Goop to centralize its creative hub in L.A.
Goop, the lifestyle and ecommerce website founded by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, is moving its headquarters and creative hub to Los Angeles.
The company, which started as a newsletter in 2008, is centralizing its creative operations in L.A., although it will keep an office in New York, Noora Raj Brown, Goop’s vice president of communications, wrote in an email. Goop has about 60 employees.
Goop also raised $10 million in funding from three venture capital firms, Brown said. That cash infusion will go toward expanding Goop’s direct-to-consumer business plan and investing in product development, Brown wrote.
Goop has evolved from a platform where Paltrow dispensed a homespun — albeit ultra-high-end — advice to fans into a budding empire. In expanding Goop, Paltrow has become the poster child and trailblazer for a certain kind of celebrity, one who leverages TV or movie fame into retail products. Actresses Jessica Alba, with Honest Co., and Reese Witherspoon, with Draper James, have followed in Paltrow’s footsteps.
The site has collaborated with many brands over the years to put out exclusive merchandise, including the couture house Valentino and British designer Stella McCartney. Sprinkled on the site between skincare tips and advice on how to throw a dinner party is an entire e-commerce shop featuring items such as a $360 blouse from 3.1 Phillip Lim and a wooden cutting board for $170.
The company has increasingly ventured into its own product lines. This year, Goop launched a skincare line; this fall, the company will unveil an apparel line.
Paltrow even got her own book imprint — called Goop Press — with Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette. It launched in April with the publication of Paltrow’s cookbook “It’s All Easy: Delicious Weekday Recipes for the Super-Busy Home Cook.”