Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / How to get your startup into Y-Combinator and the exact steps to successfully launch with 1000+ sign ups in less than a week with Renee Mets of Ritology

Transcript

How to get your startup into Y-Combinator and the exact steps to successfully launch with 1000+ sign ups in less than a week with Renee Mets of Ritology · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is episode seven with Renee Metz. Welcome back to another episode of Female Startup Club. Today I'm chatting to Renee Metz. She's one of the co-founders of a new brand called Ritology that's pioneering the way for sustainable personal care for women.
• 0:27
  We talk about their wildly successful Refer a Friend campaign launch, which garnered 1,100 people signing up in less than a week, the process of getting into the world's most sought-after seed accelerator program, Y Combinator, and the importance of building a company backed by purpose. This is Renee for Female Startup Club. What were you doing before you started Ritology and what they did, like, what...
• 0:50
  got you to starting Ritology. Yeah. Okay. So basically I'm always working on passion projects. So me and my co-founder Dagan, we were working together managing projects
• 1:08
  it was about eight brands under an umbrella business. We were managing events around the world and we just worked in really, really well together and we thought, well, we're actually looking for more sustainable products for around the house. It's always a discussion. Were the brands you were working on, those eight brands, were they sustainable brands at all or what industry were they in? They were more in like health, wellness, fitness, fitness,
• 1:36
  that sort of arena. Yeah. So that's, I guess my background as well. Um, in events and marketing, I ran my own health and wellness events. So around Australia, um, so it's always, I mean, I'm always focused on like doing better and being better personally and then sharing that with sharing that insight. Yeah. And so when you were working with her, what was the point that made you decide like, Oh, let's start a business together.
• 2:03
  and like what it was. Yeah. Did you have like a flash bulb, flash bulb, a light bulb moment where you were like, we have this great idea. Or did you go to her and be like, Oh, this is what I'm thinking or vice versa. Um, so we worked in really, really closely. So specifically on the events, she was doing all the sponsorships, um, and sort of,
• 2:27
  bringing the brands on board and I was doing all the logistics, all of the manufacturing, and we would speak every minute of the day. We basically just said... Peas in a pod. Yeah. We basically, after a while, we were like, we just work in so well together. Why don't we just do something of our own? And like quit the job that you're working to start it or be like, let's just do it on the side? Yeah.
• 2:57
  Um, I mean, the idea was there, but we never really had the light bulb moment until further on. Okay. Okay. So, and actually when Dagan felt pregnant, it all started to evolve. Oh my gosh. Which is crazy. Yeah. Crazy. She's a mom too. She blows my mind every day. Superwoman. Sometimes I'm like, how are you even working right now? You have two kids. That's hectic. My niece and nephew visited Dagan.
• 3:23
  for two hours on Monday and afterwards I was like, I need to go to bed. Yeah, you're tired, right? I guess when it's your own, you're just like, you find that energy source from somewhere else. And she motivates me a lot too. She just gets in and gets it done. Yeah. So, yeah, we were working together, worked really well, and that just led to finding a product that we wanted to create
• 3:46
  improve and make it better. And there wasn't really an option for females when we were looking around. Um, and it was just a huge opportunity as well. And so did you quit your job and start working on it before you found the idea like together or what was it a combination of working in your other job? And it was a combination and it kind of, it really is mind blowing when things just work out perfectly. Like
• 4:12
  when timings sink, it's like, this is just meant to be. So Dagen felt pregnant. I was contracting for these events. So the contract was coming to an end. The events were slowing down. So that was all happening at the time where we really knuckled down and thought this is the brand we want to create. This is the vision that we have. And we found the product that we wanted to make. So...
• 4:41
  It all just came together in a few months. And so what happened when you thought of the idea and you had like, okay, yeah, we've got the vision now we, we need to build this brand. What was the next step? Like, did you find a factory somewhere? Did you, what was the process of getting the brand kind of like from then until now, I guess, cause it was 10 months ago, right. That you launched or. No. So we had the idea or everything sort of came together in terms of the razor.
• 5:11
  the branding about 12 months now, 11 or 12 months. Okay, yeah. And then from then, so we'd worked with a manufacturer, or I have for years. When I was back in 2015, I think I started working with this manufacturer. Oh, yeah, you were telling me. Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely share that. Yeah, so she basically manufactured the very first bags that we wanted for our first event, and I found her just through Alibaba.
• 5:41
  And Alibaba is so good. Yeah. Seriously. She delivered the bags. I needed them really quick. Um,
• 5:49
  I just sent her the logo. She made them, sent them. And I had them, I think in two weeks. Yeah. I was like, I need to keep this lady. I often find like when you're dealing with people in China, like it's so easy because you have them on WhatsApp. Their communication is like amazing most of the time. Or when you find someone that you can connect with, who's really good, their communication is great. And it's just so easy to get what you need and just get it to you. Yes. And it was, it was so easy. And I actually had
• 6:16
  For a previous event, a manufacturer in Australia arranged bags and it just, it was,
• 6:22
  almost a nightmare. The bags are late for the event. Yeah. The logo is like squiff. So yeah, she was just amazing. So over the years we've used her for manufacturing for a whole heap of events and she became a trusted person. Yeah. She became an agent really. So she would go off and find the products for me that I needed. Um,
• 6:46
  And I'm always sort of sending ideas to her and she's finding samples of products. So, um, that's the, probably the first step is to get a sample of a product. Really cool. Really cool. And so then before, because you launched the website in, was it August? Did you say, sorry. Yeah. So up until like you had the branding and you had the website and all that kind of thing from then until August, how did you get together your kind of like launch phase and what did you do to launch?
