Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop ‘Can Be A Tough Place To Work,' But Its Vision Is Clear, A New Biography Claims: ‘It's All About Gwyneth'

Forbes

29-07-2025

Gwyneth Paltrow attends the 2023 CFDA Awards at American Museum of Natural History on November 6, ... More 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
Love her or hate her—when it comes to Gwyneth Paltrow, it's difficult to look away.
This has led to the popularity of Paltrow's lifestyle brand, Goop, since its creation in 2008 as a newsletter written from her kitchen table—and that public fascination has now led to the writing of journalist Amy Odell's new book Gwyneth: The Biography, out July 29. Odell tells me over Zoom that she spent three years interviewing more than 220 people who knew Paltrow at different stages of her life—ranging from friends to those who worked with her on movie sets to those who worked with her at Goop—'and I wanted to pull back the curtain on how she became so famous and so polarizing,' she says. 'She's someone people are magnetically attracted to, but she's also been super controversial, and that's what I think the book does, is really tell that story and also explain how she impacted various industries—entertainment, obviously, but also fashion, beauty and, perhaps most significantly, wellness.'
All of Paltrow's life experiences—from being a 1990s 'It Girl' and winning the Academy Award for Best Actress at just 26 years old to being raised as the privileged daughter of Bruce Paltrow and Blythe Danner (as Odell reminds me, 'I mean, Steven Spielberg is her godfather') and so much in between—led to the creation of Goop 17 years ago and its trajectory ever since. While Odell's book covers so much more than Goop—from her high-profile relationships to her childhood to her acting career—it also leans heavily into Paltrow as an entrepreneur. 'She seems really ambitious,' Odell tells me. 'She obviously juggles a lot of things capably.' She's authentic, she adds, and 'was never shy about just being who she is. This is all she knows. So I think that really works in her favor.'
Gwyneth Paltrow attends Veuve Clicquot Celebrates 250th Anniversary with Solaire Exhibition on ... More October 25, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/WireImage)
It's nearly impossible to separate Paltrow the businesswoman from Paltrow the woman, and Gwyneth paints a holistic portrait of the 52-year-old's life. Of Goop, Odell says, 'Gwyneth made it very appealing through her taste—her really good taste—and she made it a world that people wanted to be a part of.'
'The problem is, she wanted to do everything, and she wanted to do it all perfectly'
At the office, Paltrow is known mostly as 'GP'; she often rolls up to the Goop offices—wearing, of course, Goop's G. Label clothing line—and parks her white Range Rover in a spot labeled 'Reserved for G-Spot.' As a boss, 'Some people find it to be quite challenging,' Odell says of Paltrow. 'But I think the good thing about working for her is that her vision is very clear. She has this extraordinary taste—a really sophisticated aesthetic and aspirational aesthetic that she brought to the wellness industry. I think that's, in part, what made Goop and Goop's wellness content so appealing. It was this gorgeous, aspirational aesthetic she brought to it.'
Dr. Ella Bell and Gwyneth Paltrow, CEO and Founder of Goop, speak onstage during day three of The ... More MAKERS Conference 2024 at The Beverly Hilton on February 29, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo byfor The 2024 MAKERS Conference)
Right down to the company's name, Paltrow is in the midst of it—Goop was chosen as a moniker because of Paltrow's initials, GP, and the perceived fact that companies with double Os—think Google or Yahoo!—did well. According to Odell's book, Paltrow initially thought the name was 'stupid and funny,' and she has also said in the past that Goop was 'an old nickname' (her father, Bruce, apparently used to call her 'Goopie'). True to Paltrow's authentic nature, two Miramax executives told Odell that they remembered Paltrow using a [e-mail] email address back in the 1990s. She is who she is.
As a boss—Paltrow has served as CEO of Goop since 2016, eight years after founding it—she has 'very strong ideas and a very clear vision,' Odell says. 'The problem is, she wanted to do everything, and she wanted to do it all perfectly.'
Paltrow, known as a perfectionist, has also seen Goop spread itself rather thin—from beauty to fashion to wellness to food to newsletters to podcasts to Netflix shows, there are few verticals that the company hasn't touched. 'So people felt overworked, and there wasn't a lot of money for everything they were doing—some people felt like they didn't have enough budget for freelancers and things like that,' Odell says. 'So there's a lot of work to be done, and there's this perfectionism that she wants to achieve. So people felt pressure from that.'
