Cassandra Morales Thurswell

Company: KitschTitle: Founder & CEOIndustry: Consumer productsNotable in 2024: Thurswell doubled Kitsch's business through its expansion into 1,500 Target stores, with the retailer calling her products their "#1 Innovation launch of 2024."

From making retainers at her parents' orthodontist's office to manufacturing private label jewelry, Cassandra Morales Thurswell is no stranger to entrepreneurship. The founder and CEO of global beauty brand Kitsch bootstrapped her business with $30,000 of her life savings and a simple product she set out to improve: hair ties.

"I thought, well, what is something that I personally reach for everyday that could be improved? And that was a basic elastic," Thurswell told TODAY in 2023.

In 2010, then 25-year-old Thurswell started Kitsch. Having learned manufacturing basics through night courses while working a variety of day jobs, Thurswell handcrafted each hair accessory from her Los Angeles apartment, and sold the hair ties door-to-door to LA boutiques and hair salons.

"Sometimes I'd be getting more parking tickets than I would get purchase orders for the hair accessory piece of the business, but the nice part was that I could hand-make it," Thurswell said on an episode of Entreprenista. "I didn't have to hold inventory, I was able to change color, change packaging. Everything was made by hand at that point, and it was really easy to scale it because it was just me."

Now Kistch has grown into a brand bringing in a reported $300 million-plus in sales, with presences in over 27,000 stores worldwide including Ulta Beauty, Target, Walgreens, and Whole Foods, as well as Amazon. Thurswell continues to evolve everyday essentials and has since expanded Kitsch's offerings to include a range of hair care and beauty products, more than 40% of which were sustainably sourced as of its last full year sustainability report for 2023.

It's estimated that the global beauty industry generates over 120 billion units of packaging waste every year, most of which goes unrecycled. Thurswell's company aims to offer accessible and sustainable hair care solutions, including biodegradable packaging and bottle-free shampoo and conditioner bars that eliminate the need for plastic. Since 2015, Kistch has partnered with company 4Ocean to remove the equivalent of one shampoo bottle worth of plastic from oceans and coastlines for every bar purchased. In 2023 alone, they removed 50,000 pounds of plastic.

As a Colombian American, Thurswell prioritizes diversity and engaging with her community through both active and long-term partnerships. Not only is Kitsch certified woman-owned and minority-owned, but women also currently make up 78% of Kitsch's employees.

"People talk about changing the world. And I used to say, well, it's just hair accessories," Thurswell said on Beauty Is Your Business. "But how many times have you been walking in a street and seen a scrunchie in the gutter or a hair elastic, or whatever it may be? With our shampoo and conditioner, it seems like it's just a simple thing but for every bar that we produce, we're saving two plastic bottles from being produced. I would like to think that actually is changing the world."