Latest / Skin Anarchy / Clean Innovations: gelo’s Founder Reveals Secrets to Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Hand Soap - E.445

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Clean Innovations: gelo’s Founder Reveals Secrets to Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Hand Soap - E.445 · Skin Anarchy

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• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: This is your host, Ecta, and I have such a fabulous guest with me today.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a huge, huge fan of his brand.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: I was just chatting with him before the interview started about how this is literally replacing all of the other um hand soap products I have uh currently in my home, very quickly.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so without further ado, I want to introduce you guys to the founder of Gellow, Corin Mara.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the show, Corinne.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks so much.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_04: I'm so glad to be here.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: No, I'm so glad to host you.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm really am a fan, like I said, because you know, you really have created such a sustainable option for, you know, just everyday hygiene.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm just such a fan, you know, of what you've done here.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: So before I dive in to all the geeking out of me, you know, me geeking out about the science and stuff, I just want to talk to you about really yourself and your journey and what led to the creation of the brand.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: And um if you could walk us down that memory lane, that'd be great.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_04: So uh uh the I run a business called Hidden Products.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_04: At Hayden, we have a couple of consumer products brands that we run.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, some of brands are brands that we started from scratch, other than others are uh brands that we sort of took over and are seeking to revitalize and grow.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_04: Uh in this case, Jell O was a brand that we started about uh four years ago uh with the focus on trying to introduce better and more accessible sustainable options uh in categories that were filled with a lot of single-use plastic.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_04: Uh what I saw in the market, like I did my undergrad at Berkeley.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_04: And if you know anything about Berkeley, California, uh, that sort of uh uh peak sustainability as far as options and things are concerned.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_04: I remember walking around campus and you could find people who were making their own shampoo, making their own toothpaste, which was really neat and exciting.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but what always underscored all of that was the fact that most of that uh behavior was restricted to Berkeley, California.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_04: And when you went to places like Ohio or New York, or I thought about what my mom was gonna do, the reality was she wasn't gonna wake up every morning and concoct a potion uh just because she wanted to reduce uh a little bit of single-use waste.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_04: And so what we saw was an opportunity was to take um that sort of thinking, but find a way to streamline it and make it accessible.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and out of that came Jell-O.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, our initial innovation, which you were talking about, was the launch of a set of brand new hand soaps uh that uh just a month ago launched at Walmart nationwide, uh where the premise is is uh that you can refill your hand soap with the equivalent of a tide pump, right?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_04: You drop it filled with concentrated hand soap, essential oils, uh uh shea and oat, drop it in your hand soap container, add water, and you're ready to go without any of the nuisance of single-use plastic, without any of the nuisance of those big heavy uh jugs that are unwieldy to shop, carry, or store.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and in the process, you not only are a little bit better to the planet, but you also frankly just save money, uh uh, which uh makes it a really, really nice or accessible mass proposition uh uh in the face of a category that I don't know, the last time I looked at the hand soap shelf, uh there's not a lot of exciting things going on there.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um that's what we've been working on uh for the past four or five years.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_04: Really, really exciting to see it launch into Walmart nationwide um this month, which is a huge step for us uh to try and get uh more households uh kind of involved in our mission.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I love that.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: And I love what you said about Berkeley because you know, it it always starts from, I feel like California is always, you know, at the forefront of sustainability.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_03: And obviously, so I mean, people are just very um in tune with this idea of doing what they can to save the environment.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_03: I really love that about the state overall, but um definitely resonate with what you said that you know this was something you saw on the campus and you saw in the daily lifestyle of people because now I still have friends to this day that they refuse to make or they refuse to buy anything that they can make on their own, you know, in their home.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: Like so, you know, it's something I really, really admire about them, but at the same time, I'm on the other side of the fence as well, where it's like, you know, I wish I had the time, you know, to do that because that'd be great, but I don't.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_03: So that's where jello really comes in for me, you know, as a consumer.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: It's just such a such a great way to make sure that I'm doing my due diligence and and feel good about how I'm consuming my products, but at the same time, I know that I it can be trusted and it's something that you know I don't have to worry about in terms of like, you know, am I are the concentrations right?