• 7:15
  So it feels crazy saying it was 12 months ago because it literally feels like a lifetime. Yeah. You're like, this is my baby now. Yeah. Before we had the razor and... What was life before? Yeah. Before we had the razor and the actual brand name, we knew that we wanted to do something that's sustainable. We actually had a completely other product. Another product. It was biodegradable wipes. Oh, yeah. That had only oil in it. So as soon as you add water into a product, you have to add in the preservatives. So...
• 7:45
  That was – we had that idea, but it's really hard. We wanted it to be a really clean formulation, and we'd not done a product with a formula before, so that's why we switched to a physical product. Did you make the product before you switched, or you couldn't get there in the end with the formula? We got some samples based on –
• 8:05
  other formulas but we wanted our own and we wanted a special oil that we'd sourced from Africa um so yeah it just was taking way too much time and we're like we need to launch this thing
• 8:17
  And when you decided to pivot and you were like, yeah, okay, maybe this isn't it. How did you deal with the whole like, okay, maybe, maybe this isn't the right direction and we need to change to another product because I can imagine for like, for people that could be really hard to be like, yeah, okay, maybe this isn't the right choice. And I spent so much time already and money and all this kind of thing. And now I need to make that like executive decision to change. And obviously for you, especially it's for the better, but it still must be like a tricky moment. Yeah. I think at the time,
• 8:47
  It wasn't, we're stopping that and we're doing this. It was a progression. Yeah. That's going to take a long time. This product we can get to market. Okay. We can adjust something to make it better, which was the razor.
• 9:07
  And the wipes, that's in the future. Yeah. That's the next thing that could come. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But in that time now, we're kind of thinking, maybe that's not. I mean, it sounds like a great product. Yeah. I love the sound of that product too. Yeah. And I would love it too. I still use the samples, but they just weren't exactly what I wanted. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I guess it was, it wasn't stopping that. I guess I never really put an end to something. It's always like in my mind. Yeah.
• 9:37
  And I think that really helps in business too because you're not really losing it and you've learned so much from that. Like if we had launched that with a not the perfect formula and not what we wanted, it could have been terrible. We could have wasted even more life.
• 9:53
  Oh yeah. Yeah. I get what you're saying. Yeah. And so when you, so after the pivot, after all that section, how did you actually launch the, the raises to where they are now? Cause I remember we spoke about, um, you did some influencer marketing. You did like a lot of email building list building. Do you want to talk a little bit about your like strategy in getting that to market? So we put a lot of effort in getting our messaging really clear. So the website,
• 10:21
  So everything sort of made sense. When people go to the social media, then they go to the website, it was all in the files really like clear and directs people through the journey. People knew what we did in an instant. So that was something that we really worked hard on. And then that was leading up to launch. Then we had 15 samples delivered and there was a couple of tweaks that we still wanted to do.
• 10:48
  but we gifted them to people just to get feedback. And that's one of the biggest things that I would recommend people do at the very beginning. Just get a sample, not a perfect sample.
• 10:59
  and get people using it and giving you feedback on their experience. And so what did people say? What was the kind of feedback you got back? So we gave people a mix of like metal razors. We gave them pink razors. We gave them white razors. Okay. Like fully like branding and also like the, the style of it as well. Yeah. So this is before we got the final 15 that we gave out to influencers. Okay. This was getting friends and family to test. Yeah.
• 11:28
  Um, and yeah, they preferred the colored, like the, the white one, the one with the can show you guys again, um, but it was a little more friendly. It's all really cute. This is smooth operator. Yeah. Yeah.
• 11:43
  So, yeah, sorry, go on. So they love this one. So people said that the metal razors looked scary. So we're like, okay, so we'll go with clothing. That's a funny, funny, like, thing. Yeah, and it actually comes up in a lot of forums online. That's so interesting. People don't want to change into metal razors because they look scary.
• 11:59
  hmm that's a really interesting insight yeah so we're learning all these things along the way and then we wanted to start with white because white is beautiful it suits every bathroom yeah um a lot of people actually said they preferred pink but that would be me yeah
• 12:18
  It's a men's razor, so men can actually use it as well. So, like, we're cutting. Right. Even though our marketing is all geared towards females and we want our primary audience is females, men can still use it too. Yeah. So, yeah, we figured that out and then we got the 15 samples and then we have friends that have influenced. Degan and I have a bit of a following as well. So we created a refer-a-friend program on the website. So at this stage, we'd only shown people the razor. Yeah.
• 12:47
  based on a 3D model that we had drawn up from our original samples. And so people would sign up to get a special when we launched pre-order. Yep. So yeah, they would refer friends, friends would sign up, then they would get points. And so you just seeded that out through your personal network. You didn't kind of do any other tactics outside of that to build that email list.
• 13:13
  Well, apart from gifting the raises. Yeah. And we've got a really special message in that.
