The Exchanges

Q And when you, I mean, one of the things that I'm curious about in terms of inventory is, Unlike a lot of apparel brands, you could probably overestimate, I mean, or order more inventory than you needed, because it wasn't like your styles were changing. These were evergreen styles, right?

A Yes, and that was a huge benefit for us, um, both in terms of sort of learning about demand from early on and not having to get it exactly right, because we knew whatever we weren't going to sell in that season, we could just keep on the site because it wasn't going out of fashion, and also kind of resulted in a really great customer experience because we could lean into inventory confidently. It just meant that we were in stock at a really high rate, And so, you know, we wanted to make sure that for these busy families, we always had the black leggings or the t-shirts that they needed, um, and we were able to do that because of this point.

AI assessment note: “Yes, and that was a huge benefit for us”

Q much as they thought they could. And it's interesting, they're opening all of these factories, and Mexico apparently is really benefiting from this. A lot of factories opening in Mexico, in Guatemala, Central America, in Peru. Is there a world where you would look To, to this landmass here in North South America, um, to, to bring more of your manufacturing there, just, just in case there was a disruption?

A I think potentially, um, we have looked at it, um, a little bit so far, and sort of where we've netted out, at least to date, is that because, ah, those regions just have sort of less access to cotton, it is a little bit harder on both the development front, but also the sort of transport of the fabric, which, which you would need to potentially import into those countries before you make it, and so it adds a little bit of complexity. Um, with that said, though, we're still curious about it. It's hard not to be when, you know, the lead times of getting something from Guatemala are three days on the water versus three weeks. And so it's definitely sort of on the radar. But for now, I think we're sort of firmly in, um, in Vietnam and India with still a little bit of production in China.

AI assessment note: “we have looked at it, um, a little bit so far”

Q All right, you were at Kraft for a couple years, and then to Cole Haan, before you ended up landing at what became Quidsy, which was started as one-eight-hundred-diapers, and this is 2010. How did you end up there?

A Yeah, so it's funny, I, um, when I was at Cole Haan, I was working with a woman who told me about this sort of job posting that she had gotten from a recruiter for a merchandising role at a company called diapers.com, um, and at the time I was pregnant with twins. It was maybe, like, spring of 2009, um, and she told me she wasn't going to pursue it, and I thought about it for a bit, and I was like, actually, you know, if you wouldn't mind sharing that job description with me, I'd love to talk to the recruiter about it, and so I did, um, and I ended up, you know, sort of going down to the office at that point was in Montclair, and so I went down, um, and that's when I met Christina.

AI assessment note: “I was working with a woman who told me about this sort of job posting”

Q Um, what do you remember about the launch, Galen?

A I think two things. There's one before and one after. The immediate before the launch, um, Christina and I went to the warehouse to see, like, the sort of first delivery of, you know, finished product that we were about to go live with. Um, and, you know, we were opening boxes and pulling out product and looking at everything, and I, I mean, part of it was just so overwhelming that, like, we'd been thinking about this for so long, and now we were actually here, and here was our primary clothing. So really proud on one hand. On the other hand, there were definitely a lot of products that we, we opened up and sort of looked at and were like, this doesn't look great. Um, and so I maybe was crying a little bit also. And one thing in particular, I mean, footie, zip footies for us have become like a pretty core product, but like we opened, there were a few colorways of that zip footie and the feet had somehow been cut as like Triangles. I'm not kidding. It was, it looked like little dinosaur feet on these zip footies, and we were like, oh god, like, we can't sell these. What is happening? And so, um, yeah, so there were a bunch of styles that just weren't, weren't right, and so, so that I remember very clearly. Um, and then, like, the actual launch itself, I just think, like, felt so exciting. Um, my kids were staying with my mom and sent me the cutest video, like, Go get a mom. That…

AI assessment note: “I think two things. There's one before and one after.”

