MISS GRASS, KATE MILLER: The Cannabis Platform

The legal cannabis industry is expected to reach $76.3 billion by 2027. And yet, most consumers are left in the dark when it comes to navigating their green stash. Society has vilified THC and glorified the effects of CBD, when in actuality it is the entourage effect of cannabinoids that results in optimal healing. On a mission to de-stigmatize cannabis consumption, CEO and co-founder, Kate Miller launched Miss Grass as a contextual platform to provide weed education, and vetted products for a higher life.  

“The business model was always to be a contextual commerce platform from day one. We led with education on the content side around the history of cannabis and culture. We want to cater to the conscious consumer who votes with their dollar to support this industry.” - Kate Miller. 

Miss Grass launched in 2017 as a “dope” concept, and sells a curated collection of CBD products from other brands such as bath bombs, vapes, tinctures, topicals and capsules. They recently launched their own line of pre-rolled hemp joints targeting sex, calm and balance, in addition to THC pre-rolled mini joints. The brand has been featured in leading publications such as Forbes, The New York Times, and Glossy to name a few and is known as “the Goop for cannabis”. 

However, the idea for Miss Grass was planted back in 2008 when Kate was working as a budtender with a dispensary in LA and purchased the domain off GoDaddy. “I was always fascinated by the different applications of this plant and the various ways it can benefit one’s life. I was also fascinated by the business opportunity of it, which at the time felt like the prohibition era of what the alcohol industry looked like. Now I believe the alcohol industry has the potential to surpass the value of the liquor industry as its usage goes way beyond.” 

CEO and co-founder, Kate Miller.

Kate was born and grew up in Jersey. Her parents met in high school and were high school sweethearts. Her mom worked in entertainment and her dad is a serial hustler. “I’ve always had a side hustle. When I was 11 years old my cousin and I would go down to Jersey Shore and make a stand on the beach and sell bracelets. I also developed a great relationship with the ice-cream man and would get faulty popsicles for free, where the packaging was tainted and resell it to friends for a dollar. I was always looking for the opportunity.”

“My brother had gotten caught with weed and kicked out of high school back in the day and I remember thinking that it was so messed up. I moved to LA for undergrad and attended USC. California had legalized medical weed at the time and it was the first time I became a conscious consumer of cannabis. I was suffering from psoriasis and would use topical cannabis. It really transformed my skin.” 

“I used cannabis as a catalyst for creativity, inspiration and to connect with people.”

Kate ended up working in the entertainment industry upon graduation as she felt that it was too early to make a move into a career in cannabis. “In mid 2017, I launched Miss Grass as a silly SquareSpace site that I created as a side hustle and linked arms with vendors who were making cute cannabis accessories at the time. I structured the business model as using affiliate links for a percentage of the revenue. It generated basically no money!”

However, by getting her foot in the door as an early adopter of the cannabis industry, Kate was able to participate in conversations around cannabis and use Miss Grass as a tool. “I was able to meet Doug Scott who started a company called Ogilvy Entertainment which ended up getting sold to Ogilvy Ad agency. He was pivotal in the early days for introducing me to the right people, one of which was a guy who was running an activation at Coachella for a company called Weed Maps. They were looking for a brand that could cater to the female demographic, so I got asked to create a dome called the Miss Grass Lounge and bring in other cannabis brands that aligned with our values. I was still working my full-time job at this point, but I took the opportunity, met a lot of people including my business partner and co-founder Anna Duckworth.” Anna previously led content at Dosist. 

“The Coachella event was a catalyst for me to validate and test the idea and demand of doing Miss Grass full-time.” 

Miss Grass has raised a total of $4.65M to date with investors such as Listen Ventures, Casa Verde Capital, Advancit Capital, firstminute capital, and Third Kind Ventures Capital amongst others. Their initial round of financing consisted of $60K to get the idea up and running 1.5 years ago. Fun fact: Kate’s boss at the time put the first check into Miss Grass! Their business model? Develop content as a tool to scale the community, invest in a marketplace for consumer discovery and as a way to gather data points. Then, facilitate that data into future offerings under the Miss Grass product portfolio. Some would say it is fool proof and a dope way to own a high ecosystem. 

“There is a massive void in the market when it comes to cannabis and education.”

Like the sexual pleasure industry, cannabis also has a lot of red tape when it comes to advertising. “It has been challenging to not have a straightforward channel for growth. We rely on organic growth strategies like partnerships, influencers and organic press.” In addition, payment processing can also very quickly turn into a nightmare, but the passing of the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 has really helped progress the operations of this category. 

Education 101

When it comes to hemp and marijuana, they are both derived from the cannabis plant. Hemp has below 0.3% THC in it. Anything derived from hemp, broad spectrum, full spectrum or isolate is considered federally legal and can be sold on e-commerce sites. However, any product that is above 0.3% THC cannot be legally manufactured or touched by Miss Grass since they are a non licensed entity. The workaround? They have partnered with a legal distributor and contract manufacturer to send the products directly to retail stores for sale. Genius! 

The Advice

“I would love for the narrative of this industry to shift. CBD has become the most popular ingredient over the last 2 years and has brought the cannabis industry mainstream and helped normalize the conversation, but it is still dividing the plant. CBD is viewed as the good child in wellness, while THC is bad and stigmatized. This further perpetuates the stigma of this plant. The narrative should be less about specific molecules and compounds in this plant because the most effective method is full spectrum that encompasses all of the cannabinoids and terpenes to get the entourage effect versus working in isolation. The conversation should really be about cannabis as a whole.”

Kate further gives her advice to those looking to launch a D2C startup today:

• Fake it till you make it. - Act like you know what you are doing to make your company successful.

• Learn when and who to delegate to as the company grows.

• Surround yourself with mentors, advisors, friends and people you can go to when you don’t know everything. Knowing who to call is very important.

• Prioritize your to-do list.

Interested in trying out the latest cannabis product? Head on over to Miss Grass here. 

Photo courtesy of Miss Grass. 

Written by Alysha Malik. 

WANA, EVAN GOLUB: The Social Network for Health

Over 150 million Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition. And yet, most of the time these conditions are not properly diagnosed by our western medical system. They go unnoticed for months, leaving patients feeling helpless and alone. In comes WANA, a social networking app that provides community, education, support, and a marketplace for chronic conditions.

