Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / How Supper Clubs became the secret sauce behind the Tiny Organics community, with Betsy Fore and Sofia Laurell

Transcript

How Supper Clubs became the secret sauce behind the Tiny Organics community, with Betsy Fore and Sofia Laurell · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Sophia Laurel and Betsy Fo for Female Startup Club.
• 0:13
  Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Female Startup Club Podcast. I'm your host, Duna Roisin, and joining me on the show today are the co-founders behind Tiny Organics, Betsy Foer and Sophia Lorell. Tiny Organics is the early childhood nutrition company with organic, plant-based, fresh frozen meals built on vegetables and essential fruits. Hi.
• 0:36
  In this episode, we hear the startup story of Betsy and Sophia, how they launched two 100 mums in a park, and their secret sauce to community building, their tiny supper clubs.
• 0:48
  If you enjoyed this founder story and you're feeling generous today, please do subscribe and leave us a review to help us find new ears. Or if you're feeling extra generous, shout outs on social media go a really long way and put a huge smile on my face, obviously. But let's get stuck into it. This is Betsy and Sophia for Female Startup Club. Betsy, Sophia, hi, hello, and welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast.
• 1:15
  Hi, we're so excited to be here. I'm so excited to have you here. You are both very interesting women with very interesting backgrounds. So I always love to start by getting the 411 on both of you. And Sophia, you're in the top screen for me. So we'll start with you. Perfect. Yeah, my name is Sophia. I'm the co-founder, co-CEO, along with Betsy of Tiny Organics.
• 1:39
  I am originally from Finland, so born and raised in Helsinki. I run marketing at Tiny Betsy Runs Product. I have a marketing and communications background. My why for founding Tiny is actually the Finnish baby box.
• 1:55
  We always say I was born to build this company. It's an incredible invention back home. And I saw firsthand the impact that it had. Actually, it's a box of products that every parent in Finland gets from the government. And it has everything you need for your baby's first year. And I think Scotland and some other countries have instituted it as well. But it actually drastically lowered infant mortality back home. So it had been my lifelong dream to bring that concept here to the U.S.,
• 2:21
  I lived in London for many years. I know doing your British, love London, love the UK, worked at the press office at the Finnish embassy, and then moved to New York in 2010. That was another lifelong dream to live in New York and worked briefly in finance, did some investor relations, and then realized that I thrive in impact-driven environments. So I worked at a
• 2:44
  nonprofit research foundation for over four years. We did research as to why women and minorities have arisen to the corporate boards in the US. And it's some leadership training programs and, you know, really meaningful work there. But I had always had this dream and Betsy and I had known each other for years prior. And we both remember this vividly. It was 4th of July of 2017, a rooftop party when I mentioned the Finnish baby box to her. And
• 3:09
  She will go into her incredible background. She had founded a company in the pet space prior and wanted to start a family. So we came together and found a tiny company.
• 3:20
  Driving forces together sounds incredible. Betsy, please give me your spiel. Give me the overview. Yeah, so in terms of my wife for tiny, I mean, I grew up in a food desert in kind of middle of nowhere on the American sugar rollercoaster diet of Parais. And so when I thought about, you know, what's the greatest gift I could give my son, who's now two years old, it was absolutely that healthier start to life.
• 3:48
  to know and to love vegetables from the earliest days. I'm an industrial engineer by trade, industrial designer. So I started out as a toy inventor in Chicago, building toys for George Lucas, most of our franchise from Mattel with Ploy Pocket, WWE, Uno. It was such a dream and so much fun. I thought, I can't actually get better than this, right? But it somehow did. And I wound up building with Michael Acton Smith, the founder of Calm, his previous company, Mind Candy in London.
• 4:15
  led product there for a number of years. So we grew the company to over 300 people, over 100 million registered users online. You probably know Mashi Monsters if you're London-based because we absolutely saturated the market during that time. It was a magical journey. And working alongside Michael, it made me realize, hey, wait a minute, maybe I could also do this as a sole founder. So about...
• 4:37
  A decade ago now at a hackathon one weekend, whilst I was still at Mind Candy, I, in Shoreditch around Old Street, invented the first Pip-Bit for dogs. And that was actually for my fur baby, my first baby, Whiskey, who's a little rugged terrier from Northern England, and he was overweight. So I tried everything to get him to lose the weight. Yeah. And then finally thought, okay, I've got a Pip-Bit for myself. Why don't I have one for my dog?
• 5:00
  And then, you know, I literally built it just for him. And then he got down to his goal weight, which can extend his life up to two years. So there were so many learnings in building that company over, I guess, eight years or so. And one of them was, yeah, that I'll never be a sole founder again. So that was like a really big one there.
• 5:17
  And I self-funded the company for the first two years of that startup and then went on to raise. So just a ton of learnings in terms of how to get started as well. But, you know, we had the best retail attraction of any pet wearable in the market. So launched at Harrods initially, Colette for Paris Fashion Week, and then over to Bloomingdale's in Manhattan. And every pet co on NCAP for the holidays, launching their pet tech category, even Urban Outfitters, which was like a personal dream of mine. Because in a previous life, I was fashion retail as well, working my way through uni.
