Work Friends
Sarah Gibson Tuttle
Founder & CEO
When Sarah Gibson Tuttle launched Olive & June in 2013, she didn’t just open a nail salon; she sparked a movement. Named for her great-grandmother (Olive) and grandmother (June), the company began as a trio of physical nail salons before setting out to democratize the experience.
A former equity sales trader, Gibson Tuttle brought a fresh perspective to the beauty industry. She may not have had traditional beauty experience, but she deeply understood the power of a great manicure and knew there had to be a better way to bring that confidence to more people. With that vision, gut instinct, and a relentless desire to help people feel their best, she set out to reinvent the nail category from the ground up.
In 2019, she introduced Olive & June’s game-changing at-home product line, introducing The Mani System and The Poppy, a patented polish-bottle handle that made flawless DIY manis possible for the first time. That innovation began the DIY nail revolution, empowering everyone, everywhere, to paint their own nails with salon-quality results.
When the world shut down in 2020, Gibson Tuttle became the face of at-home nail care, hosting daily tutorials and live sessions that turned Olive & June into a global community hub. The brand grew 16-fold during this time, cementing its place as a leader in at-home nails.
Today, Olive & June is a category-defining brand with award-winning products, a thriving digital community, and a clear mission: democratize salon-quality nails for everyone. Even after selling the company for $240 million in 2024, Gibson Tuttle remains at the helm, still driven by her goal of making Olive & June the #1 nail brand in the world.
ON AN EARLY LOVE OF NAIL POLISH
As a little girl, I loved doing my nails, and I wasn't allowed to. I had a nail polish box under my bed and would sneak manicures when my dad was on work trips. Nothing made me feel more put together or ready to face whatever was happening in my day than a manicure. I always associated nails with this boost of confidence and security.
ON MOVING FROM FINANCE TO OLIVE & JUNE
When I was working in finance, I was disenchanted with my role because I felt a lack of love for the markets. I'm not someone who is super excited to watch stocks all day and read about stock fundamentals. I don't know how many times I paid for a Wall Street Journal subscription and didn't read it. So, it led me to: What do I want to do with my life? How do I use my love of connecting with others for something that really fills me up and makes me personally excited? And nails have always been something that I have loved. So, it was very obvious to me.
ON NOS AS FUEL
I love challenges. One of my strengths is that I think about every roadblock, obstacle, and opportunity. I have received a million nos. We are in a category that everyone thought was stale, and where innovation wasn't going to happen. Nails have always been overlooked, but nos fuel me.
One of the biggest nos was right before COVID. We were raising our Series A funding, and we had a term sheet in place. Then COVID hit, and our revenues started spiking. It was very clear to me where the business was going to go for that year, and when I tried to renegotiate the Series A, they wouldn't. If it had been the opposite, if my business had tanked, they would want to renegotiate, right? So, it felt like a one-sided partnership, and I walked away from that term sheet. It was incredibly frustrating, but I also knew if they couldn't see the potential, then they were really not the right partner. We ended up raising that smaller round in two days, and it became the best no that I could have ever gotten.
ON THE MOVE TO DEMOCRATIZE NAILS
As a salon customer, I loved getting my nails done. But I never fully enjoyed the experience. Like a lot of people, I loved the finished product, but it was a bit of a hassle and could take hours. It was also expensive, and it remains so. Nails were the only part of your beauty routine that people did not have a true at-home solution for. So, between my gut feeling and knowing the market, I realized I could democratize this experience.
ON UNEXPECTED GROWTH DURING COVID
It is incredible to see momentum in your business, but it came during a hard time, a time that cost many people their sanity and lives. But it was the bright spot of COVID, for sure. We went live [on IG] for seven weeks in a row, and we got to connect with people as they were buying boxes and teaching them how to paint their own nails and how to get a salon manicure at home. We had so much fun. It really got me through COVID in the most positive way.
ON PERSONAL STYLE
I definitely felt pressure early in my finance days to dress a certain way to be taken seriously. As I've evolved as an employee, and then as a founder and a leader, I've realized that I need to wear what feels authentically me in order to feel powerful, grounded, joyful. And so, whether that be my nails—which are currently chrome with 3D bubbles on them—or a pair of Argent pants with a T-shirt, I push myself to be very comfortable but elevated. There's a part of me that's incredibly casual, and there's a part of me that's pretty type A, and so you see both of those things.
ON HER NATURAL STRENGTHS
My natural energy is to connect with people and help them achieve their goals. I'm the best friend that you call when you need a productive pep talk—one where I'm not only going to build you up, but we're going to tactically figure out how to solve your pain points and your problems. Being in that role professionally—whether as an equity sales trader, working on a trading desk, or founding a company—it all goes back to how I love to live my life and how I love to connect with people. You have to meet people where they are, where they're struggling, what they need in their lives, and then figure out the ways to solve that.
ON THE 2024 OLIVE & JUNE ACQUISITION
To be acquired by a dream partner, like Helen of Troy, validated the mission and power of Olive & June, and the importance of the DIY nail revolution that we started. Every stage of this business is interesting to me…I'm experiencing something completely different and learning a totally new curriculum.
I was very picky with who we were going to be acquired by. We had a lot of interest. And when we whittled it down, we started by eliminating people who didn't want or didn't have the same vision that I did for how a post-acquisition life would look, which was that I wanted to stay on. I want to lead the business. I want them to make us better, stronger, and faster, and I want to achieve the ultimate goal of Olive & June: to be the #1 nail brand globally. Helen of Troy and its leadership were fully aligned, and that's why we chose them.
ON CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO
Before Olive & June, everyone in the nail industry was focused on the salon experience and a category of stale household names. We challenge that every day by creating products, education, and inspiration so that consumers can achieve that at home. We've pushed the social zeitgeist from the narrative of “I cannot do this,” to “Look at my nails, I did them myself!”
She’s Worth a Follow
Find Sarah on Instagram.
