From Corporate Heights to Startup Success with Linda Sawyer & Alison Matz

Transcript

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Now joining no Wrong Choices are the lifelong friends and founders of the company Skura Style, linda Sawyer and Allison Matz.

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Linda and Allison are bringing us a very unique and inspiring story, as they have realized the dream that many of us had as kids creating a business, a band, a restaurant, going to outer space, whatever it may be, with one of our best friends.

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And what makes this even more remarkable is that they both walked away from very big jobs in media and advertising to do it.

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Linda and Allison, thank you so much for joining us, thanks for having us.

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So, before we go back to the beginning because this is a career journey podcast, we do like to let our guests set the stage for us in terms of where they wound up.

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So if you would and we'll go one at a time if you could tell us just a little bit about the company, about Skura Style, and, at the same time, tell us the job that you walked away from to start this company.

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So, linda, I'll start with you.

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Give us a little bit of background and what did you walk away from to start this business?

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Sure Well, I spent my career prior to launching the company in advertising.

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I began in the business.

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I worked at probably five different very large advertising agencies.

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I worked in the account management capacity, so being a liaison with the client, with the marketing focus and then I joined Deutsche Advertising when it was quite a small agency it was 40 people and I had the opportunity to kind of rise through the ranks, do a number of jobs before I ultimately became the North American CEO and I was in that position for 10 years and then I became chairman for two.

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So, and by the time I left, we were over a thousand people.

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Wow, worked with amazing brands and companies, and one company in particular that we worked with for many, many years was Ikea, and I had a very personal hand in their growth throughout the years, and we'll talk a little bit about it when we get into the company, but it definitely had a profound impact and and a lot of we've gleaned a lot of learning from them as well.

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And you know, having said that, as much as I had this amazing journey and I loved what I did and Deutsche, in a way, being there so long, 27 years, was like a second family, I always knew that there was another chapter in me and a very entrepreneurial spirit, and because I've worked with so many brands that you know, it just gave me such an incredibly robust background in so many industries that I just always really dreamed about doing something.

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And, as you said, alison and I have been best friends since second grade.

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I should tell you about her career, but we led a lot of parallels in terms of you know, we shared a lot of our management philosophy and our approach to business and we always said, like, let's one of these days, try to really make this work and come up with something to do together.

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Very, very cool.

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Yeah, so I'll let Alison introduce herself, and then we can give you the inspiration behind Skura.

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Perfect.

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Yeah, so my career primarily was spent in the magazine publishing world and I worked at a lot of different consumer magazines, mostly at Conde Nast and Meredith, and I started, I started my early career working in the ad agency side, in media, and then I quickly jumped into the publishing world, rose up through the ranks of advertising sales and ultimately became a publisher and, you know, led lots of different well-known magazines from in the fashion, beauty, home space, from Teen Vogue to Glamour, brides, more, house and Garden, martha Stewart, I mean a whole range.

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And it was fabulous, I mean it was, you know, working in that industry, at the most prestigious industry, at the most prestigious influential publications, was an absolute dream.

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I loved it and it, you know it was fun, it was social, it was, you know, challenging it was.

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You know it was sort of part of a childhood dream for me.

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And then, you know, before starting this company with Linda, I had a few mini career reinventions.

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I left the publishing world actually went back to the ad agency side and led sales and biz dev team for a media agency immediately before starting Skur.

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So it was a little full circle for me but had also, you know, started to get this entrepreneurial itch, you know, almost 20 years ago, and part of it was, you know, interfacing with so many brands, seeing so many you know, sort of the emergence of disruptor brands coming into the scene, and sort of listening to those stories, reading the books and kind of it was very exciting and I was like, wow, you know, that seems really cool and Linda and I would start to talk about, you know, what could we do.

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And I think that entrepreneurial itch for me also stemmed from I have this sort of constant curiosity, if you know, if I'm not learning something new every day, I'm not happy, kind of philosophy, and I knew the only way to keep that satisfied.

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Really, when you're at the pinnacle of your career, being a magazine publisher at a leading publication, it's like okay, you're kind of at the top and the learning wasn't there as much.

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So it's like okay, I got to do something else.

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And so it sort of started that thought process in my head of like I, you know what's next.

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For sure, and you know, it's funny, as you say, that I think about the wiring of a person who can get to that point.

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And the wiring of somebody like that is wants to keep going, wants to keep getting challenged and wants to keep learning, and complacency is not a thing, so it makes all the sense in the world.

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Yeah, and I love that.

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It's going to set us up for this conversation so nicely.

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I have the fun part, though.

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I get to put you guys in the time machine and start at the beginning.

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So I know the story, but everybody else needs to hear it.

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Let's bring you back to your seven-year-old selves.

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And who won that spelling bee?

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I did.

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I did.

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But I have since redeemed myself.

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She stole my crown several times, but Pully is P-U-L-L-E-Y.

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Oh, there you go.

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There you go.

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I knew, I knew that you would remember the word.

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But so yeah how did you, how did you meet?

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Talk about the story though, yeah, yeah.

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We were in the same class and we, you know, pretty quickly became friends and I look back and I think there are a lot of aspects to both of our personalities that existed back then and we were in the second wide, you know grade, wide spelling bee and naturally it came down to the two of us and I just completely, you know, choked on the word pulley, and Allison did win the big book, little Women, which I was surprised I have one on my coffee table here that she's giving.

