Cameron Webb
Co-Founder Drybar
Tell me about your time in advertising. How did you get started and why did you leave?
I was lucky, in that I knew I wanted to be a designer from an early age. At 11 I was familiar with MacDraw (the precursor to Adobe Illustrator) and a neighbor hired me to create 10 simple vector drawings for $100. That was a lot of money in 1986, not to mention for an 11 year old. I knew at that moment I wanted to be a graphic designer.
Years later I attended Portfolio Center and got my first job in NYC at Merkely and Partners working on BMW Motorcycles and Mercedes-Benz. I eventually ended up in Santa Monica at Secret Weapon doing all the Jack In The Box commercials.
What led me to leave advertising?
Well it wasn’t planned. My wife had started a mobile blow dry service, and I’d made her a cute little website called “Straight at Home”. Within a month she was completely booked and we realized we needed to hire more stylists, or open a location. So we partnered with her brother Michael, pooled our money together and opened the first Drybar in 2011.
During that time I ran Secret Weapon as Creative Director by day (8AM - 7PM) and built the Drybar brand by night (8PM - 3AM) for a full year. It was a lot. And hard. And then, it was just too much. So I left Secret Weapon to focus on Drybar.
That was scary. Really scary. Leaving a career and position I’d worked so hard to get. But I knew I had a better chance creating a nest egg starting my own business, then continuing to work for someone else. Fortunately we had a few shops open, so I paid myself about half my Secret Weapon salary, and took on some freelance projects to fill out the rest - but it wasn’t long before Drybar became big enough for me to focus completely on that.
What are you doing now?
For a good 8 years I built and ran the creative department inside Drybar’s corporate office. And then our family opened Squeeze Massage. I needed to do the creative for that and wanted to use the team I’d built for Drybar. So I took the creative department back out-of-house, and opened CWA (Cam Webb Agency). We have a staff of 10 and service Drybar, Squeeze, Brightside Yoga, Okay Humans, Alchemy 43 and a few others.
How did the idea for Drybar come about?
It was totally my ex-wife Alli’s idea. While doing mobile blow dry’s she put the idea together in her head. Women could sit at a bar, drink champagne and watch chick flicks while they got their hair done. The whole bar idea led to the bar theme, (thus the name Drybar) and gave us a lot of fun things to work with creatively.
What was your first step in starting Drybar?
We just did it! We hired an architect, got a lease, I made the website and collateral, Alli hired the stylists and trained them, Michael figured out all the financials, and we just went for it
What struggles did you have?
Obviously there were lots of struggles! A silly one that comes to mind was in the beginning we were trying to take appointments over the phone in the shops. I was working the front desk opening week, and had 10 women waiting to check in, 10 blow dryers in my ear, and I’m trying to schedule an appointment for someone on the phone I couldn’t even hear. We quickly built a remote team to answer phones and book appointments!
Did you have help along the way?
I truly think the key to our success was that it was 4 of us that started this business together. Alli - the hairstylist, Michael, the marketing and business guy, Me, the creative, and our friend Josh, the architect. We trusted each other implicitly and really let everyone run their lane. That let each of us focus 100% on our job, rather than trying to do everything alone.
And then Michael created a board of directors that helped us immensely. We had Paul Pressler from Disney, Janet Gurwich from Laura Mercier and Steve Berg our private equity investor. They knew things we didn’t and truly helped us grow from a few local shops to over 100 across the country. And we owe Janet everything for helping us get the product line off the ground. Her knowledge and expertise was invaluable.
Did you ever consider giving up?
Absolutely not! We were all in. And truly believed in the idea. Plus the amount of press and excitement we had around the brand was just incredible.
What would you do differently if you did it again?
No. I mean obviously going through it we’d make some tweaks here and there, but I couldn’t be happier with how it all panned out.
What is the single most important thing that contributed to your success?
Again, I think it goes back to starting the business with 4 people, who trusted each other completely (besides the architect, we were all family). We let Alli make all the decisions around the shops and the stylists, we trusted Michael on all the business deals, and I was able to do exactly what I wanted with the branding, product packaging and advertising.
Post Drybar you’ve started your own advertising agency. What brought you back to the ad world?
So I guess in a way, I never left advertising… I’ve kind of remained in it. But I think the difference is, now I’m not only a creative, but a business owner. Since Drybar we’ve started three other companies: Squeeze Massage, Brightside Yoga + Saunas, and Okay Humans Therapy.
Any advice for people reading this?
Yes! If you’re a creative out there, you know exactly what it takes to create and launch a successful brand. And most likely you’re currently spending all of your time helping someone else’s company make them money. Carve out some of your concepting time for yourself, and see what you can come up with. And then just start building it, one photoshop or illustrator file at a time :)