Test, Learn, Glow: Asha Talwar Coco, CEO, GLOW up partners
In this episode of There Is No Alternative, Tina Bou-Saba, founder of CXT Investments, sits down with Asha Coco, founder and CEO of Glow Up Partners, to trace her path from classically trained ballerina and Rockette to beauty executive to trailblazer at the intersection of creator talent and brand building. Asha shares how her early experiences in performance shaped her fluency in beauty, and how she carved a career working with top creators like the Lipstick Lesbians to build smarter, more emotionally resonant consumer brands.
Asha and Tina dive into the transformation of the beauty industry, from legacy brand playbooks to community-first creator commerce, and the nuanced skill of balancing creative freedom with operational structure. From her fragrance house roots to launching viral indie products, Asha offers rich insight into building enduring brands in today’s noisy landscape.
In This Episode:
How Asha bridged the worlds of classical dance and consumer beauty
Why she left a decade in fragrance to go all-in on indie brands
The power and pitfalls of creator-led businesses
What makes the Lipstick Lesbians different and why they’re winning
Lessons in brand-building, community, and translating expertise into influence
How to know when a creator shouldn’t launch a brand
Chapters
[00:00] Meet Asha Coco: From Beauty Insider to Brand Builder
[03:05] Climbing the Ranks: Asha’s Global Beauty Career
[07:29] Taking the Leap: Why Asha Left Corporate for Entrepreneurship
[11:31] Fragrance is Personal: Lessons from Building Deep Relationships
[15:05] Scents and Sensibility: How Consumer Tastes Have Evolved
[19:27] Reinvention Mode: Becoming a Founder After Years in the Industry
[22:44] Creators, Brands, and the New Beauty Economy
[26:15] Behind the Scenes with Creative Founders
[27:10] Chaos Meets Process: Making Creative Brands Actually Work
[30:42] What’s Next in Beauty: The Projects That Keep Asha Inspired
[35:28] Lipstick Lesbians: Building a Brand with Bold Purpose
[39:09] The Future Is Niche: How Consumer Expectations Are Changing
[46:44] Leaving the Beauty Machine: Going Indie Without Burning Out
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