Bobbi Brown

AGE: 65 • FOUNDER • JONES ROAD

In 1995, when she was 38, Brown signed a 25-year noncompete agreement a er selling her eponymous cosmetics brand to Estée Lauder for a reported $74.5 million. She worked at the makeup multinational for the next 22 years, helping build Bobbi Brown into a $1 billion brand. Then she quit—and quietly started mixing up makeup again. On October 26, 2020, the exact day her noncompete expired (a date inscribed on one of her favorite necklace charms), she launched her direct-to-consumer brand, Jones Road. “I realized I love makeup and beauty, and I can do this be er and I wasn’t done,” she says. The line of clean cosmetics has taken o , thanks largely to Brown’s approachable persona on TikTok. Sales hit a reported $20 million in 2021 and are on track to triple this year. “I don’t hire consultants, I don’t hire focus groups. I have the internet. My people tell me what they think and feel.”