Young Founder Holden Bierman on Building Coastal Cool During High School

Today, we interview Holden Bierman, a remarkable 17-year-old entrepreneur who started his journey at just 12 years old during the COVID-19 lockdown. What began as selling t-shirts from his bedroom has evolved into Coastal Cool, a thriving swimwear brand making waves in fashion and sustainability by supporting the removal of ocean waste with each purchase.

This unique approach, combined with a zero-inventory, print-on-demand business model, allows Holden to focus on marketing and brand growth while maintaining an eco-conscious ethos. Coastal Cool’s story proves that the right business model and an emphasis on execution are integral to scaling sustainably and profitably. Today, Holden has built his brand’s community to 200,000, appeared on Forbes, and is his town's youngest Chamber of Commerce member. You don’t want to miss this exciting episode - tune in now and discover the ironclad business principles that helped a high school founder build a thriving brand.

In today’s episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, we’ll cover:

• How a $500 investment grew into a thriving swimwear brand
• The importance of mentorship for young and new entrepreneurs
• The values that every entrepreneur needs to succeed
• The benefits of having a good and sustainable business model
• Why customer retention is crucial to business success and growth
• And so much more!

Visit www.coastalcool.co to shop their stylish swimwear and join their mission to help clean our oceans.


To be a guest on our next podcast, contact us today!

Do you have a brand that you’d like to launch or grow? Do you want help from a partner that has successfully launched hundreds of brands totaling over $2 billion in revenues? Visit HarvestGrowth.com and set up a free consultation with us today!

Transcript

Jon LaClare [00:00:00]:
If I didn't tell you that Today's guest was 17 years old and still in high school, you would never imagine it. He started his business at the age of 12 and has grown it every year since then. You'll love hearing the inspiring story of this young entrepreneur.

Jon LaClare [00:00:34]:
Welcome back to the show. I'm really excited to be speaking with a really exciting guest today, Holden Bierman. Now, he is the founder. He's a young founder and he's got an amazing story that he's been able to accomplish a lot at his age, but also in a very short period of time. I'll let him tell the story of his business to tell more about it. But first of all, Holden, welcome to the show.

Holden Bierman [00:00:54]:
Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah, no, for sure. This was awesome. I'm glad to link up with you, but I've started this company, Coastal Cool, when I was 12 years old. It was my sixth grade year of middle school. It was right when Covid happened. So it was literally March of 2020.

Holden Bierman [00:01:08]:
I remember we got the thing on the news for North Carolina that schools would be out for five weeks. And, you know, all my friends were playing video games and they were going out and they were just having the time of their life doing kid things. And of course I was too. I was hanging out and doing normal things, but I wanted to do something different. I've always been kind of creative in the sense of thinking about new ideas, thinking about different things. I've always been fascinated with social media. I think I made my first social media account when I was like seven. Like, it was just there was all these different events leading up to me building this brand that kind of helped me lay the foundation, I'd say.

Holden Bierman [00:01:43]:
And I started preparing these little T shirt ideas, and it was just a simple base. We had kind of moved to our beach house during that time and, and spending time there, and I was like, let's come up with the T shirt company. Let's start a T shirt brand. So my mom came up with the name Coastal Cool and I started printing off T shirts and hoodies out of my bedroom with $500. So, yeah, that's awesome.

Jon LaClare [00:02:04]:
I love that story. And I gotta remind myself as I talk to you. You're so mature. We've had a couple conversations before this as well. And just what you've been able to accomplish is amazing. I've got a 16 year old at home, he's just a year behind you. And man, it's impressive. As I think about, man, you're the same age.

Jon LaClare [00:02:17]:
That's actually amazing for all the things you've been able to accomplish and I'm sure will in the coming appreciation and years as well. So let's talk about Coastal Cool a little bit more. You started when you're 12 years old. It started as T shirts and hoodies. It's really morphed to more items now. What's your best selling type of clothing now?

Holden Bierman [00:02:34]:
So, yeah, so now we're in swimwear. So there was kind of this time, and I think every entrepreneur has it. I bet you've had it. I mean, there's times where you're just like, oh, I hate this. And I just. You almost feel like you're on the edge of like giving up. You're not seeing. And it wasn't really about for me seeing the growth and traction.

