Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 3 learnings to raising $26m in venture capital, with Summersalt’s Reshma Chattaram Chamberlin (part 1)

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3 learnings to raising $26m in venture capital, with Summersalt’s Reshma Chattaram Chamberlin (part 1) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

0:00
This is Reshma Chaturam-Chamberlain for Female Startup Club. Hey everyone, it's Dune here, your host and hype girl. Today on the show, we're learning from the co-founder of Somersault, Reshma Chaturam-Chamberlain.
0:22
Somersault launched in 2017 after a serendipitous moment with her co-founder, Laurie, and what started as a swimwear company made from recycled materials has since moved into every area of a woman's wardrobe. In this episode, we're talking through Reshma's journey and the power that a mission-driven brand can have in a saturated market.
0:43
how to successfully collaborate with brands as a way to drive significant customer acquisition, and her core tips from raising $26 million in venture capital. If you learned something from this episode, please do share it with us on Instagram stories and tag us at Female Startup Club to help other ears find us. I am so grateful to each and every one of you when you do that. Let's get into this episode. This is Reshma for Female Startup Club.
1:13
Reshma, hi. Welcome to the show. So happy to be here. Thank you for having me. Where are you today? I'm at home in St. Louis, Missouri. That's where Somersault is headquartered. I used to live in Mumbai and India and New York City and now call St. Louis home. So here's where I am. That's so cool. What took you to St. Louis?
1:36
Well, I was living in a fourth floor walk up in Brooklyn with two women I had met on Craigslist. You know, classic New York City life. And I got engaged and my husband said, why don't you try out St. Louis? And I was like, OK, what do I have to lose? And so I ended up here and haven't looked back since. And so grateful to found this amazing business here.
2:02
That's so cool. Good old St. Louis. I don't think I've ever had someone on the show from St. Louis before. This is a first for me.
2:10
Well, that's exciting. Well, it's a wonderful city. It's, you know, three million people. So we have everything we need easy to get to L.A. and New York. You know, as a founder, sometimes you have to fly places for crazy amounts of time. But you can do L.A. in a day from St. Louis and you can do New York, which I've done early morning flight, late flight home. It works to be in the middle.
2:33
That's awesome. Can you give us a bit of an introduction to who you are and the elevator pitch for your brand and what it's all about for anyone who might not know yet? Yeah, absolutely. I'm Rachel O'Challa. I'm Chamberlain. I'm one of the co-founders of Somersault. I founded this business with my amazing co-founder, Lori.
2:52
She had been designing and manufacturing swimwear and other apparel in a really interesting tech enabled way for a long time. So she was very early into the, you know, tech meets fashion space. We are acquaintances and, you know, didn't know each other very well, to be honest, not personal friends. But we realized quickly that there was a unique opportunity and launched Somersault.
3:19
And I'm so grateful we enjoy working together every single day. And Somersault is a direct-to-consumer apparel and lifestyle brand. We started in swimwear and now have every aspect of her wardrobe covered. So including these fun summer dresses that are the easiest to wear. So everything in between.
3:41
Looks beautiful. I love it. Gosh. Okay. So you said you didn't know each other beforehand. How did you actually meet and get to the point of being like, oh, let's build a brand together?
3:51
Well, it's such a funny and wonderful story. So about now, oh my gosh, I think it was 2013. So getting on nine years ago, I guess, was the first time Lori and I met. We essentially met at a networking event where, you know, Lori was instantly helpful to me. I had an app at the time. And she said, you know what, let me introduce you to this one, let me introduce you to that one. It
4:21
two female entrepreneurs in the Midwest helping each other out. So over the course of time, we just kept in touch. We both respected each other greatly and what we had built. But again, we were not personal friends and we had never worked together. We just really had respected each other from afar and then had become, I would say, business acquaintances.
