Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Tapping into wellness for $70M ARR a year with Your Super co-founder Kristel de Groot

Transcript

Tapping into wellness for $70M ARR a year with Your Super co-founder Kristel de Groot · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Christelle DeGroote for Female Startup Club. Hello everyone and welcome back to the show. It's Dune here, your host and hype girl. If you're a small business owner or an entrepreneur listening into this episode, you probably know just how hard it can be to generate revenue. It can be really bloody tough.
• 0:30
  You might have just started out and maybe you've made a few sales, you might have made a few thousand dollars in sales, or maybe even a few hundred thousand. Hell, maybe you've even made multi-seven figures in sales at this point. Think about how hard that's been to get to that point, and now imagine scaling your business to hitting $200 million in revenue.
• 0:52
  200 million. Imagine what that would look like from a supply chain point of view, a product development point of view, the investment point of view, the energy point of view. That's what Christelle de Groot did all while she was in her 20s.
• 1:09
  I know, it's so wild. Today's episode is a reminder that when you stick it out for the long run, when you have a real purpose and drive to change the world, magical things can happen. Christelle built her company, Your Super, alongside her partner Michael in their early 20s after Michael battled cancer. They built it to $200 million in revenue and then sold it to the healing company in 2022 for an undisclosed amount.
• 1:37
  This story starts with very humble beginnings and it ends with so many brilliant learnings. I hope you love it just as much as I do. And before we jump into today's episode, I want to quickly mention the girl code that we introduced in a few recent episodes.
• 1:54
  The general gist is that it's a very loose and very casual deal where if you love Female Startup Club and what we're doing over here, you take a tiny action every time you listen to one of our episodes. Whether that's by leaving us a review on a podcast app or sharing this episode on social media with your friends, basically anything that helps us reach more ears and keep growing.
• 2:18
  It's a weird time right now in the world and I am desperately in need of my hype girls. To everyone who already does this on a daily basis, thank you so much. I appreciate you more than you know. Let's get into today's episode. This is Christelle for Female Startup Club.
• 2:37
  Christelle, hi. Welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Me too. I'm so bloody excited. I feel like it's pretty rare we get to interview women who have gone through the entire journey, start to finish, wildly successful exit type moment. So I'm excited to hear your journey, especially the ups and the downs. Where do you like to start your entrepreneurial story? Yeah.
• 3:06
  I actually feel like in my teenage years it already started. So I always joke that I was this weird teenager sitting at the dining table with my parents every night and just be like, you know, why does this not exist? Why does this not exist?
• 3:23
  And every week I had other business ideas, several. And I sometimes think like, what must they have been thinking? Like, what is wrong with this girl? Like, why is she only talking about all the businesses she wants to start? And I had all the ideas. Do you remember any of those ideas? I, one was really random. Like I wanted to have, I want to personalize my own calendar, right? You know how you for school always bought your own calendar. And I was like,
• 3:48
  I just want to personalize it. I want to have my own pictures in it and this and this. And I don't want to just get a random one from the store. Yeah. I mean, it makes total sense. I love that. Yeah. So those, those kinds of things. And it's, I think that's already where it started. And then I,
• 4:04
  I actually played a lot of tennis and I had a string machine. So I started, you know, stringing records for other people. So I was always like doing little things to make money. And then there's this, and I actually never talked about this, but in Holland, you have something called King's Day. And that is a day where everyone goes on the street and kind of just sells their stuff and drinks a lot and parties and all those things and wears only orange clothes. It's orange, right? Yeah.
• 4:29
  Great day to go if you ever want to see it. It's quite a thing. But when I was young, what you used to do is, you know, you get all your stuff and you would sell it. And I also, what I would do, I would make, I would bake pancakes. So I would like get the eggs, I would get the flour and kind of, you know, figure out what were my costs and then try to sell as many pancakes as I could.
• 4:50
  So it was like those kind of moments, I think, in my upbringing that really like, I don't know, this kind of sparked that idea of like, I like to sell something. Did you get that from your parents or was it just intrinsically inside of you?
• 5:05
  I don't know. So my dad does have his own business. He has a pharmacy and he got that from his, you know, from his parents. My mom didn't necessarily have her own business. My grandma, I learned, did have her own business. So I'm like, you know, she had a store back in the days, which is pretty cool. I'm like, that's pretty cool, grandma. Yeah, she's a boa. Yeah. So, you know, maybe just seeing it around me, yes, a little bit. But then at the same time, I think it's something that also was just in me.
• 5:34
  I love that. So how do we transition from you selling your pancakes at King's Day and selling whatever you could sell and your startup ideas to creating your super?
• 5:46
  So I actually, I studied in the US, then I, so I'm Dutch, studied in the US, then I did my master's in London. And then during that time, my boyfriend, who I met actually in college in the US, he's German, he got cancer. And that was to such an aha moment, I think for both of us. You know, you're, I was 22, he was 24, he just finished college and yeah.
• 6:11
  It was just like, you know, you're like, okay, I thought I was on top of the world and then you're not. And I watched the movie Forks Over Knives. I turned plant-based the next day. I was always already kind of this health nut because I had eczema growing up. So like I knew from a young age, okay, I either get a rash when I eat this or I don't get a rash when I eat this. So the connection between health and my body was something I was like, okay, I get that it's there. Yeah.