Holden Bierman [00:02:47]:
It just. I wasn't motivated to sell this product. It was simple T shirts and hoodies. I was just like, you could get that anywhere. Anybody could print something. So we branched out into swimwear in the year of 2022, and I just redesigned our catalog and I basically took this risk and I was like, hey, let's just rebrand ourselves and let's create something new and see how it does. Just like we started with the T shirts and hoodies, why don't we start something new? So we launched our swimwear collection and that was done with the collaboration of our manufacturing and print on demand. And I'll speak about that soon.

Holden Bierman [00:03:16]:
But it was basically just coming up with some cool new swimwear designs. And that was between both men's swim trunks and women's bikinis, tops and bottoms. But the cool thing with Coastal Cool and our fabrics, everything's made from recycled plastic bottles. And then with our contract with Tidy, we're able to remove a pound of ocean plastic with every purchase, which equivalates to about 22 plastic bottles per order that we're able to remove. And this was all just done through a simple shift in kind of our mission as a brand and my vision as an entrepreneur, which was something I learned going on. So now we do swimwear and beachwear, and we've got some, some pretty cool products that feel good, look good, and do good.

Jon LaClare [00:03:52]:
So, so you talked about Tidy Ocean, one of your partnerships, you're involved with them as well. You're removing plastic from the ocean with every purchase. Is there a connection too? And the plastics that you use in the manufacturing. So do you use some reclaimed or recycled in your manufacturing?

Holden Bierman [00:04:07]:
Yeah, so. And that's the cool thing. So our swimwear fabric. So we launched our swimwear line before we had even introduced our partnership with Tidy. I signed with tidy last April 2024. Yeah, about April, March. Ish. That was when that contract started.

Holden Bierman [00:04:21]:
So when we first rolled out our swimwear line at Coastal Cool, it was originally through manufacturing and it still is. And those fabrics are made from just recycled plastic bottles. Tidy has no involvement in that. Now, on the charity and donation side of things, and how we're actually doing the Ocean plastic removal on terms of numbers and marketing purposes and everything that's handled through Tidy, but there is a separation between our fabrics. Now, one day I would absolutely love to link the two together, but then that goes into custom fulfillment and custom manufacturing. And that's one thing I'll speak on. It's Print on Demand and what we do and kind of that gap between the two.

Jon LaClare [00:04:55]:
So that's awesome. So let's talk about the Print on Demand piece because that's, I think, an interesting business model for a lot of our listeners, whatever level they might be at. How is that? I guess maybe describe it first for those that don't know necessarily what it is. And then how does it help your business model?

Holden Bierman [00:05:08]:
Yeah, so Print on Demand is basically you can create any custom textile, any, any fabric you want, but it's basically the operation of you being able to sit back and relax and do the stuff that you enjoy. Let's say that's the marketing. Let's say that's the visual design stuff. And then having people who are good with fabrics and fashion actually hands on printing the stuff, you not having to worry about having a warehouse, having inventory that might not sell, having to actually print it, the printing presses, keeping up with software, all that stuff. You're basically the background guy that's creating, creating the product itself, creating the design of the product, but you're letting the manufacturing and the fulfillment of that product out of your hands and you're handling more the marketing stuff. And this is the exact ecosystem that we've built at Coastal Cool. We have our online website through Shopify. You go on there.

Holden Bierman [00:05:56]:
None of our products are real. They're real the moment you click add to cart and buy. And it basically sends a code into Our warehouse, we have two warehouses, one in Los Angeles and one in Charlotte, and that's handled through our print on demand supplier. And basically, the moment you buy a product, it sends a code in. It's taken. The fabric is taken as a blank, and it's printed that exact code that you order in and it's shipped to you, packaged to you in three to five days. And this ecosystem has been not only sustainable for us in the product that we've created and that we've launched, but how we run as a business. Right.

