Big deal. And it was because of BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed also archaic at this point, But at the time, it was like the biggest deal. And so getting featured on there made the video take off. And all of a sudden, my whole life changed. Do you still YouTube? Not like I should, you know, when I have like a big milestone or life update. But it's so hard running a company and being a content machine.

3:06It's two separate jobs squeezed into one. And I keep trying to make it make sense. But I don't really feel like I'm the same person I was when I started. So it's also like I'm trying to do it in an authentic way that like, Like I don't feel like I'm at a point in my life to wake up and do a beauty tutorial on YouTube the way that I did in 2015. So I want to stay connected to that audience there because I have hundreds of thousands of people on YouTube. But I also want to figure out how to do it in a way that feels right for a 35-year-old Deepika. I think about this all the time. I think about this all the time because I'm also someone that creates content on the internet, not as prolific as you as a creator.

3:42but I think about how I've changed and my like perspectives and opinions and interests have just changed so much since when I started but the internet wants you to be a brand and wants you to have this like one thing that you do and that you're known for but it doesn't that's actually not what humans are and I also feel like I I'm going through a lot as a human being and as a founder but as a woman in my 30s and sometimes I feel like the internet wants you to just be one version of yourself, like you're saying, and that doesn't feel honest to me. So I'm struggling with it, but also remembering it is part of my job and trying to understand, do I just treat it like my job and then go and have my life, which feels really healthy, but it doesn't feel honest in how I started my whole journey.

4:24Like the reason I think it worked in the beginning was because I was so myself. I was so genuinely myself. I had no makeup on. I was on the internet putting red product all underneath my eyes. I looked insane, but I think that's why it worked. and then I started to vlog my personal life with my family and people really connected to them because I think they saw a little bit of their parents and my parents and yeah it's hard because now I'm so drained from building this company that whenever I go home I just want to like eat my mom's food and not pull out my phone yeah I think about this a lot I don't share any of my friends ever on Instagram or TikTok or anything it's just not it's like too special do you know I want to protect them more than anything from this crazy world of the internet.

5:09So how do you think you might create content now? Because I'm guessing you have a content team that does live tinted content, but I'm also guessing that when you post about the brand, that's what works really well. Yeah, it's an interesting balance though, because I think if my page, my Deepika page was all live tinted content, it actually shuts down the live tinted content because my audience does want to see me as a whole human. And that's the struggle. Like what you said about not posting your friends, it's tough because I do feel like my audience loves seeing my friends and family. And when you're going on a vacation, it's almost the content that does the best.

5:41So like then what is a real vacation for somebody whose content that's vacation content is what the world wants to see. So I struggle with that a little bit. But again, like it's like fake. I always remind myself it's like high class problems because a lot of creators are getting free rooms because they're posting about their lives on these trips and stuff like that. So I'm actively in real time trying to figure out what my content strategy looks like for 35-year-old Deepika, who's still running the company and also a content creator. Did you see what Addison Rae posted this week? What? She wrote or she said in an interview, like, tasting class is a privilege or something when it comes to content.

6:20And she was talking about when she was, like, in a content house early on and how she had to post, like, 20 videos a day and just, like, do all of the crazy things. That's so real. until you make it that you can like make those decisions to be like actually I don't want to share that she has a really good point I didn't know where you're going with that but I totally agree that like I feel that same way with having live tinted because people whose full-time life and career is based on being a content creator you have to feed the algorithm yeah for me it is a piece of what helps grow live tinted but if for whatever reason the way I monetized my content channels for me as a brand went away I know I still have equity in the brand that I'm building long term.

7:01I do both of them because one helps build the other. My audience is still larger than what Live Tinted is in terms of like following and stuff. But my dream, my dream is that Live Tinted outgrows me. People pick it up. I see them pull it out of their bag. They have no clue that I was the founder of it. And I'm just like walking by and seeing them and I'm like, oh my God, this is so crazy. Right now, for the most part, it still is like people coming up to me and being like, I love your brand. It's so cool. I'm so inspired by what you're doing, which is awesome and like such a pinch me feeling. But I just think about one day when I have kids and a family, how it is that I want to show up in the world and I want it to be through my brand.

