Lani Lazzari

She had suffered from eczema since infancy and had very sensitive skin; drugstore products often left her with a rash, and products prescribed by dermatologists did not help. Unable to find products that worked for her sensitive skin, she began making her own. The Mark Cuban Companies page and the “Our Story” page on the Simple Sugars website state that her eczema cleared after she first used her own products.⁠[1][2][3][4][5]

That year her mother insisted that she and her brothers make their Christmas presents. In her mother’s kitchen she mixed her first scrub from sugar, vanilla and almond oil bought at a local supermarket, and her first two scents were vanilla and almond; she gave the scrubs to family and friends as Christmas presents, and when they wanted more she realized she had a business.⁠[1][6][2][5]

CBSCBSCBS is an American commercial broadcast television network. It was founded in 1927 as United Independent Broadcasters, renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928, and grew from a radio network into a television network under William S. Paley. With ABC and NBC it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks; it has been owned in turn by Westinghouse, Viacom, ViacomCBS and Paramount Global, has been owned by Paramount Skydance Corporation since 2025, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry Pittsburgh wrote in 2011 that her mother, Gina, a pharmaceutical sales representative, had been demoted while on maternity leave, which also made Lani Lazzari want to control her own career: “I kind of wanted to do my own thing.” An article in The Globe, the Point Park University student newspaper, states instead that when the family decided to make Christmas presents, her mother had been passed over for a promotion in her pharmaceutical sales job.⁠[6][7]

The business began with 24 jars of products for sensitive skin sold to friends and family, made at first in the basement of her parents’ home in Fox Chapel. The Globe’s article states that about two months later, for Valentine’s Day, she made chocolate and rose scents and received two dozen orders.⁠[8][9][7]

On the founding date, VoiceAmerica’s guest biography, a 2019 TribLIVE article and a 2025 Rank & Style interview give December 2005; a 2013 TribLIVE article, The Ellis School’s alumna profile and the “Our Story” page on the Simple Sugars website give 2005; and the Mark Cuban Companies portfolio page gives 2006.⁠[9][4][3][10][2][11][5]

From 2007 on she was featured in publications including Lucky, Teen Vogue, Allure and Seventeen; by 2011 the publications that had covered her also included Self, some of the coverage coming from meetings she had in New York.⁠[12][6]

She attended high school at The Ellis School, a private all-girls school in Pittsburgh. During her junior year (the 2010–2011 school year) she worked from 9:00 to 6:30 every day, took her history classes remotely over Skype and went to the school every two months to take tests; a 2024 TribLIVE article describes this as an independent study program she did in her junior year. She said her time at Ellis was really important for the growth of the business and that the school was “super, super supportive, particularly Mrs. Newham,” the former head of school Robin Newham.⁠[6][8]

SUCCESS writes that, with her mother’s blessing and a $50,000 charge to a credit card, she took off her junior year of high school to concentrate on the business. Smart Business wrote in 2015 that she made the scrubs as a hobby until her junior year, when she began to treat the business seriously; the company was financed entirely on her mother’s credit card until the family’s credit was exhausted, and a bank loan was refused because the business was in her name; she put the company in her own name when she had just turned 18.⁠[1][13]

In September 2011, aged 17, she was running Simple Sugars full-time as its CEO, mixing the scrubs in the basement of the family home in Fox Chapel, and she had taken an office for packaging and business work. The company had one employee, plus interns and family members who helped. It offered 16 to 24 scents depending on the season, as well as facial scrubs, a foot scrub, a vegan line and a men’s line; an eight-ounce scrub cost about $15 and was sold online and at Giant Eagle Market District stores.⁠[6]

She had just started her senior year and planned a six-week cross-country road trip through 26 cities to promote Simple Sugars, hoping to build enough social-media buzz to earn a spot on Ellen DeGeneres’s show by the time she reached Los Angeles. She said she might sell the business when she went to college but that this was only the beginning; she had recently come up with about four business ideas, one of which she was keeping secret.⁠[6]

She graduated from The Ellis School in 2012 and was admitted to George Washington UniversityGeorge Washington UniversityGeorge Washington University (officially The George Washington University) is a university in Washington, D.C., United States, whose forerunner was Columbian College.Open the full entry in Washington, D.C., but did not enroll, spending a gap year after high school building Simple Sugars instead; The Ellis School’s alumna profile states that she chose to forgo college to run her business.⁠[3][8][10]

