The same year, she raised $100 million to value the company Ipsy at over $500 million.
(meta data) TITLE: How Michelle Phan Built A $500 Million Company (meta data) AUTHOR: Natalie Robehmed (meta data) PUBLISHER: https://www.facebook.com/forbes All Billionaires World's Billionaires Forbes 400 America's Richest Self-Made Women China's Richest India's Richest Indonesia's Richest Korea's Richest Thailand's Richest Japan's Richest Australia's Richest Taiwan's Richest Singapore's Richest Philippines' Richest Hong Kong's Richest Malaysia's Richest Money & Politics 2020 Money All Innovation AI & Big Data Amazon Web Services BrandVoice Cloud 100 2018 Consumer Tech Enterprise & Cloud Green Tech Oracle BrandVoice SAP BrandVoice ServiceNow BrandVoice Sharing Economy Social Media T-Mobile for Business BrandVoice Venture Capital All Leadership CMO Network Deloitte BrandVoice Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Strategy Small Business Under 30 Workday BrandVoice All Money Banking & Insurance Crypto & Blockchain ETFs & Mutual Funds Hedge Funds & Private Equity Impact Partners BrandVoice Personal Finance U.S. Bank BrandVoice Wealth Management All Consumer Food & Drink Hollywood & Entertainment Real Estate All Industry Aerospace & Defense Flexport BrandVoice Mitsubishi Heavy Industries BrandVoice All Lifestyle Boats & Planes Capital One BrandVoice Cars & Bikes Cole Haan BrandVoice Dining & Drinking Forbes Travel Guide Watches & Jewelry Amazon Web Services Capital One Cole Haan Impact Partners Mitsubishi Heavy Industries T-Mobile for Business U.S. Bank All Advisor The Best Credit Cards Of 2019 Best Travel Credit Cards Best Business Credit Cards Best Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses 30 Under 30 2019 Cole Haan BrandVoice: Changemakers Crypto Confidential Daily Dozen Briefing Dark Capital F45 Training BrandVoice: Are You Fit For A Franchise? Forbes Daily Cover Stories Forbes Editors' Picks Forbes Finds Forbes Insights with Teradata: Forbes Analytics+ Forbes Magazine Forbes Video HUB International BrandVoice: Benefits 2020 Investing Digest iShares BrandVoice: Invest With A Purpose Microsoft Shift BrandVoice: Behind The Shift Own it: The Modern Guide to Buying a Home # How Michelle Phan Built A $500 Million Company Natalie Robehmed Forbes Staff Hollywood & Entertainment Michelle Phan (L) and Kelly Osbourne (R) on stage at Forbes' Under 30 Summit in Philadelphia (Photo credit: Mehrunnisa Wani) Michelle Phan may have got a humble start on YouTube, but she is well on her way to helming a billion-dollar unicorn: her subscription beauty sampling business, Ipsy, last month raised $100 million to value the company at over $500 million. "I didn't have a roadmap, I just did it because it was meaningful to me and I wanted to disrupt the beauty industry," said Phan, 28, speaking to an auditorium full of 1,500-plus high-achieving millennials at Forbes' second annual 30 Under 30 summit in Philadelphia. Phan, who began posting YouTube makeup tutorials eight years ago, swiftly grew a following which now exceeds 8 million subscribers. "I thought, if [YouTube] is going to be the global television of the future, I need to build my brand here," said Phan, who uploaded her first video, a natural makeup tutorial, from a humble grainy webcam in 2007. "Within the first week, 40,000 people watched it and hundreds of comments came in and that's when I realized I'd found my calling." Phan gained notoriety with her instructional posts, including a Lady Gaga makeup tutorial. Soon enough, she was signed by as their first official video makeup artist, and then started a makeup line called Em with L'Oreal, all thanks to the purchasing power of her built-in fanbase "Influence is the new power--if you have influence you can create a brand," said Phan. In conversation with television host and fashion designer Kelly Osbourne, the duo expounded on how sharing can equal success. Both were catapulted into the spotlight and have gained notoriety from being in the public eye, Phan through YouTube and Osbourne for her family's reality TV show The Osbournes. Must Read: The Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets For Phan, her most lucrative business to date has been founding Ipsy in 2012. Doubters were not convinced there was an appetite in a crowded subscription marketplace, considering established competition such as BirchBox and Dollar Shave Club, but today Ipsy ships out over 1.5 million of its monthly "glam bags" within Canada and the U.S. "The beauty of the internet is there's a niche market for everything and if you can focus on it you can build a sustainable and viable business of it," explained Phan. Phan's focus remains on creating content for hungry users through Ipsy open studios, which offers aspiring beauty vloggers free production resources in the hope of identifying potential stars. Like any savvy entrepreneur, she also has her eye on mobile: "In 2014, 50% of my Ipsy subscribers subscribed through Ipsy.com on desktop," said Phan. "This year over 70% subscribed through mobile." For two women who have made a career out of their personal brands, both were candid about how being themselves in the public eye could often be challenging. The Diversity Advantage: An eBook From Forbes Gender equality in the workplace isn't just good for women—it's good for business too. "Most people in this room know that I get myself in trouble with my mouth a lot," joked Osbourne, 30, who pioneered reality TV The Osbournes show, for which they won a 2002 Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program. An outspoken co-host of E!'s hit show, Fashion Police for the last five years, Osbourne recently left the program after a reported disagreement over allegedly racist comments made by co-host Giuliana Rancic. With her 8 million subscribers, Phan joked "every single one of them has seen me without my makeup on." And though often negative chatter remains a challenge for both, Osbourne and Phan believe the internet is crucial to building their businesses. "The internet is where you can find people who are authentic," said Phan, who has raised over $103 million to date for Ipsy. "Some 87% of women today trust in influencers in YouTube over celebrity ads and endorsements and it's only going to grow." Phan has already monetized her fans; Osbourne is now hoping to translate her 4 million followers and 2 million Instagram followers into a fashion fortune She already launched a collection of M*A*C Cosmetics co-created with her mother, Sharon, in 2014, and is currently designing Stories…By Kelly Osbourne, her first ready-to-wear fashion line with sizes from 0-24. (The line's second collection was released earlier this year.) Both women feel beauty can be a meaningful--and lucrative--endeavor. "Ipsy was a platform that was built for this generation of people who want to express inner and outer beauty," explained Phan. "Makeup is not a mask that covers up your beauty, it's a weapon that helps you express who you are from the inside." Follow me on Twitter. Send me a secure tip. Natalie Robehmed I'm an associate editor at Forbes covering media and entertainment, with a focus on the movie business. For the magazine, I've written cover stories on Kim Kardashian'...
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Michelle Phan
Career.

On August 15, 2013, L'Oreal launched a new cosmetic line called "em" by Michelle Phan, dedicating the brand to her mother. 
 In May 2014, Phan announced her partnership with Endemol Beyond USA to build a talent network to feature people from YouTube and create content for millennials. The ICON network, dedicated to "beauty, lifestyle and entertainment", launched in March 2015 online and on television via Roku. 
 In September 2014, Phan partnered with Cutting Edge Group  to launch Shift Music Group. Phan published a book with Random House in October 2014, titled "Make Up: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success -- Online and Off". 
 In 2014, Phan's YouTube Channel was ranked 48 on "New Media Rockstars"' Top 100 Channels. 
 In 2015, Phan was named to the "Inc." 30 under 30 and "Forbes" 30 under 30 lists.