Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 Quick Questions with Jane Fisher, Co-founder of Harper Wilde (part 2)

Transcript

6 Quick Questions with Jane Fisher, Co-founder of Harper Wilde (part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is, what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing? Lift up the ladies, I think sums it up. You know, I think that I don't have a love for bras. We started the company because we hated bras. We hated shopping for bras. That's why Harper Wilde exists.
• 0:29
  But it's about so much more than just selling a ton of bras. It's about creating a new brand that stands for the modern woman. And when we thought about young girls looking to Victoria's Secret,
• 0:42
  as what beauty is, that was a really painful reality for us. And so it's all about creating a brand that empowers the women of today, as well as the women of tomorrow and gives them a new face of beauty that they're actually excited about that empowers them that doesn't discourage them. Amen. Question number two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so far?
• 1:10
  I think that Kristen Bell moment was really special. It also was right in the midst of the pandemic starting up. So to have this real moment of excitement and just team morale building, even though we're all sitting trapped in our homes, to be able to feel that between the team, even remote, I think just speaks to how exciting of a time it was.
• 1:36
  That would have been so great. So amazing. Question number three is what's your go-to business resource if you have to think about like a book or a newsletter or a podcast? I think honestly, normally I go to advisors and even team members. The first place that I think you get like this real operating experience that's very real, very actionable.
• 2:02
  takes into account all the challenges. So if there's something within our supply chain that's really difficult to solve, we are fortunate enough to have the former CEO of Victoria's Secret on our board of advisors. We worked with the former SVP of production and sourcing at Victoria's Secret. So I was just on the phone with her yesterday picking her brain. I think the podcasts are helpful that I listen to, but I think what's different about yours that I really
• 2:32
  seek out to make sure that it is actually real, it's actionable versus kind of painting a pretty picture that actually doesn't help because how do I use that when in reality that's not how it actually plays out. Totally. Thank you, by the way. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and motivated and successful?
• 3:01
  Being physically active is really important to me. And I learned that the hard way with the pandemic where I wasn't as physically active and realized that it was taking a hit. So biking has been a big thing for me and my fiance. We picked that up over the weekend.
• 3:16
  Over the pandemic, we live in Southern California, so we're lucky enough that the weather is often very nice. And we live by some really beautiful areas to bike. So that is really important to me. I also got a dog like every other millennial in the pandemic. And I think that that's not the same. I think that that's just awesome at forcing you to get out, right? Like you have to walk, you have to move, you have to go to the park.
• 3:43
  And he just brings a ton of joy to my life. Also, just like, I think just forcing taking breaks, even if it's a random Monday that you take off, it never, ever, ever feels like a good time to take a vacation. I always feel guilty about it. But being able to come back and feel rested and feel re-energized, whether that's traveling somewhere, I think is just so, so, so critical. So I always encourage that with my team's.
• 4:09
  Yes. I'm so on board with that. I think like my husband and I were talking about this the other day. We want to actively build in taking like every second Friday, like no matter what kind of just off and just being out and taking that longer weekend, even if you did it every week, fine, whatever, but just making sure that every second week it's like part of the ritual and locking in like that day of just like nothing. I'm excited for it.
• 4:35
  Question number five is what's been your worst money mistake in business? Worst money mistake in business. Oh, so many. So I think the first thing that comes to mind is we didn't buy enough inventory when the pandemic hit. I don't know if I would have changed this because the risk reward was really tough at the time. But yeah.
• 5:02
  Basically, in March 2020, every piece of advice from us almost ubiquitously was hunker down and hope for the best. Don't buy a ton of inventory. Assume everything's going to shut down. Your factory is going to shut down. Your 3PL warehouse is going to shut down. The carriers, the USPS is going to shut down. You're not going to be able to sell any bras, get any bras, and just try to figure out how to survive.
• 5:26
  And fortunately for us, actually, the pandemic was quite good for business. You know, a lot of people moved to shopping online. Relevant product was still extremely relevant. Underwear, you still needed it. And our price point became even more relevant as people were losing jobs, were more conscious of their bank accounts. Our sharp price point became even more relevant. So things totally took off.
• 5:49
  And as a result, you know, to have to ordering inventory is like turning around a cruise ship when you want to change direction. So it takes a long time. And the decisions you make here nine months later have an impact that, you know, it's hard to switch. So I wish we had bought more inventory because we were out of stock. But like I said, hindsight is 20, 20 there. I don't know if I would have taken, you know, I think it was still the world was such in such question at that time.
• 6:16
  The other thing, which is just a very, very, very common thing for founders to feel is I wish we had taken more money at different fundraising points when we had the opportunity to. I think you always kind of under forecast how much you need to get to the next milestone and having more buffer to be able to figure things out would have been great. Investors told us that that's how their founders have always felt. You know, everyone kind of tells you that and it's hard to actually do it in the moment.
• 6:46
  So many great pieces of like insights there, just those little nuggets that are so interesting. Thank you so much. Last question, question number six. I love to just end on a crazy story, good or bad or anything in between. What is just a crazy story from the journey? Crazy story.
• 7:09
  So many things are coming to mind. I mean, Jenna and I, when we first started the company, we were emailing this factory in Sri Lanka. And like in the early days, we were totally making stuff up. We made up the Gmail accounts that we were emailing from. We like tried to be, you know,
• 7:27
  very much like put on this air like we knew what we were talking about and we'd been emailing with this factory and we were like we don't know anything about we need to go over there we need to see are these people legit is the factory in ethical conditions like let's
• 7:42
  go over there and see. So we flew over there and it was unbelievable. It was like that they produced for huge brands. So you can imagine the working condition and the factory was just one of the coolest things I've ever seen. We were learning about really nerdy lean operations stuff within our operations classes in business school. And it was
• 8:01
  They were showing us in action there. It was very, very cool. But Jenna and I were totally out of our element. And there was one point where our account manager was kind of managing everything. And their compliance team came in and said, hey, can I talk to the person in your compliance department? We need to talk about X, Y, Z tests that we're going to run on your products.
• 8:23
  And, you know, we thought we had put on this great front that we would have not just a someone in compliance, a whole compliance department, you know, and it was just the two of us. There was literally no one else. And the account manager was like, no, no, you don't understand. This is compliance. This is accounting. This is marketing. You're looking at the whole team. It's just like this moment where we thought we had like totally fooled them. And like, turns out they definitely knew what a small brand we were.
• 8:50
  Oh my God. That's so lol. Also makes it so much cooler that you were like having that moment to work with them in the first place. And they were like, yeah, still love what you're doing. Yeah. We see through it. Yeah. It was kind of a relief. Oh, totally. The facade is up. No, it's down. The facade is down. Anyway, whatever. You know what I'm saying. This was so much fun. Jane, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your journey with Harper Wild. What a cool story. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me.
• 9:24
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 9:48
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 10:11
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 10:28
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 10:52
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 11:15
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.