YouSaid · the spoken record

Joey Shamah

lines on the record: 114
first: 2026-06-29
most recent: 2026-06-29
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

“Okay, so you guys are on Borbascott. You can form this business. And you guys had relationships in Asia with apparel businesses. So tell me a little bit about how you started to see whether you could actually do this. Who did you start to talk to to see if you could actually make this stuff for cheap”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, basically, what we learned really early on is when you break down the cosmetics to formulations and componentry, formulations, yes, you can hit that price point. The real artistry, if you may, is in the component tree where we couldn't afford metal. We had to go plastic or we couldn't afford things that were multi parts and it need to be one part or one mold extrusion. So we needed to really figure that part out. But the actual cosmetics, we were able to hit that dollar price point.”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But you're trying to figure out this kind of wormhole, right? Can we get something good enough that is really cheap to manufacture, that we can sell for a dollar? Because it's a dollar store. Is that what you're thinking”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Colors that you didn't want, maybe you could find the one you wanted. It was at a discount, but it wasn't Planogrammed and it wasn't consistent.”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Scott's concept was a line of cosmetics, similar to that of hard candy. It was a value line of cosmetics. When we looked at the landscape of the retail market, there were still a lot of big box retailers. Two of the biggest ones in the early 2000s that were growing exponentially were the dollar chains. So it was family dollar, dollar general. They were growing to five, six, seven thousand doors. And the problem they had is they didn't have quality and consistency on their shelves. So basically, they either had an unbranded no focus on quality brand, where it was two items on a blister card for a dollar, a lipstick, and a nail polish or whatever, or they had access to some branded merchandise that was left over from a drugstore or was a return or it was extra. So you had to cover girls.”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was funny because he was living in Manhattan Beach, California, and I was living in Manhattan Beach, New York. So that was just a funny coincidence. But he was in California.”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So actually, I was introduced to Scott Vincent Borba through a mutual friend. And the concept was that Scott was a beauty maven. He really understood the beauty industry. He worked at a lot of different beauty companies. He was one of the first employees at a brand called Hard Candy. He was at Neutrogena running the Neutrogena Color Cosmetics brand. And he had this idea that he wanted to create a line of cosmetics. And we were, my father was looking maybe with me to invest in a business and to help. And that's kind of where it came from.”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I worked with my dad and his apparel company as I was in college. So I was learning the basics. I was learning what a purchase order was. I was learning what a system was to track orders, what delivery dates meant, how to sell. I did a little bit of sales for some of the closeouts or the leftover inventory that they had. That's how I really got my feet wet.”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, I think my parents and they really afforded me the flexibility to follow what I wanted to do. I think it was a possibility, but my personal fear in life was joining my father's company not being a productive member of it and just being the boss's son and not really proving my worth and being successful on my own. And that was my biggest fear.”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was going to happen. I remember when I was in high school, I was president of a teen division of our community center. And the woman who was running it at the time said, I don't know how, but I know you're going to be successful. And I really go back to that meeting that really stuck with me of saying, I'm going to be successful. I don't know how. If it was beauty, it was beauty. If it was yoga mats, it was yoga mats. It was apparel. It was apparel. It was going to happen.”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Are very tight-knit community. We do a lot of things together. We have a very strong network, and we are very entrepreneurial in spirit. You know, I came from a community of merchants. Like we buy product, we sell product, we know how to do that. And that's something I always aspire to. I wanted to do it differently. So I had a passion for making money. I had a passion for making a name for myself. And I had a passion for making an impact.”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of around $4 billion. Not surprisingly, the $1 price point has gone away, but the products are still relatively inexpensive, between five and fifteen dollars. As for Joey, he grew up in Brooklyn in the nineteen eighties and 90s. His dad had an apparel business, and most of the people in the community, including Joey's family, were of Syrian Jewish origin.”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But when ELF launched, it upended that model. At the time, discount makeup cost about five or six bucks for a lipstick or blush, but ELF products, all of them cost a dollar, and the thing is, they didn't look or feel cheap. And it meant that customers could take a risk of trying out more of their products, which made the brand particularly popular with teens and tweens. When Joey Shama and his original partner, Scott Vincent Borba, started Elf, they ran into a lot of roadblocks. For starters, the big box retailers weren't interested. They didn't think there was a market for their products. But within a few years, the brand started to gain traction. Joey sold most of the company back in 2014, but he managed to scale it to a pretty successful brand in ten years. And today, ELF is publicly traded with a market.”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So honestly, we didn't even think about logistics. We were just following Glamour Magazine's lead. They wanted us to make a website so we could get in the magazine. We didn't think we were going to get in order.”
2026-06-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · e.l.f. Cosmetics: Joey Shamah. The Dollar Store Formula That Built a Cosmetics Giant · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT