When a Beauty Influencer and a Wall Street Lawyer Started a Brand Together, a Weird Thing Happened The founders of DIBS learned how to take each other seriously.

I'm not used to failing — but a few years ago in Miami, I was gripping my blanket in a hotel, staring at the ceiling, and wondering if a major decision I'd made was blowing up in my face.

Until then, I was used to hitting A-plus. I'd gotten an MBA from Stanford and a J.D. from Yale, worked five years on Wall Street as a corporate attorney, and was president of A-Rod's production company. Then I agreed to cofound a cosmetics brand called DIBS with the influencer Courtney Shields, thinking I'd have a lot to teach her about business.

Instead, I learned that Courtney had a lot to teach me.