When it comes to chronic conditions, illnesses such as IBS, endometriosis, chronic fatigue, Lyme disease, and fibromyalgia are amongst the most popular that goes untreated or undiagnosed for a very long period of time. Co-founder of WANA, Evan Golub tells us how the idea for WANA did not just come to him as an aha moment but engulfed him as a way of life. A finance trader in a previous life, Evan quit the hustle of Wall St. in 2018 to work on his new venture. For those wondering, WANA stands for we are not alone. 

The Childhood

Born in Westchester, NY, Evan was bitten by a tick in his backyard at the age of 10 and ended up getting Lyme disease alongside other health conditions. “I wasn’t tested as a child for Lyme and it wasn’t until I was older and moved into a mold-infested apartment that the bacteria in the Lyme disease got triggered by the mold toxicity”, says Evan. This would end up becoming a cascading fleet of health issues for young Evan.

“I saw over 30 different Doctors, and it wasn’t until I got into the functional medicine space that I was properly diagnosed with Lyme disease after 4 years of misdiagnosis.”

Evan left the western medical system behind and entered the world of traditional Chinese medicine alongside bio-hacking his way back to health. He eventually became so knowledgeable with his findings that he started helping folks who showed similar symptoms in his network. This community ended up growing to around 150 people in New York over an excel spreadsheet (I guess that love for spreadsheets in finance was real). “I remember thinking, especially after each time I would get introduced to a new person with Lyme disease, why aren’t we centralizing these conversations and resources? It felt extremely frustrating that this information could not be accessed on one platform. If you think about it, people are turning to the internet to find others like them because they have been failed by western and conventional methods. They have been told countless times that they are not sick and it is all in their head when it is not.” 

“I found that Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit are not using the right tools to discuss vulnerable healthcare information. In my view, the right tool would be in the form of a user-generated platform, but I could not find one that existed in a holistic way.”

With frustration and a growing “excel sheet” under his skin, Evan decided to develop his own platform in April of 2018. Fast Forward to December 2019, and WANA has launched as a social networking platform that creates connections between users by capturing their health data and matching them to others with similar symptoms. The app also allows users to access information created by experts, shop recommended products in the marketplace (shout out to Hilma), and research recommended practitioners. Their top chronic conditions consist of, you guessed it, Lyme disease, depression, eczema, endometriosis, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue. 

Co-founders Nicole Krinick on left, and Evan Golub on right.

On Finding a Co-founder

Evan met his co-founder, Nicole Krinick on a Hinge date, because, you know, Evan is cool like that. “While on the date with Nicole, I had mentioned that I was experiencing vertigo and dizziness. This was before my diagnosis with Lyme disease.” Nothing materialized, and Nicole and Evan went their separate ways until she texted him a couple of months later mentioning how she was experiencing vertigo after her trip from Thailand. “She felt very alone, and didn’t know who to talk to, so I helped her. She eventually got diagnosed with Lyme, and Nicole and I ended up becoming Lyme buddies shortly after, looking to change the world.”

The Advice

“Getting a product to market was no easy task. It sounds a lot easier when you are not involved, but wow was it a steep learning curve for me.” When asked about his biggest learnings, Evan tells us how:

• You need to build out a strong network and tap into it for product testing, feedback, and warm introductions.

• If you have multiple ideas, go with the one you are most passionate about, and if there isn't a particular one that stands out, you probably don't have a good enough idea. 

• Do not spend on things too early, such as PR. Wait to gain organic momentum. 

• The experts are not always experts.

• Now is an incredible time to launch a company! Looking back at 2008, we saw the birth of Uber, and Airbnb during a recession. It is time to get scrappy, find an opportunity, and go for it. 
  

In his spare time, Evan can be found doing yoga, angel investing in startups, and taking his favorite nootropic supplements by Find My Formula. Fun fact: he also went to high school with the founders of Bombas, BirchBox, and Banza Chickpea pasta. If you’re looking for your health twin or feeling lonely about your symptoms, join WANA, and find your next best friend or practitioner (available on Android and iOS). 

Photo courtesy of WANA. 

Written by Alysha Malik. 

MAEV, KATIE & CHRISTINE: The City Dog Wellness Brand

Whoever crowned NYC as the city that never sleeps knew what they were talking about. Between big meaningful jobs and maintaining a social life, balance isn’t always the easiest thing in the world for city people or their furry companions. In an effort to address your dog’s anxiety, Maev provides community and wellness products for city dogs and their people.

When it comes to the pet industry, co-founders Katie Spies and Christine Busaba realized that there was no single brand catering to a growing segment of consumers who were craving community and viewed their dog not only as a pet but as a vital member of their household. The dog mama. You know who you are. The type of girl who decided to buy a dog even though everyone around you said it was not a good idea. The feminine juggler, the woman who works long hours, has a demanding social life, and yet is still looking to commit to something other than herself. And, the seeker. A woman in her early to mid-thirties who is still single and decided to purchase a dog for social companionship in the hopes of making new friends. Maev sees and hears you, this one is for you! 

George, Katie’s dog featured above.

“It’s hard to raise a dog in a city that isn’t designed for the dog or the woman, and we want to support and help inspire her in doing this hard thing”, says Katie.

Maev is a wellness company for city dogs and it’s humans in NYC, with a core focus on, you guessed it, the woman. Through Katie’s first-hand experience of getting a dog, George, a greyhound back in 2015 (named after her father), she became fascinated with this psychographic and interviewed over 50 women to understand their pain points. While most people think having a dog is amazing, and yes it is true, the reality of the situation is never spoken about or shared. Maev wants to address this reality with their community and blog, Maev World. 

“We want to create a brand that people will shout from their rooftops to connect with.” - Katie

In addition to its community, Maev sells raw meals, bone broth, vitamins, and accessories. Their strategy is not solely focused on product, but rather on identity recognition, brand, and content. Katie tells us how “if you take a look at the D2C landscape right now, we are still in V1. Companies are selling the same product or a slightly better version than the existing offering, but going direct to consumers, online and removing the retail middleman. Meanwhile, the biggest challenge in the pet industry currently has been creating healthier food options and distribution.
We know that community-oriented businesses are more meaningful than a utilitarian commodity sold online and we are trying to crack that code by addressing our target market.”