7:42I get that. Yeah, I totally get that. I'm sure you do, by the way. And I feel like with what you're building, it's very much is about a community and an ecosystem, which is actually how Live Tinted started as a community platform. And it brought me so much joy at that time because it was less about the product and more about the community. And now what I'm like trying to figure out is what does community mean for Live Tinted five years into the brand? We're at year six and it's like, okay, so six years in, how do I make it so the community still sees themselves, but we can still scale? Yes. How do you scale community?

8:14I don't know. I think it's always never forgetting why you started and making sure that they feel seen no matter what. It's part of the reason we made the brand tagline. It feels good to be seen because whether you're my skin tone, a deeper skin tone or your skin tone are much fairer than you, we all want to feel seen. That's like a universal feeling inside of you. But it also, to me, plays in a playful way around putting it on a mirror because you're looking at yourself. And then you can also think of it as it's deeper than just a beauty product phrase. It's just like a life mantra. And so putting that at the center to me makes it so the young brown girl who saw herself in Live Tinted still sees herself, but it opens it up to a wider audience did you see the the like tiktok do you spend much time on tiktok by the way so yes and no like i cannot scroll because it's so unhealthy for my brain like 10 years into doing this right like it rewires the shit in your brain it rewires the shit in your brain to a point where you're like is this worth it yeah you know so like now i have a team who does it and they tell me what trends to do and i do it but i cannot sit there and scroll I can't.

9:19So like when somebody's like, did you see this trend? I'm like, no, I didn't. Totally. I'm the same. I am not on top of trends at all. That's a hundred percent something the team sends me. But did you see, there's a lot of like cancellation backlash happening on TikTok with the founders of a lot of beauty brands. Did you see that? Oh, fashion brands. Did you see this? No. Okay. Don't you feel like someone's getting canceled every hour of every day? I know. And it's so like, I'm seeing it happening now with some of these fashion brands and specifically why? Like all different things. They come up all the time.

9:47It's a lot of these fashion brands that are that have like a maybe like a drop model and that's fashion I don't know yeah but like there's but I have to say like I every once in a while when I do Shein yeah yeah well yeah those I've seen but what I can say also is I can open my phone and see a negative comment about me and I get this anxious fear of getting cancelled and it's just an exhausting do you still get that yes yeah it's part of the reason I can't do it I can't I am still working through this wiring you have in your brain of needing to be liked. When I physically got paid, my job for years was getting liked on an app.

10:24And then you as a person are a people pleaser already. You care about being liked. It's like that like that you see on the gram is much deeper than just like a heart. It's actually like in your brain telling you the more I'm liked, the more I get paid, the more my company and business grow. So if somebody says they don't like me, I freak out because it's like, it's not just about me. It's about Live Tinted and the 30 employees that I employee oh my god i completely understand that so heavy right i watched a video this week with um i think miley saris did an interview with the new york times i loved it did you watch it i watched her talking about the what's the the tapping yes i would need to do this and she talked and so for everyone who didn't didn't watch this or didn't see it go and watch it i'm gonna link in the show notes because it's so good but she basically says i'll recap it she says that she was having really bad stage fright and she was doing this therapy and like and figured out that um she like went to this place where she was like why like what is it and basically i just want them to love me i just want them to love me and then like work down to the root of what that is and i think so much of it like we're just we're social beings and when you put that into this hyper intense situation like tiktok or instagram and you're constantly being perceived on there and that like social biological wiring doesn't go away it just gets like amplified and I think it just can lead to so much anxiety beyond beyond and I you know I think about people who are starting at like the age of 16 17 because at 35 at least I have enough self-awareness and confidence in myself and have a community of people around me my brain is fully developed when those people that age are not to where like I'm okay but I take it as a deep responsibility because of the company that I've built and the people that I employ and I just never want to say the wrong thing that could jeopardize all of that I've worked so hard for but again it's like also an exhausting way to live because I also want to be myself and be free so like what's kind of cool is that people are getting canceled at such a rapid rate that like is cancel culture canceled totally doesn't mean anything anymore Does it mean anything anymore?

