Beach House Group founder Shaun Neff on celebrity-led brands: ‘There’s maybe 20 to 25 of these that can build a $100-$200 million business’

Beach House Group has launched four companies in the last 12 months, including Millie Bobby Brown’s Florence by Mills and Tracee Ellis Ross’ Pattern Beauty. While it may seem fast and furious, when founder Shaun Neff joined the company in 2016 he planned to shake up Beach House’s model, from a private label partner for Target to full-fledged brands that responded to a white space.

Now Beach House Group’s brands are on track to bring in $100 million by the end of the year, Neff said at a live podcast taping at the Glossy Beauty and Wellness Summit held in Palm Springs, California last week. With Glossy Beauty host Priya Rao, Neff discussed the importance of teaming up with (the right) celebrities, what’s next for Beach House Group in 2020 and the simple way he comes up with new product ideas.

Here are a few highlights from the conversation, lightly edited for clarity.

How he got the idea for Moon Oral Care
“One thing I like to do is just walk retail. Cruise through the stores, look at shelves, and really sit back and say what I think is missing. For me, the oral care aisle was the ugliest aisle at retail. These big blue and green bottles, the same toothpaste I’ve seen since I was a kid. So initially I was sitting in those aisles thinking, ‘Wow, what an opportunity to come in there and make a product that looks beautiful.’ And if you really think about it, oral care is something that you generally want to hide. If friends are coming and over you want to clean up your shelf, the toothpaste, the toothbrush, that’s something you just chuck in the drawer first. So the idea was, ‘Let’s make something that looks beautiful and that can sit on the shelf, that can sit next to your Chanel perfume and actually has aesthetic.”

Retail lives on (but keep that to yourself)
“I know there’s lots of conversations over the past 10 years where everyone’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, retail, it’s dying.’ And then I’m like, ‘Cool, I want as many people to think it’s dying so I can play’ just because I think the omnichannel approach is so strong. 

People can be unicorns, too
“I think our uniqueness [is in] identifying an opportunity, making a phone call to an incredible retailer, locking in. I always say, unicorn-like talent….There’s unicorn businesses that everyone talks about. For me, there’s a couple of unicorn talents out there. There’s 1,000 big celebrities and 500,000 great influencers, and in my opinion, there’s maybe 20 to 25 of these that can build a $100-$200 million business that can be worth a half a billion dollars, so that’s what we’re trying to do.”