Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 319. Focusing On What Matters: Sequel Founder Amanda Calabrese On Reinventing Period Products & How To Get Back Up When You're Down

Transcript

319. Focusing On What Matters: Sequel Founder Amanda Calabrese On Reinventing Period Products & How To Get Back Up When You're Down · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: What are you going to do when you hit a hurdle?
0:02
Speaker 1: If you fall, you get back up. If you clip
0:04
Speaker 1: the hurdle, you keep running, And so it's it's horrible
0:07
Speaker 1: when you're on the ground, but just get up and
0:09
Speaker 1: like there will be better things for you.
0:26
Speaker 2: What's going on? Everyone? Emily A Badi Here.
0:28
Speaker 3: You are listening to episode three hundred and nineteen of Hurdle,
0:33
Speaker 3: a wellness focused podcast where I talk to inspirational people
0:36
Speaker 3: about everything from their highest highs and toughest moments to
0:40
Speaker 3: essential tips on how to live a healthier, happier, more
0:44
Speaker 3: motivated life. We all go through our fair share of hurdles.
0:48
Speaker 3: My goal through these discussions is to empower you to
0:51
Speaker 3: better navigate yours and move with intention so that you
0:54
Speaker 3: can stride towards your own big potential and of course
0:58
Speaker 3: have some fun the way. I hope you're ready to
1:02
Speaker 3: get comfortable with the uncomfortable and that today's guest is
1:06
Speaker 3: going to talk.
1:07
Speaker 2: About the menstrual cycle.
1:09
Speaker 3: And that's because Amanda Calavreese is the co founder of
1:12
Speaker 3: a brand called Sequel. Sequel has designed spiral tampons to
1:18
Speaker 3: create a longer flow path for more even fluid absorption aka,
1:23
Speaker 3: this is a tampon that's not gonna leak on you.
1:27
Speaker 3: I know, I know, we have to get comfortable with
1:29
Speaker 3: these words like tampons and cycle and period talk, but
1:33
Speaker 3: it's something that all of us are dealing with going
1:37
Speaker 3: through navigating. No one likes to leak, and that was
1:40
Speaker 3: a problem that Amanda and her co founder were trying
1:44
Speaker 3: to solve when they were both super active back at Stanford.
1:48
Speaker 3: She talks to me about this journey today and the
1:51
Speaker 3: hurdles that were involved with bringing what was once a
1:55
Speaker 3: class project into the world as a full on, direct
2:00
Speaker 3: to consumer product. Amanda also shares insights with me from
2:04
Speaker 3: her time on the USA Life Saving Team and opens
2:08
Speaker 3: up about how her experience as an athlete really informed
2:12
Speaker 3: the decisions that she makes regularly as an entrepreneur. Again,
2:17
Speaker 3: it's time to get comfortable the uncomfortable, because there are
2:19
Speaker 3: so many phenomenal takeaways in this episode, which we like
2:23
Speaker 3: some of the others as of late, recorded in Paris,
2:26
Speaker 3: So thank you to Athleta for providing us the space
2:30
Speaker 3: at their power of she hub with that, make sure
2:34
Speaker 3: you're following along with Hurdle over on social It's at
2:36
Speaker 3: Hurdle podcast. I am over at Emily Abadi and if
2:39
Speaker 3: you're not yet subscribed to the weekly Hurdle newsletter, what
2:42
Speaker 3: are you waiting for? It's absolutely free. You can do
2:46
Speaker 3: so by clicking on over to the show notes and
2:48
Speaker 3: get that in your inbox every single Friday.
2:52
Speaker 2: With that, let's get to it. Let's get to hurdling.
3:01
Speaker 3: Today. I'm sitting down with Amanda Calabres. How are we
3:04
Speaker 3: doing today?
3:05
Speaker 1: We're doing great. Two weeks in Paris, I'm still soaking
3:08
Speaker 1: it all in.
3:11
Speaker 2: A little different than San Francisco for you.
3:13
Speaker 1: Definitely a different pace.
3:14
Speaker 3: Here, yeah, but enjoyable, nonetheless incredible.
3:19
Speaker 1: It's chaos, but it's beautiful chaos.
3:22
Speaker 4: I'm positive that I've laid the framework for this in
3:25
Speaker 4: the intro, but I would love it if you could
3:27
Speaker 4: talk to us a little bit about your company, Sequel.
3:30
Speaker 2: What are we working with here?
3:32
Speaker 1: We at Sequel have reengineered the tampon for the first
3:36
Speaker 1: time in eighty years. It's by women. It's by women
3:40
Speaker 1: who were athletes. And if I didn't allude to this before,
3:45
Speaker 1: but the tampon has not been re engineered in eighty years,
3:49
Speaker 1: you might be interested to know that the tampon was
3:51
Speaker 1: originally designed by a man.
3:54
Speaker 2: Oh well, then, like.
3:56
Speaker 1: Every other thing that was made for us, right, it's
3:59
Speaker 1: like a man was like, this is the perfect solution.
4:02
Speaker 4: Yes, of course, of course. And so tell me a
4:04
Speaker 4: little bit about your background. I know that you went
4:07
Speaker 4: to Stanford and it was there that you came up
4:10
Speaker 4: with this idea for a final project. That's right, okay,
4:14
Speaker 4: So talk to us about where you even got the
4:18
Speaker 4: idea for this.
4:20
Speaker 1: So the idea for SQL started way before I even
4:24
Speaker 1: got to Stanford. My co founder and I we both
4:27
Speaker 1: played high level sports. So she played d on lacrosse
4:30
Speaker 1: in a white skirt. But I have been competing for
4:34
Speaker 1: the US national life Saving team for at that point
4:38
Speaker 1: seven eight years. I was wearing my red, white and
4:42
Speaker 1: blue bathing suit in these competitions all over the world
4:46
Speaker 1: and was at the top of my game. Had dreamed
4:49
Speaker 1: of competing in this uniform, but I could never feel
4:53
Speaker 1: comfortable in it, and truly comfortable, because I was always
4:57
Speaker 1: worried about my period products failing. I was also a
5:00
Speaker 1: lifeguard in New York, sitting on those big white East
5:03
Speaker 1: Coast lifeguard chairs. You're one of a few women at
5:08
Speaker 1: the beach. You're on your period. You're sitting on the
5:10
Speaker 1: lifeguard stand and you're supposed to be there paying attention
5:14
Speaker 1: watching people in the water, But in the back of
5:17
Speaker 1: your mind, you're thinking, am I going to get up
5:19
Speaker 1: off of this white chair? And is there going to
5:22
Speaker 1: be a red spot when I get up? And I'm
5:25
Speaker 1: going to be mortified? And so this distraction was key
5:30
Speaker 1: in driving my co founder and I to say, you
5:34
Speaker 1: know what if women didn't need to be distracted when
5:37
Speaker 1: they were using period products? What if we actually had
5:39
Speaker 1: something that was reliable. That was what led to the
5:43
Speaker 1: Class Project to say can we build better period products?
5:48
Speaker 1: And when we surveyed the landscape for female athletes again
5:52
Speaker 1: and again, you know, I my tampon is failing me
5:55
Speaker 1: before it's full. I even when it's not failing me,
5:58
Speaker 1: I'm running down the field. Half of my brain is
6:00
Speaker 1: focused on the ball and half of my brain is thinking,
6:03
Speaker 1: am I going to have an accident today? And I'm
6:05
Speaker 1: asking my teammates can you check me? Can you check me?
6:08
Speaker 4: So it's so interesting the stigma that comes with something
6:13
Speaker 4: that literally every woman goes through.
6:16
Speaker 3: Right, It's like, I'm so worried that it's going to fail.
