Hailey Bieber on Building Rhode into a Billion-Dollar Beauty Brand

0:04Hi, this is Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the Business of Fashion. Welcome to the BOF podcast. It's Friday, June 13th. When Hailey Bieber launched her beauty and skincare brand, Rode, in 2022, she quickly built a loyal customer base and achieved rapid commercial success. By early 2025, Rode had generated$212 million in annual sales, and in May was acquired by Elf Beauty in a landmark$1 billion deal. The thing for me with Rode is that it's not just about the product, It's the whole entire world of Rode. It's the way I want people to feel something when they get the products, when they use them.

0:45I want them to feel that they are a part of something. I know we've only been around for three years and we're still such a baby, but I do see us being a legacy brand. I said it from the beginning. That is my goal. Rode's going to go down as one of the greats. In her first public appearance since the acquisition, Haley spoke with the Business of Beauty's executive editor, Priya Rao, about launching her brand, how the deal with Elf transpired, and her vision for the future of ROAD. Here's Haley Bieber on the BOF podcast.

1:22Haley, I can't say how excited this crowd is to see you and how excited I am to see you. Thank you. It's something we've been talking about for a while now, maybe three years since this forum was launched. So thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. um hayley you and i met a long time ago eight years ago i think and it was for the cover of a male magazine and we were doing a profile and i think you were at the beginning of your modeling career is that right probably something along those lines yeah i'm like how old was i eight years ago i think i was maybe 20 yeah yeah and you were still kind of figuring out what it is you wanted to do you were doing some modeling you were hosting like did you ever think that you would be here now as a billion dollar beauty founder?

2:06I mean, I definitely knew I always had a dream to have my own business and do something that was a departure from the modeling world. I, I always felt like stepping into that world of modeling and editorial and all those things was the first step in a bigger picture that I saw for myself. I didn't know right from the get-go that it was going to be in beauty. I was always very interested in fashion and clothing. And that's why I loved working in the modeling industry in the first place because you're surrounded by the most incredible fashion and beauty and all of those things. So the vision started to become more and more clear to me as I became more beauty obsessed myself.

2:46I always have been my entire life. I came from a mom and a grandma who are also both very, very beauty obsessed. And I feel like they instilled that in me from a very, very young age. and I felt like through my career and through working with some of the most incredible makeup artists and hairstylists and photographers and all these different people I was really able to just be a sponge and absorb so much from the people that I was lucky enough to work with and over the years it just became more and more clear to me that beauty was a space that I really wanted to be a part of I felt really passionate about it I felt really interested in it I am such a skincare like junkie to the core.

3:28I love skincare. I love beauty. So from there it started to become very clear to me. It also seems very authentic. You know, I know I'd heard, and I think we've probably all read, you know, you were interested in dabbling into other industries. Maybe it was food, maybe it was fashion. When did the, like the formal idea for road kind of crystallize? The formal idea really crystallized in 2020 during the pandemic. So that's when I, I would say for a year or two, even before that, I was thinking, okay, I know I want to do this brand. I know I want to do it in skincare, but I don't really know what that looks like exactly.

4:02What is going to be my ethos? What's important to me? What do I really want it to say? What do I want it to look like, feel like, what do I want it to do? And with the pandemic, I was like, okay, we don't know how long this is going to last. We don't know how long we're going to be inside for. I finally felt like I really had the time to sit down and hone in on really what the idea was and what the world was going to look like. And with that time, I was able to call my now co-founders, Michael Ratner and Lauren Ratner. And I said, Hey, I have this idea. I've been thinking about it for a really long time.

4:33I call him Ratty. I'm like, Ratty, I know you are definitely not in this beauty world at all, but here's my idea. And I was wondering if you guys would be interested in helping me and together with them. And Lauren has a fantastic background in marketing. She's so brilliant and so smart. I came to them. I said, here's my idea. Here's the concept. Here's what I want to do. Very edited, very curated, really strong brand story, really great visuals, very editorial, very sporty, very like on the go as somebody who I was really taking all my life experiences and putting it into this brand. I'm like, okay, so when I travel and I'm traveling to set to go to a shoot, here's the things that I always need to have with me.

