When The Honest Company debuts on the Nasdaq this week, actress Jessica Alba will likely take center stage on the podium to ring the bell—capping off a seemingly remarkable success story. It all began in 2008 when a pregnant Alba couldn’t find reasonably priced natural and eco-friendly baby products and had the idea for a “clean and natural” products brand—selling dozens of products, including fashionable diapers for babies, detergents and wipes. The business is now poised to go public at a valuation of between $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion.

“At Honest, we prioritize transparency, trust and sustainability in all that we do,” declares the company’s IPO prospectus, which was filed in April with the Securities and Exchange Commission. What’s little mentioned: Honest’s road to public markets has been rocky—with class action lawsuits over false advertising and allegedly harmful products, executive turnover and a down funding round. The company’s filings point out that sales grew 28% last year, from $236 million to $300 million, but that’s about even with what they were five years ago.

And while Honest’s potential valuation is sure to grab headlines, that predicted value is—at best—flat from 2015, when the company raised $100 million at a $1.7 billion valuation. Meanwhile the S&P 500 has doubled in that time and the stock prices of competitors such as Unilever and Estée Lauder have risen by 30% and 246%, respectively. What was once a high-growth unicorn—landing Alba a spot on Forbes’ list of America’s wealthiest self-made women in 2016—has essentially flatlined while its competitors are thriving.

Since 2017, the company chaired by cofounder Alba has cut down its workforce, discontinued some of its offerings, upgraded or reformulated 90% of its products and moved away from its focus on direct-to-consumer to right the ship. The changes have helped Honest grow its gross margins, although it’s unlikely that the business, which lost $31 million in 2019 but trimmed its net loss to $14.5 million last year, has ever been profitable. When Honest goes public, it’s unclear if there will be many winners.

Even at the high end of the pricing range, Alba’s 6% stake (including options) would only be worth just under $100 million. That is far less than the $340 million Forbes estimated she was worth when we estimated her stake to be 20% and put her on our 2016 list of America’s most successful self-made women. As for the company’s investors, most of them likely will make out just fine, putting money into the company at lower valuations ranging from less than $100 million for the earliest investors pre-2014 to $860 million in a 2017 round. Silicon Valley firm Institutional Venture Partners, for one, bought into Honest in 2011 and made an investment in half a dozen rounds since, including at its peak valuation of $1.7 billion in 2015, according to Pitchbook. Honest will be “IVP’s 5th exit this year,” a spokesperson for IVP told Forbes. Yet for those who bought in only at the 2015 high at the $1.7 billion valuation—like AllianceBernstein—it would take a hefty stock pop to make an exit profitable. The Honest Company would not comment for this story, citing a quiet period prior to the IPO.

“[Working there] was a really good lesson, kind of riding the rocket ship up,” says a former director at Honest who was at the company at its height. “Then, at some point, you run out of fuel. You're either in outer space, or you're coming back down. I would short the stock.

The story of The Honest Company begins in 2008, when Jessica Alba broke out in a rash from her first baby’s detergent while washing onesies. Alba, who had chronic asthma and allergies as a kid, set off to find safer, more natural products but struggled to find the right stuff. "I felt like my needs weren't being met as a modern person," she told Forbes in 2015. "I want beautiful design like everybody else. But it shouldn't be premium-priced, and it should, of course, be safe."

So she reached out to Christopher Gavigan, who led a nonprofit called Healthy Child Healthy World, and the duo teamed up with two others: Brian Lee, an attorney who cofounded LegalZoom.com, and Sean Kane, an executive at e-commerce site Pricegrabber.com. Lee and Alba, with another undisclosed investor, provided the initial seed money of $6 million, but they turned to Silicon Valley to fund the business’ growth in 2011. Venture capital money started flowing in from the likes of General Catalyst and IVP. Honest banked on e-commerce and was also able to attract both high-end boutiques in New York and in L.A. as well as major retailers such as Costco, Target and Whole Foods. Its dozens of products, including diapers, household cleaners and sunscreen—labeled as natural and organic—were a hit. Within three years, the company was doing $150 million in sales and had raised nearly $100 million from investors, at a valuation of $865 million.

In June 2015, Alba appeared on the cover of Forbes as an up-and-comer to the list of the America’s Richest Self-Made Women. Honest had grown from $10 million in sales to an estimated $250 million in 2015. It was eyeing new headquarters in Playa Vista and was on a hiring spree. Forbes valued the business at $1 billion—making Alba, who we estimated owned 15% to 20%, worth about $200 million.

Less than two months later, Honest closed a $100 million round in Series D financing, which valued the company at $1.7 billion. Alba’s net worth had ballooned to an estimated $340 million, and an IPO seemed on the horizon. “Should the company go public as expected, Alba could well be on her way to the billionaires' club—not a bad return for an initial $6 million seed investment by Alba and cofounder Brian Lee,” Forbes wrote at the time.