Holden Bierman [00:06:27]:
How we're able to not have any inventory, not really many upfront costs, and be able to operate, market, spend our dollars on market, getting the product out to people and not worrying so much on manufacturing and fulfillment. So it's a healthy option to start out as, especially as a startup business and especially being a teenager in the fashion industry. It was definitely the healthy way to go.

Jon LaClare [00:06:49]:
So, and let's talk about the comparison, because you mentioned before how you started with T shirts and hoodies, and I think something. I don't put words in your mouth, but something to the effect of, like, anybody can do that. Right. They're kind of, there's a bunch of T shirts, there's a bunch of hoodies, and your unique designs maybe go in the front. But how has it helped your business to go? Now you're still doing print on demand, but you've got something a bit more unique, the product itself. Right. The swimwear. You're not the only one selling through them, of course, but it's a little less common maybe, than T shirts and hoodies.

Jon LaClare [00:07:18]:
Has that made a difference, I think, in your marketing and your approach?

Holden Bierman [00:07:21]:
Absolutely. I mean, there's so much more you can do with swimwear. And we market. I mean, we just did a photo shoot with one of our top influencers, Brooklyn Riley. She's absolutely amazing. She's another teenager, but she's got aspiring aspirations and she wants to do cool things. And she works with some awesome cool brands that we're happy to have her on the team. And we did a photo shoot in a kitchen, kind of home living space.

Holden Bierman [00:07:42]:
And it was just showing the product, showing how versatile our fabrics feel, the comfort behind it. And that was one thing. Like a T shirt, you could do that. But I'm all about quality. I'd say our pricing point is pretty affordable for swimwear compared to other top businesses, especially with us being in the sustainable market and selling and doing kind of giving back with every purchase. I think our products are priced at a fair Point. And I think with that comes quality, too. Our products are quality.

Holden Bierman [00:08:08]:
They last. The print quality lasts. The fabrics feel good, they look good. And once again, like I said, they do good. So I think with that, having that switch between T shirts to now swimwear, affordable swimwear, luxury swimwear, it changed the brand, and I think it changed the quality. And that was one thing I learned as an entrepreneur. Having a brand, having quality keeps customers coming. And the cool thing with Coastal Cool is we have, the majority of our customers has been loyal customers that keep coming back and buying every summer.

Holden Bierman [00:08:37]:
And that's really cool to see. As a business owner, I'd much rather have. And I love getting new customers and building them into that loyal base, but seeing those customers year after year support the brand, support the mission, support what we're doing, buying new products when we release them, that's. That's the cool part of Coastal Cool. So.

Jon LaClare [00:08:54]:
And along the way, you've had quite a bit of PR as well. You've been on some national segments, etc. I guess if you could share maybe an example or two and how that's helped your business.

Holden Bierman [00:09:05]:
Yeah, no, it's definitely helped our business a ton. I mean, whether from sharing my story as a young entrepreneur and reaching other young entrepreneurs to leading me to speak at. I spoke at uncw, our local college here in North Carolina. I mean, I've been speaking at middle schools, my old schools. I've spoken at all my old schools, which I used to attend. I'm going around doing podcasts like this. I mean, the PR has definitely helped a lot. I joined our Chamber of Commerce last May.

Holden Bierman [00:09:30]:
I was the youngest chamber member in our town's history, and I believe in the state of North Carolina, which led me to being on wrl, our local news channel. And that came after the Forbes article. And there was just everything kind of happened at once. And I'm still kind of like debriefing from it because last summer was kind of hectic. Whether from all the traveling to all the press that just kind of came all at once. I won Most Influential CEO of the State for Modern Fashion and Swimwear. But the press has definitely helped a lot in kind of finding my space as an entrepreneur and finding my target market. And honestly, as press comes out every day about me and all the projects I'm working on, it teaches me kind of who am I marketing this product to and who's actually interested in it.

Holden Bierman [00:10:13]:
And I see when the press is being released and who's sharing it, who's engaging with it. Who's like, wow, this story is cool. That's my potential customer. And I've based a lot of my marketing off of that, so. And I'm very grateful for the editor, Megan Harris. She did my Forbes article. She's awesome. And we did some really cool stuff with that article back last April.