6:18
Speaker 3: I'm so worried that's going to show and as if
6:21
Speaker 3: your cycle isn't uncomfortable enough as it is already, right,
6:24
Speaker 3: like all the things that happen to our bodies, the bloating,
6:27
Speaker 3: the headaches, the cramps, et cetera. And then it's like
6:30
Speaker 3: and there's additional layer of guilt, shame, worry, et cetera.
6:34
Speaker 1: And I think that is such a big part of SEQL,
6:37
Speaker 1: is that mental load that we carry on our periods.
6:41
Speaker 1: It's like, we have all of these symptoms, we have
6:45
Speaker 1: all of these products, we have all of these things
6:47
Speaker 1: that we're managing. And that's physically managing, right, then there's
6:52
Speaker 1: also the mental load and the mental just baggage that
6:57
Speaker 1: we're carrying with us. We're we're kind of how going
7:00
Speaker 1: through these hormonal ships, and we're also trying to use
7:03
Speaker 1: these products that were you know, never built by us
7:07
Speaker 1: and for us in the first place.
7:08
Speaker 2: Right.
7:08
Speaker 4: Okay, So before we talk more about the evolution of
7:12
Speaker 4: starting a company from scratch, which no matter what you're doing,
7:15
Speaker 4: whether you're creating a wearable product like clothing or you're
7:19
Speaker 4: creating something like SQL, it truly blows my mind all
7:22
Speaker 4: the things that have to go into that process. But
7:25
Speaker 4: before we get there, I want to talk about the
7:27
Speaker 4: life saving team, because this is such an interesting thing
7:32
Speaker 4: that I don't think that a lot of people really
7:34
Speaker 4: have an awareness of. So out of all of the sports,
7:38
Speaker 4: how are you like, you know what I want to do,
7:40
Speaker 4: It's the life saving So yeah.
7:42
Speaker 1: I want to be at the beach. That was I
7:44
Speaker 1: want to be a competitive lifeguard and have to explain
7:47
Speaker 1: it for the rest of my life perfectly. So I
7:51
Speaker 1: was just in love with the ocean. I grew up
7:53
Speaker 1: at the beach in New York. It's very common for
7:57
Speaker 1: you know, you want your kids to be safe at
8:00
Speaker 1: the ocean. You want them to be able to be
8:04
Speaker 1: okay going to the beach and not having to worry
8:06
Speaker 1: about your kids. And so my parents put us in
8:09
Speaker 1: the Junior lifeguard program. It's an amazing program where you're
8:13
Speaker 1: teaching kids ocean safety skills and it's also teamwork and
8:18
Speaker 1: resilience and you know, facing your fears when the ocean
8:21
Speaker 1: is huge and you're little nine years old and they're like,
8:23
Speaker 1: get out there, you can do it. And I love
8:25
Speaker 1: the program.
8:26
Speaker 2: It was.
8:27
Speaker 1: It was empowering for me as a really tiny, tiny
8:31
Speaker 1: human being and being able to face those big giant
8:34
Speaker 1: waves as like this small human was so empowering. But really,
8:38
Speaker 1: my best event and what actually brought me to the
8:41
Speaker 1: US team was this race called Beach Flags. It's a
8:45
Speaker 1: sand sprinting event. So you know, part of the junior
8:48
Speaker 1: lifeguard program is competing. It's how we keep the lifeguards
8:53
Speaker 1: at the adult level interested to stay fit and train.
8:57
Speaker 1: It's also how we keep the kids interested in coming
8:59
Speaker 1: back weekend after weekend because everyone loves friendly competition. My
9:04
Speaker 1: event is the Beach Flags. It's kind of like a
9:07
Speaker 1: you go, It's kind of like a track meet, right,
9:09
Speaker 1: you have track and field, you have ocean and beach events.
9:12
Speaker 1: I was a beach specialist. Now I love swimming. I
9:16
Speaker 1: was a great board paddler for many years. But the
9:20
Speaker 1: thing that I latched onto was you lay down in
9:23
Speaker 1: the sand. You are laying You're laying pronated, you have
9:28
Speaker 1: your hands out, your elbows out to your side, and
9:32
Speaker 1: they give you a commit You're facing the opposite way, right,
9:34
Speaker 1: you have to get up and run the other way.
9:36
Speaker 1: And you're laying down and everyone else is laying next
9:38
Speaker 1: to you, and they say, now in the hands of
9:40
Speaker 1: the starter competitors, ready, heads down and then they blow
9:44
Speaker 1: a whistle and it's reaction time and you have to
9:46
Speaker 1: get up, turn your body around, sprint twenty five meters
9:51
Speaker 1: and dive for a stick in the sand a hose.
9:54
Speaker 1: If you don't get one, you're out, and they go
9:57
Speaker 1: down one by one by one, elimination style, until you're
10:01
Speaker 1: going head to head with the final girl. And again,
10:05
Speaker 1: Tiny Little Me was like really fast, popping up, getting around.
10:08
Speaker 1: I was fast, and I loved the mental aspect of it.
10:12
Speaker 1: It was like chess, right, You're laying down in the
10:15
Speaker 1: sand and you're thinking about, Okay, how can I position
10:18
Speaker 1: myself on this sand chess board to get the best flag,
10:22
Speaker 1: to be in the best position, and you're running its
10:25
Speaker 1: endurance and sprint endurance, so you're running like you know
10:28
Speaker 1: sometimes in a day you can do twenty twenty five
10:30
Speaker 1: of these races.
10:31
Speaker 2: Wow.
10:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's very intense. It's like you're head to
10:35
Speaker 1: head with the other girls and great camaraderie as well.
10:39
Speaker 4: And then I mean that's only the beginning, right, because
10:41
Speaker 4: this was like when you started to fall in love
10:43
Speaker 4: with the different aspects that.
10:44
Speaker 2: Went into being on this team.
10:46
Speaker 4: But that's only one component of the greater picture of
10:49
Speaker 4: what it looks to compete at that level.
10:51
Speaker 1: That's right. I competed for so many years as a
10:55
Speaker 1: junior and I did all the events it was. I
10:58
Speaker 1: paddled the board, I swam in the ocean, and I
11:01
Speaker 1: loved I loved my club team in New York, our
11:04
Speaker 1: team of lifeguards and athletes. We did the program junior
11:08
Speaker 1: life guard program together all summer. We would go to
11:10
Speaker 1: the Nationals together. We were a small town competing against
11:13
Speaker 1: you know, La County and competing against the Florida teams
11:18
Speaker 1: that were huge, and we were this tiny little team
11:20
Speaker 1: and we were small but mighty might here. That's the
11:23
Speaker 1: theme here. Yeah, And ultimately I was selected for the
11:28
Speaker 1: youth national team for the first time when I was
11:30
Speaker 1: in high school. Was a lifelong dream for me. My
11:34
Speaker 1: my babysitter growing up who was on the national team,
11:36
Speaker 1: and I was like, I want to be like her,
11:38
Speaker 1: and so I actually was in France. I competed in
11:42
Speaker 1: the South of France when I was a senior in
11:44
Speaker 1: high school. I ended up getting fourth in the world
11:48
Speaker 1: in the beach flags at my first Junior Worlds. And
11:52
Speaker 1: from there I was selected to the open team and
11:55
Speaker 1: I competed on the US team for nine years.
11:57
Speaker 2: Wow, nine years.
11:59
Speaker 4: That is Yeah, it's absolutely remarkable, and it's just it
12:02
Speaker 4: is funny because, as you said, I'm sure every single
12:04
Speaker 4: time that you mention it, you get so many of
12:06
Speaker 4: the same questions what goes into it?
12:08
Speaker 2: What are the events? But I was like, well, we
12:10
Speaker 2: need to elaborate.
12:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, so many questions, but I do. The thing that
12:14
Speaker 1: is the coolest for me to talk about is that
12:19
Speaker 1: it is it has such a simultaneous humanitarian mission to
12:23
Speaker 1: it because we all are trained as lifeguards were you know,
12:27
Speaker 1: we're coming to somebody else's home. We're very often flying
12:33
Speaker 1: across the world to compete, and there's always a humanitarian
12:37
Speaker 1: and volunteer component to the competition.
12:39
Speaker 2: So give us an example of what that looks like.
12:42
Speaker 1: So when we go to when we were in Japan,
12:46
Speaker 1: we competed for two days and then the third day
12:50
Speaker 1: all of the teams, the Australian team, the French team,
12:53
Speaker 1: the New Zealand team, US we gave some lessons to
12:56
Speaker 1: Japanese school children that were brought to the beach to
12:59
Speaker 1: work with the lifeguard cards that we're visiting from all
13:01
Speaker 1: over the world. We did the same thing in New Zealand.
13:03
Speaker 1: We actually went into the schools in New Zealand and
13:06
Speaker 1: taught an ocean safety class for all of these students
13:10
Speaker 1: and they were like, oh my god, you're from America.
13:12
Speaker 1: Are you Baywatch?
13:14
Speaker 3: I'm not, I am not, but like kind of sort
13:16
Speaker 3: of actually yes, yes, Oh my gosh.
13:19
Speaker 2: It's so remarkable.
13:21
Speaker 4: So now bring us up to speed with the evolution
13:24
Speaker 4: of this project and how one of the judges at
13:27
Speaker 4: this competition actually became one of your first angel investors.
13:31
Speaker 1: That that is I think one of the cooler parts
13:34
Speaker 1: of this story is that you you build something with
13:38
Speaker 1: so much passion, but it comes together in this class project.
13:41
Speaker 1: And we all know how class projects go. We're like,
13:44
Speaker 1: we want the we want the best for them, and
13:45
Speaker 1: then they never move forward out of the presentation. But
13:49
Speaker 1: we did the final presentation this It was for a
13:53
Speaker 1: very similar design to what we have now, was for
13:56
Speaker 1: this spiral tampon. That was going to be a more
13:59
Speaker 1: flu mechanically efficient design for the tampon, changing these vertical
14:05
Speaker 1: channels to something that was going to more hopefully more
14:08
Speaker 1: evenly absorb menstrual fluids, so that there was a helping
14:13
Speaker 1: it have a longer time to leak was the idea
14:16
Speaker 1: that is very much so the idea today. We did
14:18
Speaker 1: our final presentation and this venture capitalist. We were at Stanford,
14:23
Speaker 1: so they always brought v season to judge the projects.
14:26
Speaker 1: He came up to us after and said, you know,
14:29
Speaker 1: if you end up pursuing this outside of the class,
14:32
Speaker 1: please let me know. I want to help you. I
14:35
Speaker 1: want to be along for this journey and I would
14:38
Speaker 1: love to hear an update, you know.
14:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, six six eight months from now wild And I
14:44
Speaker 3: noticed you said he yeah, which is super interesting, right,
14:47
Speaker 3: because I would be led to assume that it may
14:53
Speaker 3: be hard to have male vcs or male dominated vcs
14:59
Speaker 3: really get on board.
15:00
Speaker 2: With your product because they can't.
15:02
Speaker 3: Relate to the use cause clearly right, right, And it
15:06
Speaker 3: is so much of venture capital dollars are not held
15:10
Speaker 3: by women, and so we needed to you know, we
15:14
Speaker 3: have some incredible women on our cap table. Mar Hirschinson
15:17
Speaker 3: just a legendary investor on our cap table, so lucky,
15:22
Speaker 3: but to get some of these men to invest in
15:25
Speaker 3: our company, we needed to You can't build empathy because
15:29
Speaker 3: they've never had a period, but you need to try
15:32
Speaker 3: and build sympathy for.
15:33
Speaker 1: The need and show them what a logical solution this is.
15:37
Speaker 1: And so this investor immediately connected with the story that
15:42
Speaker 1: we told in the class presentation. I think that was
15:45
Speaker 1: something that he liked so much about SQL from day one.
15:49
Speaker 1: It was the storytelling component. It was if you can
15:52
Speaker 1: tell this story really well to me, you can tell
15:57
Speaker 1: this story to hundreds of thousands of people and bring
16:02
Speaker 1: them on as your customers and your supporters.
16:04
Speaker 3: Right, So, so many people listening to this right now
16:07
Speaker 3: might be like, wow, great idea like tampon made without
16:11
Speaker 3: the vertical lines.
16:12
Speaker 2: Right, we like absorption, we like leak protection.
16:15
Speaker 3: Awesome, But how do two women who have never had
16:19
Speaker 3: to mass produce anything, don't know anything about starting a
16:23
Speaker 3: company except maybe what you've learned in your classes. At
16:25
Speaker 3: this point, you're also, I mean, you're in college, like
16:28
Speaker 3: you're young. Talk to me about how you even begin
16:33
Speaker 3: putting this into motion.
16:35
Speaker 1: Well, the first thing is that you you don't drop
16:37
Speaker 1: out of Stanford.
16:39
Speaker 2: You do not drop.
16:40
Speaker 1: Out of college. Do not drop out of Stanford. I
16:43
Speaker 1: felt like that was such a bad At some point
16:46
Speaker 1: people were like, I'm a dropout, and my co founder
16:49
Speaker 1: and I were like, this is a highly technical product, right,
16:53
Speaker 1: this is a regulated medical device, and we are at
16:57
Speaker 1: one of the greatest institutions for innovation in the world,
17:01
Speaker 1: and for every challenging aspect of our product, there was
17:05
Speaker 1: an expert on campus for it. Right, So we want
17:08
Speaker 1: to understand, we want to find a way to test
17:10
Speaker 1: the fluid mechanics of our theory. Let's go find a
17:14
Speaker 1: flood mechanics professor who specifically understands the motion of fluid
17:20
Speaker 1: through a fibrous membrane, which is.
17:25
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I just need to like take a bet
17:27
Speaker 4: and just say that the fact that there are humans
17:29
Speaker 4: in this world that have a specialty like that just
17:32
Speaker 4: remind you of the myriad of interest areas everywhere.
17:36
Speaker 1: The depth of humans, right, Like, there is so many
17:41
Speaker 1: things to learn and discover, And I really felt at
17:45
Speaker 1: Stanford it was such an incredible amount of breath in
17:49
Speaker 1: human experience as well. But we leaned on those experts
17:54
Speaker 1: and there were so many experts in founding and starting
17:58
Speaker 1: companies there. I mean, there's an incredible program at Stanford
18:02
Speaker 1: called the Biodesign Group, and they specifically work on innovations
18:07
Speaker 1: and advancements in medical devices and making sure that we're
18:12
Speaker 1: taking the most amazing doctors, students, product designers, mechanical engineers
18:19
Speaker 1: and equipping them with the medical tools and resources and
18:22
Speaker 1: experts so that they can build life saving products for
18:27
Speaker 1: human beings. And that was also a program that we
18:31
Speaker 1: leaned on heavily to say, you know, we're two undergrads,
18:35
Speaker 1: like we're both twenty one, and we've never had, you know,
18:38
Speaker 1: formal prior work experience. What does it look like to
18:41
Speaker 1: go through the FDA and is this something that we
18:43
Speaker 1: can do?
18:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's only the beginning, right, because then you
18:47
Speaker 4: also needed to as we started chatting about talk to vcs.
18:52
Speaker 4: That requires a lot of courage, it requires a lot
18:55
Speaker 4: of confidence, It requires being organized. Would you say that
18:59
Speaker 4: those are skills that were very natural to you or
19:04
Speaker 4: traits that you needed to develop over time?
