transcript · 12,310 words

Bluemercury: Marla and Barry Beck

Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Timestamps stay in sync with the live audio

Barry and I were in trouble. We had to figure out what our move was because there's no question we were gonna run out of money. When you're down to your last hundred and fifty thousand dollars in the bank, it's hard. You have to make some tough calls.

And We had to pivot, but we joke that back then the The word pivot didn't exist, right, as a strategy for entrepreneurial companies. It was literally you're about to go bankrupt, what do you do? Welcome to How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements.

They built. I'm Guy Raz and on the show today how Marla and Barry Beck launched an online cosmetics company when it was way too early. Pivoted to brick and mortar. Grew Blue Mercury into one of the most successful beauty brands in the country. Back in 2008, I took my first and only business school class, and what I loved about that class were the stories. The stories

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