The Exchanges

Q What was that like? Were you nervous? Because, because it's live TV, right? Were you, or were you just like, yep, I'm, I'm here, I'm ready to go?

A I wasn't nervous about the TV part of it because I just, um, when I get too stressed out, I just sort of leave my body. Um, but I was nervous about whether I would hit my sales because if I didn't hit my sales goal, I didn't know how I was going to make salary. And I had already called my mom probably by that .4 times for an emergency loan to pay salaries because 15 people means 15 salaries or 14 salaries because I didn't take one. And then I would come home and my house would be full of Half-packed boxes, um, and they would go from floor to about five feet up in every single room of my house. There was inventory coming in from Japan, and then there was orders going out through tatcha.com and then for QVC, and so it was just boxes halfway up the wall. At one point, we lost the baby in the boxes.

AI assessment note: “I wasn't nervous about the TV part of it... but I was nervous about”

Q Wow. All right, so you, you launched the product line, and You already had a customer base. Were people buying the product in, in, in, in, when it started?

A No. When we launched the skincare, this little four-piece collection with just, you know, a cleanser, an exfoliant, a serum, and a moisturizer, I was so fortunate in that I had sort of the holy grail of, of press hit the same week or weekend that, um, the products launched online, and so that was, it was like a two-page spread in vogue. It was Feature in Oprah. It was the Today Show again, and we had this website set up, and it was beautiful, and I remember we sold exactly one serum, and then that was maybe on a Friday, and then that, that weekend, I was trying to figure out how to create a promotion code, and I made a mistake, and I zeroed out all the pricing on the website, and I didn't know it for two days. Finally, a woman that I knew from Starbucks Who had seen a Facebook plea that I had put up, like, please come check out my website. Um, she went through the website and saw that everything was zero dollars, purchased, made an order, and then forwarded the order to me and was like, hey girl, you shouldn't give your stuff away. And I realized, gosh, even with-

AI assessment note: “No. When we launched the skincare... we sold exactly one serum”

Q Wow. And, and what was the story? I mean, that's pretty great.

A Um, one, uh, was a retail, uh, partner, and the other one was, uh, a large strategic acquirer, and I had no intention of selling the company, but one, the strategic acquirer said, uh, and it was a mentor of mine who, who I really, really respect. He's a beauty veteran, and said, you have lucked into a brand that has the potential to be one of the greats, And if you love it like you love your child, then you'll give it to a mother who knows how to raise it because you do not have what it takes. You don't have the money. You don't have the know-how. You don't have the team. And I had a newborn child at home when he said that to me.

AI assessment note: “one was a retail partner, and the other one was a large strategic acquirer”

Q Cause you're dealing with gold and silver. Okay. Fair enough. All right, Vicki, let's, let's see what we can do here. Um, Jessica's got, she makes everything. They're beautiful products, handmade, high quality, but it's challenging, right? You're, this is all direct to consumer, Jessica, right? You're not selling in stores. So first of all, any thoughts, Vicki, about her approach? What do you, what do you think?

A I, I love what you do. I love the intention and the craftsmanship and the quality. I think your brand is exactly the kind of brand that people are looking for these days. They're sick of stuff that just falls off a factory line somewhere else in the world and that doesn't have a heart and a soul and a purpose for being. And I think people don't buy products these days. They join brands. If I were in your shoes, a couple ideas. One is I would let people into the The craftsmanship piece of your, of your work. You're not competing with, um, someone who's buying stock jewelry, putting their brand name on it, and selling it on their website. Um, you are looking for a client that cares about craftsmanship, and wants to know their maker.

AI assessment note: “I think your brand is exactly the kind of brand that people are looking for”

Q Wow. So you guys were dealing with a lot of stuff. How were you, how did you eventually get it? Did it just go away on its own? Or how did you eventually bring it under control?

A Um, I had it from the summer of business school, so between those two years, so I had it my entire second year of business school, and then I had it two years after that when I graduated and I worked for Starbucks. So after business school, we moved to Seattle. My job was to launch Starbucks' consumer products business in China, and I was flying all the time through Japan. There were not direct flights between Seattle and Beijing at that time. And the only thing I could put on my face that didn't irritate it was Aquaphor. Yeah. Which, you know, you put on baby's butts when they have diaper rashes. I know Aquaphor well, yeah. Um, but it, it leaves you looking kind of greasy. So when I would go to China via Japan, I would pick up these blotting papers that I found in Japan that I couldn't find in the U.S. What are blotting papers for people? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, that's a great question. It's a piece of paper that is made out of, um, there's various kind of materials. The ones in the U.S. are made out of cotton. The ones in Japan are made out of, um, a certain type of leaf. And you press it to your skin when it's oily, and it lifts off the oil, but it won't, um, disrupt your makeup or, or take any moisture from the skin.

AI assessment note: “the only thing I could put on my face that didn't irritate it was Aquaphor”

Q But it's interesting because they were old fashioned, right? Like, but, but you understood that if you just updated the design, it could appeal to people in the U S because so much of, so much of these things is about design, right? You have great product and the design sucks. No one's going to notice it.

A That's exactly right. You know, The way that most beauty brands come to life these days is, um, you know, if you've ever wondered, how does this model or this actress suddenly come out with a 80 piece skincare collection? What does she know about skincare? It's pretty easy if you want to do it, um, the fast way. You go to a contract manufacturer, they have stock formulas and stock packaging, you pick it, you put in 0.01% of a marketing level ingredient, you put your name on it, you pick a fragrance, and it's out the door. And that is how the vast majority of skincare is made in the world. And I will be completely honest. I did go to labs in Japan and say, do you, do you have formulas like this? Because no brands are making anything like this. And they said, no, we don't make formulas like that.

AI assessment note: “That's exactly right. You know, The way that most beauty brands come to life”

Q works for Amazon, and he loves it, because he really, really is just a tinkerer. Like, he loves to just go and invent things, and so he doesn't have the pressure of having to, like, raise money and talk to investors and do all that stuff anymore. Like, he now could just do what he loves, and, and he's, he's great with that. Is that, Is that how you feel?

A I feel so incredibly blessed. Um, we're completely independent from Unilever, um, but they are very much a purpose-driven company, and, um, it got put to the test with COVID, because they made this acquisition, and everybody can talk about values and purpose when things are going great, but it's when things are difficult that you really get put to the test, and the truth of it is, when we sheltered in place, Here in San Francisco and the stores, um, you know, we started getting nervous about the safety of everything. We shut down our office. We pulled our field team. We shut down our warehouse because we wanted to put everybody's safety first. And that meant that, you know, for the first couple of weeks that this was happening, we were down like 80% a day in sales.

AI assessment note: “I feel so incredibly blessed. Um, we're completely independent from Unilever”