Trina Spear is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of FIGS, the digitally native, DTC healthcare apparel and lifestyle brand creating technically advanced products for the modern healthcare professional. FIGS is on a mission to celebrate, empower and serve healthcare professionals. Learn how Trina got started, why she liquidated Her 401(k) to co-found her company, how she built her business and how she and her co-founder Heather Hasson just became the first female Co-Founders and Co-CEOs to take a company public!) 🚀

Key Takeaways

• Being an Outsider is Cool

  • It is okay if you don’t have specific industry experience - being an outsider is helpful!

    • It helps view the product from a fresh lens and can see problems that industry experts ignore/cannot.

    • Ex: The medical apparel industry was stagnant and was unable to see the need for a better distribution model, fit and style, and the need for community.

• Beginners Mindset

  • Keep this fresh perspective by maintaining and nurturing curiosity and innovation.

    • Ask yourself: How do we continue to be innovative? Curious? How are we going to introduce something that will blow people’s minds?

• Take Risks & Don’t Be Afraid of Mistakes

  • If you don't take risks you'll never see what your product or business can be

  • Don't be scared of taking the leap - innovation requires taking chances

• Mistakes happen!

  • Example: Early on FIGS made a costly production mistake! While devastating, it taught them the importance of quality control at every stage of production

  • Mistakes are opportunities to learn and improve.

• Our brand is our community and our community is our brand

  • Our brand is our community and our community is our brand

    • Historically, healthcare workers are siloed into their dept., so we focus on the commonality between ALL providers: They want to save lives! We can meet them where they’re at and connect them.

  • Know your target audience and make them feel seen and heard.

    • Through social media and real-life events like pop-ups, hospital visits & immersions (spa day for healthcare providers!)

  • Two types of Spending

    • Performance Spend - ADs, SEO, etc

    • Brand Spend - You may not see anything right away but it makes a huge difference in your community

• #DreamTeam

  • Co-CEOs can be a great thing IF you find the yin to your yang.

• Feedback is a Gift

  • I want the feedback because I want to get better

  • Use a mind-frame that is going to serve

• Don’t ask for $$, offer potential funders the opportunity to fund your incredible business!

Quotes

“There is no playbook, no rule book you figure it out as you go”

- Trina Spear

“Feedback is a Gift”

“Big bold bets to cut through the noise.”

-Sarah Friar

Advice to Younger Trina?

“Believe even more! There were times that I doubted myself - first years were slow-moving - if you believe strongly you'll give yourself that time to create something meaningful.”

Action Step

“Write down 5 things you're going to do this week and that you are actually going to get done. It can be overwhelming so we focus on the little doable things.” - Trina Spear

So you have an idea and you want to launch your company? But how do you know if your product is needed? What is your TAM? (total addressable market) Do you have a product-market fit or not? What are easy and effective ways to test and learn quickly (without a lot of money)?

Join Tawyna, the founder of Le Grand Courtage for this discussion around how to conduct market research and make sure you are launching a brand or product that has an audience and will be differentiated from your competitors so that you can run a sustainable business!

Key Takeaways

Problem First then Product Build

• Should be like the scientific method: Define the process, test your hypothesis, get feedback from consumer, then iterate! Test the hypothesis then product!

Know Your Why

• The extension of the why is the brand value & what will resonate in hearts & minds of consumers

Set Yourself Up for Success

• Do your homework! Become an expert & know the lingo - no need for a degree, Tawnya learned by doing and reading everything she could get her hands on! Pitch decks provide a good framework for learning

• Create something achievable &  justifiable 

Know Your Competition

• How can I win and offer a point of differentiation against them?

• Get feedback from fam & friends & compare your product to “stuff on the shelf”

Feedback

• Be careful not to operate in a vacuum - test and get feedback.

• Know when to take feedback but also keep in mind that there are folks without vision- keep a healthy skepticism

Ask for help

• Don't be shy about asking for what you need & dig in. There are people always willing to help!

Big Companies are not Always Better

• They can get into analysis paralysis

• In this day and age consumers are far more suspect of the big companies

• Consumer want to support small businesses - social media helps build trust and support

Quotes

“People don't buy what you do they buy why you do it.”

“You've got 4 seconds to grab someone's attention! You want to make sure that you stand out in that sea of products literally and figuratively. “

“Don't be shy about asking for what you need.There are people always willing to help!”

Action Step

Figure out what is the next best thing that can help prepare you forward - really ask your community and define what you need and ask for it.

The first step to a striking and powerful business isn't branding, it's what happens before that. In this panel we will dive in with 3 incredible women to discuss what it means to define your brand identity. What does your business stand for? How does your business support its values through action and branding? Walk away with tangible tools to define your brand identity and begin bringing that to life!

Key Takeaways

Finding Your Why

• The first step in the process - the why is your purpose and what you can offer

  • Re-Inc started with the why and then we looked into the product/business 

  • the heart of Bombchel’s why remained the same but the how changed as a result of challenges

    • Staying true to her why helped her adapt while maintaining & building trust w/ target audience

Brand Colors

• Use colors that are true to your brand identity & feel authentic to the target audience.

