Celebration of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
2025 Small Business of the Year– Homegrown Beauty
Homegrown Beauty was selected as our Small Business of the Year for the COIE Awards 2025 because their approach exemplifies the spirit of innovation, resilience, and community impact that we strive to celebrate here at the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Founder Kelsey Schumacher’s unwavering commitment to clean, science-backed skincare, paired with her bold refusal to compromise on ingredient integrity, has resulted in a brand that is both ethically grounded and commercially promising. From pioneering refillable packaging to engaging local students and faculty in product testing, Homegrown Beauty has leveraged Pitt’s ecosystem to build a business that uplifts others while pushing the boundaries of sustainable beauty. Its growth trajectory, social mission, and dedication to excellence make it a standout example of what’s possible when vision meets grit.
About Kelsey
Kelsey Schumacher graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Material Science & Engineering and an idea to start her own natural and clean beauty company. For Kelsey, clean was critical, but the path to success seemed like a bit of a mess. To help turn her vision into a viable business, Kelsey connected with various partners across Pitt, including the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence’s PantherlabWorks (PLW).
With guidance from the PLW team, Kelsey worked to define her brand, validate product concepts, and identify unique positioning in the competitive beauty space. The company has successfully developed and launched 6 minimum viable products—3 lip balms and 3 fragrance rollers—to test brand traction while actively developing a full line of “hero” facial care products for a 2026 retail launch. Since the online beta launched just over a year ago, the business has achieved a consistent monthly revenue of approximately $1,000 with minimal marketing. Significant growth milestones include being selected by a subscription box service for the purchase and distribution of 800 product bundles, placing products in four specialty retail stores for demos and feedback, and establishing a partnership with Maggie and Stella on Pitt’s campus, with sales starting in May 2025.
Kelsey Schumacher, Founder and CEO, Homegrown Beauty
Resilience and Problem-Solving
Kelsey Schumacher’s journey with Homegrown Beauty is marked by remarkable resilience and problem-solving. When faced with pressure from top-tier natural skincare labs to compromise on ingredient purity due to cost and formulation challenges, she chose to walk away rather than dilute her vision. Instead, she finalized the formulations herself, maintaining her commitment to organic and clean standards. She protected these proprietary formulas with intellectual property and collaborated with Dr. Brian Gleason in Pitt’s Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science (MEMS) department, where a student team conducted rigorous stability, safety, and efficacy testing. Over two years, Kelsey navigated the complex landscape of lab and packaging partnerships, ultimately securing collaborators who could scale her uncompromised formulas. Her persistence and integrity have positioned her to disrupt the natural skincare space with products that reflect both scientific rigor and ethical commitment.
Innovation
Innovation is at the heart of Homegrown Beauty’s product development. Kelsey has created and protected a line of EDC-free, organic facial care formulas that set a new standard in the natural skincare market. In addition to her groundbreaking formulations, she designed a proprietary, fully refillable, and sustainable packaging system. To validate its scalability and safety, she partnered with Dr. Buddy Clark at Pitt, whose students helped validate the functionality of the design and developed initial 3D printed prototypes. Kelsey later conducted customer-facing tests, and with this data in hand, she engaged a third-party packaging specialist to develop custom molds, ensuring the packaging system could be manufactured at scale. These innovations reflect Kelsey’s forward-thinking approach and her commitment to creating products that are not only better for consumers but also better for the planet.
Community Engagement
With every product sold, Kelsey donates care packages to local women in need, reinforcing her mission to make beauty both accessible and impactful. One charitable partner is YAIPak (https://www.yaipak.org). This organization uses Homegrown Beauty’s care kits to stock their Rylee Room, where foster families and young girls in need can “shop” for free clothes, accessories, and personal care products. As the business grows, she plans to expands initiatives to give back, further embedding social responsibility into the brand’s identity. Her presence at local farmers’ markets and partnerships with campus retailers also reflects a strong commitment to engaging with and uplifting the Pittsburgh community.
Strategic Growth and Future Development
Looking ahead, Homegrown Beauty has laid out a clear strategy for future growth. The company has completed formula invention and testing for two flagship facial care products, each developed over an 18 to 24-month R&D lifecycle. To fully commercialize these offerings, founder Kelsey Schumacher is actively raising approximately $100,000 in seed funding. She has invested significant effort into crafting a compelling pitch deck and has shown strong receptiveness to feedback and iteration.
“As a proud Pitt Alum, I am so honored to be recognized for this award. Launching Homegrown Beauty has been a labor of love that I could not have achieved without the support from the IEE, PantherlabWorks, and the Swanson School of Engineering. I’m so excited to see where we go next!”
Congratulations to Kelsey Schumacher and Homegrown Beauty on being named the COIE Small Business of the Year. This recognition is a testament to Kelsey’s visionary leadership, her unwavering commitment to ethical innovation, and the meaningful impact she continues to make within both the beauty industry and the Pittsburgh community. We celebrate her achievements and look forward to seeing Homegrown Beauty flourish as it enters its next chapter of growth.