No Turning Back
You can't make this up...“Imagine walking into a roomful of investors — primarily men — and trying to convince them that they should care about improving the lives of women with bladder leaks. We talked liners, pads, and briefs, coupled with stories of the deep shame and stigma that accompanies urinary incontinence, and got blank stares...for two. excruciating. years. We refined 100+ versions of our pitch, but we still couldn’t land a lead for the round.
At one point, my brother-in-law, who happens to be a super talented VC and one of our first angel investors, said: “You know, you guys don’t have to do this.” As in: you can still turn back now. And to be clear, it was sound advice. We were living off of our savings and the resulting stress on our marriage and family was intense. Just to keep things interesting, I was also pregnant with our twins. But I vividly remember thinking, as much out of pure conviction as from fear that this had all been for naught: no way are we giving up now.
Around the same time, Mia and I started to shift how we were thinking about the business. The more women we spoke to, the more we realized how little is understood about our changing needs as our bodies evolve, or how to thoughtfully address them. This realization prompted some real soul searching around what we wanted our larger mission to be, as founders and a business. We stopped just pushing our product solutions and began talking about destigmatizing aging for women. We made that vision our North Star, and parlayed a single story about one magnificent woman struggling to dispose of her incontinence briefs (Mia's 89 year old mother, our muse), into a belief and a promise for all women. We ALL deserve better.
Over the course of two years, Attn: Grace became something bigger than “just another DTC CPG play.” And that’s when the sparks started to fly. We found our lead investor a few weeks later and closed our first venture backed round shortly after. Two weeks after we launched last summer, we suddenly found ourselves fielding unsolicited inquiries from investors and closed a follow-on round that we hadn’t even set out to raise. You read that right, it took us two years to raise our first round of venture capital, and then a mere two weeks to raise the second.
The biggest lessons learned? Push the boundaries of your mission and vision, early and often. And don’t be afraid to dream big.” — Alexandra Fennell, Co-founder of Attn:Grace
“Maybe now is the time to come back, Becky. You can regroup, and figure out what you want to do with your life.”
I still remember answering the phone to my mom’s proposition 18 years ago. The intervention wasn’t about my purpose. I’d dreamed of being a designer since I was a teenager and was living in New York to pursue it. The trouble was that my plan wasn’t working...at all. I worked tirelessly for four years and still couldn’t make ends meet.
The day my mom called I had no money or place to live. When I finally rented a bedroom, I slept on a twin mattress I found in the West Village that I propped up on milk crates. It was understandable that she thought my childhood bedroom - you know, one with an actual bed - was more suitable. I just couldn’t go home. I flashed forward to working at my dad’s office, saying: Well, I used to be a designer in New York...until it got too hard and I gave up. I closed my eyes with one thought that night: I won’t let this be my story.
Turn back moments are a test: Do you really have what it takes to achieve your goal? If you’re feeling queasy now, by all means, return to safety. There’s only one sign for the rest of the journey: It’s all uphill from here. This week, Alex and Nékter Juice Bar Co-founder Alexis Schulze share how their mission gives them the strength to summit it.
I’ve never met a founder who hasn’t faced adversity that nearly broke them. Certain chapters are so fraught with uncertainty that you wonder if you should turn around every hour. Even then, you don’t. Because you’re not waking up every morning solely motivated by business - Money alone will never feed your soul. You’re doing it for a purpose worth fighting for. Alexis shares how she perseveres to protect her vision...
“Nut milk has become quite the topic at our corporate offices. We make it in house, mainly because it’s delicious and doesn’t have the gums and fillers it would have if we bought it. It’s also less expensive for all you math peeps, so it just makes sense (cents). BUT I’m always fighting to keep it that way. One day my director of CONSTRUCTION comes in to have a discussion about nut milk. Yes the guy who builds the buildings and stores wants to talk about NUT MILK!! He thinks we should be buying it instead of making it.
Nékter was mainstream by then, with multiple locations and franchise stores. I was a boss! (insert wow and scared face emojis) That had never really happened before. In order to be a boss, I had to learn to be direct and stand up for what I wanted. I had to OWN it. How could I fight for things if I was unsure of myself? I had to stop doubting myself. I had to balance my work and home life considering I worked with my now ex-husband. I struggled but I also found the courage to grow because I knew intellectually that I created something pretty cool.
