# Brian Jeong

> Brian Jeong is the CEO and cofounder of Hawthorne, a New York personalized men's personal care brand he launched in 2016 with his childhood best friend Phil Wong. Hawthorne built its business on a data-driven quiz that matches men to fragrances, skincare, hair care and grooming products tuned to their body chemistry and preferences. With no prior beauty experience, Jeong reverse-engineered the fragrance world through roughly 100 industry interviews in three weeks, growing Hawthorne from an online storefront into a Series B company stocked in thousands of retail doors, including the vast majority of Target stores.

- **Role:** CEO & Cofounder at Hawthorne
- **Organizations:** Hawthorne, Boston Consulting Group, BCG Digital Ventures, Booz & Company, U.S. Department of State, Reluxe NYC
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BA, Princeton University, MBA, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
- **Known for:** Co-founded and scaled Hawthorne into a nationally distributed personalized personal care brand, Built a recommendation quiz cited at over 98% accuracy across fragrance, skincare, hair care and grooming, Grew from a single 2016 online storefront to 1,000+ retail locations and presence in ~95% of Target stores

## Career timeline

- **2004** — Interned at the Office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
- **2011** — Graduated from Princeton University with a BA
- **2015** — Earned an MBA from the Wharton School
- **2016** — Co-launched Hawthorne with Phil Wong, focused on personalized men's personal care
- **2021** — Hawthorne raised a $12M round (Series B-era), bringing total funding to roughly $30M
- **2023** — Hawthorne expanded into mass retail, reaching the large majority of Target stores

## Achievements

- Co-founded and scaled Hawthorne into a nationally distributed personalized personal care brand
- Built a recommendation quiz cited at over 98% accuracy across fragrance, skincare, hair care and grooming
- Grew from a single 2016 online storefront to 1,000+ retail locations and presence in ~95% of Target stores
- Raised roughly $30M in total venture funding
- Earned press coverage in GQ, NYT, WSJ, Vanity Fair, Bloomberg Businessweek, WWD, Vogue, Complex and Esquire

## Latest updates

- **2021-11** — Hawthorne raised approximately $12M, lifting total funding to about $30M.
- **2023-01** — Hawthorne broadened retail distribution, reaching roughly 95% of Target stores.

## Links

- Website: https://hawthorne.co
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjeong/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/thebrianjeong
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebrianjeong/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/brian-jeong
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-14