5:12If I was going to be stuck on a desert Island, like what are the three things that I need to have with me when I'm on, you know, when I throw something in my bag, what are those things I need to have? And it started to really evolve from there to this idea of kind of like your skincare wardrobe, like the perfect white t-shirt, the perfect pair of jeans, the perfect leather jacket. I'm like obsessed with leather jackets. I have like a crazy, insane, like over the top, like collection. I'm like, but I like, I'm obsessed with finding the perfect leather jacket the same way I'm obsessed with finding the perfect moisturizer.

5:40And that was really where the idea stuck to me, where it felt very, very clear that I wanted to make one of everything really good. And that was where that concept came from. It seems like it kind of helped that it was a bunch of seemingly outsiders from the beauty industry, you know, not your traditional operators, not your traditional someone who worked at Estee Lauder or L 'Oreal for 20 years that allowed you to kind of break the rules. Is that what you feel like? I think that I was very, very clear from the beginning that I didn't want to do it traditionally. I did not want to use an incubator.

6:12I explored every avenue you could because I wanted to know what everything looked like. But I knew that I wanted to put my own money into it. I knew I wanted to be the majority owner always. And so through the evolution of taking different meetings and talking to different people, I figured out what path was going to be best for me. And that was for me to be the one that put in the majority of the money. And then I found my partner who we came together. They were kind of like my operator at the time. And we just grew it from the ground up organically from there. I mean, it's phenomenal, right?

6:49I think when all the numbers came out a couple of weeks ago, 212 net sales, all direct to consumer, three years. I think everyone was like, what? Like, how do you? I'm like, what? how did you do that? I mean, it really seems like unbelievable and it really comes down, I think to all of us in the room, you, I mean, was it your gut? Was it your instinct? What, what was it? I mean, I will say over everything, I do think that I follow my gut and I follow my instinct. I feel like that's something that's very, very important as a woman. I think that my intuition is very very strong my instinct is very very strong I feel like that's only increased and only grown as I've developed that and gotten older and had different experiences but I also have to say like our consumer and our customer is just so insanely loyal and I feel like the thing for me with road is that it's not just about the product it's the whole entire world of road it's the way I want people to feel something when they get the products when they use them I I want them to feel that they are a part of something.

7:56And for me, that's like this weird little world I'm building in my brain. That's it's a lifestyle. It's product. It's a feeling. It's imagery. It's, you know, your phone case. It's so many different things. It's that that expands so far outside of beauty to me. And from the beginning, I said I remember being in a meeting really early on and I was like, I don't want to just be a beauty company. I want to be a tech company, too. I want to just be more than one box of something. And that's really a big goal of mine is to keep expanding that world to being so many more things than just beauty and just skincare.

8:32Because I think it's possible to be so many more things than just that. You know what I think is so interesting is that you've often attached products to things. But first you've created desire. You know, whether it was somebody wanting to mimic your lipstick or your blush or your, you know, you don't call it this, but everybody on the Internet called it this glazed donut skin or latte makeup, which I think is really brilliant because it really does feel like it's you. Do you really feel like the brand is a reflection of what you like and what you are about? It is like I am road and road is me and like there is no separation to me.

9:09Everything that I'm putting out there are things that I genuinely use myself. I don't believe in over consumption. I don't want to give people something that I wouldn't actually use that isn't actually part of my routine. That's not something that I genuinely am obsessed with and love. And everything that I'm doing, everything, all the videos I'm doing, all the products that I'm using, it's genuinely because I like it. And people, I think, can feel that authenticity. And I want people to really be able to feel me so intrinsically in the brand. but I also want people to be able and want to love the brand outside of me as well.

9:46And that's why I'm so focused on the products actually being really, really good and having great formulas and having a great ingredient story. And that's also why I believe in having a great team because I only know what I know. And there's so much that goes beyond me that I don't know. I did not go to school. I did not study this. And that's why I believe in surrounding myself with other really brilliant minds that are the best in class at what they do so that I can give the best in class products. You are an incredible marketer though. I mean, I think everyone in the room can agree with that.