12:32And so it's like, okay, I was cancelled today. Let's go to bed and try again tomorrow. Yeah. It doesn't seem to be the same as what it was in like 2019, 2020. I think like pre-TikTok where things weren't moving as quickly and it did feel more permanent when founders or women were like cancelled on the internet. Now it's just moving so quickly that I do think people like moving beyond it. and also I think that cancellations are happening within these like echo chambers and niches on these platforms as well that it feels like it's everywhere but if you're not like in that echo chamber you don't even know what's happening isn't it crazy like if you just don't look at your phone for a week it's like it didn't even happen like you have this beautiful life and just you're walking through the world like loving life and then you open your phone and it's like everything has ended and I don't know I just it's I'm so grateful for social media right like so my entire career and my brand has all taken off because of it so like there's so many positives to it but oh I just think about one day when I have kids it's gonna be a scary world yeah yep uh there's an amazing non-profit called half the story do you know them no okay they're amazing so Lars the founder started this I want to say six years ago maybe seven years ago she had really bad mental health issues around like social media and she started this non-profit called half the story and now it is like prolific and they do they create resources and education for for parents and students and it's all around what you see on your screen is half the story they're amazing and she just started a like consumer facing app that is around like around this but it's not a non-profit it's her it's a tech startup it's amazing i actually think they're fundraising at the moment very cool yeah i'm definitely and she is like legit incredible she's yeah amazing i love it Anyway, anyone who's building this space, I'm just like, just give them all of the money.

14:21Let's figure this out because, yeah, the kids are not going to be okay. It's a lot. Let's go back to 2019. And when Live Tinted first started, how did you launch the business and what worked back then? Back then, I started as a community platform before I even launched a product. I always knew since I was 16, I wanted to create this beauty brand, but I didn't know how and when I would do it. And so, you know, after I had built this community around my own personal page for three years, I was ready to start the brand. But at the time, I just felt like I wanted it to be bigger than myself. So when I went to go fundraise, people would say, just launch the product.

14:55You already have an audience of hundreds of thousands of people launch it. And I was like, no, like I want this to be about a brand that outlives me and is different from me. And so I started an Instagram page called Live Tinted. And I started to ask people, hey, if you find a South Asian woman with deeper skin tone, please tag me in the photo using the hashtag Live Tinted. And I'm not even kidding, within an hour, there was hundreds of people tagging hashtag live tinted. And it was just so cool. And I saw all these beautiful faces of women that I hadn't seen in 2019 at that time featured. And then I was able to like reach out to them and be like, wait, I want to create like a page where we're spotlighting faces and aesthetics that you don't normally see in the beauty industry.

15:35And so, you know, this is a pre-BLM time where people were, diversity and inclusion was kind of just a different conversation. You know, you didn't see the traditional magazines even talking about it. And so I created this page called Live Tinted that was just a community page where every day we would post a different topic and have people discuss it, whether it was colorism, growing up with facial hair as a woman, and how people feel about their noses. And, like, I realized it became so much bigger than just this brown girl page. It was actually a page connecting people that didn't feel like they saw themselves in the beauty industry.

16:09And so slowly but surely we started to grow, and then we created a newsletter. then we started to do events and it really was this community channel and then eventually I asked the community what they felt was missing from the beauty industry and overwhelmingly the audience said that it was hyperpigmentation in dark circles and so I was like wait a second I have this video from three years ago using a red lipstick under my eyes all centered around dark circles and hyperpigmentation three years later I'm starting this community page and the same group well not even same this audience is telling me that they have the same problem So it was clear to me that the market hadn't created a solution.

16:42And that's when we started to develop the product that, no, that's not true. The product was already being in development because I knew at some point I wanted to start a brand. What was going to be that product in the exact form? How I was going to involve the community and how they verified and validified what I thought would be the case all happened through this year of building out the brand as a community platform. Wow. So the actual community started in 2018, but we launched the first product in 2019. So whenever people ask me like when the brand started, I always like hesitate because the community started in 2018.

17:14But the business was actually a revenue generating business in 2019. It just sounds like it's meant to be. Yeah, I think so. I mean, listen, like this wasn't like something I woke up and decided to do. It was like a little girl from Texas who was like, I want to be the girl that creates a brand that finally includes people who look like me, but becomes mainstream. Like the biggest thing that I want people to realize is like I have products that work for all of us. Like I want the girl from Kansas City down to the girl in Singapore to pick up my products and feel like we've created something for them.

