Ep 381 | Sahara Lotti

Written By Yasmin Nouri

"I Don't Take No For an Answer. I Just Don't." What It Really Costs to Build Something From Nothing

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Sahara Lotti is the founder and CEO of Lashify, the beauty brand that created the world's first at-home lash extension system and completely redefined what DIY beauty could look like.

But her path here had nothing to do with beauty. It had everything to do with refusing to quit.

Sahara was an Iranian immigrant who grew up in Silicon Valley and never quite felt like she fit in. Before Lashify, she spent years as an actress and screenwriter in Hollywood, hustling on the side and building businesses out of sheer resourcefulness. Beauty wasn't superficial for her. It was tied to confidence, to belonging, to feeling like she had a place in the room. So when she discovered lash extensions and felt truly beautiful for the first time, she was hooked. Then her lash technician got pregnant, the replacement wasn't as good, and she went looking for a DIY solution and found absolutely nothing. For most people, that's the end of the story. For Sahara, it was the beginning.

She melted wire in her kitchen. Filed patents before she told a single factory what she was building. Flew to Korea to convince a manufacturer to build something that had never existed. And launched Lashify on sheer obsession. Today Lashify holds more than 750 global patents, has become a celebrity favorite, and recently secured a landmark $30.5 million legal victory against counterfeit manufacturers.

Sahara tells it like it is and in this episode she gets into all of it. The building, the lawsuits, the loneliness, the moments she almost lost everything, and why she believes the only way to truly lead a company is to know every corner of it yourself. This is the real story. And she holds nothing back. 

Show Notes:

  • Standing up for what’s right and refusing to back down. [02:20]

  • Feeling different after moving from Iran to Northern California. [04:05]

  • How beauty insecurities shaped her confidence at a young age. [04:20]

  • Becoming obsessed with changing her appearance and wanting lash extensions. [05:25]

  • Building early side hustles by teaching herself HTML and selling authentication guides online. [06:03]

  • Using her principles to protect people from fake luxury goods. [06:57]

  • Why making money was never the main motivation behind her success. [08:08]

  • Learning that money creates freedom, experiences, and the ability to help others. [09:27]

  • The moment her lash technician couldn’t fit her in and everything changed. [13:10]

  • Teaching herself to build a completely new lash system from scratch. [13:04]

  • Seeing a major gap in the beauty market and realizing there was a business opportunity. [16:22]

  • Why screenwriting helped her think about product development and storytelling. [17:20]

  • Building an entire brand system instead of creating just one product. [19:03]

  • Self-funding the business and learning early lessons about working with friends. [23:50]

  • Patenting the idea before going to manufacturers and protecting it from copycats. [24:48]

  • Becoming profitable quickly by doing her own marketing, customer service, and education. [29:49]

  • Using Instagram Lives to teach customers how to use a completely new product. [31:03]

  • How building a business forced her to overcome insecurities and show up publicly. [32:45]

  • Why customer stories gave her the motivation to keep fighting through setbacks. [33:56]

  • Learning hard lessons about friendship, loyalty, and trust as the business grew. [43:37]

  • Why the best founders understand every part of their business from the ground up. [50:18]

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Ep 380 | Joanna Griffiths