• 6:38
  So yeah, turn plant-based, for him it was really after. So he went, he had surgery, he went through chemo. And it's interesting, right? Because you go through chemo, you're cancer-free then, but he was, you know, he was not healthy. And that was such an interesting turning point for him because then he was suddenly open. And I was like, okay, we're going to do a detox. I'm going to do it.
• 7:00
  I'm going to give you all the juices. I'm going to give you this and this. And I was a crazy superfood lady. I had this cabinet full. And I know there are more people like me out there where I had 30 different bags. And every morning I was scooping like a maniac. I was like barley grass, wheatgrass, chia seeds, maca, this, this. And it was fine for me. It was like, I mean, it was a lot of scooping. And I kind of just dragged him to Whole Foods. And I was like, okay.
• 7:29
  you need wheatgrass, you need spirulina, you need this, you need this. And he was like, okay, wait a second. What are all these names? This is really expensive. And no, thank you. So what I did instead, I had this empty jar and just kind of scooped all, you know, a bunch of green things, especially for him, together. And he said, whatever you do, just take this every single day. Okay.
• 7:48
  And he just like, after the detox and using the superfoods, right? He was very skeptical because he was just meat eating German. He really started to feel better. And he was like, oh, this is very interesting. Like I feel so much better. And from there, you know, like it's, um, he started to research. Then you actually look into superfoods, right? Because people are always like, oh, it's such a trend. Is it going to stay? And it's just like nothing. It's nothing new, right? Yeah. These are ancient practices.
• 8:14
  Exactly. If you look at Ayurveda, if you look at Eastern medicine, if you look in South America, these ingredients have been used for thousands and thousands of years. So I also always say with your super, it's not that we do anything new. We just look at, you know, like some of those traditions and like how these ingredients have been used and how we can kind of just resurface them and make it a little bit easier for people, you know, to use them.
• 8:37
  So basically at that point, we realized, okay, there are a lot more Michaels in the world, right? I talked to friends and they're like, yeah, I'm very interested. And, you know, they're using SAE, but what is it actually? How do I use it? And from there, we, you know, we kind of just started. And how we started is that we had a small little place close to Amsterdam. We had a certified organic room in that little apartment, which we somehow created. And it got actually certified, which was really funny, just in our own apartment.
• 9:05
  And we started ordering superfoods from initially from a wholesaler, because we ordered like five kilogram packs and mixed everything by hand together. And that is really how your support was born, right? Really, the goal on our mission has always been how do we help people improve their health power of plans?
• 9:23
  And superfoods are just a very easy and convenient way to do it. And basically we developed these mixes with five, six ingredients and that's it. No stevia, no fillers, nothing else added. Just, you know, very simple plant-based organic ingredients.
• 9:38
  that are really powerful and take a punch. And we then develop these different benefits, right? So we have Fyffa Beautiful for your skin. We have Super Green with your greens. But then also other ones now, the really popular one is Moon Balance for hormone balance, right? So really looking at what is the benefits you need and what are some of the ingredients that can support with that.
• 10:00
  I love that. I love that so much. In that early time when you have to think back to kind of like the money piece of the puzzle, you know, were you thinking about savings? Did you take a loan, a credit card, friends and family? Like how did you get started and how much did you invest to get to that kind of launch point of selling these products? Yeah.
• 10:19
  Yeah. So we, Michael still had a job. So we sometimes joke his only job he had, which was one year at Accenture. So we sometimes joke Accenture was the first. The best job. I, I didn't, I never actually had a proper job, which is also funny in a whole thing.
• 10:37
  Actually, we were just talking about it during breakfast. It's like, it's almost good to be naive. I think it's superpower because I didn't know anything. I didn't know how to manage people. I didn't know anything really about margins. I just didn't know anything. And I think there's a beauty to that as well. Because if I now go back 10 years and I'm like, I know everything I know now, would I started the business again? I'm like, I don't know. Right. So it's so interesting.
• 11:02
  But the money piece, I think we had a couple of things going for us. I think we were very young. I was 23. I was not used to the income. I lived a very simple, basic life in that sense. Yeah, you can be frugal at that time. Right? I didn't have kids. I didn't have a mortgage. So I think that helps, right? I didn't have that pressure of like, oh, I need to make money right away because I have all these expenses. Yeah.
• 11:26
  So I think that was one advantage just starting that young. And then I think the other piece of it, what I did do over at some point, so at first it was kind of Michael's salary. I lent a little bit of money for my parents. I think it was around, I think, $30,000 and something else we paid back afterwards.
• 11:44
  And that's kind of how we started the first year. And basically what we did, we would buy very small amounts of superfoods, we'd mix them by hand together, and then go to farmer's markets in the weekend. And we did that for a year where we just like mix, you know, during the week. And then we went to Holland and in Germany as well. We went to different, you know, veggie markets, health markets, all kinds of different markets, and just started to selling the products. And it was very interesting because you learn so much by doing this because we started to talk to potential customers.
