Pura Vida Bracelets: San Diego's $100M+ Jewelry Company
How Two San Diego entrepreneurs sold a bracelet startup Pura Vida for $130M
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Founders,
Pura Vida Bracelets is a retail company that sells jewelry made by artisans worldwide.
The La Jolla-based firm was acquired for $130 million. The deal is one of the largest deals for a direct-to-consumer company in recent history.
Most notably, the company was entirely bootstrapped prior to its acquisition.
Please enjoy this breakdown of Pura Vida.
High-Level Overview
Launched in 2010, Pura Vida sells hand-crafted bracelets and jewelry.
What makes it special? Made by artisans overseas such as Costa Rica and El Salvador, selling them online and through major retailers.
The company never once raised outside capital from private investors.
Vera Bradley (Nasdaq: VRA) purchased a majority stake in Pura Vida for $130 million this past January.
Pura Vida is a global jewelry brand with stores in San Diego, Irvine, and Camarillo, among other cities.
Founder Story
Pura Vida was launched by: Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman.
Origin story: Pura Vida launched in 2010 after co-founders Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman started selling colorful handcrafted bracelets made by two local artisans they’d met in Costa Rica during a college graduation surf trip.
They purchased 400 bracelets for $200 dollars and flew back to sell the product.
“Right when we started the business in 2010, we made a website. We also offered our products wholesale. We would basically hit up all the surf stores, yoga studios, nail and hair salons, boutiques, said Griffin Thall, co-founder and CEO of Pura Vida Bracelets.
Partnering with Retailers
The first customer? Planet Blue, a boutique retail store. They placed 200 bracelets in a small basket at the checkout desk as a test.
The result: The products sold out in 2 weeks, netting them $2000.
The co-founders quickly decided to go all-in on Pura Vida, they emailed the two artisans Jorge and Joaquin and negotiated a long-term partnership that would last more than decade.
Fast forward a decade later, Pura Vida’s products are now being sold in over 5,000 retail stores including Nordstrom, Whole Foods, and Tilly's.
Revenue growth:
$15 million in 2016
$30 million in 2017
$68 million in 2018
By 2018, the company reported $68 million in annual revenues, doubling revenues over a three year period. Today Pura Vida brings in $100 million-plus in annual revenues.
Pura Vida has since expanded to more than 800 artisans across Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, India and China. It has also donated nearly $4 million to charities all over the world.
Disrupting a $76 billion Market
Pura Vida is disrupting a $76 billion jewelry industry, and is one of fastest-growing U.S. companies in recent years.
Pura Vida has hundreds of SKUs, expanding its product line beyond jewelry, it also sells apparel, accessories, and home goods.
In addition, the company offers subscriptions, which sends customers exclusive Pura Vida designs to their homes on a monthly basis.
“From the very beginning when they purchased those bracelets, we set out to build the best possible brand they could,” said Paul Goodman.
Leveraging Social Media
Pura Vida has generated awareness through various marketing campaigns on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.
To date, the company has roughly 2.2 million followers on Instagram, with over 150,000 members in its ambassador program. Its target audience is Gen-Z consumers (born between 1996 and 2010).
In 2022, the company launched several big campaigns including partnering with Disney, Harry Potter, as well as partnering with TikTok star Charli D’ Amilio.
“We sent influencers traveling around the world to show the Pura Vida lifestyle and what it means through the lives of influencers, and repurposed them on Instagram. We did this at scale every month and every year, which is what grew us to two million followers on Instagram, said Griffin Thall.
The marketing success formula:
Consistent marketing and photography branding
Compelling narrative around the product (appealing and authentic)
Partnering with influencers and ambassadors
Finding a Strategic Buyer
In 2018, the co-founders decided the company needed to bring on a strategic partners to grow its retail operations.
On a recent podcast episode, Paul Goodman shared that he and Griffin attended 30 management meetings to find potential buyers.
They got on a plane and flew to New York to Los Angeles as well as Las Vegas.
By the time they completed this roadshow, they received 9 offers from private equity firms and 1 strategic offer from a publicly traded company.
The buyer? Vera Bradley a $541 million legacy brand known for its colorful quilted bags, which valued the business at $130 million.
“We never took on any investors because we started and ran the company as lean as you could. So we never needed an investment. We were profitable from day one and had a goal to take this company to over $100M+ in valuation,” said Goodman.
Selling Majority Ownership
Vera Bradley bought a 75 percent majority stake for $75 million in 2019. Earlier this year, it purchased the remaining 25 percent — totaling the deal at $130 million.
Griffin and Paul demonstrated that bootstrapped companies can generate life changing outcomes, while also making the world a better place.
This is a fascinating company to study for anyone seeking to build a sustainable brand.
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Loved reading this - what a great success story!
Thanks for this write-up! I had just seen one of their stores Irvine Spectrum on Sunday and thought wow they’ve gone big time.