A passionate home cook sets out to make his first-ever DIY candles as a gift for his wife. Hours later, the kitchen is a total disaster and the candles don’t even burn. He boldly declares: Never again!

Candles are great though, so we teamed up with a third-party manufacturer and found our first customers. Not exactly how we imagined it, but it got us started. We knew we’d bring things in-house once we had enough momentum.

So much for waiting. When COVID hit, our manufacturing partner shut down, and we found ourselves making candles in our garage. Friends and neighbors pitched in to help. Masks on, wax everywhere - and somehow, it worked.

Our own production facility became a priority. We set up shop in a 5,000 sq ft space near the Santa Monica Mountains and hired our first sales reps, who still work with us to this day.

What started in a garage had officially grown into a full-fledged operation. In 2022, we moved into a 15,000 sq ft facility. We also bought our first forklift, which felt like an oddly significant milestone once it happened (wax is heavy!)

We expanded our product line with room sprays and wax melts, and scaled both wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels. Candlefy serves thousands of retailers across the country and a growing customer base online. We added a second warehouse and laid the groundwork for the next chapter of growth.