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: Like, is it gonna harm my my skin or anything like that, which I think is a big risk that a lot of people take when they make things at home without like regulations.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: So I I think that yeah, no, I'm I'm really excited to see that you guys are in Walmart stores now because I mean it's it's a really great product.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, uh, I'm a huge fan.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_04: Well, thanks so much.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_04: And look, I I think what you're touching on is is is spot on, which is for for decades now, right?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_04: You've had these consumers that all call kind of eco-warriors, and they are um uh super super passionate about protecting the environment, and they're willing to take uh you know all sorts of measures to do the right thing.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_04: And and I adore those customers and those types of people.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_04: I think what we're also seeing though in the past couple of years is the rise of what we kind of call the eco-curious consumer, who maybe is a little like you or me, where they care about the environment, but there are limitations in terms of what they can do on a daily basis because they just got other things going on.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_04: And our goal was to find a way to encourage that eco-curious consumer to take a little action and to create ways and paths for her to do that that probably weren't previously available because the other stuff was just too difficult or required too much compromise in the way of performance or product or packaging.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_03: No, I mean it it makes sense.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, the thing is that I think people like innately, we have this desire to do better.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I really believe that about the human spirit.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I think when it comes to sustainability, this this concept and this like philosophical discussion never really gets touched upon uh, or when it does, it's very, you know, very few times have I noticed it at least in the sense that we don't talk about that.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's it's in our nature to want to do the best we can.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that we have to give each other, you know what I mean?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: Like we have to give each other credit for that.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: And for you to have created such a beautiful brand that's not only um allowing us to do that, but then also something that we can rely on is truly special to me as not only a consumer, but especially as a physician, as a surgeon.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we spend half our lives, you know, scrubbing into surgeries.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_04: And that's such a you know, it takes such a we should have had you testing the hand soap when we were developing you know better than anyone.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: I would be your best test subject.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm telling you, like I literally like I, you know, it it's it's so so annoying because when you scrub into a surgery and no one, you know, has any idea until you've done it, is that after you've done it for like even two months, right?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: Like on a regular basis, your hands are shot.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that's it, that it'll be your skin.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_03: So the soap that's utilized in those, you know, in the process of scrubbing into a surgery is so harsh on you.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: So when you're going home or when you're leaving the hospital or you're doing something that's just normal hand cleansing, it's almost like a treat.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it becomes this like for your hands.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, you know, your hands are like, oh my God, thank you, you know, for not scrubbing the crap out of me, you know.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: So it's it's really, really important to understand that, you know, um, I really I appreciate it from that standpoint as well, you know, in the sense that it's a very wonderful formula that you've created because I know that we were talking before the interview and we were talking about the essential oils that are in the formula and um these components that are really there for skin health benefits.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: However, the efficacy of your product is just spot on.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I'm a huge believer in like I will never sacrifice hygiene for like something that feels good because at the end of the day, like I said, I'm a doctor.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: So it's just not, it's a no-brainer to me.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: But I think a lot of hand soap companies that I've noticed or I've tried in the past, I'll love their product, like I'll love the smell, I love the, you know, whatever.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_03: But I mean, are you really cleansing my hands though?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: Like, am I really getting that hygiene component like the way on the way that I would like as as you know, with my standards?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: Probably not, you know, that and that's the truth.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: Because, you know, if you would put that hand under like a blue light or if you would do some sampling on it, you would probably notice there's still some residual, you know, bacteria or whatever left over, you know, which you know.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: So in that regard, I want to ask you really, I want to shift the conversation to the formula itself because um, you know, like you said, it is like for all the listeners out there, just if you have not tried the brand already, just to give you a sneak peek, um, as uh Kern was saying, it's the little Tide Pod size packets that come um with this beautiful, you know, like mason jar kind of um uh dispenser, right?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: Which is the foaming uh version of the hand soap, and you just fill it with water and you like even tap water and you pop in the tide pod size um packets.