A Note from Our CEO & Founder

Hello Everyone!

As we enter our 30th year in business, I am still amazed what we have been able to achieve, always managing to punch above our weight.  I started emerginC with a single vitamin C serum out of a rented studio apartment in Manhattan—no money, no marketing plan, just a fax (remember those?), a phone, a closet for a warehouse and an amazing (really!) vitamin C serum whose popularity grew and grew by word of mouth. From there we developed a second product, then a third, and so forth, until we had three complete and unique ranges that are now loved in top spas and by loyal clients around the world.  We now have our own building with an in-house training center and warehouse near the Brooklyn waterfront, with a rooftop filled (in season) with fruit trees, vegetables, herbs and flowers, and our beloved hens.

I tried to stay loyal to the people who helped us build, and to our spa partners, by staying true to the values I learned  in my neighborhood as a kid washing cars, mowing lawns, raking leaves, shoveling snow, and delivering newspapers.  I hustled and made sure the customer was always happy!  I never thought a company was something that I would build just to goose it with private equity money and sell it to the highest bidder.  Those things didn’t even exist when I was little.  I’ve never been to business school and I never read a marketing book.  I trusted my guts and my values and, as I and emerginC evolved, tried to create platform to craft products that people would want to continue to use and create relationships that lasted.  I would always tell my team—and still do—that it is not I who pays them, that I am merely the conduit: it is our customers that pay us and if we lose site of that, we lose everything. 

I never wanted or expected to be the biggest brand out there as I wanted time to “be,” to read, to write, to help raise my children, to enjoy,  as best I could—life.  Money is important and necessary and has value, but it is never itself a value and, in my view, not worth giving up every bit of one’s being or integrity for. The values for us are courtesy and honesty and service and respect for our clients and ourselves, excellence and performance for our magical products, and the leading role we have taken with our industry-first initiatives that nurture our shared planet. 

I could go on, but perhaps that is enough for now.  I remain grateful to all those past and present (and future!) who have helped us along the way, whether they worked for us or partnered with us or just shared kind words along the way.

For our part, we will continue to work—in our small but impactful way— for a better world, re-filled with new hope and joy.

With gratitude,

Ian Lirenman