“We want to start with the healthiest and most accessible food.”- Katie

Katie mentions how her background in industrial design and product thinking influences the way she interacts with the world. “Food for dogs is a way to help reduce their anxiety”, says Katie. In an attempt to approach the problem differently, Katie worked with multiple Vets to formulate what would become raw meals and packaged it into ice-cream pints. “We created a design system that could be consumerized by freezing food into individual cubes you don’t have to touch, cut, or portion size. Just pour it directly into the bowl”, says Katie. In fact, dogs like the crunch from the ice! 

Maev co-creates products with its consumers via its private VIP slack channel and has tested with over 400 women who provide product feedback and insights on owning a dog. In the early days, (back in the summer of 2018), Katie joined a “women in tech” meetup group to identify what would become her target market at a low cost. To take things further, she also became a dog walker for 9 months in SF before attending Harvard Business School as she was so fascinated by this “consumer”.

Christine (on left), Katie (on right).

On Finding a Co-Founder 

Co-founders Katie and Christine met each other during a “forced bonding” session for a project-based class while in their first year of grad school at Harvard Business School (HBS or B-School as the cool kids say). “We immediately clicked and became friends almost instantly. We had never seen each other on campus before, and then all of a sudden our lives were intertwined and we saw each other everywhere”, says Katie.

As for their roles and responsibilities, Katie heads up the company as its CEO, while Christine handles everything from brand, content, and community as its CMO. When not working on Maev, Christine can be found consuming content, visiting McNally Jackson bookstore in SoHo for inspiration, and geeking out over history topics.

Neither Katie nor Christine had a background in entrepreneurship (other than a few tutoring sessions in high school) but were drawn together over their passion for city dogs and their people. They moved to NYC upon graduation in May 2019 to build Maev. 

The Childhood

Born in Kansas City, Katie grew up in a family of lawyers, judges, and politicians. “I was very money motivated as a kid and would always find ways to negotiate and increase my allowance”, says Katie. “I was constantly building things and collecting animals. Lizards, frogs, random creatures, anything that could be found in my backyard.” It makes complete sense that Katie would launch a dog company years later, right? Probably not. Such is the beauty of the startup ecosystem and our founders. They almost NEVER tend to have experience in the venture they set out to build. 

The Advice 

One of the challenges the Maev girls have faced while building out the company was navigating family members and investors who didn’t understand what they were trying to accomplish. Their advice for those looking to build something:

• Change the way consumers think by approaching the problem in a new way. 

• Identify the external reason why you are launching a company and who you are looking to create value for. 

• Seek out diverse people with similar experiences for product testing. 

• Build a community online and offline and put a human face behind this. This tactic will resonate more with consumers. 

• Co-create content with your community by allowing readers to submit articles, provide feedback, and produce user-generated content.

• Create a slack channel of hyper-engaged ambassadors. 

• Keep a solid tribe around you. 

For those dog mamas who are looking to level up their dogs' diet, mention promo code “radiche” for 20% off when you shop Maev. 

Photos courtesy of Maev.

Written by Alysha Malik.

HILMA, NINA, HILARY, & LILY: The Natural Medicine Cabinet

As Covid-19 makes its mark on history and the fabric of our society, consumers are looking for an alternative, healthier options to keep their daily immunity high and their medicinal side effects low. In an attempt to offer products that do just that, Hilma creates natural remedies, backed by science, to revamp your medicine cabinet one pill at a time. 

Hilma was launched at the end of 2019 by co-founders Nina Mullen, Hilary Quartner, and Lily Galef. When it comes to forming their boss team, these ladies have known each other for quite some time. How so? Nina and Hilary met during their time at b-school at Harvard, while Nina has known Lily ever since she could remember playing dress-up. Fun fact: Nina grew up with doctors as parents. As a result, she is a total hypochondriac!

Co-founders, Nina, Lily and Hilary (left to right).

“When it comes to your gut health, natural remedies are often more effective than the traditional options. They also don’t have any long term side effects or risk of overuse behavior forming,” says Nina Mullen. 

When you look at the natural remedy landscape, almost every sector has been “cleaned” up over the past few years. The revelation started with food and beverage brands, which led to the beauty sector following suit and dripped into home cleaning products. Now brands are coming for your health and your medicine cabinet!  

Priced between $15 to $20, the idea for Hilma was planted back in 2017 when Lily was coming down with something, and Nina handed her an Emergen-C packet. You know, those cute little bright packets you buy at CVS, or Duanne Reade that target cold & flu. “It was this kind of moment when we realized that something better should exist. Traditional OTC products are made with synthetic dyes, sugars, and imitations of vitamin C. It was so incongruous with everything the modern-day consumer is turning to nowadays in terms of clean food, clean beauty, and clean household cleaning,” says Nina. 

“We worked on the sidelines for about a year and a half before quitting our jobs to launch Hilma,” says Nina.

At this time, in 2017, Nina was working at Dia & Co, Lily worked at Refinery29 and Hilary was at The Wonderful Company with a prior background in Investment Banking. Nina tells us how “we took this time to diligence the idea, talk to a bunch of consumers, and conduct focus groups. We did all of this on the weekends and at night. We also took the time to recruit our scientific board of advisors. We wanted the brand to be backed by science as this was very important to us.” It wasn't until Hilma was able to get the validation of their board of advisors that the ladies decided to quit their jobs. 

The Challenges

“Finding those early people who believed in us was very important. We needed guidance and validation for product creation”, says Lily. With no prior knowledge or experience in this sector, the ladies of Hilma sought out key players to help provide them with a competitive advantage. Their first challenge? Finding a formulator. 

“We reached out to over 300 people via LinkedIn and other sources to find these people. Finally, we got in touch with a lovely professor at Bastyr University, known for alternative medicine. He took the time to chat with us and ended up connecting us to our formulator and scientific advisors”, says Lily.

As for product development, the Hilma process looks a little something like this:

1. Research the category and identify potential ailments to target with natural solutions. 

2. Work with the formulator and scientific advisor to create the shell of the formula with potential ingredients and clinical research to validate each ingredient.

3. Gather feedback from the scientific board of advisors and submit for approval or iterate until an effective solution is agreed upon. 

4. Use a form function that is widely adopted by consumers versus creating something that folks don’t know how to access. 

Hilma targets three main issues: immunity, gut and tension relief. “Our immune support contains no dyes or fillers and has less than one gram of sugar as opposed to six in the leading alternative. Our main ingredients include zinc, ginger, turmeric, echinacea, and ivy leaf extract,” says Hilary. 