• 13:22
  2 billion plastic raisers go to landfill every year. It's a lot. It's crazy. I didn't know that until you told me. Yeah. And now I've repeated it like a million times to anyone who will listen when I'm talking about you. I'm like, and did you know like 70 kilos of you, your waist? We contribute 70 kilos. Yeah. Like it seems so gross. And it's such an easy swap too. It's like, and so people resonated with that. So Dakin actually owned an influencer agency, right?
• 13:50
  um, before we worked together. Um, so she has people that she's friends with who also have, um, influence. The power of connection. Yeah. And so we gifted to them and I mean, we didn't ask anyone to post. It was, if you love it, they'll share it. We just want, and we, it was still the same philosophy as sharing with friends and family. It was all we want is your feedback. Yeah. The power of word of mouth. Yeah. Really. Yeah. Yeah.
• 14:20
  And when we reached out to them, we let them know about the Refer a Friend and that we're launching on the night. So they did share it. They had that information there in front of them. They had the message. Yeah. I wrote an article for Rag Trader yesterday with tips of how, like, I launched my business. And in one of the, like, influencer marketing tips...
• 14:37
  what I was saying is that in the beginning I also launched in a similar way and that I gave all of my girlfriends and all the women that I knew with influence as well. And I didn't ask them to post something specific. It was just, if you love it, like wear it and sparkle. And even if they didn't post, but they just loved it and their friends saw it. And then a friend would be like, Oh, what's your necklace? What's your earrings? And then they say it. Even with celebrities, like celebrities aren't necessarily going to post for you, but if their friends seeing them,
• 15:04
  use it. Yeah. It's just a tool. It's a question. Yeah. What's that? Yeah. And like, this is cute. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's like, there's nothing that drives me crazier than a brand emailing me, um, to be like, Hey, like, Hey,
• 15:20
  post about this and I want like one Instagram feed post and I want like this, this, this, but it's not paid. And like, it's not even relevant to my audience or something. I'm like, man, you've just got it so wrong. Like I got one the other day that was so weird and I politely declined. And cause I also don't feel that I should have to educate the influencer manager in companies to be like, you're just approaching this all wrong. Well, I mean, there's a place for paid advertising and paid influence as well. Yeah.
• 15:47
  And that's the place for paid. Yeah. But if they're being like, it's not paid and this is what we want from you. Yeah. She was like, I love the kind of content you produce. Blah, blah, blah. This isn't paid, but this is what we want from you. And I was like, I'm not interested in a free phone case or whatever it is. Yeah.
• 16:04
  What are you talking about? Yeah. No. In case, thank you. And it's like sitting my needs perfectly. Yeah. But maybe, yeah. But for example, something like this is really interesting. And if you're on board with the message and that kind of thing, it's just such a powerful, it's just, yeah, word of mouth. And at the stage that we were in at the time as well, I mean, we're so grateful that people did share it, but feedback was huge.
• 16:32
  And, yeah, we got feedback from people both positive and ways that we can improve it. And because we'd only had the 15 samples and we're going into pre-order, we placed our full order about a week after we launched pre-order so that we could get their feedback. And we did tweak a few things. Like, for example, where you pull the razor out, the finger mark, the finger imprints were too thin.
• 16:56
  And it was like really hard to pull it out. So yeah, for example, it was one. That's great. What do you think? And are you planning to stay D2C, direct to consumer, or are you wanting to do wholesale? Because I know obviously it's a subscription service, so that makes it a little bit different for wholesale. Yeah. What's the future plan? That's a really interesting question and something that we discuss regularly. Yeah.
• 17:23
  Originally, we were direct to consumer and we're staying that way. And subscription model suits that, obviously. But the more that we're researching what other brands are doing, like there's a natural deodorant brand called Miro. And they've just stopped in Target. So, yeah, they're fairly new.
• 17:45
  I feel bad saying that because sometimes people are like, well, we actually started in 2008. We were just like overnight success, whatever they talk about. So, yeah, there's subscription and they're still in Target. So it's definitely something that we want to do is wholesale, but we'll be very selective.
• 18:08
  So it is a premium brand. So boutique stores, salons and the like is what would be. Really cool. And it would be a really slow process because wholesaling is not something that we've really, either Dagon or I, have been involved much in. Yeah, me neither. I find like the wholesale thing is this whole new like –
• 18:35
  I was about to say bucket of fish, kettle of fish. What's the saying? Kettle of fish. Is it kettle of fish? That's really strange. Yeah, I don't know. Okay, I've got that wrong. I don't know what that is. Skullfish? Skullfish? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But anyway, a whole other thing that I'm like, man, this is a tough one. I guess, though, if you have an agent or someone that comes on board and helps you. And, yeah, starting out, I think an agent would be amazing. Or starting with a...
• 19:01
  I mean, I have a connection with someone who owns a store. So that's what we're in discussions with them now. Yeah. And you can kind of go back, like you obviously are going to have new contracts and everything, but you can kind of tweak things when you're working with one or two people and then, yeah,
• 19:17
  Once you've figured out the formula, then you can scale. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And I wanted to switch topics a little bit and talk about this thing that you're doing tomorrow that's very, very exciting. Renee has been going through the process of getting into Y Combinator, which is a huge, prestigious accelerator program, a seed accelerator program based out of Silicon Valley. And they have just...