I remember one of our marketing employees Connie came into my office with a deep question. She asked me, “How do you stay soft and also have power?” I wasn’t entirely sure how to answer that at the time. I have since learned that women are naturally nurturing and sometimes owning our power is tough because of that. I gave up a lot of power because I didn’t know my worth at certain points. I learned that owning your power doesn’t mean surrendering your nurturing side. It only requires you claim your worth. Speak up for what you believe in. In knowing your worth, you claim so much more than that. You claim your sense of self. You claim who you are and all you have to offer the world. That is powerful! But it's also nurturing to yourself and others and that is just as important as power. Our world needs that balance.
I learned to believe in myself and know that Nékter would benefit greatly by me finding my power to run it the way I knew it needed to be! And keep the nutmilk the way it has always been!!”
Every stakeholder (non stakeholder and their acquaintance) has an opinion about how you should run your business. Our philosophy is to welcome insight whilst understanding that we know our brand best. I’ve learned that partners don’t buy into your company solely for sales and metrics. They’re backing the person who created it. Now, you have to hold your ground even more. You don’t want to distill away the very thing that made you magic.
We developed this confidence after rising from many falls. One of the most painful was when a junior social media assistant told me that our community didn’t want to see pictures of me and my family (I believe her exact words were: “Our customer is 27. Don’t show her your real life!”) I listened, despite knowing that our relationship is our brand. It wasn’t long until our engagement plummeted and I saw how detrimental my decision was. I took back the reins and vowed to follow my gut connecting with our community.
These scars left me with a guiding principle: Be steadfast in your values, no matter how hard you have to fight for them. Your mission didn’t just get you here. It’s why you’re here.
When did you refuse to give up in your career? Share your story in the comments!
I share all of my You Can’t Make This Up moments in my new book, Fearless: The New Rules for Unlocking Creativity, Courage, and Success. It’s a collection of 21 rules that help me overcome my fears and turn my dreams into reality. I’m honored to share them and hope they do the same for you. You can learn more and pre-order it here!
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3 年Thank you for sharing honestly. Touching.
Assistant Manager at Harvest investment .Sarlguinea conakry ????
3 年I really appreciate this,it gives hope to us all that are still striving and loosing confidence in our selves.it literally telling me not to give up.
Editor/Proofreader: I help writers and podcasters (& their guests) look and sound as smart as they are.??Cruciverbalist??BIZCATALYST 360° Columnist????The Oxford Comma????Dog Rescuer??Spunky Old Broad??
3 年As Julie VanDeMortel wrote, Rebecca Minkoff, my struggles pale in comparison, probably because I've never had any employees or a product that wasn't of my own making -- corporate training and editing others' work. I read how you and the others in your article struggled, and I'm in awe of how hard it had to be -- with your families, with your employees -- just amazing. Of course, I also cracked up trying to imagine talking to a group of men about women and bladder leaks as Alexandra C. Fennell wrote about. Just thinking about that will likely put a grin on my face for days to come. ?? And yes, I just subscribed to your newsletter.
Top Voice in AI | CIO at TetraNoodle | Proven & Personalized Business Growth With AI | AI keynote speaker | 4x patents in AI/ML | 2x author | Travel lover ??
3 年Resilience and resourcefulness are the keys to success. When you are faced with an obstacle, you can make a decision: either to attack it head on or to sidestep it. If you choose a direct attack, you may produce a positive result that will cause you to be greatly rewarded. However, your adversary may have greater skills and determination than you do. You could fail miserably and crash hard! If you choose to bypass the obstacle, there is always the possibility that your project will not be completed as quickly as you would like but, chances are, once past your obstacle, you can live to fight another day and achieve success.
Go from fire-fighting everyday to using Lean Management towards world-class performance within 90 days. Engage your employees, build a deep bench of leadership and trounce your competition. Guaranteed 3-1 ROI = Low Risk!
3 年Rebecca, how about we obsolete the shite systems that don’t play well to “naturally nurturing” leaders, and lead the 21st century into an enlightened future using one that does? That managerial frame exists and is proven to outperform the stodgy, sloth like frame of control we’ve been suffering under. And nurturing leaders are much better suited for it, making it the perfect storm. We are, at this very moment, in a classic case of being at a paradigm induced “ground zero,” with the most important thing ever to shift (how we lead), and the biggest players still believe they can’t be toppled. Let’s adopt systems management en masse to create better organizations that crush the existing industry hierarchies, almost all of which refuse to change; and then watch the female leader capitalize on the very thing that’s been criticized by the old guard. This is going to happen - it’s not an if, just a when. I personally think today is as good a time as any.