Billion Dollar NIGHTMARE! The Tragedy Of A Billion $$ Beauty Business - Nicola Kilner, The Ordinary
Nicola Kilner (guest), Steven Bartlett (host), Narrator
In this episode of The Diary of a CEO, featuring Nicola Kilner and Steven Bartlett, Billion Dollar NIGHTMARE! The Tragedy Of A Billion $$ Beauty Business - Nicola Kilner, The Ordinary explores from Startup Cult To Tragedy: Inside The Ordinary’s Billion-Dollar Rise Nicola Kilner, co-founder and CEO of DECIEM and The Ordinary, recounts the meteoric rise of their skincare empire, built on radical transparency, product quality, and an almost ‘cult-like’ sense of family and belonging.
From Startup Cult To Tragedy: Inside The Ordinary’s Billion-Dollar Rise
Nicola Kilner, co-founder and CEO of DECIEM and The Ordinary, recounts the meteoric rise of their skincare empire, built on radical transparency, product quality, and an almost ‘cult-like’ sense of family and belonging.
She details how meeting visionary founder Brandon Truaxe led her from a corporate role at Boots into a chaotic, exhilarating startup that eventually attracted a multibillion-dollar investment from Estée Lauder Companies.
The story turns dark as Brandon’s experimentation with psychedelics and later hard drugs seemingly triggers a rapid mental health collapse, public meltdowns on Instagram, her firing, board intervention, and ultimately his death after multiple psychiatric sectionings.
Throughout, Nicola reflects on leadership, culture, kindness, addiction, and grief, while explaining how she rebuilt DECIEM, assumed sole leadership while heavily pregnant, and continues to anchor the company in belonging and ethical growth.
Key Takeaways
Radical product transparency can unlock huge consumer trust and growth.
The Ordinary was born from frustration that skincare lacked the ingredient-and-dosage transparency of pharmacy medicines. ...
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Early corporate experience can be a powerful foundation for entrepreneurship.
Nicola’s time at Boots taught her how big organizations work: cross-functional collaboration, supply chain realities, legal and regulatory constraints, and how to launch and ‘launch and love’ products, not just list them. ...
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Intense ‘family’ culture accelerates early-stage success but has hidden costs.
DECIEM’s first years were defined by all-consuming work, blurred boundaries, and deep personal bonds—weekends together, trips, and everyone doing every job, from formulating to packing boxes. ...
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Co-founders must design for both genius and fragility in visionary partners.
Brandon was a scientific and creative genius, but also eccentric, intense, and, as emerged later, deeply vulnerable. ...
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Kind leadership is compatible with high performance—but requires hard conversations.
Nicola draws a sharp line between being ‘nice’ and being truly kind. ...
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Self-awareness and selective delegation are essential when a startup scales.
As DECIEM neared a billion in revenue with 1,500 staff, Nicola realized her strengths (brand, people, culture, values) didn’t extend to complex planning and financial control. ...
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Addiction and mental illness devastate not only individuals but whole systems.
Nicola has now twice watched addiction and mental health crises rapidly unravel people she loved: her father, following the loss of his radio presenting career; and Brandon, following psychedelic experimentation that escalated to heavy drug use. ...
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Notable Quotes
“We used to have on the wall, ‘Focus is overrated.’”
— Nicola Kilner
“The minute it launched, we couldn’t keep it in stock… we’re producing 400,000 units every single day.”
— Nicola Kilner
“He’d gone from someone who, there was just so much warmth, to just this coldness in his eyes.”
— Nicola Kilner
“It’s hard to say if it’s regrets, but you always have those feelings of, ‘Is there anything different we could have done?’”
— Nicola Kilner
“You have to do the right thing even when no one is looking.”
— Nicola Kilner
Questions Answered in This Episode
When you now look back at that Amsterdam trip and the immediate behavioral shift in Brandon, what specific early warning signs do you wish you had taken more seriously, and what would you advise other founders to do if they see similar changes in a co‑founder?