19:06
Speaker 1: I think that we're always learning and growing. And I
19:09
Speaker 1: look back at myself five years ago when we were
19:12
Speaker 1: raising our first round of capital, and I'm I'm amazed
19:17
Speaker 1: by the growth. And I think that's really important to
19:21
Speaker 1: time to time, look back at where you were five
19:24
Speaker 1: years prior, two years prior, and just appreciate your growth
19:27
Speaker 1: over time. I think that's so important. But I do
19:31
Speaker 1: think that being an athlete for so many years and
19:36
Speaker 1: there were times that I could train with my team
19:39
Speaker 1: in New York. There I did. I lived in Australia
19:42
Speaker 1: for a little while, competing with a team there. But
19:46
Speaker 1: for the majority of my time as an athlete, I was,
19:49
Speaker 1: you know, working on my own training plans, and I
19:52
Speaker 1: was working out alone, and I was waking up super
19:54
Speaker 1: early to get out there and on this really tight
19:57
Speaker 1: organized schedule of like, you know, wake up early, get
20:00
Speaker 1: my training and do my homework, go to class, and
20:04
Speaker 1: that structure an organization from training because being an entrepreneur
20:09
Speaker 1: is very lonely, and I'm so lucky to have my
20:13
Speaker 1: co founder because otherwise it would be even lonelier. But
20:16
Speaker 1: having that experience training alone as an athlete helped prepare
20:24
Speaker 1: me for this very solitary but incredible journey as an entrepreneur.
20:29
Speaker 3: Yeah.
20:30
Speaker 2: I mean two things that I'm hearing you say.
20:31
Speaker 4: The first thing that I'm hearing you say is that
20:34
Speaker 4: you are a very self motivated person. And so the
20:39
Speaker 4: getting up early in the morning, the making your own
20:41
Speaker 4: training schedule, those things empowered you and helped you remember
20:45
Speaker 4: how capable you are when it came to this new venture,
20:48
Speaker 4: despite how much newness there was involved, Right, Yeah, and
20:53
Speaker 4: then the second part of this is something that I
20:55
Speaker 4: really want to dive in on, which is the loneliness.
20:59
Speaker 4: Like you said, you do have a co founder, but
21:00
Speaker 4: there are a lot of aspects of creating something, regardless
21:04
Speaker 4: of what it is, that can feel very lonely. And
21:07
Speaker 4: so how do you manage that even to this day,
21:11
Speaker 4: How do you manage doing things on your own when
21:14
Speaker 4: sometimes you'd rather not.
21:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I again so thankful for my co founder because
21:20
Speaker 1: at least you can look at the person sitting next
21:23
Speaker 1: to you and says, us against the world, we can
21:25
Speaker 1: do this. But again being you know, we started this
21:30
Speaker 1: right after college. So our friends from college we moved
21:34
Speaker 1: to San Francisco. We had friends from Stanford that had
21:37
Speaker 1: moved up. But they were like, I'm not free tonight.
21:41
Speaker 1: I have drinks with my work friends, and she and
21:44
Speaker 1: I are like work friends.
21:45
Speaker 2: You're my work friends.
21:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm like, we're work friends, Like we hang out
21:49
Speaker 1: all day. We can go to drinks and be work
21:52
Speaker 1: and then we've been together for twelve hours. That was
21:57
Speaker 1: really hard adjusting socially. And I think they're's professional development
22:01
Speaker 1: and then there's personal development. And I think professionally I
22:05
Speaker 1: developed so quickly. It was like learn fast on your feet,
22:09
Speaker 1: like super fast and loose. You're like learning all these skills,
22:12
Speaker 1: juggling everything, and then personally you're missing out on the
22:17
Speaker 1: again like work drinks with friends, or you're missing out
22:20
Speaker 1: on that office culture, and it's you and your business
22:24
Speaker 1: partner just alone against the world. And so personally, I
22:30
Speaker 1: really had to go out of my way. And I'm
22:32
Speaker 1: not a shy person, but I can definitely get, you know,
22:36
Speaker 1: like some social anxiety, like we all can. And I
22:39
Speaker 1: really had to hone that skill of putting myself out
22:42
Speaker 1: there and saying yes to things. Even when I wanted
22:45
Speaker 1: to be home in my pajamas, in my bed and
22:48
Speaker 1: just curled up. It's like, Okay, I need to go
22:51
Speaker 1: and do this and meet people.
22:54
Speaker 2: And yeah, yeah, and meet people. I relate to that.
22:57
Speaker 4: I mean, whenever I am lucky enough to be home
23:00
Speaker 4: in Brooklyn, I love being home, and I become such
23:03
Speaker 4: a homebody and I have to remind myself, you don't
23:07
Speaker 4: live here to stay home all the time, right, Like
23:10
Speaker 4: you live here to be out in this city and
23:12
Speaker 4: to meet people and to network and all of those things,
23:14
Speaker 4: and of course genuinely spend time with my friends and
23:17
Speaker 4: my family and the people that I hold close to me.
23:19
Speaker 4: So I can really identify with that, and especially what
23:22
Speaker 4: you said about the level of inherent social anxiety that
23:25
Speaker 4: we all have. Right, It's not as though, okay, I am,
23:30
Speaker 4: I am a bit extroverted, but I can definitely fall
23:33
Speaker 4: into this introvert bubble, especially when you are in the
23:36
Speaker 4: place where you're energy dealing all the time, when you're
23:39
Speaker 4: the person that's interviewing and et cetera, and you in
23:42
Speaker 4: your shoes going out and talking to people at different
23:45
Speaker 4: companies and constantly pitching your product, and it's like, sometimes
23:49
Speaker 4: you just need to beat.
23:50
Speaker 1: Energy dealing is just that is the best way to
23:53
Speaker 1: describe the every day because you're constantly putting yourself out there,
23:58
Speaker 1: and if you're constantly giving, how are you filling your cup?
24:02
Speaker 2: Right?
24:03
Speaker 1: So I think that to combat the loneliness, it's actually
24:08
Speaker 1: a mix of putting myself out there and like you
24:11
Speaker 1: don't want to get your cup too empty, but making
24:14
Speaker 1: sure that you're balancing that time for yourself you can recharge,
24:19
Speaker 1: but then also getting getting out there. Yeah, So for me,
24:22
Speaker 1: recharging is being in the ocean and surfing and feeling
24:26
Speaker 1: connected to the ocean, So making sure that I have
24:29
Speaker 1: that time to or even just go for a swim
24:32
Speaker 1: and submerge, put my face underwater, and then I'm good.
24:37
Speaker 1: I'm good.
24:37
Speaker 2: I'm recharged, recharged.
24:39
Speaker 3: But even though you have these tools in your toolbox
24:42
Speaker 3: that help you recharge, that doesn't mean that you aren't
24:46
Speaker 3: actively and regularly combating burnout. So when you do get
24:49
Speaker 3: to that next level spot when you are like, wow,
24:53
Speaker 3: I just feel like I am beyond what do you do?
24:57
Speaker 2: Then?
24:58
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think I think having a therapist this is amazing.
25:01
Speaker 1: Having somebody to just listen but also be there constructively,
25:07
Speaker 1: to be a soundboard. I think that's really important. When
25:10
Speaker 1: I am feeling burnout, I'm very externalizing, like external processing.
25:17
Speaker 1: My friends would laugh they heard me say that, it's
25:19
Speaker 1: so true, like I'm such an external processor. But just
25:22
Speaker 1: sitting with my closest friend, you know, those friends that
25:25
Speaker 1: you can sit there and like like, let's hang out,
25:28
Speaker 1: and then you just sit there next to each other
25:29
Speaker 1: on the couch.
25:30
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and you're both staring at your own phones.
25:32
Speaker 4: You're not actually talking about It's just nice to be
25:34
Speaker 4: in community with someone else.
25:36
Speaker 2: You may also feel the same way that you do right.
