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Local product helps men grow better, healthier beards.

MARIELLE TEMKIN I SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

eard Balm makes beards happy." A simple
statement that holds a lot of truth, according to
what Jon Koller, 28, of Detroit, has to say. The
co-founder of Beard Balm, Koller has quite an
impressive beard himself.
As he explains, "I've grown beards since I can remember.
I was never that into shaving and, at some point, my
partner, Hannah Lewis, said, 'Put something on your
beard!" Koller laughed and said, "I had no idea what to
put on it."
From there, the idea behind Beard Balm evolved. For a
few years, Koller used ingredients from around the house
to figure out what helped his beard feel better. Eventually,
Lewis developed a solid recipe for the balm.
Previously a structural engineer, Koller now works with
Beard Balm as his main job. They've been selling for about a
year and, as Koller said, it wasn't a serious endeavor at first.
"It was kind of a fun thing like, 'Oh hey, check out this logo;
oh hey, here's some tins.' After a bit, we realized that this
could be a real thing. We sold at a flea market as our first
retail selling experience," he said.
Lewis, Koller explained, has a very strong client focus.
"She put some things in place real early on," he said, "like
putting cards in with our shipments to clients. The more
they order, the more fun things we like to send — it's
turned into a fun activity for us to think of things to send."
The customer care Koller speaks of is evident as he points
out different items in the workshop, which is located in
Ponyride, a nonprofit collaborative space in Corktown.
The coconut oil in Beard Balm comes from Sri
Lanka in jars about the size of mayonnaise
jars — needless to say, there were quite
a few of these stockpiled. The machine
set up in the corner of the room — a
wooden block with a burner underneath
a large metal pot and a flat metal plate
next to it — is where the magic happens.
Rather, that's where the tins of Beard
Balm are filled.
According to its website, every ingredient
in Beard Balm is an inexhaustible resource on
planet Earth. Grapeseed oil is a byproduct of the
wine industry, lanolin is a byproduct of the wool industry
and beeswax is a byproduct of the pollination business. The
coconut oil is 100 percent fair trade organic and together
with the essential oils, they are cultivated in healthy,
productive ecosystems. Even the product's packaging
is designed to minimize habitat loss and the impact of
pollution.
The benefits of working in Ponyride are clear to Koller,
who said some of his neighbors on the floor helped him
create the factory machine. "We wanted to be able to fill
the tins up all the way," Koller said. "With this custom
machine, we can put about 50 percent more product into
the tins than other production machines could.

Jon Koller, on the right, compares beards with a

customer.

"They're not huge tins, but we want it to last a while.
Each one is enough to grow a good beard."
Koller, who is on the board of the Isaac Agree Downtown
Synagogue, extolled the virtues of David Broner, a volunteer
with SCORE — an association that assists entrepreneurs.
"David, along with others from SCORE, has been really
helpful in thinking about this whole operation and making
sure the foundation is there in terms of having the right
kind of insurance," Koller said.
"He's also a part of Hebrew Free Loan, and
we were able to get a loan from them,
which allowed us to get some inventory,
which is great. We've been able to get
our pre-unit cost down."
At the moment, Beard Balm
produces about 1,000 tins a week.
Within a few months, Koller says he
wants that number to get up to 10,000.
"I would love to have a staff that's
hustling to keep up with the demand and
cranking it out to get to our customers,"
he said. In addition to himself and Lewis, Beard
Balm's team also includes Micah Koller (Jon's brother) and
Nadine Beydoun.
The company's focus is on promoting the product right
now, though he says more and more of it is being sold all
the time. A few boutique stores sell Beard Balm, but much
of its business comes from the website.
"Beards are happening," Koller said. But apparently for
beards as luxurious as his to happen, Beard Balm needs to
be involved.

❑

Check out Beard Balm on Twitter and lnstagram
at @BeardBalm, Facebook.com/Beardbalm and at
www. beardbalm. us.

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