• 19:45
  like brought tons of different startups through their program. And, you know, some of the bigger names that we all know would be Airbnb, Stripe Payment Systems, Dropbox, and, you know, a million others. And what they do is they take startups and they fund them $150,000 and they take 7% of the company.
• 20:09
  But, you know, they're like Reddit, I think, also went through there. They really built like this crazy community.
• 20:17
  like the alumni, once you have gotten through Y Combinator, you're forever kind of in their community. You're a YC founder for life. And it's just like unbelievable. Yeah. So talk to us about that because I just think I've never met someone that's gone through this process. Yeah. So I think it's absolutely fascinating and well done. Thank you. So cool. It's a bit of a pinch me moment. It also gives me goosebumps. Yes. Oh, my God. She has goosebumps right now. Seriously. Yeah.
• 20:45
  Yeah. I mean, it's kind of surreal and it's taken a lot of planning and really being precise about what we want to create and what we want to achieve.
• 21:01
  And what we can achieve. Yeah. So that's probably been the biggest thing leading up to YC. Let's rewind to like the moment where you were like, let's apply to YC. Like, what was that? How did you be like, let's do this? Yeah. How did you know about it? How did you like...
• 21:18
  Where was the button to apply? Like, let's go back to the beginning. Well, this all comes down to Ryan. Okay. So Ryan's her husband, who I used to work with at What If. Yeah. Back in the day. So that's how we know each other. So he's also a founder, a startup founder, and he is a big YC fan. So he's applied.
• 21:41
  And he basically just constantly tells me you need to apply, you need to apply, you need to apply. Because they take two, like two groups through each year, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um, so winter and a summer, um, batch. Yeah. Um, so we're in the winter 2020 batch. Okay. And we've applied once before.
• 22:04
  It was earlier last year. I think it was in about March that we applied. And just going through the application is a huge. Kind of would help you like solidify your business plan and things that you might not have thought of before. Yeah. And really zoning in on what's important because you can write a business plan, but it's not like there's a lot of fluff.
• 22:27
  Yeah. Um, this really drives deep into what matters and you have to action it. And I think the key to what got us through this stage is progress. So the first, the first, them seeing you from the first time to this time. Yeah. So one of the, well, a few of the key things that they,
• 22:49
  We've watched so many of their videos. We don't watch TV, we watch YC videos. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I watched a few myself. They also have a startup program, which actually was amazing. That was, I think it's 11 weeks in the lead up to the application date. That you buy into or that you can just do it online? It's completely free. Oh, wow. Yeah. Great tip. Yeah. I'm going to link that somewhere in this video. It's completely free. You have each week you buy.
• 23:17
  have a, what do they call it? An update. Updates due. Oh, wow. And it's got maybe like seven questions. So what's your key metric and what the result was for that week? What do you, what are you working on this week? What are your goals for next week? And what have you accomplished or along those lines? Great. Yeah. And then you choose a video call date.
• 23:44
  And you get batched with a group of other people going through startup school and you have a video call with them and you go through those questions. So what have you accomplished this week and what are you working on for next week? Did you meet anyone that you're still connected to?
• 24:01
  Yeah. Yeah. And people that can really help. And it's not necessarily people that are in your industry or, um, uh, on the same path as you or at the same stage. But I mean, a lot of people were further ahead. A lot of people have been working on their business for five years and they can just give you such key insights. So what's something that you learned from someone else in that like process?
• 24:27
  That's a tough one off the top of your head. Yeah. Sorry. Wow. So it's a 10 week or 11 week program. So you have like 11 calls. The biggest thing I learned from someone, I mean, the biggest thing of all is just launch. Like, right. You're going to learn faster after you've launched. Yeah. You can think of all these like wildest ideas in your head, but have like,
• 24:54
  a simple product that isn't perfect, but has value and launch it or get people using it at the very minimum. Um, so that's probably the biggest thing. And so we launched pre-order in like the third week. So in terms of an application, that looks really good. Um, um,
• 25:13
  we got people signing up through the referral friend and a decent amount of people too. We had people using it. So yeah, that was all amazing timing as well. Wow. Really cool. And so then for the second application, the one that you got like further that you're in at the moment. Yeah. So what was that like you did? Do you have to do a video or? Yeah. So, uh, I think there's maybe 30 questions in the application. It's,
• 25:40
  Um, you have to do a video. We had a demo, but I mean, a lot of software programs apply. Um, so our demo was literally shaping with the razor and it was literally showing them that we just get in and get it done. Um, and what do you think made your application stand out? Because you are like two female founders, which is obviously something that's really great. Um, and that the industry needs more of.
• 26:07
  and sustainability, do you think? Not necessarily sustainability. I think it's important and it's an important issue. I think the biggest things are the market size of shaving and personal care in general, that we're talking to users, and a lot of it is actually about the people.
• 26:28
  So they even say, even if your idea doesn't strike them as extremely important or something that they want to work on specifically, if you as founders get in, get the work done, make progress, they often say, if you say you're going to do something and you do it within two weeks, that's huge. So they invested or Airbnb went through their program and they...
