She Turned Her Airy Side Hustle Into a $255 Million Business and 'Captured Lightning in a Bottle' — Here's How The first Drybar opened in 2010.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut
Key Takeaways
- Alli Webb turned her mobile blowdrying side hustle into a business and eventually sold its product line for $255 million in 2020.
- She started off by going to a client’s home and blow-drying their hair for $40, then opened a physical location in 2010.
- The first Drybar salon became over 150 salons across the country within a decade.
Alli Webb spent her twenties working in hair salons. When she moved to Los Angeles and became a stay-at-home mom, she started a mobile blowout side hustle — so she would go to a client's home, blow-dry their hair, and style it for $40. No haircuts or hair color.
"I got tons of clients," Webb told BIZ Experiences Jeff Berman on the Masters of Scale podcast earlier this month. Her first pitch was to other moms on a Yahoo group. It read: "I'm a stay-at-home mom and a longtime hairstylist. I'll come over and blow out your hair for only $40 while your babies are sleeping."
Webb's pitch was successful and she soon couldn't keep up with demand. She started thinking about opening a brick-and-mortar location so her clients could come to her, instead of her going to them.
Her brother, former Yahoo marketing director Michael Landau, was willing to help financially back the business, though he did have some questions at first.
"He was a little perplexed, 'Like, why can't women blow out their own hair?'" Webb said. "And I was like, you did grow up with me." In previous interviews, Webb shared that she had frizzy hair growing up and was "obsessed with her hair."
Landau was finally convinced by the success that Webb saw in her side hustle. He invested $250,000 while Webb and her then-husband Cameron Webb put in their savings of about $50,000. In 2010, the founding team opened the first Drybar salon in Brentwood, California. It famously offers no cuts and no color.
Alli Webb. Photo Credit: Brian Stukes/Getty Images
Though Drybar's salons offered a limited range of hair services — just the wash, blowout, and style — Webb says that she wasn't concerned about the business model. What she wanted was volume: 30 to 40 blowouts per day to break even.
Demand ended up doubling expectations — to 60 to 80 blowouts per day.
"We realized very quickly, like within the first few days, [that] we had captured lightning in a bottle," Webb said. "Women were coming in and quite literally droves. I mean, we were turning people away left and right."
Drybar grew to over 150 salons across the country within a decade. Webb ended up selling Drybar's product line to leading consumer products company Helen of Troy for $255 million in cash in 2020. WellBiz Brands acquired the franchise rights to Drybar salons in 2021 for an undisclosed sum.
Webb couldn't have imagined what Drybar would become. When she opened her first shop, she just wanted it to be a place where she could do what she loved.
"I was really excited about it and not thinking I was going to turn it into this massive multi-million-dollar blowout empire," she said.
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