Jessica Bragdon: Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Koala Eco

Episode 624

On this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, we’re joined by Jessica Bragdon, the passionate Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Koala Eco, a brand that’s redefining eco-friendly products with a mission rooted in love for nature and sustainability. Koala Eco’s range of plant-based, natural home and personal care products is inspired by Jessica’s commitment to creating safe, effective solutions for her family and beyond. Jessica, along with her husband Paul, developed Koala Eco after searching for clean, natural products they could trust, especially after their son’s health challenges. Today, Koala Eco has grown into a globally recognized brand loved for its eco-conscious products and meaningful community initiatives.
In our conversation, Jessica shares the powerful origin story behind Koala Eco, the impact of its partnerships with organizations like One Percent for the Planet, and how the brand is bringing nature back into people’s daily lives. We dive into Koala Eco’s rapid expansion in the U.S. and how Jessica navigates sustainable entrepreneurship, balancing profit with purpose, and the journey of building a brand that truly cares, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. Tune in now on The Kara Goldin Show!

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone. It’s Kara Goldin from the Kara Goldin show. I’m super, super excited to have my next guest here. I have been fan girling over her for a while, since discovering her product on a ladies trip that I went on with a group called Mira and a friend, a mutual friend, Katie introduced us. And the product is called Koala Eco. And if you are not familiar with it, you must get familiar with it, because it is really, really terrific. So Jessica Bragdon is the co founder and CO CEO of Koala Eco, and it’s a trailblazing company dedicated to creating natural eco friendly cleaning and personal care products. So Koala Eco began when she and her husband Paul set out to develop products that could that they could trust to be both safe and effective. I’m going to leave it at that, and let Jessica tell us a lot more about the back story. She is actually living currently in Sydney, but the product is global. You can definitely get it through their website and also on Amazon, and it’s really, really, really terrific. So without further ado, welcome Jessica.

Jessica Bragdon 2:09
Oh, thank you so much for having me. I’ve told you this before, but I’m a huge fan of the podcast and really admire how you support female entrepreneurs. So it’s an absolute pleasure to be here. So thank you.

Kara Goldin 2:20
Thank you so much. Okay, so let’s kick things off with a quick elevator pitch on what is Koala Eco? How do you describe it to people when they ask you?

Jessica Bragdon 2:32
Sure, so Koala Eco, as you said, we make safe, powerful, plant based products for a clean home. Body and Mind is our tagline. We use Australian essential oils. Our products all have safe ingredients, but they’re also incredibly efficacious. And we have a whole suite that involves everything you need for your home, as well as room sprays, body lotions, hand washes and body

Kara Goldin 2:55
washes. So I first tried the kitchen spray. And is it the lemon or is it the Mandarin that I’m so attracted to? It smells so good. Yeah, the kitchen spray

Jessica Bragdon 3:08
was one of our first products that we developed. It has lemon morsel and Mandarin essential oil. And I think that’s one of the key differences with our products, is we don’t use any synthetic fragrance. We don’t use, as people say, natural fragrance, which is still lab derived. We only use essential oils, and part of the reason we use essential oils is not only for the aromatherapy benefits. So when you’re using that kitchen spray, you might have felt a bit happier because Mandarin essential oil is the happy oil, but also because they’re actually they contribute to the efficacy of the products. So the essential oils we use are grown in Australia, and Australia, having such an incredibly harsh climate, has incredible flora, and the plants grown here have to be very resilient. So these essential oils have anti microbial properties. They have anti fungal properties, and then that combined with other, you know, clean ingredients like sugar based alcohol, you know, healthy surfactants that are plant based, creates a really incredibly efficacious but pleasant product to use. So

Kara Goldin 4:11
it’s one thing to have an idea, it’s another thing to execute on that and actually create products as you have. How did this come to be?

