While studying at uni, Kate Morris loved working part-time selling beauty products behind the cosmetics counter at Myer. But she quickly came to believe many women customers felt somewhat intimidated by the whole buying experience at a physical cosmetics counter. So with no business experience, barely any tech skills, the 21-year-old dropped out of uni, borrowed a $12,000 loan from her partner James’ dad, and began to disrupt bricks & mortar beauty shops with her online startup, at a time when no-one else was really blazing an e-commerce beauty trail in Australia. Kate thought she could create a better customer experience, by doing it online: giving women more easily accessible information on makeup & skincare products to empower them to make better purchases for their needs. But it was no overnight success. In Part 1 of our chat, Kate explains what a hard slog was Adore Beauty’s first 12 years, but how that set her business up for rapid growth in the last 8 years. And in late 2020, Kate and James floated Adore Beauty Group on the ASX, described in the media as “one of the hottest listings of the year”. Brought up in Tasmania Kate tells how her parents encouraged independence and a strong work ethic in her and her siblings; and how you need to embrace failure.
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