YouSaid · the spoken record

Maureen Kelly

lines on the record: 115
first: 2023-01-23
most recent: 2023-01-23
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

“Oh, I think both. I think luck and hard work for sure. I think that I've worked really, really hard and have had a lot of support throughout my life. But I also feel like I've been lucky. You know, I'm very blessed. So I feel like Both of them for sure.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, I have to say a little of both. I've definitely had mentors over the years. I think they're really important and read a lot, a lot of business books. But I think that it's really important to recognize as a founder and as a boss, like that you're not the expert at everything. And I just have some really amazing people around me. I have a president. I have an all-female C-suite, which is something I'm very proud of. It's a very unusual, believe it or not, in the cosmetic industry to have women at the top. And yeah, I mean, I love everyone I work with. I feel very lucky. It's the thing that keeps me still going and it's the thing that keeps me still at tart is the people. It's always been about the people for me.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like, I wasn't ready to go lay on the beach forever. Like, I like working and I like doing this, and I just felt like they were a good partner that would allow me to do that. And I maintained like a surprising level of control given my remaining ownership percentage that I did put in the shareholders agreement to make sure that it remained that way.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did I did. I did. You know, which was definitely like a slower exit for me, which I think was good because I loved what I was doing. But Kose is kind of like the equivalent of like a lotter or a l'oreal in Japan. And they were looking to acquire a company that they could study and learn from to like really help them with their marketing in the States. And so they kind of felt like TARE would be a great, just like a great one for them for that. And I wasn't ready to kind of like hang up my high heels and be done for sure. So Kose was like a good match for me. I knew that if I went with like a lot of, you know, Laureal, it would be different.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think once you take on private equity, they'll always look for an exit. I think that's always going to be kind of the end.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the banks would have called in loans and our house was tied to it. I would have literally lost everything in my entire life And if you think back to Jess Mark and everything that I did in his memory to like. Invest and just, yeah, I just would have lost it all. I would have ruined everything.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so they doubled their investment. They doubled their investment. But like it's the kind of thing where if we weren't okay It was all sideways, and we were bankrupt.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So they absolutely could have walked away. I mean, they probably should have walked away, but this guy, Kevin Murphy, I mean, like, you know, I didn't know him, but like he stood by us. And he said, we're going to do it. We believe in you. We invest in people and we believe that you guys are, you're going to pull through this. And we did. But it was really, really stressful. We managed through all of it.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Bankrupt at that point, and all of our bank loans were personally guaranteeing by us. So like, you know, including our house. So, you know, private equity was going to be taking some tips off the table, sure, but like also making sure that we didn't lose our house. And remember, I said that Scott was an accountant. And so at the time, he would sit and like figure it out all the time. And, you know. where we were kind of like numbers wise because i was just like we were out of money um we get really close to being bankrupt if our retailers didn't pay us or if our suppliers didn't supply us like Know, does anything went sideways on us? We were technically bankrupt like every other month for 2008 and 2009.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay. It was insane. It was so insane. I've never in my life done this, but I was like, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? And everyone from the company came, you know, came over and I got family and everybody loaded up as much as they could. We definitely didn't get everything, but we got as much as we could. And then literally the next day the doors were padlocked because SA Lauder, L'Oreal, they all manufactured there and they made products for like, you know, Bobby Brown and tons of companies, you know, because they own them and they couldn't get any of their stuff for a year and talk about expiration dates, right? Like makeup expires. All went bad. So we would have gone bankrupt.