• 5:47
  And so that was just, yeah, you know, Oprah's favorite things list and just a ton of incredible, you know, kind of milestones for that company. But in the end, what we realized is we were really building this very robust database, right, around a dog's health and well-being, around their size, weight, age, breed, etc. And so we're going to be able to do that.
• 6:04
  What Sophie and I knew we wanted to build it tiny from the very beginning was really based from that tech perspective as well of truly understanding a child's gut health from the earliest days and how their microbiome actually begins in the womb. And so that's a lot of what we poured our hearts into as we built out this company from the beginning. And I'm sure we'll go into more detail about as well. But yes, when Sophie and I joined Persis, it was like magic. And then we were just having so much fun ever since. Holy moly. You two. Wow. Wow.
• 6:34
  Loving this. Quick question, though, for you, Betsy. What happened with your last business? Did you exit or are you still kind of involved with it as well?
• 6:45
  Right. So I actually advise I'm on the board of as well. It's another pet tech company. We're still a little bit in stealth mode at the moment, but there's a ton of crossover because it's building for your dog's microbiome over their gut health. And really just leveraging all the learnings that I had from Wonderwolf because Pet Wearables is such a hard space to be. We were approached by acquisition by several organizations.
• 7:06
  companies. And in the end, the largest check, if I mentioned to you, you'd absolutely know who it was. It was taking years to come around for the terms to be finalized. And so ultimately knew that in my heart, I wanted to move on right to my next baby to Tiny. And then of course, with my son being born and kind of at that same time that Sophia and I were building it. And it just felt like the right timing, especially in the wearable space. It's a very, very crowded now, but like very
• 7:35
  to be in. So yeah, it's a ton of learnings. I'm trying to, you know, Sophia and I always say we turn everything into a victory, but it wasn't like the dream exit scenario, right? Like that I would have hoped, right? And in the end, just to see it come to fruition, you know, so that the company I work with now is truly around extending the lives of dogs as well. So that's something that I can very much get behind and know that, you know, all that great effort is going towards the best case scenario in that way.
• 8:02
  Got it. Got it. Wow. Amazing. Thank you. Sorry for that little divergence. So I want to go back to the 4th of July party where you've met and you're having these conversations around the business. What year are we talking at that time? Was it 2016? This is 2017. Yeah. So we didn't meet in years prior to that, but yes. Oh, okay. Right. Okay, cool.
• 8:28
  Okay, so let's go back to the 4th of July. Yeah. The light bulb moment hits. What happens next? Like what's the timeline to getting this business, you know, kind of together and a plan in place?
• 8:42
  Yeah, Sophia and I, we were still working, right? Like full-time. So I think that's something to remember as well is like, you know, I was still full-time on Wonder Wolf. She was in her impact business, but she grew into, you know, to elevate women and minorities to corporate boards across America. And, you know, there was just like tons of, you know, obviously synergies in what we were doing on our day-to-day, but what we actually had to do and the way that we knew like, okay, this is legit. And like, there's no turning back is we were meeting up at six and 7 a.m. in the mornings prior to our workday.
• 9:10
  in New York. So we were like waking up and then, and then trying to get like two, three hours in. And then it was every weekend, right? Every weekend we'd be at the coffee shop hacking and trying to get stuff together and sorting through it. And then we were also interviewing with, for different EIR roles in these like top tier VC funds in New York and wound up that human ventures felt the most aligned in a lot of ways in terms of our ethos, the impact driven, you know, truly bettering humanity perspective.
• 9:35
  So just was thrilled to partner with them. Heather Hartnett, the CEO, is still on our board to this day. And that was from almost day one, right, Sophia? As soon as we were hacking it for maybe like six, seven months there. But then when we joined their program, it was like more of a Google sprint.
• 9:51
  type model where they took us through a workshop. And then we really came together around the biggest impact we could have in terms of childhood development is absolutely through a programmatic approach to how we introduce first foods. And so that's how we came around the idea of food, which...
• 10:07
  Sophia and I, as you've heard from our backgrounds, we actually don't come from the food perspective. Although I re-engineered my body 15 years ago to be vegetarian based on this sugar roller coaster I was telling you about at Gropon. We have surrounded ourselves in the business with these incredible food experts at the table. And that's the only way we're here today. So we always talk about that. We're standing on the shoulders of giants. And that's some of the best advice I could give any new entrepreneur is to surround yourself with those folks that actually work.
• 10:32
  know the business that you want to get into, because you don't necessarily have to know it in and out. And sometimes it's a massive advantage to not be from that industry, because then you don't actually know, you know, in terms of all the red flags, and you're a little bit more like hopeful about things, you know, you're willing to take the risk. And I think that's really served us in this process.
• 10:51
  Absolutely. I wanted to add one more thing. When we were exploring different avenues to go down, Betsy mentioned, realized that we could have the biggest impact in childhood development through food. And we also had started researching the history of baby food and realizing that that category is actually fully invented in the 1920s. Yeah.
• 11:10
  how I ate back home. And it's not just Finland, it's China, India, all across the world. Children eat very similar foods to their parents. So we were just baffled by why a lot of the options that you see today are, first of all, very sweet and oftentimes also shelf-stable. So we felt like there has to be a better way. And when we founded the business, and we'll talk about it as well, but we really founded it with our 100 founding families and
• 11:38
  as really the foundation that we built this company on.
