You can be kind and still be a boss, Thrive Causemetics CEO and Founder Karissa Bodnar says
When Thrive Causemetics founder and CEO Karissa Bodnar worked as a Sephora makeup artist throughout college, she read the same fashion magazines in the breakroom that, less than ten years later, would name her mascara formula the best in the world.
Talk about a glow-up, right? Bodnar has been concocting makeup formulas since she was a young girl crafting lipstick and shampoos in her mother’s kitchen. After college, she worked as a product developer for one of the largest cosmetics companies in the world. Starting a business was never a part of the plan, let alone starting a business at age 25.
Bodnar wanted to work for a company that gave back to the community, protected customers by avoiding harmful ingredients, protected animals by making vegan and cruelty-free products, and practiced kindness in every aspect of their business platform.
Well, that company didn’t exist...so she started it herself.
“I wanted to be kind to women, animals, and the earth, and that was really the idea for Thrive,” she said.
Thrive Causemetics, a brand of high-performance vegan and cruelty-free beauty products, was started in a one-bedroom apartment in 2015.
“I had to start the company myself. I couldn’t get anyone to invest in the business and I think a lot of that was because of my age,” she said.
Bodnar spent weekends working as her own make-shift publicist, messaging editors in an attempt to get press for her products and mission. For every 30 people she reached out to, one responded.
“I’m so thankful for that struggle and I’m thankful that people underestimated me,” she said.
Through the struggle of starting a new business, in which Thrive owns and creates every formula they sell, she has created an amazing community. Five years later, the company is taking over the world while saving it.
“I didn’t start Thrive Causemetics to make a name for myself. I started it to change the world and change the lives of women around the world,” she said.
For every product purchased from Thrive Causemetics, a product is donated to a woman in need. In addition, the company has donated tens of millions of dollars worth of products to women fighting cancer, surviving domestic abuse, emerging from homelessness, and to female veterans re-entering the workforce.
“Our giving program is called Bigger than Beauty because it really is so much bigger than beauty. It’s about the connection and the support…
We’re not trying to be the cool girl in beauty, we want to be that beauty bestie, we want to be the kind girl. Kind still means you’re a boss….you’re assertive, you’re direct, you stand up for yourself and others.”
Before starting Thrive Causemetics, Bodnar did a process she does before all major decisions...she made a pro/con list. There was a series of good; she could change women’s lives and make them feel empowered, she could change the beauty industry, she could create products free of harmful ingredients, she could save animals, she could help people. Only two negatives were listed: she could lose all her money and she could look like a fool. But Bodnar doesn’t come from money, and the good outweighed the negative.
To other young women looking to start a business, Bodnar encourages them not to give up, not to get discouraged when people do not respond, to reach out to others, ask for advice, and to keep going.