17:45And complexion is not easy. It's expensive. It means you, and especially as a brand that's saying we stand for everybody, we're doing the best we can. And I think for me, the way to do that is I can't promise that every single human being in the entire planet is going to see the shade that is perfect for them. but I made it so we had equal shade representation in the light, medium, and deep side of the spectrum. So the person over here and here and here feels equally represented rather than typically in the beauty industry historically. People start and make sure that the fairest side of the skin tone spectrum is taken care of and this is more of an afterthought.

18:21Because of that, we actually made it so the deepest shade is shade one for us and the lightest shade is shade 20 for us. So it's just like the little things we do to kind of flip things on the head to make it so those who hadn't traditionally seen themselves represented in the beauty industry finally do. Clever. If you were launching a brand today from scratch, would you follow that same build an audience first, launch a product second? Okay, business besties, let's switch gears for a second. Real quick, I want to talk to you about this season's presenting sponsor, Vistaprint. They are sponsoring this entire season of the Female Founder World podcast and we love a supportive sponsor.

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19:45Plus they have designers on hand to help you if you really need it. Right now, Vistaprint is giving all female Founder World podcast listeners a little something, 25 % off your first order at vistaprint.com. Use the code FFW25 at checkout and step up your branding game. We put a link in the show notes if you want to learn more. Yes and no, because it's just so much harder to launch with an Instagram page today. Like, yes, because anyone can do it. You can pick up your phone tomorrow and just start, but no, because it could start to feel defeating. And it's like the scale and the growth is just it's not going to happen the way it used to.

20:25Do I believe that you can like study TikTok and the algorithm and really, really dissect it and win there? I do. I also think having a retailer as a support system for you is more critical than ever in launching a brand if you're trying to scale it. I think everybody has their own goals. If you're like, hey, I really just want to see how this goes. TikTok shop has really made it so beauty can be democratized. I really do believe that. We haven't been able to crack it. We have yet to have a viral. It's crazy. Since my viral video 10 years ago, we have not had a viral moment. It's just been steady, consistent growth year over year for us as a brand, which is kind of exciting because it just feels like that's just the moment that can happen.

21:03And then it's only up from there. Like I have a lot of founder friends who are like, no, trust me, it's not a good thing because it creates artificial demand. I see it as in a brand awareness play more than a sales play. Like it's of course an amazing spike that you see in sales, but more than anything to me, it's like a whole new audience gets millions of views of people all of a sudden know about your brand that didn't before. So in that regard, it is an exciting time in beauty to be able to go start. But I will say it was hard then. It's hard now and it'll be hard later. And I think that's the most important message to anyone is like, if you want to start this, you have to really, really, really freaking want it because it isn't going to be easy, but it is possible.

21:42And also there were opportunities that existed for you when you were getting started. Yes. And there are opportunities. New version. with people now. YouTube then is what TikTok is now. Vicky, the founder of Tatcha was one of my mentors when I first got started. And I remember she was like, honey, I know it feels like it's hard for you now, but I started when it was like a terrible financial crisis happening in the world. And she was like, that was also hard. And we didn't have social media. So the same time, it feels like for you, anyone can start a brand. So the competition is that much higher.

22:12At that time, she had her own problems. So it's just a good reminder for me that like, whenever you're getting started, you're going to have your own version of a challenge, but you just have to get through it. How do you feel about all of the new brands launching? Because there are so, there are so many new brands launching. I feel like every couple of days I see, I see a launch, whether it's a celebrity brand or something that's bootstrapped and scrappy on TikTok, but there is a lot of consumer products out there now. I feel like it's just the reality. You know, I don't, I don't find myself getting distracted by all the new brands because I'm so clear in my vision and my why and why we're building.

22:44When it comes to celebrity brands, I think like I went from, as somebody who's wanted to create this brand since they were a little girl, and then you see celebrities have a business manager kind of recognize that, hey, you have an audience, there's an opportunity to monetize on it. In the beginning, it was kind of like a disheartening feeling because it's like, oh man, like this has been my dream since I was a little kid. And these people have somebody else running it. It's not their heart and soul being put into it. That said, I genuinely believe that the market course corrects itself. And we're seeing that the ones that are meant to be winning and thriving are, and the ones that aren't don't even exist anymore.

