Alli Webb spent her twenties working in hair salons. When she moved to Los Angeles and became a stay-at-home mom, she started a mobile blowout side hustle<\/a> \u2014 so she would go to a client’s home, blow-dry their hair, and style it for $40. No haircuts or hair color.<\/p>\n “I got tons of clients,” Webb told entrepreneur <\/b>Jeff Berman<\/a> <\/b>on the Masters of Scale podcast earlier this month. Her first pitch was to other moms on a Yahoo group. It read<\/a>: “I’m a stay-at-home mom and a longtime hairstylist. I’ll come over and blow out your hair for only $40 while your babies are sleeping.”<\/p>\n Webb’s pitch was successful and she soon couldn’t keep up with demand. She started thinking about opening a brick-and-mortar location so her clients could come to her, instead of her going to them.<\/p>\n Related:<\/b> How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome and Start a Business, According to Gary Vee, a Serial Entrepreneur Worth Over $200 Million<\/a><\/p>\n Her brother, former Yahoo marketing director Michael Landau<\/a>, was willing to help financially back the business, though he did have some questions at first.<\/p>\n “He was a little perplexed, ‘Like, why can’t women blow out their own hair?'” Webb said. “And I was like, you did grow up with me.” In previous interviews<\/a>, Webb shared that she had frizzy hair growing up and was “obsessed with her hair<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Landau was finally convinced by the success that Webb saw in her side hustle. He invested<\/a> $250,000 while Webb and her then-husband Cameron Webb put in their savings of about $50,000. In 2010, the founding team opened the first Drybar salon in Brentwood, California. It famously offers no cuts and no color.<\/p>\n Though Drybar’s salons offered a limited range of hair services \u2014 just the wash, blowout, and style \u2014 Webb says that she wasn’t concerned about the business model. What she wanted was volume: 30 to 40 blowouts per day to break even.<\/p>\n Related: <\/b>The Side Hustle She Worked on in a Local Starbucks ‘Went From Nothing to $1 Million.’ Now It Will Make Over $30 Million This Year.<\/a><\/p>\n Demand ended up doubling expectations \u2014 to 60 to 80 blowouts per day.<\/p>\n “We realized very quickly, like within the first few days, [that] we had captured lightning in a bottle,” Webb said. “Women were coming in and quite literally droves. I mean, we were turning people away left and right.”<\/p>\n Drybar grew to over 150 salons<\/a> across the country within a decade. Webb ended up selling<\/a> Drybar’s product line to leading consumer products company Helen of Troy for $255 million in cash<\/a> in 2020. WellBiz Brands acquired the franchise rights<\/a> to Drybar salons in 2021 for an undisclosed sum.<\/p>\n Webb couldn’t have imagined what Drybar would become. When she opened her first shop, she just wanted it to be a place where she could do what she loved.<\/p>\n “I was really excited about it and not thinking I was going to turn it into this massive multi-million-dollar blowout empire,” she said.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.entrepreneur.com\/images\/misc\/1726083182_Alli-Webb-GettyImages-1409719948.jpg?width=1000\")
Alli Webb. Photo Credit: Brian Stukes\/Getty Images<\/i><\/sup><\/p>\n