25:38
Speaker 1: Oh, you're like doing your nails and you're like by yourself,
25:41
Speaker 1: and you're like, I don't even need to talk to you,
25:43
Speaker 1: but I'm recharging. And I have a few of those people,
25:48
Speaker 1: very special human beings in San Francisco that this one
25:53
Speaker 1: friend that I have, she somehow knows when I'm teetering
25:56
Speaker 1: on the edge of burnout, and she always happens to
26:00
Speaker 1: text me and is like, Hey, what are you doing tonight?
26:02
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I'm.
26:04
Speaker 2: I'm like whatever your doing.
26:07
Speaker 1: Yeah.
26:07
Speaker 2: So special to have those people.
26:12
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Speaker 3: Element sample back with your purchase. Today we talked a
27:46
Speaker 3: little bit about all the resources you had at Stanford
27:49
Speaker 3: when it came to developing your product. But I'm sure
27:51
Speaker 3: that your initial concepts are your initial prototypes.
27:54
Speaker 2: Do we call it tampon a prototype?
27:55
Speaker 1: Yeah? We do.
27:56
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm sure that your initial prototypes there were some
27:59
Speaker 3: ways and some like not exactly wins. So what were
28:03
Speaker 3: the biggest hurdles in the beginning of the product development
28:07
Speaker 3: for you?
28:08
Speaker 1: Yeah? One of the hardest things for a medical device
28:12
Speaker 1: is that you have to submit the final manufactured form
28:15
Speaker 1: to the FDA, and so for tampons, that's incredibly difficult.
28:21
Speaker 1: The reason that tampon hasn't changed in almost eighty years
28:25
Speaker 1: is because of systemic monopolies that exist throughout the supply chain.
28:29
Speaker 1: So if you start all the way at the beginning,
28:31
Speaker 1: there is one factory in the entire world in Switzerland
28:35
Speaker 1: that pretty much has a monopoly on the manufacturing of
28:40
Speaker 1: tampon making machines, and so it starts there, and then
28:44
Speaker 1: there are very few factories outside of your tampax playtechs,
28:48
Speaker 1: et cetera. Very few factories outside of those that even
28:51
Speaker 1: make tampons at scale. And in order to submit to
28:54
Speaker 1: the FDA, you have to create that product at scale
28:57
Speaker 1: because it needs to be to be testing the product
29:01
Speaker 1: that you're going to be putting onto the market. So
29:03
Speaker 1: and that's for safety, that's for regulation, it's for all
29:07
Speaker 1: of those things. And so we it was incredibly difficult
29:12
Speaker 1: to get from Okay, this works when I like, test
29:16
Speaker 1: it and administer fluid. I made this. Took me ten
29:19
Speaker 1: minutes to make five tamlons, right like took me forever.
29:23
Speaker 1: Now how do I create machinery? How do I make
29:27
Speaker 1: sure it's defensible and patentable? How do I manufacture that machinery?
29:31
Speaker 1: And then how do I plug it into the existing
29:34
Speaker 1: monopolies that exists, put it onto a machine that already exists,
29:38
Speaker 1: and make one hundred and fifty spiral tambons per minute?
29:41
Speaker 1: How a lot of a lot of manufacturing travel. Like
29:45
Speaker 1: my co founder is an absolute unbelievable person that has
29:51
Speaker 1: traveled all over this earth looking at machines, going to factories,
29:55
Speaker 1: making sure that we had the right fit from a partner.
29:58
Speaker 1: And it took a long time.
30:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, took years, Oh my god.
30:02
Speaker 4: And it's just such an overwhelming thought to say, this
30:07
Speaker 4: is what I want and I literally don't have a
30:09
Speaker 4: clue where to start.
30:11
Speaker 2: It's all research, it's all that groundwork.
30:14
Speaker 4: So in all of that traveling to all the different plants,
30:17
Speaker 4: where's the funding for that coming from? Is that already
30:20
Speaker 4: with you having backing to create your product?
30:23
Speaker 1: That's exactly right?
30:24
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, so even before you got to this point,
30:26
Speaker 3: you had to meet people and convince them that this
30:29
Speaker 3: was an idea worth putting dollars behind.
30:31
Speaker 1: Totally. We had to get because there's so much upfront
30:35
Speaker 1: R and D.
30:36
Speaker 2: Here.
30:37
Speaker 1: We had to raise the money first off of this
30:41
Speaker 1: incredible vision that we had, which was period products that
30:46
Speaker 1: were finally reliable and designed by women that moved their bodies.
30:52
Speaker 1: Yeah right, and that was the vision, and we had
30:54
Speaker 1: to tell that story. We raised. We've raised just over
30:58
Speaker 1: five million dollars in capital in order to fund so
31:02
Speaker 1: much of this research and development, but also bring in experts.
31:06
Speaker 2: Right.
31:06
Speaker 1: We have incredible engineers from xpng X Johnson and Johnson
31:12
Speaker 1: that are just masters in this category.
31:16
Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow, It's truly remarkable.
31:18
Speaker 4: And I do want to talk a little bit more
31:21
Speaker 4: about the process of raising money. So for those that
31:26
Speaker 4: are completely unfamiliar, why don't you detail how that works
31:30
Speaker 4: and what happens when either an angel.
31:33
Speaker 2: Investor or a VC say we want in.
31:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, I mean such a funny anecdote here. Okay,
31:43
Speaker 1: we had just started the company and we were working
31:48
Speaker 1: with the Stanford start X Accelerator, incredible organization. They were
31:53
Speaker 1: teaching us how to fundraise. You know, do the meetings,
31:55
Speaker 1: take the meeting, how do you pitch, how do you
31:57
Speaker 1: tell your story? How do you show growth and profitability
32:00
Speaker 1: over time? How do you build a pitch deack. What
32:04
Speaker 1: is like what does the email exchange look like? Right,
32:06
Speaker 1: there's so many minute things that like how do I
32:09
Speaker 1: even talk to somebody over email and facilitate an investment?
32:13
Speaker 1: That's even that's a whole thing that they don't teach
32:16
Speaker 1: you in the Stanford class.
32:18
Speaker 2: But we were.
32:19
Speaker 1: Learning that and we were emailing with one of our
32:21
Speaker 1: first investors and and he said I'm in and we
32:25
Speaker 1: said when and he was like, send me the paperwork
32:31
Speaker 1: from your lawyers. We were like, okay, we have lawyers.
32:33
Speaker 1: We can We got that lawyer. The lawyer like you
32:37
Speaker 1: have the lawyers.
32:38
Speaker 5: Someone had to someone I would have had to learn that,
32:40
Speaker 5: like I would have had to learn that I needed
32:41
Speaker 5: lawyers on standard to secure the investment. And it's just
32:44
Speaker 5: I think that this is why it's so crazy, right,
32:47
Speaker 5: because so many people say things. You hear it on
32:50
Speaker 5: like something like how I built this all the time.
32:52
Speaker 5: It's like and then we got our first investor and
32:54
Speaker 5: it's like you just did it like that.
32:55
Speaker 1: No, you have to be honest about this stuff, Like
32:58
Speaker 1: we literally we had the lawyers because of we had
33:03
Speaker 1: amazing mentors at Stanford who were like, not only do
33:06
Speaker 1: you guys need like business like council, corporate council, but
33:12
Speaker 1: you need a patent lawyer. And then all of a sudden,
33:14
Speaker 1: we have two lawyers and we're like, that is more
33:18
Speaker 1: legal than I thought I would have in my life.
33:20
Speaker 1: And so we have our two lawyers and the next
33:24
Speaker 1: step is, you know, okay, I send you the paperwork,
33:26
Speaker 1: I signed the paperwork, send me your bank details. And
33:31
Speaker 1: we were like, the way that you just said that
33:34
Speaker 1: you have and you have to be honest about these things.