• 11:42
  This is kind of an incredible tiny story, but Betsy was probably eight months pregnant at this moment. And we sent one email to this group called Park Slope Parents. And then we had probably like over 200 parents come pick up food from completely strangers. Like we had some legitimate reasons because Betsy was pregnant. You know, we didn't look, we looked fairly normal. It was 90 degree heat on March toddlers. We were actually having to ask, like solicit help from people that we saw in the park to try to help us carry these in.
• 12:10
  And then it was like literally handing food to a stranger and seeing them feed it to their child right there. That's when it was like, oh, my God, we really hit, you know, struck a chord here in a big white space in the category.
• 12:21
  So you had already kind of gotten, developed a product and then you sent the email to be like, Hey, can everyone come and try this, this product that we've developed? Yes. And we actually capped it at a hundred parents, which we got in about two hours after sending that email. So yeah, because it was our hundred founding family grew and, you know, prior to that as well. And something I firmly believe in is, can we, you know, get, you know, get, you know,
• 12:43
  partnerships in from the earliest days that really resonate with the DNA of how we're trying to build and structure this company. So we collaborated with Tufts School of Nutrition and Policy from day one. The Dean, Dariush Massafarian, is on our scientific advisory board. And that obviously helped tremendously in working with our neonatal nutritionists from the very beginning to understand what recipes and what ingredients children need when during each phase of development.
• 13:06
  So that played a huge role before we even tested those over 500 recipes, actually, with our 100 founding families. Yeah. And we had done a focus group and surveys as well. And really, we had actually the initial group of moms sent us, you know,
• 13:21
  all the meals that they were feeding their children. And really, we were figuring out the need state then as well. And every decision, as we mentioned, whether it's the recipes, the packaging, so packaging is all plastic-free, even just some of the communications, it's the tone because there's no mom shame or mom guilt in what we're building. So we always say we had product market love before we ever launched. How long did it take you from that 4th of July party
• 13:50
  you know, the day at the park where you've kind of got your product and you start seeding it out to these mums.
• 13:55
  One year, a little over one year, yeah. So it was about six, seven months of us hacking, like literally in Sophia's kitchen, like trying to test things and figure it out together when we don't have food backgrounds. And then to our COO, Carolyn O'Hare, coming on board as well. So she was there from almost the very beginning. She probably says employee number one, but she built Beyond Meat early days with the COO there. It's just incredible mind in terms of this food supply chain.
• 14:23
  Actually, she started, wasn't it right before Sebastian was born? And then you guys were having to go through and do hand deliveries to the Park Slope parents whilst I was on maternity leave. I should say, Betsy worked the day until her birth, basically. Yes. Oh, my goodness. It was 6 p.m. the night before.
• 14:40
  Wow. Oh my gosh. What kind of capital does it take to start a business like this? And what was kind of the vision in those early days? Was it go really big all at once? Or was it bootstrap, start small, grow slowly? What was the kind of trajectory that you wanted?
• 14:58
  We knew we were going to be a VC-backed business because the way I built my last company, you know, it was clear that if you got the right folks around the table, as we were mentioning, like, you could really accelerate a vision and an idea. And so it was like, we didn't even really question that because we knew we were going into an EIR role with Human Ventures, that we were on the trajectory to have that rocket ship type business.
• 15:19
  you know, growth here. And obviously COVID helped that as well. And we can talk about that because we believe that it just accelerated the trends that were already in the market. And so we were really able to meet parents where they were and when they needed us the most, right? To deliver fresh frozen food for their families. But for us, you know, we've...
• 15:35
  We were absolutely in love with our board. So we built an incredible board. It's actually pretty sizable for our stage of business. But we're thrilled. Actually, some of last week on our Q1 board meeting, one of the members said, you know, my favorite board. And so it was just incredible to hear her say that. But, you know, I think that's been the consensus around the table. And, you know, we've always made sure that over half our investors, half our board are.
• 15:58
  as well are women and from diverse backgrounds. So that was something that was really precious to us from the very founding of the company that we would carry that through and we would see, you know, the vision, no matter the obstacles, right, that we would get those those kind of partners around the table. So I think it's just a matter of strategy, right? Because with my last company, you know, as I mentioned, self-funded it. And then the first money in was actually a $50,000 grant, right?
• 16:20
  that I received. So, and then from that point, it opened up an angel network. But this was, again, a decade ago and it was hardware, so a very different space. But if you're first starting out, I definitely recommend to look into programs. And, you know, that for sure helped me to be able to, like, get to the next level if you're not quite sure or you aren't interested
• 16:35
  exactly networked in those circles if you are wanting to be like a VC-backed business. But I think that's really important to make that decision very early on. That's super critical, right? To decide, do I want to go after like, you know, VC funding or am I okay with doing even just family and friends and angel rounds, you know? And we always say that neither Betsy or I, we're not, we don't have the typical stories. Like I'm an immigrant. She's from a town of 300 people. So really a lot of it is also kind of your like,
• 17:04
  just deep belief is that you're building something incredible and you will get it done. And especially, you know, I think it definitely helped that Betsy had fundraised before and she was a second time founder. So I definitely learned a lot. And now I can say I'm a first time founder and maybe somewhere in the future, a second time founder. But I think it really helps
• 17:22
  It's just, again, it's kind of you're building this muscle as well when we're fundraising. And we'll mention one more thing. You know, Betsy, you were pregnant when we were fundraising. And we've gotten this question a couple of times. Like, maybe it is because we're building a baby company, but we never got kind of any pushback. It was almost like, and I think to Betsy's point earlier, I think the landscape has changed.