Q that you wouldn't normally do, like, you gotta shake, shake, shake your booty, you know, and you, and you're doing it with your kid at the, and, and it does change, it changes a lot of things in your life, and often leads to business ideas. So just kind of walk me through the conversations that would eventually lead to like, hey, this is something. What, what do you remember?

A Yeah, so I, I think what I remember most is that it was a pretty good, Reasonable combination between the experience that we had had at diapers.com and just sort of personal experiences shopping for our own kids clothes and sort of coming away with the, what if there was a diapers.com type solution, which in our minds was like amazing customer service, really easy to shop for all the great sort of right products that busy parents need that are also easy to replenish, but sort of apply to the clothing category where I think personally shopping for our own kids, So we were frustrated and, you know, had a bunch of questions about, like, the market that existed. So, you know, my kids are girls, but they never liked pink growing up, and I remember early on one year them wanting orange jackets for winter, and I had to buy them from the, like, in quotes, boys section because the sort of girls' coat offering was, like, pink, white, teal, and so, and so that was just a, like, a, huh, that doesn't make any sense. Like, These coats are basically exactly the same. These kids are four. And then I think the other big one was, um, around just simplicity. Um, you know, Christine and I grew up with brands like The Gap and Benetton that sort of stood for these great go-to styles that were sort of timeless and not over-embellished and not trendy, just great colors and great fabrics that all sort …

AI assessment note: “Reasonable combination between the experience that we had had at diapers.com and just sort of personal experiences”

Q But, but so, you know, but I understand the thinking behind it, right? I mean, somebody is saying, can it be replicated? Can you actually protect your, your brand or product? You can understand the skepticism from some people initially when they're like, wait, it's just a basic shirt.

A Exactly. And that for us, it was like, yes, exactly. It's just a basic shirt. And it's so hard to find. So I think that was part of it too, was that we Kind of knew from shopping this category so much, and from all of our friends who were doing the same, that although it seems like it's everywhere and so easy to do, it just wasn't. And also, I think as we learned and got into it, by focusing on it, we could actually do it really well in a way that was sort of profitable, and, you know, a solid business, and the basis of an amazing customer relationship, where, yes, a bunch of other companies could and do sell and A basic white t-shirt sort of in the corner of their store. Um, but it's an afterthought, and so the experience around it and sort of the, the benefit of it is just very different for those brands.

AI assessment note: “by focusing on it, we could actually do it really well”

Q Yeah, and Gail, I'm curious to get your take on that. I mean, you know, we're living in a time where everything is Unfortunately politicized, but I mean, was there any concern that by eliminating the boys and girls categories, because most websites, you know, have men's, women's children, you know, I'm curious, were you worried at all about any kind of backlash around that?

A So we actually weren't. I think, like Christina said, it just, you know, the second we heard it, it made so much sense. It was just sort of one step further from, you know, wanting my girls to be able to buy orange jackets, um, at the beginning. We, we did get some questions, though, around the functionality, which is, you know, yes, every store has boys and girls sections, so aren't you worried that your conversion's gonna fall off, or customers might not be able to find what they're looking for? And I think we just, Felt like maybe that could be true, but also we weren't worried about it because we felt like it wouldn't be that hard for people to find clothing because our categories were very straightforward and our site experience was, was good. I think the other thing too that I would just add on, you know, sort of showing kind of every kid in every style is just that we've learned from, from customers too how meaningful it is for their own kids to sort of see themselves in our clothing and Um, and so boys can feel comfortable buying anything they want, and, and same for girls. Um, and so it, it just gave us a lot of conviction to keep going.

AI assessment note: “So we actually weren't.”

Q Yeah, I think you've raised about sixty million dollars over the course of the eight years, right?

