We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jen Sugermeyer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jen, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I didn’t set out to build a beauty brand. I was in a high-pressure corporate career, outwardly successful but internally burned out, disconnected, and struggling. Getting sober became a turning point for me. It forced me to slow down, face myself, and become intentional about how I wanted to live. As part of rebuilding my life, I started paying attention to small daily rituals, including skincare. My skin looked stressed and inflamed, and the tools and methods I was using felt unhygienic, messy, and disconnected from real life. I began sketching a better way to apply products, something cleaner, smarter, and more purposeful. That is how The Applicator® was born, not from a boardroom, but from a season of personal transformation.

What made me realize this was worth pursuing was that I had unintentionally designed something truly different. I saw that the industry obsessed over formulas but ignored application, even though how you apply affects hygiene, waste, absorption, and results. The logic was clear: a patented, precise tool that stimulates collagen and circulation could turn any routine into a performance-driven ritual, without adding steps. That is when I decided this could be more than a product. I wanted to build a brand with tangible tools and masks, and an intangible message: empowering people to be intentional about the direction of their lives and what they want out of it. ATA stands for Attitude, Thoughts, Actions, because when you change those, everything, including your skin, can change.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Jen Sugermeyer, founder and CEO of ATA Cosmetics, a Dallas-based, woman-owned skincare brand built around one simple idea: how you apply your products matters just as much as what you use. I came into this industry from a senior corporate IT career, not from beauty. My path changed when I hit a personal breaking point, got sober, and began rebuilding my life with intention. That journey led me to skincare as a daily ritual of self-respect and consistency. I became obsessed with the gap I saw: we invest in advanced formulas, yet apply them with our fingers or unhygienic tools that waste product and ignore the power of touch and massage. That curiosity turned into invention. I designed and patented The Applicator®, a stainless-steel precision tool that delivers touchless, hygienic application while stimulating collagen, boosting circulation, and enhancing absorption, all with no extra steps.

Today, ATA Cosmetics offers patented application tools and full-coverage biocellulose masks for the face, neck, and chest, serving both professionals like estheticians and everyday consumers, especially busy women navigating perimenopause, menopause, and aging, or anyone seeking a clean-beauty, proactive approach to healthy skin. We solve real problems: wasteful application, lack of hygiene, inconsistent results, and routines that feel too complicated to sustain. What sets us apart is that we are not just another skincare brand. We are creating a new category around application science. Our products are compact, hygienic, travel-ready, and performance-driven. ATA also stands for Attitude, Thoughts, Actions, reflecting our deeper mission to pair tangible products with an intangible message: empowering people to be intentional about the direction of their lives and what they want out of it.

What I’m most proud of is turning a personal transformation into something that now helps others feel more confident and in control of their skin and their routines. I’m proud that our hero products are patented, that we are woman-owned and Texas-based, and that professionals trust our tools in treatment rooms and post-procedure care. More than anything, I’m proud that ATA reminds people, twice a day, that small intentional actions compound into big change. I want our community to know we are about smarter rituals, not more steps. About results, not hype. And about empowering you to age on your terms, with tools and products that work as hard as you do.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One of the clearest examples of my resilience is the season when I chose sobriety while continuing in a demanding senior corporate role. I did not step away from my career. I learned how to show up differently. Getting sober meant facing everything I had been avoiding and rebuilding my life from the inside out, while still carrying the weight of high expectations at work and at home. In the middle of that, I started sketching what would become The Applicator® at my kitchen table. I was exhausted, but clear. That season taught me discipline, humility, and consistency. It was not dramatic. It was daily. And it changed everything.

What carried me through was an unshakable belief that if I could get through sobriety, I could do anything. My dad raised me to know I could learn and do whatever I set my mind to, and that mindset never left me. So when patents stalled, prototypes needed tweaking, and I had to teach myself an entirely new industry, I did not question whether I could do it. I just figured out how. I went back to school for cosmetic science while building ATA and stayed grounded in the same one-day-at-a-time resilience sobriety gave me. ATA exists because I learned to trust the process, stay intentional, and keep moving forward, no matter how hard or unfamiliar the path became.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

One resource that has had a profound impact on my entrepreneurial mindset is Three Feet from Gold by Sharon Lechter and Greg Reid. The message is simple but powerful: most people quit right before the breakthrough. That idea reshaped how I think about obstacles, timing, and persistence. Building ATA Cosmetics has been full of moments where progress felt slow: patent delays, product development hurdles, and learning a new industry. That book reminded me that effort compounds, even when you cannot yet see the result, and that staying in the game is often the difference between failure and success.

That philosophy shows up directly in how I lead and build. I do not chase quick wins. I commit to long-term vision, discipline, and consistency. Whether it is staying patient through R&D, investing in education, or building a brand rooted in intention and trust, Three Feet from Gold reinforces my belief that resilience, not shortcuts, creates lasting companies. It is a mindset that aligns deeply with ATA itself: small, intentional actions, done every day, can change everything.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.atacosmetics.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ata.cosmetics/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@atacosmetics

Image Credits

Credit to Carmine LiDestri for some of the photos from his photoshoot