In her school’s alumna profile she says: “Ellis really taught me some very important skills that most people don’t learn until they get to college, if ever.”⁠[10]

In 2012 a national PR tour she made brought her to the attention of a Shark Tank producer, who reached out and asked whether she had thought about appearing on the show; she then sent in an application without really expecting to hear back. TribLIVE wrote in 2013 that the producer had approached her the year before. The show gave her a week’s notice and paid for her to fly to Los Angeles for the taping in September 2012, and a crew also filmed in Pittsburgh late in 2012. Her pitch lasted almost two hours, longer than what is shown on television, and the producers’ only help was rehearsing her introduction. SUCCESS writes that she was 18 years old and three months out of high school when she asked the Sharks for funding.⁠[13][3][1]

She received the funding from Mark Cuban in early March 2013 and learned in mid-March that the episode would air two weeks later. Until it aired, no one was allowed to know that they had partnered; she called the wait for confirmation of the air date the most stressful part of the process. To prepare for demand, the company moved to a larger fulfillment center before the broadcast.⁠[13]

Looper wrote in 2023 that when she pitched she employed three people to manufacture her product at a dedicated facility in Pittsburgh, and that the business was on the verge of bankruptcy.⁠[14]

Before the broadcast, at 19, she lived in Fox Chapel and was president and CEO of Simple Sugars. The company was based in Sharpsburg and had six part-time employees and five interns; having started in her home, it had moved twice and, outgrowing its space, was looking at a third location. The line comprised 36 body scrubs, five facial scrubs, three vegan scrubs, one foot scrub and a nine-product men’s line, Smooth for Men, along with seasonal products such as a lime-and-coconut scrub for spring break.⁠[3]

The products were sold in 28 Giant Eagle stores (Market Districts and stores with health-and-beauty departments) in PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaPennsylvania (officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States; its capital is Harrisburg, and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are its two great metropolitan areas. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on December 12, 1787, the second state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 13,002,700.Open the full entry, OhioOhioOhio is a state in the Midwestern United States; its capital is Columbus. It joined the Union in 1803 as the 17th state, the first carved from the Northwest Territory, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 11,799,448.Open the full entry and MarylandMarylandMaryland is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States, deeply indented by Chesapeake Bay and bordered by Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, the District of Columbia and West Virginia; its capital is Annapolis and its largest city is Baltimore. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on April 28, 1788, as the seventh state to do so, and had a population of 6,177,224 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, and at Schiller’s and Cheeks in Shadyside, Soergel Orchards in Wexford, So Me in Fox Chapel, Hunter Pharmacy in Connellsville and a spa in Littleton, ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state classified as one of the Mountain states, with Denver as its capital. It was admitted to the Union on August 1, 1876, as the 38th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,773,714.Open the full entry.⁠[3]

She said she felt “comfortable discussing” the business on television but did not want a television career: “Television is so exhausting”; she wanted funding “because I really want to grow the business.” Her mother, Gina Lazzari, said she had asked her daughter to rehearse but her daughter wanted to go to the beach instead, and that she was “nervous to put my baby in the ‘Shark Tank’ by herself.” She planned a watch party for the night of the broadcast. Ilene Levy, owner of Cheeks in Shadyside, who had seen a preview, called her “the real deal.”⁠[3]

On March 29, 2013, her episode of ABC’s Shark Tank aired (season 4, episode 19), with Mark Cuban, Lori GreinerLori GreinerLori Greiner is an American entrepreneur, inventor and investor who founded consumer-products company For Your Ease Only, worked extensively in television shopping and became an investor on ABC’s Shark Tank. Her work spans household organization, consumer-product investments, publishing and television production.Open the full entry, Robert HerjavecRobert HerjavecRobert Herjavec is a Croatian-born Canadian entrepreneur, investor and television personality. He founded BRAK Systems and Herjavec Group, became a longstanding Shark Tank investor, and serves as a Cyderes board member, advisor and investor.Open the full entry, Daymond JohnDaymond JohnDaymond John is an American entrepreneur, investor and television personality. He founded and serves as CEO of streetwear brand FUBU and brand strategy consultancy The Shark Group. An original investor on ABC’s Shark Tank, which premiered in 2009, he was appointed a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship in 2015 and founded Black Entrepreneurs Day in 2020.Open the full entry and Kevin O’LearyKevin O’LearyKevin O’Leary is a Canadian entrepreneur, investor and television personality, publicly known as Mr. Wonderful. He founded software business SoftKey and became widely known through Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank. His activities span venture investment, financial products and consumer brands.Open the full entry as the Sharks. She asked for $100,000 for 10 percent of the company; Daymond John, Lori Greiner, Kevin O’Leary and Robert Herjavec bowed out, Mark Cuban offered $100,000, and she accepted. SUCCESS gives the deal as $100,000 for a third of the company; Looper and the 2018 and 2024 TribLIVE articles give it as $100,000 for a 33 percent stake.⁠[9][2][3][1][14][15][8]

SUCCESS writes that Kevin O’Leary quipped on the show that the scrub was “so simple to make that even an 11-year-old could do it… and apparently has,” and that several of the Sharks doubted it was innovative enough for the competitive skincare market. She said: “It’s cool to have a billionaire as your mentor.”⁠[1]

She had expected $20,000 to $30,000 in sales on the night of the broadcast, the equivalent of a year of online sales; in fact the company sold $30,000 before her pitch had finished airing, $150,000 within an hour, $200,000 within four hours, $600,000 over that weekend and $1 million within six weeks: “we blew all of the projections way out of the water,” she said. SUCCESS writes that sales in the first 24 hours after the broadcast were four times the company’s total for its first seven years; the article’s text gives that total as $55,000, while its results box gives $44,000. Looper writes that in the six years before the show the company had $120,000 in sales, 60 percent through its website and 40 percent from wholesale and retail. VoiceAmerica’s guest biography states that the company received more than 35,000 orders in three days and calls her the youngest entrepreneur ever to make a solo pitch.⁠[13][1][9][14]

A few months after the broadcast, Target CorporationTarget CorporationTarget Corporation is an American retailer incorporated in Minnesota and headquartered in Minneapolis, with common stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange.Open the full entry proposed a major Shark Tank promotion for Simple Sugars with prominent endcap displays, but wanted much lower prices than she was comfortable with; judging the deal very short-term and likely to leave her in a difficult position with other retailers, she declined it. Mark Cuban said he would defer to her decision.⁠[1]

In an article published on Her Campus on March 7, 2014, Claire Sabatine, a student contributor at the University of PittsburghUniversity of PittsburghThe University of Pittsburgh is a state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It traces its origins to the Pittsburgh Academy, founded in 1787, and is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the country.Open the full entry, wrote that she had spoken to the author’s marketing class, saying that the scrubs could replace lotion as a main moisturizer, and had closed with the words “Stay Smooth.” The article mentions the Avocado Facial Scrub, the Strawberry and Almond Body Scrubs and the Smooth for Men line.⁠[12]

In May 2015, at 21, she was president and CEO of Simple Sugars, whose sales then stood at $3 million. She had grown the company from three employees and about 40 retail locations to 25 employees and more than 1,000 locations nationwide. She said: “The goal is to turn Simple Sugars into a $30 million company within the next five years.”⁠[13]

The Ellis School’s alumna profile states that by 2015 the company had reached more than $5 million in sales; it also says that the Pittsburgh-based company has a team of 22 employees and that its products are sold online and in more than 700 retail locations.⁠[10]

In January 2016 she gave an update on the company in the second episode of Beyond the Tank. In the two-plus years after her Shark Tank appearance, Simple Sugars had moved more than $4 million in product.⁠[14]

A SUCCESS article of January 7, 2016 states that, at 22, she was president, CEO and founder of the company, had skipped college and still lived at home with her mother and brothers, and that her mother was the company’s vice president. By the end of 2015 total sales had reached $6 million, average monthly gross was $200,000 to $300,000, and the company had about 20 employees; its scents included lavender, hazelnut, pink grapefruit and coffee. Her long-term goal was a $30 million company.⁠[1]

She and Mark Cuban were then evaluating offers to sell Simple Sugars on TV shopping networks; Cuban advised her to weigh profit margins and not only sales volume, and she said: “Our profit margins are bigger with online sales.” Cuban said of her: “Lani is obsessed with Simple Sugars,” and that she was “on a mission to profitably make the world smoother.”⁠[1]