“We are excited to show up where our customer already exists”, says Hilary. 

When it comes to their marketing, Hilma has taken an omnichannel approach that consists of collaborations, influencer marketing, retail partnerships, and content. They have partnered with Y7 fitness, Neighborhood Goods (NYC and Texas), Fox Trot (Chicago and Texas), Erewhon (LA), Standard Dose (NYC), as well as a number of clubs and hotels.

Hilma also engaged in an activation at launch where they took over the medicine cabinets of different offices in New York such as Refinery29, Glossier, The Skimm, The Farmer’s Dog, Lola, Dia & Co, and Cuup. “We brought in samples to share with employees as well as stocked their corporate medicine cabinets,” says Lily. 

And it doesn't end there! Hilma also believes in the power of community and uses it as a tool to educate consumers and increase their brand affinity, without breaking the bank. Their blog includes personal stories by influencers, founders and experts on their natural approach to health and how they stock their medicine cabinet. “We want to be non-judgemental, especially when people are oftentimes not using natural alternatives for their health”, says Lily. 

The Advice

When looking back at her childhood, Nina has always been a boss babe. “I used to have a thriving lemonade stand business growing up. However, my parents were very strict about us having to buy all of the ingredients, and would make us pay for them with our profits. This helped me understand the costs associated with running a business at an early age,” says Nina.

Hilma raised $4M in Q1 of 2020 as their seed round (woo!). Their advice for those looking to start a company:

• Talk to people who disagree with you. It is good to identify early on where your future pitfalls might be. 

• Take a lot of notes you can refer back to. 

• Find a good team early on, especially if you are a solo founder. 

• Have a support system in place because it is extremely hard to start a business. 

• Find a way to increase repeat business.

• Persistence is key. You will get rejected by everyone - your suppliers, investors, everyone! Keep calm and carry on. 

Looking to increase your immunity, relieve your stomach or tension? Mention promo code “radiche” for a 10% discount. Offer expires on April 30th. 

Photo courtesy of Hilma. 

Written by Alysha Malik.

KINFIELD, NICHOLE POWELL: The Outdoor Advocate

As the usage of technology surges, the dirt trails of the outdoors decreases. Locked inside our homes and in our screens, Millennials are looking towards nature to reconnect and refuel. To encourage this movement, Founder Nichole Powell launched Kinfield to provide clean, essential skincare products backed by science to empower humans to live their best lives outside. 

Founder and CEO of Kinfield, Nichole Powell was born in Minnesota and grew up with an outdoorsy family. “My childhood was an amalgamation of backpacking, rock climbing and foraging into the unknown. My parents always encouraged me to be an explorer,” says Nichole. 

Today, Nichole lives in NYC and moved from San Francisco where she previously worked at a Fashion e-commerce company, Modern Citizen. “I started my career working for a large tech company upon graduation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was an illuminating firsthand look at what goes on inside a $4B company, but I found myself wanting more firsthand experience and ended up starting a brand and content consulting business as a side hustle and a creative outlet.”

“My strengths have always been at the intersection of making things both functional and beautiful.”

Nichole decided to leave her role in tech and take a 6-month sabbatical to travel the world. Her journey led her to explore Iceland, London, Paris, Morocco, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. “Although I didn’t know it at the time, it was during my trip to Indonesia that I found our citronella ingredient which is used today in our Golden Hour, DEET free repellent. Indonesia, and Bali especially, tends to be quite ahead of the curve when it comes to natural, clean ingredients as they take a lot of steps toward helping their environment. To ward off mosquitoes, they rely on a local blend of essential oils that actually works!”

To pay for her travels, Nichole offered brand consulting services on the side which included copywriting and brand photography for social media. For those looking to break into the gig economy, Nichole initially offered her services for free to build a portfolio before setting a standard rate. 

”I returned to San Francisco after traveling and was eager to find a role at a new startup to get more hands-on experience. It was through conversations with founders and early-stage teams and that I met the founders of the newly-launched Modern Citizen, a women's fashion e-commerce retailer. I ended up joining their team in spring 2018 and was able to dive deep into the startup world and help them with everything from brand partnerships, business development, strategy, and growth.”

The Aha Moment

“In July 2017, I was packing for a weekend camping trip in Yosemite National Park when I realized that all of my outdoor skincare products had not changed since I was a child. This seemed odd, given that brands in many other categories like beauty had moved towards clean ingredients, better packaging, and a modern, relatable brand narrative. Yet here I was, still using the same DEET repellent that I always had, despite my desire to use something better.” 

“I started asking friends what products they use and how they discover new products and heard a lot of frustration since people did not want to use DEET. This was the moment I realized I could create something better at this intersection of outdoors and skincare. Fast forward to the summer of 2019 and Kinfield was born.”

“When you are an early-stage company you have to be able to figure things out that you have never done before.” 

The concept of Kinfield is to encourage folks to get back to the outdoors in a clean, and efficacious way. Feeling hot on your hike? They’ve got the Sunday Spray, a cooling Aloe mist. Need to battle off mosquitoes? They’ve got the Golden Hour, DEET free repellent. Maybe you just want to freshen up and moisturize? They’ve got the Waterbalm. Future product lines will tackle all problems one would experience in nature. Fun fact: Aloe is actually NOT green. It is a clear color and in fact, other brands add a chemical green dye to it!

The Challenges

“In the early days, trying to find an R&D partner was a major challenge. We were initially working with a lab that couldn't formulate according to our standards and had lost both time and resources through that experience. "What we wanted and needed was an R&D team that could be a partner to us and suggest innovative ingredients to try, versus assuming that our team would have all the solutions. It was a hard decision to change labs and lose months of work, but ultimately it made our products that much stronger for launch."

Having never worked in the beauty industry before, Nichole knew that advisors and industry experts would be necessary. Through an event, she was able to meet the perfect advisor who aided her search in manufacturing and connected her to Kinfield’s present-day lab."

The Advice

When it comes to fundraising, Kinfield has accomplished the impossible: raising a pre-seed round pre-product. They had no samples, only a concept of what the brand would be. “Americans spent $184.5 billion dollars on products for outdoor recreation in 2017, and yet, brands have not caught up. Just like Method dominated the home cleaning space, we feel like there is an opportunity to do the same here.” Nichole shares her advice for founders looking to launch a beauty brand:

• The key to fostering a community is co-branded events and expanding your customer database by engaging in branded partnerships. 
  

