Leslie Eisen

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Leslie Eisen is an American entrepreneur. Leslie started AlmondClear in 2017 and is based in Portland.^[1]

Career

Early Career

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AlmondClear

Leslie started AlmondClear in 2017. They detail the beginnings of their company in their Starter Story interview: ^[1]

Q: How did you get started on AlmondClear?

I have no background in business, in fact when I came up with the idea for Almond Clear, I was ten years into my career as a middle school teacher!

I loved teaching language arts and social studies, but I was also one of those people who was constantly coming up with new business ideas.

For the rest of that school year, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to work on my business plan, and once the school year was over I resigned from my teaching position.

My husband was always a little bemused by my latent entrepreneurial tendencies, but none of my ideas ever seemed quite compelling enough for me to pivot from my career path in education.

When I started thinking about Almond Clear, it felt totally different than my other business ideas and I knew almost immediately that I was going to pursue this idea.

My path to starting Almond Clear was very personal. For most of my life I’d suffered from unsightly and embarrassing red bumps on my upper thighs and buttocks. I tried everything and anything to get rid of them, including visiting no less than four dermatologists and trying every topical and oral prescription that they recommended, and I also used many drugstore and natural products.

Nothing worked, so for years I resigned myself to living with these unfortunate blemishes. Then, in my late 30s, I made one last ditch visit to an aesthetician, and she recommended mandelic acid (the active ingredient in Almond Clear).

Within 3 weeks the problem that I’d had for over 20 years was completely gone, and I was flabbergasted. I felt a huge sense of relief, freedom, and newfound confidence, and I knew that I wanted to share those feelings with as many people as possible. That’s why I created AlmondClear.

For the rest of that school year, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to work on my business plan, and once the school year was over I resigned from my teaching position. It was a big risk because I didn’t yet have a well-developed business plan, but I think like most people with entrepreneurial tendencies, I have a higher than average risk tolerance.

In the first year of business, I was able to validate that there’s a huge need for my products and that mandelic acid works well for many, many people. Currently, about 30% of Almond Clear sales come from repeat buyers, so if that trend continues, the business should continue to grow steadily over time.

Source ^[1]

References

Contributors

Contributors to this article:

• Pat Walls, Founder @ Starter Story