PiperWai was founded by childhood best friends Sarah Ribner and Jess Edelstein. It was born out of a personal need; Sarah had been breaking out in rashes, acne, and other skin conditions from conventional products she was purchasing at drug stores. Eventually, Sarah made the switch to using natural products and noticed an immediate improvement — however, she found it particularly difficult to find natural deodorant. When her friend Jess came to her with an activated charcoal-based deodorant that Jess had concocted in her own kitchen, Sarah immediately saw business potential in the product. Activated charcoal, a porous substance that effectively absorbs moisture and fights odor, was the perfect base ingredient for a natural deodorant. After taking the deodorant on a service trip to South America and witnessing the positive reactions to it from other volunteers, Sarah knew that she and Jess had to turn it into a company.

Sarah and Jess began to develop different iterations of their activated charcoal-based deodorant, ultimately going through over 100 test batches over the course of a year. After receiving a $2,000 loan from their parents, Sarah and Jess started hand-crafting deodorant in a community kitchen and shipped out orders from their living room, selling a few hundred units a month. A couple of years later, they landed a spot on Shark Tank and sold out within 5 minutes of airing. From a small kitchen operation to the first activated charcoal-based deodorant on the market, the PiperWai team has become a leader in the natural and sustainable personal care products category.