Holden Bierman [00:10:32]:
And it's done. It's done tremendous.

Jon LaClare [00:10:34]:
So. And I hear that type of story a lot where you get one PR hit, right, in something that's well known like Forbes, etc. And it can lead to a lot of others. Right, because it gives other news writers, media reporters, whatever might be ideas. Right. They're searching for things. And when they come across a cool and interesting story, whether you know, it's about being a young entrepreneur or whether it's about a really cool product you've developed or whatever it might be, having that first hit can be the hardest, and then it can get a lot easier over. Over time as well.

Jon LaClare [00:11:02]:
So we've talked a little bit about Tidy Ocean. You're involved with them, but you're also involved with a company called Slings Eyewear. Can you talk a little bit about that partnership and how you're helping them?

Holden Bierman [00:11:12]:
Yeah. So basically, you know, one thing I've learned with Coastal Cool is we're still not profitable as a business yet. We're still growing. We're still kind of in that startup phase. I mean, we're doing tremendous on social media, but, you know, I don't have any outside investors. I don't have any PE private equity. I don't have anything to kind of build this incubator of a. I never had any of that.

Holden Bierman [00:11:30]:
I started with $500 and that was to get an LLC. The rest I funded. So pretty much everything we make is a brand we funnel right back through, and we're letting it grow and flourish. Social media is doing great, but one thing I've learned is how to market a product right, and that's something we've done really good at. How do I'm getting my bikinis and my swim trunks to customers. How do I get people seeing that? And that's been through influencer marketing. I built our entire Shopify website from scratch. I'm just.

Holden Bierman [00:11:55]:
I'm definitely on the creative side of things in the marketing. What makes you as a brand, stand out as a brand and what gets people buying you as a brand? And that's one thing I really enjoy doing. So I've joined the team of Slings and basically helping them grow as a startup. E commerce Direct to Consumer and now business to business company. How are we going to do things in terms of marketing? How are we getting our products to people and how are we visually creating Slings as kind of this shape shifting brand in the eyewear industry now in 2025. So basically I'm taking my expertise from growing Coastal cool from zero to now. Over 2,000 followers across social media platforms and a billion views. How am I going to use that and leverage these other companies that I'm coming on board with to help grow? And it's, it's super cool and I love working with products that are doing something good.

Holden Bierman [00:12:46]:
We're about to get tidy working with Slings too and just getting all these brands connected, all these direct to consumer brands connected with an impact, connected with the mission and just flourish through marketing and go crazy.

Jon LaClare [00:13:00]:
That's awesome. That's awesome. And it's, it's. I can only imagine what my listeners or my audience is thinking right now. The question probably in a lot of their minds is how the heck do you do all this? And reminder to our audience you're still in high school, right? So you're, you've got a little time left in high school before your next steps, which we'll talk about in a second. How do you get all this done and still be a full time student?

Holden Bierman [00:13:21]:
I'll, I'll tell you. Sometimes it's like, like today I was kind of like, well, and I'm on Christmas break, you know, we've been out, out on break for two weeks now and I just, I'm dreading going back. Honestly, it's just like I, I know what I'm passionate about, I know what I love doing and it's hard, it's definitely hard managing school. It's just a lot dealing with still the high school life and dealing with, you know, high school drama and dealing with, you know, football games and still living like a 17 year old. But my mind's not a 17 year old, if that makes sense. Like it just. And that's something I've kind of struggled with a lot, is just finding my group of people that know what I'm passionate about and understand. And it's hard because nobody's really understanding what I'm thinking about and what I'm wanting to do and the visions I have.

Holden Bierman [00:14:01]:
But I found, I found a good group and you know, I'm just, I know I just gotta pass the time and kind of get past this chapter of high school. But it's definitely, it's definitely a lot to manage you know, from dealing up with grades to then dealing up with what company board meeting do I have a call for tonight? You know, it's like, it's a lot but I enjoy every minute of it and I'm growing in both my education and my companies so well.