4:45
Um, Lori and I met for lunch in 2016 at Chipotle, very fancy. Um, but we can't go wrong with Chipotle, but, um, you know, we met to kind of discuss what was happening in the retail space and kind of the acceleration of disruption. And we've continued to see that acceleration now due to the pandemic. And there's so much happening in the retail space. And so, um,
5:11
We sat down to lunch over burrito bowls and talked about kind of what was happening. Again, not intending for that lunch to be anything life changing or life defining. We kind of shared our philosophy of the retail space. We both left that lunch kind of like, OK, great. That was a great entrepreneurial catch up.
5:33
So Lori left at lunch and kind of started percolating on what could be next and wrote the initial business plan for what is now Somersault.
5:42
Ironically, I had an agency at the time, so she came back and tried to hire my agency to help her launch what is now Somersault. But I was in a transition, so actually declined because I was just kind of thinking about shutting down my agency. So I didn't think it was responsible to kind of take on a new client when you're in a transition.
6:06
Um, but serendipitously, Lori and I bumped into each other in New York at an event, um, an event I actually was not invited to. I was meeting a friend who happened to be late. So it was very serendipitous. And I was very grateful to see a familiar face in Lori.
6:24
And we often say Lori cornered me, which is absolutely true. She saw me. She was like, here's the line sheet. Let's talk about it. And once she kind of walked me through the incredible strategy that is now Somersault, I couldn't help but ask her what she thought of a co-founder. And as they say, the rest is history. Oh, my gosh, that's so cool. And was it like from her side just immediately like, yes, let's do it together? Because, you know, I guess she'd already vetted you. She wanted to hire you originally.
6:54
Yeah, we both kind of knew that, you know, we were two sides of the same coin is what we often say, you know, we really have complementary skill sets, but really are incredibly strategically aligned. And that's very hard to find. And it was just truly a match that, you know, we both did not want to walk away from. So she was like, yes, let's start talking about it. And
7:16
I think we both left, you know, the hotel in New York was at the Gramercy Park Hotel Rose Bar. We both left thinking, did we just do that? You know, you have those moments where you're like, did you actually commit to that? And again, amazingly, we're actually based in St. Louis. The fact that we bumped into each other in New York is kind of serendipitous to be there. And then we just started working on the business. And there you go.
7:43
That is so cool. I just want to dig in one step further to the business plan and what she showed you that night at the event and specifically around the strategy. Like what got you excited? What was in the business plan that made you be like, here's something different that I actually really see myself working on?
8:00
Well, for one, I wanted to eat, breathe and sleeper brand. And it's something that, you know, I wanted to be kind of inspired by the product and what we were building. And if you think about the swimwear space, it hadn't been disrupted in decades. It had been marketed in an over-sexualized way for eternity, right? It was a men's view of what women should be and feel.
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And for us, it was really about creating product that was truly designer quality without the designer price point, all made out of recycled materials. That was a very big personal checkbox for me. We're incredibly thoughtful about what we do. We are not perfect by any means, but we're incredibly thoughtful.
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And then the third thing was we were able to deliver this in a joyful package in an industry that's essentially devoid of that. And, of course, we started with swimwear and now have expanded to every corner of our wardrobe. But what initially was the business plan was to start with swimwear. And that got me incredibly excited because essentially we had an unfair advantage. Lori had been designing and manufacturing swimwear for a decade.
9:09
And we were able to create something optional in a place where there was a big vacuum. So when you think about market opportunity, vacuum, plus your own skill set to be able to execute, we checked all those three boxes. So it was a no brainer. The trifecta. Exactly right.
9:29
Okay, so you go back to St. Louis, you're really excited, you decide that you're going to build this business together. Laurie obviously has so much experience in the swim space. What are those initial steps to getting you kind of, you know, ready to launch? And what's that time period like?
9:46
A crazy timeline because we did it in a crazy amount of time. So just to level set on timeline, we bumped into each other in New York in January of 2017. We opened up a bank account in April and we launched May 23rd. Oh, my God.