• 12:14
  Right. And then the questions they were asking. And it was very interesting because people were asking us, not even like what are superfoods. They were just like,
• 12:21
  Oh, what is a smoothie? How do you make a smoothie? And I was like, oh, we have a long road to add all that. This is going to be quite a ride. There's an education piece here that I need to focus on. Yeah. So that was like something we learned right away. Then obviously about taste, you learn. And you just like, you learn so much by hearing what they're asking. And we started selling online right away as well. Like we had a little Shopify shop 10 years ago that we built up.
• 12:47
  And we used to ship right away worldwide, which was really funny. Oh, wow. We're like, we're shipping worldwide. And it's funny because in the end, it really helped us. So basically what we did is that we saw that quite some orders over time were coming from the U.S., like 5 to 10%.
• 13:08
  And that really actually helped us to make the decision to then say, okay, hey, we're also going to shift to the US. It was a very small amount, right? Like the total orders were not a lot, but it always gave us a sense of like, hey, where's the product resonating? Hey, we have some customers to call up. So I think that really, you know, again, very naive and didn't make any money on those orders. Absolutely not. But
• 13:34
  It was fun. Maybe a loss. Maybe a loss. Probably. If you have to think about those kind of early years, that handful of years, you know, getting to your first thousand customers, getting to kind of proven concept, you know, the ball is rolling. What are the key things that shifted the needle for you? Or what are those key pivotal moments where you were like, holy shit, we're onto something really good here? Yeah.
• 13:56
  I think, so one of the earliest things, because it always comes down kind of to marketing, right? So from the farmers market, we then did our first, we did raise a little bit money then for friends and family. And it was really funny. I think we raised a hundred thousand and we thought we're set. We never have to raise money again. This is it.
• 14:14
  We did one production run. And we started, by the way, we started with seven products, seven SKUs, which is crazy. And anyone starting a business, I would highly recommend not starting with seven SKUs. Start with one, start with three, maybe. But like, that's it. Because the more SKUs, the more you need to produce. And, you know, the more you need different products, you need to actually, ingredients you need to buy. Packaging. Packaging.
• 14:37
  packaging. It just makes everything so much more expensive and complicated. And again, we just didn't know. Right. So, you know, we use seven products and, um, um,
• 14:49
  From there, we, you know, we raised a little bit of money. And then we really focused on those early days of Instagram. We just, you know, did barter deals. So we would just send products to like Instagrammers. And that's also actually then how it, I think, spread to the U.S. The golden days of Instagram. The golden days. But I have to say, it's funny. We just brought out a book.
• 15:11
  Right. And I kind of went back to, thank you. You're super light if anyone wants to check it out. But I kind of just went back to the grassroots where I was like, okay, I just want to send this book to as many people as possible. Right. And I know maybe not everyone posts about it, but like, I still think I can get like, you know, let's see to how many people I can send it without having to pay huge amounts of money. And
• 15:32
  Funny enough, there's still a lot of people out there with big followings who, if they're truly interested in a book or in a product, they're still going to, you know, take your free product and post about it. But it's tedious work, right? They have to write a lot of people and a certain percentage is only going to write back. And then only a certain percentage is going to give you their address.
• 15:52
  So it just takes a lot of work to just write hundreds and hundreds of people and then follow up after you send the book. So I think those are the pieces where it's still possible, right? And what is your messaging? What are you writing them? Is it super impersonal or is it a very personal message and they have the feeling like an actual person versus an agency is writing them? I think those things all make a huge difference.
• 16:18
  Oh, yeah, absolutely. The human touch, relationships, like it's going to be much more impactful to take that personal touch with someone and connect with someone on a genuine level. So you said you raised the 100,000 friends and family. You got a bigger kind of product order. You were doing their influencer marketing. What was your vision at that point? Because you're still kind of in your mid-20s, early 20s.
• 16:46
  Could you have envisioned where you got to? No, I think my vision was actually to lay on the beach. I don't know why. It's like I start this business and a year later I'm traveling and I'm laying on the beach. I'm like, what was I thinking?
• 17:05
  You know, they say that you work more when you start your own business. It's like, by the way, it's true, right? You work more hours, you work harder. Obviously, you know, you get to decide and it's your own choice. I still think it feels different. But, you know, like I think from especially when we hired even interns, right, that hired our first employees.
• 17:25
  I think there was a sense of responsibility that I never felt at that age before. I was like, I am responsible for their salary. Right. And they're, you know, they're living. And I think that those kinds of things like make you grow up really quickly. Okay. I'm responsible for this. Um,
• 17:43
  Um, and I, I think from there it really, I mean, we made so many mistakes and so many funny things too, right? That's a hilarious story is when we were mixing, uh, in our house, we used to order this canister. So we still use the same canister, which is now, you know, another recycled paper, paper label around it.
• 18:02
  uh they back then they just used to look like toilet rolls basically but we you know they would come to our house tiny little street somewhere in Amsterdam with a huge truck and they're like where's the loading dock I'm like no no loading dock it's here and it's with me this is the door um and this is where the pallet needs to go through which obviously and this is the worker
• 18:28
  So it's those kind of things that just completely went wrong. You know, we raised money. We ran out of money very quick. And it's often not even that you're, I think in early days, it's not even that we were unprofitable, right? It's just cash, right? Like you buy inventory. And I think those kind of things, like really managing your cash, I think is something not necessarily easy. And I think it is going to go really, really quick.