33:36
Speaker 1: I think so often your people are not. We were like,
33:39
Speaker 1: oh my god, we need to facilitate the investment. Obviously,
33:42
Speaker 1: we need a bank account. So we're in the Marina
33:45
Speaker 1: District in San Francisco and we're like sitting at a
33:48
Speaker 1: cafe and we're like doing these emails. This email comes in.
33:50
Speaker 1: We're like, we need to go now. We need to
33:53
Speaker 1: go get a bank account now. And we ran to
33:55
Speaker 1: the Wells Fargo on Chestnut Street and we walked in
33:59
Speaker 1: and we were like, can we open an account right now?
34:02
Speaker 1: And they were like it is three pm on a Friday,
34:05
Speaker 1: like way to hold a beat. We're like, we need
34:08
Speaker 1: this needs to happen right now, and they were like okay,
34:13
Speaker 1: and then thank you well, and we switched chees VB.
34:17
Speaker 1: But then we then we had a bank account, and
34:19
Speaker 1: then we could bring in the money and facilitate that.
34:22
Speaker 4: And so what we haven't said yet though, is for
34:25
Speaker 4: this investment to happen, then what does this person get
34:30
Speaker 4: in return?
34:31
Speaker 1: Right, So this person gets to own a piece of
34:33
Speaker 1: our company. And so that's a really significant relationship, right,
34:38
Speaker 1: Like you're this is this is a marriage. You're married
34:42
Speaker 1: to this person for the life of your company, which
34:46
Speaker 1: many companies exist standing alone for decades and sometimes companies
34:52
Speaker 1: obviously grow to the likes of the ones that you
34:55
Speaker 1: hear about on TV and I can invest in on
34:58
Speaker 1: the public markets and they exist for generations. And so
35:03
Speaker 1: this person is really you're entering this relationship, long term relationship,
35:08
Speaker 1: and they're owning a part of what you're building. And
35:09
Speaker 1: you want to make sure that that person is aligned
35:12
Speaker 1: with your vision and is also going to be supportive.
35:15
Speaker 4: Right, because I'm sure that there are so many instances
35:19
Speaker 4: of people getting almost blinded by the opportunity to have
35:23
Speaker 4: investment or to have dollars and they're not doing that
35:27
Speaker 4: groundwork relationship building, that essential research to make sure that
35:34
Speaker 4: this is someone you quote unquote want to get married
35:37
Speaker 4: to right. Yeah, So for you, were there certain either
35:42
Speaker 4: characteristics or certain things that you were looking for in
35:45
Speaker 4: your initial investors.
35:47
Speaker 1: We first and foremost like the thing that we needed
35:51
Speaker 1: to even engage in the conversation is that do you
35:54
Speaker 1: understand that this is a problem?
35:56
Speaker 2: Right?
35:56
Speaker 1: Do you believe that there should be a solution for
35:59
Speaker 1: this problem? You know, we were in San Francisco. You know,
36:02
Speaker 1: if you want to go invest in tech, that's great,
36:05
Speaker 1: go invest in software, But we are building a physical product.
36:08
Speaker 1: It's going to take a long time, but it is
36:11
Speaker 1: going to impact millions of women. And that was I mean,
36:15
Speaker 1: that was the entry. And then once you feel aligned
36:18
Speaker 1: and feel good that you are moving towards the same vision,
36:23
Speaker 1: then it's like, what have you done in your career
36:26
Speaker 1: that you could bring to the table here and advise
36:30
Speaker 1: me and be strategic? Gone, right, You've invested in one
36:34
Speaker 1: investor has worked with many medical device companies. Amazing. You
36:39
Speaker 1: can help us work through the FDA paperwork, You can
36:41
Speaker 1: help us hire experts here that we have investors that
36:45
Speaker 1: are incredible consumer founders. They work in products right, beauty,
36:52
Speaker 1: food and beverage. They know how to brand a product.
36:55
Speaker 1: They know marketing, so you have to get We've learned this,
36:59
Speaker 1: you don't have to it. We've learned over time that
37:03
Speaker 1: you want to get a myriad of experiences so that
37:05
Speaker 1: you have different voices coming to the table.
37:07
Speaker 2: You know what this reminds me of. It reminds me
37:09
Speaker 2: of a learning.
37:09
Speaker 4: That I have had over the years when, especially within dating,
37:15
Speaker 4: you're going on a first date, you're going on a
37:17
Speaker 4: second date, and your first thought is like, oh, I
37:19
Speaker 4: want them to like me, but like, do.
37:21
Speaker 2: You even like them? Right?
37:23
Speaker 3: And sometimes you'll go on a first date and you'll
37:26
Speaker 3: leave and you'll be like, wow, I wonder if they
37:28
Speaker 3: liked me, and you don't do that inner debrief. I'm
37:30
Speaker 3: like no, but I like that they are a morning person,
37:33
Speaker 3: and I like that we have some mutual interests, and
37:36
Speaker 3: I like the way they speak about their family, and
37:38
Speaker 3: it seems like we have similar values. But we glaze
37:40
Speaker 3: over that because we're such people like we want people
37:43
Speaker 3: to like us.
37:44
Speaker 1: We are inherently such people pleasers, and I am the
37:48
Speaker 1: biggest people pleaser.
37:50
Speaker 2: Get it.
37:50
Speaker 1: But fundraising is just like dating. Yeah, And the moment
37:55
Speaker 1: that you reframe your strategy but also your thought process
37:59
Speaker 1: and move from I want to make sure that I
38:03
Speaker 1: feel good about this before I move forward. You don't
38:06
Speaker 1: want to be marrying somebody because they like you.
38:10
Speaker 2: That is not nice.
38:12
Speaker 1: But they also need to like you to be mutual.
38:16
Speaker 1: But you want to make sure you feel confident to
38:18
Speaker 1: say I feel really good about.
38:21
Speaker 2: This, exactly, exactly.
38:23
Speaker 4: So all right, we've talked through getting your first investors,
38:26
Speaker 4: we've talked about the R and D that goes into
38:28
Speaker 4: the product development. Where are you when you get the
38:32
Speaker 4: first legitimate sequel tampon?
38:36
Speaker 1: So we were My god, this was one of the
38:40
Speaker 1: coolest moments of my life. We had flown to a factory,
38:46
Speaker 1: my co founder and I, and we delivered the machine,
38:51
Speaker 1: our patented process to them, and they put it onto
38:55
Speaker 1: the machine. And it took a few hours for the
38:58
Speaker 1: engineers to put it onto the machine. And so we
39:01
Speaker 1: went away and we were in some meetings and they
39:03
Speaker 1: brought us back out onto the factory floor a few
39:05
Speaker 1: hours later, and we're wearing like full like hairnets and
39:08
Speaker 1: we're like steel toed shoes and trench coats and we're
39:12
Speaker 1: walking out and going to the machine and they are like,
39:17
Speaker 1: they don't say anything. They didn't prepare us for this moment,
39:20
Speaker 1: and they just pressed the automation button and then all
39:23
Speaker 1: of a sudden, the first tampon comes off the line,
39:25
Speaker 1: and the line is huge. It's like the machine is
39:27
Speaker 1: like the size of a massive room, and it you
39:30
Speaker 1: can watch it go through the process and we're like, Okay,
39:32
Speaker 1: it made it through that step. It made it through
39:34
Speaker 1: that step, It got to our step, made it through that,
39:37
Speaker 1: and then you can watch it get the wrapper put
39:39
Speaker 1: on it, and so then you like pick up this
39:41
Speaker 1: little tampon in it's wrapper off the thing, and it's like,
39:45
Speaker 1: I feel like it's like Willy Wonka and Charlie's in
39:48
Speaker 1: the chocolate factory and he like pulls the chocolate bar
39:52
Speaker 1: off the line and like you like unwrap it and
39:54
Speaker 1: you're like, it's real, it's real, it's real. And it
39:58
Speaker 1: was such a defining moment for us. It was incredible.
