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Month: September 2023

Beauty On-the-Go, Refillable and Sustainable

Posted on by foundersunfound

Listen in from your favorite podcast spots or read the full transcript here.

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Tackling the tons of plastic waste found in single-use personal care

Megan Graham is the Founder and CEO of Ries, a new brand addressing single-use plastic waste in the beauty industry with refillable, reusable travel-size bottles designed for beauty.

Megan spent her formative years in Atlanta, where her father was an anchor for CNN. She attended Florida State University, choosing to major in Textile Science and Fashion Merchandising. Megan translated this into a career in media and fashion, ultimately helping to run beauty marketing at Vogue. Her roles over those years involved extensive travel. And it was this context that led to her insight around wasteful plastics in personal care items, particularly those used on-the-go. She would discover that 150 billion pieces of plastic are created by the beauty industry annually, and 30% of single use plastic ending up in the landfill comes from personal care and grooming products. So, as the saying goes, she thought there had to be a better way. And so Ries was born.

Megan was part of the inaugural cohort of the Sephora Accelerate. Ries has gone to be carried by Sephora and Goop, and be recognized by Glamour and Cosmopolitan magazines as one of the hottest innovations in the industry.

Megan has a great story. You’ll want to listen in.

 

“I’m gonna spend $10k of my own savings to make this dream happen…”
~ Megan Graham

In this episode Megan and Dan discussed:

  • The realization that she appreciated looking at fashion more than creating
  • The growth the comes from hard environments
  • How Ries ended up featured at Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop
  • Why success for her is defined by pushing the industry forward in sustainability
  • What a trend forecaster actually does

 

 

“…I was running to pitch meetings on my lunch break.”
~ Megan Graham

 

“ I think it’s difficult for anyone. But obviously it’s just 10 times more difficult if you are a woman and then if you’re a woman of color… ”
~ Megan Graham