Gwyneth Paltrow, Powerhouse Brand of the Year Award recipient, attends The Daily Front Row's Seventh ... More Annual Fashion Los Angeles Awards at The Beverly Hills Hotel on April 23, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo byfor Daily Front Row)
If you walk into Paltrow's office, she wants you to get directly to the point, Odell says, and 'then you could just go.' When Paltrow shines her light on someone, 'it feels amazing and people really thrive, but there's a fear that it's going to be taken away,' Odell tells me. If it does get taken away, in comes the stress, and 'that stress could just permeate the office environment.' Some, Odell says, called Paltrow 'icy and cold and aloof,' drawing comparisons to Vogue's departing editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, whom Odell also profiled in a 2022 biography.
'I think it can be a tough place to work,' Odell says. 'That said—[it's] not for everybody. Some people found it to be really tough. Some people ignored the chaos and were fine, and people said they liked that the vision was very clear, which was that it's Gwyneth. It's all about Gwyneth.'
'She's like the original influencer'
Much like when Paltrow shines her light on an employee and they feel her warmth, so it is when Paltrow promotes Goop's products—that's when they do the best. 'They do sell,' Odell says. 'People want to buy what she's wearing. She looks great in the clothes, and she looks great wearing the mascara. So she's very powerful in that way. But what if she gets tired of it? People tell me she doesn't love doing the social media content—not that I can blame her. She's got a lot on her plate.'
Gwyneth Paltrow, CEO and founder of lifestyle juggernaut Goop, makes her first appearance in the ... More Tank as a guest Shark on 'Shark Tank.' (Christopher Willard/ABC via Getty Images)
Goop came about when Paltrow was living in London with her ex-husband Chris Martin and their two young kids: Apple, born in 2004, and Moses, born in 2006. After becoming a mother, Paltrow dialed back her work as an actress, which seems to be revving up again after both kids have now gone away to college. That leaves questions about the future of Goop—after all, what is Goop without Paltrow? 'I'm not saying Gwyneth is not there for the company, but if she changes her mind—so the investors I spoke to, they did not see a super bright future for Goop, I have to say,' Odell says.
Before Goop, Paltrow threw her star power behind brands like American Express and Estée Lauder before she realized, 'Hey, why am I using my image to promote these other brands when I can use it to build my own brand?' Odell says of Paltrow's possible thought patterns during that time period. 'Which is incredibly savvy. And I think, in that way, she's like the original influencer, because she realized that she could use her image to drive purchases, and she did really early affiliate deals before anyone was calling them affiliate deals, and now affiliate deals are this huge industry.'
'I think she's been so strategic,' Odell tells me.
Gwyneth Paltrow celebrates the launch of good.clean.goop at Goop on October 18, 2023 in Santa ... More Monica, California. (Photo byfor good.clean.goop)
Since its newsletter origins, it has focused on the aforementioned beauty (Goop Beauty and Good Clean Goop), fashion (G. Label), wellness (Goop Wellness) and food (Goop Kitchen) verticals; it has had a Netflix series, a podcast, dipped its toe into home furnishings and courted controversy for its perceived pseudoscience and boundary-pushing products, like a viral candle advertised as smelling like Paltrow's orgasm. Many people told Odell that Goop has spread itself too thin, 'that they did too much,' she says. 'They raised a lot of money, too. One expert I talked to said they probably never should have raised that much money.' Odell's many interviews led her to believe that 'they can keep going probably for a very long time, just as they are today,' she says. 'I think it's probably really up to Gwyneth—do I want to keep doing this? Do I want to have a little bit more flexibility and maybe license more of this business? I think it's really up to her.'
In September 2024, Goop let go 18 percent of its staff—affecting about 40 people—followed by a second round of layoffs last November. The goal of the reduction is to 'optimize operational efficiency and revenue growth in our key verticals of beauty and fashion,' a Goop spokesperson told Business Insider. The spokesperson declined to provide specific revenue figures, but said revenue grew year-over-year in 2023 and was on track to grow again in 2024. While the spokesperson declined to say if Goop—a privately-held company—is profitable, Business Insider did report in November that Goop Beauty revenue was up 21 percent over the year prior, and the fashion brand G. Label was up 45 percent. The outlet reported that Goop has raised more than $140 million and was most recently valued at $433 million (per PitchBook); last fall, Paltrow told WWD that, after the first round of layoffs, Goop was 'back in growth mode.'