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That's great, if not to rub it in or to be nice, I can't decide which.

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It is A little of both.

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It's kind of cool because we definitely were very competitive with ourselves actually, first and foremost, and it's just such a charming story and it's certainly where it ended up rising to and, as you can imagine, people from our yesteryear, whether it's from high school and growing up, are just marveled to see the two of us do what we're doing together and that we came from some humbles, but we made beginnings.

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That's great.

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Even our kind of earlier career paths.

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There was a lot of parallels, you know, linda went into advertising, I went into media but there was, you know, always sort of like a shared interest in, you know, similar kinds of industries and you know a lot of conversation that, you know, I was always intrigued with what she was doing, likewise with me, you know, and so a lot of shared interest there.

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And, I'm sure, a great sounding board, as both of you were trying to solve problems or work through challenges in your respective industries or in your respective journeys.

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To have that person there must have been just so incredibly helpful.

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I'm curious about the competitive aspect so we have the spelling bee you're friends.

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Competitive aspect so we have the spelling bee you're friends.

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Was there a competitive sort of spirit there between the two of you that may have driven you both over time?

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Again, I think it was less competitive against one another.

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I think it was more about being self-competitive.

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Actually, I think we were both very, very driven and ambitious and, like Alison said, have a lot of need to learn and curiosity and self-challenge.

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So it's really about the self-challenge aspect that I think we shared and you know we both you know asc a complimentary friendship in that we were experiencing publishing and advertising are quite different in a lot of ways, but there were enough parallels that there was a lot of relatability into the way we thought about things and it was nice to be able to share, kind of some of those more stories.

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And I know, for me, the experience of working with so many brands.

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You know I almost felt like it was like an MBA on steroids because I got to see really smart business decision making, but I also inherited a lot of bad business decisions and so for me, you know, the opportunity to have that kind of control to really, you know, navigate and direct and steer those decisions was very appealing and one of the reasons I was excited about taking that leap too.

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Yeah, so we're going to talk about the product and the company and on all of that as we dig in.

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But I'm just so curious about your relationship as you moved on together through the years.

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I mean, it sounds like this was kind of always the plan that you both almost needed to find that jumping off point where you could do something meaningful together.

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I mean, was that it or did it just?

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Was it more organic?

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How did that come about?

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I mean, I think it was organic.

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I mean I think when we look at our lives, you know, meeting in second grade and you know the famous spelling bee, and then just you know, meeting in second grade and you know the famous spelling bee, and then just you know our going off to college and staying friends, and you know we, our lives, professionally and personally, have been very parallel.

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I mean we, you know we stayed friends through all these different life cycles and life stages and you know we got married at around the same time.

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Our firstborn children are nine days apart.

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So you know we I mean this is so crazy we moved to the same suburb from New York City.

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We would insult each other on what we're ordering before we order, because we inevitably get the same thing.

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What are?

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you ordering.

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You know, there was this life alignment.

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I think that has helped us be such amazing business partners, because we've been together through so many different things, different stages of life, both on, you know, professional levels and personal levels, and our families are, you know, are like family.

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You know, the kids are like cousins, you know, it's that kind of a relationship.

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So the history is deep and it is a good foundation.

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I mean, when that history is so deep and it works, it's a great formula for successful business partnership works.

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It's a great formula for successful business partnership.

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That's great, and it's, I'd say, in business, ends up being such a shortcut, like we work so ridiculously efficiency, because we're so aligned, and the way we can kind of communicate, it's almost like we can finish each other's sentences, yet we are also, you know, bring different kinds of styles and points of view that are very helpful too.

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Yeah, you guys are painting a very rosy picture of a partnership.

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I'm just thinking of my best friend and I'm like would I want to start a business?

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with my best friend I mean what's the?

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is there a trepidation?

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Was there a trepidation at all, or it just all aligned?

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We had practice it until we finally really got focused and kind of made a commitment to meet every Sunday.

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But in effect that was the ultimate test drive and I think if it wasn't going to work it would have come out through then.

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And it just required such dedication, such tenacity and we really got to see the way we like could work in action, not just kind of like philosophically or hypothetically.

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It was really like, you know, in the trenches writing business plans, going to manufacturers.

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You know, it's the whole bit.

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So we really worked for 10 years before we cemented this.

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That's so interesting.

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And you had huge jobs at the same time and families.

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I don't know how you found the way to do that.

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Well, and that's really where the test driving, the practice, was.

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If we were, if Linda and I were going to get together, spending precious hours on a weekend when we had children younger children and the fact that we wanted to be working together, as we were moonlighting initially on this, was truly a test that it was going to work, so it was an every Sunday thing.

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Did I hear you say?

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Is that how it would come about?

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Like Sundays you'd get together?

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and sacrifice that family Even a brand new day Scour a Sunday, scour a Sundays.

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I love that.

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That's.

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That's fantastic.

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So it was a one day a week process for how long before you cut the cord and jumped in full steam.

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Talk about, I'm sure.

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And then you know writing a business plan.

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You know conceiving of of a product, finding you know someone to help us design it.

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Then you know, oh, we can't figure out how to get it made.

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Oh right, you know a lot of it was, you know, conceptual work.

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Yeah, and, and then, and then stops and starts because like would get in the way.

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You know, so there were, you know there were, were.

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We would go six months sometimes without you know we're like, oh my god, this is crazy.

