Hugh Brownstone's Coldfront: A Paoli Business Helping Women Manage Menopause

The Wharton Business School grad collaborated with his sister to launch a simple yet profitable idea, which has since turned into a full-time career.

Continued from Joanne Lang.


Photo by Jared CastaldiIf you told Hugh Brownstone six years ago that he’d be working in partnership with his sister, Susie Hadas, on a startup company, he wouldn’t have believed it. If you told him the company would be addressing the needs of menopausal women, he would’ve said you were crazy.

After a successful career on Wall Street, followed by an executive job that had him in London for three years, the Wharton School M.B.A. grad took a sabbatical from the fast-paced corporate world to dedicate more time to his family. When he returned to corporate America in 2007, he wasn’t at all thrilled to be back in that environment. His priorities had changed.

Around the same time, Hadas mentioned to her brother that she was experiencing hot flashes. She really wanted to find something to give her and other women a reprieve from the uncomfortable feeling. “Once I saw the prototype, I was in,” says Brownstone, who lives in Paoli.

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The two collaborated on Coldfront, a pair of cooling packs that fits into the palm of your hand to provide discreet relief. The packs are stored in a small case with a core that cools the them throughout the day. “This has been the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in business—and it may be because we’re building something tangible that provides real benefit to people,” Browntone says.

Brownstone went full time with Coldfront in 2009. His office is now in the dining room of his home, where he Skypes with Hadas in Long Island, N.Y., a few times a day. “My life is richer now,” he says. “It’s a crazy life being an entrepreneur, but I love it.”

Visit mycoldfront.com.
 

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