• 18:54
  And I think we always had this really, I think the one thing we kind of were done at that point where we're like, also before you start to raise money. And I think that's for everyone, something, you know, really to think about because I don't think you need to raise money. Right. And it's just it's a choice. Like what type of business do you want to build?
• 19:12
  I think the moment you make the decision to raise money, right, A, you're not only working for yourself anymore. I think that's something really important to realize. And two, it comes with certain expectations, right? People invest the money and they want actually to see a return.
• 19:30
  And they often want to see faster growth. So there's so many of those pieces. And I remember that Michael and me are kind of sitting together or like, okay, like, what do we want? Do we want a smaller business be 100% in control and like grow slower? Or do we want to actually have a bigger business and actually have to, and this is really what for us was the decision of like, hey, we want to go this route. We just had in our mind, we're like, we want to just reach as many people as possible.
• 19:58
  We want our impact to be as big as possible because we want to help as many people as possible to be healthy. So we're like, okay, let's just go all in. And that was really at that time what felt right for us. But again, I don't, I never want, it's not the only way to build a business. And I don't think it's necessarily the right way. I think for everyone it's different.
• 20:21
  And I think there's also a beauty now having gone through this, right? I think there's also a beauty in moving a little bit slower and finding more your traction in a more, you know, organic way. So just something to think about and to know that there, you know, it's really a choice to make for yourself and to figure out, okay, like, what is it that I want?
• 20:42
  Yeah, it really requires a personal audit, an audit of yourself, your life, your strengths, your weaknesses, everything really. At what point was this in the timeline? Like what year are we talking when you're kind of like, let's go for it?
• 20:55
  So we started, that was 214, we started. 215, we raised friends and family. And then in, I think it was 216, when we raised money from 500 startups. So I want to say like that was really, the moment you start taking like more VC money in, and then it's just different. And that changed things, yeah.
• 21:17
  For the good or like, sorry, the good only or also some of the worst? I think it's both. I think one of the cool things we did with 500 Startups and I think that really helped me along with my journey is that they, and that's always, it's always easier said than done, right? But what other things can VCs give you than just money?
• 21:36
  Um, so basically with them, we had a month where they called it a Jojo where we had basically a month long e-com training. So we learned about all your KPIs. I learned about how to run my own Facebook ads, Google ads.
• 21:51
  SEO, like literally everything and, you know, email marketing and also just even just someone explaining you what are the metrics to be looking at? Like what should you optimize? If you optimize a landing page, what is kind of the percentage of, you know, traffic you're looking for? So it was a lot of those kind of things. And I think it was a lot, but I didn't, after that month, I was just kind of like, okay, there's a lot of real spinning in my head.
• 22:17
  But it's interesting because like about nine months after that, that is kind of where we, you know, started to crack then Facebook and how we could actually run that. And very simple things, right? Like our AOV was always too low, right? So therefore it was very hard, you know, with our CAC of, you know, an acquiring customer and a low AOV to just like even just break even. And actually our goal is always on the first order. Can we break even? Yeah.
• 22:42
  Because, right, then at least we don't lose money. And from there, we can actually then scale instead of just acquiring and only relying on future customers. Somehow that just never really made a lot of sense in our head. So what we learned then is that we started to bundle more for products, create programs around it, you know, created, for example, the detox bundle and really started to advertise more of that.
• 23:06
  Um, and you know, within the funnel really focus on that bundle and suddenly our AOV went from 50 to like, you know, a hundred, $120. It's like, oh, this is kind of an unlock. This works. This works. Um, and I think another piece that we really learned, um.
• 23:24
  So we went to the US beginning to 18. I'll come back to that. What I want to say, one other thing we really learned is that we really started to talk about our personal story. So before 2018, we never talked about Michael's cancer story. We never talked about our personal journey. We're just focused on product, product, product, because we're like, we love our products. They're the best. Let me tell you all about benefits, right? But we never talked about our own story. And somehow we came across several people
• 23:52
  And someone helped kind of interviewed us and helped us to shape our story and just put it in clear words instead of, you know, just all over. And, you know, we started to actually we had this one interview on Chatter TV and I started to run that as an app. And it's just kind of just it worked so good. I was like, oh, it's powerful. I think I need to talk about her story. I get another unlock. Yeah.
• 24:19
  Yeah, major unlock. And yeah, what I want to say about, so we, in 2017, we were only in Europe still, basically, and we were really struggling. We, as a business in Europe, I think we were extremely early on the market. Again, like I said, people didn't even have lenders at home, didn't know how to make smoothies. And there were really trying to sell superfoods.
• 24:42
  And we actually met someone else at a fair, actually one of the founders of 4Signetic, funny enough. And they're like, yeah, you know, we were way too, you know, no one went to buy mushrooms in Europe. So we just went to the US. And that was kind of this moment for us. We're like, wait a second.
• 25:02
  You're from Europe and you went to the US. They're like, if you can do this, we can do this too. And if you think, there are not a lot of European businesses that go from Europe to the US. It's very often the other way around. We're also not that we were so successful in Europe. Because even our early investors were like...
