My first guest today has not only reinvented the ways bras are made, she’s changed the way they’re sold as well. Heidi Zak is the co-founder of ThirdLove, an innovative bra and underwear brand that was the first to offer half-cup sizing and a patented mobile sizing app which allows women to measure themselves at home and pay for bras after 30 days of washing and wear.
HEIDI ZAK“After I graduated business school I went to Aeropostale, the teen retailer. I saw how traditional retailers work.”
“I went to Google for a few years before starting ThirdLove. I had a background in retail and tech which helped start the company.”
“I tried to get a bra last minute for a holiday party. I couldn’t find anything that worked for me. I thought why can’t I find a bra online that fits.”
“I found that Victoria Secret owns 50% of the market in the US and was astounded at that.”
“Most women don’t know what size they should wear or what style fits. We developed a fit finder that helps build the best bra for her.”
“We help through returns and exchanges a woman find what bra she needs.”
“We’re the only product in the world that lets you take the tags off and wear it for the 30 days and return. It’s how much we believe in our product.”
“You create a compelling pitch by knowing your audience. Know the firm before walking in. There probably won’t be a woman before walking in. There’s a piece of education needed.”
“You may have to spend some time walking a table of men through something they don’t know.”
“Outline the size of the market for potential investors.”
“When we first started we did a lot of focus group testing. Women were falling in half cup sizes. Over 30% of women out there are half cup sizes. We’re the only brand in the world that does half cup sizes.”
“Our number one marketing platform is Facebook. Facebook makes it easy when you’re starting out to have a smaller budget and targeted ads.”
“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of success on Pinterest.”
“You need to understand your value and why should the customer care.”
“What matters is what your customer cares about.”
“We focus on the try before buying and comfort because we know what the customer cares about.”
“The try-before-buying program came from a brainstorming session. We knew the bra was so great and we wanted to do something different to get the bras into women’s hands.”
“Daily Burn is one of my favorite apps to work out with, even while traveling. Google Swift lets you compete against other riders via app. It’s great if you’re competitive.”
“Try before buy has been proven it works. But it can dig into profitability if your product is not of quality.”
“Product differentiation is most important when starting a retail business. What’s the value you’re delivering to your customer?”
“We have a chiropractor and kegerator with cold coffee, wine and beer. We actually hire based on company values. Every person we screen needs the core traits of the company.”
“We recently launched maternity and nursing sizes and now have a K cup.”
NORA POGGINora Poggi is the director and producer of She Started It, a documentary about five women entrepreneurs who will stop at nothing to pursue their dreams. Shot in Silicon Valley, NYC, Mississippi, Vietnam, and France, She Started It is the first film to show the behind the scenes of running a tech startup as a young woman.
“I’m originally from Paris and have been in Silicon Valley for a few years. I always wanted to make movies so myself and my co-founder built this film on the way up.”
“I was working as a journalist in Silicon Valley meeting a lot of interesting people. At the time there wasn’t that much around women entrepreneurs.”
“We interviewed over 75 women and had to do a massive cut down in editing.”
“As we got into the women’s lives, following them for 3 years, when we did test screenings people wanted more of the 5 women who we really focused on.”
“We wanted to inspire younger women and girls to see this story on screen.”
“The fundraising aspect is so interesting. Women receive less than 10% of VC funding.”
“These women are very resilient though they struggle with funding.”
“How many guys raise money without even a prototype?”
“I didn’t realize how difficult making a film would be. We had to fundraise and sell the product and market it. We found amazing backers, thankfully.”
“Making this film was like running a startup.”
“Nowadays you can do so much with so little connections. We got amazing people behind us. You have to market your release everyday. You have to push it everyday over and over again.”
“You don’t need to be backed by a big studio but you have to work twice as hard to your story out there.”
“It is hard to stand out because there’s such amazing content out there. But democratization of content is what allowed us to get this out there.”
“It’s more work to filter out what’s worth watching, so it’s up to the content creators to figure out who they are marketing to.”
“I’d love to tell the story of more women entrepreneurs all over the world. There’s so many out there.”
“I’m interested in exploring an episodic docu-series. If you’re interested go to shestarteditfilm.com”
“The first Executive Producer who came on board was Jenna Shea, a Broadway producer. She really believed in us and made everything possible.”
Listen to ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg’ every Wednesday at 12pm ET/9am only on SiriusXM Business Channel 111!
Subscribe to the Dot Complicated newsletter and receive a monthly update containing our latest blog posts, events, and more so you can stay informed on digital solutions and tech trends without getting overwhelmed. 