10:03
Any idea of timeline, not a normal timeline, but Lori and I often say that both of our careers led to this exact moment, right? It was not, yes, we were starting something new, but we had so much pent up experience, skillset, vendors, everything ready to go, a little bit different than a startup that has to start from zero and build it all up. So again, not the most same timeline, but effective nonetheless.
10:32
And that's what we did. And honestly, it takes a lot to get started. It required both of us to wrap up our own businesses because we both had two businesses. We raised a smaller round of capital in that timeline.
10:47
We manufactured the collection. We enabled the brand. We designed the brand. We did the website. It was complete and absolute kind of all hands on deck, kind of 24-7. But it's so worth it. When you look back and, you know, five, literally just celebrated our five-year anniversary. And you look back and the milestones we've achieved, it's all because we knew we needed to put that work in early on.
11:14
That is so cool. Gosh, what a ride. Oh my goodness. You mentioned that you raised a small round of capital and I want to sort of stay on the capital piece for a moment because I love to dig into the money side of things. I read that you raised around $600,000 initially. And since then, you've gone on to raise two further rounds totaling around $26 million, which is amazing, by the way. Congrats. That's a huge, huge feat.
11:39
How were you thinking about capital and why did you decide to go down that kind of VC route from the get-go? Well, I think there's different ways to build a business and I don't think there's a right or wrong way to build a business. For us, we just wanted to create the biggest version of Somersault it could be and we knew we needed capital to be able to do that.
11:58
We do believe that, you know, we are truly poised to be kind of a lifestyle and generation defining brand. And we needed the money to do it. So for us, it was really about how big we wanted the pie to be, as opposed to how big we wanted our own slices to be, if that makes sense. And so for us, it was really about the right partners, the right scale and, you know, building something that, you know, we can look back and people will still be shopping in 20, 30, 40, 50 years. That's our goal.
12:27
Yeah, amazing. And with that, like, experience of obviously going through three rounds of fundraising, what have been the kind of key experiences or key learnings that you've taken from that, that you now have in your toolkit and you can share to other entrepreneurs, perhaps thinking about going down that pathway?
12:46
But I always remind everyone that only 2% of venture funding goes to women. I think it was up to nearly 3% in 2019. And then we have 2020 hit with COVID. And then I think it's closer to 2% again. And so I think that if we...
13:04
We all need to remove our rose-colored glasses because when you think about there's less women in those decision-making seats, there's less women in those larger funds who are able to kind of champion something that they understand. Pitching swimsuits to men who've never had an experience trying on swimwear is not easy.
13:25
from the Midwest, when we said that literally, I mean, the closest beach we have is the Mississippi River. You know what I mean? Like there's no beach there is always a challenge. But we've had amazing, amazing men support our journey and women support our journey. So one of the things that we really focused on was sharing the big business picture as opposed to getting bogged down in the fact that this business was dedicated to women or this business could be dedicated to men or whatever it might be. We just focused
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the economics and how sound they were, how big the business could be, the opportunity, our scale. And really, even if you took out swimwear from the equation and made it about T-shirts or soap or shampoo, it would make complete sense because of how sound that was. So we really started painting the big picture.
14:15
There's also research that says that women get preventative questions about 60% of the time. I think I want to double check on that statistic. And what that means is that if someone is going to ask you a question, women get preventative questions more often. So instead of saying, oh, it's amazing. The sky is so vast and blue. It'll be, oh, my God, but the sky is so vast and blue. How are you going to deal with that? Right. Two very different forms.
14:41
And so what we just started focusing on is focusing on the bigger picture every time. So even when we got a preventative question, we answered with a growth answer. And one thing to clarify, it's not only men asking those preventative questions, it's women asking women those preventative questions as well.
15:00
So that's just something to note. Women will get preventative questions more than men do. So instead of getting defensive, which we were in the early days, you know, you get so annoyed and so upset when it's a negative out view. But we really focused on building a growth-focused approach to our answers. And again, focusing on the potential of the business, we have an incredible business. It is a rocket ship. So we just wanted people to either get on or get out of our way is essentially what it was.
