Tina Knowles on Building Cécred with Beyoncé and Living Her Best Life at 72 | Fortune Daily

0:00If you're launching a startup and have Beyonce's star power at your disposal, why on earth would you turn down investors who want you to spend more on marketing? Tina Knowles says the answer was very simple. She wanted to continue putting the product first. Before Knowles helped build the hair care company Sacred with her incredibly famous daughter, she ran a Houston hair salon. And those decades of hands-on experience are shaping the brand that she's building today. At Fortune's Most Powerful Women's Summit, we sat down with Knowles to talk about protecting your vision at all costs. We also spoke about the highs and the lows of building a business with family, and why at 72, she says she's only just getting started.

0:48I'm Ellie Austin in New York, and this is Fortune Daily.

0:57Miss Tina, welcome to Fortune Most Powerful Women. It's a delight to have you here. I want to start off talking a bit about your incredible origin story, as it were, because more recently you've co-founded Sacred with your daughter Beyonce. That was in 2024. But before international fame, you own one of the biggest hair salons in Houston. What did running that business teach you that you still use today?

1:24Tina Knowles: Well, just that people, I think you hire people in your own image. And if you treat them with respect and take them along and motivate them, that you get great results. How would you describe yourself as a leader? As a leader? What's your leadership ethos? I think that it is nothing is too small for me to do. And so I think that inspires people that work there to go to Extra Mile because our team is small but mighty, but we do everything. Like everybody wears many hats and nothing is too small, nothing is too big. It's just motivating people to dream big and to think that it can happen. And tell me a bit about the day-to-day, as it were, things that you're doing at Sacred right now.

2:18What are you involved in? What do you most enjoy?

2:20Tina Knowles: I most enjoy innovation. Product innovation. Yes, product innovation is so fun. I love all of it. I mean, we are, like I said, a small team. And with the ad campaigns, we're all hands on deck. I do a lot of the creative for that. But the research and development, trying to think of things that don't exist in the marketplace that we could supply those needs for, like just restoring hair and making it strong and healthy. That's the foundation of Sacred. And a lot of your products trace back to formulas that you were mixing in the salon. Tell me a bit about that. What have you held on to? Well, hot oil treatments for sure.

3:07Tina Knowles: Hot oil. My mom believed in, she just passed that down, and we would heat up olive oil, and we would use these butters and just moisturizing the hair. Because anything that damages the hair, whether it's heat or color or just having textured hair, is way more fragile, and you have to work harder to keep it on the head. But I had a lot of myths back when I opened my salon, especially for textured hair, for black hair, that you couldn't have color and you couldn't have a perm. And I proved all those wrong because I would mix up my own things that I knew that were needed. So sacred is a combination of the highest science mixed with old remedies that have been passed down for generations that we know work.

4:00And you've been in hair care for ages. I imagine you could have launched a brand many, many years ago. Why was 2024 the right moment for this product?

4:09Tina Knowles: It was the right moment for Beyonce because it's her brand. And she's wanted to do it for many years. But we also worked on it for six years. Prior to launch. Yes. So you were talking about it. We researched, developed, and came out with the core products because it's called the foundation collection. And it is the foundation of healthy hair. and that is not an easy task. Why was that the right moment? Well, because she was ready to do it. She has been so focused on her career and building her touring and building her stage shows and she wanted to have the time to really be involved with it. So this is the time.

4:48Most celebrity brands are licensing deals. That's not what's happening here at Sacred. There's no venture capital. There's no outside money. Nothing. Why did you want to structure the company this way?

5:00Tina Knowles: Well, we didn't want to structure it that way. We talked to investors in the early stages. But when it got down to them looking at our budgets, the largest part of our budget goes into research and development and testing. And the investors just didn't like that. They wanted us to put more money into marketing and less into the product. And so we just decided, she decided, I'm just going to fund it myself, which is crazy expensive. And I was like, you know, do you know what you're getting into? And she said, yes, because I don't want anybody telling me that I can't put the money into research and development.

5:41Tina Knowles: Everything would have to be approved. The whole game changed when it was time to sign the paperwork. And what can you tell us or share about how the company has performed so far? Oh, it is amazing. I mean, we were the number one brand at, we just launched in London, Space and K, and we're the biggest ever launch that they've had. And we have the number one product in the country, which is the Restoring Edge Drops. We are one of the top companies at Ulta. It's been unbelievable. And the best part about it is that our clients, our customers, they've done the marketing for us. You know, if you notice, Beyonce is not in any of the ads.

