Touchland
The founder discovered hand sanitizer in Africa while distributing supplies in regions where sanitation directly impacts health outcomes. She recognized an untapped opportunity: while the product was functionally necessary, it was aesthetically and experientially terrible. Purell dominated the market with its clinical, hospital-like smell and utilitarian packaging. The founder asked a simple but powerful question: what if we made hand sanitizer sexy?
She reimagined hand sanitizer as a luxury product, focusing on design, fragrance, and packaging. The result was a stunning clear case with premium ingredients and appealing scents—essentially the "Apple of hand sanitizer." She launched on Kickstarter and raised $67,000, validating that consumers would pay premium prices for a better-designed version of a commodity product.
The Kickstarter success provided initial traction and funding for the first production run. First-year revenue hit approximately $1 million. Touchland then pursued strategic collaborations with brands like Hello Kitty and Disney, transforming the product into something people actually wanted to gift and display.
COVID-19 became a tailwind the founder couldn't have predicted. As consumers suddenly prioritized hand sanitizer and were willing to pay premium prices for quality products, Touchland's business exploded. The brand positioning as a luxury item rather than a generic commodity proved the core insight was correct: people will spend significantly more for better design and experience.
Touchland was recently acquired for $880 million. The company is projected to do $130 million in revenue with $55 million in EBITDA. Built on Shopify, the company demonstrates how applying design thinking and luxury positioning to unsexy categories can create enormous value and unlock entirely new markets.
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