In episode 160 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to founder and CEO of Tower 28, Amy Liu.

Amy Liu says it’s never been easier to start a beauty brand, but it’s never been harder to stay.

Since its launch in 2019, Tower 28 has become one of the industry’s biggest modern success stories, however Amy tried launching three businesses prior to creating something that stuck.

Amy’s background is in growing beauty brands from the inside, and while we all know the industry has changed over the last couple of decades, she explains that the fundamentals have remained largely unchanged. The sales funnel is the same- it’s just the levers that have evolved. When we look at the influence having shifted from print editors to digital creators, for example, it certainly feels like the barrier to success has never been lower, but it’s a question of how a brand captures virality. Sure, a brand might go viral today, but how do you capture that moment and sustain it?

The answer is understanding the difference between brand awareness and conversion, and it’s something Amy could teach a masterclass in, having grown Tower 28 from a 3 SKU startup built for sensitive skin to a global brand carried by Sephora across multiple markets and MECCA in Australia and New Zealand.

In this conversation, Amy shares how she landed on Tower 28’s visual identity, the slightly unconventional way she reached out to her first round of investors, and why she feels the key to launching a successful brand is to understand your own "unfair advantage.”