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And then we would abort, and then we would go like, wait a minute, we've got to go back to that.

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It's too good of an idea yeah, I mean I I've heard a lot of entrepreneurs say the same question, like why hasn't anyone done this before?

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And we, we hit some walls that were like now we know why no one's done this before?

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Because there were some significant manufacturing challenges.

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And, you know, we almost a couple times aborted because we were like maybe this really is why no one's done this.

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But in a way, our kind of healthy naivete in terms of not coming from that world and not knowing what the maybe rules are and boundaries of manufacturing, we just kind of challenged convention and kept pushing, pushing till we found, you know where we wanted to be.

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So let's define this.

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We've been saying it, we've been saying this.

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Let's define what Skura style is, and then come back to where the idea came from.

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So, allison, why don't you take that one?

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Yeah Well, skura Style is a lifestyle brand centered around kitchen wellness and kitchen well-being.

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It's a brand whose centerpiece and kind of hero product is the most amazing sponge in the world.

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It is yes.

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There it is.

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Larry Shea is showing it to us right now, for those who are listening and not watching.

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It has just incredible functional benefits and is so far superior to any kitchen sponge on the market.

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And it has beautiful design and it is what we call a smart sponge, because it tells you when it's time to replace it, because kitchen sponges are disgusting and people keep them too long.

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And ours has a mechanism, which is the monogram, which is the design that fades with use after about one to two weeks to tell you when it's time to replace, and that was designed based on leading microbiologists guidance on when you should toss your sponge, which is once two weeks.

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But then we, you know, we really wanted to, you know, create a company that all our products have to be functionally superior to what's in the market.

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They have to be beautiful, they have to kind of take what some people see as a chore and make it a joy, you know, add a little dose of joy to your routine.

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And it's really been.

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Building this brand and the product lineup has been a labor of love.

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I mean, we, you know, we love everything that we put, bring to market, and so do our customers, which is important.

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And where did the idea come from, Linda?

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Why don't you take that one?

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I am a real home design enthusiast.

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I think Allison is too.

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You know we have a passion for beautiful design and, as I had mentioned, I also worked for many years with Ikea, so I just loved, you know, working in that space.

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But I'm also a total clean fanatic and clean freak and it is like just um the thing for me.

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It's a very emotional thing.

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It's it's not a functional chore, it it makes me feel um like in control that I, you know I'm accomplishing something.

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It's meditative in a lot of ways for me.

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And um, I was always, over the years, amazed at the fact that the kitchen, every inch of it, has experienced so much design, innovation and not just design, but performance as well.

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And even like the most benign products like paper towel holders and dish racks and even garbage cans, have evolved so much and are beautiful and they work better than ever.

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And I was always struck by the fact that this one product's front and center, the kitchen sponge.

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It was just such a dichotomy.

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It completely did not keep pace with everything else.

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It was ugly, institutional looking, harsh colors, smelled.

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I'm thinking of the two in our kitchen right now which were going to be replaced after this conversation.

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Oh no, it didn't make any sense to me.

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And so, as Allison had said, we had talked about, you know, the idea that I'd be excited to do something together.

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And when I said, you know, I've always had this crazy pet peeve over the years, and when I told her what it was, she was like, wow, you know, I hadn't thought about it either, but I'm a spongophobe Like I won't even keep one.

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They're so disgusting.

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And it was at a time when all these disruptor brands had emerged, like you know, dollar, shave and Harry's and Casper, and so it was also sort of like an interesting way to think of, like, yeah, talk about a sleepy, neglected category, that just what is going on.

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So we started researching it and what we discovered was that the sponge that most people have in the US market, which is the yellow and green or blue and blue Scotch Brite, which is owned owned by 3m they have pretty much had the same design since the late 1940s and that's, you know, kind of laughing all the way in the bank and you know just, and and so we said, well, let's I mean, we can't be the only ones that feel this way let's start to do some consumer research.

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And sure enough, and surprisingly, when you scratch the surface, there truly is a universal hate affair.

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Like people were totally dissatisfied but they said you know, the reason I don't think about it a lot is because there's no alternatives out there.

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So we said there is something clearly here.

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And that's when we really went into full gear and kind of went on a mission to create a sponge you could actually love and we thought why not have the vision to elevate this whole thing not just functionally better but, like you know, make it a beautiful experience?

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It's something everyone does every day, multiple times a day, and that there was an opportunity to like kind of create joy and improve an everyday experience.

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Yeah, it is improved too.

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I've been using it for like three or four days.

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It's better.

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Let's just be real.

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Are there patented elements?

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You called it a smart sponge, and so I know that it fades and that tells you, hey, it's time to replace this.

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I believe it's made of polyurethane, is that correct?

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So is there patented elements?

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Did you have to get things patented?

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Lawyers involved in all of that?

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No, there's no, there's no patents there.

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They're, you know, the, the materials that we use.

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We are not the first people to ever use them, but there's not really much in the market today.

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In our combination materials, materials, our fade to change technology is proprietary and is, you know, really a key benefit to the product that makes it unique.

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And then there's the design.

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I mean, I think one of the things that we encountered when we started talking to manufacturers is like, well, why would you go to the length to make it gray when all of our stock is in blue or, you know, green, and that's going to cost more.

00:21:59.738 --> 00:22:03.386
And you know, like we were so meticulous about the coding colors.