  • Be mindful not to let folks outside your target dictate what they think you should be

Authenticity in Brand Voice

• Messaging must be true to your brand identity - communication rooted in why and brand values

• Respond in a way that feels authentic - if you’re why is rooted in social justice then your brand identity - brand personality + tone - will reflect that.

• Don’t be afraid of losing customers - if they don’t like it, then they’re not your target audience and you can tell them #byefelicia. Your authentic brand voice will not only strengthen your relationship with your audience but you will gain some!

  
  

Quotes

"For every customer you lose, you'll get 10 more in your tribe" & “Advice is important but remember - some people think too small to talk to”. - Archel Bernard

"We don’t react, we lead" & “A brand is so much more than a brand banner it is what you do.” - Jess Tiller

“If your house is a mess, clean that shit up.” & “I am relentless and I never give up.” - Bea Dixon

Action Steps

Jess Tillyer: Get out a piece of paper, write down exactly what that idea is and put it somewhere that is meaningful to you. Commit it to yourself and ask the universe to commit it to you.

Archel Bernard: Sometimes it is better to just do it/ launch it and then continue to make iterations. Perfection is a nice word for procrastination. If you're waiting until you're perfect you’re not doing anything. Do the thing you’ve been wanting to do

Bea Dixon: Get out of your mind and get into your body. Check-in with yourself and remember that each can moment can be a new one. [If you’re too in your ego/unwell] you have the opportunity to change things.

S corps and trademarks and accounting, oh my! Gather up your courage and confront the “scary” topics lurking in your business’s back office. Once you tackle them head-on, you will be on your way to making your dream a reality. Our speaker Cathie Saadeh, an attorney who has guided startups large and small, including two of her own, will walk you through the common steps and decisions every entrepreneur needs to do and make when setting up a new business. We’ll cover topics like entity selection, tax classification, bookkeeping and accounting, contracts, payment collection, intellectual property, IT security, privacy, and more.

After this panel, you’ll have a good idea of what to look out for as you and your business skip down the yellow brick road together. We’ll leave room for Q&A at the end (note: no individual legal advice will be provided).

Show Me the Money: Financing Strategies for Founders is a 45-minute live breakout session with Q+A specifically covering financing strategies that have been successful or failed for women-owned businesses. Friends and family, bootstrapping, bank loan, crowdfunding, venture capital are all viable ways to get your startup off the ground, but not every business will be successful with every path. In this session we will cover different financing strategies from a founder and VC perspective, and tips and tricks to help women entrepreneurs understand their financing and capital options.

Key Takeaways

There is no single right way to get funding

• Find what works for you - Bootstrapping (CCs, savings, etc); Family & Friends; Crowdfunding; VC & Angel investors

  • Crowdfunding

    • It is a full-time job - Katie spent 3 months “heads down” fundraising

    • WeFund

  • Friends & Family

    • It is a vote of confidence & many won’t see returns for a while.

  • VC Funding

    • Technically no ideal candidate but historically CPG were often funded. Very tech-centric - like Nima Sensor

    • Focus on benchmarks - Do people like it? Will they pay? They want to know that it is tested and valuable to consumers (at pre-seed & seed stages).

Asking for Money is HARD

• Get used to rejection - need to shake it off & shift framework! Ex: Shireen’s perspective: It is a privilege to invest in this opportunity!

Spending $$ is HARD

• It is very common to be afraid of spending funds - don’t let this stop you from investing in your companies

Quotes

“We tend to be tougher on ourselves. We have a really high bar for what is a fundable business” - Aditi Maliwal

“Become Teflon - let the rejection roll off and keep goin’.” - Elise Lindborg

“Consistency to achieve the goal is key.” - Kate Flynn

Action Steps

Kate Flynn: Do as much as you can and a little bit every day, every week.”

Aditi Maliwal: In the next couple of days - ask someone for something that makes you feel uncomfortable that will help you on your [entrepreneurial] journey.

Elise Lindborg: Practice being okay with rejection.

How to navigate your first 6 months to build and launch your business: Join Katharine Jiang, engineer, co-founder, and CEO of Wizform as she shares a case study on her first 6 months from idea to MVP to V0 launch. She will also share advice and insights for non-technical founders on how to hire engineers, build your product roadmap, and understand what tools are available to use. By the end of this workshop, you will have a real-life example to learn from and a framework for product and technical development which you can use for conversations with advisors, investors, and partners.

Key Tools

Building as a non-technical founder

• Figma, UXPin

• Webflow, Buggle, Squarespace, Shopify

• Zapier

• Google Sheets, Airtable (for CMS/Database)

How to Hire Engineers

• LinkedIn

• AngelList

• Upwork

View the Presentation + View the Accompanying Slides for More

What You Need to Know to Market Your Business and Build Your Community

Social media is one of the most essential pieces of any business's marketing strategy and can also be one of the most time-consuming. In this session, join Alexa Sibberson, with Tammeca Rochester of Harlem Cycle, as she takes us through exercises to efficiently infuse your social media strategy with your mission and leave with tools to streamline your content pillars and planning calendar.

