Consumer brands startups in San Diego
The surf-and-beach direct-to-consumer scene: Vuori, MANSCAPED and Sun Bum, and the modern brands built around San Diego's coastal lifestyle.
8 companies building in Consumer brands here.
Joe Kudla
Founded 2015 in Carlsbad; premium performance/athleisure apparel brand that scaled via a D2C-plus-selective-retail model and physical stores. Profitable since 2017; an $825M secondary tender led by General A...
Paul Tran & Steve King
Founded 2016 in San Diego; men's grooming/lifestyle D2C brand that created the male below-the-waist grooming category, with ~$290M+ revenue and 5M+ customers. A 2022 SPAC deal (later canceled) implied a ~$1B...
San Diego-headquartered device re-commerce pioneer operating a nationwide network of automated kiosks that pay instantly for used phones/electronics and responsibly recycle/resell them — a circular-economy c...
Bill & Leigh Keith
San Diego family-founded maker of refrigerated nut-butter protein bars (Perfect Bar), scaled with VMG Partners to $100M+ revenue and 100+ employees. Mondelez took a majority stake in 2019; HQ remains in San ...
Brandon Leibel, Steven Ford & Bruno Aschidamini
San Diego D2C brand selling Turkish-cotton beach towels and beach-lifestyle goods, launched off a Shark Tank appearance, with a marine-conservation mission (donates a share of profits to ocean causes). ~100+...
Tom Rinks
Founded 2010; beach-lifestyle sun-care brand (sunscreen, hair care) with an Encinitas HQ a block from the sand and an authentic surf-culture identity. Backed by VMG Partners; reached ~$70M annual sales befor...
San Diego action-sports platform built to provide an end-to-end live-streaming, athlete-profile and event-management solution for surf competitions — 11,000+ athlete profiles and 325+ events produced worldwi...
Tim Nash & Aaron Hallerman
Downtown San Diego D2C brand of affordable-luxury watches, eyewear and accessories, built as a digitally-native e-commerce label targeting an aspirational lifestyle segment.
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