𤢠Pink Makes Her Puke
Sandy Lerner â the Cisco and Urban Decay founder and CGU graduate
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By the time you are reading this article, dear reader, youâve already benefited numerous times from her work, creativity, and persistence. You may even owe her partial credit for your current appearance. To help you understand to whom, precisely, you should direct your thanks â meet Sandy Lerner for yourself.
Among many remarkable accomplishments, CGU graduate Sandy Lerner is the co-founder of Cisco Systems and Urban Decay. Through her ingenuity at Cisco, she helped create the first-ever commercially viable routers that allowed computers to speak to one another through networks â she essentially envisioned and built the plumbing of the internet as we know it. On top of that, her second act, Urban Decay, helped create a counter-culture cosmetic business that shook up the cosmetics industry, de-stigmatized unisex nail polish, and captured the attention of athletes, rock stars, celebrities, and everyday consumers like me and you. Her philanthropy has also contributed to land conservation efforts, animal welfare projects, and even Jane Austen collections. Sheâs one of myriad jaw-dropping Claremont female founders making the world a better place through massive business-building in the technology sector.
While Iâve never had a chance to meet her personally, few people seem as admirable and inspiring as Sandy Lerner from afar. She is the epitome of a determined and persistent problem solver, and sheâs continuously taken action when she sees something that doesnât sit right with her. Who is she?
An Early Start
Everybody starts somewhere, and unsurprisingly, Lerner didnât suddenly wake up one morning with the keys to unlock the internet and network routing. A northern California native, Sandy spent much of her early years at her auntâs home in the California Sierras and Clipper Gap ranch. With her early entrepreneurship on full display, rumor has it that Sandy bought her first steer at the age of nine and sold it a few years later with enough profit to buy two more. With the pickle of college tuition on the horizon, she continued growing her cattle business until she owned over 30 heads, which eventually paid for her education and Political Science/IR degree at California State. A traditional four-year college degree didnât sit quite right with Sandy either, and she breezed through her bachelorâs degree in only two years.
Next came Claremont and CGU. Initially planning on pursuing academia and fascinated by comparative political studies, Sandy Lerner went to CGU to receive her masterâs degree. After realizing that there was little financial gain in political science and academia, she shifted focus. She developed a love for computer labs when few others did. In short order, she became lab manager and spent most of her time working with computers, using quantitative data analysis for her research. According to Sandy, back then, âPeople left you alone [in the labs] because they thought you were weird, and nobody knew anything about what you were doing.â Little did those people know what their âweirdâ computer lab manager would go on to accomplish.
Flash forward, and in 1977 she graduated from CGU with her masterâs in econometrics and a newfound love for computers. This love led her to pursue a hat trick in California schooling, and she headed north to Stanford to pursue a graduate degree in statistics and computer science.
Cisco Is Born
Stanfordâs graduate school for computer science was still relatively new and rare, and being a female in those classes was even rarer. Naturally, it didnât seem to stop Sandy, and it was just another problem she would solve and overcome. While pursuing and after finishing her third degree, Sandy once again found herself in charge of the computer labs, but this time for the Graduate School of Business at Stanford. There, she met her future husband and business partner, Leonard Bosack, who eventually became the director of computer facilities for Stanfordâs Computer Science Department. They struggled to share software and databases efficiently between their work computers â this problem statement would take them down a deep rabbit hole. Eventually, between late nights in the Stanford computer lab, their offices, and their living room, they would create a router that connected the entire Stanford computer system. They linked over 5,000 computers across a 16-mile campus.
Unlike other routers developed at the time, Sandy and Leonard had built a unique âmultiprotocolâ hardware and software solution that worked with various types of computers. But now, a new and different problem started to surface â many venture capitalists thought their router wouldnât sell, and Stanford was reluctant to let Sandy and Leonard license their technology. They eventually quit their jobs at Stanford, and in 1986 they began Cisco out of their living room in California, landing more than $200K in contracts in their first month.