'What I'm most excited about is the refining of the brand that we're doing—our hyperfocus on beauty, fashion and food,' Paltrow told Fortune in March. 'Those are the verticals where we're seeing incredible product-market fit and margin. Food, beauty and G. Label all grew exponentially last year. Since COVID, we've had to stay so agile, and getting to the other side of that and focusing on our strengths—there's power in that.'
Founder and CEO of Goop Gwyneth Paltrow speaks onstage during 'The Rise of Goop: Building a ... More Tastemaking Empire' at Vanity Fair's 6th Annual New Establishment Summit at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on October 22, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo byfor Vanity Fair)
Paltrow called layoffs 'painful' and told the publication that 'it's always a very difficult thing to do, but sometimes for the rigor of the business, it's necessary.'
'I hate doing that more than anything in the world,' she continued, adding that Goop was 'very, very close' to being profitable, 'which is incredibly exciting, and a big milestone.'
Not bad for a newsletter sharing recipes and recommendations with no monetization strategy in place in the company's early days. Back then, Odell writes, 'the whole spectacle of Goop was just plain entertaining, like a very curated look into her life.' Speaking of a look into her life—and into Paltrow's influence—after she announced in 2014 that she and Martin were separating after 10 years of marriage, famously calling it a 'conscious uncoupling,' Goop.com 'received so much traffic, the site crashed,' Odell writes. As the company monetized and got into e-commerce, 'I didn't understand anything,' Paltrow said, as quoted in Gwyneth. 'I didn't finish college. I didn't go to business school. I didn't go up through a corporate environment.'
'They just grew too big'
Going forward, as Paltrow said herself, Goop's strategy is to niche down on beauty, fashion and food: 'The best thing to do is just embrace your niche, and scale can come from that,' Paltrow said at the 2024 Forbes Power Women's Summit. 'A lot of mistakes have come from me not understanding that.'
'We have a lot of intention around what we're doing, and I'm proud that we're still alive and kicking,' she added.
Gwyneth Paltrow attends the 'Encore! Embracing the new entertainment era' session during the Cannes ... More Lions International Festival Of Creativity 2024 day two at Amazon Port Plaza Stage on June 18, 2024 in Cannes, France. (Photo by)
If Goop could go back in time, it should have done this from the start, Odell tells me. 'People I talked to said she might've been better off just trying to prove one vertical first—just do beauty and kill it in beauty, and then maybe you iterate from there,' she says, citing Kim Kardashian's Skims and its commitment to shapewear as an example. While Skims was founded by Kardashian, it's not all about Kardashian, 'and that makes you stronger, I think, as a celebrity brand,' Odell says.
With Goop, 'I think what happened there—this is my informed view on it—is that they built out all those different businesses, the clothing, the beauty, the events, all of that,' Odell says. 'And they just grew too big. It was just too expensive to do all of that, a lot to build out a staff, to do a beauty line, to do a clothing line, a staff to do content. So they cut back because they needed to. The expenses were just too high.' As Odell writes in Gwyneth, 'Not only was the pace and breadth of work unsustainable for employees, it would also prove unsustainable for Goop.'
'[But] they're still there and the company's still going,' Odell tells me. 'And Gwyneth is still the CEO.'
These days, Odell was told the Goop Kitchen is the company's biggest moneymaker—hence food making the cut alongside beauty and fashion as the path forward. When asked about a possible exit someday, Paltrow told Fortune, 'I'm in building mode and not thinking about an exit right now. I don't even really want to think about it for another three years, or even start thinking about it.'
Gwyneth Paltrow and Michaela Boehm speak onstage during the goop lab Special Screening in Los ... More Angeles, California on January 21, 2020. (Photo by)
It remains uncertain what will come of Goop, but what Odell knows? 'Whatever happens with Goop, Gwyneth will be fine,' she writes in the book. 'She has a way of emerging victorious from any calamity.'
Goop's success, in large part, boils down to Paltrow and the public's inability to take its eyes off her, a woman who Odell writes possesses 'an enduring level of status and fascination few ever achieve.'
'Goop was a window into a certain elitism,' she continues in the book. 'And people couldn't look away.' To a degree, they still can't.