• 25:24
  you're not going to go to the US. You first need to be a proper business and bigger in Europe before you're allowed to go there. And we were just kind of like, well, they did it. And we're like, it feels right. We both studied there. We're just going to figure it out. We're going to raise money in the US. It was funny. Every time we tried to raise money in Europe, we talked to investors there and it's very different environment. They only were talking about risks. And I think we were at the time trying to raise like 500K.
• 25:53
  And they were like, why do you need this money for? And then in the U.S., we started to raise 217 also in the U.S. at the same time. And it was so interesting because if we would say we raised 500K, nobody wanted to talk to us. We needed to raise a minimum, a million. So we started to raise their one and a half billion because otherwise nobody wanted to talk to us.
• 26:15
  And they only wanted to talk about all the opportunities and how big the market is and, you know, all the upside. And I was just like, isn't this so fascinating how different the mindset is, you know, between those two places. Wow. So, yeah, a lot of a lot of things that happened. And we kind of went then. So we were raising money in the U.S. We were still living in Berlin at the time.
• 26:38
  And it was funny because we would say we also would live in LA and work at the co-working space. But we would just be flying back and forth. Back and forth. We did have, to be fair, our fulfillment was set up in the US, but we didn't live there. We, you know, we just kept flying back and forth. But nobody wanted to. Yeah, I'll be there for a meeting tomorrow.
• 27:00
  100%! Yeah, no, that's literally what happened. Oh, you want to, you know, we're in LA, we would love to, we did a couple pitch competitions, we started to build up a little bit of network, meet some people. They're like, oh, we want to meet with you in LA because that's where you are. And we're like, yeah, okay, we'll see you next week. Yeah, in your office. I'm like, no, the co-working space is a little loud.
• 27:24
  So, a lot of funny stories, but it's interesting because US investors don't want to invest, at least at that time, right? If we would not be based in the US, they didn't want to invest in us. So, I think to, and obviously we did move to the US, right? Once we knew, okay, we're going to raise this round, we moved actually to the US to really be there and build a business, but it was a really funny experience.
• 27:47
  Yeah, we're like, you know, sometimes you have to be a little smart with like, we're like, okay, we're just gonna, we know we're gonna live here, but you know, we're not there yet. You've got to take the calculated jump. Yeah. I read that at some point you reached the 200 million revenue mark, and that's what prompted you to start looking for an acquisition or an exit. Yeah.
• 28:10
  And I want to kind of shift gears a little bit to talk about what happened next. Like, when was that? When did you start being like, right, we've hit this number. What does that look like now? Why now do we sell? And yeah, just what that time was like for you.
• 28:26
  Yeah, so it was 200 cumulative. So we basically, we got to like, I just want to clarify this for anyone listening. We got to around 60, 70 million a year revenue. And it was actually a really interesting time. I think at some point, A, I got tired because the business scaled really, really fast. And that's kind of what I said in the beginning, right? There are advantages and disadvantages. Yeah.
• 28:52
  And, um, obviously there's this beauty, you know, the, we were able to scale so fast with Facebook ads so fast. Um, but that's just the selling part, everything else, right. From our team skilled from, you know, we were 15 people at some point where a hundred people, and this is all in the time span of like two, three years.
• 29:11
  you need to learn how to manage. I had a team of 50 people under me. So, you know, so many things. We were producing products in Europe as well as in the U.S. And it's funny, as the U.S. started to scale, it's almost like Europe slowly, a year later, started to catch up and they suddenly knew what superfoods, well, what smoothies were that they wanted superfoods, right? I have a blender now. I have a blender now. And it's interesting because obviously we had teams in Berlin, we had teams in L.A.,
• 29:41
  How do you build the org structure? I think there were so many things that we kind of had to figure out. It's such a short period of time. They were just sprinting, sprinting and sprinting. And I'm forever grateful for all the lessons learned because there were a lot of them. Like what? So many.
• 30:01
  I learned, by the way, that I don't want to manage a team of 50 people because it's not for me. So again, back with the self audit, what you thrive in doing and what you don't thrive in doing. Yeah, I really learned about myself that I love being creative. Right. So I actually like writing the copy. I like working on in the team, working on the ads and like really be in the creative, you know, doing the formulations of products and thinking about the branding. Like that's me.
• 30:29
  But that's not your job when you're a CMO with a team of 50 people. Because my job was to set the vision, the goals, and to empower the team to do all those things. And I was just like, I want to do them myself. Let me get in there and do it. So that's just like one thing. I think so many more. I think you learn a lot about yourself. And I think that that piece is really...
• 30:59
  really important but how do you know if you don't do it all right so I'm also a huge fan of sometimes it's okay to just like kind of just do it all and and feel what you know what feels right and I had kind of the it's a beauty that I got to learn of like oh this is what I like this is what I don't like and I I didn't know before so it was uh it was good yeah
• 31:18
  But yeah, a lot had happened. We scaled very quickly, right? When we went to the US, we only did like 500k in sales. Then we kind of went to like five, I think it was 5 million to 30 million, 70, right? So it went super fast. Whoa. Cool.
• 31:35
  Crazy. Yeah, it was crazy. It was crazy. It's funny when you're in it, it felt kind of normal. But now looking back, I'm like, that was crazy. And I think, I don't want anyone to listen to this and compare yourself to it. I think it's really, I would even recommend to go slower, right? Because I think we made more mistakes in the end because it was going so fast as well.