The first year certainly wasnât all roses, though. In that first year, they would mortgage their house, max out all their credit cards, deal with Stanford trying to sue over their product licenses, and even enlist free help from friends and neighbors to get the business off the ground. Sandy and Leonard spent three years bootstrapping the business. Still, in 1987, venture capitalist investor Don Valentine finally came on board, and Cisco had the resources to scale. Unfortunately, Don, Sandy, and Leonard werenât fast friends, and despite the companyâs success, tensions built up over the following years. By 1990, the same year Cisco went public, the relationship had grown so poor that Sandy and Leonard were forced out with âegregious and unamicable tactics.â
Despite their departure, Cisco continued on an exceptional trajectory as one of the â90âs most popular technology stocks. The couple sold most of their stock, fully retired from the company, and created a charitable foundation and trust that would eventually fund their future endeavors. Cisco pioneered the internet as we know it today, and itâs because Sandy saw a problem and went after the solution at all costs. If youâre curious to learn more about Cisco and Sandyâs story, check out her podcast interview on NPR where she shares more of the founding story and the unfortunate departure.
Urban Decay
Sandyâs resiliency and problem-solving nature remained intact despite the unfortunate ending and forced resignation. She was still eager to continue building businesses and filling market voids. She was struck by the cookie-cutter nature of the female cosmetics industry and its unethical sourcing practices. She decided to found a punk cosmetic line that steered clear from the stereotypical pink and red lipstick and nail polish. Unsurprisingly, Sandy avoided fundraising from outside investors, backed the business herself, and teamed up with friend Wende Zomnir. By 1996 they launched the product with a clever marketing campaign tagline â âDoes Pink Make You Puke?â The slogan also represented Sandyâs larger life narrative of not settling for complacency, refusing to just âfit in,â solving problems for herself and others, challenging the norms, and filling voids in the market.
Rather than putting women in a pink and red box, Urban Decay explored more grunge colors for cosmetics such as Acid Rain, Rust, and Smog. The color palettes were unlike anything previously seen, catching the eye of punk-rock celebrities with packaging that resembled bomb and gun shell casings. The make-up was an early pioneer in âcruelty-free,â from a sourcing and testing perspective. The punk cosmetic products even started sparking considerable interest from male celebrities for the first time.
Another problem was solved and market void was filled by Sandy. Urban Decay was eventually acquired in 2000 by Louis Vuitton SE and then two more times before eventually being acquired by LâOreal for $350M+. Not too shabby for a second stab.
The List Goes On
After founding and running two mammoth-sized businesses, many would call it a day and relax a bitâŚnot Sandy. A few of her other many accomplishments outside of just the business world include generous philanthropic projects, animal welfare efforts, novels, and house restorations.
In 1992, Sandyâs foundation acquired the Chawton House, a manor in the English village where Jane Austen wrote all of her novels. It still stands today as a place to âfoster research and understanding of early women writers, restoring them to their rightful place in the history of English literature and enabling them to speak directly to â and inspire â future generations.â She also donated her entire collection of work by women writers published pre-1830, helping the Library at Chawton House grow to be the pre-eminent center for the study of early English Womenâs Writing and establishing degree-granting partnerships with universities. In 2001, Lerner even published fan fiction that was her sequel to Jane Austenâs Pride and Prejudice, Second Impressions under the pen name Ava Farmer.
After the Chawton restoration project, Lerner purchased Ayrshire Farm in 1996 â a 600+ acre estate in Virginia. The farmâs mission was to farm sustainably and promote the benefits of locally produced and humanely raised meats and produce. Near the farm, Lerner also opened a restaurant called Hunterâs Head Tavern that now serves dishes with ingredients sourced from the farm.
Her other projects have focused on animal welfare and led her to develop the Lab Rat and Pet Where programs to educate scientists about the humane treatment of lab animals and play a vital role in finding and reuniting lost pets and animals. Sheâs also been a prominent supporter and funder of the Folsom Zoo â a non-profit organization helping abandoned and injured animals.
In Closing
Sandy Lerner has worn many hats over the years. Networking routers, cosmetics, farming, and Jane Austin novels donât necessarily have a ton in common on the outside. However, despite the wildly different industries and companies, the connective thread is that Lerner continually seems to find solutions to the problems that were specific to her experience. She didnât listen to the critical voices that left women out of higher education while pursuing her degrees, she didnât listen to the doubters who said Cisco would never sell, and she certainly didnât listen to the stereotypes of how women should look. This is a liberal arts education manifested in reality if weâve ever seen it!
Hereâs to challenging the status quo and never settling. Thank you for your wonderful inspiration, Sandy!
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