6:29Tina Knowles: That was done purposely. Does she post about it? She will post. She posts a few times, but not that much. and her role is, I mean, she's very, very involved in every single product, every single, everything we do. She didn't want to be the face of it. That was intentional. Yeah, it was intentional. Some people work with family out of necessity. Other people do it as a goal. What is it about working with family for you that is so fulfilling? And what do people get wrong when making assumptions about the experience? Because I think about working with my parents and it feels like fresh hell in many ways.

7:06That's obviously not the experience you have. So tell me about, you know, your experience of working with family. What are the high points? What are the challenges?

7:15Tina Knowles: Well, the challenges are that it's your family, it's your daughter. And that when they, you know, I can remember the first businesses that we did, we did House of Dariana clothing line. Which pays tribute to your mother. Yes. And it pays tribute to generations. But, you know, and Beyonce and I differing in opinion on things and we still do. You know, it's hard. Like, well, the fashion, like she's she's she never wanted to do a junior brand. And I'm like, you know, we're missing a whole market of people and we got to get paid because I have that creative brain. but I also have the business brain that I know things have to be profitable in order for you to do what you want to do.

8:00Tina Knowles: And, um, and so we've always had our little, you know, tit for tats, but we get through it. And it's a joy working with my daughter. I mean, couldn't, I couldn't ask for anything better. And I've worked with her since I was, since she was, um, 16 and started Destiny's Child. I was the stylist. First I was a hairstylist and I was a stylist and I was the day-to-day manager for them. And so I get to spend a lot of time with my kids. It's amazing. You mentioned House of Darion. Your mother was a seamstress. And so legacy clearly plays a big role in your business endeavors. When you think about your legacy, what you're building, what you want to pass on, how would you describe it?

8:44Tina Knowles: Oh, wow. I think is that I was fearless. Was that an aid? Were you born with that? Or was that something you developed? I think that was something I developed because I was, you know, I went to this Catholic school and I was there because my parents were bartering and I didn't know. But I was told every day that I was less than, that I didn't belong there. And if only I knew, I would be so grateful. And I didn't know why. So I didn't find out until I was 14 that they were bartering for us to go to school. So we were like the poor kids that they picked on. bartering with your parents were bartering my parents my mother sold all the altar boys clothes uniforms the church things my brothers cleaned the schoolyard my dad drove the nuns and who I just was convinced were witches just wearing those undercover outfits and um so they told me every day that they were going to break my spirit and I was less than so I became a warrior at five years So I would be thinking in my head, oh, no, you're not.

9:49Tina Knowles: And so my mother was very passive, very Catholic, very brainwashed. And so I didn't have anybody to protect me. So I became fearless and a fighter. And it's transpired into my life. Beyonce and I were having a conversation yesterday. And she was talking about an article that they were doing in a magazine. And she was like, you know, that's great that they talk about my mother. And they asked her what she learned from me. And she said, well, I learned a lot from my mom. I've learned out. But what I'm learning now is my mama is at 70, wrote a number one bestsellers list. Book on the bestseller list.

10:26Yeah, make sure.

10:27Tina Knowles: My mom just did a campaign at 72, a fashion campaign. And so it's just teaching me that my life is not over. It's not based on my youth, that you can still live a very full life, you know, at 72. You're not comfortable. I'm living my best life right now. Do you feel that? Yes, absolutely, 100%. And you wrote Matriarch, which was this best-selling memoir that you published last year. Is that right? Yes. Last year. You obviously have form when it comes to raising the next generation of women. I'd love to know what your advice is to today's young girls and women. We're living in such a complicated time, opportunity in many ways, but AI changing society, social media warping the way young girls see themselves.

11:12Yes. You're a mother, you're a grandmother. What do you want to say to young women?

11:16Tina Knowles: I think that they have to really take the time to make, you know, this is something I've done for a long time. I make a list with pen and paper, not on my cell phone, but I make a list of the great things about myself and the things that I don't like so much. The best things will always outweigh the other side. And as long as you are authentically, first you got to figure out who you are. When you're young, you don't even know who you are. So spend some time figuring out what you like, not what your boyfriend likes, not what your family likes, but what you like. What is your passion? What is your strength?

11:58Tina Knowles: What is your weakness? Figure it out early and work on it. Are you still making those lists? Oh, yeah. Do you still have things you're working on about yourself? Absolutely. I have to make lists all the time, especially when I read crazy stuff on the Internet. And it's like, you know, yesterday we were in Houston dedicating a building that we helped build for homeless people. And I looked online and started reading the comments. And we are living in a world that is so crazy and sick that people are downing my grandchildren for what they have on and saying all this horrible stuff. You have to make lists of who you are.