• Learn something new every day, even if that means Googling it. 
  

• Don’t lose sight of who your customer is and start chasing trends. 
  

• Find people who have done what you want to do and bring them on as advisors. 
  

• Life is too short to not be kind! People never forget how you make them feel. 
  

Looking to explore the outdoors? Get Kinfield’s signature Out of Office hat for free with any purchase of a Weekender kit! Just add your favorite kit and preferred hat color to your cart, and use the code RADICHE at checkout. Expires midnight on 3/15/20.

Photo courtesy of Kinfield. 

Written by Alysha Malik.

DAME, ALEXANDRA FINE: Closing The Pleasure Gap

According to the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (2010), women reported less satisfaction, less pleasure, less arousal, and fewer orgasms within sexual activity than men. This shouldn't come as a surprise as the vagina needs to be stimulated externally in order to release that special feeling, but how many women actually make it to orgasm?  Founder and CEO of Dame, Alexandra Fine is out on a mission to close the pleasure gap and provide the opportunity for humans with vulvas to come first!

We caught up with Alexandra Fine, the CEO, and co-founder of Dame Products. Unlike traditional sex toy companies, Dame is creating a community, changing the conversation, and redefining the consumer in its space. Oh, and you might have heard that they are currently suing the MTA over sexism due to their kosher subway ads being rejected. In a city where we, the subway surfers, are constantly bombarded with ads by the Museum of Sex, erectile dysfunction brands, and breast implant companies, it is a shocker that “the MTA’s decision to reject Dame’s advertisement material reflects no legitimate principle of law. Instead, it reveals the MTA’s sexism and its decision to support male interests in its advertising choices” says Alex.

“We are looking to shift the conversation around sexual health, and pleasure.”

Traditionally, sex and the media have always been positioned from the male perspective. However, in 2020, we have reached an inflection point with the rise of female produced porn, transgender models, and Savage x Fenty’s fashion show paving the way forward. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if Victoria’s Secret ends up filing for bankruptcy soon. A lingerie empire that was started by the epitome of the male gaze is now left with plummeting sales, a canceled Fashion Show and consumer criticism due to its brand positioning of over sexualizing women and its failure to morph with the times. 

Speaking of times, let's backtrack to 2014 when Alexandra had a very difficult experience trying to raise venture capital for Dame and resorted to crowdfunding via Indiegogo to launch their first vibrator, Eva.  Fun fact: they raised a total of $575,000 in 45 days! “We decided to go with Indiegogo over Kickstarter due to their policy on adult entertainment. We are operating in a very difficult sector that has traditionally been associated with overly sexualizing women and producing inappropriate adult content. Instead, we approach sexual pleasure from a place of education, which clearly resonated with people.”

The Taboo Against Sexual Pleasure

Due to its category of operations, Dame has had an extremely tough time vibrating in the typical startup marketing channels. “We are not allowed to advertise on Facebook, or with the MTA and have had to be extremely creative in our methods to get the word out.” 

However, you might have seen Alexandra on The Today Show, at SXSW Expo or read about her in all the press and buzz generated from the MTA lawsuit. “I think PR is not dead; it is a slow build. It is about being consistent and getting multiple hits everywhere versus one big hit.”

The Childhood

A Long Island native and unconsciously quirky, Alexandra grew up in an entrepreneurial family where her father managed a janitorial cleaning business. Looking back, Alexandra was always fascinated by sex and its role in society. “I majored in psychology and minored in fine arts, gender studies, and business at Washington University alongside a Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University. Turns out, my education all came together at the end of the day. If you follow your passions the universe will find a way to manifest itself. My love for sexual education dates back to first grade when I remember explaining to my classmates the difference between sexual preferences and transgender.” Alexandra had also been diagnosed with HPV in high school and was one of the first women in her circle to be vocal about her experience, realizing that one out of five women today undergo this condition, but no one speaks about it. 

On Finding a Co-Founder 

“I was working at Babo Botanicals at the time, back in 2013 and started making vibrators at home. I told my CEO when I was interviewed that I see myself starting a company in the next 5 years making sex toys.” A couple of prototypes later, Alexandra hit the internet in search of a product engineer and after attending multiple New York MeetUp groups, found her partner, Janet Lieberman, an MIT engineer. “We were both working on sex toy ideas separately before being introduced by group members. It was very serendipitous as individuals already thought that we were co-founders.” 

The Advice

An unusual company, with an unusual story, Dame has defied all odds. Whether it be fundraising, advertising or finding a co-founder, Alexandra encompasses one trait that successful leaders have: tenacity. Her advice for those looking to start a venture in 2020:

• If you are really passionate about an idea, figure out a way to have minimum expenses in your life, and focus all of your energy on making it work. 
  

• Have a clear vision from the very beginning of what your next 5 years look like. This will help you say no to a lot of opportunities. 
  

• Find a co-founder who shares your values and is willing to apologize.
  

• Don’t wait until things are perfect, just get out there. You don’t need to raise money. Figure out what is working and build from there. 
  

  Looking to increase clitoral stimulation and vibrate on a higher frequency throughout life? This Valentine day vibe together by purchasing a Dame vibrator. Mention promo code “RADICHE” for 15% off! 

Photo courtesy of Dame Products.

Written by Alysha Malik.

OWA, KAILEY BRADT: The Water Activist

Most of our personal care products are made using one dominant ingredient: water. Yet, the world is running out of clean water! On a mission to do things differently and create a sustainable brand, founder Kailey Bradt launched OWA Haircare to cater to individuals who travel and want to save the planet. 

Founder and CEO of OWA Haircare, Kailey Bradt, was born in upstate New York and was always trying to sell the world something. “At the age of 3, I would paint rocks and sell them to strangers. The most I got was $7”. Fast forward to modern-day and Kailey is now selling a unique, patent-pending, powder shampoo that is clean, vegan, sustainable and most importantly lathers! (For those who don’t know, a lathering natural shampoo is very hard to find!)

“I was always entrepreneurial and would find ways to make things happen no matter how big or small.” 

“The idea of OWA came to me in April 2016 from a personal struggle. I was working for an early-stage startup in LA and was traveling all the time. Short trips though. But, similar to a consultant I would always have my carry-on packed with my mini toiletries ready to go. When it came to my hair care products I found it frustrating to find a product that wouldn’t explode, leak or get snagged at TSA. I tried shampoo bars, but they quickly got gross and picked up bacteria laying around on the countertops of hotels. I really just wanted my liquid shampoo to be delivered in a different format!” 