• 17:44
  now where it's a selling point to be a woman and, you know, a female team. We always say we're a team of 10 women, actually always looking for men or moms. But yeah, so I didn't really get any pushback there. Love that for you. Amazing. I want to switch to talk a little bit about, you know, the launch after you did the park email and you had those hundred founding members. What were you doing to then find new customers and acquire people and bring them onto your program?
• 18:13
  Great question. So we're hyper-focused and have been to building on that community and hyper-focused on organic acquisition specifically. So that has been, you know, basically built into our DNA since the very beginning. So we quite quickly identified other moms groups we could tap into similarly. And because we knew we had a product that helps, you know, the moms day to day, it was quite easy actually to find these like ambassadors in the very early days.
• 18:41
  And to build, we always say there's no stronger word of mouth than that of a mom who's convinced and, you know, have very much seen it in action as it relates to building Tiny. But then currently what we have is, of course, those community efforts. We actually just brought on two new hires to help really supercharge the community and really identify these alpha moms. And we don't love the word influencer. We like to say that a mom who's influential in her own community, whether she has 500 or a million followers, you know.
• 19:10
  And then also we do some paid, of course, as well, paid marketing and organic marketing. We have email is a really strong channel for us that we focus on SMS, you know, referral, SEO. And on the paid side, you know, Facebook and Instagram and Google, kind of the big guys. But we are testing different platforms as well.
• 19:29
  Oh, like what? TikTok. TikTok. TikTok. And even Reddit, we're seeing, you know, where that could potentially take us. Essentially trying to find these platforms that have less competition and maybe we could find new moms that way as well. But I would say the main thing for us is really that organic playbook. I'm happy to talk more about kind of the tiny supper clubs and some of the secret sauces.
• 19:52
  Oh my God, please, please talk about the secret sauce. Because I find like, you know, you get to a certain point and of course you have the omni-channel approach. You're ticking all the boxes. You're doing performance marketing. You're doing SMS. You're doing email marketing, et cetera. But I'm interested in finding that those secret sauce moments for the brand that you're building and what really works for you and what really gets people inspired to talk about you and tell their friends. Let's see. You want to talk about the summer clubs? Yeah.
• 20:20
  Yeah, definitely. We often say that the inaugural supper club, which was in Boston pre-pandemic, was a little bit like Sophia and mine wedding because there was like a toast and seven-course meal and tears. And, you know, it wasn't even about food at the end of the day, although food is like this beautiful place of fellowship, right, that you can gather around a table. So for us, the tiny supper clubs really embody that.
• 20:44
  You know, we have a massive vision for bringing 100 flavors, which is the core ingredient of what we've built, which is a baby-led weaning term, which you'll probably know it stems from UK originally, but bringing these 100 flavors to 100 cities across America and 100 tiny supper clubs. And so what these supper clubs do is they bring moms around the table just to have a chat, right, like to deal with like the struggles that we go through.
• 21:05
  on a day to day and to really just open up and allow for that network, right, of support. And so for us, and of course we do always have, you know, because our baby food, it's not parade, so you actually can eat it and we eat it as well ourselves. So I think for that one, we actually had the spiked pumpkin spiced oats warmed with ice cream.
• 21:26
  right for the dessert. But you know, what we do there is we have a community of moms who come, yeah, come, come around the table, usually between 15 to 20 that we really do help to, you know, just, just, just create that space, right. For them to feel like, okay, we can open up and we, and it's coming from this really authentic place. Right. So I think, I think that's, it is like Sophia and I are at the core of that, you know, we're,
• 21:51
  the ones orchestrating it, they know the founders. And then it's like this ripple effect, you know, that we've found. So really everything that we do in Chinese, it really has come from this radical transparency, right? That we've built in from the very beginning. And I think that especially, you know, millennial moms, they really resonate with that. And they understand that this is coming from like a very sincere, heartfelt place, right? That can just build, you know, your brand and has for us, definitely. Wow. And so how many have you done already?
• 22:21
  Yes. So about a dozen. So we're not up to the hundred yet, but getting there because obviously some of them had to go virtual. Of course, of course. And so you're like flying around doing these supper clubs, finding women to, who are part of the influential group of people or just moms wherever they are.
• 22:41
  It can be just moms wherever they are, but it is that term that Sophia used, like the alpha mom, who it might be the mom that everybody turns to for two-year-old advice, right? But she doesn't have thousands of followers, right? It's more about, you know, the fact that she has a voice and she's able to, you know, communicate kind of what experiences she's had and the struggles. And again, coming back to authenticity.