00:22:03.386 --> 00:22:06.663
And you know, and and and how the fade to change technology would work.

00:22:06.663 --> 00:22:12.800
And, like you know, you're making this product more expensive and we're like it doesn't matter, it's going to be better and it's going to look better.

00:22:12.800 --> 00:22:17.165
So it and and it's, you know, interesting.

00:22:17.165 --> 00:22:23.923
I think that most, you know very few consumer product goods are have patents.

00:22:23.923 --> 00:22:42.528
You know there's not a lot of you know unique inventions, if you will, in everyday items, and I think it's more about the, you know, clever combination of how you package materials together and how you, you know, all the unique features that you know make this, you know, special and unmistakable and uniquely Skura.

00:22:43.135 --> 00:22:46.703
Talk to us a little bit about the product development process.

00:22:46.703 --> 00:22:50.699
Meaning, you have an idea, you now want to bring this to life.

00:22:50.699 --> 00:22:51.842
I mean, who do you call?

00:22:51.842 --> 00:22:53.767
Like I have an idea for a sponge.

00:22:53.767 --> 00:22:55.679
Who's the sponge guy?

00:22:55.679 --> 00:22:58.666
Like, who are you calling to to create this?

00:22:58.734 --> 00:22:59.477
who's sponge worthy?

00:22:59.497 --> 00:23:01.701
how do you go through that, that that whole journey?

00:23:02.042 --> 00:23:08.903
well, I'll google queen for sure it's like I when I get a bug in my head.

00:23:08.903 --> 00:23:14.777
It's like I just don't stop and but I think what we had gone.

00:23:14.777 --> 00:23:22.109
We, one day, we, we went to the houseware show in Chicago and we walked the floor in like 20 minutes.

00:23:22.109 --> 00:23:23.319
We were like, is there anything here?

00:23:23.319 --> 00:23:38.161
And then we saw some things that looked potentially interesting and we got introduced to a supplier out of the country and started to learn a little bit about foam, but the scouring surfaces were not right.

00:23:38.161 --> 00:23:42.127
And then um, and then you know, I was, we've got to figure this out.

00:23:42.127 --> 00:23:50.078
And then we, you know, found this, uh, a U S based company, and um reached out to them and went and had some meetings and started talking about our vision.

00:23:50.078 --> 00:24:08.018
They thought we were out of our minds, though, again because of the you know the, the colors and the combinations and how meticulous we were, and again, so it was really just this relentless kind of we have to figure this out.

00:24:08.664 --> 00:24:18.940
And you know, we have a product right now that we're trying to develop, that we've been told by, you know, our, you know product development team and our, you know suppliers, like can't be done, can't be done.

00:24:18.940 --> 00:24:21.314
Well, we're not accepting it.

00:24:21.314 --> 00:24:23.512
Like we will figure out how to get it made.

00:24:23.512 --> 00:24:29.886
You know we can't make it today, but you know we will out how to get it made it.

00:24:29.886 --> 00:24:31.714
You know we can't make it today, but you know we will and um.

00:24:31.714 --> 00:24:35.328
So it was just kind of um and and part of you know linda talked about it's like being naive of like well, why can't it be done?

00:24:35.690 --> 00:24:56.232
I don't believe it can't be done and um, maybe that helped absolutely without kind of what you don't know worked in this situation absolutely were there previous incarnations, or you always just had the one path, like how does the production aspect work in terms of, I don't know, make a hundred and let's see what they look like, or how does that?

00:24:56.232 --> 00:24:57.155
How does that happen?

00:24:57.605 --> 00:25:00.836
Yeah, well, we so our designer.

00:25:00.836 --> 00:25:08.794
Actually, we were introduced to him through one of my contacts at Ikea and he was a former big designer for Ikea.

00:25:08.794 --> 00:25:22.611
He is Swedish and so we were very fortunate that we met him and engaged him and we love, like kind of, the Scandinavian sensibility of design clean and fresh and modern, very happy, and in a lot of ways he has served as our muse.

00:25:22.611 --> 00:25:31.105
In fact, skura is a Swedish word use.

00:25:31.105 --> 00:25:33.289
In fact, scourer is a Swedish word which means scour and scrub, so all full circle.

00:25:33.289 --> 00:25:41.394
And so he was really instrumental because he's really, you know as well, an industrial engineer, so he was really able to be very involved in the manufacturing aspect.

00:25:41.434 --> 00:25:52.404
But we had started with sponges that were completely different shapes, and learn through the process like that would have been completely, you know, just cost prohibitive in terms of molds and things like that.

00:25:52.404 --> 00:26:12.384
So it was, you know, a journey of learning along the way, and so we went through a lot of design iterations, but once it became clear also what the parameters were for manufacturing, I mean the printing aspect of coming up with that beta change technology was really fascinating and that took a really long time.

00:26:12.384 --> 00:26:26.998
And again, the companies from the Hewlett-Packard's that were on the phone hours understanding different ink resolutions and how that works, and testing and me coming up with disgusting combinations you can imagine.

00:26:27.724 --> 00:26:28.470
There was a lot of ink home testing.

00:26:28.470 --> 00:26:29.013
I never thought about that.

00:26:29.013 --> 00:26:29.920
You've imagine it was not an in-home testing.

00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:30.644
I never thought about that.

00:26:30.644 --> 00:26:31.568
You've got to test it.