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: I put in uh two into mine, and you just you can shake it up if you want, you know, but it dissolves very easily.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: And it's a really, really easy process, you know.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: But I just wanted to say that for all the listeners out there so they have an idea.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: But I would love for you to tell us about the formula and what it took to create, you know, such a concentrated uh, you know, formula for the hand soap.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, totally.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_04: And and again, the the what we started with was trying to create an experience that was totally seamless, right?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_04: Because when you're talking about refilling your hand soap and you're trying to create a new habit with consumers, there's a new behavior.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_04: The last thing you want is for it to be a hassle.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_04: And so we set out with that goal of all right, how do you go and take something?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: Uh our jello refill pods, it's truly as simple, right?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_04: As you pointed out, take it, drop it in your glass bottle, add in a little water, and within seconds, you have ready-to-use hand soap, which frankly is even easier, I think, than having to pour in those unwieldy jugs.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_04: Uh where you always spill or there's too much, too little, and it's goopy and a mess and a whole extra exercise.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um, from a formulation perspective, right, the the unique challenge here was that we were trying to formulate uh in a waterless manner because those those pods are are are largely anhydrous, and that in the initial sort of setup posed some pretty meaningful restrictions in terms of the types of ingredients that we were allowed to use.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_04: Commonly, hand soap ingredients that that you traditionally formulate with uh already have water in them.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_04: They come in sort of solutions, and uh water, as you look at any ingredient list for hand soap, is the number one ingredient in there.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_04: As we started working through this, what we actually found what was really interesting, we were able to find kind of solid forms of a lot of the surfactants uh and cleansers that we were looking to use.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_04: And turned out that these were frankly just better versions of uh uh of the hydrated solutions that were commonly used.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_04: And so we found ourselves working with much more potent ingredients that had much higher solids contents, meaning that they just had more actives going on in there.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_04: And so what we initially thought was going to be a little bit of a challenge and a workaround turned out to be a real boon from a formulation perspective, because we ended up with the hand soap that, as you experienced, just works a lot better than conventional hand soap, because the core kind of meat and potatoes in that recipe uh is just sourced from better, higher quality, more pure ingredients uh that allow you to deliver better efficacy.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_04: In the case, in this case, that's really about cleansing power.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_04: And then for a lot of consumers, it's that foaming action that you get.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_04: And I think when you experience, and I bet you had this experience, you get this really almost velvety cloud of foaming hand soap uh when you pump every time, even though uh, you know, you've sort of diluted our pods with water on their own.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: No, I mean I I think that that's really interesting that you said that, uh, especially about the anhydrous uh formulation, because you know, people um I think it's easy to get that confused um with how you know it works when you put it into the water, you know what I mean?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: Because I think um, whenever I hear about people asking me about anhydrous formulations, it's usually about like vitamin C serums or something like that, you know, and they're very curious about how is this gonna work once I add water to it?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: You know, does it reduce the efficacy?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_03: Does it reduce the potency of the actual formula itself?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: And I am excited to see that, you know, your the pods are it's like as if it's exactly the right amount of hand soap in there.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: So that when you fill your the the actual hand soap container up with water, the dilution factor is uh it's almost mathematically perfect if you think about it.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's like you're getting rid of what you need to get rid of on your hands when you're properly cleansing, but you're not hurting your skin barrier.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's really, really wonderful.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that a lot of times what I notice with a lot of um hygiene-related company products and companies, especially when it comes to hand care, which by the way, I just want to say for the record, we are greatly lacking in this category, you know, as a beauty industry and as a cosmetics industry.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: So what Jell-O is doing is truly revolutionary, in my opinion, you know.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um, with that being said, it what I notice a lot with hand products is that it's a hit or a miss.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you you have a beautiful product that comes in great packaging, or, you know, it might look really appealing.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_03: It might look like it's, you know, uh gonna be the next big thing, but then you use the product and you're like, wait a minute, this isn't doing anything for me.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_03: You know, whether that's uh hand cream or hand soap or whatever, because at the end of the day, you're compromising something to gain something.