• 32:01
  And I think, like I said, I was getting tired, right? Because that speed of growth and I was working so much. And it's funny, right? I'm running a health and wellness business. And I was like, I had a hard time taking care of myself at the same time. And it was not that I was super unhealthy, but I was just working too much.
• 32:20
  Um, so yeah, a lot of, a lot of lessons there. And I think that's kind of where Michael, we were like, Hey, do we, is this, is this the right time to sell? I think the other piece of it, you know, investors will start to demand it too. Um, we had a hard time also with the iOS. So like what, you know, with the iOS changes, we saw that like, we're like, Oh, we cannot keep scaling like this. Um.
• 32:44
  We did launch then in retail, right? So we actually only were a DTC business, only 5% Amazon, 95% our own website. And then started to actually start to focus more on Amazon, went into retail as well.
• 32:58
  But then it was also where like investors were like, hey, you kind of, it's time, right? Because you can scale as fast. And I think that's kind of where the piece comes in from. You have to, you know, it is a choice and you're not 100% in control anymore. And I think that's a decision you have to make. And if you start getting VC money and the expectations that you sell at some point too,
• 33:23
  So it is different in that sense versus like building something you're going to hold on. You want to hold on to the rest of your life. Absolutely. For sure. Absolutely. I guess it's like it's hard to know at the beginning of the journey, but then in hindsight, you're able to look back and have so many, so many learnings, obviously. How long did the process take when you were like, okay, maybe we should sell this. The investors are also wanting to sell to actually kind of like contract is done,
• 33:51
  things have been transferred years all over yeah years uh yeah at least like i would say like one and a half years it's a long process and um i was pregnant at that time too um wow wow
• 34:10
  Superwoman. So I wasn't actually, but Michael was really good. So I really, at that point, actually, I did keep working, but I started to slow down because I really felt that being pregnant, like A, being pregnant is great, but you're also more tired already. And I didn't want to be one of those. And I, you know, everyone makes their own choice. I just was a decision for myself where I was like, I don't want to,
• 34:37
  you know, be the person who is in a call while I'm in labor. Like, I'm not that person. It's like, if I do something, I'm truly doing it. Right. So I was like, if I'm pregnant, I project. So I actually let really go more there, whether that was, you know, within the marketing, but also like with, you know, really trusting Michael to like actually lead more in that process. And
• 34:58
  We didn't talk so much today about it, but like we were very good actually also in splitting tasks. I was very much in like more marketing, product development side. And marketing really means, I mean, we're DTC, right? So I was like, I was selling. And Michael was actually then supply chain, finance, HR, but also all investor relationships.
• 35:18
  And it's interesting because I think as we know, women raising money is so much harder. And I've experienced it too, right? Where we were both sitting in a room, we would have a conversation and people would literally like only look at him, talk to him. I would say something that would repeat the question to him. And like, this is crazy, right? And you just kind of feel it sometimes where they're like, oh yeah, she's just like, she's just a creative person, but he's actually the business guy. So we're going to talk to him.
• 35:47
  Uh, it's horrible. Um, I think I, I can't, we just, I just saw how much easier it was for him. And I'm always a huge fan of this, like, let's use our strength where they are. Uh, so yes, I talked to every investor that ever invested, you know, first kind of as a gut check. Um, and I think by the way, that is our superpowers with it. Our intuition is so powerful. And I think we just, uh,
• 36:11
  kind of got taught not to listen to it, right? Because we need to be rational and we just kind of need to use our right vein and be logical. And I'm a huge fan of really learning and trusting your intuition because it's powerful. Whether it's with hiring, whether it's with investors, if something feels of...
• 36:29
  And, you know, I've made those calls where I'm like, yeah, but then I started rationalizing my head, but this is a great person on paper and this, and they're going to be great, but something feels off. Right. And I ignore it. Never worked out. So listen to your intuition. And it's always the case. And in hindsight, you're like, damn it. I knew that.
• 36:48
  I knew it. I knew it. But I was hoping. I was too much in that hope, like it's going to be fine. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just so interesting, right? Because your mind just starts to take over and make up all the stories, why it's going to be great and all those things. And if I learned one thing and I sometimes feel like it's not really talked a lot about, but it's like your intuition is such a powerful tool in business as it is in life. Right. And I think it's just like really use it.
• 37:15
  Mm hmm. Hundred percent. Totally agree. I'm wondering what life is like for you now. Are you guys totally out of the business? You've had some time to de like decompress, deprocess what's happened over the last almost decade? Yeah.
• 37:33
  Well, I'm a lot of time mom, actually. So I don't know if I really relaxed. You went from this to that. No, I'm really enjoying that process, actually. And it's, yeah, I mean, I have a little one. He's like eight months old now. And I think that's a whole new learning in itself. I'm the more the obsessive type, I think. So like even when I was pregnant, I read, I think, 15 books.
• 38:00
  I know about everything there is to know about natural birth, about the pregnancy process, postpartum. I know everything about plant-based baby food now. So it's really fun actually to just like dive into new topics again and really doing that. We're still in the business. So we're still, I'm not full-time. So I'm helping like basically, I'm facing the brand and like helping really with where I can. And actually my favorite part is just connecting to customers.