00:26:31.890 --> 00:26:42.401
Oh my God, I was watching this concoction at a photography studio because we wanted to, and people are staring at me like what a freak.

00:26:42.401 --> 00:26:43.204
What did she have?

00:26:43.325 --> 00:26:49.057
What happens if you mix coarse salt, hot sauce, vinegar Nice?

00:26:50.266 --> 00:26:52.432
I think it would hurt yeah.

00:26:53.505 --> 00:26:55.031
You guys are putting it through the paces.

00:26:55.031 --> 00:27:01.858
I've also heard of people sticking a sponge in a microwave right to get rid of the bacteria and things like that.

00:27:01.858 --> 00:27:03.731
I mean it's a brilliant idea.

00:27:03.731 --> 00:27:04.232
It really is.

00:27:04.232 --> 00:27:06.413
Where is it made?

00:27:06.413 --> 00:27:08.298
Where is the company that makes the actual sponge?

00:27:08.644 --> 00:27:10.727
Yeah, so they're made domestically in the United States.

00:27:10.727 --> 00:27:14.931
Not all of our products are sourced domestically.

00:27:14.931 --> 00:27:18.913
Certain manufacturing factories simply do not exist here.

00:27:18.913 --> 00:27:20.674
That's the reality.

00:27:20.674 --> 00:27:26.259
But when we can manufacture domestically, we do, and so our hero product is made here in the States.

00:27:26.881 --> 00:27:41.134
So take us to the moment when because you talked about 10 years and Sundays and moats and everything else trying to figure out your marketplace when was the day where you're like, okay, we've got it, let's go?

00:27:41.134 --> 00:27:45.272
Like do you remember that moment and can you describe it to us?

00:27:45.272 --> 00:27:47.132
And then what happened?

00:27:47.132 --> 00:27:48.589
Linda, do you want to take that one?

00:27:48.891 --> 00:27:49.192
Sure.

00:27:49.585 --> 00:28:13.670
Well, you know, what was amazing is that, first of all, the whole process was very much lensed through our background, which is marketing and branding and understanding that, and it's a really fascinating way to approach developing products, because a lot of entrepreneurs were more familiar with the manufacturing and that's what they start with and they're like oh, I better figure out what my brand is after.

00:28:13.730 --> 00:28:22.597
So, in a way, that was like kind of the touch point that we lensed everything through which made every aspect of our development so thoughtful and strategic.

00:28:23.345 --> 00:28:38.789
And so we I mean we had a plan that was so thorough down to like you know the, you know our positioning and the competition and our pricing and the even ad-like objects to bring to like what this, like brand would be.

00:28:38.789 --> 00:28:48.778
And we would like pat ourselves on the back when we were leaving a scura sunday and go, oh shit, we don't have the product, you're out.

00:28:48.778 --> 00:29:09.211
And so when we finally really had the confidence, which was, as I said, a lot of testing, we were very fortunate that our manufacturer hung in with us, because allison told you they thought we were nuts and um, and then that we got down the bait to change technology and tested colors and everything and we had real prototypes.

00:29:09.211 --> 00:29:23.992
We're like we're ready to like try to go raise money and get this thing off the ground, and it was really exciting because it was just so tight and comprehensive, but it was a day's worth of work Wow.

00:29:24.173 --> 00:29:27.272
Yeah, yeah, so there was no two weeks notice at that point.

00:29:27.272 --> 00:29:28.165
Worth of work.

00:29:28.165 --> 00:29:30.190
Wow, yeah, yeah, so there was no two weeks notice at that point.

00:29:30.190 --> 00:29:34.807
You're basically still like holding on and and roles and responsibilities are set, but you have to raise capital.

00:29:34.807 --> 00:29:36.530
Is that how how the next step happened?

00:29:36.590 --> 00:29:39.346
Yeah, Because we, we wanted to do it right.

00:29:39.346 --> 00:30:01.078
I mean, we felt like, if we're going to launch this thing and because you know, technically certain aspects aren't proprietary and not that, you know it's pretty challenging to aggregate the materials and the way we've done it for anyone to copy it, but we wanted to, like, make a big, bold statement and, you know, be the true, like first, to market advantage.

00:30:02.286 --> 00:30:06.928
So how long did that take place before you're like OK, cutting the cord, here we go.

00:30:09.426 --> 00:30:12.454
Probably took like three to five months yeah.

00:30:12.976 --> 00:30:31.845
Okay, you know, once we knew we could get this product made and we were very confident, that's when we decided to kind of plan the leap and Linda, you know, initially announced that she was going to be stepping down from her position at Deutsch.

00:30:32.066 --> 00:30:44.724
And it was, you know, news in the advertising world, big news, and some of her, you know, former colleagues and competitors, you know, and she teased that she was starting a venture.

00:30:47.228 --> 00:30:56.201
And she teased that she was starting a venture and Linda was and is highly regarded and respected and some of her competitors said what are you doing?

00:30:56.201 --> 00:31:07.615
Whatever it is I want in, literally, and that kind of kickstarted our fundraising because a lot of our early stage investors came from that world.

00:31:07.615 --> 00:31:17.348
And in fact there was one investor who Linda had to literally say please let me fly down to Florida and show you what we're doing, Don't just send me money.

00:31:17.348 --> 00:31:21.526
I mean literally, it was just, you know that betting that much on the person.