• 26:57
  had been struggling for a year and they accepted them. And they basically said these people are so passionate about or they believe wholeheartedly that people will rent a stranger's house. People will rent someone's spare room. Yeah. And it can be a better experience at a hotel. And they tried so many different ways to do things
• 27:21
  this to make this product and it just wasn't working, but they accepted them. Wow. It was that was particularly about people. And I mean, the idea had had legs, but yeah. And so what happens now tomorrow you fly to the US and then what happens? So we run and I land in LA. We've got a few meetings there. We're dropping off a few raises to people. And then we drive to San Francisco. The actual interview is on Thursday on the 5th.
• 27:49
  So Dagan flies in on the second with her six-month-old baby. Oh, my gosh. And we're flying her mum in from Canada too to help with the baby. I'm actually wondering if any YC founders have been mums. They've had female founders, obviously, but that'll be interesting to know. Yeah, you should look it up. Yeah. We've got the stats. Yeah. So Dagan lives in China. She's flying from China. And, yeah, it's a 10-minute interview. Yeah.
• 28:19
  Ten minutes. Oh, my gosh. How many questions do you think they are? So we had a mock interview on Friday and it was two people, one person that had been through YC before and one that had exited a company. And she said, you're in a tiny room with four people, four extremely knowledgeable people. Do you know who the people are? No. Right. So it's just like a lucky dip. I mean, it will be one of the YC partners, so...
• 28:49
  we know who YC partners are. Right, right, right. I think when you arrive, it tells you what room you're in and who your partners are. Okay. I mean, I've read up a lot on it, so hopefully that's the case and we can figure out who's interviewing us in five minutes. But, yeah, so we're in this room and it's 10 minutes and they asked between 8 to 12 questions. I think somewhere it said 50 questions, but I don't even think that's possible. You wouldn't even have enough time. No. Yeah.
• 29:16
  And they can interrupt you. So if you're taking too long to answer, they can just ask another question or if they decide that they want to know something. One of those buzzers like eee. Seriously. Done. Yeah. And then sometimes there was one person that said there was, I think, three founders and four people and two people were asking questions.
• 29:35
  the different boundaries, like different questions at the same time. Oh my gosh. It's like an interrogation. Yeah. I mean, it sounds scary, but then at the same time, it's, it's not a job interview. It's a discussion. It's exhilarating. Yeah. And talking about the best, like your baby, the best thing that you're passionate about. Yeah. And you should know your stuff. Like if you're running this company, you're, you know, your company better than anyone else. Yeah. So yeah.
• 30:01
  So cool. And so when do you find out, like, because this is the final interview that she's got tomorrow, and then she finds out whether she actually makes it into the program to get started, which is the three-month program, right? Yeah. So what happens after tomorrow or after the meeting? The actual meeting.
• 30:18
  Uh, they call you. So if you get in, they call you, if you don't, they email you and they give you feedback like a day after, or like a month after 6 PM. Oh my God. Same day, same day. So the whole process, you submit your application by a certain day.
• 30:35
  Then a couple of weeks later, they either call you for a phone interview or a video interview or you don't get through. And this is the next stage. So it's kind of three stages. So we had the video interview. I was actually in L.A. and dating in China. Wow. And, yeah, that was also 10 minutes. Went really well. And then we got the email two days later. I was actually out to dinner for Sammy's birthday in L.A.,
• 31:04
  And I saw this email come through and I was just ecstatic. Yeah. I'm just crying. I'm so sorry, Sammy, this is your birthday, but this, what the hell is going on? Sammy from Breeze Bomb? Yeah. Oh, cool. I've got a chat with her today, actually. Oh, nice. Yeah, she's beautiful. I'm so excited to meet her.
• 31:24
  Oh my gosh. You know, what's going to be so interesting is if like in a year's time, we have like a follow-up, like catch up like this. So you can like tell us how you've gone from like here being like pre Y Combinator to potentially post Y Combinator and all the amazing things that have happened. Yeah. From that. Yeah. And also with Y Combinator, even just getting a video interview is for such an early stage starts, early stage startup. It's so interesting.
• 31:54
  amazing. Like knowing someone's interested in what you're doing and that you, it has potential is so cool. And even this interview, like the lead up to it has, yeah. Yeah. Helped us. And I think, I think just no matter what, from now on, regardless of what direction it goes in, you're associated to Y Combinator and you can talk about that and you can talk about your experience to other people who want to go through that process. I'm pretty sure you said this year 20,000 people applied.
• 32:23
  And I think maybe 500 get an interview. Oh, wow. Yeah. How are you? That's so crazy. And it's growing every year. Great for Ryan to have been, like, pushing you to do this. Seriously. Oh, my gosh. I couldn't have got this far without him. That's amazing. There have been tears and there have been, yeah. I love that. Wow. Lots of mental, like, mind work, mindset work. Yeah.
• 32:53
  So I want to move on to the six cues that I ask everyone in every video. I'm going to start with what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing? What's the purpose of what you're doing? My why? Well, I guess I always...
• 33:07
  I want to work on things that I'm super, super passionate about and I want to make a difference. So everything that I do, I look a little bit deeper and I think, how is this going to make a difference in someone's life? Whether it's...
• 33:24
  one person, a hundred people, a thousand people, a million people, how's that going to change someone's life? And that's my why. Nice. Yeah. Impact on the community around you. Yeah. I really liked that. I mean, the first sort of wellness event that I started, um, I was kind of helping mom through, she gets really bad migraines.