23:18Across influencer and celebrity, by the way. So, you know, like the ones that are winning, like Rare Beauty, I think like is a beautiful example of the right founder with the right cause and the right products and the right team and the right funding all fitting together and creating a beautiful brand. And that to me is exciting. When I see brands like that happening, I'm inspired by that. and using their platform for good. Like having a brand have a mental awareness play into it is a beautiful thing. We're chatting, I don't know, maybe a week after the road acquisition. Huge. Billion dollar valuation, 600 million cash, 200 million in, yeah, 212 million in revenue, 200 in stock and then another 200 million in cash if they hit milestones is like the breakdown.

24:04When you see these acquisitions, Like how long have they been in the market for? Three years? Three years. Like not very long. Record time. I think I was told it's the fastest billion dollar beauty exit in history. But I guess I feel confused by that because it wasn't K-18 I thought was a billion and in two years. But I think it was the first celebrity. Maybe hair care is like different. That's true. Okay. Sure. Maybe it was skin care. Yeah. But the vibes. How do you feel when you say that? Because I'm not even in the beauty industry and I had like lots of feelings. Yeah. You know? Okay. Here's how I feel.

24:35I think Haley Bieber, when she came out, she had a very clear POV and I thought her marketing was so good. I thought sometimes when you look at these beauty brands, there's a lot of copy paste happening. You know, it's like, oh, we have a system and we know it works. So we're going to take it from this brand to this brand and we're going to create it again. And what I thought was cool about what she did was like it almost felt like a fashion approach to beauty in the sense of like even though the visuals were really like chic and she had different kind of marketing. I guess I'm really trying to say that her marketing was really strong and she did have a channel to be able to do it.

25:08And I really do think the biggest thing that Hailey Bieber has been able to do that not all beauty celebrity founders do is Homegirls invested. She was posting 24-7 about the brand versus a lot of other beauty founders. It's just one of their 14 projects and you could feel that it was. every time you would click on her stories it into this day even post exit she's posting about road and she knows that her audience 200 million still to to get when they're right she's like i gotta get that other 200 million so like shout out to her in that way right like i love when i see celebrity founders invested in the beauty brand themselves yeah so to me it's like the fact that you're actually posting and using your page to be invested into what you're building good for her She probably also really wanted something that had her name on it when she's been known as Justin Bieber's wife, right?

25:56And now, like, she's the founder of Road, Hailey Bieber. And that's really cool. So on that side, I'm like, it's great for the market because it's showing that actual transactions are happening. So as a beauty founder myself, awesome. As somebody who's been building for much longer, the thing that I want most founders to know is it's okay if it takes time. I think that's my biggest takeaway from it, right? Like, good for Hailey. Like, she was always going to win. It's not something that I can pay attention to or focus on because it's distracting. But I think for me, when I started in a Glossier age, like I started my brand when Emily Weiss and all these incredible female founders were on the cover of every magazine, I felt like the only way that I could win as a founder was to raise a ton of money and to scale and get the fattest valuation at the quickest rate possible.

26:44Because at the time, that's what I saw when I started my brand. And I think for me, what I am already seeing with my story and I hope, you know, inspires people out there is that it's OK if it takes time. Like, what am I in a rush to do? I'm building my dream brand that I want to be a legacy brand that outlives me. Something like that takes time and it's OK. It takes time. In fact, it should take time. And we're seeing all of these founders now buying their companies back who sold. Like we saw Huda Beauty. That's been that's she's acquired that. And we've seen some others as well, which I think is.

27:15You know what she's really buying? She's buying freedom. She's buying freedom to make her own decisions, to do her own political freedom, emotional freedom, decision-making freedom. And I think it's a beautiful thing when a founder is able to say, I'm taking all the control and buying myself freedom. And that's what she's been able to do. There's been so many times that I want to say things on the internet that are controversial, but I can't because I have, like I said, I have a huge responsibility that I take very seriously. and I also have investors and I have a board and I have things I have to answer to.