• 23:05
  there. So, so it's kind of a little bit of the magic that we don't normally share in terms of like how we, you know, gather these moms around the table, but of course, of course. And so to set the scene, you know, even further, you're having these conversations, but like,
• 23:21
  what kind of conversations do you have on the evening? Like what does the evening look like or daytime, whatever it is? Yeah, there are really special moments. Right, right, exactly. It is very much like, you know, what's set around that table stays there. You know, the way that we set it up is just an open and honest discussion around like,
• 23:41
  these are the mom wins that I might've had over the last week or month or even day. And here's like a massive struggle. And we always come to the table with a few of those struggles, depending on the age of the toddler or baby of the parent that's there. But yeah. And, and so for us, you know, we do cater them to the local community as well. Right. Because they are like very much like, you know, hyper localized on, on. So, so some of the moms already know each other actually around the table. And that already feels like,
• 24:07
  this more open environment. Oh, I love that. We definitely have, yeah, we definitely have like a secret sauce that's our playbook that we've, you know, built. And it's definitely like, you know, for us, the reason why we believe we have the best organic growth numbers out of anyone else we know in the category because we really have struck a chord there.
• 24:27
  Yeah, absolutely. Well, if you come to London, I have so, well, actually not so many. I have a few mom friends who are just absolutely amazing and could definitely put them in touch with you. Oh, my God. We would love to host one, dude. Yeah, we would love that because we're meant to be out in October, actually. Cool. If all things considered with the pandemic. But, yeah, hosting a bit. Definitely let me know. Definitely let me know.
• 24:54
  For sure. You know, one more thing I will add is we talk about community. We love the saying that it's like a living organism. And, you know, for us, we do want to also create community.
• 25:04
  A space for our moms to get together even after the event, kind of to make it repeatable. So that's the other kind of key part of the playbook that we're working on is to create that kind of space. And to Betsy's point, it essentially is about starting solids, but it's not just about the food. I think it's just about your life as a mom. And really the fact that it's an intimate setting is key as well. That saves space. Absolutely.
• 25:31
  When you look back over the last few years, what do you think the key inflection points have been that have helped you, you know, propel forward?
• 25:40
  That is such a good question. Right. I would mention that we had the 100 founding families for a year prior to coming to market. So we only just launched nationwide in January of last year. We've been live for a little over a year now. So that was definitely a major inflection point when we did launch nationwide and then saw, you know, it was just three months prior to the pandemic and then this explosive growth that we weren't even seeing.
• 26:03
  anticipating or projected, but I do believe that it's definitely like those very first investors that believed in us. So another is Elizabeth Street Ventures. Will is on our board to this day. And, you know, I think having those really consumer-minded focused people who just believe, right? Like, I mean, I was like seven or eight months pregnant when we first, you know, met up with him. And it was like, he just believed so, so much in what we were doing and wanted to
• 26:30
  you know, help us crystallize that vision and same with human venture. So I think that that was definitely an inflection point, would you say as well, Sophia? Yeah. And then the 4th of July party. Because we had known each other for years prior, but like being like, oh my gosh. And like, then I couldn't sleep that night and like, you know, getting just so excited and like those butterflies. Definitely. Yeah.
• 26:49
  Absolutely. And I wanted to also mention that it took a lot of hard work. Like there's no such thing as an overnight success. Like it does take time, especially to build a consumer brand with a lot of brand awareness. So I think for us, it's been tremendous to see, you know, last year and this year, I mean, how well known the brand has become. One of my friends, I think I sent it to Betsy, one of my friends sent a photo from Miami. There was just a person in his lobby where he's staying with two tiny boxes and...
• 27:16
  Oh, no way. Love that. It was amazing to see. Thrilling, I'm sure. But it takes a little while. You know, it takes some time. Where is the business today? And what does the future look like over, say, the next 12 months? What's the roadmap?
• 27:32
  Yeah, so we just launched earlier this year and we should probably make mention as well. One of those very early partnerships that we brought on even prior to going nationwide was with Michelle Obama, her Partnerships for a Healthier America. So we serve on her Shaping Early Pallets board. And part of that is, you know, last month her CEO interviewed us.
• 27:50
  for the Veggies Early and Often campaign. So it's this icon that we're rolling out on pack and actually a few other baby food brands have just joined on as well. We have about 10 right now that are, and then hopefully the industry follows suits, but essentially it's an icon that is first in the industry to represent that this product is mainly vegetables.
• 28:10
  So the first ingredients of vegetable, it's made up of mostly vegetables and no more than five to seven grams of natural sugars in this product. So when a mom would see that on shelf or even when she goes on site, right, she can know instantly, OK, this has Michelle Obama stamp of approval. Right. But it's a vegetable forward product. And this is something that we want to shift, like the mindset in the industry, right, away from sugary and towards savory. That is our whole value prop in terms of 80 of our hundred first flavors being savory.
• 28:37
  Right. That children could learn to love vegetables from the very first days. So for us, it's about rolling out this partnership again in a big way after we've already worked with them for over a year now. We just released a white paper. And that was part of the announcement that we had last month around the research we've done.
• 28:53
  The report is absolutely stunning in terms of, you know, under under 10 percent of children in the U.S. get the recommended amount of vegetables. And majority of that is through French fries. So what we what we found. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God.
• 29:09
  And so we truly need to retrain and to honestly just shape the palates of a generation, right? So that we can, you know, have a generation that can grow up free of chronic disease, obesity, and all these, you know, elements that are that the people have really come into the light over this last year, right? Given COVID as well, you know, and just to ensure that like, you know, children can grow up to be the healthiest versions of themselves. So Sophia and I have really, really big dreams and vision around the accessibility component of what we're doing here.