00:31:21.526 --> 00:31:48.619
But you know, once we got some initial pledges, it sort of, you know, then we expanded our circles and we decided we wanted to get some women investors and we so we tapped our networks further, but it was, you know, our fundraising efforts were really through our professional networks and, and a lot of it was because people were seeing it through the same lens as we did, which is the brand, possibilities and a belief in us as well.

00:31:48.904 --> 00:31:50.028
So take us to day one.

00:31:50.028 --> 00:31:59.818
Tell us about the first product to legitimately sell, not a friend, not a cousin, not an aunt or an uncle like the first one that sold.

00:31:59.818 --> 00:32:03.190
Describe that moment and where did it happen.

00:32:03.190 --> 00:32:05.596
Tell us about that inception point.

00:32:06.265 --> 00:32:24.815
Well, it's hard to say the exact one, because it was, you know, we launched, it was like the website went live and it was like boom, you know, and then the ad started to run and um, and we did a press release and, you know, orders started to come in and we were watching it and it was, it was like, you know, like ka-ching, ka-ching.

00:32:25.105 --> 00:32:27.086
It was very exciting, that's got to be so much fun.

00:32:27.807 --> 00:32:31.890
Hear the beep in your computers Beep, beep Also.

00:32:31.910 --> 00:32:44.558
Yeah, we, you know we worked with PR firm Kaplo and we very much believe in the power of PR and we did a lot of, you know, before.

00:32:44.558 --> 00:32:54.209
We launched outreach and had meetings with a lot of the top publications and you would think that we were sharing with them a cure for cancer.

00:32:54.209 --> 00:33:01.134
Sometimes it was a little embarrassing because you know, they see so many of the same things over and over, like OK, it's a new color, it's a new this.

00:33:01.134 --> 00:33:06.017
And we kind of piqued their interest and teased them on what this thing could be.

00:33:06.017 --> 00:33:12.213
And when we finally tried to get them to them to figure out, they couldn't, you know, guess.

00:33:12.213 --> 00:33:17.972
And then when we laid out kind of the argument to set up and put out there, they were like, oh, wow, you know.

00:33:17.972 --> 00:33:29.559
So we garnered a lot of press um out of the gate and it was again, it wasn't just the unbelievably high quality profile of the outlets, but they were gushing.

00:33:29.559 --> 00:33:38.220
I mean, the enthusiasm was so exciting to them that this was truly a differentiated product, that people wanted and needed.

00:33:38.526 --> 00:33:42.115
Yeah, they say the best way to make money is make money while you sleep, right?

00:33:42.115 --> 00:33:46.957
So it sounds like the toll was ringing while you guys were sleeping, which is kind of cool.

00:33:46.957 --> 00:33:51.334
Eventually, you took on another partner.

00:33:51.334 --> 00:33:53.926
How did this transpire, and I'll tell you what.

00:33:53.926 --> 00:34:00.453
If you want to make a call right now I think we have a spot on this Zoom call to pop someone else in, we can turn this into a five box relatively quickly.

00:34:02.246 --> 00:34:07.695
But no, a wonderful partner came on board, Ava Mendez, and we need to know how that happened.

00:34:07.695 --> 00:34:08.878
Sounds amazing.

00:34:09.159 --> 00:34:23.967
Yeah Well, so you know, during the pandemic I'm sure you all experienced this, but it was, you know all of a sudden it was like every meal at home breakfast, lunch, dinner, you know you know a lot of people you know had fuller houses and you know it was.

00:34:23.967 --> 00:34:25.628
You know wash, you know it was wash.

00:34:25.628 --> 00:34:28.650
You know eat, wash, rinse, repeat constantly.

00:34:28.650 --> 00:34:31.293
Plus this sort of frenzy for cleaning products.

00:34:31.293 --> 00:34:34.474
You know there was the paper towel shortage, the wipe shortage.

00:34:34.474 --> 00:34:35.936
That was, you know, all people.

00:34:35.936 --> 00:34:53.536
You know the average customer doesn't know the difference between antiviral, but you know there was this, you know, interest in, you know, cleaning it and the pandemic kind of also unleashed germophobia in a big way for people.

00:34:54.985 --> 00:35:09.097
So Ava, who you know was, for the most part, you know, stay at home mom, two young kids had kind of, you know, stopped acting for a while, was just like us, you know, at home with two kids.

00:35:09.097 --> 00:35:11.550
You know, eat, wash, rinse, repeat.

00:35:11.550 --> 00:35:15.606
And she also has, she kind of rivals Linda in her passion for dishwashing.

00:35:15.606 --> 00:35:20.476
She loves it, it's meditative, it's not a chore, she's really into it.

00:35:20.476 --> 00:35:28.516
And she was, you know, trying every kind of product in the market and discovered our product and fell in love and then, you know, looked into it.

00:35:28.536 --> 00:35:47.873
So our backstory that we're two women, she's a real supporter of women and women's businesses and there was outreach and we were put in touch and we met over zoom Cause it was, you know, pretty deep in the pandemic and it was like we met our lost, long soulmate.

00:35:47.873 --> 00:36:01.505
It was like we spoke the same language of sponge, like you can listen to our conversation, the way that we she was talking about our product in the way that we believe only we talk about it, like what the hell you know?

00:36:01.505 --> 00:36:02.751
It was really crazy.

00:36:02.751 --> 00:36:03.172
That's great.

