Dr. Dennis met Carrie in the elevator and they would make fun of how skincare products had no real value to them. Then they changed that. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us. But we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients, so here's one of those. [Travis Crawford Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here, Stephen Semple is standing by. He told me the title, he told me, the topic that we're going to cover today, the Empire, and it's Dr. Steven Gross. Stephen Semple: Dennis. Dave Young: Dennis. Stephen Semple: Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare. Dave Young: It doesn't actually roll off the tongue, Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare. I have to admit, I've not heard of this one. Stephen Semple: Well, you're such a skincare buff, I'm kind of surprised. Dave Young: Well, a lot of people say I have amazing skin for a 90-year-old man. In my 60s, but... Stephen Semple: Now, you may not have heard of it, but the company was started by Dr. Dennis Gross and his wife, Carrie Gross, in 2000, and in 2023, it was sold to Shiseido, a big Japanese skincare company for $450 million. Dave Young: Okay, that's not chump change. Stephen Semple: That gets a little attention, right? Dave Young: Yeah, sure. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So, the products were created by Dr. Dennis and his dermatology clinic, and they were originally just sold and marketed to his patients. So, it was literally one of these little tiny businesses, where the stuff is being designed by a real doctor, a real dermatologist, but in the early days, basically the only place you could buy it was his clinic, and the only people who really knew about it were the patients, and the people the patients told. So that's really how it started. And Carrie grew up in California, so they're in New York, but Carrie grew up in California, and she spent her days outdoors, and her skin was starting to show its age. And Dennis, basically, when they met, Dennis was already a dermatologist, and he started to give her hope and optimism. And actually, how they met was she was not a patient or anything like that, don't go there with your minds, they lived in the same building, and they met on the elevator, and basically got to know each other because they ride up the elevator together periodically. And at the time, dermatology was just being used for rashes and things along that lines. And it's the 90s, and creams were being bought in the department store, and they were moisturizers, and there were no indie brands. And for fun, they would look at the labels together, and he was amazed at how little there was in terms of effective ingredients in these creams. As a dermatologist, he could look at it and go, these really don't do anything. And peels were starting to be done, the whole thing, you put stuff off... But they were aggressive, and to him, it made no sense that the skin would be a part of the body where the best thing you could do would be to injure it so that it comes back stronger, it just didn't make sense to him. And he really didn't see the results, and people would look blotchy afterwards, and things along that line. So, he decided to design a peel that would work better. And the whole secret ingredient was, there was a second step that would turn the chemical reaction off, so that it wouldn't be so damaging. So, it was a two-step process that he created. Now, his offices were near the UN, and he had lots of variety of clients. So, the whole thing that he found that was amazing is he was able to test the product on a lo...
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2025/06/1814 分
17 分