• 33:45
  And what I was learning, I was super passionate about women's health and well-being and what I was learning in my own life I was sharing with her. Yeah. And then she would just absolutely love it. Sometimes I could have been a bit annoying because I was so –
• 33:57
  passionate about it but um yeah I wanted to then spread that to more people it's like well if I'm helping mum I can help more so that's so nice yeah really cool to help like your start with your direct community and then spread out from there yeah it's a really nice message um what's been the number one thing that's made your business pop so far oh
• 34:20
  And obviously you're on this like you're in the journey at the moment. You're kind of coming at it from like being in it, not reflecting back what we were saying before. So something that's been kind of like a big deal moment for you that kind of like expanded the business to another level. Yeah. Well, I guess it hasn't really expanded the business, but what I see, acknowledgement has been amazing. Yeah. But I guess being such early stage right now,
• 34:47
  I think it's really important to celebrate the little wins as well. So, I mean, we celebrate almost daily. I love that. If one person signs up for an email or one person buys a razor, we're literally over the moon. We're so happy about it. So I guess the key things that have really stood out in that sense was –
• 35:09
  From the very beginning, even just getting our values aligned, even a logo, like a logo is the face of your brand for life. Yeah, it's tough, isn't it? Yeah. So that was really cool when we had that. Then we could create a website. So when the website came live, that was or went live, that was pretty amazing. And then when people just started signing up to our refer a friend. Yeah.
• 35:34
  Um, we had 1,100 people sign up in a week. Oh my gosh. That's a lot. Yeah. Holy smokes. So we saw these through all the referral friends. Yeah. Wow. That's a lot of friends or friends. Yeah. It's crazy. And I mean, like Sammy, for example, posted for us, which is amazing. Um, we had Sienna, Elise, the yoga person, um, I don't know.
• 35:59
  You're a good person. You're a good teacher. She loved the razor. You yoga person. Yeah, she's got a huge following.
• 36:08
  They posted at the time that it launched. So it was all, and that was all planned to happen at the right time as well. Yeah. Yeah. Our timeline is very specific. It's cool because they say you should focus just on your 1,000 true fans. And if you get your 1,000 true fans, which are often the beginning kind of people who are like, they've been there since the start, then that community just grows from there.
• 36:33
  And we just had to pause because my mum walked in. Hi, mum. So we were up to question number three, which – did we finish question number two? Yeah. What made your business pop? Yeah, I think we wrapped it up. The other thing was actually receiving the raises and seeing people use them. That was probably the biggest highlight so far. Yeah, like the giddy feeling of like, holy shit, I made that thing. And now that thing is like in use, which is just so like special. And people like getting –
• 37:01
  five-star reviews on our website. It's like, oh, my gosh, people love this as much as we do. That's amazing. It resonated with other people. Yeah. It's not just us that believe in it. Yeah. Other people believe in it too. Yeah. So celebrating all the small wins, I think, was the pop.
• 37:16
  You know what I want to get, and you should get it too, it's like one of those buzzers so that any time, like, the good thing happens, you ring the bell. Yeah, yeah. And then people just hear you cheering, like, all day. I love that. I love it. I want one of those. Question number three is around your mindset and your rituals and how you win the day. So, I mean, I'm not perfect all the time right now. I'm probably... Is anyone, though? No, and that's probably something really important to remember. Don't put the pressure on yourself. Yeah. Like, no matter what...
• 37:46
  know what makes you feel good and do that as much as possible, but don't put pressure on yourself. Like I have to wake up at 5am every single day. Like give yourself some slack. Yeah. Yeah. So my things are sleep is really important to me. Um, I mean, I don't have a really specific amount of hours that I need to sleep for. It's just, if I feel good, I know like I've had enough sleep.
• 38:13
  Yeah. And sometimes that snooze button is all you need. A hundred percent. I have to sleep like a lot. If I don't, if I get like anything under eight hours, I reckon, or seven maybe, I'm like not functioning properly and I'm tired. Well, yeah, that's me now. But I mean, I get through it. We live in the most beautiful place. As soon as I see the ocean, I'm like, oh.
• 38:35
  Yeah, that's another thing. Seeing the ocean is a really like big, big thing for like peacefulness and calm. That's another thing. Being outdoors. We have a deck at our place. And if I'm feeling overwhelmed or first thing in the morning, go out on the deck and just breathe. Like fresh air and breathing can help.
• 38:55
  change your state so quickly. You know, yesterday, not yesterday, two days ago, I interviewed Greta for the same six questions, and her answer was also around her breath work and how important it is. And she gives a little analogy around, like, it's –
• 39:11
  breathing in a cube. So it's like breathe four breaths in pause for four breaths, four breaths out pause for four, for four counts. Sorry. Um, and she does that multiple times a day and that like just helps recent to her and refocus her. And it's really important.
• 39:26
  It's interesting to hear when multiple people have a similar answer, and that's why I think it's important to ask the same six questions to a huge data set of women so I can start to extract what are the trends and patterns that people go through in different answers.
