Entrepreneur Of The Year US National Overall Award winners

One in five Americans will get skin cancer during their lifetime, a statistic that could easily be reversed if people took better precautions. When Holly Thaggard, Founder of Supergoop!, learned that her best friend had been diagnosed with skin cancer at the age of 25, she made it her mission to change those odds from one in five to one in 5,000.

Born into a family of entrepreneurs, Thaggard knew that the best way to change consumer behavior was to create healthy habits by convincing young children about the importance of protecting their skin from the sun. Recognizing that young children often balk at applying sun lotion, she teamed with a chemist to develop an SPF formula that wouldn’t itch, irritate or burn eyes. Originally named goop to heighten its appeal to the target audience, Holly eventually landed on Supergoop! as the name of both the lotion and her new company.

Thaggard also realized she needed help taking her company to the next level, recruiting Amanda Baldwin, a CEO with significant marketing experience in the cosmetics industry. Together, they have scaled Supergoop! by bringing in investors and dermatologists to create an entire new category: a lifestyle brand dedicated to sunscreen.

To make sun protection even more accessible to young children, Thaggard persuaded 25 states to change their over-the-counter drug policies prohibiting sunscreen pumps in classrooms. To further this effort, Supergoop! launched a giving program, Ounce by Ounce, shipping thousands of pumps to classrooms across the US free of charge.

Looking back, Thaggard says great things are not supposed to be easy: “We can’t for a second take things for granted. Our mission is to have every single person love sunscreen.” Supergoop! is well on its way, working with retail partners to bring its product line to enthusiastic consumers in more than 12 countries.