As women, we live in a lingerie world laced with frills, embellishments and sexy cuts. Most of these products are actually created by men and targeted to women at an extremely high price with high margins, and high sex appeal. But what if you’re just a regular gal looking for a simple solution at an affordable price? Say hello to Harper Wilde, a women-run company that is simplifying the bra shopping experience and finally giving support back to the girls by doing the heavy lifting!

Co-Founders Jenna Kerner and Jane Fisher met during their MBA at Wharton and bonded over their love for beef jerky, and humor. With no previous experience in retail, these ladies have shattered the glass ceiling and built a company with a core mission: to empower the girls. We were able to catch sarcastic, witty and thoughtful Jenna for a quick playdate to chat about how she got started and her advice for fundraising.

“I always loved building things and never thought that I wanted to be an entrepreneur.”

Jenna grew up in a house filled with laughter and discussions around science and healthcare. Most of her family members were doctors and growing up she always thought she would work in the same industry (she refers to herself as being pretty nerdy as a child). “ I always wanted to do something in healthcare, which is ironic because now I am making bras.” With a major in Neurobiology from Cornell University, Jenna started out working in consulting and transitioned to a wearable technology startup since she wanted to be closer to the consumer. “You could say at my core I have always been into helping people.” Fun fact: she is afraid of flying. Talk about slaying all of those short work trips while working at Deloitte, #BossBabeInFlight.

Testing The Market

Jenna and Jane came up with the concept for Harper Wilde in the fall of 2015 and launched in June of 2017. “We tested out the market by doing a focus group with over 100 women to gather market feedback and see what issues women were facing. We also emailed manufacturers overseas to see why bras are so expensive and found out that the margins are just really high. We also felt that a survey would not be enough so we mocked up our entire business plan, bought 400 bras on a credit card, and invited 50 women to do a free home try-on experience. We had 5 different styles of which you could choose 3. We would then charge these customers via venmo for what they kept. Luckily we saw that 50% of them converted to purchases from this experience, so we didn’t lose any money.” Using this data, Jenna was able to create future designs and raise seed money from friends, family and angel investors to go to market.

“Talk to actual consumers and understand where they are spending most of their time and money.”

Marketing, marketing, marketing! Today there are so many platforms and channels to choose from. If you are looking to grow brand awareness, we are a big believer in partnerships (hence, RADICHE’S ability to connect brands for future collaborations). When we asked Jenna for her top marketing highlights, she mentioned a partnership with the car-sharing app, Lyft in October 2017. “Any rides taken with our code would result in a donation to provide education to girls in 120 countries.”

The Challenges

“In the beginning, we would get a lot of advice from experts in different fields, but had to make decisions that were best for us at the time. I would say, learn to trust your instinct in areas where you don’t have experience. Finding the right manufacturer has also been a challenge for us as empowering women is our core mission. When we found the top manufacturer for lingerie (based in Sri Lanka), it was more about convincing them to work with us, but now they are our biggest partner.”

The Advice

Harper Wilde recently raised $2 million in June 2018 for their Series A (wohoo!). In a male-driven VC market, it was difficult for the ladies to make them see eye to eye. Their secret sauce? Humor. Check out Jenna’s advice for those looking to start their own consumer-facing company:

Find a co-founder that aligns with your values.
Trust your gut when it comes to developing your strategy.
Test every marketing channel in a small measured way before scaling it.
Don’t get bogged down by others opinions.
Conduct a price point experimentation: find out what your consumer is willing to spend, married with your COGS and what would create a sustainable business in the long run.
When it comes to finding investors, look for firms within your field, not the top recognizable ones, and get a warm introduction.

Harper Wilde aims to be the go-to everyday bras for women. Priced at only $35, shop their products here and let them do the heavy lifting.

Photo courtesy of Harper Wilde.