Common Heir is looking to ramp up its merchandise, retail and sustainability efforts with $2.5 million in new funding, an amount that surpassed the clean beauty brand’s fundraising goal by more than $1 million.
Among Common Heir’s investors are Trousdale Ventures, which has Coconut Cult, Hai, Hilma, Evereden, Kin Euphorics and Flamingo Estate and SkinTe in its portfolio, and Mucker Capital, backer of Topicals. The funding will bolster the brand’s push against single-use plastic in the beauty industry and the expansion of its product line and distribution. Common Heir launched in April 2021 with Vitamin C Serum featuring 60 capsules housed in a recyclable and biodegradable cardboard tube. Today, it’s launching a second product—0.2% Retinol Serum—also encased in recyclable, biodegradable packaging. Both products are priced at $88.
The money is on top of around $200,000 Common Heir drew from angel investors prior to its launch. Co-founders Cary Lin and Angela Ubias gathered the initial funding from fans of the brand and former colleagues. Lin previously held posts at The Honest Co., More Labs, Tatcha and Procter & Gamble, and Ubias was previously a VP at The Goodkind Co., a contract manufacturer where she aided in the development of some 50 brands to market. They decided to pursue a larger tranche of funding to elevate Common Heir to the next level. Lin and Ubias ended up having discussions with 100-plus potential investors.
“If we want to grow faster, have the impact that we want to see in the world, continue delivering innovative products, get them clinically tested, use the best ingredients in the world, and build this brand the right way with intention, it would require more than what we had,” says CEO Lin. Ubias equates finding the right investment partners to finding the right life partner. She says, “What we applied in fundraising is, if it’s not a love match, then it’s not meant to be.”
Given their extensive beauty industry backgrounds, Lin and Ubias didn’t anticipate the fundraising process being as hard as it was for Common Heir. “There’s only one way to say yes and like 50,000 ways to say no, and we got acquainted with a lot of those,” says Lin. “Both of us are overachievers and we felt like, prior to starting a company, we had checked every possible box in terms of level of experience and founder-market fit.”
She adds, “I think we got told off the record after a meeting that things would be so much easier for us if we had a silent male partner on the team.” Even Common Heir’s early traction didn’t stave off skepticism on the part of investors about sustainability moving the needle for consumers’ purchases. The brand reached a six-figure sales tally in under nine months and has exceeded projections at Credo, the first retailer it entered. Industry sources told the publication Women’s Wear Daily it would hit $500,000 in sales this year. “We really had to dig down and find a certain level of grit and resilience and conviction and remind ourselves that this is a great opportunity that we’re presenting people,” says Ubias.
Unlike many investment firms Lin and Ubias talked with, Lin praises Trousdale for posing right questions to get to know the Common Heir. She says, “A lot of people asked us, ‘What’s your valuation? What’s the dilution you want to take?’ Instead, Trousdale asked us, ‘What do you need to get Common Heir to the next level? Where do you want to be five years from now?’”
Dave Lin, general partner at Trousdale, says, “We are proud to support female and minority founders such as Cary and Angela in their mission to make innovative beauty and personal care products more accessible to mainstream and minority women and men. Our broader consumer investment portfolio focuses on making the world a better place by democratizing access to innovative and healthy food, beauty and consumer products, so Common Heir fits perfectly in the focus area of that mission.”
“I think we got told off the record after a meeting that things would be so much easier for us if we had a silent male partner on the team.”
With the Trousdale’s support, Common Heir’s future will include a bigger team and retail footprint. It recently brought on board three team members—it’s team now has five people—and is still looking to increase its employee base with marketing and operations experts. Currently, Common Heir is stocked by Anthropologie along with Credo.
Lin credits Common Heir’s community for its success so far. As it was getting off the ground, Lin and Ubias sent DMs to people via Instagram and cold emailed strangers to introduce themselves and ask if they’d hop on a call to chat about what the Common Heir co-founders were trying to build. The people that Lin and Ubias connected with remain the brand’s most outspoken advocates.
“We launched right into a massive shifting ecosystem in the technology behind marketing, and I felt like a lot of the tricks up people’s sleeves were just not applicable, so we went old school,” says Lin. “We don’t want to hack our way to building this brand. We want to build it with intention and build relationships.” Ubias says, “My ultimate dream with Common Heir is that the brand name becomes synonymous with this idea of luxury premium beauty and wellness and inclusivity and sustainability, and all of those good things to show that they don’t have to be mutually exclusive.”
