YouSaid · the spoken record

Jennifer Gross

lines on the record: 91
first: 2025-03-24
most recent: 2025-03-24
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Medical doctor skincare. Okay, good sounds. And it was, I guess, designed to sort of signal that this was made by a doctor, a skin doctor. This was scientifically formulated to differentiate it from what you would find at a department store.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was, but you know what? It was so helpful to have a confidence that that experience, that living lab of the practice, gave us because, yeah, my patients would get this product to take home, but then we had people coming into my front desk at my practice who were not my patients saying my friend bought these peel pads here and the results are incredible, I'd like to buy them too. And so there was a time where it got to such a proportion of people coming in asking for that product that literally one day I came home to carry. I said, I think we may have a business here.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I got you. So initially, the idea was let's see how this works in the clinic, right? So because it sounds like Dennis and Carrie, both of you already in 1995, when you started to give this to your patients, Dennis, that in your mind you were thinking, this is a brand. We can turn this into a brand. This is a business. At the birth of this product, it was already fully formed, this idea”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So between 1995 and 2000, Dennis had his clinical peel, his doctor's peel, which was the strongest. And then we went to a contract manufacturer and asked them for pads and jars, a 30-day supply, which was sort of a go-to-market strategy that you go into the clinic, you have appeal, you take home your 30-day supply of appeal pads, step one and step two. You use that every morning at home. And then when your jar is empty, it's time to come back to the clinic for another treatment. And so his patients loved it. We were selling out of our home kits rapidly. And that to us was basically proof of concept. And that's when we moved ahead to start the brand.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They weren't dermatologists. That's the key. There's a difference between being a chemist in a laboratory and actually having a background, as I did, in the chemistry and the science to actually using ingredients and seeing patients. So my first product was the alphabet appeal. And that was really what put us on the map because it was an at-home two-step peel treatment. So we brought the clinic into the home of the consumer. And so it was a game changer. It was a disruptor.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, clearly, because of your background, you were looking at the ingredients on over-the-counter products, and you were saying, well, this doesn't make sense. But I'm surprised that more people weren't doing that. I mean, what were in the products that didn't make sense? I mean, clearly, I mean, I would assume they were formulated by people with some background in chemistry. Otherwise, why would they be making skincare products?”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Work. Now we're on to the next horse in the merry-go round, another one, and after the third one didn't work, well, they go back to the first one hoping this woman works. So that's when I said, let me add it.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I must say that to that point, my practice did teach me a lot because I also had a very international practice. My office at NYU was near the United Nations and literally I had the United Nations medical office send me people. So I saw people from all over the world. And, you know, I learned about different skin types, different skin tones, issues. And the other thing is I started to ask my patients, what products are you using? And I was amazed at what I learned, which was that pretty much they were what I call going through the merry-go-round of discontent. The patients were using a product for some hope to get benefits of some sort. They weren't seeing it. They would then stop that one and buy another one, hoping that would work. That one didn't work.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Ideas coming to mind. So, you know, we're in the mid 90s at this point. We're married. We have our beautiful twins, Daniel and Allison, and all the while we're thinking, thinking, thinking about a business”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, the biological clock was ticking for me for sure. But I think I kind of had like this idea of myself being a working mother and we got pregnant. I actually resigned from Nordstrom and I had twins, which was quite a delight and a shock all at once. But in any case, all the while we were thinking about a business. You know, it was when Dennis would look at my beauty products and my skincare and he would say, why did these chemists put these ingredients in here? There's no skin benefit. And when he said that, I was like, wow, he's going to think very differently than a cosmetic chemist because he's seeing patients every day. And so Dennis' practice, we call it the living lab because his patients, there were just so many.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And, of course, both of you guys in your 30s, and it gets harder to have kids after 40 and later. So was that part of the thinking as well”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“and then had an engagement that lasted nine months. And my feeling was I needed to go through four seasons with Carrie just to make sure it was right. So we got through three seasons and got married. But the fourth season was okay too. So we're good.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All right, let's get back to your relationship for a moment because you guys meet in the early 90s, and how long before, I mean, it sounds like you guys hit it off very quickly and have a lot of common interest. Carrie, how long between the time you meet and the time you get married?”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So acids may be okay and good, but for a limited time only, and then I determined that you needed a second step to turn it off. And that was the secret sauce here. So I created a system, a product, a treatment, multiple acids followed by second step. And that innovation led to my practice really blossoming.