Introducing Annadea

Let me preface this post by saying that if you think I’m just a little nuts by the end of this newsletter, you’re probably right–I decided to build a brand new company in a new-to-me industry while 6 months pregnant and in the thick of creating my first real cookbook. I remember the Friday night that Kyle and I dreamed up this crazy idea–we were on our weekly date night, talking excitedly about everything that 2025 would bring, and I threw the suggestion out there. He loved it. We’d talked about so many ideas in the past and none of them really stuck, so I half expected this would be the same. This was an industry that neither of us had any experience in, and one that Kyle doesn’t even really participate in as a consumer. Buoyed by his positive response, I texted my business coach who happened to be in town for SXSW and asked for an urgent meeting on her last day in Austin.

I distinctly remember wearing my favorite pink summer dress, rushing from an influencer event at SunLife Organics (still carrying my rainbow colored smoothie), and taking the elevator up to the rooftop restaurant of my coach’s downtown hotel. I was sure she’d tell me this was a bad idea. She had often cautioned me against getting too excited about distracting projects that didn’t make sense and I figured this was no different. We sat down, I steeled myself for her pushback and doubled down on my pitch.

“Amy,” I said, “I want to start a beauty company.”

She smiled, leaned forward, and said “I think that’s a great idea!”

Pleasantly surprised, I asked her why–she was on the early team at Glossier and had experience building billion dollar beauty brands. Why me? I’m a food content creator and my only corporate experience was at PwC working in consulting. She explained that my journey into beauty simply made sense–as someone who found their way into recipe creation as a means to heal their skin, creating beauty products that would similarly keep my skin happy and glowing was a natural evolution. She also shed light on how rewarding and fun the beauty industry can be–if done well, you get to make a positive impact in a woman’s life, every single day. I was heartened to hear her confidence in my leadership abilities and my creative vision and I became more and more excited to talk about product ideas. She jumped straight into helping us think through the right team we’d have to assemble, ideal launch timing, and some go to market strategies.

So now we’re here–five months out from launching our beauty company, Annadea. I’ve been working on this in secret for the past ten months and it has provided some of the highest highs and lowest lows. As always, in this newsletter I will be transparent with you about what it’s actually like to build a new company from scratch. There have been many moments where I’ve wanted to simply give up because the challenges seemed insurmountable, where I’ve questioned myself and felt immense imposter syndrome, and where I’ve found myself realizing just how little I know about the beauty industry. At the same time, I’ve never felt so creatively stimulated, energized, and inspired.

You still might be wondering, why me? Haven’t we seen enough influencer brands? Do we need another beauty brand? There are plenty of skincare and makeup products out there, many of which are really good. But I do believe there’s room for something better, both from a product and a brand perspective. Beauty has come a long way, but it’s still an industry driven by expert marketing and occasional fear-mongering tactics. I’ve learned that many of the formulas we see on shelves are just slight iterations of each other, but sold as totally different products. I’ve learned that a lot of companies buy stock formulas and slap a brand on them, not being intentional about how they’re crafting their products and more importantly, who they’re crafting them for. I still feel like I have to make compromises about what I use–either I’m optimizing for skin-safe ingredients or I’m optimizing for performance. If I’ve got a big event or photoshoot that I want to look camera-ready for, I brace myself for the inevitable skin flare-ups that will crop up in the subsequent days. If I’m trying to treat my skin well, I know I’ll have to touch up my makeup at least a couple of times throughout the day.

The journey of going from an avid consumer to an informed founder will be one that continues for years into this venture, but the most important thing I’ve done to ready myself for our upcoming launch is to hire a small but mighty team of people who have expertise that complements my own. We have a leader of product development, a supply chain and ops consultant, a Chief Brand Officer, a Chief Financial Officer, a creative and marketing operations lead, and Kyle and myself. We all have our areas of expertise, but we collaborate on almost every decision we make.

I’ve also spent hundreds if not thousands of hours burying myself in research and testing. I had ChatGPT put together an educational training program for me, I’ve read and listened to every beauty article and podcast I can find, I’ve called friends and professional contacts who work in or around the beauty industry, and I’ve tested all the products I can find in our competitive set. I know I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of everything there is to know and understand about product development but I’ve never been more excited to learn something.

My entire entrepreneurial career has revolved around figuring out how to heal my skin and treat my body right from the inside out. It’s why I started cooking, why I started experimenting with different diets, and why I started filming and sharing the recipes I loved. It’s also why I have been buying and trying skincare and makeup products for years, desperate to find a brand that would fulfill my high standards and expectations around the stuff I put on my face. As we send our first three formulas into final production, I can confidently say that these are the best three beauty products in my makeup bag right now. I can’t wait to share them with the rest of the world, soon.

Follow @annadeabeauty for the BTS of building the brand (including our team introduction video)!

Our small but mighty team!