Cailin Cooper started a business with a simple idea: people don’t need more shampoo, they need better haircare. The former hairdresser grew frustrated watching customers drown in endless subscriptions and plastic waste. She decided to build Cooper Delivered, a solid haircare company focused on sustainability and knowledge rather than volume.
Cooper began by selling shampoo and conditioner bars in Western Australia. The model quickly expanded beyond simple retail. She wanted to create a business that offered her and her husband Damien more freedom over their lives. That vision eventually led them to sell their home and travel, before settling on five acres in Katanning, about 300 kilometers southeast of Perth.
Building an off-grid ecosystem
The couple plans to turn the five-acre property into their home and a manufacturing facility. They aim to operate off-grid using solar power and water collection systems. Cooper acknowledges they cannot be perfectly sustainable, but they are trying to make better choices every day.
Living on the land has changed her approach to business. Country life slows you down. There is less noise and more space to think. When something needs doing on five acres, they stop and figure out how to do it themselves. This mentality has naturally found its way into Cooper Delivered.
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Cooper now mixes traditional hands-on work with modern technology. She attended Oceania DigitalX in Perth and learned about artificial intelligence through online tutorials and trial and error. She shifted her mindset from “I don’t know how” to “let’s see if I can learn.” She uses AI not as the imagination itself, but as a tool to push creativity further.
These new skills have allowed her to build several digital products. Gardening across five acres inspired her to create Earth – Cooper Delivered, a free app for journaling gardens and growing beauty recipes. Marketing challenges led to The Board, a visual app designed to help small-business owners organize their goals. Nana’s Quest is a marketplace for handicraft makers who build things with their hands.
Cooper sees these tools as parts of a simple ecosystem. Great hair, a good garden, calmer marketing, and community support all fit together. The digital products support the physical business, and the physical business supports the community.
Cooper’s long-term goal remains a manufacturing facility for solid haircare in regional Western Australia. She hopes the facility will provide local jobs and skills. She also wants to share her knowledge as a hairdresser to help others develop skills they can carry forward.