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I was like, what about our products? What about our packaging that you know they're restoring a lot of our stuff there? Because, you know, they store your packaging to then fill it eventually. And they said, I don't know, the bank is taking it over, and it's not going to be ours anymore. I was like, what do you mean? And so, Scott, my husband at the time said, you know, when that happens, they usually put a lock on the door and then the bank owns it all until, you know, you can fight it out in court. And I was like, well, what do you mean? We own that stuff. Like, what do you mean the bank's going to come to own it? That's insane. Like, we paid for all the packaging”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They were doing okay. We had like a couple of little blips where like we did like mini cheek scenes, like travel size cheek scenes and they get like a little soft there were little like mushy like cranberry and then we had an issue with like a foundation where it was like wasn't pumping out but like we worked through it So like there were like a few little signs you know looking back there were a couple signs that i should have And I did, I was on it and I was like addressing those concerns with them. I was meeting with them and stuff, but there was no like signs of this going out of business. Of course, I was like, oh my gosh, I was like, okay, well, when is this happening? And they said immediately. This week we're closing our parent company is closing our doors.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Literally days later, I got a phone, we got a phone call when the girls in the office from one of our truckers. They're not our trucker, just a trucker that we work with. And I think this is a good example of you're good to people. There'll be good back to you. Saying that there's something weird, there's like activity happening at the lab. I was like, wait, what do you mean activity? Like just something weird's going down, and like, you should come down. I was like, okay, shoot. So I hoped in a car, I drive over the bridge. And I go in and I said like, hey, you know, what's going on here? Is everything going okay? And they said, we have really bad news and we're so sorry to be telling you this. I don't even know how you're here, how you knew this, but we're going out of business. And it's happening right now. I was like,”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It costs money, yeah. And so we had met with tons of private equity firms. You know, I'd heard the horror stories through the years, you know, on QBC especially, there'd be a lot of other founders and they'd say that they got pushed out or their teams got fired and they were like, be careful, Maureen, be careful. Remember, I waited 11 years at this point. And so I finally found a private equity firm that I was really happy with. They're called Encore. And this guy, Kevin Murphy, was such a good guy. And they signed an LOA because we needed that money for the Ulta expansion. And it was really exciting.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know, I know, but you know what? It's a good tale of making sure you diversify, which we of course have since then because, okay, two really big things happened. I finally decided that we needed private equity”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, or twice a week, and you get home really late. It was like Friday night beauty, and then sometimes you'd have to be on like Saturday night too. So it was a lot. But, you know, I mean, I definitely loved it. And that was helping us to really grow.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We actually have moved out, I think, at that point. So, when they think back on me, like just, I don't know, my time selling on QVC, they're like, we never want you going back on air. You were driving.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We were fine. I mean, we were just growing. We were still in super growth mode. So for us, we were doing great. We were just scaling. Driving, commuting two hours into the city, then I'd work all day, then I'd drive to Westford, Pennsylvania, I'd sell on air. And then I drive home. I had, you know, at this point now, two kids, two little little kids.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. It had to be more competitive for sure. But I looked at QBC, yeah, it's kind of like more like an infomercial because you're selling it to all of those 101 million like eyeballs and ears. And then, you know, they may buy it there. Many do, but they also may stroll into Ulta or Sephora and buy your product there because they want to touch it and smell it and feel it.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was nerve wracking for sure, especially because we were growing, we were definitely in growth mode at that point. And, you know, every hit was, it was Consignment back then, and so you know you ship it to them and you don't get paid until you sell it. And so for us, we had already paid the lab and paid the packaging company. And so we needed to get paid.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, they're clicking over from the nightly news. And they channel surf. So they're never going to watch your whole. I always say, because now while I don't tell myself on air anymore directly, I help the girls that do sell with their cells every single week. And I just remind them, I'm like, remember, the only one watching your full eight minutes is your mom and us.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And you sold, let's say, I've sold like $20,000 a minute, and you have a buyer say, okay, well, you didn't get gold because it was $23. And I'm thinking, who cares? I just killed it. Yeah.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm sure Milazes share this, but and when you're young and you're selling and you're in control of your own destiny, yeah, and you come off.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, it's hook time, actually, which was pretty great back then. I feel like not everybody copied everybody back then, which was lovely. I don't know. And I felt like I was constantly moving back then. It was like, okay, what's the next cool idea? What's the next fun thing? I was always trying to like, you know, really be different and think outside the box. But, you know, I think back to my QVC days and while it wasn't sexy, I mean, QVC saved us because it just helped us grow when you think about catapulting to another like level of sales. You know, you can go on, especially in Q4, like holiday time and do like $23,000 a minute.