00:36:04.889 --> 00:36:06.994
And a few times she was like apologizing.

00:36:06.994 --> 00:36:11.677
She was like, no, this may sound crazy, but and we're like, this is how we're the same crazy.

00:36:14.485 --> 00:36:15.286
That's fantastic.

00:36:15.447 --> 00:36:18.956
Yeah, and so, you know, it was sort of this really fun.

00:36:18.956 --> 00:36:28.465
You know, we had a couple of conversations and we started to talk about, um, you know, and of course we had been watching as we were students of, like, the early, you know, disruptor brands.

00:36:28.465 --> 00:36:52.706
Now we're, you know, studying like all these celebrity brands, but it's like, you know, another tequila, another hair care, another, you know, skincare, um, but we we always, you know, we always like, wonder, like would be, you know, wonder what, if there was a celebrity involved and um, and then Ava emerged and and we're like, the authenticity was, passion was so there and her desire to get involved, you know.

00:36:52.706 --> 00:36:57.965
And so we started to talk about, you know, what it would look like if she, you know, joined the company as a co-owner.

00:36:57.965 --> 00:37:01.715
And here we are and it's been terrific.

00:37:02.626 --> 00:37:21.710
She is, you know, a wonderful business partner and she has really great business instincts, she's very creative and she has a beautiful design aesthetic and so she's been quite hands-on, as we've also.

00:37:21.710 --> 00:37:24.873
You know the goal was always to evolve and be an omni-channel brand.

00:37:24.873 --> 00:37:39.512
You know the goal was always to evolve and be an omni-channel brand and starting, you know, as a DTC native and you know expanding that she has been very also involved in all of our discussions with retailers and so she plays a very hands-on role.

00:37:40.695 --> 00:37:43.132
Yeah, I took the quiz that was on your website.

00:37:43.132 --> 00:37:47.614
Apparently, I love to scrub I don't know what that means I got the same answer.

00:37:47.541 --> 00:37:47.762
You love to scrub.

00:37:47.762 --> 00:37:47.882
I don't know.

00:37:47.809 --> 00:37:57.728
I got the same answer but it's funny because I was on your website I'm watching, like videos of her talking about um waking up to a clean house.

00:37:57.728 --> 00:38:00.635
When she was younger she just made me want to clean my house.

00:38:00.635 --> 00:38:01.427
It was amazing.

00:38:01.427 --> 00:38:03.273
I'm like this is pretty inspirational stuff.

00:38:03.273 --> 00:38:06.264
So in that way I guess it was a no-brainer.

00:38:06.264 --> 00:38:10.952
I mean, wonderful face for the franchise and she was just going to.

00:38:10.952 --> 00:38:12.715
She spoke your language, like you guys said.

00:38:12.715 --> 00:38:16.972
Right, I mean that that was kind of all that was to it yeah, I mean authenticity.

00:38:17.313 --> 00:38:23.389
It's like, you know it's, when she speaks about it it's, it's actually contagious, it's, it's so it is.

00:38:23.389 --> 00:38:28.255
It's like they're her babies now and you know she.

00:38:28.255 --> 00:38:33.362
So you know we weren't just looking for a face for the brand.

00:38:33.362 --> 00:38:40.708
You know it only made sense if it was something that could, you know, truly bring something to the table and she does every day.

00:38:41.469 --> 00:38:48.545
But also the other thing, you know that was sort of that's been fun for us, is that Ava, you know sort of unexpected.

00:38:48.545 --> 00:38:57.637
I mean, you know, if you think about it, you know here's a woman who could put her face on anything really, and what sponge brand would have the nerve to have someone?

00:38:57.657 --> 00:39:13.313
you know, it's like, you know, it's sort of, you know, you know, in some ways it's like so unexpected and you know, but it's like you know, our sponge is, you know, beautiful enough and sexy enough for, you know, Eva Mendez to put her face on it.

00:39:13.434 --> 00:39:16.065
You know, and it's you know there's that much more authentic.

00:39:16.065 --> 00:39:17.610
You know, because it's not.

00:39:17.610 --> 00:39:21.186
You know it's, it's real, it's it's life, it's, it's part of our day to day.

00:39:21.186 --> 00:39:22.989
I mean, it's so genuine and authentic.

00:39:22.989 --> 00:39:31.161
I'm curious about, and I don't know what metric to use, but you started on Sundays.

00:39:31.161 --> 00:39:40.052
You had your idea, the product launched fast forward X number of years In terms of scale.

00:39:40.052 --> 00:39:40.193
How?

00:39:40.213 --> 00:39:41.679
big have you guys or ladies I keep doing that.

00:39:41.679 --> 00:39:43.344
How big have you ladies become?

00:39:43.344 --> 00:39:44.929
How big is your staff?

00:39:44.929 --> 00:39:46.755
How big of a company is this?

00:39:47.405 --> 00:39:59.664
One of the things that I think has been a good strategy for us is we stay super nimble, because in a startup to early stage young company it's like dog years and your units change all the time.

00:39:59.664 --> 00:40:08.286
So we stay pretty lean on full-time staffing because what we need today is different than we're going to need in six months.

00:40:08.286 --> 00:40:11.012
But right, you know we're at about 20 people right now.

00:40:11.012 --> 00:40:14.568
You know, plus you know additional kind of.

00:40:14.568 --> 00:40:19.806
You know part-time and contract and agencies and support how big we want to be.

