Analogies, Authenticity, & Resilience: Three Founders on Breaking Beauty, Broadcast, and Beyond
Every industry comes with its invisible hurdles—from explaining makeup frustrations to non-users to maintaining integrity in a crowded natural products market to outlasting imitators in live streaming. Below, three women entrepreneurs share the precise moments they hit those walls—and the creative tactics or mindset shifts that carried them through. Read on for lessons in empathy-driven pitching, mission-first quality, and focusing on your own path.
Name: Victoria Ha
Company: Match My Makeup
Website: www.matchmymakeup.com
Challenge & Lesson:
“One of the biggest early hurdles was pitching a solution to a problem that was deeply specific to women—finding the right foundation shade online—to rooms full of men who had never worn makeup and couldn’t grasp how frustrating the shade-matching process was. To overcome this disconnect, I started using analogies they could relate to. My go-to was: ‘Imagine scratching your car and needing to find the exact paint colour match for your 1999 Honda CRV. Now imagine having to do that… on your face.’ That usually got their attention.
Another major challenge was convincing retailers that the cosmetics floor, which was the bread and butter of department stores, needed to move online. At the time, e-commerce made up less than 3% of global beauty sales. The prevailing attitude was, ‘Why fix what isn’t broken?’
Fast forward to today, and online sales of cosmetics are approaching 40% and climbing fast. The industry is now in catch-up mode, being reactive instead of proactive. That shift has only reinforced why our solution was necessary from the start.”
Name: Ariel Vyvlecka
Company: Finally All Natural
Website: https://finallyallnatural.com
Challenge & Lesson:
“I created Finally to provide a natural brand that focuses on how natural ingredients are manufactured instead of just using any ingredient labeled ‘natural,’ since I found out many are created with acetone, alcohol, and other chemicals but not disclosed to the consumer. My skin was suffering from acne and irritation so it drove me to take matters into my own hands. I wanted a brand that could be trusted to do the extra homework and easy to depend on for quality and results.
I am also a mother of two toddlers, a Realtor, and a wife. I have learned that many companies will tell you to be more realistic about what you envision, and other companies will try to downgrade your quality to teach you how to make more per dollar. I have learned to keep searching for those that understand your vision and believe in it, and to stay true to my mission instead of downgrading the quality.”
Name: Julia Eskin
Company: EventLive
Website: https://www.eventlive.pro
Challenge & Lesson:
“When we first launched, right before Covid, we encountered intense competition from one company in particular. The founders of this competitor seemed to follow our every move: they watched every Instagram Story, and every new feature we released was quickly copied. This constant surveillance took a significant toll on my mental health. I felt as though I was always being watched and imitated by people I had never met.
A few sessions of therapy helped me overcome these feelings. I realized that I cannot control the actions of my competitors, or anyone else, for that matter. Instead, I learned to focus on finding my own path and doing what feels right for me and my company.
Five years later, we are still going strong, growing as a business and as a company, and I’m truly loving what I do.”
From translating women’s beauty needs into relatable terms to upholding ingredient integrity and tuning out the noise of imitators, these founders remind us that empathy, unwavering commitment to one's vision, and focusing on one's own path are powerful antidotes to any hurdle.
Whatever industry you’re in, lean into the strategies that resonate: tell your story in their language, refuse to compromise quality, and trust that your best innovation comes from staying true to why you started in the first place.
