From Newsletter Nerd to Wellness Mogul: How Goop Built Its Empire by Gwyneth Paltrow

You all recognise Pepper Potts from the best Marvel film ever made (debatable). But she is not just Tony’s assistant from Iron Man or just a mere actress as you may know. In fact, Gwyneth Paltrow to her name has gone on to build a huge empire starting from scratch.

No doubt, she is most widely recognised as Iron Man’s assistant, but her prowess goes beyond that. Pepper Potts, aka Gwyneth Paltrow, actually built her own empire all by herself!!! Talk about girl power!

The 51-year-old actress started her own brand called Goop— a wellness, conscious living, and fashion brand that evokes the reflection of her ethereal beauty and immaculate taste. A holistic brand that started from a humble foundation, the blonde beauty began her journey with Goop in 2008, and she and her team will be celebrating the brand’s 16th anniversary in September this year.

Gwynnie, whom she is dearly called by people around her, entered the Hollywood scene in the early 90s, making a stunning screen presence with her proven talent.  Through her brand Goop, Gwyneth continues to prove her prowess, as it initially started to provide a safe space for honest talks about holistic practices of well-being and conscious living. The initial beginning of her Goop brand started as a weekly email newsletter, where she would spread awareness about the latest holistic advice, such as “eliminate white foods” and “police your thoughts”. 

The Quirky Little Newsletter: How Goop Started Small

By 2008, Gwyneth had already become a sweet mama to her two incredible children, which was essentially the reason behind her drawback from the big screens. During that period, with a little itch to start a newsletter about wellness, food, travel, and living, she started the brand GOOP. According to the bombshell businesswoman, the brand name GOOP is taken from the initials of her name ‘Gwyneth Paltrow’ and simply adding two zeros in between after taking advice from her designer friend, Peter Arnell, who told her that successful brands have double 0s in their name.

The idea of sending Goop’s first newsletter to 10,377 subscribers was original and creative back in 2008, which contained the recipes of Turkey Ragu and Banana-Nut Muffins. From then on, Goop grew faster than a fidget spinner epidemic. The brand had achieved 150,000 subscribers milestone by the end of the first year, making it a legitimate business.

Gwyneth would often include insider tips in the newsletter, and this type of content was not widely available back then. Even though it was a gentle attempt then, Goop positioned Gwyneth as the guru on health and a conscious lifestyle. She talked openly about her self practices like using cupping therapy and following the Master Cleanse diet. The Gwyneth-as-ultimate-wellness-pro image was really at the heart of Goop’s rise.

Gooping it Up: Paltrow Expands Her Brand into Books, Stores, and Products

In 2011, Gwyneth’s fame fiercely increased even more with her first cookbook titled ‘My Father’s Daughter’, which entered the best-selling list of the New York Times. Following, in 2013, her second cookbook ‘It’s All Good’ became another hit among her fans and subscribers, although landing her a temporary ‘the most hated celebrity’ title by Star magazine due to her supposedly laughable gluten-free, sugar-free recipes. Some haters of the star claimed that the recipes called for impossible ingredients no one would ever have in their pantry, but the cookbooks eventually helped grow her audience and built the Goop brand. To this day, the Contagion actress has written five cookbooks in total. 

The company began a venture to sell its own branded products (clothes, beauty items, home goods) in 2014 as an attempt to diversify from a media business. Lisa Gersh, formerly the CEO of Martha Stewart’s empire, joined Gwyneth’s team to run Goop’s major product expansion – the project of pumping out goods. 

According to Gwyneth’s ethics, money isn’t everything, but it certainly helps. Expanding her media business brand to selling lifestyle goods was Gwyneth’s way of bringing her increasingly ethereal lifestyle brand down to earth— to make Goop tips and advice, something you could actually buy. Unlike Martha, Goop charged an insane amount of price for their cookware, fashion, and fitness— even a pair of Goop’s own pyjamas cost $725!

Pop-up shops and permanent boutiques additionally accredited the holistic Goop lifestyle to spill out from the newsletters. Goop’s first outlet store opened in LA in 2017 and it looks exactly how you’d expect Gwyneth Paltrow’s house to look like.

In 2016, the Oscar winner’s brand ‘Goop’ introduced its exclusive skincare line of products named ‘good.clean.goop’ that are chemical-free and cruelty-free, meaning that all the items were produced without using harsh chemicals and harmful ingredients. The skincare line was initiated to make holistic beauty essentials more accessible to the people, which has evolved considerably to date.

In 2017, Goop started “In Goop Health”, a wellness summit that focuses on exploring and enhancing physical, mental, spiritual, relational, and emotional well-being. Talking about the new venture, Gwyneth commented, “This kind of summit really encapsulates everything that a Goop product is.” Paltrow said that her wellness summit is just another wellness series and a place where women can learn everything about health and intimate wellness that are usually considered taboo in society.

However, in 2017, Goop faced some harsh criticism and controversy over their Jade Egg, which claimed that it could improve women’s wellness from orgasms and hormonal imbalances when it is inserted into a vagina. In addition, from the time Goop sped up its expansions, we started to see more problems as well as controversies.

How to Turn Lemons into a $250 Million Wellness Empire

Goop came to a settlement in 2018 when they settled their Vaginal Eggs case for $145,000. Goop went into a legal battle in 2017 after the brand claimed that their jade eggs had the ability to balance hormones and improve orgasms, without any scientific evidence of those health claims. Goop ended up admitting that some of their health claims were not true. Critics raised their concerns about the safety, efficacy, and ethical consequences of Goop’s Vaginal Eggs and called for greater transparency and regulation in the wellness industry.

Critics of Paltrow and her company’s carelessness have been overblown by the fact that Goop has been a polarizing company from its inception. Paltrow has handled criticism with grace, admitting to missteps, but never wavering from her vision of a women-health-and-wellness driven judgment-free zone. 

Goop has, to its critic-unsettling credit, genuinely bridged a hole in the market to some great extent, providing more wellness content and a wealth of more varied product options for women. In 2019, Goop was valued at more than US$250m, taking Paltrow’s brand to a global level and launching its first global retail outlet store in London. The brand is further working to offer worldwide shipping to its huge fan following.

The Goop Backlash: Why People Love to Hate Paltrow’s Company

Goop was originally a weekly email newsletter. It made Gwyneth Paltrow a leader in the high-end conscious lifestyle market. This was not a platform for Ms Paltrow to flog more things, but rather a platform for her to encourage women to be prepared to bring out their own essence and beauty. 

However, despite the initial good intention of the brand, due to some certain problematic and controversial cases like the YONI egg, some critics continue to stand on their view towards the brand as ‘health scams’. Besides, the many instances of critics analysing Gwyneth’s comments on certain things that turn deemed sensitive to some people, and the multiple controversies that the Goop brand has faced over the years further adds to the backlash of the brand.