• 29:39
  and that we're trying to bring it to all babies across America with Michelle's help in terms of the Partnership for Health America organization. You know, the real dream is to get on to WIC, right? So that it's the food stamp for women and children that over half of babies in America are fed on. And currently it's mainly only parades actually.
• 29:57
  that are available and mostly not organic. So for us, this is a massive audacious vision that we are like, literally, this is the North star of the company, right? We wanna be able to truly shape the palace, you know, of all babies to love vegetables and to grow up, to be healthier and to have an understanding of their own gut health from the very beginning, right?
• 30:16
  Because when I was growing up, I didn't realize how much sugar actually affects you. Right. And especially in those formative years, you're kind of like all over the place in terms of your emotions. And it's like, imagine if, you know, an eight year old, you know, yes, like they're now meditating with calm. Right. And these other incredible companies that have come about. But could they also have a mindfulness around what they're eating and how it affects them emotionally? Right. In this very formative time. You know, yeah, yeah, exactly. And Chinese trying to be at the very forefront of that.
• 30:45
  So it's definitely big, big goals here. That sounds so exciting. That's, wow, incredible stuff and such a great North Star to have. I wonder if also Michelle Obama's initiative, what did you say it was called again? Partnerships for a Healthier America. Partnerships for a Healthier America. Yeah. In the White, she found it in the White House in conjunction with her Let's Move initiative.
• 31:08
  Got it. Got it. I wonder if this will also hopefully impact the industry as a whole in. And I'm thinking like, you know, the companies that do offer these purees that are full of sugar, that are full of crap, that they then think, hey, you know, the industry is changing. The landscape is changing. We actually need to do better. And if they're inspired to do better.
• 31:30
  Yeah, absolutely. And there was recently, not sure if you caught it, Dune, but there was a congressional investigation into some of the big baby food brands. And they basically found heavy metals in some of the products and heavy metals are naturally, they naturally occur in the soil. I saw it on TikTok.
• 31:49
  Yeah. So, you know, we always say that Tidy was literally born for this moment because, you know, we're obviously all organic or all real whole foods. You know, all our foods are textured so the child can really engage all their senses while eating it. So, you know, for us, going back to the radical transparency piece, we really feel like this is our moment to really take a stance. And absolutely, you're spot on where, you know, the FDA really needs to have more oversight. You know, this is our most vulnerable population.
• 32:19
  for the first time ever, the FDA published guidelines for babies and toddlers. They've never had had nutritional guidelines for a population that really can't decide what they want to eat yet. But there's so much opportunity to set them up on the right path as it relates to nutrition. So yeah, absolutely.
• 32:38
  Gosh, you're in the right place at the right time to be leading the way and, you know, helping shape the new generation of babies. So amazing. What a great purpose driven company. I have a question for you both now, and that is what's your key piece of advice for women who have a big idea and want to start their own business? And we will start with you, Sophia.
• 33:02
  I would kind of go back to what I said earlier, just to have a deep belief in yourself. For me, it's not that I shouldn't be here, but sometimes I think I shouldn't be here. It was just kind of sheer determination that I want to create meaningful impact in the world. And also, don't worry if your career trajectory or career path is kind of nonlinear or weird. You know, even for me, I come from kind of the
• 33:25
  You know, I went from actually I used to work at a shipping brokerage in London and then I was at the press office and it was always marketing communications, you know, but then I went to finance and then I worked at a nonprofit, which I always say is good trading ground to founding your own business because you have to do a lot with very little.
• 33:41
  But ultimately, again, just don't be concerned about the optics and how it looks on the outside. And I think also leveraging your network. Ultimately, there were times when I was in my past role and had this big dream, but I wasn't sure how to go about it.
• 33:58
  you know, executing it. And then, you know, obviously had met Betsy years ago at an event. So I'm a massive believer in networking is maybe a hard word, but like I'm a massive believer in being in the right rooms and really putting your whole self out there. And I think the network will reward you and it will come back to you, all those efforts as well, meeting new people and sharing your story.
• 34:20
  Absolutely. Power of the people and the power of that community that you have around you. And I also think another point is, someone mentioned this on the show the other day, you don't have to have a network, you just have to be able to go and put yourself out there and start building your network. You know, not everyone comes from a network and some people might hear these kind of conversations and be like, oh, well.
• 34:40
  I don't know anyone, but that's okay too. You're able to just, you know, start cold emailing, start cold calling, start going to events, just start putting yourself out there and being vulnerable and being able to like ask the question and you'll build your network and you'll build that community.
• 34:55
  thousand percent. And that's what Betsy and I both, by the way, did. We knocked on many doors. We were on many events. You are my biggest inspiration in life when it comes to that, truly. Okay. Because you've created, you know, a space where
• 35:10
  And especially when culturally that's not necessarily the case when you come from Europe, you know, to like kind of make yourself sort of so vulnerable and so open and so just authentic to people that they really resonate, right? They want to know you. And I think, you know, Sophia has, yeah, as you can probably already tell, you know, doing but there's like incredible magic about her, right? That she embodies in that. And I think, you know, people can tap into it and definitely like a huge inspiration in my life for sure.