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: And that's something I've always wondered about from a formulation perspective, is this idea of like, you know, how hard is it to really formulate these kind of products?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_03: Because, like, as we were talking about, Karen, in the beginning, there's women and men that do it at home.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, they make their own hand soap, they make their own like detergent, you know, all of that stuff.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_03: But at the end of the day, it's really about efficacy, right?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_03: So that's good.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_04: I think you're totally right.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it's it's look, anybody can make soap.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_04: It's hard to make really good soap and to do it in a way that is repeatable so that you can have product sitting on a shelf at Walmart and anybody can take it home, whether they're in Missouri or California and get the same experience.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_04: That's sort of where the work and formulation comes in.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_04: People make toothpaste on their own at home.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_04: And and that was sort of the magic in a lot of the work that we did and a lot of the testing that we did was to make sure that we had a process that was easily repeatable, regardless of whether you had cold water or hot water at home, whether you had hard water or soft water at home, whether you're using a glass bottle or a plastic bottle or what have you, uh, or if you had a little hand soap left over when you went to refill.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_04: And that was, I mean, probably 18 months worth of RMD work.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we have several patents on both the formulation and construction of this.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and it was all working through those details and nuances.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and I think that's the tricky part about this sort of a category is that to some extent it's really easy to introduce things that are quote unquote green.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but a lot of times, and I'm sure you've seen this in market, they come with what I'd call a green tax, right?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_04: They're either more expensive or they don't work as well.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's where a lot of, I'd say, sort of sustainable predecessors have fallen short and they don't get to that sort of mass appeal because it isn't easily repeatable, it isn't priced right, and it doesn't just work as well, if not better, uh, than kind of the conventional alternatives.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, that makes total sense.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, one thing I do want to mention is that I I I've been dying to ask you, have you thought about um kind of expanding this into like, you know, more like of a, I don't want to say third world countries, but more um poverished uh communities and populations?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_03: Because I spent a lot of time um in for my medical work overseas in the Caribbean.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_03: And one thing I noticed is that the accessibility to just common, you know, things like hand soap or you know, sanitizer or anything that has to do with just everyday hygiene is very limited in these areas.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: And um, I I'd be really curious to see if Jell O has any plans for the future in terms of expanding into you know such kind of environments.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, totally.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_04: And and I think what you realize in in certain markets like the ones that you're describing, there's also a consumer behavior that's more keen to refill.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_04: Right?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_04: You think about markets like uh markets in Southeast Asia, you think about markets in in southern Africa, there those are areas where consumers are used to um uh keeping the same dispenser that you continue to refill in different ways.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_04: There's a bigger focus on water conservation because of some of the infrastructure topics, right?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_04: That you're uh the infrastructure issues that you're alluding to in there.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_04: And so there's uh a hundred percent an opportunity to go in and and and kind of extend this proposition there, both in this category and in other categories.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's just a matter of pacing the brand in a way, uh, so that you're kind of growing as opposed to spreading yourself too thin.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_04: But but I'd argue that frankly, a lot of those markets would be more receptive than the US, where there's kind of an existing habit around single use and and a comfort that we might not like that comfort, which is kind of throwing away a bottle after use it for a month or so.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_03: No, that's a great point.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: That's a really great point.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I and I honestly, you know, I think it'd be a huge hit in somewhere like Grenada, you know, like where half the half the country, well, 75% of the country is basically, you know, they don't have access to that.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, even even things when I think about, like, for example, I know Proctor and Gamble had run this amazing campaign a while back, a few years back, where they were helping um create like, you know, just clean water, even if it was like, you know, completely muddy, completely just from like, you know, swampland in African regions, you know, that they were able to clarify that water and filter it to the point where it was now, you know, ingestible.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_03: It was something that was utilized um for you know just everyday purposes.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_03: So when I think about your brand, I don't know, it just it makes me think of those kind of amazing projects because you know, these are the kind of things that really change the world, you know, if you ask me.