10:17Well, now you do, right? Um, I would just like to understand like how, I mean, what are you thinking about? What is your brain? Like what's in there? And like, also when we think about faces, when you think about the faces that you've had, like Tate McRae, Claudia Schiffer, yesterday, Harris Dickinson, I think like, whew, like everyone is excited about that. How are you deciding like who represents you and what feels right from a marketing perspective? I mean, I think a lot of it is gut. I think a lot of it is about synergy too. I think about who feels like they have synergy with the brand and I want different faces to speak to different people.

10:57And I, I also really just believe that road is for everybody. I, I don't always want to be the forward fronting face of the brand because I really want it to expand beyond me. And when it comes to Tate, like I know Tate behind the scenes too, personally. And I feel like she naturally was a fan of the brand and it just made so much sense for that campaign. When I was thinking about the campaign for the lip shapes, I'm like, okay, so we're calling it lip shape. And what is shape to me. I used to be a dancer and like movement is so important to me. And that's why the names bend and lean and move and spin came from that.

11:34And when I thought about who would be so perfect for this campaign, Tate, her body, the way she moves, the way she dances, she's such a performer. I mean, it just was like light bulb switch. And when it came to Claudia, I'm like, who is just like timeless and chic and beautiful and speaks to so many different generations. I mean, like, I'm a massive fan of her and my mom is a massive fan of her and I don't know one person that's not a massive fan of her and she just speaks so globally to so many different people so the light bulb went off for her too so I just feel like when I start thinking about that kind of like merge of face with the brand I just think about like the energy and the synergy and with Harris I'm just I'm a big fan of him and his work and I felt like he gave off an energy that I felt would really represent road super well.

12:23And he's the first man. And he's the first man. Yeah. And I really, that was so important to me because I really, from the beginning, wanted road to feel unisex. And that's why our branding, you know, the colors of a lot of the, everything is like eggshell and gray. And I try to keep it more sporty feeling than anything, because I want anyone to be able to gravitate towards it. And if, you know, you're sleeping over at your boyfriend's house and he sees it, I don't want him to feel like they can't use that either. So I was really excited when we were able to get Harris because it opened up the world even more.

12:59The edits of the products are pretty unbelievable. I mean, I think people have tried to do this before, like a simple wardrobe makeup. And I think it's really about the execution for you. So how are you deciding like what categories you want to play in? What products you do want to do? I really just think about what are my can't live without things what are the five things 10 things 15 things that like over the course of time I can't live without in my skincare cabinet or in my bag or when I travel and I think that also really changes and evolves with age as well when I started thinking about this brand it was in 2020 that was five years ago so you know my skincare needs five years ago were one thing and now they're evolving into other things.

13:43So I think about how can I add to this really assorted, curated, edited lineup that are going to tackle what my skin needs with every season, with every age, during pregnancy, so many different things. And for me, the through line is always going to be that like hydration is important. And that's something I said from the beginning. Hydration is key. It's so important. Everyone needs hydration no matter what. And I'm really just letting it evolve from there. Like with the mist, I'm like, I love a facial mist. I knew I wanted that to be in the lineup at some point, have to have a cleanser in the routine.

14:16So I'm just really taking it with how I'm personally evolving and, you know, the things that I really need and see as an essential. When did you start thinking about retail? Because honestly, like you might not have needed it, right? You were three years in the game. You had gotten to this incredible figure. I mean, you could have kept going on the direct route. Why Sephora? Why retail? I really wanted to go into retail because I really want to expand and I want to reach more people. And that's been such a goal for me. And I think that my team is so incredible. And I think that we have done a really good job as a DTC business.

14:56But I really want to reach more countries, more people. I want to get it in more people's hands. And I also really want the customers to be able to go have an in-person experience. We learned very quickly with all of our pop-up experiences how important that was for the customer and how much they enjoyed going, touching, feeling, touching the product, seeing the packaging, seeing it IRL. And after the first two pop-ups we did, it became very, very clear. Like, this is something that makes a lot of sense for us to be in retail. And, of course, we went back and forth with it a few different times, but it felt like the right thing.

