Rich Gersten

Rich Gersten, Co-founder of True Beauty Ventures, brings over 20 years of beauty and wellness investment experience. He discusses how he stumbled into beauty investing and why the category is resilient despite market cycles. Rich explores the pivotal roles Sephora and Ulta played in retail, details his fund's early-stage investment strategies, and examines the pitfalls of celebrity brands. He reveals the current state of beauty M&A and the realistic expectations for returns while emphasizing that product quality trumps marketing for sustained success.