15:29
Wow, that's amazing. Isn't it interesting how even though there's so much kind of talk in the media about how we need to change these statistics and, you know, we've heard these statistics a million times over, it feels like it isn't really shifting and the same issues keep arising.
15:46
I would say absolutely. But the biggest thing is the more of us that can squeeze through and create something big, then there's more of us to create impact on the other end. And so I think persistence is key, even if you hit that brick wall over and over again, which is honestly quite hard. Right. You don't want to hit that brick wall again and again. But I.
16:10
That persistence is key. And you can often end up with, you know, something absolutely incredible and hopefully influence the next generation of entrepreneurs and make their journey maybe, you know, a few percentage points easier than yours. And it doesn't feel like change will be drastic, but I know we're making an impact.
16:30
Yes, you are one of those people changing the stats. That's so cool. I want to kind of go back a little bit, back towards the launch and that early, you know, 2017 getting started that first 12 months. How did the launch go and what were you doing to kind of get your first 1000 customers?
16:50
Amazing question. Well, one, we need to make sure our technology was sound. So I think something that people might take for granted is, okay, we can get a website up quick and yes, you can, you can get it up quickly, but is the user experience sound? Is it easy for someone to check out? Is shipping easy? We wanted to make sure all the nuts and bolts were in place so that there was no kind of friction to shop.
17:20
When it comes to kind of launch, one of the things that we focused on was making sure press knew we were here and we were ready to go and change the conversation. And so we had a beautiful launch collection and essentially every press outlet you can think offload about it. And what is even more amazing is the consumer came and shopped in droves and
17:43
Our initial success was incredibly organic. And then, of course, we continued to support our success and initial momentum with strong and thoughtful marketing. But really, those things that we needed to have in place were a launch strategy, technology, press, and making sure that we could execute on the promise. And then allowed that to be the fuel for kind of the next phase of marketing and what we wanted to do with the business.
18:10
That's so cool. And what was the next phase and kind of next part of building that business? Or even if you have to think about the bullet points of what got you from, say, you know, end of 2017 to 2022, there's a lot to cover there. But what are those kind of milestones that were leaping you forward or pivotal moments?
18:31
Well, I would say just the foundation of what we say is meeting her where she is. And that, I think, is at the foundation of everything we do. So what that means is we meet her where she is emotionally. What does she need from us? We meet her where she is digitally or physically. Where is she shopping? Is she spending time on Instagram? She's spending time on TikTok? Where is she?
18:51
And where is she, quote unquote, physically, which I mean is like, is she taking us to Morocco or is she taking us to the lake in her hometown? And that's really important because through the pandemic, we were able to kind of speak to the consumer in a way that we'd want to be spoken to, right? We said, you know what? Kind of sucks. And we're going to have these. We always said we were about big or small adventures. But, you know, guess what? The summer of 2020 is going to be about the summer of simpler things.
19:19
And we're going to think about enjoying watermelon in our backyard, the sip and slide, the lake, the pool. We may not be doing those big adventures we have found, but it's going to be a sweet and beautiful summer. And we gave her permission to shop in that way and shared product that worked in that environment. And so for us, both from a product and marketing perspective, it's always about meeting our consumer where she is.
19:42
And we are a reflection of that customer. So it's really actually amazing to be building a business where you are also one of your own customers. And we can say, OK, you know what? In February, she's thinking about X as opposed to traditional retailers who are thinking about large collection drops four times a year. We're more thinking about where a consumer is at a particular given point in time and what she needs from us.
20:06
That allows us to be really thoughtful, give her the best quality product at the best possible price, always some sustainable aspect to our product. Yeah, I love that. And so true over the pandemic kind of timing, the brands that were able to meet you in that pandemic life, really the brands that you were still able to connect with and purchase from and kind of
20:30
feel a bit closer to because they are able, instead of just either, you know, going in a different direction or closing down because they weren't able to provide you the right messaging. There were a lot of brands who did that quite well, kind of joining you at home or joining you in the path, things like that. Exactly. Exactly.
