Alexandra Wilkis Wilson – From Lemonade to Fashion and Beauty

If you have any connection to the fashion or beauty industries you’ve most likely heard of Alexandra Wilkis Wilson at least of The GILT Group and Glamsquad. Her latest entrepreneurial success is Allergan’s Spotlyte, educating millions  on beauty and medical aesthetics. Alexandra shares her remarkable entrepreneurial journey—from a childhood lemonade stand to leading 1,000 employees, how startups are romanticized, and teams are everything, the importance of a two-way street and how becoming a mother impacted her professional life, finding the right people to hire, launching a company in the biggest way, how culture has been a focus for her new company, and how she’s learned to say no (but sometimes yes). Plus, a surprise, and a brainstorm for a social media strategy. Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Entrepreneur, Executive, Board Director, Investor, Advisor, Mentor, Author, Public Speaker, and SVP, Consumer Strategy and Innovation for Allergan, joins Socialfly founders Stephanie Cartin and Courtney Spritzer in the MouthMedia Network studios for a conversation about building her company and her journey to success, along with a surprise and a brainstorm.

In this episode:

• Coming from a lemonade stand as a child to launching GILT as her first entrepreneurial effort as a professional person
• Being bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, a major turning point for her — seeing tech, fashion, commerce, all really changing
• Why Alexandra is a big believer in teams
• The unexpected level of difficulty, and how startups are romanticized
• The process from idea to raising money and figuring out a business
• How Alexandra is involved in many startups in various ways
• Always seeking the perfect market fit  — a perfect storm of a good idea and amazing people, timing and funding
• What the co-founders focused on in their roles
• The importance of a two-way street, LinkedIn, helping others, what goes around comes around
• The timing of becoming a mother, how it brought a change
• Getting involved in Glamsquad because she bumped into cofounders who had a great idea
• What Alexandra is doing now is scarier than anything before
• Someone from Socialfly was the 500k Glamsquad customer
• When she was looking for board roles, a big client is Allergan owned Botox, doing something innovative
• Spotlyte – a great place to learn about beauty and skincare
• Alexandra is an expert in understanding consumer behavior, consumer strategy and innovation into an industry heavily regulated, that wasn’t focused enough on customer
• A billboard in Times Square and a food truck for a launch
• Educating millions of consumers on beauty and medical aesthetics, unbranded
• Why Alexandra is surprised that a big, global company is so entrepreneurial
• Keep meeting people, keep track of people
• Hiring 50 new people in a year
• Leading over a 1,000 people at one time
• The culture at Alexandra’s current office – transparent, communicative, respectful, agile, teamwork, fun, passionate, and more — consistency
• Whether being an entrepreneur gets easier? The good days and bad days phase her less
• Learning to say “no”