:Sarah Paiji Yoo
{{Short description|American entrepreneur (born 1984)}}
{{family name hatnote|Yoo|lang=Korean}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sarah Paiji Yoo
| image_caption =
| other_names =
| birth_name = Sarah Paiji
| birth_date = 1984
| birth_place = Cerritos, California, U.S.
| education = Harvard University (AB, MBA)
| occupation = {{hlist|Entrepreneur|business executive}}
| years_active = 2011-present
| known_for = {{indented plainlist|
}}
| children = 2
}}
Sarah Paiji Yoo (born 1984){{Cite web |last=Yoo Paiji |first=Sarah |date=June 11, 2022 |title=Instagram |url=https://www.instagram.com/p/Ceoc-6kO4QL/ |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=Instagram |quote=Strangely, I turned 38}} is an American entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of Blueland, a company that offers cleaning and personal care products. She also founded and served as CEO of Snapette from 2011 to 2013. Yoo is of South Korean heritage.{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=CEO Sarah Paiji Yoo on how her heritage influenced her |url=https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/gma3/video/ceo-sarah-paiji-yoo-heritage-influenced-110614604 |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=Good Morning America |language=en}}
Early life and education
Yoo was born in 1984, in Cerritos, California, to Myung Paiji and Sam Paiji.{{Cite web |date=May 31, 2015 |title=Sarah Paiji, Kenneth Yoo |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/fashion/weddings/sarah-paiji-kenneth-yoo.html |via=NYTimes.com}}{{Cite web |last=Rahman |first=Nancy |date=July 31, 2019 |title=She wasn’t happy with all the single plastic waste & toxicity so she created a company to help end it |url=https://www.thechic.us/sarah-paiji-yoo/ |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=The Chic}} Yoo attended Harvard University, where she received her first job working in undergraduate recruitment. She graduated magna cum laude in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in economics.{{Cite web |last=Chong |first=Dale |date=2023-06-14 |title=Blueland’s Sarah Paiji Yoo Stays Optimistic in Her Fight Against Climate Change |url=https://www.elle.com/life-love/ask-e-jean/a44056411/sarah-paiji-yoo-blueland-career-interview/ |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=ELLE |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Sarah Paiji Yoo - Co-Founder & CEO at Blueland |url=https://theorg.com/org/blueland/org-chart/sarah-paiji-yoo |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=THE ORG |language=en}} In 2010, Yoo attended the Harvard Business School,{{Cite web |last=Setiawan |first=Benjamin Liong |title=Cooking And Coping: Making Vegan Pizza Grilled Cheese With Sarah Paiji Yoo In New York City |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminsetiawan/2021/12/28/cooking-and-coping-making-vegan-pizza-grilled-cheese-with-sarah-paiji-yoo-in-new-york-city/ |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=Forbes |language=en}} which she left after her first year to pursue Snapette.{{Cite web |date=2019-12-01 |title=Making Eco Easy |url=https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages/story-bulletin.aspx?num=7195 |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=Harvard Business School Alumni |language=en}}
Career
= Early career =
Yoo began a career in finance in 2005, working various roles at McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs, and Berkshire Partners until 2010.{{Cite web |date=2021-04-15 |title=How the Co-Founder of Blueland Is Reimagining Cleaning to End Single-Use Plastic |url=https://www.createcultivate.com/blog/small-business-advice-sarah-paiji-yoo-co-founder-blueland |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=Create + Cultivate |language=en-US}}
= Snapette =
Yoo founded her first company Snapette, a platform for fashion shopping, in 2011. Snapette was acquired by PriceGrabber in 2013.{{Cite news |last=Canal |first=Emily |date=4 October 2019 |title=These Founders Nearly Left ‘Shark Tank’ Without a Deal. Here’s the Tactic That Got Them a $270,000 Investment From Kevin O’Leary |url=https://x.com/justinmujin/status/1922599641322811474 |access-date=14 May 2025 |work=Inc.}}
= LAUNCH =
In 2014, Yoo founded LAUNCH, a startup accelerator. As a partner, she helped launch various fashion and beauty companies.{{Cite web |last=Perez |first=Miranda |title=After a decade in fashion and beauty, serial entrepreneur Sarah Paiji Yoo switched gears to focus on building an eco-friendly cleaning products company. Here's why. |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/sarah-paiji-yoo-left-fashion-beauty-for-cleaning-products-startup-blueland |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}}
= Blueland =
In 2018, after reaching out to Syed Naqvi, a director at the cleaning product brand Method,{{Cite news |last=Florsheim |first=Lane |date=2019-05-20 |title=Hate Buying Cleaning Supplies? There’s a Pill for That |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/hate-buying-cleaning-supplies-theres-a-pill-for-that-11558372805 |access-date=2025-05-14 |work=Wall Street Journal |language=en-US |issn=0099-9660}} Yoo co-founded Blueland with John Mascari in 2019.{{Cite web |title=Sarah Paiji Yoo is on Inc.'s 2020 Female Founders 100 list |url=https://www.inc.com/profile/sarah-paiji-yoo |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20220808203242/https://www.inc.com/profile/sarah-paiji-yoo |archive-date=2022-08-08 |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=Inc.com |language=en}} Naqvi became the first employee at the company and currently serves as chief innovation officer.{{Cite web |last=Jackson |first=Ashton |date=2024-09-23 |title=40-year-old CEO shares the No. 1 red flag she sees in employees—avoiding it is ‘more important than ever’ |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/23/blueland-ceo-top-red-flag-in-employees-anti-collaborative.html |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=CNBC |language=en}}
Blueland was featured on Shark Tank in 2020, securing a fundraising deal with Kevin O'Leary.
By 2022, Blueland, with over US$100 million in sales, had raised $35 million in venture funding.
Personal life
Yoo married Kenneth Yoo in 2015.{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Jinnie |date=2024-06-06 |title=Blueland Cofounder Sarah Paiji Yoo’s Home Picks are Chic, Clean, and Eco-Conscious |url=https://www.dwell.com/article/blueland-cofounder-sarah-paiji-yoos-home-picks-are-chic-clean-and-eco-conscious-db0c9039 |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=Dwell}} They have two sons.{{Cite news |last=Lev-Tov |first=Devorah |date=2025-04-26 |title=How an Eco-Friendly Entrepreneur Spends Her Sundays |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/26/nyregion/sarah-paiji-yoo-blueland.html |access-date=2025-05-14 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}
References
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Category:Businesspeople from Los Angeles County, California
Category:People from Cerritos, California
Category:American technology company founders
Category:American women company founders
Category:American company founders
Category:American retail chief executives
Category:American women chief executives
Category:21st-century American businesspeople
Category:21st-century American businesswomen
Category:Harvard University alumni