The cofounder and CEO of Hero Cosmetics may be finest understood for Mighty Patch, the common barely-there pimple spot you might see on individuals’s dealswith allover from the grocery shop, to the workplace, to a night on the town.
“When you have acne, you feel more insecure, you feel more shy, you feel like everybody is gazing at your face,” Rhyu, 45, informed Fortune. “The items and services we deal actually do work and actually do conserve the day. It was actually crucial for me to have something punchy, favorable, and psychological.”
Hero emerged after Rhyu’s two-year stint in Korea for work, a nation where skincare is years ahead, and where pimple spots in public haveactually been completely stabilized. With a set of cofounders at her side and simply $50,000, Rhyu offered her veryfirst set of Mighty Patches on Amazon for $12.99 in2017 By 2022, the brandname had notched $100 million in sales, and was obtained by customer items powerhouse Church and Dwight for $630 million.
In the newest installation of Secrets to Success, Rhyu informed Fortune how her time at Fortune 500 brandnames notified her management, why she puts her pimple spots in the cosmetic aisle (rather than their natural home in the Band-Aid aisle), what Korean skincare understands that American appeal doesn’t, and why her business keeps its branding easy and clear rather of neon and star-shaped.
The following records hasactually been gently modified and condensed for clearness.
What is Hero Cosmetics?
It’s a practical skin services brandname focused on acne. We’re best-known for the “money spot” hydrocolloid acne spots.
Where did you grow up, and what did your momsanddads do?
I grew up in Seattle, Washington. My papa was a quite effective businessowner, and I grew up with that motivation in my life, and it fed a lot of my desire to be an businessowner one day.
We were extremely comfy. My papa was in the log-export company. He was a log broker, which is why we lived in Seattle, Washington. He likewise did a coupleof things in genuine estate, and he was really business-minded. I constantly grew up with the desire and the aspiration to follow in his steps and shot to be as economically effective as possible.
In high school, I played tennis, I was on my high school tennis group and I worked at the tennis club where I was taking lessons. I had the normal odd tasks here and there. I did sales, for example, at a department shop throughout my summertimes away from college.
I went to college at Brown University and I studied history and worldwide relations. I really attempted to start a service while I was in college, a style firm called Three P’s. So onceagain, I believe that [entrepreneurial] desire was constantly there, however I neverever truly had that strong concept till Hero Cosmetics.
My veryfirst expert task after college was at a not-for-profit called the Epiphany School, a charter school in Dorchester, Massachusetts. I worked in a fundraising capability in the Development Office, which really, at the end of the day, is actually a sales and marketing task. That was my veryfirst task.
I infact finished into 2 economiccrises, the veryfirst one being in 2001, and the 2nd one being in2008 My profession has certainly not been direct. After that not-for-profit task, right after undergrad, I desired to go into organization. I didn’t desire to do something in marketing. That’s when I ended up using to Columbia Business School.
I began in 2006, and then I did my internship at Kraft Foods, Mondelez, in customer packaged products. I did an internship in brandname management. I worked on the Planters Peanuts brandname. From there, I went full-time at American Express. And then I got hired to work for Samsung in Korea as an expat for 2 years. That experience of living in Korea for 2 years is where I veryfirst secondhand a hydrophilic acne spot, which ultimately endedupbeing the motivation for my brand-new enthusiasm, Hero Cosmetics.
I constantly joke that I worked at some of the world’s greatest brandnames—Kraft Foods, Mondelez, American Express, and Samsung Electronics—and then ended up beginning an indie skincare brandname.
Hydrocolloid spots were extremely popular in Korea?
This was back in 2012 and2014 Those are the 2 years I invested in Korea—12 years earlier. I was35 Korea is truly understood in the appeal market to be really ahead of the curve in terms of charm, development, and adoption.
Back in 2012, individuals were currently using them out in public. I would see individuals using them at the workplace, and I asked them what they were for and was informed that they were for breakouts. I was suffering from a lot of breakouts at that time.
I went to a drugstore, I attempted one, and it altered my skincare regimen since it works so much muchbetter than anything I had utilized inthepast. I put it on at night, and by earlymorning, it got all that gunk out. My breakout was noticeably and visibly enhanced. Immediately I understood more individuals required to understand about it. And I really saw from some of my researchstudy that individuals were desiring this type of item, so that endedupbeing the motivation for what is now Mighty Patch.
What was the branding like for the spots in Korea? Were they particularly branded for your face?
There were a lot of choices back then. You might discover some at drugstores that were more medical or clinical-oriented. And then there were some you might purchase at Olive Young, which is the Korean variation of Sephora, which were a little bit more enjoyable and cosmetic- and beauty-oriented. So there were 2 types of brandnames out there.
Growing up, I constantly had periodic breakouts. I neverever had serious acne, however at the worst minutes, I would constantly have that breakout in the most awkward location on my face, like right on my nose or inbetween my eyebrows. Like most individuals, I was constantly browsing for a option to get a muchbetter manage on my breakouts and acne.
I utilized every single possibility out there. I went to skindoctors, utilized toothpaste, utilized the pink creams, and absolutelynothing actually worked, since a lot of those items can infact be extremely drying on your skin. That’s why I actually love the hydrocolloid acne spots since they are difficult on the issue however mild on your skin—and they’re simply so easy to usage and extremely reliable.
Prior to finding out about these spots, were you ever into dermatology before?
I wasn’t actually into appeal or skincare. I really discovered about it a lot when I lived in Seoul for those 2 years. I discovered about double cleaning and the various types of items and formats. My education began when I lived there, and then of course, now I’m in the charm world, so I pay attention rather a bit.
Why do you position the spots in the appeal area rather of the Band-Aid area?
I credit a lot of my success at Hero Cosmetics to my business experience. I discovered a lot of things at Kraft Foods and Mondelez and American Express that I actually still usage to this day. One of them is truly paying attention to customer habits.
One of the customer habits I observed was that the hydrocolloid-patch format was really currently around for rather a long time, however they were in the Band-Aid aisle. And if you believe about it, your breakout can be thoughtabout a type of injury, however there was absolutelynothing, at that time, in the charm area.
And truly the concept was, can we take this hydrocolloid plaster that sits in the Band-Aid aisle, and make something extremely particular to acne? I had currently seen that individuals were purchasing the huge plasters and cutting them up into little squares or little shapes and putting them all over their face. The habits was currently there; individuals were purchasing them in one aisle, however utilizing them for a appeal issue. And that was truly the insight of, hi, I believe we can turn this into a appeal item and actually market something that’s particular for acne.
How did you end up producing your veryfirst item?
I developed the veryfirst item quite rapidly, infact. I had called more than 10 hydrocolloid-patch producers while I was in Korea, however just 2 reacted. Of those 2, the one that we ended up working with, we still work with today. They’re undoubtedly a truly crucial partner to our organization, and we worked with them to actually establish what is now understood as the Mighty Patch.
How old were you when the veryfirst item came out?
We introduced the service in2017 I was around 37.
How much did you start out selling your items for?
We priced our preliminary item, which was the 36-count Mighty Patch, at $12.99. The rates really was kind of an mishap, duetothefactthat we were selling on Amazon, and there were currently some gamers that were a lot moreaffordable—around $5. And I infact desired to rate our items at $9.99.
But the amusing story is we couldn’t get Amazon Prime, and we were playing around with various things to see how we might unlock Prime. One of the methods was to boost our cost to $12.99, and then that rates simply stuck.
Why did you choose to start selling them on Amazon?
It was tactical, however likewise a extremely useful choice. Back