About Lena's Entrepreneurial Journey
With a 10+ year career in education focused on DEI, Lena firmly believes that sustainability is a social justice issue. With her interdisciplinary lens, she aims to give everyone access to modernized, sustainable personal care products. First in her family to go to college, her parents instilled that working hard, being thankful for opportunities, always giving back to your community, and purposefully living is the American dream.
As a solo founder and self-funding her business, Lena has single-handedly launched Clean Circle products into over 150 retail doors in 2 years. Clean Circle is preventing millions of single-use makeup wipes and cotton rounds from entering landfill, building a loyal community of eco-conscious consumers, and, more importantly, helping shape consumer behaviors on reducing their beauty waste.
About Lena's Pitch
My nimble steady fingers moved with quickness as I pulled the thread through the needle hole. Done. Onto the next singer machine. My first job was working in my mother’s clothing factory helping with menial tasks while being the main translator for labor laws. So when I was looking to replace my single-use makeup wipes and cotton rounds in my beauty routine as an adult, I was looking for reusables to be made ethically and responsibly and I couldn’t find them. 85% of underpaid immigrant women make up the textile industry, 20 million makeup wipes are tossed out daily, and 5,000 gallons of water are used to create just a few months worth of cotton rounds. I decided to change that. I created Clean Circle to help people reduce their beauty waste with products that protect skin health. Our products are reusable, compostable, and dissolvable.