Founder Story:
Melissa Marks, Founder of Cabana Life, sun protective clothing and swimwear
Tulane ’96, BA Marketing
BY DEVON PAPOCK
About Melissa Marks
Melissa Marks was born and raised in New York, NY. She grew up in a family where dinners were filled with discussions of marketing strategy and the entrepreneurial path due to the nature of her family’s business (electronics and appliance sales). However, she did not envision becoming an entrepreneur at that young age. She left home to attend Tulane University and fell in love with the lively nature of the city and the excitement of daily life. She graduated in ’96 with a degree in marketing.
The first startup experience
With a degree and a job opportunity at a gourmet foods startup company (that would later become KIND bars, founded by twenty-six-year-old Daniel Lubetzky), Melissa returned to New York, NY. For her first day of work, she reported to a team meeting in the basement of a building next to a trash compactor, ready for anything. She worked at the company for a year and enjoyed the fast-paced, scrappy world of startups. Melissa raised her hand to any opportunity, finding ways to make the impossible possible. Following that position, Melissa joined Seventeen Magazine, where she organized elaborate events, traveled nationwide, and wrote features for the publication.
Building a business idea while facing a challenge
Amidst all this running around and the excitement of being in her twenties and living in the big city, Melissa stopped by the dermatologist’s office down the hall from where she worked one day for a quick checkup that felt too short. Melissa was agitated that she took time out of her busy day only for the dermatologist to say, “Looks good.”. Melissa then advocated for herself and proceeded to point at every freckle and mark on her body - “What’s this, what’s this? What’s this…” and one of her “what’s this” was a tiny pink spot on her arm.
You never expect to hear the word “cancer” in your twenties, and while Melissa sat in her paper gown and asked the right questions, she learned that her regular clothes only provided protection from the sun, equivalent to SPF 5 and that she should have been wearing sun-protective clothing with an SPF of 50.
Upon request, the dermatologist rolled out a rack of bulky garments that provided significant coverage and protection but insignificant style, to which Melissa asked, “Do they have to be ugly to work?”. Melissa’s previous experiences working in a startup with a health mission, in fashion publishing, and her spirit of making the “impossible possible” all played a part in Melissa's testing, developing, and starting Cabana Life, a fashion-forward, protective clothing line.
The next Green Wave generation
Although I like to joke that Cabana Life is my mom’s “first child”, I (Devon Papock, currently a freshman at Tulane) have that title!
My mom's work was woven into my daily existence from early childhood. I had a front-row seat to the inner workings of the company that she built. Whether accompanying her to the office, being part of photoshoots, or sitting in on work calls (usually taken on the way to my rowing practice), I was immersed in the business world she created.
My mother generously shared new advertising campaigns, website prototypes, and fashion catalogs and took me on countless work trips. She fostered my curiosity and encouraged me to explore the world of entrepreneurship and startups, which led me to where I am today— helping share the stories of Tulane University and New Orleans startups at the Tulane Innovation Institute.
Stay tuned for this new series on innovation.tulane.edu/stories — where we will be profiling more Tulane alums and New Orleanians who have built businesses and nonprofits.
