Winter Garden resident joins skincare startup

InstaNatural, a line of natural skincare and beauty products that was launched in 2013 by founder AJ Patel, has selected Winter Garden resident Dan Brenner as its new CEO, chosen for his experience in product development and medical marketing.

“As the business has continued to evolve and expand along with our customer base, it only felt right to bring in more support to take InstaNatural to the next level,” Patel said.  “Dan has the vision and background to take us there, and I’m thrilled to have him as our new CEO.”

Brenner graduated with an MBA from the University of Central Florida and then worked for Charles Schwab before moving to SPRIM, a multidisciplinary team of professionals with expertist in turning scientific data into strategic added-value for businesses. At SPRIM, Brenner helped companies across the whole product development cycle, from ideation, to clinical research, all the way through marketing.

“We would basically scour the world and find these technologies and give them a development plan for making this a reality,” Brenner said.

He worked on a variety of products at SPRIM, but his largest client was Unilever and his largest brand was Dove. Primarily, his work was in the Americas, but he also worked with the brand in Europe and Asia. 

After more than three years at SPRIM, Brenner decided to join his friend Patel at InstaNatural, offering his network, marketing angles, development experience and ambition to the team.

“As InstaNatural was becoming a really well developed e-commerce machine, it didn’t really have a vision for, what would a billion-dollar plan look like?”

The vision behind InstaNatural is to develop beauty products that are effective without some of the harsh

chemicals that similar products often contain. In the next two years, the company expects to launch a men’s line, baby line, sun protection products and clinical products for conditions such as acne and eczema. 

InstaNatural’s leadership team comprises mostly men, but because the target market of the line is women, Heather Wilson was invited to join as director of brand development. Her background as an aesthetician was a plus.

“We wanted to make sure that that voice is always present,” Brenner said. “That’s why we brought Heather in.”

Brenner, 27, said one thing he enjoys about working at InstaNatural is the staff’s relative youth. 

“The average age of an employee at InstaNatural is 27,” Brenner said. “It’s a very young company. There are a lot of startups that are founded by millennials; they all just happen to be technology companies.”

To learn more about InstaNatural and browse its products, go to instanatural.com.