Jessica Bragdon 4:22
Yeah, look, I think, you know, going back, I’ve always been someone who I love how you have in the beginning of your podcast about how when you get knocked down, you have to get up. And I think anyone that’s in that entrepreneurial space really does have to have that attitude. I’ve always been someone who loved working for myself. My sister and I, many years ago in Boston, had a floral business, which we started when we finished university, and we ended up selling it, and then moving to New York to go to grad school. So I love being an entrepreneur. I love creating things. I love, you know, working for myself. Paul and I always had wanted. Do a business together. I went to grad school at Columbia. I studied org Psych. I have a master’s in Organizational Psychology and business. Paul is a forensic accountant, so he worked in finance, and we felt that we’d have a comparable skill set. And we had been on our radar to start a business. We had moved to Australia initially, just for one year. It was supposed to just be, we were leaving. We were living in New York City at the time, and we thought we’ll go to Australia and travel and, you know, just have a break for a year. And we just kept, you know, we ended up getting great jobs, and we kept extending. But when we moved here, we were really blown away, or I was blown away by the incredible plants. And so that was definitely something that was in the back of our minds. We wanted to make that a hero of what we were creating. And around the time, we were looking at different businesses and business ideas, our second son, Arthur, was born, and Arthur was born with neuroblastoma, which is a very rare and potentially fatal childhood cancer, so we went through a really tough time with chemotherapy and surgeries, and now he’s a cheeky, healthy 12 year old, so We’re incredibly fortunate and grateful to the to the doctors and nurses that that treated Arthur, but it just made us more aware of what we were spraying around the house, I think, after everything he’d been through with his chemotherapy, Which, of course, he needed to save his life. I felt, you know, like, what can we minimize in our own house if it’s not necessary? And every time we got to buy something that was, you know, clean or green, we just felt like it was either greenwashing or it just didn’t work. And that was sort of one of the aha moments, you know, can we come up with something that works better than what you buy at supermarket, but also has safe ingredients. And then I think the third pillar of what we’d set out to create was that we’d always wanted to be purpose LED. So not only do we want to do all the right things, which we think all businesses should be doing, which is, you know, no new plastic, we use 100% recycled and recyclable. We also have concentrates and glass options. We really wanted to go beyond that, so we were part of 1% for the planet. But we also do things. For example, we sponsor the critters program, which is incredible program that takes underprivileged children and teens out into nature experiences and teaches them about conservation. And we also work with people in parks, which is an organization that teaches people about the mental health benefits around eco psychology and connecting with nature, and we feel like this is a great tie into our actual business, because we’re using 98.7% natural ingredients, and we’re really highlighting these essential oils, and we believe in it. You know, it’s part of it’s part of our purpose. It’s part of everything behind our business is that eco psychology and that connection to nature, more nature feel better.

Kara Goldin 7:47
So the unique blend of Australian native botanicals. How did you how did you learn about this process? I mean, it’s one thing to go from running a floral business and and even creating some of these things in your home to actually getting it to a point where you’re in stores, you’re global, you’re on Amazon, you’re selling direct all of all of this that you’ve been able to accomplish. How did you learn how to do all of this? Yeah,

Jessica Bragdon 8:19
look again. I think it’s everything you everything you go through in life, teaches you. And I think having that business experience, obviously, you know, having a master’s doing all of these things, I think it contributes to to what you’re able to do. And also I think being open and being able to pivot and be agile and moving on your feet are all things. I think that helps one as an entrepreneur. You know, we never, we were never formulating the products ourselves. I don’t pretend to be a chemist. We were very lucky in that we had a family contact in the states who had 45 plus years experience working as a chemist. So we were incredibly fortunate to have him on board, and he has been with us from the start, and just has made these incredible products, you know, obviously, with with us feeding in on the essential oils we wanted to use. So that was, that was really, that was really integral, I think, to how we grew so quickly and, you know, and I think for Paul and I, we really wanted to build the business in Australia. Because, you know, Paul is from Western Australia. He grew up in a very small country town in remote WA, and, you know, Australia really is the ethos and the heart and soul of what we’ve created. And we wanted to take that clean grain Australian essence and bring it to a global company. And that’s what we did. So we’ve, we’ve actually launched in Australia six years ago, and we’re sold across Australia. We export into Korea, Japan, Hong Kong. So the business has just gone from strength to strength. It’s, you know, just grown incredibly quickly. And the US we knew would be, you know, our focus at some point. And this year we launched, actually not this year. We launched in the US about two years ago. Our first stockist was air one, which was fantastic from a marketing perspective, because obviously they are a great place to be and getting lots of attention. We are in all 400 sprouts. We’re in Bristol Farms. We’re in probably a combined total of around 2000 stockists, but we’re putting on probably 100 doors. You know, every, every six weeks, we have national distribution. We’ve got an incredible sales team, green spoon that works underneath the distributors. So it’s been very us focused in the last, you know, in the last 18 months for us, and incredibly busy. One of us is constantly on the plane going back to the US and, yeah, but it’s, it’s been great.