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Precisely, no blotchiness. No inflammation. The most important second thing was a second step to neutralize it. In chemistry, you have your acids, but you also have the base. You have things that are alkaline. You have things of a higher pH versus low pH of acids.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So yes, what I did was I had several new ideas that I put to work in creating a brand new formula. The first one was instead of one acid at a high concentration, I determined and discovered and it worked multiple acids, different ones at lower concentrations that together additively had a benefit, but no downtime.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And just to understand, I mean, you're obviously a medical doctor, so you have a science background. And so, what would you do? I mean, like at night when you closed up shop, you would start to mix ingredients and try to get the proportions to your horse specifications.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I felt like it made no sense. There's no organ in the body that you injure to make it come back better and stronger. If you're a runner, you're never going to hurt your lungs so that you're going to be able to be even more efficient as a runner. It didn't make sense to me. At the same time, it really was catching on. And I tried it. I did it, you know. And what I saw was that the patients were not happy with the downtime. Two, they didn't see results. It didn't work. I wanted to introduce and design a treatment that had no downtime. So I designed appeal for my patients in my office. That was an alternative and it worked better.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was the idea of doing something to a patient by the dermatologist where they would come in and in a matter of a few minutes get what was called appeal. And so it was glycolic acid. You were being sold by detailed people coming into the dermatology office like kits where you would have the patient come in and then you would do a 30% peel on them and then they would come back a week later and you do a 40% and then 50% all the way up to 70%.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I was amazed at how little there was in terms of efficacy built into the actual product. A lot of it struck me as being packaging and promise, but in terms of really delivering what could be done to the skin, I felt like there is so much more possible. So it was through our relationship and our conversations that we really started to think what could be done here. And in my practice, again, I was seeing it too. And the real thing that was going on was it was the beginning of the lunchtime peels in dermatology.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, explain that. I mean, Dennis, when you were looking at the ingredients of what was available over the counter, what would an active ingredient be that you weren't seeing”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, tell me about that. I mean, in the early 90s, imagine like most people who had a sort of a skincare regimen would get some creams at the department store.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, that's right. The whole cosmetic component of dermatology at that time was in its infancy. Very little in the way of active ingredients. But it was growing. There was a little bit of movement there. I certainly was seeing it in my practice, but it was actually through this conversation that I had with Carrie that... We both together sort of learned about the opportunity and the state of the art and the lack of the science and”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it is. I mean, on that point, I mean, at that time, the early 90s, right? I mean, most people went to Germatologist for rashes or, you know, poison ivy or certain diseases of the skin, right? They didn't go necessarily for things that people go to for today, like Botox treatment or skincare. It really wasn't about that in any way at all, was it?”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Skin. Are you kidding? So, I grew up in California. I had sun damage. I was on the beach almost my entire life or a tennis court. And I was in my 30s and I was seeing signs of aging. And I was spending a lot of time and energy and money on my skin. So I would shop the beauty counters. I would go to spas. And I thought I was doing the best I could. And then I met Dennis and had a conversation about what was really happening with my skin going to look like. And I have to tell you, he gave me such hope and optimism because in my experience, like I went to a dermatologist for poison ivy. Right. You know, I didn't think of them as the healthy aging gurus that they are today. So it was really a very, very exciting dinner for me. Yeah.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, you guys, so you agreed to go on a date. And obviously, Carrie, you've learned that Dennis is a dermatologist, and Dennis, you learn about Carrie's background. And what do you guys remember about? I mean, what did you talk about? Where did you connect over?”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's funny that I have a slightly different memories of what happened, but I definitely remember looking at him and he had a doctor's bag in his hand and his head was leaning against the wall and he was looking at me. It was a little uncomfortable. But I was just friendly.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do you want to go out for dinner sometime? And she said, let me think about it. And she gave me her work number, which was kind of crazy because you think about it. I know where you live. I know your name. It's like, okay, fine, let me call you at work.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Looked at me and she said, You look tired. And I said, yeah, I'm tired. It was Friday afternoon. And that was it. That was the end of the conversation. But I got off my floor. I got up at 6 and I watched to see what floor she got out of and she got off at, I think, 18 or 19. And this was not me. This was a moment where, you know, I had something was more powerful than what had led my bachelor life before. I got onto the intercom. I called Orlando in the lobby and I said, I just wrote up the elevator with this woman. What's her story? And he said, oh, Orlando said, oh, that's Carrie. She's great. She doesn't have a boyfriend. She's really nice. You two should really meet her. So he intercoms me back a few minutes later and says, hey, I got Carrie right here. You want to talk to her? And Orlando puts her on the phone and I said, hi, I'm the guy who you said was tired.