Jon LaClare [00:14:25]:
And I, you know, I, as I mentioned, I'm very impressed with you and all that you've done, but also how you carry yourself, you know, very mature. You know, you could be 30 for all I know in the way you have conversations and been doing this for a very long time. It's, it's very impressive. So, interesting thing on, I guess question on my mind is, is it the chicken or the egg? Right. Do you think you are as I, you know, imagine you. We're going to talk about your next steps in a second. You're thinking about college, et cetera. We'll get into it a little more detail.

Jon LaClare [00:14:50]:
As you meet with, with college people right in the admissions process, you're going to stand out, right? You're very different from the average 17 year old of trying to apply to colleges, etc, just in your maturity and what you've done and, and how you carry yourself. Do you think, I don't know if you can answer this, but do you think you are who you are today because this journey helped you, you know, starting at running a business because when you were 12 years old and it's kind of helped you become this better person for it, or do you think you started with some special skill sets, a special ingenuity I guess at that, at that age that then kind of carried you over. Does that make sense? Like question like, what do you think happened?

Holden Bierman [00:15:28]:
Oh, you know, it's so hard because you know, I've always been like, I used to literally take the stuff that we had in our house and I'd create yard sales in my yard and I'd sell my family stuff without them even knowing and I'd set up these yard sales and these tables and Forbes featured it. There's actually on the Forbes article, there's a picture of me with my yard sale set up in our, in our front yard with my parents. Stuff that they had no idea that I took. Like I think there was so much in my childhood that I knew that I was thinking, but I didn't really realize, hey, this isn't normal. Like this is different. But then I do have to say taking the risk and starting the brand four, five years ago now and just taking that risk. I mean so many people laughed at me. So many people Thought I was crazy because it wasn't normal.

Holden Bierman [00:16:13]:
I think it honestly shaped me into who I am today and being able. Like, if I didn't start this, I wouldn't be speaking to you right now. So I think everything happens for a reason. I mean, starting my business got me. I haven't really ever been into the sports kind of aspect of life. I played baseball, I got my second degree black belt and taekwondo, but I never really clicked and never really enjoyed it. But starting the business was something I really enjoyed and that got me into weightlifting and bodybuilding and it got me into the gym and it got my focus out. I would work all day long, I'd be like, okay, I'm going to the gym for an hour to clear my mind.

Holden Bierman [00:16:42]:
And I've done that every day for the last four years. I've built my body up, I built my mind up, I've built this business up. And I think all that kind of came from, yes, some childhood stuff, but I think definitely just originally taking that risk in doing something because I've connected with so many amazing people from it. I've worked with so many amazing people and I've created a name for myself. I didn't have a name before, and now I'm kind of tapping into different industries and, and doing something different, especially with the age and title that I have. So. And I'm very fortunate for that and I'm very fortunate to have parents who supported me and gave me that initial funds and actually let me start this business. I mean, they facilitated me starting a business in their house, in my bedroom.

Holden Bierman [00:17:23]:
I mean, I had very. A supporting kind of group when I first started this and my parents promoted my products to their friends and they were the original customers and they continue to buy to this day. So I definitely say the environment to help me out a lot. So.

Jon LaClare [00:17:39]:
Absolutely. Yeah. We all need good members of our team, whether that, you know, it could be parents, it could be as you get older in life, it's a spouse or, you know, people around you. Friends and family for sure are necessary and they're part of the journey for sure. So we. I mentioned before you're planning to go to college soon. And I imagine the question comes to mind, like, all right, I'm already down this journey of starting and running a successful business. Do I just keep going with that or do I go to college and what.

Jon LaClare [00:18:03]:
What? I guess, how'd you finally make that decision to go to college? Yeah.

Holden Bierman [00:18:06]:
And so, and honestly, I always knew I was going to go to college from the start, it's a lot of the parent push and obviously I want to follow kind of in their footsteps and what they've done. And I have to admit it's a different time of life. It's a different time of industries obviously. I don't think, I mean E Commerce wasn't even around in my parents time back when they were this age. So there was not really kids doing what I'm doing, I'd say. And it's just a different time, it's a different environment. So I think I'm adapting to kind of both how they lived and kind of going off. Obviously they're my parents, but also kind of forwarding the path for myself and understanding that hey, this is a different time.