Kara Goldin 10:43
That’s awesome. So you’ve created this amazing grouping of products fairly quickly. And when you think about those early days of starting Koala Eco, what were the first products, first of all, that you launched with. We

Jessica Bragdon 11:00
launched with five products. They are still are some of our best sellers. It was the kitchen multi purpose, which has the lemon Myrtle and Mandarin we spoke of. We also had a glass cleaner with peppermint essential oil. That’s a really beautiful product, because peppermint essential oil is a insect deterrent as well, so it’s a great one to use and you’re cleaning your windows. We had a hand wash with lemon scented eucalyptus and rosemary. That’s a really beautiful product. It’s gentle on your hands, but the lemon scented eucalyptus actually protects you, because it also is antibacterial, but not in the way that you’d have like a harsh chemical antibacterial. It’s just a natural antibacterial. And then we had our bathroom spray, which has eucalyptus Australiana, that’s the king of the eucalypt. That’s an incredible product as well, and a stainless steel cleaner as well.

Kara Goldin 11:49
And then today, how many products do you actually have? Today, we have

Jessica Bragdon 11:52
about 22 skews or products. And we also have refills. We have concentrates, which is a great option as well. So that way, when you have a concentrate, you can just add the what you pour in the amount of the actives, and then all you have to do is add water, so you’re not shipping as much water when you’re ordering that online. And we have a, we have a really strong D to C business as well. So let’s say we are almost a perfect split of D to say and wholesale. So we are truly omni channel in every sense of the world word. And, you know, in some of that, I think when we were starting, it was all e commerce, and everyone was really, you know, getting into being online and and we’re quite lucky in that we sort of thought, well, let’s do this in two ways. We, you know, we wanted to also have people experience the products when they were shopping. And I think that has served us really well with our growth. In the beginning in Australia, before we had a national distributor, it was pretty much Paul and I, you know, just knocking on doors and cold calling shops, gift stores and beautiful grocery stores and and trying to get our products. And I had the boys at the time were very young, and so, you know, they would help me lug products in and merchandise, and it’s been a real family, family experience for us, which which is good. We love

Kara Goldin 13:06
that. And your sister is involved in the company as well, your twin sister, I should mention. So talk to me about that. How did that come about?

Jessica Bragdon 13:16
So Adrian, again, was the person who I had the business with years, many years ago, and we’ve always been pretty inseparable. We went to the same university, moved to New York together, went to the same grad school, worked in hotels together. So we we we’d pretty much been together until Paul and I ended up moving to Australia, and Adrian, at that time, moved across to California with her now husband, and she ended up getting another Master’s in clinical psychology, and was working as a clinical therapist. And when we started the business, she said, Well, I want to be involved as well. So she was an early, early investor, and is our US director. So poor Paul basically can’t escape it. He’s here with his wife, and he goes over to the US, and he gets to spend time with my identical twin sister and work. So it’s, um, no, but it’s, you know, I think people are very wary. I think sometimes about, you know, working with friends. I also have, you know, one of my best friends is our is our director here for sales. But I, and I certainly have put all my eggs in one basket. But so far it’s been, you know, an incredibly rewarding experience, and I wouldn’t do it any other way. So so far so good.

Kara Goldin 14:29
So balancing a purpose driven business with profitability can be super challenging. So how do you approach balancing priorities when you think about growing this business, I’m sure, as you’re talking to retailers, there’s all kinds of economics that go along with getting the proper shelf space on stores. They want you to advertise as well. And then, if you have a direct business, you have to. To get the word out about there through advertising or SEO or whatever, it’s not just about throwing your product up. You have to figure out how to get the consumer to be aware of it. So how have you dealt with that, with having the profitability with a purpose driven business?

Jessica Bragdon 15:20
I think a big factor with that comes down to authenticity. And I think one of the things that Paul and I have done really well, from the products to who we are as people, you know, to how we work with people, we’ve always been authentic, you know, we’re good people. We do the right thing. And I think that really makes a difference with how you how you succeed in the as a business and as co founders. So even with our, you know, we want to, you know, not just talk the talk, but we, even with our purpose, work around connecting to nature. So for our team, what we do is, as part of the paid work week, everyone in the team is supposed to spend two hours a week in nature and not doing, you know, things they normally do, but maybe going to a park or for, you know, a couple of our employees live in, you know, very dense urban areas, and someone was planting a herb garden on the window sill. And then what we do as a team is we talk about it. So we talk about, you know, well, this is what we did this week. Is what I did. This is how it made me feel. And sometimes we share those stories in our social and our community, and I think we’ve started to create a bit of a groundswell movement around that, around connecting to nature. And then I also think, you know, the products speak for themselves. One of the things that’s worked really well for us as a business has been demos, because I feel like with our products, if you can just get them into people’s hands and people can smell them and use them, then they come back and they buy them, so whether that’s online or through one of the local retailers, so that’s been a really important thing that we’ve done in both countries that’s worked really well for us.