15:30It also seems like one of the biggest launches Sephora has had in a number of years. I mean, I can't think of, I mean, there were some pre-pandemic, but this seems to be a really big moment for them as well. Yeah, it's super exciting on both ends. I mean, the Sephora team is super amazing. I feel like from their end and our end, we have a lot of really good synergy and I'm really excited. Are you going to keep doing the pop-ups? Do you think that's still going to be part of the equation? Yeah, I think that we'll definitely do still our own experiences. It's something that I majorly love doing with the branding and with the brand.

16:02So I don't think that's ever going to stop. We can't not talk about the Elf deal. Obviously, Terrain's right here in the audience. Hi, Terrain. When did you start thinking about a partner? I know you just talked about, obviously, you wanted more people to experience road and see it in real life. And you also talked about, I'm good at what I do. I want other people to help me do what they do best. So was a conglomerate in the cards from the beginning or was it something that kind of felt like it was the right time? It was always a conversation of partnership and a great partner. And I think that's very, very hard to come by and very, very hard to find.

16:41Road is like my baby. I'm so precious about it. And the idea of ever even considering that was a very, very, very big deal to me. And the first time that I ever sat down with the elf team and met with them, we had a big dinner in L.A. And I remember walking away and I was like, they're it. I knew it in my gut. I knew it from the first time we had dinner. For the first time I met their whole team, we just, we said so many of the same things. And I was like, we are so like-minded and that feels so good because it makes me have trust that I'm putting something that is so precious and important to me in their hands as well.

17:15And their team is just so amazing. And, you know, they really understand and understood that I want to be able to expand and I want to go global. And this is really about partnership more than anything for me. And they really just care so much about their founders. And I think that's another rare thing that you don't really find, or is at least very hard to find where you feel so supported as the founder. And I always really wanted to stay on. I always wanted to be there and even expand my role. I want to, I'm here. I want to do more. I have like, this is just the beginning to me. I have so many dreams for this brand that I see still coming and I see still happening that I really felt they wanted to support that.

17:56And yeah. You know, when I talked to Terang a couple of weeks ago, he said he doesn't think of you as a celebrity beauty founder. And we've seen so many of those kind of come and go. I mean, what do you think it is about you that kind of bucks that trend? I mean, I am a beauty lover, like through and through. It's, I love being part of the beauty community. I feel very immersed in it. I feel very immersed in the world of skincare. I really like am about my business and I really am about like being so intricately involved in my business because to me it's so much more than that it's me come to life in this world that I've built and I just couldn't see it any other way so it's like I don't even know how to separate it because I can't see it any other way it's like road is is my world you know do you think it's the focus also So like, this is your job.

18:52Like, I mean, I, I, the way that I hear you talk about it is not the way that other people may, you know, they may have their other side hustles or that it just seems like you're so. It's so interesting. Cause it so doesn't feel like a job to me. Like I love what I do. I love building this brand. I love being a part of it. It has brought me the most joy. It's given me so much passion. Like it has taught me so, so, so much. I mean, the things that I have learned through this process, I would never have learned anywhere else. And that really comes from like being boots on the ground and really just being around so many brilliant people that I'm learning from and that are teaching me so much.

19:32I would have never known about margins and things like this if you asked me five years ago. but it feels really empowering and really cool to be part of something from the ground up and just to continue to keep expanding it and expanding my role and putting more things out into the world that hopefully people love. We've talked about Sephora. We've talked about Elf. You know, obviously you have great expansion plans there, but where do you see Rode in like five, 10, 20 years? I mean, is this a forever brand? And we talk about that a lot in beauty, Like who's going to be around, you know, not even tomorrow, but in a decade.

20:09I mean, I really do see, I know we've only been around for three years and we're still such a baby, but I do see us being a legacy brand. I said it from the beginning. That is my goal. Rose is going to go down as one of the greats. I really believe that. At least that's really what I want. And I'm passionate about that. And I do think that we are taking the steps to be a brand that lasts the test of time. And, you know, I don't plan on going anywhere. So, yeah. Thank you so much, Haley. It was great having you. Thank you. The BOF podcast is edited and produced by Olivia Davies and Eric Bria.