At this point, through trial and error, he was more familiar with the process, and knew he wanted to make his sunscreen premium quality. He took the money and, with the help of a mentor, he found a third Los Angeles-based lab, which created “a beautiful product,” according to Birchby. Birchby, knowing it was that or nothing, accepted. When Birchby went back to try to get his money back from that company, they told him the best they could offer was 30 cents to the dollar. ![]() Turned out, the company had used the wrong ink. When Birchby went to check out the final product, the silk screen came right off each of the packages. This time he found a bigger lab, a one-stop shop also in Los Angeles, that offered not only a good sunscreen option which tested just right for SPF, but also offered to silk screen the tubes as well. The then inexperienced Birchby was out about $30,000, but still had enough money, which he’d won playing online poker, to try again. When he went to the brothers demanding a better product or his money back, they told him they wouldn’t pay him back and were, in fact, shutting down their production. They made a sunscreen formula that was smooth and light, but when Birchby went to get it tested for SPF, instead of coming back with a 30 grade or higher, it came in at a two. To get started, Birchby went to a small lab in Los Angeles run by two brothers who’d previously worked with a cosmetics company. After searching for better sunscreen options and not finding the results he wanted, he set out to create his own healthy, wearable sunscreen. After my parents were both diagnosed with melanoma - fortunately, they both caught it in time - it was during my first trip to the dermatologist that I had my first reality check of all the sun damage I’d gotten so far in my life.”īirchby said he and his three brothers would go to a summer house in Long Island, New York, as kids and stay out in the sun all day, tanning and sometimes even blistering on their noses and shoulders. “Living in Venice, I’d see organic cleaners and organic food products. “Living in New Jersey, organic anything just wasn’t a thing at the time,” he said. He added the company has seen a growth of 70 percent year-over-year.īirchby, who was raised in New Jersey and received his bachelor’s degree in English and art from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, said he was first introduced to the term organic after moving to Venice around the summer of 1998. According to Birchby, Coola LLC has annual revenue of approximately $40 million. They are also available at properties like Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills and Fred Segal Apothecary in Santa Monica, among other locations. Coola face, body and active sunscreen products are sold in stores like Ulta Beauty, Sephora and Nordstrom and e-commerce platform Amazon. Today, Coola LLC, the parent company to Coola and sister company Bare Republic (launched in 2015), has approximately 50 full-time employees and is headquartered in a 43,500 square-foot building in Carlsbad. ![]() When both of his parents were diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer just months apart from each other in the early 2000s, Birchby, who was attending the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena at the time, was inspired to create his own mineral-based, all natural and organic sunscreen.Īfter hitting numerous roadblocks, including an initial iteration that didn’t meet SPF requirements, a second batch that had the wrong ink on the packaging and a third round which was all lost in a warehouse fire, Birchby’s Coola - a name inspired by the Bella Coola region of British Columbia - finally hit the market in 2007. Sometimes, you don’t get it right on the first try - just ask Coola LLC founder and CEO, Chris Birchby. Revenue: Approximately $40 million a yearĬompany Description: An eco-conscious suncare company that uses natural and organic ingredients in its sunscreen formulations.
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