Pre-Order Nutshell - Coconut Coolers for Outdoors Lovers!

Our Story

Fortuna was born in a fishing village in the Philippines where optimism is contagious and resourcefulness is a way of life.

What began as a graduate school project to improve local fish packaging became a business that’s improving lives and inspiring change from California to Lubang Island.

Today we make biodegradable packaging under the Fortuna Cools brand and sustainable consumer products like the Nutshell Cooler.

Our Mission

Harness the power of collaborative design and natural materials to make best-in-class products.

Our Vision

Replace plastic foam insulation once and for all.

Fortuna Cools has three lines of products.

Our Nutshell Coolers are designed for lovers of the outdoors, so that everyone can come along on this journey of social impact and material innovation.

Our collapsible tuna coolers were designed for the one hundred thousand small-scale tuna fishermen in Southeast Asia that lack at-sea cold storage—their catch is left to spoil in the sun until they reach the shore, at which point the quality has degraded significantly. We spent months prototyping with local fishermen and designed an affordable, durable, and expandable cooler for this totally untouched market.

Our Fortuna Sustainable Packaging solutions are durable, flat-packable alternatives to the standard Styrofoam cooler. Designed alongside fish and produce suppliers in the Philippines to avoid plastic pollution and reduce packaging costs.‍‍

Our Core Values

Design with Our Users

Human-centered design is at our core: we seek out input from people across all walks of life to build products they’ll love.

Learn From Nature

We believe nature has already solved some of our biggest challenges. We upcycle naturally-available resources productively and responsibly.

Innovate For Impact

We aim to create sustainable products and business models with a positive impact on human and natural communities.

Stay Optimistic

We are inspired by the generosity and resilience of the Filipinos we work with. We seek to channel this strength and positivity in everything we do.

Design with Our Users
Human-centered design is at our core: we seek out input from people across all walks of life to build products they’ll love.

Learn from Nature
We believe nature has already solved some of our biggest challenges. We upcycle naturally-available resources productively and responsibly.

Innovate for Impact
We aim to create sustainable products and business models with a positive impact on human and natural communities.

Stay Optimistic
We are inspired by the generosity and resilience of the Filipinos we work with. We seek to channel this strength and positivity in everything we do.

David Cutler

Co-Founder & CEO

David has worked in development and consulting for startups and NGOs across Asia. David studied design at Stanford’s d.school but didn’t truly become a designer until he and Tamara finished making their first cooler with a tarp and a blow dryer in the Philippines.

Tamara Mekler

Co-Founder & COO

Tamara is a Behavioral Biologist with an M.S. from Stanford University in Sustainable Development. Previously, Tamara worked in community-based conservation and environmental education in the United States and in her home countries, Spain and Mexico.

Julius Bucatora

Director of Operations, PH
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Julius has steered startups through rapid growth and managed supply chains across borders. And he was raised on a coconut farm in Surigao! Julius brings expertise and passion to Fortuna where he’s in charge of ensuring efficient and transparent production: from farm to factory to customers around the world.

Dr. Justino Arboleda

Chief Coconut Officer, PH
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Dr. Justino "Bo" Arboleda is an ex-university dean, a winner of the BBC’s World Challenge for Innovation, and an engineer with a PhD from Tokyo University. Bo and his wife, Julie, own Juboken Enterprises, our long-term partners and friends in Bicol, one of the main coconut growing regions of the Philippines.

Learn about our impact from Dr. Bo