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Didn't remember I had no business experience. I You know, which is okay looking back, I didn't patent my fabric packaging, I didn't patent my cheekstain, but we launched it on QBC and it sure did sell out. I mean, those phone lines lit up.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And once we hit the Oprah O list, it was like, oh my gosh, unbelievable like flying to the moon. I mean, you had made it, you know, I mean, because Oprah, remember, I mean, still is very influential back then. It was just everything. She was the influence. She was the OG.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it was our double ended lip glosses. You snap them apart. They were named after famous lovers like Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet was one of them. Yes, absolutely. Rettin Scarlet, like Hamlet Nophelia, even Carrion Big.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly, exactly. You know, I would keep sending it to the magazine, so I remember sending it to Gail Oprah's best friend. And Gail”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly, or put it on their Facebook page. Back then, we would send it to, I did have PR back then, in-house PR. So one of the early hires was like part-time PR person. So we would send it.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, we've never spent $1 in advertising in Tarte ever. You know, in the beginning, we never had the money to. And then obviously as time progressed, you know, that changed a little bit. I think Facebook started in 2004. So if you think about that, you know, social media. MySpace was like 2003. You know, we hopped on the influencer trend pretty early, which was definitely great for us and started sending it to influencers or people we thought were influencers at the time.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He did. He moved to New York for me and he was in finance. And then he became an FBI agent for a little while. Couple years, yep. And then he loved it so much. I mean, it was like the favorite thing he's ever done, but just we were starting to really be drowning and he had his CPA and his MBA. And I just said, like, I need the help. Please just come help even for a little while. And so he kind of took a leave of absence and came on board to help. Unfortunately, never made his way back to the FBI, which he's still sad about to this day and reminds me. He said, you know, gosh, it's so different here, you know, girls cry, you know, when they break up with their boyfriends, it's very different from the FBI. I was like, oh, yeah.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I actually met him. He went to Wharton with my best friend from undergrad. And I met him when Boston, we were selling in a little apothecary that since out of business called E6. And we needed a place to stay because we still were pretty scrappy. And my best friend Raquel said, well, I can stay with Scott, you know, from business school. We could just stay there. And I was like, okay, sounds good. And that's when I met him. And yeah, and we got married in 2004. And he eventually came on board to help at Tarte.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so, but like obviously happy that the company is growing and doing well. So like I didn't have time to think at all during the day. It was so busy nonstop just because we were growing and didn't have a lot of resources. And then at night, you know, your mind would. Everything would get quiet, and your mind would, you know, would just start to slow down and like think a little bit.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was wearing all of those hats. I've never worked so hard in my life. I felt like I was pushing a boulder up like a mountain every single day.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because I'm not a finance person and. I wanted to make sure that all of my hires were people that were strong at things that I'm not good at. I think if you surround yourself with people that are smarter than you and stronger than you and things that you can't do, you'll be successful.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She was my second worm a hire. My first wormhole hire was an intern that, you know, had been internning with me and I brought her on full time.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You're a finance person. And when she came to the apartment and walked in, she was like, Oh my gosh, what is this? Like, what have I done? I already quit my job. But when we started in the new office, you know, she reminded me it was 1250 a month, like 1,250. And there were some months that like TARC couldn't pay it and that like I would have to lend the money.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, to continue to finance it over the years because I remember our head of I hired someone from PricewaterhouseCooper to do like, you know, all the finance stuff, the accounting. And I hired her while we were still in the apartment. And she didn't know we were in an apartment. So she left, you know, PWC. I don't know if it was big six at the time or, you know, you called it back then.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I wasn't taking out loans, and now I'm using my 9-11 fund, which Is really tough because you know, I knew that this was what Mark wanted for me, but it also felt like, oh my gosh, if I make a mistake and screw this up in any way, shape or form, I have like not only failed myself, but I failed Mark. It's just like.