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From Grit to Growth
Welcome to From Grit to Growth! With a combined 50+ years of executive experience in retail, technology, and financial services, Mark and Jennifer have played pivotal roles in the success of several Fortune 500 companies. In this podcast, they'll talk about the key factors of successful founders, what holds them back from growth, how to find the why behind what they do, and much more.
From Grit to Growth
13. Simple Body: Building a Clean Beauty Brand Before It Was Cool with Founder Jewels Burdick
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Jewels Burdick never set out to build a beauty brand. She was trying to help her mom, make sense of a health scare, and clean up her own routine, but one small decision to learn more turned into weekends spent experimenting in her kitchen, long nights reading ingredient lists, and eventually a quiet but steady stream of people knocking on her design studio door asking for “more of that cream.” Simple Body grew from those moments.
In this conversation, Jewels walks through the early days, the missteps, the formulas that failed, and the customers who kept telling her she was onto something. She shares what it felt like to run a business while holding down a full-time job, the turning point when she finally let herself take the brand seriously, and the later chapter when she had to rethink everything after a cancer diagnosis. Her story is full of grit, warmth, and a kind of practicality that founders will recognize immediately. It’s a reminder that a company can grow with you, change with you, and eventually reflect the life you want to live — not the one you feel pressured to chase.
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About Dundee Growth Partners
Dundee Growth Partners provides E-commerce leaders with the strategy, systems, and tools they need to face growth challenges and scale with confidence. With deep industry experience and AI-powered platforms, we help leadership teams scale in a sustainable way. Interested in learning more? Click the link below to get started.