How the current economy impacts early startups

A conversation with Neil Onsdorff - CMO of early startup UPGRAID - a selfcare focused organic supplements company.

We are in the middle of what could possibly be a huge economic downturn. For any business leave alone a startup, this is a very tough time. So we get together for a 'fireside chat' on what it takes to persevere and grow. Here's what I asked Neil :

1. Who do you work for and what’s your role?

I'm the Chief Marketing Officer for UPGRAID Organically, an organic pharmaceutical wellness company.2.

2. How is business these days and how has it changed in the last few weeks since this started?

The business is good, but of course the landscape has dramatically changed. Logistically we're fortunate that we launched our business as a DTC and not physical retail. From a brand positioning and marketing standpoint, we're in an interesting place. We developed the company and our first product on helping folks get a little better every day. A lot of the consumer mindshift post Covid-19 will be centered on underlying conditions, overall health and wellness, and preventive behavior change, all things that are core to our mission. It's why Justin and Helene founded UPGRAID. It was championing a societal shift away from daily synthetic chemicals as a preventive measure, into a more plant-based fully organic daily supplement without warning labels or adverse effects. We really believe and are seeing that companies like UPGRAID are going to help lead this much needed shift from healthcare to personal self care.

3. What are challenges you are experiencing as a marketing leader ?

So much of what early emerging companies are meant to do in their first year is develop a product market fit and find the best way to optimize their story; before they push for scale. Basically overnight the market shifted to something nobody saw coming, with a velocity that was impossible to plan or model for. For UPGRAID, the digital marketplace got expensive quick as huge brands shifted dollars as fast as they could into digital to try and plus up their e-commerce business. As you get a little more granular into our specific category (health and immunity), there was a spike in interest and engagement which was great, but there was also a ton of noise and clutter. We've tried to be very specific on what our product does and doesn't do and be cognizant on the tone of our work. For example, we parked all of our humorous content. In the last couple weeks, as most of the country has settled into social distancing behavior, we've seen our space settle.

4. How are enabling growth while working remotely - is it a challenge?

The most interesting thing about driving growth for us, isn't that we're home, it's the fact that our entire customer base is. We had developed a really diligent comms planning approach, right time, place, and message that had to be massively updated. We saw pretty quickly that people had shifted their browsing and buying behavior. There's obviously a lot less people commuting in the mornings and evenings. So when and where customers were engaging with our content was all off--throughout the funnel. Overall, we've seen customers decompressing off their screens at nights and on weekends (our best times before). So we've had to re-calibrate all our touch points.

5. Being an early startup are there any challenges with investor engagement ?

The entire market took a huge shock to its system. At the end of day, this wasn't a business issue, this was a people issue. There were real human moments with people getting stuck on the road, or dealing with health scares, and having to lock down inside for weeks--so what are normally easy conversations to have, have been much harder or just weren't happening at all. Yet, given there's a sense of a new reality setting in, the work and conversation here are starting to pick up--and there are some really strong opportunities for investment. Groups and companies that are better able to anticipate who is going to be a leading force in this new normal (there's no return to the old normal) have the opportunity to really accelerate growth and return. Seeing that growth opportunity and taking advantage of that now with companies like UPGRAID seems like a smart way to manage risk compared to other categories. Companies that are well positioned to help lead consumers and society in the shift from reactive healthcare to proactive selfcare have a really nice story to tell and a great opportunity to scale.

6. How are you managing fulfillment of product & customer service?

Not sure I thought it was possible, but both have become even more mission critical to our business. We've been in constant contact with our fulfillment team on their capacity and their safety procedures. We've also been proactively communicating to our customers about our safety mitigation strategy (touch-less transactions) on the packing and shipping side. In March our shipping partners were slammed so things slowed way down. We made it a point to reach out to our customers with details and updated timing on their orders. We did hear from a lot of customers that their March and April orders needed to be shipped to new addreses. We're lucky that we've got a great fullfliment partner and they worked with us to adjust on the fly to move some orders in transit to new locations. But thankfully, overall things have stablized on this front.

7. Since you are in the subscription business are you seeing any drop off?

We're actually seeing a really nice increase in subscriptions. Given how valitale the market got, we've moved investment dollars and focus into updated content, nurture, and outreach programs that we felt were better reflective for the current environment . We also accelerated the launch of our health and wellness coaching sessions. 15 mins conversations with certified experts in health and wellness that help our customers with everything from product information and ingredients, to wellness planning and exercise, while at home. It's a free service we offer to anybody. These are such uncertain times that we know people have a ton of questions and we're glad we were able to move things around to get that program successfully launched early.

8. How are you interacting with your fellow employees ?

We use all the fun technology tools, Zoom, Slack etc. We're trying to the find a good balance between formal scheduled meetings and connections around "catch up" time. It's important to me that the team feels supported and set up for success in an environment that changes so quickly. We're also making it a key point to be transparent with how the business is doing. We have a great team at UPGRAID, and so much of our magic happens in the room when we're together. We'll brainstorm on one topic and that will lead to another and next thing you know, we're talking through and unpacking a bunch of things all at once. At a small company people wear a lot of hats, so most days are super fluid. Now at home, the Zoom meetings are scheduled and have specific topics. So the creativity in the room is harder to capture; there's no jumping up and spending an hour on the whiteboard with the team. That being said, we're doing well and everybody's been flexible pushing forward using technology we have.

9. What advice do you have for others in the same journey ?

Take a deep breath. It's so easy to get overwhelmed. Even if you're home all day, find some time to get away from your screens. In terms of work, use this time to focus on what's most core to your business and your customers. If growth isn't an option, and for many it's not, double down on retaining and nurturing your current and best customers.