20:48
Something I saw that you're quite good at is collaborations. You've done a few really big ones that I want to kind of touch on, specifically Rifle Paper Co. and the collab with Netflix's The Home Edit Show. I read you did something crazy, like a million dollars in revenue after 24 hours. So I just want to kind of talk about your approach to collaborations and breaking it down, like really tactically, how these come about.
21:18
Thank you.
21:19
Yeah, absolutely. Rifle Paper is an amazing partner of us. As with the Home Edit, the Rifle, we have another job coming soon. So everyone should sign up for our email list because those collaborations sell out instantly. The Home Edit team is absolutely amazing. We had the best time partnering with them. We really worked on content as well as product, which is really, really a fun place to be. For us, it's all about identifying trends.
21:49
and identifying brands that we have something in common with in the way in which we approach women and life and joyfulness. But we both have a unique perspective to bring to product. So when it comes to the home edit, we have this most amazing rainbow aesthetic, right? We have this really strong core group of followers, but they don't mix when we're in loungewear. So an amazing way to group together was to bring that rainbow aesthetic to product that we love and adore and create something new.
22:18
So the same with Rifle, they have the most brilliant, brilliant print. You know, Anna is the most incredible artist. These prints come to life in the most beautiful way. And so for us, it's truly about creating something unique for their customer and for our customers.
22:35
And we're very, very thoughtful and tactical about what we do here. You know, it's not about a flash in the pan. It's about strong, thoughtful relationship, making sure all our marketing is aligned, making sure we're, you know, focused on what kind of inventory we want to sell, what that looks like, who we're targeting. We're very business strategic when it comes to those collaborations. Yeah.
22:59
And we like to do business with great brands. And so that's another piece of the puzzle. So that's what we do. More often than not, it's us sending an email or them sending us an email or us DMing them or them DMing us. I think the rules of how business are done is completely different now.
23:17
It doesn't have to be incredibly formal, but it can be incredibly efficient. So I do believe that Home Edit, who slipped into their DMs, and I think with Rifle, I think I had sent them an email maybe three years before we actually decided to partner together. And someone replied to me essentially three years later. So you never know. That's amazing. Absolutely.
23:44
And I think a lesson is, you know, you continuously want to put yourself out there and continuously claim what you want. Sometimes it happens in the moment you want it, but sometimes it happens three years later. And that timing was way better three years later than it was during that initial outreach. So, again, each collaboration kind of happens a little bit differently and each has their own specific goals.
24:09
But our goal is always to delight and inspire our customers. So if we can create something that we know she loves, then we're in it to win it together. That is so cool. Oh, my gosh. I can't believe the home edit started in the DMs. I always just think like, you know, would people even reply? Like, that's so crazy. That's amazing. Holy moly.
24:34
Absolutely. And I think, you know, you know, as a young entrepreneur or someone starting out, don't be afraid to use unconventional ways to get in front of who you want to get in front of. Right. Like the rules of engagement are completely different than what they once were.
24:50
um and lean into the society we're in right use the tools we have at hand as opposed to using antiquated tools to get a new result so i'm all for you know make a cool tiktok about someone you want to partner with like do what it takes to get in front of what you want yes be different be unique i love that that's great advice
25:15
We've talked about so many of the highlights of your business journey so far and these things that have gone really well for you. But I'd love to know what kind of challenges that you face in the business. Obviously, entrepreneurship isn't all roses. It's difficult. There's lots of ups and downs. And often we can focus on the highlights more than kind of the bad stuff.
25:37
What are some of the challenges that you've faced in the journey? Well, I actually think it's the opposite. I think when you're in it, it's easier to focus on the bad stuff as opposed to the highlights. So more often than not, you're dealing with the day to day and like something amazing happens and you're like, great. OK, awesome. Moving on. Right. I have to deal with this problem. And I think that's a little bit different from an entrepreneurial perspective perspective.