At the same time, Kailey was approached by another entrepreneur to develop their formulation for a beauty brand. Instead of teaming up, Kailey decided that she wanted to focus her efforts on launching her own company, one backed by venture capital funding versus being bootstrapped. OWA has raised $450,000 as of today and is currently raising a seed round. 

“It’s different, but it works!”

OWA Haircare launched in June 2019 as a water-activated brand that is sustainable, vegan and clean. Their first product is Moondust, a powder shampoo that comes in a travel-friendly bottle with 60 washes (7X more than an average liquid shampoo). When it comes to her target market, Kailey focuses on professional women who are constantly on the go and need a product that can keep up with their travel, sweat, and anything before or after bed! 

It took Kailey three years to develop the formula for Moondust shampoo and like most of our Makers, she worked a full-time job while trying to launch her company. Her background? Oh, well nothing short of being a Chemical Engineer from Rochester Institute of Technology where she later got her Master’s in Product Development followed by working at a chemical company and cosmetic startup. By being hands-on with formulating in her early days, Kailey was setting the building blocks of what would become her life’s work and passion for launching her own company someday. 

The Name

OWA stands for Out of this World Amazing. “We are always told to think outside of the box, but I wanted to think outside of this world! I mean, innovation is at the heart of our business and I want OWA to be the go-to brand for folks who want to go to the Moon, or to Mars or even on that quick trip to LAX.”

“The general feedback we got was oh this is great for the environment, and 40% of the folks wanted to try it just because it was a novel concept.” 

Education has been a big hurdle for Kailey in the beauty industry. She has found that when it comes to hair care, distribution is key, and further yet, you have to be in retail stores. One of the ways she has tried to increase sales is by allowing customers to try the product in-store on their hands to experience the lathering and texture. Fun fact: In 3000 B.C. shampoo used to come in the form of a bar. People would peel the bar and drop the shavings in hot water to create a liquid. It wasn’t until much later that technology allowed us to add preservatives and create a liquid, shelf-stable version! 

Another challenge Kailey has faced in this industry is production! Most beauty entrepreneurs will tell you that formulation has been their biggest concern, but with OWA, Kailey created the patent-pending formula herself in her New York apartment on a small scale. She tested it out with over 200 friends before going into production. “When we went to find a manufacturer we found out that they had to purchase new equipment to produce our formula since it could not be easily created by a cosmetic machine. We needed to source a machine from the food industry!”

The Advice 

As a young mid-twenties entrepreneur, Kailey tells us how she has found the best luck in meeting investors through mutual contacts or in-person. “I did a lot of cold calling and emailing in the beginning and felt like I wasted a lot of time sitting behind a computer instead of being out at a conference or an event.” Kailey further believes that when you are launching a company you should:

• Speak to as many strangers as you can about what you are building and constantly refine your pitch.

• Attend at least one event a week, in the beginning, to mingle with angel investors and fellow entrepreneurs.

• Stalk angel investors online, find out where they are speaking and go to that event.

• Apply for grants from local programs and associations that will fund your product research.

When not working, you can find Kailey traveling the world, nerding out over film photography and chatting up strangers on their haircare routine. Interested in experiencing a new way to wash your hair? OWA Haircare can be found at Credo, Neighborhood Goods and online. Priced at $29, mention promo code: owaforradiche2020 for a 10% discount. Grab your bottle! 

Photo courtesy of OWA Haircare.

Written by Alysha Malik.

FUR, LAURA SCHUBERT: Beating Around The Bush

Long hair don’t care! When it comes to body hair, start-ups in the beauty space are tackling stigmas head-on by inventing their own category. Pubic hair has been shunned from our vocabulary for years. However, Fur launched to cater to those with the bush or bare look.

We first spotted Fur when we entered a Free People store in SoHo, NYC. The elevated packaging and brand name caught our attention and made us think twice about our yoni and society’s advice. To shave or not to shave….that was the question. 

Rewind to 2014 when the seeds were planted for Fur. Co-Founder, Laura Schubert tells us how “I was talking to my sister about body hair and what we do in between waxing sessions and realized that there was a big expectation in society to be fully waxed at all times and this never sat well with me. When I started googling pubic hair, it always showed products for removal. There was nothing that celebrated body hair.”

“I decided to create a product that I would want for myself, one that was natural, had safe effective ingredients and elevated packaging to destigmatize the category.” 

Fur essentially created their own category of pubic body hair care when they launched in 2016. “Our products soften pubic hair and clear pores for ingrowns.” The brand mainly targets women, but 30% of its customers are men. When creating the product it took Laura two years to develop the perfect formulation and organize local manufacturing. Fun fact: Fur is completely bootstrapped and loved by celebrity, Emma Watson. 

“Emma Watson was an organic user of our product and mentioned it in Into The Gloss. We sold out 1 years worth of product in three weeks due to the shoutout and it was really magical!” 

When it comes to marketing, beauty is all about the peer-to-peer network, AKA influencers and word of mouth. We would recommend strategizing your marketing plan to include organic press, influencer events or brand activations and tradeshows. You actually don’t need to spend a lot of money on online acquisition (depending on your distribution model and if you are only D2C) and can engage in a lot of free marketing by hiring a good social media manager for content creation. The goal is to always create a campaign that can go viral or stir up a conversation. 

Laura tells us how in the early days everything was being shipped out of her co-founder's apartment until they eventually outgrew this problem and moved over to a professional 3PL system. They launched with 1,000 units per SKU and two products: oil and cream for ingrown hair. Laura forewent the margins on her first order to keep the price point within reason and relied on economies of scale for growth. 

“We got the door slammed in our face a lot! I had the head of retail companies saying they didn’t know women had pubic hair anymore or would take our product as a joke. It was due to my persistence and ability to always keep the conversation open, never taking no as an answer that landed us in stores such as Shen Beauty, Dermstore and Credo.”

The Childhood

“I always thought it would be very cool to be my own boss one day.” Laura grew up in a family where her father was a small business owner, a surgeon. While he was slicing flesh, she would later end up slicing taboos (you go girl!). Her first job out of Harvard University was in finance, followed by consulting. Yup, you guessed it. Like many of our RADICHE Maker’s, Laura had absolutely no background in beauty before setting up Fur. 