• 35:36
  And I do think that when you're starting out, like this idea that the people around the table, I mean, that's literally everything because no woman is an island. Right. Like even just, you know, thinking about mentors you might have had previously in your career. Right. That you can ask for advice and try to go to.
• 35:52
  about really anything, right? Like, what do you think of this crazy idea? Like something that really helped me when I was at Toyinman in our early days was like, you write down a hundred ideas, you whittle that down to five, you then pitch that out to folks and see like, hey, what do you think? Because when you're first getting going on an idea, like it can really help to have those kind of like big thinking, big picture, but then obviously it crystallizes as you get the right folks around you.
• 36:13
  The number one recommendation as you start to, as you begin to truly build and have like, you know, incorporated company or even LLC, like to get that advisory board around you. Right. Even before investors to get those folks that are that you say, hey, I want you to own this baby, too. Right. Like, let's build this together. You know, that that is just so tremendous. But at the end of the day, you know, you have to believe against all odds that no matter what.
• 36:36
  you're going to try to bring this dream into reality. And I think that's absolutely, yeah, another massive inspiration that somebody has been on my life where it's like, whatever it takes, we're going to do it and we're going to get it done and we're going to turn everything into a victory. And so I think, you know, like I mentioned earlier in this episode,
• 36:53
  you don't have to know everything. And in fact, it's actually a massive advantage if you don't, right? Because you can kind of make yourself more vulnerable and say, hey, I'm going to ask those questions, right? And I would love to get your involvement. And I think that's where it needs to start. It's just this place of humility that like, hey, I want to build something. I want to put some, I want to leave this world better than I found it. And like, you know, let's do that together, right? Like, let's have that vision and empower each other.
• 37:15
  That's what Sophia and I have tried to do since founding the business of all women that we have today. And so I think we'll continue to do that as we grow. But those decisions that you make in the very, very beginning are just a ripple effect in terms of the culture of the company and the founding families and everything that you do. So definitely just trying to, even if it is like a LinkedIn message, like, hey, I absolutely love your story. I would love to just chat with you. I see that we're connected here. Right. Like,
• 37:43
  you know, a lot of people want to be able to share their story. And if you ask, if you say like, oh, I'm just, you know, super interested and, you know, think this is amazing what you've done, then, you know, they're, they probably will be keen, right. To kind of give back. Cause as we all know what you give back, right. Like it actually comes back to you tenfold. Comes around. And so, yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Oh, love that.
• 38:06
  I'm conscious of time, but at the end of every episode, I ask every woman that I speak to a series of six quick questions. So we're going to have to breeze through it and I'll start with you, Sophia. Some of it we might've already touched on, but we'll go there. Okay. Question number one is what's your why? Why do you do what you do? I would say to create meaningful impact in the world. Question number two is what do you think has been the number one marketing moment that made your business pop? Okay.
• 38:35
  It's hard to say that there wasn't one moment. I think it's kind of what we chatted about earlier, which is that foundation that we built with our founding parents. I would say also the feedback from those founding families has really informed all the decisions we've made here. Yeah, kept that loop going and being able to build onto that. Love that. For sure. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading or listening to that we should all know about right now?
• 39:03
  Great question. I like to meet with kind of a diverse group of people to hear different perspectives. I always joke that I probably watch too much Netflix.
• 39:17
  So I watched some really, and I love like true crime. And I don't know if those are the ones that I learn from the most, but I think, you know, I think it's just, you know, hearing different perspectives from people. I love people. I love connecting with people. I love connecting people. So I think that's where I learned the most. Amazing. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or your PM habits or rituals that keep you feeling happy and productive and motivated?
• 39:47
  A lot of coffee. No, I think it's like know yourself. And I've talked about this before where I'm a night owl more than a morning person. So for me, I tend to maybe wake up a little later, but then work like late until the evening. Betsy knows this. Sometimes I go on tears overnight as well, where I really do deep work late. But I do think also for us from a company perspective, really looking at like
• 40:12
  Have we helped a parent today? Have we fed a baby, you know, better food today? I think those are, from a company perspective, the wins that we look for. That's really cool to ask yourself, you know, that at the end of every day. I love that. Question number five is, if you only had a thousand dollars left in the business bank account, where would you spend it?
• 40:34
  I think we'd go back to the beginning. You know, I think we'd, you know, identify a few more families who need help in their day to day and, you know, maybe, yeah, buy a few coolers and go back to the park, go back to the roots of tiny, which get back to the park. Love it. Exactly. We should, by the way, do that. That's a good idea. Totally. You should. And question number six, last question is how do you deal with failure? What's your mindset and approach?
• 41:03
  Well, I think it's an interesting thing. I think failure is, in my mind, it is a learning. You know, it's not if you fail, it's if you recover. And there's that great Thomas Edison quote, like, I didn't fail. I just, you know, found 10,000 ways on why it didn't work. And I'm a true believer in that. Because if you have no failures, you didn't try. And in my mind, that's a bigger, you know, I think that's a big learning where if you want to do anything in life, you have to try.
• 41:32
  Absolutely. Thank you. Amazing. Great. Betsy, it's your turn. Question number one. We already said them all brilliantly. It's been okay. I'll give it a go. It's your turn. Yeah. You've got to give it a go. You've got to give it a go. Question number one is what's your why? Why do you do what you do?
