Sep 21, 2026 · 39 min · 12 segments
From aerospace engineering to helping build Rhode, Versed, and Merit Beauty, Melanie Bender has spent her career inside some of the biggest names in modern beauty. Now she's the Founder and CEO of…
Melanie BenderGuestAdam LevinterHostYou are an aerospace engineer first, right before you jumped into entrepreneurship.
So aerospace engineering was the first of three majors that I went through in college.
How someone goes from that to being a beauty founder is a lot of like hand-wringing and hair-pulling because I think it spoke to just my uncertainty about what I wanted to do in life and maybe to my just like joy and curiosity of so many things.
And I think when you're young and you're starting out and you're making your first decisions for yourself, like what you're going to major in, what your first job is going to be, where you're going to live.
I was interested in how all the systems of the earth work together to make rain and all these things.
And I was interested in how brands connect with consumers and help shape identity and beliefs and values.
And, you know, over the last, I guess, 20, 20-ish years, I kind of found my way through all of those and ultimately kind of found how they connect together and helped me build brands that people love, real like rocket ships.
This chapter of entrepreneurship, does it feel different this time around, given your past experience building brands?
You are an aerospace engineer first, right before you jumped into entrepreneurship.
So aerospace engineering was the first of three majors that I went through in college.
How someone goes from that to being a beauty founder is a lot of like hand-wringing and hair-pulling because I think it spoke to just my uncertainty about what I wanted to do in life and maybe to my just like joy and curiosity of so many things.
And I think when you're young and you're starting out and you're making your first decisions for yourself, like what you're going to major in, what your first job is going to be, where you're going to live.
I was interested in how all the systems of the earth work together to make rain and all these things.
And I was interested in how brands connect with consumers and help shape identity and beliefs and values.
And, you know, over the last, I guess, 20, 20-ish years, I kind of found my way through all of those and ultimately kind of found how they connect together and helped me build brands that people love, real like rocket ships.
This chapter of entrepreneurship, does it feel different this time around, given your past experience building brands?
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