• 39:43
  And find out these things and, like, it sounds like an obvious thing, but then actually hearing it and knowing for sure. Yeah, and people don't realise how much breathing impacts you as a person. Yeah. Like, your mind and everything, it's really important. And if you haven't looked up Wim Hof. Wim Hof. Wim Hof, he's the Iceman. Okay. He's, I think he's in Tools of Titans. Okay. Or the other one, Tribe of Mentors.
• 40:12
  or tribe of something. I'll Google it and I'll put it in the. Yeah. He talks about breathing. Um, that's his thing. Okay. Um, the Wim Hof method, my, my partner, Pierre Antoine, he also, and I've spoken about this before in one of my videos. He also has a, um, a practice that he does every day. And it's just about taking a,
• 40:34
  one conscious breath and he does it multiple times a day but it's just one conscious breath where you wish like you breathe in and you just wish kindness um or happy thoughts to like some stranger on the street doesn't need to be anything it can be just someone that annoyed you that last minute because they shoved you as they walked by or something like that but it's just taking one conscious breath and getting the like the gratitude that you can to like spread further in the world
• 40:58
  calming your mind and that's the simplest thing, but to do it multiple times a day really like impacts his day. And so I haven't been doing it and I'm meant to doing it. Some days you can wake up like this morning. I woke up like,
• 41:13
  almost in a worry. And I used to have this when I was organizing events and it was actually a light bulb moment this morning. I was like, wow, I haven't felt like this in so long. And it's because obviously a deadline's coming up, but, um, and I have so much to do, but just a couple, even one deep breath can, and just set the one thing that you need to do next. Yeah. That's it.
• 41:36
  Yeah. And then, yeah, write everything else down if you need to. If you're worried you're going to forget it, write it down. Write it down. Or like what you were telling me before, put a million alarms on your phone. Yeah. As you're to do this. Later in the day, do like your work first. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Question number four is around learning. So where do you hang out to get smarter? I guess I'm pretty lucky that my husband is...
• 42:03
  is amazing i know seriously i learned so much from him and he pushes me to learn as well and often if he's listening to a podcast i'll listen to it if he's like reading a book or listening to a book i'll listen to it we listen to books to and from work um what did you listen to like this week that was a good one
• 42:26
  Oh, recently this week. Oh, actually all YC videos. Oh yeah. Listening to them back to back. So yeah. Learning a lot from there. Yeah. It's a great one. They're not podcasts or books though. They're like YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. Really cool. Yeah. I find I learn a lot from like, um, from daily podcasts. I've been listening a lot to podcasts called startup by Gimlet media.
• 42:50
  And the early episodes of that podcast, Alex Blomberg, who's the co-founder of Gimlet Media, he was documenting and sharing his journey of what it was like to start a startup. And so he plays a lot of recordings in like his initial investment meetings.
• 43:06
  he gets the chance to pitch to Chris Sucker, who's one of the world's best, um, investors, like the most, he's like, I think it's a billionaire or whatever, um, from California. And, um, he plays the recording and it's like shocking. Like he's really, really bad in his pitch. And like, eventually Chris Sucker kind of like stops him and, um,
• 43:25
  like gives him his pitch back to him and ends up kind of like mentoring him a bit. And in the end, like a few episodes later, Chris Sucker and his business partner, they do end up investing in Himalaya Media, which is great for them because they ended up selling to Spotify like recently.
• 43:40
  what is the big deal? But he shows all this stuff that people just don't know. Like people don't know what those conversations are like. And people aren't perfect. Yeah. It really shows you. Especially in the beginning. And it's interesting because he shows the last five episodes of when they, all the recordings from when they sold to Spotify. And so you listen to the beginning and you're like, yeah, that guy's just like everyone else. Like, yeah.
• 44:05
  He came from the beginning. He didn't have these kind of like, he had a vision to build a big company, but he didn't know he was going to sell to Spotify for seemingly like hundreds of millions of dollars. And seeing, yeah, seeing them from the beginning, like not anyone can do it, but, and it takes a lot of dedication and hard work and research and willpower like mindset to get there. But yeah, it's really good to see Tim Ferriss is also, um,
• 44:35
  The Tim Ferriss Show. That's a great podcast. It's a great podcast. Yeah. And also even just finding friends and hang out with them who have businesses or want to start a business or I don't know, people in different industries at different stages of their business is really important. I learned so much from those people, like what problems are they currently going through? How did they solve those problems? Um, what are they doing next? Um, and, and,
• 45:01
  Um, yeah, just hanging out with those people. Yeah. It's really cool. People make you smarter. That's for sure. Yeah. Um, question number five is around failure. And when you have been in a situation where you failed, um, in your business somehow, how did you deal with it and what did you learn? And it could be like a specific experience or it could be your approach to dealing, um, with things when you're in a crisis mode. Yeah.
• 45:22
  Okay, so the biggest thing that comes to mind there would be when I closed Utopia, which was the wellness event that I organized. And I don't think that was a failure because it didn't just happen. I decided to do it. It basically drained me. So like I would like cry on the hour every hour just before those events because I was so stressed. Not all.
• 45:50
  Stressed, I guess, yeah, but you had a lot of people, like, weighing on you. So I guess knowing when to sort of move on is good. Being able to take that, like, that, like, objective thought and be like, okay, take myself out of this and, like, make a conscious decision to stop this because it's not the right path. Work smarter, not harder.
