Ep 1. Start Up

LuLaRich is an eye-opening four-part docu-series that effectively delves into the story behind a notorious and multi-billion dollar clothing company, LuLaRoe. LuLaRoe became a household name in the latter half of the 2010s, predominantly due to the company's proliferation of their massively successful multi-level marketing (MLM) strategy, which saw thousands of women becoming LuLaRoe sellers in an attempt to earn a living by selling the company's not-so-unique leggings and clothing items via social media and home parties.

The first episode, Start-Up, is all about the company's origins and how it rapidly grew into the MLM behemoth that it would become. In the early 2010s, husband and wife team Mark and DeAnne Stidham were living in California, struggling financially following their previous company's bankruptcy. DeAnne's passion for designing clothes led her to create LuLaRoe, a company that initially sold skirts exclusively. Before she knew it, the brand quickly expanded to include leggings and tops.

Notably, the clothing items that LuLaRoe marketed were not particularly unique from other fashion in the marketplace - the patterns and colors, while vibrant, were pretty standard. The real draw of the company was its atmosphere of positivity and control, which was something that DeAnne was keen on instilling in the company from its inception. The company's motto was "bless and release," which essentially meant that the sellers should appreciate the inventory they receive from the company, and then work hard to sell it to their customers.

The episode goes on to detail how LuLaRoe's MLM structure was set up, with Mark and DeAnne Stidham recruiting and training individuals to become sellers in exchange for a percentage of their sales. The sellers were required to purchase their inventory upfront, with the promise that they could earn a living wage if they worked hard to sell the clothes and recruit other sellers into the LuLaRoe fold. The company culture, which was all about positivity, support, and rah-rah speeches, was a successful recruiting tool, so much so that LuLaRoe grew exponentially in a matter of years, reaching a billion dollars in sales by 2016.

As the show progresses, we learn more about the LuLaRoe corporate culture, and how it often crossed the line into exploitative territory. The company encouraged sellers to buy inventory that they couldn't afford, with the promise of future earnings. Many of the sellers ended up in a financial hole, with mountains of unsold inventory and no prospects for turning a profit. The episode also alludes to the controversial practice of uplines, where sellers were encouraged to recruit other women, who then become their 'downlines.' The upline seller would receive a commission on the downline seller's sales, creating a pyramid scheme that could be unsustainable in the long term.

One of the most striking moments of the episode is when LuLaRoe allegedly recommended that sellers take out loans or sell plasma to pay for their inventory. The company's purported desire to uplift its sellers is one that is called into question when the episode shows that many of the sellers were faced with precarious financial situations and mounting debt as they struggled to sell their inventory.

Start-Up sets the tone for the rest of the series in many ways; it paints a picture of LuLaRoe's beginnings and early success, but also foreshadows the darker turns that the company would eventually take. It's a sobering and informative look at the inner workings of a company that many women pinned their financial hopes on, and how its MLM structure led to difficult and often heartbreaking personal consequences for them.

In conclusion, LuLaRich season 1 episode 1 is a well-crafted introduction to the world of LuLaRoe, its founders, and its dynamics during its startup phase. The episode fleshes out DeAnne and Mark's backstory, and gives viewers insight into how this fashion company that seemed like a positive force ended up causing harm to so many of its sellers' finances and lives. It leaves a lot of intriguing questions that the docu-series will explore in greater depth across its remaining episodes.