40:03
Speaker 1: And then from then we knew that that unlocked we
40:05
Speaker 1: could submit our product to the FDA, which took a
40:09
Speaker 1: while and delayed gratification to actually launch the product, but
40:12
Speaker 1: that was the defining moment of like, oh my god,
40:15
Speaker 1: we did.
40:15
Speaker 4: It, Yeah you did it, Yeah you did it. Such
40:17
Speaker 4: a special Willy Wonk a moment for you.
40:19
Speaker 3: So in then bringing it to market, where can people
40:23
Speaker 3: at this point purchase SQL tamp runs so they.
40:26
Speaker 1: Can get the tampons on our website. We just launched subscription,
40:30
Speaker 1: so exciting. Yeah, so we were selling our boxes on
40:34
Speaker 1: our website It's triseql dot com. And then we are
40:39
Speaker 1: hoping to expand pretty quickly into other specialty retail looking
40:44
Speaker 1: to get out there really quickly. But just for right
40:48
Speaker 1: now our website.
40:49
Speaker 4: Are you thinking of this as mostly a DTC product
40:53
Speaker 4: or are you thinking of this as something that's also
40:55
Speaker 4: going to be on the shelf one day when I
40:57
Speaker 4: walk into Target.
40:58
Speaker 1: We need to be on the show.
41:00
Speaker 2: Yea.
41:00
Speaker 1: We want to meet everyone.
41:02
Speaker 2: So I want to meet everybody, want to be in
41:04
Speaker 2: every sandbox.
41:05
Speaker 1: I want to be there when you need a tampon
41:07
Speaker 1: after soccer practice and you're walking into CBS. I want
41:11
Speaker 1: you to say, my tambons are here. I'm going to
41:13
Speaker 1: get them right.
41:14
Speaker 2: So you have that brand recognition.
41:16
Speaker 4: That is something that is also like wildly crazy because
41:19
Speaker 4: that brings us to another part of the conversation that
41:21
Speaker 4: we haven't touched yet, which is the branding. There's such
41:24
Speaker 4: a long process into creating the actual physical product. But
41:28
Speaker 4: when it comes to the branding, what would you say
41:30
Speaker 4: has been one of the biggest learnings that you've had
41:34
Speaker 4: in creating a specific packaging, a specific logo that appeals
41:37
Speaker 4: to your consumer.
41:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, the branding part was so much fun because I
41:42
Speaker 1: felt like part of it could be a manifestation of
41:45
Speaker 1: myself and my co founder and we're you know, we're
41:48
Speaker 1: not girly girls, like I love dressing up, but like
41:51
Speaker 1: I love to I grew up as a surfer. I'm
41:53
Speaker 1: like covered in sand all the time. My co founder
41:56
Speaker 1: played a million sports. She's like always scraped up from
42:00
Speaker 1: some running lacrosse or soccer or whatever. And so we
42:03
Speaker 1: wanted to build something that felt like that duality of
42:09
Speaker 1: a woman, right Like. We wanted to have branding that
42:12
Speaker 1: was powerful and that was not super pinks and pastels,
42:18
Speaker 1: and we wanted it to feel strong, because that's that's
42:21
Speaker 1: when I feel my best. I'm super strong. And so
42:24
Speaker 1: the branding and even down to the name, we wanted
42:28
Speaker 1: to say, you know, this is the next chapter for
42:31
Speaker 1: the tampono.
42:32
Speaker 2: Can we talk about the name? I like, I don't.
42:34
Speaker 4: I tried never to interrupt someone, but you just said that,
42:36
Speaker 4: and I was like, yes, yeah, the name, Yeah, it's
42:39
Speaker 4: a great name. But what was the process, Like, did
42:42
Speaker 4: you have a whiteboard that you had twenty two hundred
42:45
Speaker 4: names on?
42:46
Speaker 1: You said that, and I'm like, I can picture the
42:48
Speaker 1: whiteboard in my brain right now with all the red marker,
42:51
Speaker 1: the green sharp like it was just ridiculous. We had
42:53
Speaker 1: a million names, and we didn't want to go in
42:57
Speaker 1: the direction of all the x's right that you see
43:00
Speaker 1: on the shelf. And then there was the more feminine
43:02
Speaker 1: four letter words that you also see on the drugstore shelf.
43:05
Speaker 1: Now at that time they were D two see launching,
43:08
Speaker 1: they were very feminine, and we wanted again to be
43:11
Speaker 1: that strong like, we wanted it to have meaning. So
43:15
Speaker 1: for us, it was, you know, sequels the tampon two
43:18
Speaker 1: point zero, it's the next chapter in women's health. It's
43:21
Speaker 1: the next chapter of the tampon. And whichever direction we
43:24
Speaker 1: go next for our successive products, it's the chapter that
43:27
Speaker 1: those products deserve.
43:28
Speaker 2: Yeah.
43:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, at what were other close to final names.
43:32
Speaker 1: Close to final names? So I'll tell you our class project.
43:35
Speaker 4: Okay was Tampro Tampro very silly, a little silly, very silly, okay,
43:41
Speaker 4: and then we went from tampro to tempo.
43:44
Speaker 2: Oh oh, so it was cool. Tempo is cool.
43:47
Speaker 1: It was cool, a little too similar to some other things, but.
43:50
Speaker 2: All right, feel good about sequel. We love sequel.
43:54
Speaker 3: No, this is like, truly, it's so inspirational to sit
43:56
Speaker 3: next to someone who has not only started something of
44:01
Speaker 3: their own and started from scratch, but really put in
44:03
Speaker 3: the work. And as someone who creates a very different product,
44:07
Speaker 3: I can say that I really relate to so many
44:09
Speaker 3: of the beautiful aspects of your journey, and I think
44:13
Speaker 3: it's such a testament not only to how self motivated
44:16
Speaker 3: you are, but also just the strength of tenacity that
44:19
Speaker 3: you have inside of you to show up and say
44:22
Speaker 3: I'm here to create something and it's something that you need.
44:25
Speaker 1: But that's that's what it every time we show up,
44:28
Speaker 1: whether we show up to a pilates class, whether we
44:31
Speaker 1: wake up to show up to go for a walk outside.
44:34
Speaker 1: For me, it was waking up and showing up to
44:36
Speaker 1: be fierce and competitive and showing up on the line
44:40
Speaker 1: and being like I am ready to I'm ready to win,
44:44
Speaker 1: right Like, that's the same tenacity that I now get
44:47
Speaker 1: to put into this.
44:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, how does it feel?
44:51
Speaker 1: It feels, I mean, after two weeks in Paris, it
44:53
Speaker 1: feels exhausting, but it feels it feels fulfilling in the
44:58
Speaker 1: same way that you know it felt to win all
45:01
Speaker 1: those years ago. Every time I won in my life
45:05
Speaker 1: guarding races, it was fulfilling for that phase of my life.
45:08
Speaker 1: But this is what is fulfilling for me right now.
45:12
Speaker 4: What do you think the best piece of advice has
45:15
Speaker 4: been that you've been offered as a female founder in
45:18
Speaker 4: this chapter.
45:19
Speaker 1: Don't be afraid to slow down and also don't be
45:21
Speaker 1: so hard on yourself. I think those two go hand
45:23
Speaker 1: in hand, right, right, Like you want to run a
45:26
Speaker 1: million miles a minute, you want to do everything, you
45:28
Speaker 1: want to take every opportunity you but you can't clone yourself.
45:31
Speaker 1: You're only one person, and you need to make sure
45:35
Speaker 1: that you don't burn out and that you're being nice
45:37
Speaker 1: to yourself. And be nice to yourself is slowing down
45:40
Speaker 1: and like taking a beat and being like I can
45:42
Speaker 1: lay in bed today and that is not a reflection
45:46
Speaker 1: of my motivation.
