Libby Cooper

After years of doing branding and graphic design for other people’s companies, Libby Cooper decided to focus her talents on her own brand with the launch of Space Coyote in 2018. And almost immediately, the company’s popularity began to skyrocket.

“It was inspiring,” she says. “I try and talk about it as much as possible because I just want to encourage other people to go out there and do it for themselves.”

Before starting Space Coyote, Cooper was the creative director at Eaze, where she created white-label products, marketing campaigns and other infographics. One of her favorite projects was a high-budget, out-of-home adverting campaign.

“I was responsible for putting up all those, dare I say, annoying billboards and bus ads throughout California,” she says. “We were throwing up billboards everywhere, and I was able to design every single one of them.”

She left Eaze in early 2018, then spent some time traveling before launching Space Coyote in the fall. Cooper alternates the CEO position every other year with co-founder Scott Sundvor. The company’s products, including joints infused with hash or live resin, are sold in nearly 400 cannabis stores throughout California.

“I never saw us failing, but I definitely didn’t see us succeeding to this level,” says Cooper, who calls herself a “serious, high-functioning stoner” — the type of consumer Space Coyote’s high-potency pre-rolls were designed for.

Although cannabis sales soared in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic put the brakes on the company’s multi-state expansion plans, but only temporarily.

“We had plans of going multi-state last year and it just was too risky,” she says. “Too many unknowns, but we’ve really laid the groundwork (for 2021) and we’re ready to execute.”