12:36Tina Knowles: and find out who you are so that you can't let that crap affect your state of mind. Miss Tina, you're remarkable. Thank you so much for joining us on Fortune Daily. This is great. Thank you. Uber is hungry to expand and it's just ordered up an acquisition of the corporate catering company Easy Cater, signaling an interesting strategic shift. Editorial director of Fortune Brainstorm, Andrew Nuska, has the story. Why would Uber spend$2.3 billion in cash on a Boston catering company called EasyCater? That's because Uber has, of course, Uber Eats, the food delivery service, and EasyCater caters specifically to corporate clients, which have nice profit margins.

13:21Uber is hunting for growth. The company's stock price is down considerably as it spends a great deal on autonomous vehicles and fights in a very, very competitive market, food. The world's biggest robo-taxi companies are quickly becoming the world's biggest delivery companies. And Uber wants to be top dog in many more markets. Easy Cater allows it to do that. And with$2.5 billion of gross bookings, it more or less pays for itself. For more on this story, visit fortune.com. Also at the Most Powerful Women's Summit, one attendee was neither man nor beast. Meet Spot, the autonomous data collection robot who also knows how to bust a dance move.

14:04Welcome to Santa Barbara. Can I show you a hand? Oh, it's so nice to meet you too. From the Jetsons to Star Wars, robots have long been touted as the future of work. I met up with Boston Dynamics to talk about what all of this means for the human workforce. First of all, tell me what her functions are operationally. Okay, so Spot's a platform. The configuration you're seeing right now is for manipulation. You know, that's what the arm is for. It has cameras in the platform base itself. In here? In this main? Yeah, so two in the front, one on either side, one in the back, and then there's one in the hand.

14:42And there's, you know, a camera in there so it can see what it's about to manipulate. Okay, got it. Whether that's opening a door, turning a lever, etc. And who's buying these? data center, you know, builders, food and beverage manufacturers, auto makers, as well as public safety and defense. What would Spot be doing in a data center, for instance? Spot can go in and map the facility and see what the transitions are day to day with the actual construction. And then once they're built, you think about all the computers that are in these facilities. They need to be monitored. You want to make sure that there aren't people in there that you don't want, that there isn't water in there that you don't want.

15:21This is great for doing that type of work. And right now we have a robot wrangler off screen. Yes. Who is managing Spot's movements. Can Spot operate autonomously? Yes. For these type of demos that are ad hoc, we use, you know, someone who's tele-op-ing the robot. But all of Spot's missions are done autonomously. You set it and, you know, I don't say forget it. You want to check in on it, but it can do all of those rounds and readings autonomously. What do you say to people who are, you know, terrified of this AI doomsday situation? Are there going to be robots running our streets, you know, knocking us all over, pulling things off shelves in the near future?

15:56No, I mean, I can ask my robot wrangler to try to run this into my body. And what you're going to find is that it will not. We have built this idea of situational awareness for safety and obstacle avoidance into the DNA that is a spot. We have a very strong belief at Boston Dynamics that we're not using robots to harm or intimidate humans or animals. That is an ethos that we stick to. So where everyone's a little bit concerned about it, I wouldn't be with any of our robots. How much does Spot cost right now? Base platform is around$100 ,000. You know, vibration, acoustic, and thermal imaging. Those can run you all the way up to$300 ,000 with services, integration, all those things.

16:38But the bigger thing is we focus on two-year ROI for our customers. If they find a failing asset in a facility where you don't have to emergency shut down your production plant, for example, and you can have a planned maintenance cycle, it can pay for itself in months. The development of these robots, what does it mean for the human workforce? There's two factions of this. One is there is a declining population in many countries. Robots will address that labor shortage. Today, what we're finding is these are most successful when they're working alongside. So we think about augmenting human labor and not replacing human labor.

17:14So how are we giving a human worker more knowledge work to do, less dull, dirty, dangerous, repetitive tasks, or things that are just not good for their body? You know, crawling around dirty underbellies of chip fab is not a place you want humans to be, but there's assets down there that you need to monitor. Amanda, Spot, thank you so much for joining us at Most Powerful Women. Thank you. Thank you for having me. This was wonderful. that's it for fortune daily i'm ellie austin remember to let us know in the comments what you thought about all the stories we covered on today's episodes and please subscribe to our youtube channel it really does help us we'll see you tomorrow

17:55Tina Knowles: yeah okay