Their General Alpha business reached $100 million last year: Evereden, Sephora

Kimberly Ho left her job on Wall Street in 2017 to pursue an ambitious business idea: She wanted to create a “different kind of skin care brand” for kids and their families — one with safe, dermatologist-approved ingredients.

As someone who struggled with eczema growing up and has professional experience investing in organic brands, Ho was well-positioned to execute her vision.

Ho launches her own skincare and haircare brand everden With her husband, Huang Li, in 2018, years before she came into the limelight “sephora kids,” Those shoppers are purchasing adult brands and products from the global beauty retailer.

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They are General Alpha consumers (born Between 2010 and 2024) According to the founder and CEO, she has high expectations from her skin care products.

“When they look for skin care products, they gravitate towards products that are made just for them,” Ho says, “It reflects their personalities as the young people they are becoming. That’s why many of our products have seen success.”

ho cites bestselling fragrance Mist As an example, introduced earlier this year: the product is available in three scents corresponding to three different personalities that these teens can really relate to (‘Darling,’ ‘Supernova’ and ‘Main Character’).

The founder says that unlike some “highly sexualized” brand campaigns created for adults, which nevertheless sell to young consumers, the line is marketed in an age-appropriate manner.

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Evereden’s kid-friendly marketing is a selling point for millennial parents, Ho says—as is the “peace of mind” that comes from knowing the products are developed by dermatologists for their kids’ skin.

“We were working on something and filling a need that was no longer specific.”

Evereden has raised over $40 million To date, including a $32 million Series C round led by GSR Ventures. The brand had already seen explosive growth before the emergence of “Sephora Kids”, and per Ho the buzz only boosted sales.

The brand boasts of over 40 SKUs across its product categories and is available in 11 markets. It’s projected to hit $100 million in sales by 2024 and launched at Sephora US last month.

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Prior to the US Sephora launch, Evergreen was available in eight regions at retailers internationally, and by 2024, it was the third fastest growing brand across Sephora Canada. “Canada is generally the closest proxy to the US in terms of how similar North American customers are to each other,” says Ho.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Evereden}

That growth data is especially useful because Evergreen isn’t a traditional Sephora brand, Ho explains: “We weren’t selling adult skin care products (at the time), so beating out hundreds of older brands with much bigger budgets showed Sephora that we were doing something unique and filling a need that was no longer typical.”

Every product category at Evereden has hero SKUs and no single product makes up more than 20% of the brand’s total sales, Ho says.

“The Gen Alpha who love and buy skin care and beauty is here to stay.”

Ho notes that Evergreen’s cross-category success may be typical for billion-dollar companies like Elf or Sol de Janeiro, but is relatively rare for such a young brand – and signals exciting growth potential.

“The Gen Alpha who love and buy skin care and beauty are here to stay,” says Ho. “This is not a flash in the pan. They are, in fact, just getting started in their consumer journey.”

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Today, Gen Alpha ranges in age from one to 15 years old, yet they already influence 42% of American household spending, totaling more than $100 billion in purchasing power, according to a recent report. Axios,

“We still have a ways to go to figure out who they are (and) who they’re going to grow up to be,” Ho admits. “The good news is that Everden has been there for years – and we are the market leader.”

“As you’re changing, as your consumer is changing, you have to stay true to your brand voice.”

Ho acknowledges that new beauty and skin care products hit the market every day, and over time, there has been a rush of brands focusing on products with science-backed ingredients.

As a result, Everden must always be considering how to meet the needs of its growing consumers.

“It means really owning our core DNA around self-care,” says Ho. “We are giving you the best of these ingredients that we source from around the world, which have been rigorously tested by our doctors, so that you and your family can take care of yourself. We are trying to communicate the ethos of self-care across all our touch points and are not just providing products to consumers.”

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According to Ho, a key challenge that Evereden grapples with – and any brand hoping to succeed in the skin care industry – is to stay true to its voice, especially as its target customer evolves.

“Our consumer is moving from an 8-, 9-year-old pre-teen to a proper teen, and they’re completely changing their whole world and their perspective on everything,” Ho says. “(So we have to stay relevant and grow with them. As you’re changing, as your consumer is changing, (you) have to stay true to your brand voice.”

“We have been able to shorten our product development lifecycle, which is traditionally 18 months, to four to six months.”

Evergreen already has an impressive track record, but Ho believes the brand has only scratched the surface of what’s possible.

With its recent Series C funds, Evergreen is prioritizing research and development and has purchased its own formulation lab, allowing the brand to expand its product portfolio at an accelerated rate.

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Ho admits that buying Labs was an unusual move, as most brands only do this once they are “as big as L’Oréal”.

However, Ho did not want to invest a large portion of the brand’s Series C into marketing, pointing out that this is not the way to build a brand for long-term growth and success.

“If we have our own laboratory and a team of chemists who work 100% of their time on Evereden, we are able to shorten our product development lifecycle, which is traditionally 18 months, to four to six months,” says Ho.

Ho says this means Everden can grow and better serve its customers. For example, when the brand sees a tween product request rising rapidly on social media — like last year for a fragrance mist — it’s able to launch that product more quickly than competitors.

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“We know how big these markets are – and how excited they are to have Everden.”

Additionally, Everden is eyeing more markets around the world to give Gen Alpha buyers and their parents exactly what they want.

“Every day on our TikTok or Instagram, kids from the Middle East or Latin America are saying, ‘Are you going to live in the UAE? Are you going to live in Brazil?'” Ho says. “We get this all the time, and we know how big these markets are – and how excited they are about Everden.”

This article is part of our ongoing Women Entrepreneur® series that highlights the stories, challenges and triumphs of running a business as a woman.