GoodGuide

About GoodGuide

GoodGuide emerged in 2007 as a data-driven enterprise focused on product transparency, founded by Dara O'Rourke, an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley. O'Rourke's two decades of research into the environmental, labor, and health impacts of global production systems formed the intellectual bedrock of the company. The venture aimed to empower consumers to make purchasing decisions aligned with their values by providing accessible information on the health, environmental, and social performance of products and companies.

The company developed a platform that provided ratings on over 175,000 consumer products, including personal care, household, and food items. This service was delivered through a website and mobile applications for iPhone and Android, which featured a barcode scanner allowing shoppers to get immediate product evaluations at the point of sale. The rating system synthesized data from over 1,000 sources, including governmental agencies, scientific institutions, and NGOs, to score products on health, environmental, and social criteria. This allowed users to customize searches based on their personal concerns.

As a venture-capital-funded startup, GoodGuide successfully raised $14.2 million from investors such as New Enterprise Associates, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Physic Ventures. The business model, while initially focused on the consumer, also presented opportunities for a B2B application by enabling manufacturers and retailers to showcase their products' credentials and meet consumer demand for transparency. A significant milestone occurred in August 2012 when GoodGuide was acquired by UL (Underwriters Laboratories), a global safety science company. The acquisition integrated GoodGuide's user-friendly data platform with UL's extensive technical expertise and certification services. The platform continued to operate post-acquisition but was eventually shut down on June 1, 2020.