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, how about like fine, we'll meet somewhere in the middle, like have it a hundred stores. I was like, I can't watch it in 100 stores. Maybe I could like do five stores. I think I settled with like 15 stores. So we started the dot-com first and then And then we rolled out to four months later to stores, 15 stores.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When I met with them for the first time, I thought it was just meeting with like one or two people and they brought like David Slitiano, who at the time was like the head. And it was like 10 people. So I was like, oh my gosh, I'm feeling very overwhelmed. And it was just me. And they said, okay, you know, this brand is amazing. We've read about it everywhere. We've seen it in Bendles. We want to launch it. We want to launch it in, you know, all of our stores. And I was like, thank you so much. That's so flattering, but I can't launch it in all of your stores. But I could launch it in like three stores. He laughed at me and he was like, I can't launch it in three stores. That's crazy. How about?”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It lasted a long time. Yeah, it did. I mean, we were together for a decade, so. And then 9 11, remember, is such a, you know, like, it's just every year, you know, I mean, that part is tough. It comes back in the worst kind of way, you know, because that's not how I wanted to remember Mark by that, the bad stuff. I want to remember all of the good stuff.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I went on like multi hour walks every day. I would walk, our office was on the lower east side. And so I would just like walk on the East River all the way down to South Street Seaport. And sometimes I would do it at night. And my family was like, you can't do that at night. That's really dangerous. So yeah, I mean, not the healthiest, but and then, you know, at the time, my office, like the girls would go for walks with me, which was really nice.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, and as I started to kind of try to go back to work a little bit, people would say like, oh, Maureen, you should, you have to answer this email or you have to do this. It would be like good for you. Remember, the office was in our apartment. So I would work during the day a little bit. And when everybody left, like the interns and I had one or two employees at that point. I would just like to collapse in the bed that Mark and I shared at night So, yeah. And I kept it in that apartment for many years, which looking back, that probably wasn't the healthiest thing that I could have done many years.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Even know, I can't even remember honestly. I've blacked out so much of that time. That it's weird. It's just like gone from my mind”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He worked for Kefe Rattonwoods, and they were amazing after, I mean, they really were. They're such a good company to like, you know, I didn't have kids. Unfortunately, I wish I did. But, you know, my best friend was pregnant with Mark's best friend from the firm. She was a weak pregnant with his baby. Her husband, she was a weak pregnant. And they were just so good to all of the widows and then the surviving children and families. So I became her kind of Brent was his name. So, like, I was with her and, you know, when she had her C-section. And I mean, it was a tough, you know, I went with her to spread his ashes on Seal Beach.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Remember funny things about him. Yeah, I mean, he was just larger than life. You know, I didn't want to have a funeral for him. I wanted it to be. You know, a memorial, I mean, everyone was just telling amazing stories about him and, you know, drinking and laughing and crying, obviously. It was the New York Athletic Club. And, you know, all of his team meets. And I would say, I almost said office meets, but no, they were all gone. I mean, I would open up our wedding album and literally every single person in it was gone, you know I mean, almost every single person in their office, like, if they weren't there, maybe that day they made it, but that was really it. It's just, you know, decimated. But, I mean, he was just such an amazing guy, like the most incredible person in the world.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, I didn't want to continue with anything after that happened. Period But, you know, my family and my friends didn't leave me alone for one second. I mean, someone stayed with me every single night and every single day. And they just said, you know, Mark wouldn't want you, you know, Mark was the one that encouraged you to do this. Yeah, like he would be really sad and disappointed if you let this all go, which I kind of thought was like a little bit mean at the time, but then it fueled me, you know? Because, and I just became like a walking zombie, and I kept Tarko in his memory basically a year after it started.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm a 30 year old widow, and I'd been with him for a decade, and also love my life, you know This is it. I don't even want to go on, honestly, is how I felt. And the city was locked down. You know, it was terrible. I mean, it had like that ash cloud for months and months. Over time, people just slowly got back to living, but I just felt like my life was over.”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I just, yeah, I don't know. That was it. I mean, I woke up in the morning and I looked out the window and I just honestly couldn't understand how it wasn't all a dream, you know?”
2023-01-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT