Drybar Founder Alli Webb on the High Cost of Fast Growth

Tracy Alloway (0:00)

Hello, Odd Lots listeners. It is that time of year again. Joe and I will be doing an Ask Me Anything episode, and we need your questions.

Joe Weisenthal (0:09)

Yep. If you want to ask me and Tracy a question about anything, our careers, the podcasting industry, economics, finance, markets, business, whatever it is, labor market monopsony. If you just want to hear your voice on the Odd Lots podcast, you can send us in a question.

Tracy Alloway (0:26)

That's right. The deadline for sending us questions is December 13th. All you need to do is record a short voice memo and then email it to us at oddlotsatbloomberg.net.

Please include your name and your location.

Joe Weisenthal (0:52)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:58)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:59)

Tracy, have you ever been to a dry bar? I just thought I'd start this conversation as simply as possible.

Tracy Alloway (1:07)

You don't mean a bar that isn't serving alcohol.

Joe Weisenthal (1:10)

No, but if there were, I would like that. But no, I did not.

Tracy Alloway (1:13)

I think those are called coffee shops, Joe. No, I have in fact been to a dry bar. I remember when dry bars first became a thing, and it was the sort of novel concept that you could go someplace and have your hair blow-dried by a professional sometimes while having a drink or watching silly movies on TV.

And it was different to how it had worked historically because normally maybe you would go to your local hair salon to get a blow-dry, or often you would just have a blow-dry after getting your haircut or something like that. But it became this really big thing.

Joe Weisenthal (1:47)

Yeah, absolutely. And I remember, okay, so I will say, I have never been to one.

Tracy Alloway (1:51)

You've never been, I assume, yeah.

Joe Weisenthal (1:52)

I have never gotten, I think, a proper blowout, but I've gotten my hair done for TV, and so I guess that's the closest I have gotten. But also I just sort of remember when they started popping up, and it felt like one of those businesses and business models that sort of defined the 2010s maybe, or defined a certain era and this sort of idea of the fusion of brick and mortar with booking on an app and the proliferation of new kinds of stores. That felt like a big part of the 2010s economy.

Tracy Alloway (2:25)

Stores which were providing a service and also an experience, because I remember the experiential portion of it was a big part of the offering. So again, you could go get your hair blow dried for 40 or 60 minutes or however long it takes, and you could have a cocktail while you did it. And a lot of these stores-

Joe Weisenthal (2:43)

Oh, they did do it? You could have a cocktail?

Tracy Alloway (2:44)

Yes, oh my gosh, yes. That was a big part of it. And a lot of the stores, well, I'm thinking of one in particular because it is going to be the topic of this podcast. The original Drybar offered, they would have movie screens, TVs built in, and you could watch rom-coms from the early 2000s. It was great.

Joe Weisenthal (3:06)

The experience economy, you're right. That was such a big part of the story. Or that was such a big part of what people talked about, people wanting to have high quality experiences, something above maybe some of the old dingy, physical retail, physical service locations of the past.

I do think that it really sort of redefined a category. And I'm interested, you know, like obviously that exploded during a specific era in time, the rise of smartphones, low interest rates, so VCs investing in fast growing concepts of various sort, digital and physical, loose labor markets, and the ability to hire lots of people fast. And so like thinking about those business conditions, modern business conditions, how they've changed, lessons learned from that period, of course, sort of a go-go era for fundraising and so forth. I think there's still more to learn.

Tracy Alloway (3:55)

Absolutely. I mean, things have changed, as you just mentioned, but I think the desire for services slash experiences is something that we still hear about today.

Joe Weisenthal (4:04)

Well, I'm excited. We really do have literally the perfect guest to talk about all of these things. We are gonna be speaking with Alli Webb.

She was the founder of Drybar, also author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Messy Truth, How I Sold My Business for Millions but Almost Lost Myself, amazing title. And she's also gone on to found more businesses, including a franchise chain of massage therapy locations. So it sort of sounds like Drybar for massages.