Touchland Founder Andrea Lisbona Believes in the Power of Kickstarter

Long before 2020 boosted hand sanitizer sales by three digits, Touchland founder Andrea Lisbona wondered why the skin-care industry monopolized indulgent, self-care rituals. As someone who's always been passionate about creating solutions in underserved spaces, Lisbona singled out the hygiene market and picked a joyless product to re-invent: hand sanitizer. Just like that, Touchland was born.

Since first launching in Spain almost 10 years ago, Touchland has become the most awarded hand sanitizer in the $3 billion industry and is distributed in more than 4,000 retail doors including Sephora, Ulta, and Target.

It all began with a Kickstarter. Lisbona and her team refined the product two years before setting their eyes on the US market. To gather additional market feedback, the team launched the crowdfunding platform in 2018. Twenty-four hours later, they were fully funded. Lisbona now attributes much of Touchland's success in the US to Kickstarter and encourages other entrepreneurs to leverage the tool for their own businesses.

Not only were more than 50 percent of the backers from the US, she says, but Kickstarter also helped the team nail down what their target consumer wanted in a better hand sanitizer. Lisbona also found that involving backers in the creative process was one of the best ways to build a community around the brand. "The beauty [of] kickstarter is that every time you reach a certain milestone of revenue, you unlock new rewards. And those new rewards are usually suggested by the backers," shared Lisbona on a recent episode of WorkParty.

For example, consumer feedback inspired the brand's key ring case, which makes the product easier to carry on the go.

Touchland's success reflects a business theme: word-of-mouth marketing can really move the needle for new brands. According to the content marketing platform SEM Rush, 90 percent of people are more likely to trust recommended brands—even when the rec comes from complete strangers. That's why, from a marketing validation standpoint, Lisbona encourages using Kickstarter. "The only way we’ve been able to lead is [because] our community has lifted us," she says. "Have a community that's going to convert everyone around them."

Listen to this week's episode of WorkParty to learn more about Andrea Lisbona—and how she built Touchland!

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