Holden Bierman [00:18:41]:
I'm in a different situation than most people were and most people are currently. So I'm kind of shaping this path as I go on. I know I definitely want to be somewhere tropical and warm. I definitely need a change in scenery. So I'm looking at some Florida schools. But the goal is to continue this brand and because of the ecosystem that we have with the manufacturing, I can run this from anywhere. All I need is my laptop top and I'm very fortunate to have that. So I definitely think just keep growing the brand and growing the other brands that I work with and have partnership in and just also growing as just a person, you know, and scale because I know how far I've come since starting this five years ago and I, I know there's so much more for me to come as a, as a human and then as companies.

Holden Bierman [00:19:24]:
So I'm excited.

Jon LaClare [00:19:26]:
And along the way, obviously you've got some raw horsepower and skill sets that you know are impressive. But you also. We all get help, help from others, right? In some way or another, whether it's a book or whether it's a website or conference or people we know, etc. What's been I guess impactful or helpful to you in your journey?

Holden Bierman [00:19:44]:
Yeah, I think honestly impactful is just I've always surrounded myself with successful people. I've always graduated more towards adults. I'd say connecting even with you. I mean having a. We had a great conversation that first call a few weeks ago. I've always just kind of clicked with adults better. I'm eager to learn. I wanted to learn about politics right away.

Holden Bierman [00:20:03]:
I wanted to learn about just what's going on. I just, I never really clicked with the average video games and the other stuff. You know, I just needed a regular. I don't know, I just needed A different group. So I think graduating myself towards entrepreneurs and successful people in a wide spread of industries has truly helped me. My best friend's dad, he's been very successful and he was in video games and design art, and he kind of inspired me in a lot of the stuff I've done. My dad, he's in business. He's inspired me for a lot of the stuff I've done.

Holden Bierman [00:20:33]:
And those are just, just all successful people in my life that have kind of pushed me to take a step, do something outside the box and be myself and then grow along the way. So I definitely think it's like we said before, it's in your environment that definitely helps.

Jon LaClare [00:20:46]:
So absolutely. It's. Yeah. Whatever age we're at. Right. Whether we're 17 or 65, having connections, having people around us to join us in the journey or give us advice, it can be so important and so impactful. Well, this has been an awesome interview. A lot of fun to catch up with you again.

Jon LaClare [00:21:02]:
Is there anything I didn't ask that you think could be helpful for, for our audience?

Holden Bierman [00:21:05]:
Honestly, for if I don't know what your audience kind of their age group, but if you got any young entrepreneurs on there, I just. My biggest advice is why you got the time and you're not stuck in a 9 to 5 job yet and you're not, you're not locked in. Do take a risk. Try something out. Start an idea, trust your heart. If you think, oh, let me sell some bracelets on the side, do it. Why not Find the hustle and find what you enjoy in that hustle and the rest of the path will take you along the way. That's happened to me.

Holden Bierman [00:21:31]:
I did, I never thought, I mean, I go around town and I'll go into local stores and they're like, oh, you're the T shirt guy. And I'm like, you know, I never thought I would be referred to that from just the simple idea when I started, but took the risk, I continued it and I followed my heart and my passion and I did some good along the way.

Jon LaClare [00:21:46]:
So love it. Love it. Well, you know, I can tell, I'm sure our listeners and viewers can tell you're going to be a massive success in whatever you do as you continue your journey and you got a long, a long ways to go. You can do a lot more as you're so, you know, starting out so young. So it's really exciting. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. I do encourage our audience. Please go check out Coastal cool co if you're driving as always, it's in the show notes.

Jon LaClare [00:22:09]:
You can check it out. Learn more about Holden and his business. Also, did you know you can meet with a member of my team absolutely free for a 30 minute strategy consultation? We've launched and grown hundreds of products since 2007. Learn some of our strategies while growing OxiClean back in the Billy Mays days. We're here to help, so please go to harvestgrowth.com and set up a call if you'd like to discuss further.