A Yes, exactly. We started this brand because we wanted to be the next gap. Um, and not because, you know, we thought that there could be like a quick exit or, you know, some sort of like Quick cash, and then we're on to the next idea, and so we've always had probably a longer-term mindset than maybe a lot of our investors, but I think the other thing is that, like, the investors that we have, they believe in us, and they believe in our vision, and they actually, hugely to their credit, haven't been antsy, um, for an exit, because I think we all see the possibility here, and, and now that we've hit profitability, you know, sort of feel even more so that, that we're really onto something. Um, I think at the same time, we feel excited about getting to where we think we can go faster, which doesn't necessarily have to mean raising more money, but the idea of having a partner at some point in the future who, um, Maybe has some deeper pockets than we do, and who also has had experience in additional distribution channels or physical retail or international or, you know, sort of other growth areas that Christina and I and our team haven't had direct experience with would be great. Um, and so those are things I think that we will be exploring over the next couple years just in terms of sort of next steps.

AI assessment note: “Yes, exactly. We started this brand because we wanted to be the next gap.”

Q And with that money, presumably, you want to create a, you know, a number of different piece of apparel, and you've got to manufacture it, and you've got to design them. So with that money, what did you initially do? I mean, I'm assuming first thing you do is hire a couple people.

A Yeah, we did, and I think we started, well, there were sort of two pieces of it. One was, were the sort of things that we had had direct experience with before, which was sort of like the building of the website, and creative, what do we want the brand to look like, and the photography, and things like that. And then the hardest work, I think, for us was just figuring out how to make great quality clothing, um, which we hadn't had any direct experience making clothing, and just Completely underestimated how hard that was to do when you had never done it before. Um, and so that was the, the thing we spent the most time on was trying to figure out, like, who to partner with, what factories would make these clothes, how do we figure out what fabric to buy. That led us to just ask for help from anyone we could who had any connection to the apparel industry at all.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, we did, and I think we started, well, there were sort of two pieces”

Q and then it went skinny, and then I'm like, I'm looking at my nephews, and they're baggy again, and my son's baggy, like he doesn't wear skinny. I'm still wearing skinny jeans like a weirdo, like I'm a The middle-aged man, and I'm like, what, what happened? I'm like, looking around, I'm like, I didn't get the memo. So, I mean, how do you adapt to those kinds of things?

A Yeah, I think I would say that we just continue to remind ourselves how enormous this market is and how many other people are doing those things, and so it takes the pressure off a little bit. Like, a lot of people don't want the sort of, like, newest, latest trend and are just looking for the things that we were looking for when we started the company, which is solid, reliable, great quality, beautiful colored, You know, sort of gender-neutral clothes that they can count on and come back to year after year as their kids grow. Because so many competitors aren't focused on that at all, we feel like there's just an enormous market still left for us, even if we don't do a lot of the trend. So it helps to take the temptation away a little bit.

AI assessment note: “we feel like there's just an enormous market still left for us, even if we don't do a lot of the trend”

Q And Galen, even while you were at Quincy, was that still, was that ideas percolating in your mind, or?

A I think not quite. I think I was just open to ideas that popped up and definitely always thinking about what I wish for for myself, you know, in sort of a shopping experience or stuff for the kids or a service or things like that. I, I think just like, yeah, wouldn't it be great if there was like a travel service that could do la la la. Like those types of conversations happened a lot, but not in a sort of serious way really until we had, we had the primary thought. And so then it became, you know, we sort of got to the point where we were both probably ready to leave regardless, and so we're either going to do this or we're going to sort of go our separate ways and get new jobs, and what are we going to do?

AI assessment note: “I think not quite. I think I was just open to ideas that popped up”

Q So just tell me a little bit about your relationship. You know, did you guys, um, I mean, you were, were you working super closely together every day?

A We were. Um, it was sort of an all hands on deck all the time. There was a ton of pressure to sort of continue the amazing momentum that we had already seen on diapers.com in terms of sales, um, but also to get all of these other verticals launched. So there was a ton going on. Um, and so we worked Really closely together and it was just, it was hard. It was really hard. We learned so much. Um, but there was just a ton of pressure and, and we all loved it. I think I, um, you know, I think we all just wanted to make sure that we hit the metrics that we had in place and our plans were really aggressive.

AI assessment note: “We were. Um, it was sort of an all hands on deck all the time.”