We’re continuing with Season 2 of Real Good Company! We’re so excited to welcome today’s guest, Alli Webb, a New York Times Bestselling Author and the Co-Founder of Drybar and Squeeze. Today, her business spans more than 150 locations across the U.S. and has catapulted into a nationally recognized and highly sought after brand. The Drybar brand has even expanded to products that are sold at major retailers such as Sephora, Ulta, and Nordstrom!

The leading business lady was always obsessed with hair. Growing up in Florida, Alli’s curly cues were a piece of art that quickly learned to work with. She was always doing something different, coloring or cutting it. She first opened up to her brother, Michael, about her desire to do hair professionally. In her early 20s, she decided to go to beauty school and instantly felt like this is where she was supposed to be. 

After spending 15 years as a professional hair stylist, Webb left the hair industry in 2005 to start a family, but after being a stay-at-home mom for five years, Webb decided to find a way to continue pursuing the creative side of hairstyling at a new-mom pace. She began offering affordable in-home blowout services to her mommy friends, which quickly expanded into a mobile operation by 2009. 

What started as a mobile hair blow out business where Alli went to her clients’ home became a brick-and-mortar hairstyling brand. After realizing that women truly just wanted to feel and look good and that there was a hole in the market for this, in 2010, Alli and her brother (Michael Landau) and ex-husband (Cameron Webb) went to work to conceptualize the idea and open the first Drybar store in Brentwood, California. 

When they opened, they were booked full for the entire first week. They were so busy so fast that they were having to turn people away. Drybar was a success, and the team quickly began opening locations across Southern California.

Alli shares candid advice about how failures are not truly failures in the journey of an entrepreneur but an opportunity to learn. She also opened up about her experience on “Shark Tank” and shifting to being in the tank as one of the sharks reviewing business pitches and evaluating other people’s business plans. Alli also opened about the highs and lows of her personal life from her divorce from her business partner and husband and the struggles of parenting.

Today’s podcast focuses on going from a passion to a real life business, how to scale a business and make it profitable, and the willingness to make mistakes as an entrepreneur. Alli shares about her career journey, how she found her passion for hair, the story behind Drybar, and why she believes it became so successful.

You can find out more about Alli and everything mentioned on today’s show here. Also, you can find Alli on Instagram @alliwebb as well as Drybar at @thedrybar and @squeeze. Get to know our hosts on Instagram @CaitlinCrosby and @AllieBridge. 

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