She built an $11 million lingerie business—and landed an $85 million deal

The business behind the number

A bra and an energy drink rarely belong in the same business story. Michelle Cordeiro Grant has made room for both. Her career follows an appealing idea: an everyday purchase can carry a whole way of living, and a founder who understands that connection can build something people want to belong to.

Lively was the New York chapter. Founded in 2015 and launched to shoppers in 2016, the lingerie business combined the ease of activewear with intimates. Grant had previously worked at Victoria’s Secret. Her own company put community at the centre of the proposition; Wacoal specifically highlighted its ambassador programme when announcing the acquisition.

The financial record gives the story its scale. Wacoal’s July 2019 filing shows Lively’s parent company generated $11.49 million in net sales in 2018, up from $5.315 million in 2017. It also recorded a $3.728 million net loss in 2018. Sales were growing quickly, while profitability remained a challenge.

Wacoal agreed to pay $85 million for all shares, with additional performance-related consideration. The acquisition announcement set that additional amount within a $20 million to $55 million range over four fiscal years. Later Forbes reporting described the sale as $105 million. The headline’s $85 million is the initial purchase price disclosed by the buyer; none of these figures represents Grant’s personal take-home proceeds. Other investors also owned shares.

From the wardrobe to the refrigerator

After the sale, Grant eventually returned to building. Retail Dive reported her departure from Lively’s chief executive role, effective October 2022, as she moved toward new ventures. Fortune subsequently reported that she moved from New York to Florida in 2022, where the ubiquity of energy drinks helped spark the next idea.

Gorgie launched in January 2023. The opportunity, as Grant described it to Forbes, was to reach consumers—particularly women—who did not connect with the established energy-drink brands. The proposition extended beyond what was inside the can to the colours, the image and the situations in which people might carry it.

By July 2025, Forbes reported that Gorgie had raised $37 million, including a $24.5 million Series A, and expanded into more than 1,900 Target stores. Those are funding and distribution milestones, rather than a measure of profit. The brand had also taken a swimwear collection to Miami Swim Week, carrying its aesthetic into an entirely different product category.

That crossover is the intriguing lifestyle angle. Grant’s businesses make a routine purchase feel like a statement of taste. A drink can sit beside a swimsuit in the same visual world; a lingerie label can offer a sense of membership as well as something to wear. For a founder, the commercial question is whether that affinity survives beyond the first purchase.

An exit, and another beginning

Lively’s later history adds perspective to the early success. In May 2026, Retail Dive reported that the brand had been shuttered earlier that year, with its website redirecting to Wacoal’s B.tempt’d. A successful founder exit and a brand’s long-term fate can follow different paths.

Grant’s next act is already in motion. The most revealing feature of her story is the decision to build again: to take experience from one category and test it in another, with a different product but a familiar emphasis on belonging. The money makes the first chapter striking. The second asks how much of that instinct can travel.