Nicola Kilner, co-founder and CEO of DECIEM and The Ordinary, recounts the meteoric rise of their skincare empire, built on radical transparency, product quality, and an almost ‘cult-like’ sense of family and belonging.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
You described Estée Lauder gradually moving from 29% to full ownership over seven years; what were the toughest compromises or red lines in that partnership where you had to push back to protect DECIEM’s culture and The Ordinary’s pricing philosophy?
She details how meeting visionary founder Brandon Truaxe led her from a corporate role at Boots into a chaotic, exhilarating startup that eventually attracted a multibillion-dollar investment from Estée Lauder Companies.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Given how controversy around Brandon’s public breakdown paradoxically boosted demand for The Ordinary, how do you personally navigate the moral tension between commercial benefit and human tragedy when you think about that period?
The story turns dark as Brandon’s experimentation with psychedelics and later hard drugs seemingly triggers a rapid mental health collapse, public meltdowns on Instagram, her firing, board intervention, and ultimately his death after multiple psychiatric sectionings.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
You’ve said DECIEM’s North Star is ‘belonging’; can you walk through a concrete decision—hiring, promotion, product, or policy—where you chose belonging over short‑term profit or operational convenience, and what the outcome was?
Throughout, Nicola reflects on leadership, culture, kindness, addiction, and grief, while explaining how she rebuilt DECIEM, assumed sole leadership while heavily pregnant, and continues to anchor the company in belonging and ethical growth.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Having seen both your father and Brandon spiral from loss of purpose into addiction, what practical structures or conversations do you now put in place—either for yourself or your senior team—to reduce the risk that a sudden identity or role loss could trigger a similar descent?
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Transcript Preview
Just a tragic story and a tragic ending. (tense music) It's hard to say if it's regrets, but is there anything different we could've done?
Nicola Kilner.
Co-founder and CEO of DECIEM and The Ordinary. This is the unthinkable, inspirational, and tragic story of how she built a $2.2 billion empire.
I always just had this feeling that the only way to achieve financial freedom is entrepreneurship. And then, I met Brandon.
Brandon Truax... Founder of DECIEM... ... and The Ordinary...
One of the fastest-growing skincare companies in the world.
A success story. (cameras clicking)
The minute it launched, we couldn't keep it in stock, producing 400,000 units every single day and valued at $2.2 billion US. It truly happened what felt like overnight.
And this is really where Brandon's behavior started to change.
He'd gone from someone who, there was just so much warmth, to just this coldness in his eyes. I was suddenly pushed out of everything, and then I got fired. Abusive emails were being sent, firing people and copying the whole company in. Everything was played out on Instagram, saying he was shutting down the entire company. The shareholders had to step in, but then things just seemed to keep spiraling, and I don't know what to do to help him.
We've got breaking news right now of the founder of DECIEM has died. Come give me a hug. What would you do if the person closest to you, your best friend, your partner, the person you've built your life with, seemingly lost their sanity overnight and went from working with you to turning against you? This story is as profound as it is heartbreaking. It is as haunting as it is heroic. Of all the stories we've shared on this podcast, this is the most chilling. It is the most hard to believe, and right at the end of this conversation there is a twist that I did not see coming when you learn, in the most tragic way, that history is just repeating itself. An incredible business story, an unthinkable tragedy, and a formidable entrepreneur that stood tall when most would fall, and a genius lost to the world too soon. So pause, take a deep breath, because what comes next is not ordinary. It is certainly extraordinary. (upbeat music) Nicola, paint a picture for me. Paint a picture for me of where you have come from.
So I think quite a traditional, um, you know, because Mum stayed at home, so she did do-
Yeah.
... the cooking, the cleaning and just a very caring, uh, you know. I just, she's just with my, my children today, and it makes me so happy because I know what kind of mum she was, and just knowing that that love that they're gonna have. Uh, my da- father was very, um, great sense of humor, always very playful, very inspiring, very charismatic, always had kind of big ideas, uh, kind of high energy. Um, my mum was much more reserved, more of an introvert. My dad was kind of always the, the people person, always kind of very busy socially. Um, Mum was very calm. Dad would have a temper sometimes, but you know, nothing too much.
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