00:40:19.806 --> 00:40:25.257
It's you know we think this has the potential to become the dominant player.

00:40:25.257 --> 00:40:28.072
I mean because it's just so much better.

00:40:28.353 --> 00:40:28.554
Yeah.

00:40:28.835 --> 00:40:33.096
Yeah, looking out there, I mean we're ready to take on, you know, big sponge for sure.

00:40:33.525 --> 00:40:33.865
For sure.

00:40:33.865 --> 00:40:35.931
I just I love the stories of scaling.

00:40:35.931 --> 00:40:41.655
You know it's been a part of my background, a part of my career has been scaling businesses, so I just love hearing those stories.

00:40:42.644 --> 00:40:49.451
Yeah, you're really giving us a masterclass of how you take an idea and build a company slowly.

00:40:49.451 --> 00:40:54.896
It took some time, of course, because you had other commitments, family, other work, but you're really.

00:40:54.896 --> 00:41:02.501
You're really giving us a good pathway as to how anybody could take any idea and kind of bring it to fruition on a different level.

00:41:02.501 --> 00:41:25.905
No-transcript.

00:41:28.085 --> 00:41:30.527
I'm really putting you on the spot, I know I mean.

00:41:30.547 --> 00:41:44.074
First of all, the thing is that you can have all the best plans in the world and 90% of them aren't going to come through and happen the way you'd like to think they would, and so you're sort of off the throne.

00:41:44.114 --> 00:41:57.717
Curveballs we are every day, and I think one thing we're particularly good at is managing those to say, well, maybe this curveball actually represents an opportunity to think about this in a different way that we otherwise wouldn't have.

00:41:57.717 --> 00:42:07.166
And so, you know, we once faced a situation with our warehouse and fulfillment center, which is like the backbone of our operation.

00:42:07.166 --> 00:42:36.027
It's so critical where, based on, you know, pick up in a very strong way the way they had performed, but like we were in danger of our products being locked up in there.

00:42:36.027 --> 00:42:43.458
So I mean, talk about a scramble and ultimately it led.

00:42:43.458 --> 00:42:49.474
You know, it's probably a change we wouldn't have made, but we made it and it ended up putting us a path to a better place.

00:42:49.474 --> 00:42:55.539
So sometimes you're forced to make these very difficult decisions and they're really not ideal in the way they play out.

00:42:55.539 --> 00:42:57.244
So no wrong choices, right.

00:42:58.690 --> 00:42:59.733
Yes, right, no wrong choices.

00:42:59.733 --> 00:43:00.375
That's the thing.

00:43:02.025 --> 00:43:04.012
You know, and there've been a number of things like that.

00:43:04.012 --> 00:43:11.708
You know, there've, you know, been certain hires we've made.

00:43:11.708 --> 00:43:15.831
That you know, we were, you know, just unfortunately didn't anticipate that they wouldn't work out in the way that they did.

00:43:15.831 --> 00:43:19.786
So you know, naturally there have been a lot of stumbling blocks.

00:43:19.786 --> 00:43:38.440
But again, I think because Allison and I, I think because we're so decisive and we're very analytical, that we just kind of deal with it head on and don't get thrown by it and know that there will always be a solution to every problem.

00:43:38.440 --> 00:43:39.400
They're just things.

00:43:39.920 --> 00:44:00.996
So the question I have next is, I guess on behalf of the executive who's sitting in their office right now, who has all kinds of ideas running through their mind of products or a business that they'd love to launch what advice do you have for that person who is thinking about making a leap or has an idea that they want to bring to life?

00:44:00.996 --> 00:44:02.759
Allison, take it away.

00:44:03.244 --> 00:44:21.152
Well, I think it first of all is you know, a lot of people have ideas, but it's really important to study the marketplace, or the marketplace chatter, because, just because you think it's a good idea, you got to make sure that you know that the market is going to think so as well.

00:44:21.152 --> 00:44:22.079
So, you know, you got to make sure that you know that the market is going to think so as well.

00:44:22.079 --> 00:44:24.152
So you know, we did research.

00:44:24.152 --> 00:44:28.373
You know I wouldn't touch a sponge, so I thought a great sponge was a great idea.

00:44:28.373 --> 00:44:32.510
Linda, you know, is obsessed with washing her dishes, so a great sponge is a good idea.

00:44:32.510 --> 00:44:35.574
But we couldn't just make a decision based on what the two of us thought.

00:44:35.574 --> 00:44:37.994
So we, you know, we had to really pressure test the idea.

00:44:37.994 --> 00:44:43.885
But I think it's beyond that.

00:44:43.925 --> 00:44:44.949
I think it's a lot of self-searching of like.

00:44:44.949 --> 00:44:50.402
It's hard to do this really, really hard, and there's a lot of risk.

00:44:50.402 --> 00:45:01.512
There's a lot, you know, you give up a lot, you work harder than you ever imagined and it's sort of like you have to weigh, like you know what's scarier to me doing doing it or not doing it?

00:45:01.512 --> 00:45:04.817
Right, I mean, that was, you know, for me the barometer of like.

00:45:04.817 --> 00:45:11.516
To me it was too scary to not leap off the cliff because I knew that I was going to live with lifelong regret if I didn't.

00:45:11.516 --> 00:45:14.226

From Corporate Heights to Startup Success with Linda Sawyer & Alison Matz

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