In 2021, beauty mogul Huda Kattan posted a YouTube video titled “Stepping Down As CEO Of Huda Beauty.” It wasn’t an announcement of detachment. It was a recalibration. “I had given up a lot of control,” she admitted. “I didn’t feel proud of what we were creating.” So she stepped back in. Kattan had built one of the fastest-growing beauty brands in the world, and she wasn’t about to watch it become unrecognizable under outside influence. Taking back the reins wasn’t a regression. It was a return to purpose.

The same instinct drew Gregg Renfrew back to Beautycounter, the clean beauty company she founded in 2013. In April 2024, two years after stepping aside, Renfrew bought the company back from its private equity owner and re-assumed the CEO role under the company's name name, Counter. “I came back to ensure our movement continues,” she told WWD. That movement – changing the beauty industry’s safety standards – wasn’t something she was willing to see diluted.

Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter, offers a different but equally powerful example of long-term ownership and stewardship. After starting the brand in her Brooklyn kitchen in the early 1990s, Price built Carol’s Daughter into a household name in textured hair care. When the brand was acquired by L’Oréal in 2014, she remained deeply involved in its direction. More than a decade later, she still holds a visible and hands-on role, ensuring the company stays true to its mission. “As women we sometimes want our business relationships to be like our friendships. We want to be friends with people and close with people and confide in people.” she shared, “That can work out to be a disadvantage if you end up in business with someone that you ultimately find out that you can't trust.”

This growing wave is not anecdotal. A Modern Retail article from earlier this year noted that more founders, particularly in consumer brands, are buying back their companies or shares from investors, even if it means a slower path to scale. In many cases, they do it quietly. “They want more control over the brand again,” writes journalist Gabriela Barkho, citing examples from fashion to food to wellness. “They want to preserve what made it successful in the first place.”

The motivation isn’t always rooted in misalignment. More often, it is about identity. Norma Kamali, Owner of Norma Kamali Inc., has never sold her company in over five decades. In a culture that constantly rewards fast growth and faster exits, Kamali's enduring independence reads as radical. “I’ve always been about integrity,” she told Fashionista. “If my name is on it, it has to be mine.”

And then there’s Taylor Swift, who took the idea of reclamation mainstream. After the masters of her first six albums were sold without her consent, she responded not with a legal battle, but with a re-recording campaign that has made music industry history. Her decision reframed ownership not just as legal territory, but as emotional truth. You can't own what you didn’t help build.

This phenomenon isn’t just cultural. It’s strategic. A 2019 Forbes article on founder buybacks outlines how these moves are increasingly seen as savvy long-term plays. “It’s a sign of the times,” writes Geri Stengel. “As investors focus on faster returns, some founders are choosing to prioritize values, mission, and sustainable growth—even if it means stepping away from external funding.”

Independence isn’t a static state. It evolves with experience, ambition, and, in many cases, hard-won clarity. For the women leading this shift, the decision to stay or return isn’t about resisting change. It is about insisting on alignment. Their message is subtle but powerful: This is mine. And I know what it’s worth.