How I Launched My Company And Learned To Let Go

Thanks to her unruly curly hair, Alli Webb knows how a good blowout can completely change the way a woman feels about herself. In 2010, she persuaded her brother and her husband—both bald—to help her launch Drybar, which focuses exclusively on blowouts. Eight years later, Drybar has more than 100 locations and over $100 million in revenue.

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Center Stage

After she had had one bad experience working with her brother Michael, Alli Webb’s parents advised her—very bluntly—against starting

Drybar with him. Luckily, the siblings ignored them—and a great company was born.

After high school, I fumbled around. I tried college but didn’t go to class much. I thought I wanted a career in fashion, so I moved to New York City. My brother Michael Landau—he’s an overachiever—was living there and working in Nicole Miller’s corporate office. We’re very close. The joke in our family is that he is my third parent. I got a job at the Nicole Miller store in SoHo. Then Michael suggested we bring Nicole Miller shops to South Florida, where we grew up.

So we moved there and opened two stores. Soon I was managing a bunch of people, working all the time, driving back and forth—and thinking, “This cannot be it for me.” Michael and I fought a lot. He wanted me in the stores all the time; meanwhile, he played a lot of golf. He was doing inventory, payroll, and the stuff I wasn’t good at, but it felt lopsided.

I finally had to tell him that I couldn’t do it anymore. But I also felt like I had to end this toxic situation because we were starting to hate each other. He was surprisingly cool about it. I also revealed that I wanted to go to beauty school and do hair at fashion shows. Michael thought I should. That gave me a lot of confidence.