• 38:27
  Uh, because that's always, it's been my favorite part. One of the things actually we did in the past, um, I used to do calls with customers and just video calls random just to like talk to them and understand what they need, who they are, how they live their lives. Um, and I think that is the piece that really helped me truly understand them. Right. Because in e-com it's so easy to just kind of, you think, you know, your customer or it's like, do you really know them? Um, yeah.
• 38:52
  And so we had this Facebook group and I did a lot of, you know, just Zoom calls and I would even record them to hear their story. So I could share it also with the team. And some of those pieces we even used in ads when I got permission. Right. So it went from not just sharing our story, but also sharing stories from customers. And yes, there were not 3D videos, but they were real. Right. And I think there there's a beauty to that.
• 39:15
  Yeah, absolutely. Again, back to the storytelling and your story as well. It's so powerful to hear from real people, real people experiences that you can relate to really. With everything that you've learned in the last almost decade, what is your kind of key learning takeaway, piece of advice, piece of wisdom that you can pass on to other early stage founders or women who want to start a business who are listening in to this episode?
• 39:43
  I think, A, just do it, right? I was actually talking to my sister yesterday and she's thinking about, you know, maybe starting something. And I saw the hesitation of just like, because you have to really trust yourself. You have to really have that kind of just like, you're betting on yourself, right? And...
• 39:59
  I just want to, you know, like trust yourself. You don't need to know everything. You don't need to know step hundred if you're not at step one yet, right? Just take it one step at a time and just know by not knowing it's actually your superpower, right? It's a good thing that you don't know yet. Just start and you're just going to figure it out. We never had a business plan, by the way. We just kind of started and just, you know, figured it out along the way. You make mistakes, you make a decision, and then you make another decision to, you know, course correct.
• 40:29
  Just trust yourself, just do it and have fun with it. I think that's my one thing that I could have thought. I wish I could have told myself 10 years ago. And I think sometimes it took it too serious. I'm just like, go, go, go. And it's really the journey that is actually, I look back at some of those moments. I'm like, oh, this was so much fun. But I think I was the moment that was highlighted. I was already like with the next step, right? But like have those celebrations and really enjoy the ride as well.
• 40:57
  Yeah, I love that. Cherish the day to day. Yeah, there were a lot of tips in one. I mean, I'm here for it. I loved it all. I'm like, give me more. We are up to the six quick questions part of the episode. Some of them we might have touched on, some of them we might not have, but I asked them all the same. So question number one is, what's your why today? Why are you waking up every day and still putting your time and energy into your super? Yeah.
• 41:24
  My why has never changed. My why is really to improve people's health with the power of plans. And I think that's something I know it's the same for Michael. And we even feel that whatever we were doing, even afterwards, the why is the thing that always will stay constant. It has never been the why of the company. It is the why, you know, that's kind of in our heart. And we're going to like bring that forward.
• 41:47
  and think of other ways to do that right like the book is kind of the was for us also that is part of our why we're like okay we want to do the book like your super life that is actually not using your super mixes but really just about plant-based eating and um how we basically live our lives and yeah we're thinking about other ways so we're like what are other ways how we can inspire people to eat more plant-based i love that question number two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so far um
• 42:18
  That's a good question. Oh, I actually know. My favorite campaign that we ever did was for Moon Balance, which is a hormone balancing mix. And I just remember when we made those ads and I shared my story why we created the mix. Like I had, you know, PMS and PMS actually signed, right? It's not your hormones are out of whack. It's not something that should be normal.
• 42:42
  And we kind of just shared the journey of hormones and the ads were like a talking forum. All women were like, yeah, I have this or I'm in perimenopause, I'm experiencing this. And it was just like such an aha moment where it's like, oh, yeah.
• 42:57
  oh, by me sharing and talking about hormones, every woman is actually going through something and wants to also talk about her hormones and share it. And, you know, aside from the selling part, like just to have that moment to like see all women opening up and kind of just coming together and confirming what they were experiencing, I was like, wow, this is powerful.
• 43:17
  Oh, my gosh. I love that. It's funny because as you said that, I was thinking like about my own experiences and troubles that I've had with my like hormonal health. And so I can immediately see how that that discussion just always needs to be open and there and present for women to be able to be like, this is what I'm experiencing.
• 43:35
  And that's me. It's normal, right? So one of the things actually we did in the company is we started moon days. And moon days are a day where a month, right, where you do what you can. So if you have your period, you basically can take a day off. You can cancel your meetings. We always just say you do what you can do.
• 43:54
  And it's so I actually did a TED talk on this and it has been so fun because like, it's so interesting to see the reactions on both ends. And some people are like, this is completely unnecessary. Why do all women need an extra holiday? I'm like, this is not a holiday. Oh my God. Why can't they not take a sick day? I'm like, they're not sick. They have their period. You're not sick. It's actually a sign of health.
• 44:13
  So, so many of those things. I love that. That is so cool. And it's so interesting where you can think of like, oh, do women actually misuse it? And what we have seen is like, absolutely not. There's some women who really need it or so grateful that it's there. And then the women who don't need it, they just don't use it. Right. It's just really that simple. 100%.
