Every argument clarity score on this site is built from rows on this page. Each
question and answer was assessed with names hidden, the host's own answers included, on
four things from 1 to 5:
directness (does it answer the question asked), coherence (do the ideas follow),
precision (concrete details and clear references), compression (says a lot per word). The weighted
mix (30/30/25/15) is the exchange score. A person's published score averages their exchange
scores on raw tape only, at least 8 of them, shrunk toward the cohort mean.
Full method →
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q Ok, so you, you decide that you're not gonna go back, and you have, you have your first child, and tell me about how you, what were you thinking about maybe doing at that point?
A You know, my mind works in a kind of crazy brain way, but I, after having our first child, I got baby gifts that were personalized with his name on them, and they were very unusual, and I didn't feel like there was like an exquisite baby store that was highly curated. Now keep in mind, I now have, you know, a 13, 15, if you go back to my high school years, I, I now practically have a 20 year career in the retail world. And so I just decided to open a baby store in downtown Mill Valley. The internet was alive at this time. We're now talking about 2001. Um, so there was ways to, you know, find things. Certainly not like today, but, yeah.
AI assessment note: “I just decided to open a baby store in downtown Mill Valley.”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q understand, you're not, the two of you, you're not like, let's go find a manufacturer and start producing rolls of textile and fabric. That was not what you were going to do. You were going to figure that out later, right? First, you were going to, because, because you wouldn't really launch this until, I think, May of When you start, start the business, you were not manufacturing anything, right?
A No. Honestly, Guy, we, we didn't know a damn thing about what we were doing. Serena had a cut and sew person that could make us samples to be used in our photo shoot. We got the name of an agent that can help us in Los Angeles find a printing source that can print our fabric for us. So we literally, you know, talked him into Taking a risk that we were going to be this multi multi-million dollar brand one day, and can you please just print us 15 yards of the following 15 fabrics, because we're doing our cut and sew photo samples. And they did it, and they took a risk on us, and we had the most incredible photo team and photo stylist, and we produced this beautiful lookbook.
AI assessment note: “No. Honestly, Guy, we, we didn't know a damn thing about what we were doing.”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q And they're ordering, what are they ordering? Are they ordering baby sheets? Are they, what exactly?
A At the time, we sold everything as a three-piece crib set, which was the bumper, the sheet, and the dust ruffle. And the dust ruffle, ok. Yeah. It was very premium crib bedding, and we had a minimum order requirement of four crib sets, so it was basically a minimum order of a thousand dollars to open up an account with us, and in a matter of a few weeks, I just recall going, oh, Oh my goodness. We have a 100,000 dollars in orders. And then I think at some point, Serena and I went to a trade show, the ABC Kids Expo, I believe in Las Vegas. We had this genius idea to create these gorgeous like hat boxes that had a window and we packaged up our crib bedding in these gorgeous boxes and stacked them up in our trade booth. And I'm not joking when I tell you every single baby store stopped and said, wow, is that how it comes packaged? And we're like, yeah. And they're like, I'll take four. You know, it was just hilarious. Like, so we're just mounting the orders for an inventory we do not have.
AI assessment note: “we sold everything as a three-piece crib set, which was the bumper, the sheet”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q 750,000 dollars in sales, but, but the middle of that year, you decide, Lily, to sell the baby and kids store. Um, why, I mean, was it not, I mean, because I imagine that was probably still bringing in maybe more money at that time than Serena and Lily, or maybe not, I don't know, but was it just, you saw more potential in this other thing you were doing?
A I literally was so overwhelmed. I had another baby in between all of this. I had another baby in July of 2005. So I have three little boys. They're under four years old. I've got Mill Valley baby and kids that requires my time. And then I've got Serena and Lily taking off like a rocket ship. And I just remember going for a hike with my husband in October of oh five. And I was like, oh my God, something has to come off my plate. I just, I can't do this anymore. And I said, I think it's time to sell the store. And I The next day, I came into Mill Valley Baby, one of my very best clients who, anytime she walked in the door, she, she bought a lot of things. I mentioned the idea that I was trying to sell my store if she knew any Tiburon or Mill Valley moms that might want to buy the store to call me. And she literally called, like, a few hours later. She called my store manager, and she's like, tell Lily I want to buy her store.
AI assessment note: “I literally was so overwhelmed. I had another baby in between all of this.”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q because most of that money is going to finance the business. And I guess around that time, you decide you, you need to raise some money, uh, First of all, is because this is a cash heavy business, right? You, you have to have money on hand to make the stuff. So I'm imagining that was one of the reasons. And was the other reason just to grow, to expand?
A Oh, absolutely. I mean, the demand was creating this cash incinerator, you know, for lack of a better word. We needed working capital, and so we decided to do a friends and family round. I asked a friend if they had any ideas of the valuation of this company, and they said, no, but I'm going to introduce you to a CFO at a private equity firm, and they hold on to some betting companies. They'll have a much better idea of the multiples and what to base your valuation on. So Serena and I went to pay them a visit just literally to get their opinion on the valuation, and in about 10 minutes into the meeting, the CFO went and got one of the general partners of the firm and brought him in. He literally patted us on the heads like we were dogs or puppies.
AI assessment note: “Oh, absolutely. I mean, the demand was creating this cash incinerator”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 4 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.55
Q you, Lily, you had a business. You've got the Mill Valley Baby Store, but this is going to be a different business called Serena and Lily, and what, tell me what, how you were going to, like, Spin this out as a separate standalone thing? It was gonna, how was it gonna, what, what, what was your thinking around, around how this business was gonna work? Like a side business?
A Uh, yeah, absolutely. I spun it out immediately on LegalZoom as an LLC, Serena and Lily, and, and, and Serena's very dear friend is a branding, marketing person, and we kicked around a lot of names, and she was really the one that came up with this idea of how ownable, you know, Our names were. They were ownable at that time. They probably wouldn't be today. Who knows? So many people would come in and tell us their, their girls' names were Serena and Lily. Right, right. Um, but yeah, that's, that's kind of how it happened. We spun it out as a separate company. We were fifty-fifty owners. I told Serena I'd put 50,000 dollars into this business. We'd be equal partners. Um,
AI assessment note: “I spun it out immediately on LegalZoom as an LLC, Serena and Lily”