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_03: They really help bring things to communities that really need them in the sense of like, you know, a woman that's trying to make sure her family stays healthy, you know, in an environment that is basically set up against that, right?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, with all the pollution and the environmental factors, something like hand soap, even though we as Americans might take these things for granted, those kind of things will save a life at the end of the day in some of these countries, you know, like it's it's astronomical how much change you can make, you know, or uh kind of catalyze, you know, when you apply this technology and promote it in the right regions of the world.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm really excited to see you guys grow into that um area if you choose to do so, because I think you would be doing such a great service, you know, globally.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: Totally.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_04: And and that's the fun, right, about working in a category uh like this, in in sort of beauty and personal care categories, is that whatever you do, you have the opportunity to touch millions of households, right?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_04: You can immediately see the scale.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_04: And that's really exciting.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_04: It's really inspiring.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and especially I think on a brand like Jella, where the focus and the mission is so uh just universally good, right?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_04: It's such a thrill.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_04: Every every area of growth has all these extra sort of moral wins in there that's just so exciting and it's sort of Pricing on the cake as the brand continues to grow.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_04: And I think all of those things, right?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_04: Improving health and wellness, improving kind of the ecological state of our planet, just helping people save money every day, right?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_04: Or are make this such a terrific brand to work with.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it's why the folks who who shop jello today are so enthusiastic about the brand and really love the brand in that way.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_04: And we hear every Sunday morning, right?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_04: People send us a video of refilling hand soap with the kids at home.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_04: And it sounds, but you know, it's it's to hear consumers have such passionate love for a category like hand soap.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_04: You go, oh, that's there's something going on there because uh it's not something you talk about, or at least something I talked about at brunch.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you made it you made it fun too, though, Kern.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: You mean you know, it's the game, that it's it's a fun ritual.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, yeah, I remember even myself, you know, I'm not a five-year-old, but if I was, I'd be just as as excited as I was when I filled my hands up.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, dropping in the pods and watching it fizz and watching, you know, it's it's a whole like it's a feeling, it's an experience.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: And and you know, and that is so timeless, and it is so you can't put a price on something like that.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: So you haven't just created a product here, you've created an experience, you know, and and that is something that families can get together and experience together.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, especially if you have young children, you know, it it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, hats off to you.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: You've really done such wonderful work with this specific product.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: I absolutely appreciate that.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_04: That's so kind of you.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and now, you know, I want to actually uh move the conversation more towards like uh, I guess you could say, um, a more advice-centered uh interview because I really want to get your insights about being an entrepreneur.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I think that right now, where we are in this industry, you know, whether it's the wellness industry, the beauty industry, whatever you want to call it, I in my head they all mesh together, you know, on some level.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: But um I really want your advice because, you know, very, very rarely do I get to talk to entrepreneurs who are not only creating great products, but you're really creating something here that has the potential to like really save a lot of lives.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_03: I'm being honest when I say that.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it like hand soap is much more than hand soap, you guys.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: Like for those listening.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I know the doctors out there that are like me, if you've done any overseas work or if you've done any pro boner surgeries or gone overseas, done any trauma work in the field, you understand what I mean.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's a really cool category.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I want to know from your perspective, from your own um vision, you know, what advice can you offer entrepreneurs, you know, in general, when they're creating something and when they want to bring that level of innovation and just true, you know, just something unique, you know what I mean, to to this industry and to their category.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, look, it totally starts with with the consumer, right?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_04: It comes down to really understanding who's the consumer that you're after and and what are the problems or issues that she really cares about.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_04: And for us, it was identifying that there were millions of eco-curious households across the country who cared about sustainability, but were at a loss for solutions.