• 44:34
  I feel like that's the kind of stuff that strengthens loyalty in a team. Like, you know, that's just so key. That's what every company needs. Oh, my God. And let's just, whipped are powerful, right? We don't even really, we just pretend, we go to work, we pretend we don't, you know, even have a period. We're to actually show that period cramps are actually as painful as having a heart attack.
• 44:58
  I was like, imagine a man at work having a heart attack. You think he's going to pretend he's fine? Like, I don't think so. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Women are super superheroes. Question number three. What is your go to business resource? Where are you learning or upscaling or consuming great content at the moment?
• 45:20
  um great question my one of my favorite ones was um and still is is how i built this uh the podcast i think from guy ross i think that's something i really enjoyed also always listening to all the stories there i think another piece is just like actually i over the years i always switched like whether it was then certain books then it was um
• 45:43
  Russell Branson, then I was Tony Robbins. And I think the one piece that I want to remind everyone of is that it's not just your practical skills, right? Of like building a funnel, your Facebook ads. I think some of the most growth in a company happened because I worked on my own mindset, right? When I worked on my personal growth and really changing, just like working on me and what's happening on the inside. Because I think we're always our own...
• 46:11
  As a founder and as a business owner, you are the cap, you are the bottleneck of the business. So you really need to work on yourself in order to kind of just open up, change your perspective and to keep growing. I love that. Thank you so much. That was so cool. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM and PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and motivated?
• 46:34
  I love this question also. So I'm a huge morning routine person. And for years, every mom was always screaming at me, like, just wait until you have kids. Just wait until you have kids. I have a baby now and I have slightly adjusted. Basically what I do is that I have a list of like eight to 10 things that I know make me feel really good. Right. So that can mean going for a walk. That means Pilates. It means drinking water. That means meditating. That means...
• 47:01
  taking a bath, a massage, like just things that I know, drinking a smoothie in the morning. And basically what I do is that I'm nowadays, I just know I need to be flexible, right? Sometimes it depends who is watching video. Sometimes it depends when he wakes up, what he needs. So I just try to take off as many as I can throughout the day of things that I know make me feel good.
• 47:22
  And if I have a day where I don't feel as good, I try to take off more, right? So I think that's really the piece that I really focus on now because I know I cannot always just have time for myself right away, but I make sure I hit those moments throughout the day. Oh, I love that. Another cracker. You're crushing these answers. I love it. Question number five, what's been your worst money mistake in the business and how much did it cost you? Oh, yeah.
• 47:51
  Okay, well, I don't know if this is the worst one. It's probably not. But one was we were like, we need a professional looking ad. We need to invest in like high production versus now our iPhone stuff. And we shot the ad, I think it was 100K and it actually didn't do anything, nothing.
• 48:11
  I was like, okay, back to the iPhone as we go. Oh my gosh. So that was one. And I'm sure there's a ton more from another really funny one is that we, we did sell those cans, but we, on the front of a new packaging, instead of Le Kuma, it said Le MoMA.
• 48:30
  So it was a little spelling mistake for a foreign designer, whatever, whatever happened. And I know she will never forget this one either. And it was just so funny because then you would suddenly get like influencer videos that were like talking as experts about, you know, the product and ingredients. And they're like, and there's a Mooma in here. And I was like, oh no. So...
• 48:54
  There's so many funny things. And, you know, in the moment, they always feel like it's life or death. And you're like, oh, we're never going to survive this. This is so bad. Like you kind of just like, you know, under the table. And now I look back and I'm just like, it's just funny at this point. So it's a lull moment. Yeah. Last question. Question number six. And you've shared so many already. But what is just a crazy story, good or bad, you can share from building your business?
• 49:20
  I think maybe just a really good one. One of my favorite things that we did in the business is that we used to visit farmers. And we basically, because sourcing was such a big thing for us. And I think it's important for everyone, especially if you sell food, right? Because we learned pretty early on that wheatgrass from China is very different from wheatgrass from Germany.
• 49:41
  So what we used to do is that we, you know, A, we only worked with, basically at some point we didn't buy some wholesalers anymore, but we bought directly from people from the country where the ingredients were originally grown. And we only would work with them if we were allowed to visit. So we went, for example, to Peru, we went to Brazil, and we got to meet with like often the co-ops and then actual farmers and see how they list, how they used ingredients, right? So acai,
• 50:08
  You know how we have this amazing acai bowl. It's very sweet, very delicious, all those things. Acai is very bitter. And they actually have it next to their rice as kind of like acai puree juice. And it's not sweet at all. It's just a bitter purple kind of thing next to their rice. And I was just like those things to learn how they use it, how they actually. And for so many years, I write in the traditions around ingredients from, you know, from the farmers themselves. And hear their stories and why they grow organic and all those kind of things. It's.
• 50:37
  there's already highlights because actually you don't even think about it. Right. But like the impact you have and can have if you source the right way is massive. Wow. That is blowing my mind. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your time. I've loved learning about your story and your journey and what you've been up to. This was so, so much fun. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for having me. And it was a lot of fun stories. A lot of ones I haven't
• 51:07
  Oh my God. I love that.
• 51:13
  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.
• 51:38
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• 52:00
  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.