The Advice

When launching a beauty brand, we asked Laura for her advice and she shared the following with us:

• There is no right way for growing a company! Everyone has their own voice, path, etc and it’s really about figuring out what works for you and how you can do it with your particular situation in that particular time.
  

• Make sure that you create a brand vision that is right. The industry is extremely saturated and you need to have a unique positioning with authenticity.
  

• Be very careful with every dollar you spend, especially if you are bootstrapping it yourself. (Laura is a big critic of working with agencies and believes it is best to hire freelancers when needed).
  

• When hiring folks, always look to see if they treat you as a true partner.
  

• When finding a manufacturer or a vendor in the supply chain, call the big guys to ask for recommendations for intros to the smaller guys. Beauty is a small industry where everyone knows everyone!
  

When not running her business, Laura can be found attending the Opera, spending time with her little baby and mentoring young entrepreneurs. If you’re thinking about growing out your bush, experimenting with a landing strip or continuing to keep it bare, Fur is for you! Shop their products here.

Photo courtesy of Fur. 

Written by Alysha Malik.

GEM, SARA CULLEN: The Modern Nutritionist

As consumers, we tend to trust the government to protect us and value our health. However, they don’t always do the best job. Did you know that just like the beauty industry, the vitamin industry is also extremely under-regulated? Yup, you can really get away with low-quality products these days. That is why it is so important to know the story behind brands and the authenticity behind the Maker. We got lucky to be introduced to Gem, a bite-size daily nutrient made with real food ingredients minus the fluff and synthetic fillers. 

From one nomination to the next, the way we grow our RADICHE network of Maker’s is through word of mouth. After our last feature with Jenna Kerner from Harper Wilde, we were introduced to the lovely Sara Cullen, Founder, and CEO of Gem. “My inspiration for Gem came out of my own personal health struggle. At the time, back in 2016, I was working with start-ups, building things and simultaneously dealing with a lot of stress. The stress had manifested itself in ways like swelling, mood swings, low energy and breakouts on my skin. When I turned to the vitamin aisle for relief, it only made the matter worse. I then looked closely at the ingredients in these drugstore vitamins and realized that if you look behind the label there is so much sneaky stuff you don’t see because it is hidden.” 

“We wanted to create a new delivery system for getting your vitamins.”

No one ever questions the origin of vitamins, yet we question everything we need to know about our meat, sometimes even the name of that fella (shoutout to T.V. show Portlandia!). During Sara’s quest to dig deeper she got inspired to start Gem in 2017. “I wanted to formulate specifically for women in order to give them the essentials needed to live a balanced and stress-free life.” Gem is powered by algae and includes 15+ vitamins, minerals, and herbs for optimal health. 

Some fun facts about vitamins:

• Vitamins are made with gelatin, the stuff left over from the meat industry such as pork skin, horns, and cattle bones.
  

• 90% of existing vitamin D comes from the wool of sheep. Gem derives theirs from mushrooms.

Testing The Market

When you go to raise VC funding, the main question you will get asked is how did you test the market? Fun fact: Sara was able to raise $750,000 in pre-seed funding! You go, girl! “We tested the market by creating an invite-only Facebook group in April 2018. We grew to over 300 women by word of mouth and were shocked by the community that came together to share inspiration around their health. We offered free samples to 150 of these women and received product feedback prior to launch. This is also how we figured out our product positioning.” Sara launched Gem on Product Hunt to gather more product feedback. 

“We want to reframe how women think about health and nutrition.”

Rewind back to the early years, Sara grew up on a farm in Oregon. She had always been around food which piqued her interest in nutrition. After graduating from Cornell University, with a major in International Development, she traveled to Kenya, Morocco, and India to work with female entrepreneurs. “I started out working with the governments around their policies but quickly realized that this wasn’t the path for me and ended up joining Venture for America fellowship.” Later, she started her first business around CBD beverages back in 2016, but was way ahead of the market and ended up leaving. “I used to be referred to as the weed water woman in those days.”

The Advice

Today, Gem has a team of 3 full-time employees and 4 part-time folks. Their first hire was a food scientist who helped them with product development. When we asked Sara for her advice she told us:

• Everyone has their own path.
  

• Learn what to prioritize and what matters the most to your customer.
  

• Don’t romanticize the need for fundraising.

If all this talk about nutrients has got your tummy rumbling, then click here to try out Gem’s daily essentials. Priced at $39 for a monthly subscription, their product is gluten-free, soy-free, corn-free, emoji-free (jokes) and vegan. If that doesn’t sound like music to your microbiome, then we don’t know what will. Happy munching!

Photo courtesy of Gem.

Written by Alysha Malik.

THE WILDIST, AARON PAAS: The Wild Thing

Decommodify the most boring categories in your life! With natural and clean taking a front seat at major beauty retailers, this personal care brand wants to make you rethink your everyday essentials. Wildist caters to those who care about natural hygiene, sustainability, and transparent ingredients.

Founder of Wildist, Aaron Paas came from a CPG background and views the world from a sustainable lens. He previously worked at Proctor and Gamble, with leading brand, Gillette and was able to understand the personal care industry better than most! “I get very excited about finding an opportunity through talking to people who are going to be using your product. With Gillette, I was leading their innovations team and focused on building products that would launch 7 years away. We did a lot of future forecasting and spent a lot of time looking at the Asian markets to see what was trending, especially in skincare.” 

Working on futuristic products and goals that would then become arbitrary as launch date approached is something that frustrated Aaron. It is mainly due to the hierarchical nature of these large multi-national corporations. As a result, he left and joined Etsy. “I left Gillette around the same time the Dollar Shave Club popped up and saw the way consumers were shopping, needs were shifting, and felt that it was time for me to broaden my experience.” 

“It was interesting to go from a place like P&G, where you had values posted on every wall, to Etsy, where values were just part of the conversation.”

During his time at Etsy, Aaron learned how to test concepts in the online world and more importantly implement values into everything you do. Today, he has carried this ideology into building out his own brand, Wildist. 

“We built Wildist for progressive people and want to provide customers with a choice. Sustainability, transparent ingredients, and an inclusive brand.”  

