Billion Dollar NIGHTMARE! The Tragedy Of A Billion $$ Beauty Business - Nicola Kilner, The Ordinary

Nicola Kilner recounts meeting Brandon Truaxe while a buyer at Boots, leaving to co-found Deciem at 24, and the explosive 2017 launch of The Ordinary, built on radical price transparency in skincare. She describes Deciem's unusual model of running ten brands at once and a deliberately 'cult-like' family culture. The heart of the conversation is the sudden 2018 unraveling of Brandon, who after experimenting with psychedelics descended into psychosis and addiction, fired staff publicly on Instagram, tried to shut the company down, was sectioned five times, was removed by shareholders, and died after falling from a balcony in January 2019. Kilner, then a new mother, stepped in as sole CEO to stabilize a company in chaos. She closes reflecting on grief, kindness as leadership, and the eerie parallel to losing her father to alcoholism at 20.

• Estee Lauder initially took 29% of Deciem (valuation ~$160M), later rising to majority ownership; the brand was valued around $2.2B by 2021.
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• Brandon's collapse was triggered after he experimented with magic mushrooms and psychedelics over New Year 2017-2018, reading about accessing different parts of the brain.
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• Kilner was fired by Brandon in February 2018, despite him lacking board approval, during the worst month of her life.
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• Brandon was sectioned five times across London, Canada and America during 2018, each time released shortly after.
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• Brandon announced on Instagram he was shutting down the entire company, forcing shareholders to get a court order to remove him as CEO in October 2018.
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• Kilner only learned after he became ill that Brandon had hidden a 10-year romantic partner, never feeling he could be his true self.
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• Brandon died falling from a balcony; Kilner learned of it from a press inquiry while breastfeeding her newborn daughter.
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• Brandon's will named Kilner to decide what happened to his body if his partner couldn't, which gave her comfort that their bond was genuine love.
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• Deciem comes from the Latin word for the number ten, reflecting the plan to run ten brands at once.
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• The company's philosophy was to fail cheaply and quickly; offices displayed slogans like 'focus is overrated' and 'strategy is overrated'.
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• The Ordinary was the 11th brand Deciem developed, contradicting the 'ten' in the company name.
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• The Ordinary's transparency model was inspired by pharmacy pricing, where paracetamol can't be sold for 100 pounds because the ingredient and dose are trusted.
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• Two major retailers initially rejected The Ordinary, saying white boxes would 'collect dust' and the products needed conventional names.
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• Deciem still produces about 400,000 units every single day at its Toronto manufacturing and struggles to keep up with demand.
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• The vast majority of The Ordinary's best-selling products are still under ten dollars.
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• Kilner's father was a South Yorkshire radio presenter for 25 years; losing his career triggered a fatal spiral into alcoholism when she was 20.
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• Kilner became sole CEO while seven months pregnant, immediately bringing back team members who had been pushed out during the chaos.
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