Kara Goldin 16:52
So setbacks in any company are inevitable, right? Especially new companies and new products as you’re developing things, what’s maybe one major setback or roadblock, obviously, you got through it that you hit that was kind of challenging for you?

Jessica Bragdon 17:11
Yeah, look, I think, and again, I think that’s a really important question, because I think, again, one of the really important things I think about starting business, or having scale up, or, you know, or beyond that, is the problems don’t go away. It’s really how you how you react with those problems, how you keep going, how you deal with it, and that that’s incredibly important, because if you fall apart or you give up, and that’s usually why business doesn’t work. So, you know, one, one, very big one we had in the beginning was we had just secured a distributor into Asia, which we were incredibly excited about. And we were pretty small at this point. So it was a very big, it was a it was a couple containers worth of products. So it was, you know, a large amount of product, probably about $250,000 worth of products for us. And we sent it off to Beijing. And it was winter, and on the way there, everything froze. So it got there and everything was solid, and the distributor didn’t want it. So we thought, Oh, what are we going to do? We’re doing, you know, this is a disaster. Or if Paul flew out and tried to talk to them and say, Look, all you need to do is thought, and the products are perfectly fine, but they didn’t want it. In the end, it wasn’t the right partnership for us. And you know, I think that was probably more the problem than the products had froze. But you know what? We were able to turn the ship around, bring the products back, and once they warmed back up in Australia, they’re perfectly fine. And we ended up salvaging the products. So, you know, it’s those it’s those things. Those are the type of things I think, that you know, when you’re starting a business, you know, you just never, you can do everything, but you never know what’s going to be around the corner, and you just have to keep persevering.

Kara Goldin 18:49
Yeah, definitely. How have you gotten the word out about Koala Eco? Yeah, look,

Jessica Bragdon 18:55
I think we were really fortunate. I mean, when we started Koala Eco, I didn’t even have an Instagram account, so, you know. And I think looking back now, social has been incredibly important for us, and I’m still on on social. I still do most, you know, most of the copy and copywriting for it and and I love being there, because I love seeing the things and the comments that come in and actually interacting with the consumers. We did a lot of trade shows. We did baby shows, which is a great way for people to see our products. We also had a lot of sort of organic outreach, which is great because we people knew we were a startup. We didn’t have a big budget. So we would send people products, they would use them nine times out of 10. They loved them, and they would talk about them. So that was a really great way for us to get a bit of reach and, you know, and again, I think in Australia, it grew incredibly quickly, but we’re actually seeing that same traction already in the States. So I do think in the end, it comes down to having authenticity and also having a really, you know, great offer for people and great products. And that’s the most. That’s the two most important things.

Kara Goldin 20:02
When you think back on those early days of launching Nira, what advice would you give yourself? Maybe, maybe advice that you’d say I should have done that or totally ignore that. And it doesn’t have to be before launch. It could have been in the early days. It could have even been along the way where you wish you wouldn’t have listened to something, or you wish you would have told trusted your gut, or whatever it is. But I’m curious what you would say to that.

Jessica Bragdon 20:38
I think probably in the beginning, I used to be more upset about small things that would come up, you know, small issues and you know, and as you, as you grow, and as you realize, you know, it’s you really can’t sweat the small stuff. That’s a bit cliche, but it’s true. You just have to, you know, keep going and have that resilience. One thing that we’ve done really well is Paul and I have always been really open to advice and listening to people. And we have an incredible advisory board. So we have Captain Thomas, who’s the former global VP of beauty at Unilever. She is she’s been with us from early days, and she’s amazing. We have Kim crews burger, who commercialized goop. She’s another fantastic advisor for us. And Hillary Peterson, who is the founder of true botanicals, which is a skincare company you would know of it, which is huge in the States. So you know the taking advice from our advisors, and you know, not being afraid to to ask people for help if we’re not sure you know what we’re doing or how we should proceed with something that’s always been something we’ve been really open to, and I think that served us incredibly well. And we have a great team, you know, our Sydney team. We’ve got a global team now. So we’ve got a team based in Sydney. We have someone working out of Bogota, Colombia. We’ve got our US team, and they are incredibly capable, intelligent, and all bring, you know, things that Paul and I couldn’t offer to the business, so we’re grateful for that as well.

