Jessica Alba Explains Exactly How She Made $1Billion

Sure, Jessica Alba could have hung out in Hollywood, made a decent living as an A-list actress and be done with it. Instead she decided to start what’s now a billion dollar retail business. But how did she do it? Good news – she told us.

- Margaret Wappler

Sauntering through the airy Santa Monica loft that is The Honest Company’s HQ, co-founder Jessica Alba stops to speak to two members of her 500-strong staff. “It should say ‘Happy home’ not ‘Worry-free’, she says, brainstorming ideas for a proposed landing page for the company’s website. “‘Worry-free’? Really?” she exclaims to me later in a tone that’s all Silicon Valley guru. “Now you’re making me feel like I have to worry about my home! Don’t put that in people’s heads. Just show me a gorgeous, happy home.” According to the Honest gospel, ‘happy’ is a home free from as many toxins as possible, for which the company’s products – everything from washing up liquid and nappies to, most recently, makeup and tampons – are the answer. Later, over wine and charcuterie at a posh restaurant in wealthy LA neighbourhood Brentwood, the 34-year-old talks business like a pro. “Lead with desire,” she says of Honest’s recipe for success. “We never led with safer ingredients; we always led with design and desirability.” It paid off. Big time. The company (she founded it in 2011 but the idea came to her in 2008 after struggling to find eco-friendly products for her daughter) stunned the world in August when the Wall Street Journal pegged its valuation at £1.2billion. Jessica’s personal estimated value? At the time, Forbes reported it as approximately £240million (by comparison Beyoncé is worth a mere £176million). Those who’d side-eyed the Hollywood A-lister – whose breakout role was as Max Guevera, the kick-ass lead in the hugely successful James Cameron-directed sci-fi TV series Dark Angel – recast her as an unexpected mogul. But the challenges of a business can make the battles Jessica fought as,