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Story was, from my point of view, so here I am this bachelor, and I was coming up Third Avenue, as I always did on a Friday, I remember to this day. It was a Friday, and I walk in the lobby, and there's Carrie talking to the doorman, talking to Orlando. I was literally struck by her. First of all, she looked incredible. She's wearing this incredible mid-length skirt and these crazy, sexy blue suede mules, as they were called. And she had her dry cleaning draped over her arms, and she was talking to Orlando. And I just was moved by how she was so friendly to him, you know, it wasn't like the doorman has hired help. She was engaged in conversation, they were laughing, they were talking. And in any event, we rode up the elevator. And”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I tell my kids all the time if there were cell phones back then, I probably never would have had a conversation with your dad. So I think we all need to put our cell phones in our pockets when we're in the elevator.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's how you met Just at the elevator, right? Okay, but normally, I mean, you just push the elevator button and then you get in the elevator, and you might look down, or, you know, today people look at their phones, but this is early 90s, you look up at the ceiling. That didn't happen. No, yeah.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We were living in the same apartment building on Third Avenue in New York City. I had moved in just a few months before, and so it took us a couple months, I guess, to end up at the elevator at the exact same moment.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Deal worth around $450 million. As for Dennis and Carey, they were both born in the late nineteen fifties. Dennis grew up in New York City and Carey in California. By the early 90s, they were both living in New York. Carrie was working as a fashion buyer for Nordstrom, and Dennis had just started his own dermatology practice. And they were about to find out that they were neighbors.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Especially among affluent women in New York. But the process would often leave their skin blotchy and red for a few days afterwards. So Dennis decided to come up with his own formula, ideally a recipe that would be as effective without the splotchy side effects. His formula became so popular that he decided to come up with a consumer version. And this is where Carrie comes in, because she is Dennis's partner in life and in business. And together, they came up with a plan to turn Dennis's dermatology expertise into a skincare brand. In the early years, they funded the business mainly from Dennis's income, and for the first two decades, the brand was entirely bootstrapped and relatively small for much of that time. But in 2023, the cosmetics giant Sheseo acquired Dr. Dennis Grow's skincare in a”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You may remember a few years ago seeing a space age looking beauty device that went absolutely viral on TikTok. It was a plastic face mask that makes you sort of look like a neon glowing C three PO. The glow comes from these red and blue LED lights which are meant to reduce acne and make your skin look younger and smoother. Anyway, this particular mask I'm talking about was designed by a brand called Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare. It's a bit of a clunky name, I'll admit, but it's also been the brand's superpower because Dennis Gross is a real person, a real doctor, a real dermatologist who's been making and selling a line of skincare products for more than 25 years. But in the early days there wasn't a brand at all. There was just Dennis and his patients at his clinic in New York. Now back in the 1990s, skin peel started to take off.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Welcome to How I Built This show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built. I'm Guy Ros and on the show today How Dennis Gross filled a white space in skincare by perfecting the peel and how he and his wife Carrie grew their first product into a four hundred fifty million dollar brand.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was like, oh my God, you know, we thought it was bad enough going through like 9 11 and then the, you know, 2008 crash, the pandemic was just like Dennis' practice closed, Sephora's doors closed. I think I was laying on the floor thinking, I can't believe this. I can't believe this. We're going to lose our company.”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
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2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
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2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, one of my favorite parts of traveling is getting a feel for a neighborhood, the way locals do. A few summers ago, I was in Rome and stayed in an apartment I booked on Airbnb. It was tucked in a quiet neighborhood just outside the Roman forum. Every morning I'd walk to the corner cafe, grab an espresso, and just watch the world go by outside. I even managed to chat with the owner about the neighborhood he lived in for nearly forty years. And he got me thinking about my own neighborhood. There are incredible hiking trails and great restaurants and, of course, the beach. And when I'm traveling this summer, listing my own place on Airbnb could be a really smart way to let someone else experience the area the way I do, like a local. Listing your home on Airbnb while you're traveling is a great way to make some extra money. You could put the money toward your next trip. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much”
2025-03-24 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare: Dennis and Carrie Gross · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT