Sasha Plavsic

Sasha Plavsic came from a branding and typography design background, having worked for fashion companies globally before returning to her parents' Vancouver home following a breakup and struggling with cystic acne.

Her mother — who had supported Sasha's brother through severe asthma and allergies via homeopathy and chemical-free diet changes — handed her a list of her cosmetic ingredients and asked her to read them. Plavsic later described that list as 'startling'.

ILIA launched in 2011 with organic tinted lip balms developed alongside a chemist and housed in clean, design-forward packaging. The brand grew to a $100M enterprise before being acquired in 2022 by the private investment fund of the Courtin-Clarins family — their first major beauty investment.

In 2021, the same week she completed the ILIA sale, Plavsic was hospitalized with a severe kidney infection linked to years of founder burnout. She has since shared the story publicly to warn other female entrepreneurs.

Plavsic combined her design discipline with rigorous ingredient scrutiny — clean formulation arrived through her mother's influence, not through marketing strategy.

She has used her post-exit platform to surface the under-discussed reality of founder burnout, citing the Female Founders Alliance figure that 75% of female entrepreneurs experience it.