Story

After 15 years in high-profile jobs at multinational ad agencies, helping clients like Levi’s, Clorox, L'Oreal and, yes, Cher develop and market their cleaning products, lotions, potions and colognes, Eric was clear that hawking cheaply-sourced goods at upwards of $500 an ounce was skirting the boundaries of fair play, if not good taste. This crazy game—up to 90 cents of every dollar devoted to marketing and packaging versus 10 cents that actually goes into the bottle—is surprisingly legal, but after a while, something about the bald-faced lying makes you feel like a bald-faced liar.

Eric convinced his partner Jack to leave his cushy job as a Vice-President at the Federal Reserve, a difficult decision because it was nice to be able to influence monetary policy whenever it was time to refinance the mortgage. With a renegade team they set out to turn the beauty business' style-over-substance business model on its head. First rule: no advertising or gimmicky expensive packaging; rely instead on word-of-mouth from satisfied customers. Second rule: take the unspent marketing money and plow it all back into the products. Third rule: be so confident in their superior quality, offer an ironclad satisfaction guarantee. To do it, they partnered with a family-owned laboratory in Berkeley, in business for over 60 years and the only pharmaceutical-grade lab specializing in the natural essential plant oils that make Nancy Boy products unique.

Nine years later, Nancy Boy's over-the-top success story proves how many people are choosing truth over hype, quality over image, and personal, unbiased opinions over manufacturer-produced ads and spin. You didn’t find us because of a magazine ad, direct mail piece, TV spot or online banner. Someone told you about us. And that’s the proof in the Nancy Boy pudding.

Eric, testing out the competition's products. He is smiling through his tears.

Jack made a fortune as an early '60's Gerber Baby but later squandered it on horses and fast women.