Humble Beginnings

It was a cold winter day in mid January around 5pm in Denver where it all began. I was having a  conversation with a friend about skincare. They mentioned that all the skincare products they use are limited to cocoa butter and required putting them on multiple times a day to not be ashy. 

As I thought about this struggle, I realized the science behind skincare products was very similar to the work I was doing in my prior career. After a few days of research, I started to notice patterns with ingredients that are frequently used in skincare products and that are found near the equator. This led to my theory that because of the intensity of the light at the equator, plants experience substantially tougher conditions which must lead to a greater production of "positive plant stuff." I built a skincare lotion based on this theory using the best ingredients I could find at the time. 

At the start up of Skyfruit Skincare, I worked on creating pharmaceutical cannabis delivery systems during the day and skincare product development at night. Turning my dining room into a laboratory, having over 50 attempts to make the lotion, and being called “Walter White”, I finally had a product I could be proud of! The pandemic broke out around this time, and everyone in the world appeared to be lost. I recognized this as a tremendous opportunity to start something new as I struggled to manage my first experience of living alone. Making this company helped me stay motivated, but it also became a way to help others. Despite having no experience in business, website design, branding, or marketing, I was positive of one thing: I was launching my the business in 30 days. In order to start a business, I placed an order for jars and became lucky enough to secure a space at a nearby farmers market. 

I called a few friends to help come up with solutions to my lack of business knowledge. It was not flawless, by any means. The company seems to have been built in 30 days by a group of friends with no business experience but lots of passion! No matter how Frankenstein-like it all seemed, I was happy! In one month, I had successfully created a business with over 10 products, and I was seeing sales!

There were many difficulties at first, some of which I sometimes didn't even recognize as problems. For instance the labels had to be laminated and super glued onto the jars. I also was working from my makeshift laboratory and was frequently running out of room. The jars looked utilitarian and everyone who passed by mistakenly thought they were candles. I knew I had to sell these products but had no idea how to charge people. As it turns out, I was initially losing money as a result of my lack of pricing knowledge! I persevered through and solved these numerous other challenges with a lot of help from my expanding fan base! One thing became clear from these setbacks: this company would not tolerate capitalism's greed.

I wanted to ensure that other groups will succeed in the same way that we did by making statements that could be supported by evidence. That’s why we give back a portion of our revenue from day one, and I'm happy to say that it's still happening today! We donate to organizations in whose mission we believe, particularly those who have been repeatedly persecuted or silenced. Visit our "Spread The Love" page for more information if you're interested in learning more about the causes we back! 

Thanks so much and keep being the greatest you!

- Spencer H