Orchard Graduate Founded Soothe, Raised $80 Million As CEO
Part of The Orchard School’s mission is to encourage independent thought and expression, construction and application of knowledge, critical thinking, problem solving, persistence, and collaboration.
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Merlin Kauffman '00 was able to use these tenets of Orchard’s Progressive education to become a very successful entrepreneur—starting his first company as a junior at Park Tudor before eventually being named a semifinalist for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2017 Greater Los Angeles Region Award.
From starting a notably successful in-home massage company to making his way through Harvard Business School, and from his fond memories of Orchard to what the future holds, we cover it all in our Q&A with Merlin below.
It’s been almost 20 years since you’ve graduated from Orchard. How have you been?
Life is lovely — I’ve been quite busy building many businesses, but for the most part, I have enjoyed the freedom I’ve achieved through choosing to create my own career path as an entrepreneur.
As soon as I graduated from Orchard, I moved on to Park Tudor and ended up starting my first company, eWireless, my junior year of high school. Going into my freshman year of college at Temple University, I sold my half of the business to my partner and used that capital and some college loan money to begin my business of investing in domain names (the equivalent of virtual real estate).
At first I was buying domain names and flipping them for a profit to other more established investors. By the middle of my sophomore year of college when I had transferred to IU, it had become such a successful business that I decided to drop out of school and focus on domain names full time.
I eventually amassed a portfolio of ~50,000 .com domain names by 2012, and decided I was looking for a new challenge. By this point, I had travelled to more than 40 countries, become scuba certified, and was really enjoying life. A good friend suggested I attend Harvard Business School — I applied and was accepted to the OPM program, and graduated in 2014.
During my tenure at HBS, I met many interesting people who inspired me to think even bigger — one of my classmates had 10,000 of his employees wish him happy birthday, and I realized in that moment how much happiness and value he created for their lives. I wanted a bigger business.
Tell us a little bit about why you wanted to start an in-home massage company, and did you expect it to take off the way it did?
I’ve been getting massages since I was 10-years-old, largely due to my mother, Marilene Isaacs, being an intuitive healer and having many friends who were massage therapists.
I kept getting massages throughout my entire life, and it became part of my meditation for a peaceful mind, body, and spirit. However, when I would travel, I would often find it challenging to get a last-minute massage.
I had a massage therapist who would regularly come to my home, and for half the cost of a spa. I realized that it was just a better way to get a massage, and most people had never experienced an in-home massage before.
Soothe was born in 2013.
Soothe has been featured on CNN, Wall Street Journal and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Any fun/interesting stories you can share?
Soothe has become a major application, especially in the coastal cities of the USA. Our clients include almost every celebrity you can imagine — a major breaking point for our success was when a friend called me to say that Sharon Stone and Zach Woods were talking about us on the late show with James Cordon.
That was a moment I’ll never forget.
You recently stepped down as CEO of Soothe to serve as executive chairman of the board. What can we expect next from you?
Building and running Soothe from 2013-18 was a great experience. I decided it was time for me to begin meditating on what my next business will be, and to continue to help other entrepreneurs on their journey through advising and investing in their companies.
Orchard is a place where a child’s creativity is honored and encouraged. As a creative entrepreneur with big ideas, do you feel a connection to Orchard still to this day?
I look back fondly to my days at Orchard — I was definitely a creative and alternative thinker, often had a hard time following directions and sitting still, but Orchard embraced my differences and allowed me to grow into who I am today.
What are some of your best memories of The Orchard School?
My best memories at Orchard were playing on Steve Thompson’s varsity basketball team as a co-captain in 8th grade. Steve Thompson definitely got frustrated with me (I ran a lot of suicides!) because I didn’t always run the plays exactly as directed, but I always felt his energy and enthusiasm for both basketball and Orchard. I don’t think there’s anybody who loves Orchard more than Mr. Thompson.
One of my most formative memories was learning and playing chess at Mr. Roberts’ after school club. I’ll never forget when I won the Orchard school championship as a 3rd grader, against a very intelligent 8th grader. This experience seeded me with a sense of competitiveness and confidence.
As a successful entrepreneur who attended Harvard Business School Executive Education, what advice do you have for business-minded Orchard graduates currently in high school and college?
My biggest advice for business-minded graduates is to solve problems that exist in your life. I wanted massages to come to me, no matter what city I was in — so, I created Soothe. Now we have more than 15,000 licensed massage therapists in more than 65 cities in 4 countries (US, Canada, UK, and Australia).
I always knew I would be my own boss, so I stayed in college until I grew my business to a point that I was making more in a month than I would have made in a year as an employee at somebody else's company.
Do things differently, make your own rules, and don’t take no for an answer without asking why not.