• 41:52
  So every morning, actually, and that's part of the routine question as well, I'm reminded of this because my son, Sebastian, you know, wakes me up. And it's truly the idea that I'm building this for him that is such a deep, deep rooted motivator. And the fact that.
• 42:08
  He actually loves the food and eats tiny at least once a day for the past two years. So like seeing him enjoy it, we enjoy it together. It's this beautiful like bonding time for us. I think that that is truly a deep down to know that other parents are feeling or also feeling this way and experiencing that sort of joy that comes from the convenience and know you're feeding your child the healthiest option.
• 42:30
  Absolutely. Question number two is what do you think's been the number one marketing moment that made the business pop?
• 42:39
  Yeah. I mean, as Sophia said, I don't think it was any one thing, but I do believe that in terms of business popping for us, it's definitely around like how we're trying to get tiny to to every community around the U.S. And, you know, the PHA partnership really solidified that for us in a big way in terms of setting our intentions before we ever went back.
• 43:01
  nationwide. And so I think, you know, just the fact that that is a longer road and, you know, where there was this incredible article by the New Yorker, Can Babies Learn to Love Vegetables? It was actually a manifesto in our industry is still referenced to this day. And Tiny was the only name actually mentioned there in terms of, you know, new companies trying to do it.
• 43:21
  And so I do believe that, you know, that probably also, you know, it was part of like when we first joined PHA, helped in that inflection moment just prior to going nationwide in January of last year. Wow. Goodness. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading or listening to that is great?
• 43:42
  Yeah, definitely. So as Sophia mentioned, we actually chat with our board weekly, and I just learned so much from them. And a great recommendation that came was this book I'm reading, B2.0, by Jim Collins. So it's, you know, he's like the famous...
• 43:58
  right? Business like thought leader, but this is his newest one. And it is just so good in terms of building companies into the great companies that can stand the test of time. So that's definitely one. You know, I do a lot of, you know, writing in my free time as well, trying to work on a book right now. And so I think, you know, for me, what I found in my life is I can gain the most inspiration from things outside of the day to day, right? So, so I've just planted my garden over the weekend. And I'm the type that I actually
• 44:27
  I recharge by being alone. So I think in terms of, yeah, investing in that time with nature and, you know, especially given that tiny is totally vegan and plant-based is really important to me and my values too. So, so definitely feel like, you know, that's just a great, great thing I learned very early on in my career is that if you can kind of gain knowledge, you know, cross industries, right, that it can just like elevate even everything that you're doing, right. And you might not see the connection just yet, but yeah.
• 44:57
  but it can be there. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you for the book recommendation, by the way, I'm going to link it in the show notes for anyone who wants to check that out. And favorite business book of all time is Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. So definitely that one, if you haven't already had it on, I'm sure maybe people have recommended on the show. All the time. It's definitely a top hitter. Yeah, for sure. I haven't read it yet. I need to read it.
• 45:20
  Question number four is how do you win the day? What is your AM or PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated aside from the gardening? We've got that one. Yes. It's definitely waking up to little Sebastian and he is pure joy. I mean, obviously he's in like the two-year-old phase right now, right? So there are tantrums as well, but...
• 45:40
  for the most part, no matter how I'm feeling throughout my days, like, you know, we can have an intentional moment together where I'm just in this state of play. And it just brings you back to reality. And that's like the here and now in that moment of like nothing else matters. Right. And I think that you can feel that way with your dog or even with a family member or, you know, especially during the pandemic. Right. But.
• 46:01
  But just finding those those moments to restore, you know, I'm just so grateful that having a toddler, you're forced into those daily and you have to make the time. Right. So definitely like with him being my inspiration as well is. Yeah, just I'm very grateful. Such joy. Question number five is if you only had a thousand dollars left in your business bank account, where would you spend it?
• 46:24
  it would definitely be on trying to feed, you know, more families with that. Right. So I think exactly to Sophia's point, going back to the beginning, trying to like, you know, figure out how can we best spend this for our founding families or for, you know, other other families in need even. Right. That need our food, because right now it's just a matter of scaling and bringing, you know, everything to in terms of production. Right. And making the recipes themselves. Amazing. And question number six. Last question is, how do you deal with failure?
• 46:54
  Yeah, so definitely, you know, again, what we had mentioned earlier is like, we just turn everything into a victory. So even in like, even in like the lowest points, right in life, it's like, you can still find those silver linings. And actually, you can realize in the end that
• 47:09
  you know, after it all, it worked out, it worked out the way it worked out better than you could even have imagined, basically, right? So in the moment, it might be like, this is the worst thing that's happened or how or, you know, or yeah, definitely, you know, have felt like failure time and time again, I feel like almost daily, actually. But like, it's like, how do you change that conversation and make it and make it work for you, right? And so I think it's just gaining those learnings and picking yourself up and having that resilience and you know, the persistence to do so.
• 47:37
  Sophia, Betsy, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show today and share your learning. Love chatting with you. We absolutely loved it. Thank you. This was amazing. I appreciate you. Thanks, too. Cheers.
• 47:52
  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.
• 48:17
  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.
• 48:39
  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.
• 48:56
  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.
• 49:21
  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.
• 49:43
  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.