❝Story24:30
The All-Nighters Behind DECIEM's Early Retail Orders
Nicola recalls the early team accepting orders before knowing exactly how they would fulfil them, then moving from office work to the factory to manufacture and pack products. She describes hand-crimping tubes and testing whether they would burst, illustrating the breadth of work early employees took on. The story shows DECIEM's improvisational startup culture, not a recommendation to bypass product safety or normalize all-nighters.
- The company sometimes accepted a retailer order and solved fulfilment afterward
- Founders and office staff moved onto production and packing work when needed
- Early equipment included a hand-crimping machine with unreliable seals
- Nicola identifies willingness to wear the needed hat as a key early-stage trait
“we would say yes and we'd figure it out afterwards”
“the ability to wear whichever hat is needed”
#startups#operations#retail#hiring
❝Story42:00
How an Eight-Week Investment Became a Seven-Year Acquisition
Nicola says DECIEM sought funding shortly after The Ordinary launched and completed an initial Estee Lauder Companies deal eight weeks after the first meeting. She reports that the investor first took 29 percent and later moved to 76 percent, with full ownership planned for the following year. The valuations and timeline are Nicola's account in the interview; the episode does not independently audit the transaction.
- DECIEM was about four years old when it sought additional capital for scaling
- Nicola says the initial due diligence and negotiation took eight weeks
- She reports an early valuation of about $160 million
- She describes the staged acquisition as time for both companies to learn where to help and where to preserve autonomy
“it was eight weeks from our very first meeting to the deal being signed”
“they became a minority investor”
#investment#acquisition#estee-lauder#scaling
❝Story45:00
Nicola's Account of Brandon Truaxe's Sudden Behaviour Change
Nicola says Brandon's behaviour appeared to change abruptly around the end of 2017, after he had become interested in psychedelics and planned to experiment in Amsterdam. She describes coldness, unusual statements about time, cancelled business relationships, anger, and eventually being fired. Nicola agrees when Steven asks whether drug use may have triggered a psychotic episode, but the transcript provides no clinical diagnosis or evidence establishing a single cause.
- Nicola contrasts the change with years in which she had not observed similar episodes
- She reports that Brandon had been reading about psychedelics and experimenting with mushrooms
- Business decisions and relationships were ended publicly without the usual internal process
- Any causal link among substances, mental illness, and the behavioural change remains an interpretation in the interview
“it truly happened what felt like overnight”
“everything had changed”
#brandon-truaxe#mental-health#psychedelics#leadership-crisis
❝Story58:30
Five Detentions Left Nicola Feeling the System Could Not Hold
Nicola reports that Brandon was detained under mental-health powers five times during 2018 across the UK, Canada, and the United States, often being released after short periods. She describes fragmented systems, recurring substance use, and the inability of friends or colleagues to make another adult accept help. These are her recollections and limited understanding; the episode does not provide medical records, a diagnosis, or a basis for judging the clinical decisions involved.
- Nicola initially felt relief when Brandon was first detained because she expected treatment
- She says repeated releases were followed by further crises
- A brief reconciliation led her to return and try to help, but she found the situation worse
- She emphasizes the distress experienced both by an unwell person and by people around them
“he got sectioned five times”
“you just feel like you can't help”
#mental-health#substance-use#care-systems#helplessness
❝Story1:02:30
The Instagram Shutdown Post That Forced Board Intervention
Nicola says Brandon announced on Instagram that DECIEM was closing, placing roughly eight hundred jobs at risk and prompting shareholders to seek a court order removing him as CEO. She describes the order as intended to protect the company temporarily so he might get help and eventually return. The team then brought back experienced early employees and restored organization while product demand was rising sharply.
- The company's internal conflict was unfolding publicly through emails and Instagram
- Nicola says the shutdown announcement left the board with no practical choice but to intervene
- She became sole CEO while seven months pregnant
- Her first move was to reassemble co-founders and leaders who understood the company's values and operations
“the shareholders had to step in”
“assemble the team”
#crisis-management#governance#instagram#leadership
❝Story1:17:30
The Call Confirming Brandon Truaxe Had Died
Nicola recalls a press inquiry arriving before DECIEM's team knew Brandon had died. After police confirmed his body had been found, she moved into notifying his partner, close colleagues, and Estee Lauder Companies while caring for her newborn daughter. She says he fell from a high-floor balcony and does not believe he intended suicide, but she repeatedly acknowledges that no one present in the conversation knows what happened.
- A reporter's inquiry was the first indication to the company that Brandon might have died
- Nicola learned the news while breastfeeding her newborn daughter
- She prioritized informing close people before the news spread through the press
- Her view that the death was not intentional is explicitly personal and uncertain
“you just never think that's actually the ending that's going to come”
“none of us were there so we'll never truly know what happened”
#brandon-truaxe#death#grief#crisis-communication
❝Story1:22:30
Nicola Says Leadership and Motherhood Delayed Her Grief
Nicola says she does not know whether she ever fully processed Brandon's death. The company needed operational stability after a year of turmoil, demand was surging, and she also had a newborn baby. She hopes eventually to work through the experience with a psychologist, while saying she wants to choose a time when she can give that process adequate attention; this is her personal decision, not clinical advice about when grief support should begin.
- DECIEM needed practical repair as well as emotional support after the crisis
- Nicola responded by staying busy with leadership and new motherhood
- She still wonders whether anything could have been done differently
- Brandon's will later reassured her that he had viewed their bond as genuine and deeply trusted
“I actually don't know if I ever have”
“is there anything different we could have done”
#grief#leadership#motherhood#regret
❝Story1:39:00
Why Brandon's Decline Felt Like History Repeating
Nicola says her father lost a long-held radio career, used alcohol as a coping mechanism, and declined quickly before dying when she was twenty. She recalls a doctor describing severe addiction as an illness that could recur and says this helped her interpret his inability to stop, though the cancer comparison voiced in the discussion is an analogy rather than a medical equivalence established by the episode. Watching Brandon later struggle with substances and mental health felt to her like history repeating.
- Nicola associates her father's decline with loss of purpose and increasing alcohol use
- She describes the family's helplessness when love and requests could not make him stop
- A doctor's reported explanation helped her view severe addiction as illness rather than a simple choice
- She distinguishes her father's continued warmth from the anger she observed during Brandon's crisis
“alcohol just became a coping mechanism”
“it was like history repeating itself again”
#addiction#alcohol#family#grief