Launched: 2021
Founder: Jeffrey Lee
Key Executives:
2024 Full Year Expected Revenue Range: $10 to $20 million
Primary Category: Color Cosmetics / Makeup
Other Categories: Tools and Devices
Primary Distribution Channel: DTC
Other Distribution Channels: Third Party E-Commerce
Funding Rounds: Venture Capital
Notable Investors / Funding Partners: L Catterton
Notable Advisors / Board Members:
DIBS stands for "Desert Island Beauty Status," answering the question of what makeup items you would bring with you to a desert island. We started DIBS because we felt makeup had either become too minimalistic and clinical or too maximalistic and overcomplicated. DIBS is all about uncomplicated combinations of colors and functions, made easier for everyday.
What are your key business initiatives for 2024?
We are on track to put 1,000,000 of our hit Desert Island Duos into the hands of customers across the country. In 2024, the brand will also make significant moves in its retail distribution as well as introduce a pipeline of groundbreaking products that reinforce our philosophy that "the beauty is in the blend." We'll also continue to improve on the sustainability, form, factor, and value that our core assortment offers.
What are you most proud of having accomplished?
DIBS has achieved triple-digit growth each year, on top of an extraordinary returning customer rate and is the only brand this year to repeat in Spate's Top 10 fastest growing makeup brands (by Google search volume). We're most proud of what that represents: a growing but loyal audience that finds our products are transformative to their daily lives.
What has been the biggest surprise?
We are a team that was brought together by beauty. Although I am a male CEO, I am also proud that our full-time employees other than myself, who have tripled in the last year and continue to grow, are currently 100% women. We continue to surprise each other with our resilience, hidden talents, and passion for what we make.
What fuels your competitive advantage?
DIBS has zeroed in on a large customer market in all 50 states that feels seen and encouraged by the brand. Because we simplify previously intimidating concepts such as blush, contour, and liplining, we've opened up a whole range of color and experiences to people who would not otherwise be able to try. Those consumers enter our brand through our inviting content and events, and they've stayed loyal in the two-plus years we've been on the market.
Please share your insight on the future of the beauty industry.
Beauty will become more bold, both in messaging and payoff. In times of uncertainty, people flock to recognizability, and it's the brands that are crystal clear about what they represent and deliver that will end up dominating the next wave.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Enjoy the unexpected.
Paying it forward, what advice would you give someone contemplating launching a beauty brand?
You need an incredible product and the ability to amplify it beyond the resources you're putting in—some kind of structural advantage or strategy that lets you cut through the noise.
If you could change one thing in the beauty industry what would it be?
We remain very siloed by categories—cleanser, serum, moisturizer, bronzer, blush, eyeliner. I'd like to see more products that truly sit between these or ones that completely challenge the status quo in skincare and color routines.
