Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 quick questions with Alexandra Fine, Founder of Dame Products (Part 2)
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. Question number one, what is your why? Why are you waking up every day and working on this business? I wake up every day and work on my business. So much for my employees to make a great place for them to work.
- 0:30feels really important these days in a way that, you know, and, and then also to make vibrators that are just like no big deal because vibrators are no big deal. And to own like pleasure for women without having to pretend it's something else. Amen. Love that question. Number two, what's been your favorite marketing moment recently?
- 0:59We did a campaign where we made dildos that looked like Mitch McConnell to raise some money for abortion funds in the U.S. And I...
- 1:16Really, I thought that was great. You know, just for us, like, it was something that's really dear to my heart before I started the business. I wanted to be a sex therapist. I worked at Planned Parenthood and provided counseling there. It's a really tricky topic to discuss. But I feel really in my bones that if we want people with vulvas to have pleasure, they...
- 1:42need should totally be able to control the consequences and this is key to the success of like what I want Dame to change in the world so on the one hand it's like I don't want make you know we don't want to always be so political but this feels so important and critical to our
- 2:06You know, I think we were like, get fucked by the government. But on your terms. Oh, yeah, I did say that. It was just like really, you know, I think we had a lot of fun with it and are always trying to use humor to bring attention to things. And we raised a ton of money for...
- 2:24for abortion funds. And yeah, it was fun. That's amazing. That's seriously amazing. Congratulations. I love that. Everyone should go check it out. It's on your Instagram. Question number three, what's a go-to resource for you at the moment? Book, podcast, or newsletter?
- 2:42So ones that I'm, like, seeing right now because they're, like, bookmarked, I still use – this one's not new, but, like, Hyper Island Tool. I love this tool. What's it called? Hyper Island Tool? Hyper Island Tool. Yeah. It's, like, this website somebody sent me a long time ago, and it has, like –
- 3:01different like energizers or meeting activities that you can do with your team, like brainstorming activities or, you know, and I think in a remote world that's like super helpful. I also love this like random question generator that helps me do intro questions and,
- 3:19at the beginning of meetings. So those are fun things. What's that one called? I'm going to link these in the show notes. Oh my gosh. I have to check my Asana task of intro question. I don't remember what it's called. You can send it to me. You can send it to me another time. I love that. So cool. Thanks. I haven't heard of either of those. So love that. Question number three. I feel like last time I probably said something like more, I don't know. It's probably better. I'm into it. I love it.
- 3:46Question number four is how are you winning the day at the moment? My husband is doing laundry behind me a little bit, so I feel like that's winning. Hi, husband. So that's winning. I'm winning the day. I feel like I got work done today. I did things for myself today, and I got to be with my family today. So those are some wins.
- 4:10Many wins. Love that. Many wins. Question number five. What is the worst money mistake you've made in the business and how much did it cost you? Oh my God. Oh my God. The worst money mistake of being this house.
- 4:26I feel like so many. Am I trying to add them up? I think. Or a recent one or one that still stings or one that is like top of mind. Hardware is expensive. So sometimes if we don't design something correctly and have to rework it, like the first run, you know, you'll make something and you prototype it. It works. And then you make 5,000 of them.
- 4:54And then maybe you find out like the pin and manufacturing didn't line up with the with the port. So I remember like with Finn years ago, we had to like replace a bunch of ports. So those things could be really expensive. But they're also like pretty that happens in manufacturing. It's hard to make.
- 5:14that mass produce something. But those can be expensive. I mean, a really early one that now I feel like is so silly. I remember when we first started manufacturing, we found a manufacturer through a U.S. manufacturer who did circuit boards.
- 5:27And in order to kind of get our whole system aligned, we made the circuit boards in the U.S. and then sent the circuit boards to China. And the import tax on circuit boards was like so expensive on top of U.S. main circuit boards, which were also much more expensive than we make them now. And I'm like, oh, we should have never done that. That was so dumb.
- 5:52You know, you're learning, you know, always learning, always learning. Ups and downs. And we got it done, you know what I mean? Like we made a product pretty quickly. So even though we could have done it better, we could have done it cheaper, that was expensive. We made a product in nine months. Right. Pretty impressive. Pretty impressive. Very impressive.
- 6:15Last question, question number six. What is just a crazy story, good or bad, from building Dame? Okay, so when I first started Dame, I remember going to my grandma's country club and I saw all of her friends were sitting at a big card table and I was just starting out Dame and they were like,
- 6:43I'm from a very Jewish world. So they were like, oh, hello, Alexandra. Like, what are you working on? Like, what are you doing these days? And I was like, okay, I'm going to tell them. And I was like, I am making a vibrator and started, you know, starting a sex toy company. And it was like dead silence.
- 7:03And then one of them, which happens to be my cousin's grandma, this is coming to mind because she recently passed last week. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. I remember she was like, I'll buy one. And then all the other old ladies were like, okay, yeah, we're going to support you.
- 7:23And then they were very supportive. And I just remember thinking that was really fun to me. Yeah, returning customers. And it was a very, really nice thing that this woman who just recently passed did for me. So I really... Shout out to her. Yeah, shout out to her. That is crazy. I love that.
- 7:47Oh, there's, I'm sure there are crazier ones. I feel like there's definitely been some really silly moments in my life where I'm just like, oh my God, like going to do TSA. I've definitely had like 10 vibrators. I have a few of those stories. We'll need the book. We'll need the part three. We'll need the part three, the vibe stories. Love the vibe.
- 8:08Thank you so much for coming on the show. I have loved chatting to you as always. Appreciate you. Appreciate what you're building in the world. And I can't wait to see you in person again. Thanks. Thank you. Was it good? It was so good. So many good learnings. I had so many weird, I felt so...
- 8:33Like, oh, am I not talking about the, I don't know. I don't know, dude. You're good. You're good. Trust me. You're good. I'm so sorry we went over. I know it's late for you. Oh, it is late. Yeah, I'm going to hop off. But just remember, like, Dune's forever on my name list. It is such a good one.
- 8:50Your skin looks amazing. It looks so good. Thanks. I know you did. Thank you. I removed my freckles. I know, which I'm not going to lie. I was like, I'm supportive, but I am a freckle lover. I don't mind freckles. I love them. But really, I had like...
- 9:06When I look at before and after, I'm like, fuck, I'm so happy I did that. Like, I just had so – Your skin looks amazing. It was really grouping together. Like, my melasma was, like, getting, like, so bad. My sunspots were so bad. And, you know, and also pregnancy makes your melasma, like, go totally wild. So, like, waiting for it to go down, but I keep on looking, and it looks like I did a weird contour thing, but, like, this is just a random –
- 9:31I can't really see it, to be honest. Oh, yeah. I know the feels. You know, it's like all I see. All right. Yeah. I adore you. Talk soon.
- 9:46Hey, 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.
- 10:10And 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.
- 10:33As 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.
- 10:49Hey, 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.
- 11:13And 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.
- 11:36As 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.