She Wanted to Make Hand Sanitizer Sexy, Long Before the Pandemic. Here's How She Made It Into Sephora, and Sold 20 Million Bottles.

Andrea Lisbona grew up successful Barcelona, Spain, successful a family of entrepreneurs. She knew she wanted to travel successful the family contented and commencement her ain company, but wasn't judge wherever to start. Ultimately, she began searching for a merchandise class that was ripe for transformation, but wasn't successful a abstraction pinch excessively overmuch competition.

Ultimately, she decided connected manus sanitizer. This was backmost successful 2014, and Lisbona believed manus sanitizer could go much of a regular daily product, for illustration skincare — if only it looked and smelled better. "No 1 looks guardant to sanitizing their hands," she says. "It was mostly done successful the health-care space."

So she and her hubby launched a bid of manus sanitizers successful Barcelona, but struggled to found the marque successful the European market. "We knew that we had a bully idea, but to make it really return off, we needed to time off our families down and transverse the Atlantic for the U.S.," she says. "That's what we did successful 2018."

They moved to Miami pinch their hand-sanitizer company, Touchland, which, ironically, was doing good until the pandemic — erstwhile everyone abruptly wanted manus sanitizer. Supply chains collapsed arsenic each kinds of companies tried to capitalize.

"Everyone thinks Touchland is simply a success from Covid — thing could beryllium little true," she says.

But passim the chaos, Touchland stuck to Lisbona's imagination of making manus sanitizers successful a measurement that group would want them for mundane use. By 2021, Touchland had a mini beingness successful Sephora stores. Every quarter, income were bully capable that Sephora gave Touchland much space. Today, they person 163 endcaps successful Sephora pinch 1,000 expected adjacent year, on pinch unit partnerships astatine Ulta Beauty, Target and Kohl's. This year, Touchland expects to waste adjacent to 20 cardinal bottles of manus sanitizer. Next year's gross is projected to beryllium much than $100 million. All of this made Lisbona a finalist connected our Entrepreneur of 2024 database of 20 innovative leaders.

Related: From Idea to Execution — The Top 4 Must-Dos for Startup Success

What made large retailers for illustration Sephora judge that Touchland's manus sanitizers would sell?

Sephora saw our products trading 3 times much than skin-care brands, moreover successful the mini spaces they were giving us, truthful they gave america much abstraction small by little. In 2 years, we took complete the stores pinch the endcaps.

Two years isn't very long. How did you grip the challenges that came pinch your operations scaling that fast?

We've been increasing triple digits twelvemonth complete twelvemonth since 2021. Nobody thought a manus sanitizer institution could do that. For us, it's being surrounded by best-in-class partners. They person to beryllium awesome professionals and moreover amended quality beings. When you're increasing that fast, you can't do it alone.

How did your relationships pinch those partners evolve?

It's astir transparency and planning, and not trying to do much than you tin do. We tin beryllium everyplace arsenic a brand, but we person obligations and commitments pinch our partners. We look first astatine our obligations pinch our partners. When they forecast a brand, they ne'er cognize really bully it is going to result. We were ever exceeding the expectations. It was astir being a bully partner.

Did you diminution immoderate opportunities to get Touchland's products connected much shelves?

Yes, we did, and it's very difficult to opportunity no. For example, we had a chance to motorboat internationally pinch a batch of Sephora stores, and we said no, we're going to commencement pinch 1 market, the United States. It would beryllium awesome to beryllium everywhere, but it's important to commencement successful 1 marketplace and execute. We started pinch 1 country, and small by little, we're going to grow. That is simply a very difficult point to do, but I deliberation if you want to build a marque that is present 20 aliases 30 years from now, it does not hap overnight.`

How did you make judge you had capable strategical partnerships to turn the measurement you wanted to grow?

When a supplier holds excessively overmuch business for us, they thief america suffice different supplier to bring successful much business. It's the champion for everyone to diversify.

Did your maturation successful unit stores — the marque consciousness — besides thief you turn online?

Yes. Across TikTok and Instagram, we person 170 cardinal integrated impressions pinch a full mixed pursuing of 720,000. We besides grew connected Amazon and successful aggregate places.

The magic astir it is that we've ne'er had to salary anybody to talk astir the brand. The celebrities, the micro-influencers, it's been purely organic. I deliberation that shows the value of the product.

Related: I Teach Aspiring Entrepreneurs Why It's Good to Fail — Here's How to Turn That Failure Into Success