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Shreya Dhanasekaran · · 5 min readHow serial founder bootstrapped beauty brand Coco & Eve to profitability, strong growth
A decade ago, the trend of beauty subscription boxes took off. This variant of subscription ecommerce, focused on sending samples of beauty products to consumers, arrived in Asia amid strong media publicity.
One of the prominent players was Bellabox, which was founded by Emily Hamilton.
But the boom in beauty subscription box players did not have legs. The trend quickly unraveled as companies were faced with limited availability of beauty samples to put in their boxes.
Bellabox was not exempt from this.
Hamilton explains that the firm had to keep recreating its product, sending customers boxes filled with different cosmetics samples every month. It also faced heavy competition in Singapore and Australia.
Inspired by the Island of the Gods
After her experience with Bellabox, Hamilton realized that she not only wanted to create a new brand, but also to own the whole value chain around the product.
“We also wanted to focus on profitability in our business. The margins had to be good and Bellabox’s margins were low,” she adds.
Hamilton came up with the idea for Coco & Eve after spending “countless holidays” exploring Bali and being inspired by its flora and fauna.
Coco & Eve founder Emily Hamilton / Photo credit: Coco & Eve
The company‘s vegan, clean, and cruelty-free skin and hair care products “got a lot of interest from retail straight away,” the founder shares.
The demand from consumers for sustainable products has made Coco & Eve one of those rare firms that is bootstrapped, profitable, and debt-free.
The brand made US$45 million in revenue in 2022, with its year-to-date revenue growth for 2023 standing at 41%.
Finding your online groove
Coco & Eve generates publicity through online ratings and reviews. “Social media is a big way for us to find customers, connect, and build this community,” says Hamilton.
As of end-June, the brand had 973,000 followers on Instagram and about 231,000 followers on TikTok.
Expanding physical presence
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The Singapore-based firm expects its sales to grow 40% year on year in 2023.
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