26:01
The good stuff just gets swept under the rug because you're just needing to move to whichever fire you're trying to put out next is essentially what it is. I would say when you think about kind of the macro environment, kind of what's been happening, most of our life was in COVID. That was a big challenge, right? When you think about supply chain, when you think about consumer and how they're thinking about product.
26:23
We've had phenomenal growth over the time, which we're so grateful for, but it's not without incredible challenges, focus, you know, problem solving at every twist and turn.
26:36
to make sure we deliver on our consumer promise. So one of the things Lori and I often talk about is kind of how did we win today? Because the day can sometimes feel like, oh my gosh, I dealt with this fire and that stopped working and the checkout button wasn't working, so we lost an hour of sales. It happens, right? It just happens.
26:55
part of the process. So we really try to, you know, ground ourselves in what was the win we had to be, whether that was an awesome collaborator responding, whether that was an amazing team member saying, hey, they're so grateful to be on our team or, you know,
27:15
a new product just doing exceptionally well or something as simple and as small as me, I got to eat a really peaceful lunch today. And no one scheduled me in my D and D and that was like a huge win. Um, so we really focus on the wins every single day. Uh, but honestly entrepreneurial, the entrepreneurial journey is not for the faint of heart. I think it is incredibly, incredibly challenging. I haven't, um, I've been an entrepreneur.
27:45
I mean, now, most of my career, you know, and over 10 years, and it is incredibly challenging every day. So I don't want to put rose-colored glasses on the experience, but the rewards are outpriced if you are persistent. And so for us, I know that we just rather do the hard work
28:12
And hopefully, big rewards in whatever way they come, as opposed to kind of not taking the risk. I truly believe that no risk, no reward. And rewards present themselves in multiple ways. Now, we have an amazing team. You know, I get to work with incredible people every day. I enjoy interacting with them every day. Most people can't say they get energized every morning to get to work. And so that's an amazing reward and privilege of the experience, too.
28:43
Absolutely. Gosh, how great. What does the future hold for you? Any cool collaborations that you want to shout about? Oh my gosh. Yes, absolutely. You mentioned Rifle. So Rifle is coming up soon. We also have an amazing collaboration dropping next week. I'm afraid it's going to sell out like the day it launches because of
29:07
We've done some early lead generation to see how people feel about it. And we already have way more signups than we have products. So I know that's going to go incredibly fast. For any moms listening, we have an amazing mommy and me collaboration coming with our amazing partner, Sarah Foster.
29:28
So there's just a lot happening this summer. And so I think we're all still waiting for summer to turn its heat up completely. So lots more time to shop and lots more time to get these collabs and amazing product. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. What do you think is your best piece of advice for entrepreneurs in the fashion and apparel space?
29:53
Is there anything you wish someone told you when you were starting out? Honestly, my best piece of advice is like a life piece of advice, which is the grass is green where you water it. So I've become incredibly brutal about saying no to anything else. And I think that sometimes it's really hard for us to do that. Like,
30:13
Can you be on this board? Can you meet about coffee, about this? Can you do that? When I'm focused, sometimes people might be like, oh, she never wants to do anything. But you know what? I'm focused on two things. I'm focused on somersaults and then I'm focused on my family. And that's kind of where my bandwidth is. And I don't apologize for it. And that's where I'm spending my time watering the garden and making sure it blooms and
30:39
You know, there'll be plenty of time to help with other things at a future date. Of course, we try to help entrepreneurs along the journey, make recommendations, do whatever we can. But my focus and my priority is somersault. And don't apologize for that priority. And some people will understand it. Others won't. And that's okay.
31:00
But the grass is green where you water it. So focus. I'm going to put that on a sticky note and put it on my wall. That's my new mantra for the week. I love that. That's so great. Thank you so much. Great advice. Laser focus. We all need it.
31:19
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.
31:44
And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
32:06
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.
32:23
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.
32:48
And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
33:10
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.