9 to 5ish with theSkimm artwork

Drybar Founder Alli Webb on Scaling a $200+ Million Dollar Business without a College Degree

9 to 5ish with theSkimm

English - April 17, 2024 00:30 - 29 minutes - ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratings
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Alli Webb was a stay-at-home mom for five years when she realized she needed to get out of the house more. So she started a mobile hair business. She’d go house-to-house and offer $40 blowouts to moms in LA, something that pretty much no one was doing at the time. She soon opened her first brick and mortar and called it Drybar. 100+ locations later, Alli sold the company for more than $200 million. All without a college degree or formal business training. 
In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Alli shares: 

The sunshine and beach-haired days of her childhood growing up in Boca Raton 

How having parents who operated a small biz gave her life lessons in entrepreneurship

Why it felt intoxicating building and scaling Drybar, plus the mental cost that came with it

How her divorce, son’s visit to rehab, and burnout led to her book, “The Messy Truth” 

Why she felt intimidated when fundraising + curating the Drybar board – and how she got through it 

Alli Webb was a stay-at-home mom for five years when she realized she needed to get out of the house more. So she started a mobile hair business. She’d go house-to-house and offer $40 blowouts to moms in LA, something that pretty much no one was doing at the time. She soon opened her first brick and mortar and called it Drybar. 100+ locations later, Alli sold the company for more than $200 million. All without a college degree or formal business training. 

In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Alli shares: 



The sunshine and beach-haired days of her childhood growing up in Boca Raton 
How having parents who operated a small biz gave her life lessons in entrepreneurship
Why it felt intoxicating building and scaling Drybar, plus the mental cost that came with it
How her divorce, son’s visit to rehab, and burnout led to her book, “The Messy Truth” 
Why she felt intimidated when fundraising + curating the Drybar board – and how she got through it