On June 16, 2017 the Thiel Foundation named the 25 members of the 2017 class of Thiel Fellows, and she was among them. The announcement states that the two-year Thiel FellowshipThiel FellowshipThe Thiel Fellowship is a two-year grant program started by investor Peter Thiel and run by the Thiel Foundation that funds young people who skip or stop out of college to build new things instead. The program has been criticized by figures in education for encouraging young people to leave college.Open the full entry provides $100,000 and mentorship from the Thiel Foundation’s network of technology entrepreneurs, investors and scientists, and encourages fellows to pursue full-time entrepreneurship instead of going to college; Jack Abraham, executive director of the Thiel Fellowship, said the fellows were chosen from thousands of applications from around the world. The list gives her as from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with the project Simple Sugars in the field “Skincare/Beauty,” and describes her: “Lani founded Simple Sugars, an all-natural skincare line developed especially for sensitive skin,” adding that its products are sold online and in over 400 retail locations throughout the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry.⁠[16][16]

As of 2018 the company had amassed more than $10 million in revenue. In March of that year TribLIVE listed her among the Pennsylvanians connected with Shark Tank, writing that she had turned the company into a successful business.⁠[14][15]

In November 2019, at 25, she opened a Simple Sugars holiday pop-up shop as the company’s founder and president at Bakery Square in Pittsburgh’s East End; it opened earlier that month and ran through December 22, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, with product demonstrations, holiday specials, custom gift sets and products available only at the shop; holiday scents included pizzelle and fig, and she planned to take part in Small Business Saturday on November 30. Until then the products had been sold only through the company’s website; they were made at the O’Hara warehouse in RIDC Park.⁠[4]

Mark Cuban remained involved in the company, helped her find the pop-up space and said he was a “huge fan” of her and her business. The company’s stated goals were to offer the best all-natural body, facial and foot scrubs, to educate people about avoiding chemicals in personal care products and to grow into a model of corporate environmental and social responsibility.⁠[4]

She said she had always wanted to do a pop-up shop but wanted to find the correct space, “and this is it”; she said the company had needed funding or it would not have been able to grow: “We are so grateful for the money from Mark Cuban.” Mark Cuban wrote that she “has built a great business that is growing, profitable and impactful” and sets an “incredible entrepreneurial example” for young entrepreneurs everywhere. The article lists the company’s staff as Dana Sullivan, Gina Herrington, Kim Vidra and her mother, Gina Nigro. A customer, Katy O’Donnell of the North Side, said she has extremely sensitive skin and that this is the only non-scented product she can use.⁠[4]

In 2021 The Ellis School invited her to be the guest speaker at its commencement.⁠[8]

In December 2024, at 30, she was in her 17th year of business. The company was headquartered at RIDC Park in O’Hara, where its products were hand-mixed and packaged; it had 11 employees, among them her brother Rocco Lazzari (who, the article notes, did not mind having his only sister as a boss), the production manager Kim Vidra, and Anna MacDonald and Alex Barkley; her mother, Gina Nigro, who had supported the business from the start, was its vice president.⁠[8][6]

Its best sellers were the eczema and psoriasis essentials, the Vitamin C Facial was a consistent bestseller, and other products included the Smooth For Men line; ingredients were sourced within the United States, from states such as CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry and TennesseeTennesseeTennessee is a U.S. state in the southeast-central United States, with its capital at Nashville. It was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 6,910,840 residents.Open the full entry, with emu oil a key ingredient (emus are raised for their meat and the oil is a by-product). The products were sold only online, shipped within the United States and abroad, and were not in retail stores; holiday online orders for local delivery in Pittsburgh were accepted until 2 p.m. on December 23. To date, total sales “clock in at around 25 million,” having been robust during the COVID years before dipping after the pandemic. She said the company had to raise its employees’ salaries after COVID and that shipping was a big issue; she mentioned a man from the Netherlands who orders regularly.⁠[8]

Mark Cuban still held the 33 percent stake he had acquired. She said the company would stay in the region: “We have too many roots here in Pittsburgh to think about moving.”⁠[8]

In a Rank & Style interview published on May 28, 2025, she named growing Simple Sugars to over $1 million in sales as her greatest achievement, a milestone she said few women-owned businesses reach. She said her days include at least five crises, that she is “most definitely not a morning person,” that she starts each morning with at least two different caffeinated beverages and buys a skim caramel latte at her local coffee shop most mornings, and that she loves that “every day is different and exciting” and has never once been bored.⁠[11]