Kara Goldin 22:04
How have you funded the company today? So

Jessica Bragdon 22:07
we bootstrapped it ourselves. So the first, you know, for the first couple years, I worked full time on the business, and Paul was a forensic accountant by day, and quality go by night. So that was, you know, it’s been an incredible amount of work. We were able to get friends and family in the in the initial, I think, was the third year we took friends and family and took on some investment. Paul and I are still the majority. We’ve actually just closed the series a raise, which is our first official raise. That was a that was a really great experience for us to both go through and from a trading perspective, we just went from strength to strength. So I think it was, you know, a great experience for everyone. And, yeah, so it’s been, it’s been a lot of hard work, and I don’t think we would change anything we’ve done as far as how we how we financed it, even though it’s, you know, we have made a lot of sacrifices for this business and and, you know, and when you have young children, that’s, you know, something, you do have to have some appetite for risk, because it would be a lot easier sometime for us, you know, for us both, to have, you know, just continued their careers we would, you know, and it was something that we decided collectively to do together. And yeah, wouldn’t change it.

Kara Goldin 23:22
I love it. So I always say ideas are not necessarily cheap, but I always say a dime a dozen versus execution is really the key. When I look at your business, I think you’ve done such a phenomenal job of executing and and building it to date in a relatively short amount of time with quality products, and I just think you’re doing it right. So what do you think has been the key to executing your vision?

Jessica Bragdon 23:57
Look, I think Paul and I had a comparable skill set. So I think we are both able to bring the things we are best at to the table and work well together. And I think that’s been something that has really served us well. I think, you know, also, as mentioned, I think getting the right advice, I think building out the team. You know, we have a incredible distributor system that we have in the US. But that was all something we had to learn. So, you know, we ended up hiring a National Sales Director for the US, and they had been through that before. They’d worked with unify K he, they knew how you had, you know, how the system worked, how you had to have a sales agency underneath. We were really happy this year or not. This year, actually, actually, it was everything there so quickly on your business, we picked up green spoon, which was the sales team that we’ve always wanted to work with. So, yeah, so I think it’s just putting the right, right people in the right places, and, you know, and working extremely hard. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 24:56
you’ve done a phenomenal job, for sure. So, like. Last question, what is, what does success look like to you going forward? I mean, when do you know you’re successful? I guess is, is the question? Yeah,

Jessica Bragdon 25:10
it’s a great question as well. Look, I think, I think the thing about success, right, is, is, if we were to look back and see where we are today and in all of the stockists and the growth that we’ve had, you know, we would have just been blown away. But as you grow, there’s always that next, that next level, and it can become something where you never actually feel success, because you can always get bigger. You could always, you know, be faster. You could always. So I think one of the things that that I’ve really tried to do, and I try to, you know, do this with the team as well, is to celebrate the small wins, celebrate, you know, the fact that, you know, we picked up a new stockist, you know, we’re now going to be, you know, we just found out the other day that we’re going to be, actually, I shouldn’t say it, because I haven’t, we haven’t signed it yet, but it’s going to be another, you know, potentially 400 stores. So we need to, we need to sit back, celebrate these wins and and just be in the moment a little bit. And, you know? And I think that also extends to to family as well. You know, I think I’m the first person to admit that we often don’t get the balance right between between work and family, and it’s incredibly hard. But I think you have to forgive yourself. And I think there’s something also that I think the boys will grow up, you know, hopefully, realizing that that balance isn’t always perfect, and it’s more that you just keep trying. You know, you have dinner together as a family, you you know you apologize when you do things that are wrong, or if you’re on a work call when you should be on some, you know, dealing with a child and helping their homework. I think, I think it’s just getting that balance and checking in with yourself and trying to be the best you can and and not being too hard on yourself.

Kara Goldin 26:49
So Jessica Bragdon, CO, founder and CO, CEO of Koala Eco, thank you so much for joining us today. Everyone needs to purchase your products. Definitely check them out. As I said, I’m a huge fan of the kitchen spray, but all of your products are so good, and your laundry detergent is just something else as well. So so so good. So thank you again for coming on and sharing the story.

Unknown Speaker 27:21
Thanks so much for having me. It’s been an absolute pleasure.

Kara Goldin 27:24
Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin. I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now. You.

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