58 - Rich Gersten, True Beauty Ventures

In Episode 58 of Earned, Conor sits down with beauty investor Rich Gersten, co-founder and Managing Partner of beauty-focused growth fund (and newly announced Tribe Dynamics partner) True Beauty Ventures. To start the episode, Rich walks us through his career trajectory, unpacking his transition from private equity to venture capital, before explaining how he wound up investing exclusively in beauty brands. We then learn why he founded True Beauty Ventures at the end of 2019 to provide capital and guidance to smaller beauty businesses. Next, Rich shines a light on the qualities that distinguish a successful investor, emphasizing that the investment business is all about pattern recognition, so specialization is key. We also hear which characteristics of effective brand founders make Rich keen to invest, before learning about the metrics and KPIs that he values most. To close the show, Rich shares the knowledge he gained from investments that didn’t turn out as expected, and how those takeaways have informed True Beauty Ventures’ brand mentorship program.