jeff lee & dibs beauty
Beautiful, Not Before and After: How Jeff Lee Built DIBS Beauty for All 50 States
We're creating space for the brains behind the brands we love, and asking good questions along the way. The result is a deep dive into the how and why of brand-building, from blueprints to launch day, customers as community and the detours in between. Big lessons, easy listening.
the Show Notes
In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Jeff Lee, co-founder and CEO of DIBS Beauty, the makeup brand that promises it will never be the brand that says "beautiful before, beautiful after," and builds for women in all 50 states, not just the coasts.
Jeff traces his path from Stanford, Yale Law and corporate law to running A-Rod Corp as COO, where he says he learned how to be a CEO from Alex Rodriguez and spent two seasons producing Sunday Night Baseball from the seat next to him. He gets into the gap DIBS filled, visiting an Ulta Beauty in every state, and working the retail floor because, as he puts it, he is not the customer.
He also digs into the CEO job itself: 15 to 25 decisions a day, hiring with case studies instead of rehearsed interview answers, bringing the team back to the office, and deleting his own job every year. Plus how AI is separating talent, and what happens to critical thinking for the next generation.
For 10% off DIBS Beauty, use code READRECEIPT.
Keywords
dibs beauty, jeff lee, courtney shields, makeup, color cosmetics, ulta beauty, a-rod, retail, decision making, hiring, return to office, ai, founder advice, read receipt, antidote
Takeaways
- Build for the customer who isn't you. Jeff doesn't use most of what DIBS makes, so he works retail shifts and studies the woman in Nebraska instead of trusting his own taste.
- Go where the coastal brands don't. DIBS calls itself a 50-state brand, and Jeff has visited an Ulta Beauty in every state. That regional customer is largely ignored by the New York and LA makeup artist brands.
- Decide fast, then retool. He makes 15 to 25 decisions a day. A CEO needs to be right 50% plus one of the time, and the big calls have to land in that half.
- Hire on how people think. A rehearsed interview answer only proves someone prepared. A case study, at any level, shows whether they think logically and quickly.
- Rewrite your own job. Jeff deletes his job every year and does it differently, sometimes twice a year. Some people ride the whole way with the company, others get off at their stop, and that is fine.
- Use AI to go further, not to stop thinking. The people who check its work and use it to cut repetitive tasks pull ahead. The people who take its output as gospel fall behind.
Sound Bites
- 00:36 "We say that DIBS will never be the brand that says beautiful before, beautiful after."
- 08:21 "I like to always say I learned how to be a CEO from Alex Rodriguez."
- 19:07 "I'm the only founder who has gone to all 50 states actually to visit an Ulta Beauty with my brand."
- 21:39 "I'm instead obsessing all the time about what a woman sitting in Nebraska that I've met wants from our brand."
- 27:01 "I would rather do and be wrong and then do it differently or retool than not do."
- 38:40 "Bad ideas take root in the corners of the Zoom." (a line Jeff borrows from a CEO friend)
- 44:48 "I delete my job every year and do it differently every year. Sometimes twice in a year."