In the same interview she said she loves to cook and that her favorite Instagram account is @bonappetitmag, which she uses for cooking inspiration, recently liking a winter squash carbonara recipe; the skincare she cannot live without is Simple Sugars’ own body and facial scrubs; her bag essentials are a Burt’s Bees lip balm and a black eyeliner; she uses her credit card mostly at her coffee shop and then at ModCloth; and at 9 a.m. she is usually drinking caffeine. She mentioned a nail color, “Simple Sugars Pink,” made with the partner brand LVX. Her motto is “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”⁠[11]

The Ellis School’s alumna profile gives her name as “Alaina (Lani),” that is, Alaina Lazzari. She grew up in Fox Chapel and has two younger brothers.⁠[10][4][6]

Her mother, Gina, was a pharmaceutical sales representative and later became vice president of Simple Sugars. The Globe’s article states that she herself handles product development and human resources and is basically the face of the company, while her mother handles operational work such as the supply chain, sales and marketing, and the website. Her mother’s surname is given as Lazzari (Gina Lazzari) in a 2013 TribLIVE article and as Nigro (Gina Nigro) in 2019 and 2024 TribLIVE articles.⁠[6][1][7][3][4][8]

In 2019 and 2024 she lived in Pittsburgh. She says she rides three days a week at Bargee Farm in Fox Chapel, and she volunteers for the Mario Lemieux Foundation.⁠[4][8]

Simple Sugars makes handmade, all-natural scrubs designed for sensitive skin, which it says cleanse, exfoliate and moisturize in one step so that no lotion is needed—what the company calls “Going No-Lo (No Lotion).” The Mark Cuban Companies page states that the products have helped people with eczema, psoriasis, rosacea and acne.⁠[2][4]

Accounts of when the men’s line, Smooth for Men, began differ: CBS Pittsburgh already mentioned a men’s line in September 2011; The Globe’s article states that the line began about two years before the article and was fully launched in September 2012; and TribLIVE wrote in 2019 that she added a men’s line in 2013. Looper puts the line at about 10 percent of total sales in January 2016, and TribLIVE at 25 percent of the business in November 2019.⁠[6][7][4][14]

The Globe’s article lists the products of the time: five facial scrubs (5 oz, $16.95, with the green tea facial scrub the best seller), 16 to 20 body scrubs depending on the season (5 oz at $11.95, 8 oz at $16.95) and one foot scrub (4.75 oz, $12.95); Smooth for Men had three facial, four body and one foot scrub, all at $16.95. She said her favorite scrub changes often, naming first the almond body scrub and later pumpkin. The article gives the company’s headquarters as Sharpsburg. The article also states that at just 19 she had turned it into a multimillion-dollar business.⁠[7]

An article on SheKnows (which spells her surname “Lazarri”) gives her motto as “If you can’t eat it, you shouldn’t put it on your skin,” because everything put on the skin is absorbed into the bloodstream; she advises using three or four products at most, and her products avoid phthalates, parabens, sodium laureth sulfate and PEGs. The article says she began formulating all-natural skin care at age 12 and that the scrubs were tested and approved by women with a range of skin conditions and types.⁠[17]

The same SheKnows article, which gives no year, states that in September she began a tour she called the “smoothest road trip ever,” set to end on October 24, aiming for an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show under the motto “Ellen or bust!”; buyers of the Pink scrub that month could direct half of the purchase amount to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The article adds that she aims to inspire women and girls to follow their dreams and advises young entrepreneurs that they can create their own job opportunities by following their passion and working hard.⁠[17]

The Masters of Scale website has a person page for her, describing her as founder of the skincare company Simple Sugars who appeared on Shark Tank and received an investment from Mark Cuban; VoiceAmerica also has a guest page for her, which states that the company has become a multimillion-dollar business employing over 20 people.⁠[18][9]

In 2025 her advice to her 18-year-old self was: “Don’t worry about not going to college.”⁠[11]

Thiel Fellowship: Official website: https://thielfellowship.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[19]

Simple Sugars: Official website: https://www.simplesugarsskincare.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5]

The Ellis School: Official website: https://www.theellisschool.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[10]