She Shut Down Her Business Over One Ingredient—Then Had A $50 Million Comeback

In 2016, Allison Evans was pregnant, sitting in a duplex in Austin with her cofounders, processing customer refunds through the night. They'd just laid off all nine employees at their company, Branch Basics. Angry customers were threatening lawsuits. Investors wanted their money back. The IRS had launched an audit.

Evans, her best friend Kelly Love, and her aunt Marilee Nelson had made an unprecedented decision: shut down the $2 million business after being unable to verify an ingredient in their cleaning product. The brand was founded on promoting nontoxic ingredients, purity and transparency—they couldn't reconcile selling a product that they couldn’t fully explain.