As the usage of technology surges, the dirt trails of the outdoors decreases. Locked inside our homes and in our screens, Millennials are looking towards nature to reconnect and refuel. To encourage this movement, Founder Nichole Powell launched Kinfield to provide clean, essential skincare products backed by science to empower humans to live their best lives outside.

Founder and CEO of Kinfield, Nichole Powell was born in Minnesota and grew up with an outdoorsy family. “My childhood was an amalgamation of backpacking, rock climbing and foraging into the unknown. My parents always encouraged me to be an explorer,” says Nichole.

Today, Nichole lives in NYC and moved from San Francisco where she previously worked at a Fashion e-commerce company, Modern Citizen. “I started my career working for a large tech company upon graduation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was an illuminating firsthand look at what goes on inside a $4B company, but I found myself wanting more firsthand experience and ended up starting a brand and content consulting business as a side hustle and a creative outlet.”

“My strengths have always been at the intersection of making things both functional and beautiful.”

Nichole decided to leave her role in tech and take a 6-month sabbatical to travel the world. Her journey led her to explore Iceland, London, Paris, Morocco, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. “Although I didn’t know it at the time, it was during my trip to Indonesia that I found our citronella ingredient which is used today in our Golden Hour, DEET free repellent. Indonesia, and Bali especially, tends to be quite ahead of the curve when it comes to natural, clean ingredients as they take a lot of steps toward helping their environment. To ward off mosquitoes, they rely on a local blend of essential oils that actually works!”

To pay for her travels, Nichole offered brand consulting services on the side which included copywriting and brand photography for social media. For those looking to break into the gig economy, Nichole initially offered her services for free to build a portfolio before setting a standard rate.

”I returned to San Francisco after traveling and was eager to find a role at a new startup to get more hands-on experience. It was through conversations with founders and early-stage teams and that I met the founders of the newly-launched Modern Citizen, a women's fashion e-commerce retailer. I ended up joining their team in spring 2018 and was able to dive deep into the startup world and help them with everything from brand partnerships, business development, strategy, and growth.”

The Aha Moment

“In July 2017, I was packing for a weekend camping trip in Yosemite National Park when I realized that all of my outdoor skincare products had not changed since I was a child. This seemed odd, given that brands in many other categories like beauty had moved towards clean ingredients, better packaging, and a modern, relatable brand narrative. Yet here I was, still using the same DEET repellent that I always had, despite my desire to use something better.”

“I started asking friends what products they use and how they discover new products and heard a lot of frustration since people did not want to use DEET. This was the moment I realized I could create something better at this intersection of outdoors and skincare. Fast forward to the summer of 2019 and Kinfield was born.”

“When you are an early-stage company you have to be able to figure things out that you have never done before.”

The concept of Kinfield is to encourage folks to get back to the outdoors in a clean, and efficacious way. Feeling hot on your hike? They’ve got the Sunday Spray, a cooling Aloe mist. Need to battle off mosquitoes? They’ve got the Golden Hour, DEET free repellent. Maybe you just want to freshen up and moisturize? They’ve got the Waterbalm. Future product lines will tackle all problems one would experience in nature. Fun fact: Aloe is actually NOT green. It is a clear color and in fact, other brands add a chemical green dye to it!

The Challenges

“In the early days, trying to find an R&D partner was a major challenge. We were initially working with a lab that couldn't formulate according to our standards and had lost both time and resources through that experience. "What we wanted and needed was an R&D team that could be a partner to us and suggest innovative ingredients to try, versus assuming that our team would have all the solutions. It was a hard decision to change labs and lose months of work, but ultimately it made our products that much stronger for launch."

Having never worked in the beauty industry before, Nichole knew that advisors and industry experts would be necessary. Through an event, she was able to meet the perfect advisor who aided her search in manufacturing and connected her to Kinfield’s present-day lab."

The Advice

When it comes to fundraising, Kinfield has accomplished the impossible: raising a pre-seed round pre-product. They had no samples, only a concept of what the brand would be. “Americans spent $184.5 billion dollars on products for outdoor recreation in 2017, and yet, brands have not caught up. Just like Method dominated the home cleaning space, we feel like there is an opportunity to do the same here.” Nichole shares her advice for founders looking to launch a beauty brand:

The key to fostering a community is co-branded events and expanding your customer database by engaging in branded partnerships.
Learn something new every day, even if that means Googling it.
Don’t lose sight of who your customer is and start chasing trends.
Find people who have done what you want to do and bring them on as advisors.
Life is too short to not be kind! People never forget how you make them feel.

Looking to explore the outdoors? Get Kinfield’s signature Out of Office hat for free with any purchase of a Weekender kit! Just add your favorite kit and preferred hat color to your cart, and use the code RADICHE at checkout. Expires midnight on 3/15/20.

Photo courtesy of Kinfield.

Written by Alysha Malik.