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_04: And we said, okay, what can we do to create opportunities for her to make her life a little bit better, to give her the satisfaction that she's doing right by her home, by her community, uh uh, by her family, uh in what she was after.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that ultimately has to be the sort of North Star, invariably, in sort of the early stages of starting a brand, of developing product, particularly when you're creating hard innovation, right?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_04: Things that are really, really materially different, not just sort of fragrance or packaging innovation.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um things are tricky and you will you will inevitably run into roadblocks or hurdles or unforeseen circumstances.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_04: And having that consumer as your North Star really helps you evaluate the trade-offs and make decisions um as to what is going to be the best, most interesting uh and sort of most viable product uh uh to continue to kind of keep things moving forward.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: No, I love that.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: I think that that's you know, it's great solid advice.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I think um, you know, for me, when I sometimes I interview entrepreneurs, um, I often find them to be, you know, uh most of the time they know what they're doing, obviously.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: You know, they create a brand and put it out in the market.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_03: But um, when it comes to that next level of just what's your vision, where are you trying to go with this, you know, what was the real driving force or philosophy behind what you created?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_03: There comes a point where they're stumped in a way, because it feels like I think sometimes for people, when you create something, you don't know what to do next.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you don't know where that real brand DNA is, in the sense of like, where can I really take this and how can I adapt this technology into new and innovative ways to continue that overall goal and that overall mission that I had in mind from the very beginning.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's really what you know where I asked you that question from that perspective, because you know, with Jell O, for example, you know, you can apply this same technology to, I mean, a plethora of different products, you know.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we need this in everything, like we need, you know, detergents that are like this, you know, we need uh like dish soap or you know, things for our appliances, or you know, even something like putting baking soda in our fridge.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I could see you using something that you've created and making that simpler, you know, keeping your fridge more fresh or anything, right?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's a very versatile technology and that's a very versatile approach that you've taken.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_03: So that's really where I think um I'm gonna, you know, uh probe you a little bit more, you know, uh pick your brain a little bit more here is this idea of being innovative as an entrepreneur.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: You know, where does your real inspiration come from when you sit down at that drawing board and you're mapping out your ideas?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, again, look, the the greatest thing is that the uh consumers are never satisfied, right?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_04: Consumers are always asking for more, and there's always ways in which you can find um um sort of improvements.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_04: And for us, the the easiest way, uh there's no sort of shortage of paths for us when we sit down and we think about innovation going forward, because we're we're hearing feedback from our consumers every day, both positive uh and constructive.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_04: And for us, it's just a matter of lining up which areas we think are the most impactful, the kinds of problems that we think are big, uh, and then you know, syncing that up with the problems that we think we actually have an answer to and that we can kind of solve in there.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so for us, that that's the simple solution every day is just to take a listen, put our ear on the ground and hear what consumers are saying, hear what they're asking for, and uh and continue to try to find ways to deliver for that.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it sounds almost pithy uh in a certain way, but but on some level, right?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_04: We're kind of in the schmanta business here.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_04: It isn't rocket science in terms of uh putting hand soap in the market.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_04: People buy it pretty impulsively and they use it every day, and they are experts on what they want in their homes and and the kinds of products they like to use.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_04: And for us, it's just a matter of listening to them and making sure that we can deliver and and communicate what we're delivering as best as we can.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's really, really great advice.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I hope everyone uh listening, if you are an entrepreneur in a similar space, you do take that advice and and kind of run with it because you know it can be hard, right?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_03: It can be hard finding that like grounding piece in your work and and really kind of making sure that your whatever you're doing is is always it's always working around that, right?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's always somehow connected to your central vision.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_03: So thank you so much for answering that question.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_03: Now, one thing I do want to ask you, and this is a little bit more technical, is you know, we're living in this, I guess, um I want to say post-COVID era, but it's really not post.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: We're still dealing with COVID.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_03: You know, how has that impacted your business, you know, with COVID when it began, and now that it's kind of, I think, leveled off a little bit, we have peaks here and there.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_03: How has that been for you as an entrepreneur, as a business owner?