Founder Friday is a content series from SuperAngel.Fund that highlights companies across our portfolio and the inspiring founders behind them.
In our 48th edition we are featuring Will Gahagan, Co-Founder & CEO of biom, the world’s first refillable, plant-based & non-toxic wipes company.
Will has 12 years experience leading go-to-market strategies and exceeding revenue targets at early stage startups. Prior to starting biom, he was the Head of Sales at a Sequoia-backed company responsible for all revenue functions, and is a graduate of the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business with a concentration in Finance.
While Will’s prior roles may not be what you would expect to see from a CPG brand founder, this “outsiders” mentality is exactly what is needed to bring about a change to an otherwise dated industry.
You may not realize it but the wipes industry is in DIRE need of a makeover - just look at their competition (image below)! As many investors know, it often takes someone with a totally fresh and unencumbered view of a category to transform it, and that is exactly what Will is doing here.
While the Pandemic drove a 180% increase in the use of disinfectant wipes, most consumers are unaware of the harm these products cause. Not only do they contain toxins that have some serious known and unknown impacts to our health, but approximately 90% of all wet wipes contain pesticides and microplastic fibers that never break down. Of the 260 trillion wipes produced each year (yes, you heard that number right), most are also sold in plastic packaging which makes them difficult to recycle and contributes to billions of pounds of waste, much of which ends up in the ocean - enough to fill 50 Empire State Buildings 😱.
As a resident of the port city Charleston, South Carolina, and having spent his most formative years on boats and swimming in the water, Will had seen enough of this pollution and was determined to clean up the wipes industry.
Along with co-founder Hank Schellenger, a product-obsessed industrial designer, the pair knew that they needed to deliver a customer experience that was 10x better to effect more meaningful & long-lasting change. They spent months researching and a year prototyping to create the perfect dispensers and wipes formula.
Biom is the result of their extraordinary efforts and delivers a product that is not only beautiful but 100% plant-based, non-toxic, biodegradable, and made with zero plastics and all natural ingredients. Its wipes are safe for skin, kids, pets and the planet.
biom is the world’s first refillable, plant-based & non-toxic wipes brand with a suite of products across cleaning, personal care, beauty, and baby, all of which are safer for humans & better for the planet 🌎
The company launched last year and has seen remarkable consumer, retailer and wholesale demand in this $28B category. Beyond selling through their website, biom has expanded to meet demand from commercial accounts such as Auberge Hotels, Citadel and Stanford University. They are the top selling wipe product in The Container Store and will soon be available at your local Target 🎯. Outside their core product, they’ve already expanded into new categories selling All-Purpose, Flushable, & Sanitizing wipes, with more on the way to support facial, baby, pet, disinfectant & intimate.
Follow biom on Instagram to keep updated and enjoy this Q&A with Will below 👇
Describe your company in 5 words or less?
Will: Design-driven lifestyle brand.
What was your primary motivation for starting your business?
Will: My dad was a professional sailor so I spent a ton of time on the ocean growing up – it’s my happy place. Just being near the ocean gives me a sense of comfort (why I spent 8 years in SF and now live in Charleston). I would do anything to help preserve it so my kids and grandkids can enjoy it the way I have. I kind of stumbled into wipes at the start of the pandemic as I was helping a friend source PPE for a large convenience store -- this was when I learned how horrendous wipes are, not just for the environment but also for human health. The more I dug in the uglier the reality became. My motivation in starting biom was to build a brand that contributed to a solution, rather than compounding a problem. I will also add that I am oddly drawn to unsexy, large markets – this checked both boxes and I found it to be uniquely stale.
What piece of advice would you give an entrepreneur starting a business today?
Will: Sounds cliché but if you genuinely believe in something, then fully commit to it and refuse to give up. If it was easy, everyone would do it.
What do you love to do in your free time?
Will: Run, anything on the ocean, and ski (less often now that I’m in SC).
What is the most interesting place you’ve visited recently and why?
Will: Hokkaido. I am obsessed with Japanese culture. It also snowed 12 feet over 8 days…Heaven.
What is your favorite app or tool in your work life and in your personal life?
Will: Work: Figma/Slack (tie), Personal: Strava
What do you believe is the most important skill or attribute of a successful founder?
Will: Resilience.
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