45:47
Speaker 3: Right.
45:48
Speaker 1: And then there's the other part where it's don't be
45:53
Speaker 1: hard on yourself, like don't blame yourself if you don't
45:56
Speaker 1: make it somewhere, or give yourself some grace if you're
45:59
Speaker 1: you know, you're running two minutes late, Like it's okay.
46:02
Speaker 1: Like people are forgiving and people are kind.
46:04
Speaker 4: And the right people will stay right, the people that
46:09
Speaker 4: typically have a problem about something as small as what
46:11
Speaker 4: you just exemplified, that that oh you're running two minutes late,
46:15
Speaker 4: Like that's not your person.
46:16
Speaker 1: Yeah.
46:16
Speaker 4: And so it's just so beautiful to not only see
46:20
Speaker 4: this grace in action, but then also to think about
46:23
Speaker 4: all of the steps that you had mentioned and all
46:25
Speaker 4: the stuff you didn't know, and yet you were able
46:27
Speaker 4: to give yourself that grace so that you could get
46:29
Speaker 4: to where you are now. It's all building blocks, right,
46:33
Speaker 4: It's all one thing after the next, and it's brought.
46:36
Speaker 2: You to this pretty great place.
46:38
Speaker 1: I'm so thank you. I'm so thankful for it.
46:40
Speaker 4: Before we completely put a bow on this, I do
46:43
Speaker 4: want to ask you a little bit because, as everyone
46:46
Speaker 4: knows that has been listening, we're in Paris. You have
46:49
Speaker 4: a relationship with Athleta that you had been working with
46:52
Speaker 4: them a little bit here this week. So as a
46:55
Speaker 4: female founder that is coming to market now, is that
46:59
Speaker 4: mind blowing for you?
46:59
Speaker 2: How? How did it happen. How are you feeling.
47:01
Speaker 1: It's amazing, It's amazing and I do feel such a synergy.
47:07
Speaker 1: I met the team, I met the executive team here
47:12
Speaker 1: and we sat down in San Francisco where they're headquartered,
47:14
Speaker 1: where I was living, and this was like eight weeks ago,
47:18
Speaker 1: and we sat down and we said, Okay, how can
47:21
Speaker 1: we work together? And they said, we're going to the
47:24
Speaker 1: Olympics in July. Can we do this? And of course,
47:28
Speaker 1: of course we can do this. Of course we can
47:30
Speaker 1: make it happen. Right. This is so huge for us.
47:34
Speaker 1: This is one of the biggest things that has happened
47:37
Speaker 1: for us. And I'm so thankful for the athletic team
47:39
Speaker 1: for just rolling with a tiny startup like us. Make
47:43
Speaker 1: you trying to make everything work in the logistics and
47:46
Speaker 1: the puzzle pieces, and just being so welcoming and so supportive.
47:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, what does that partnership actually look like for you?
47:55
Speaker 2: Yeah?
47:55
Speaker 1: So here in Paris, we've been able to pass out
47:58
Speaker 1: samples product out to the many people that are interacting
48:03
Speaker 1: with Athletics Paris Activation. It's incredible brand alignment for us
48:09
Speaker 1: with the power of She and having this brand moment
48:14
Speaker 1: for us to align ourselves with such a powerhouse in
48:17
Speaker 1: terms of female empowerment and so sampling this whole week
48:21
Speaker 1: and showing up in their space. But we have some
48:25
Speaker 1: really fun plans for the future.
48:27
Speaker 2: Oh really fun plans for the future.
48:28
Speaker 4: Okay, I won't spoil them now, but I'm excited for you,
48:31
Speaker 4: and I can also relate with this exciting moment, having
48:34
Speaker 4: the opportunity to be in Paris for such a big
48:37
Speaker 4: moment in sport and then also have the backing of
48:39
Speaker 4: such a major brand.
48:40
Speaker 3: It's a once in a lifetime thing right now. If
48:42
Speaker 3: someone goes to your Instagram page, they see a woman
48:44
Speaker 3: that is a female founder. They also see someone who's
48:48
Speaker 3: extremely active. But beyond that, Amanda, when you look in
48:51
Speaker 3: the mirror, what is it that you see looking back
48:53
Speaker 3: at you.
48:55
Speaker 1: I think I said this before, Like one of my
48:57
Speaker 1: biggest lessons was don't be so hard on yourself. And
49:00
Speaker 1: I think me in the past would have been like
49:02
Speaker 1: critiqued every little thing, and you know, you're not fast enough,
49:05
Speaker 1: you don't look you don't look athletic enough, you're not whatever.
49:09
Speaker 1: But today I am finally so proud of the things
49:15
Speaker 1: and experiences that my body and my brain have allowed
49:19
Speaker 1: me to do. I think identifying as an athlete for
49:22
Speaker 1: so long made me just look at myself and just
49:26
Speaker 1: see a body in the mirror. But today I look
49:28
Speaker 1: in the mirror and I see my brain and my mind,
49:31
Speaker 1: and I'm so I'm proud of myself.
49:35
Speaker 2: Ah, my heart, my heart.
49:36
Speaker 4: Well, we know that huge piece of advice to be
49:40
Speaker 4: gentle with yourself, to have some grace. But right now,
49:43
Speaker 4: as I close out the pod, I ask you, knowing
49:45
Speaker 4: what you know now, when we think back to the
49:48
Speaker 4: beginning of the journey, the hurdles that you faced along
49:50
Speaker 4: the way, securing funding, making a patented machine, so many
49:54
Speaker 4: steps to this process. When we look back on that time,
49:58
Speaker 4: involving so many hurdles, knowing what you know now, what
50:01
Speaker 4: advice would you offer yourself?
50:03
Speaker 2: Then it goes.
50:05
Speaker 1: Even further back to that when I was competing as
50:08
Speaker 1: a junior lifeguard, there were there were like six years
50:12
Speaker 1: there that I never won a national title, and I
50:15
Speaker 1: won for the first time at eleven. The next time
50:17
Speaker 1: I won beach Flags, I was seventeen. And that's a
50:23
Speaker 1: long time to just like second place, third place, fourth place,
50:27
Speaker 1: fifth place, Like you're just get and you got to
50:29
Speaker 1: get back out there and you got to try again,
50:31
Speaker 1: and to try again year after year and come up short.
50:37
Speaker 1: The best advice I would give is just keep getting
50:40
Speaker 1: on the starting line because I waited and I waited,
50:43
Speaker 1: and I was manifesting and working really hard, and then
50:48
Speaker 1: finally all the pieces came together for me to win
50:51
Speaker 1: my first National Open national title at seventeen. And I
50:55
Speaker 1: think that was exactly how it was with SQL. It
50:57
Speaker 1: was like, you know, hurdle, hurdle, hurdle, and it's like,
51:00
Speaker 1: what are you going to do when you hit a hurdle?
51:02
Speaker 1: If you fall, you get back up. If you clip
51:04
Speaker 1: the hurdle, you keep running, and so like it's it's
51:08
Speaker 1: horrible when you're on the ground, but just get up
51:11
Speaker 1: and like there will be better things for you.
51:13
Speaker 4: There will be better things for you. With hard work
51:15
Speaker 4: comes great reward.
51:17
Speaker 2: Right.
51:17
Speaker 3: I'm so happy that we had the time to do
51:19
Speaker 3: this today, Amanda. For those that don't follow along with
51:22
Speaker 3: you or seql just yet, give us the lowdown. Where
51:25
Speaker 3: can we find you?
51:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can find SQL at triseql on Instagram, TikTok
51:30
Speaker 1: or website is triseql dot com. And then you can
51:33
Speaker 1: find me at ap calibrese on Instagram.
51:36
Speaker 4: I'm over at Emlaybody, and at Hurdle Podcast. Another hurdle conquered.
51:41
Speaker 4: Catch you guys next time.