Priscilla Tsai: CEO and Founder of Cocokind

March 30, 2026·53 min·4 clips

Showing real breakouts on Instagram Stories took Cocokind from a few thousand dollars a month to $90,000 in a single month.

Priscilla Tsai did not begin in skincare. Hilary Kerr introduces her as the founder and CEO of Cocokind, then tracks the turn from finance, accounting, Wharton, and Wall Street into a brand built around a personal skin problem. Tsai had dealt with hormonal acne since her teenage years, and the first products came from wanting something simpler and better for her own routine. She talks through oil blends, rose hydrosol, lip balm, body butter, and shea oil formulas with only a few ingredients. Even the formulator wondered if the products needed to be that simple. The answer, at least here, was yes. Tsai made the products herself instead of hiring a contract manufacturer. She bought oils, packaging, labels, stainless steel equipment, and lip balm trays, then worked in small batches because a bigger production run was out of reach. The details make the story feel less like a glossy launch and more like work: hot pours, molds, hand labeling, industrial pots, and the repeated little tasks behind a clean skincare shelf. The scrappy parts are the good parts. Tsai rented a commercial facility for about twenty-five dollars an hour after Googling equipment and getting pointed toward industry resources. Then she started selling the old-fashioned way, dropping off samples, calling stores, and leaning on a local vendor program with a whole body department. Kerr gives the story room. What comes through is a founder learning the machinery, keeping the first version small, and getting one store to say yes at a time.

As heard by us

A scrappy founder story that turns a skin problem into real retail traction.

Priscilla Tsai's path is built around a problem plenty of listeners know too well: hormonal acne, and the decision to turn that frustration into something useful.

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Why you'd press play

You want a founder story that starts with hormonal acne and ends with Target and Ulta.

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