Wildist is a personal care brand that elevates your everyday essentials starting with natural toothpaste and deodorants. They value people, product and the planet, by transforming their packaging into pieces of art so that customers can reuse it and elongate its lifecycle. We were instantly drawn to their art direction and would describe their unboxing experience as walking through a jungle of colors, filled with surprises and curiosity (MUST TRY THEIR PRODUCTS!). 

Not to mention, their containers are 100% recyclable (plastic is one of the biggest contributors to global warming! Please try to reduce your carbon footprint when possible, RADICHE loves you). Fun fact: most toothpaste tubes are not recyclable. By making the Wildist toothpaste tube out of aluminum, you can have mother nature send some positive vibes your way. 

Why The Name

Why the name you might be wondering? They take their ingredients very seriously, hence, Wildist is a combination of wild + alchemist. Raw natural ingredients, repackaged in a beautiful way, for the consumer who wants to make a difference in this world with their purchasing power. 

Aaron’s Errands

Rewinding to Aaron's childhood, in Canada, he believes that “growing up I always had an entrepreneurial bug in me. When I was really young my father started his own business, it was a bookstore and at the time I was 12 years old. He would call me his co-founder and I remember thinking that I was a business owner from a really young age. This outlook on life stuck with me forever.” Young Aaron would also earn extra pocket money by running errands for the elder and naming his “business” Aaron’s Errands (quite smart!). “Since the age of eight, I would always find operational inefficiencies and my first thought would be how do I fix this as well as make some money?”

The Takeaways:

Aaron had been working on Wildist, full time for one year before launching. It took him 6 months to perfect the product and test the market via blind focus group product tests. It wasn’t until his product would win first place, would he enter a production run. 

“If you look at what P&G has done is they brought quality and consistency of a product to a level that is unprecedented. One of the things I brought to Wildist and was unwilling to cut corners on was the product. There is so much time being spent on brand, as there should be, but I think a lot of brands today tend to let the users down with product quality.” 

When we asked Aaron how his past experience prepared him for his role as CEO today, he says:

• If you do everything right and you deliver a good product, you have a lifetime consumer. So get that right!
  

• Gone are the days where a subscription model is a value proposition.
  

• Find a group of people that you take time to understand and identify how to create something that makes a difference. From a design perspective, create a safer, more natural, interesting product.
  

• Enter people's lives in a meaningful way by finding real people and solving a real problem.  
  

Wildist is a brand built on psychographics rather than demographics. Their products range from $7 for a toothpaste to $14 for a deodorant and can be purchased here. They are also celebrating their launch party tomorrow, Thursday, November 15th at 150 Franklin Street. We shall be there if y’all want to head on down and say hi. 

Photo courtesy of Wildist. 

Written by Alysha Malik.

PROSE, ARNAUD & PAUL: The Future Is Hair

Gone are the Panteen days when one product is “strong and beautiful”. Customization and personalization are two major trends driving the beauty industry forward. As a result, consumers demand products that are a direct extension of themselves, their needs and their preferences. Meet Prose, a hyper-tailored hair care company that allows customers to craft their own shampoo, conditioner and hair mask according to their hair goals and needs. So let’s hair (pun intended) how the founders got started!

Prose launched in December of 2017 with a simple idea, to create the best hair possible! This has been brought to fruition by customizing the manufacturing process and integrating technology into the on-boarding of customers. So how does it work? We sat down with co-founders Arnaud Plas (CEO) and Paul Michaux (VP of Product) to discuss their past, the present and the learnings. 

“Arnaud and I met when I got hired to work at L’Oreal. We were on the same team and given our French background we became friends quickly. As a man, I find the beauty industry very fascinating since my gender is not typically the primary user.” It wasn’t until one night over drinks that Arnaud shared his vision with Paul about disrupting the hair care industry. “I had originally started my career in home care products and quickly moved into skincare, body care, and hair care.” Fun fact: Arnaud and his dad started a business together back in 2010 to sell construction hardware in Europe online. Hence, this isn’t his first rodeo!

“We wanted to use personalization to fix a pain point in the industry and reinvent the market for professional hair care.”

Arnaud wanted to change the relationship between high salon clientele and products. While most prestige brands tackle one or two hair benefits, Prose tackles all! “The idea was to partner with individual hair stylists and empower them by creating personalized products for their clients via a diagnostic test. We sought out experts in artificial intelligence to create a software that is constantly learning via a feedback loop to process data and create fresh mixtures of ingredients, unique to each hair goals and needs.” Taking that one step further, Prose can also be accessed online where customers are encouraged to take a detailed quiz on their website in order to receive their personalized products in the mail shortly after. 

On Finding The Right Team

We know that Arnaud and Paul met while working at L’Oreal, but what about the remaining two co-founders? Yup, that’s right, Prose actually has four founding members! Arnaud tells us how he remembers mentioning to his barber “that I was going to be starting a hair care company and he insisted that I get in touch with a chemist, Catherine Taurin. At that time, Catherine was creating custom hair products for a salon and had been in the industry for over 35 years. She has been vital to our R&D success!” On the other hand, Arnaud was introduced to CTO, Nicolas Mussat via one of their early investors. This clearly goes to show that the author, Paulo Coelho was right when he mentions in The Alchemist, “the more you talk about what you want, the more likely the universe will make it happen.” 

The Name

“We wanted to start with Per Se but were unable to due to trademark laws. We actually ended up changing our name post-seed round (they have raised $7 million so far after Series A) and were introduced to Red Antler to rethink our name and overall brand identity right before our launch. As an American company with French roots, we wanted to have a name that sounded good in both English and French. Voilà, Prose: your unique way of expressing yourself!”

The Advice

If you are looking to start something within the beauty sector, here is our two-cents for you:

• Surround yourself with the right people from the beginning.

• Identify what industry trends are taking place and how your idea can fall into that formula and last over fads.

• While the barrier to entry in the beauty category is low, finding a good chemist has an extremely high barrier. Do your homework and partner with someone for product creation.

• Talk to as many people as you can, you’ll never know where the grapevine leads you.

• Once you get a sample, start a waitlist pre-order campaign online for traction.
  

Priced at $24 and above, Prose’s products contain 76 natural ingredients that are free from parabens, sulfate, mineral oil, GMO and cruelty. Stylists also have the opportunity to make a commission when they sign up with Prose to promote the products to customers. If you are interested in getting in touch with Arnaud or Paul, drop us a line and we’ll see how we can make magic happen. 

Photo courtesy of Prose. 

Written by Alysha Malik.