• 46:19
  I mean, there's always an easier way to do something. And you're going to have to do the things that don't scale in the beginning. Like you're going to have to work hard. But over time there's ways that you can make things easier. Ask for help. That was something I probably should have asked for more help, even though my family were absolutely amazing.
• 46:43
  What else? I mean, I learned so much. I wouldn't be where I am now if I hadn't have done that. Yeah, if you hadn't gone through the dips. Yeah. We had 1,000 people, 1,000 tickets sold, and I think it was maybe like 40 exhibitors at our very first event that took three months. Wow. I think we booked the venue three months before. Holy smokes. Yeah. So I kind of, I wouldn't see it as a failure, but,
• 47:10
  It's just, yeah, lesson learned. Yeah. And, like, not a great business model. We were running events with no, like, business behind it. So we're making money on expo sales and tickets. So you're only really as good as your last event. Like, you've got nothing to back you up. So, yeah, learning about business models. But don't be scared of failure either. Mm-hmm.
• 47:33
  because it's one of the most important things. It's one of the great places in your business and career where you do learn. Yeah. Because you're forced to figure it out afterwards. Yeah. And I learned to deal with the stress and the, like, letting go. What comes with it. Yeah. Even when you're in that moment, you have to go physically to the event and...
• 47:57
  put on a brave face, even though I absolutely loved it. But yeah, it was a lot of people like expo store holders that had stands that I needed to make sure I had those people coming through the door, which we did. Yeah. But yeah, you just want the best for everyone involved. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And number six is more of a gimmick question. It's if you only had $1,000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it?
• 48:25
  Um, and you know, what is really interesting is what you can achieve on such a small amount of money. Yeah. Uh, and if you have a thousand dollars in your bank, you'll find that out pretty quickly. Yeah. So I wouldn't spend it all at once. So I guess trying to collaborate with people and figuring out what you, what value you can give other people in return for something.
• 48:52
  with, I don't know, spending half of the amount or something like along those lines. Yeah. Um, not asking for things for free, but giving value back. Yeah. And it will be very surprising how long the thousand dollars will last. But, and I guess it just depends what stage you're in as well. If you don't have a product or if you don't have a website, just get a website up. Um, yeah, get,
• 49:19
  an image drawn, a 3D image drawn of a product. And I also think it's like people think that to start a business you need to have lots of capital and do all these things where it's like, I mean, for me, I come from like my business is bootstrapped, it's scrappy, like it's just very...
• 49:35
  Um, it's from humble beginnings and not a lot of capital, which is weird for jewelry because jewelry and the, the bits that you have to have involved are expensive, but I think you can start your website for free. Um, you get like with Shopify, it's a 14 day free trial, like with no credit card required to sign up. You can build a website yourself. It just takes like a bit of determination and a bit of like.
• 49:58
  pinteresting to get a bit of a vibe of what you like and you can start for free you can do a logo for free there's so many free resources so double your money before you send it yeah double your money before you send it but yeah there's costs that will come up like sometimes you yeah you you might not know how to make a logo even though you can on tools online um
• 50:18
  Jump onto a forum and ask people to get on Reddit. Yeah. I love a good Reddit sub subreddit. Yeah. I think outside the box that is probably like my most passionate subject is yeah. Or ask people like in your network, ask Renee, ask me. And it's, it's really amazing because people want to help. And that's something that we're finding with this whole YC experience. People, I think we were talking about this before, actually people want to help.
• 50:47
  If someone's exited a company or if someone's had some sort of success, they more often than not want to share. Yeah. Unless they're in the grind, um, extremely busy. Yeah. And don't have the time at that time. Just reach out. And yeah, I found like for me as someone who is a woman in progress and like very early on in my own entrepreneurial journey, um,
• 51:15
  the amount of people who have just instantly hit me back and been like, yeah, I'll be part of female startup club. Like I'm happy to share learnings. I'm happy to share my insights. I just, I really feel truly that women want to help other women who are like in this progress, like in this progress stage. And yeah, it's just been like astonishing to me to see all of these incredibly successful women who are putting their hand up to help me and share their insights in the six questions. Um, um,
• 51:42
  It's just so nice. It's so nice to see. And even like it's not asking someone to do something for you for free so that your money lasts. It's just asking for an insight. Yeah. How did you do this? Yeah. How should I approach this? How can I do this a little bit better? This is my plan. Yeah. What do you think? What do you think? Yeah. What worked for you? So, yeah, I think that's really important.
• 52:10
  um other than that probably if you've got your products um gift it to people yeah just the cost of shipping yeah in your local area yeah not internationally because shipping is expensive and do it genuinely like you genuinely want them to try it and if they love it more often than not they'll share it yeah
• 52:31
  Cool. Thanks. Thanks for the six queues. That's okay. So where can people follow you? Where can people find you? I'll obviously link everything in the notes and all that kind of thing. But if you just want to relay your digital footprint. So my Instagram is probably the place that I hang out the most or LinkedIn. Instagram Renee May with two Ys. Okay. And LinkedIn Renee Gardner.
• 53:00
  I'm still in my maiden name. Great. Well, thank you so much.
• 53:08
  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.
• 53:32
  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.
• 53:55
  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.
• 54:11
  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.
• 54:36
  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.
• 54:58
  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.