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_04: So we launched in April of 2020, which is uh, you know, both a formidable and fortuitous time to launch a hand soap brand.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, what we had was an interesting opportunity where, hey, a lot of people were looking for hand soap, right?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_04: And so if you're trying to introduce a new hand soap into market, it is nice to have an audience that is really, really interested in hearing about hand soap because they're desperately trying to get their hands on hand soap.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_04: And so for us, that was uh a really unique uh point of entry where we were able to kind of present to a super wide audience.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_04: At the same time, consumers in April of 2020 were incredibly, and as they should have been, incredibly risk averse.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_04: And so there wasn't a lot of appetite for trying new things.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_04: And a lot of folks started buying, you know, I don't know.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_04: If you remember, there was a lot of talk about the rise of heritage brands at the time, right?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_04: Lysol and these sorts of brands really rocketed, and some of the niche brands or newer entrants uh struggled because nobody wanted to take risk in there.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_04: So it was a little bit of a mixed bag at the outset.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_04: I'd say now in the market, what you see is is uh a much more straightforward um sort of environment in which consumers are shopping hand soap as they previously did.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_04: That said, everybody's had this really interesting reset opportunity, and I just feel it in the air uh in everything, where you're sort of revisiting and rethinking a lot of your priorities and changing a lot of your habits, generally sort of forces new questions and new arrangements um to come to mind.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_04: And so for us, that's been a really nice and slightly calmer window where we can introduce folks to the brand, uh, and yet they're still super really receptive.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_04: So I'd say uh things have continued to be really strong.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_04: COVID was interesting, it was a weird way to launch a brand.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_04: I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for anybody.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_04: Uh uh and things have continued to grow, and and the community, fortunately for us, has continued to build really nicely and organically, uh, as has distribution for the brand as we continue to grow.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's wonderful.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: I'm glad that you know you guys have grown through this very, very difficult time, you know, um, for us as globally, you know, as people.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's interesting what you said about the heritage brands.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_03: Though I I remember even when all of this started, you know, there was a running joke in the hospital.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_03: All of us were like, yeah, well, Purel's stock is up, you know.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_03: So if you've got Purel, you're good to go, you know, you might as well not even take this case because you're good.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_03: So it was it was kind of like a running joke.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_03: And so I mean, I understand what you mean, but at the same time, you know, even as a consumer, I remember during that period, um, for my own family and for my own family safety, I was always looking for brands that were, you know, providing options, you know, just as good as these heritage brands.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that that's where, you know, jello for me really stands out because you guys are not only as good, but I I consider it even better than a lot of the you know the soaps that I've used in the past.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_03: Like I said, you know, I do have, you know, some sort of an understanding of when my hands like the soap I'm using, you know, because of all the scrubbing it and I'm using there, you know it.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, I can tell when a product is genuinely good.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I think you've really, really created magic here.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, really kudos to you and your team for for doing this and especially doing it in such a hard time.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that's that was truly a service, actually, that you did for us as as people.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you so much.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_04: I I I look uh our our job here is always just to kind of uh do as best we can with the products we have, the skills we have, uh, and we're we're always excited uh as a team at Aiden to continue to kind of make consumers' lives a little bit better, a little bit more fun, a little bit more interesting uh in whatever fashion we can as a company.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thank you so much, Karen, and thank you so much for everyone who has tuned in.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_03: If you have any questions at all for um Jell-O's team or anything about Jell-O, please reach out, let us know.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_03: We will definitely connect with the team and let them know about your questions and concerns and get you some answers.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_03: But this has been truly such a wonderful episode and so fun to record with you, Karen.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_03: So thank you so much for your time and for everything that you do.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_03: I really appreciate it.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_04: Well, this was great.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_04: I really loved it.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_04: And thanks so much again for having me on.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you so much.
• 34:15
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