Tools & Resources

• Canva + Adobe Spark for content creation

• Planoly, Later, Iconosquare for content planning
  

Quotes

“Social media is a great place to get feedback about what is working with your followers and what's not. We want to be agile with our strategy to make sure that we are listening and adapting to what our followers want.” - Alexa Sibberson

What It Means to Go "Back to Work"

A lot has changed us over the last year. Quarantine. George Floyd. How we shop. What we wear. How we lead. As we see businesses flip their sign from “closed” to “Open” and some are heading back into the office, we ask “What does the "new normal" look like?”. Tune in to this powerful session to learn how other women business leaders have changed, how the last year impacted their leadership, and if they are ready to ditch their slippers!

Key Takeaways

Pivoting

Autumn Kyles: We had to make the tough decision to close down [Detroit Dough] and throughout this process, I noticed that there were a lot of Black women starting businesses so I decided to build Proxie - a community that bridges the gap between business resources and Black women entrepreneurs.

Micki Krimmel: [with everything shutting down] We paused all PR & marketing efforts and went back to where we were 2 years ago. We went back to basics and took this time to connect with our community and conducted an intensive customer research project. Our community really guided us to pivot towards selling plus-sized only. This downtime was really clarifying for us and figure out our unique position in the marketplace and what problem we can solve better than the larger activewear brands.

Kirsten Bowen: Overnight went from a storefront organization to a digital - pivot our product assortment and the way that we serve our customers and made sure we were leveraging our stylists and focused more on social selling. We became more like a startup - lots of agility and pivoting and keeping everyone really close. We were nimble and communicated often and openly. We also have a very flexible work environment now — we don’t have to work in the office 5 days a week to be productive. We are able to balance out our families [with our work].

Autumn: You know in your gut what is happening. We are in this renaissance period and so things die and things are birthed - if you’re in an industry that is about to die don’t waste time putting more into it and make it work. The best you can do is acknowledge where you are, close up shop know when to close it, and come up with something fresh. As a result [of letting go], I was able to [see] that Black women are starting businesses more than any other demographic and they need support.

Personal Style

Kirsten: Coming out of the pandemic we are seeing now is that the women still want to feel put together but comfort is more important. Bold colors, patterns, more emotional styles still favored but we are not going to compromise comfort for personal style

What would you tell yourself 15 months ago, pre-covid?

Autumn: “You are right where you need to be.”

Micki:” [Re-learn] the importance of having a plan. Focus on not just where you’re going this year but next year and next 5 years. ”

Kirsten: “Keep focus, stay on ur strategy. Know where you need to go and keep going while always being mindful of agility.”

Goals for Next 5 Years

Micki: our goal is to become the most trusted brand for plus size activewear - new markets, wholesale - figure out how to do this at scale

Autumn: Proxie (missed this) love to be an International advocate for diverse business owners.

Kirsten: Brick and mortar still important but hybrid digital is key to success- but WHBM is working to continue meeting customers where their and their needs are.

Looking Ahead

Kirsten: Social calendars are filling back up, travel plans being reinstated, and weddings coming back. ” We are very optimistic with our product and staying on brand DNA, this is the time to take risks. If you know your brand and stay connected to your customers, this is the time to accelerate things and take a chance.

Autumn: - Wrapping up Detroit Dough in a few months, releasing it, and letting go! Excited about focusing more on Proxie and helping people develop their business strategies in person.”  

Micki: Interested in what people are demanding of businesses. Customers want to know what your company believes in, why do you exist, and who is your supply chain [what is your company doing to make a positive impact]. We are excited that customers demanding more from companies - our brand values and how is a major strength of Superfit Hero.

Quotes

The journey along the way inspires creativity. Take time to stop and discover that. Take a moment, take a pivot, and keep going. “ - Kirsten Bowen

On looking ahead: “I am going to allow our customers and our community and [to tell me] where we go next. [I am] open to the possibility of wild growth. - Autumn Kyles

“We can do our best to plan and be well situated but there is no such thing as security and control.“ - Micki Krimmel

“As [difficult] as 2020 was, it forced me to kind of reinvent my purpose in terms of this personal passions. There is so much more beyond our world and we all have to find a community to show us that [that].” - Rosie Rios

Action Steps

Autumn Kyles: Do something that scares you. Take one thing and go for it.

Micki Krimmel: Have a conversation with your current & potential customers and ask them what their biggest challenge doing x (x being whatever your product or services is/offers).

Kirsten Bowen: Build your network! Find someone who inspires you and someone you want to connect with. The more you build your network the more you can leverage your relationships.

Kelly Ifill is gearing up to launch Guava, a platform designed to meet the needs of Black small business owners who have often been systematically under-served by our existing financial institutions. "We are working to create truly equitable financial products to tackle the racial wealth gap head-on by facilitating the development, growth, and resilience of our small businesses, the backbone of our communities". Hear from Kelli how she decided to start her business, what she is hearing from other small business owners, what it's like to get your product ready for launch, and what she wishes she knew a year ago.

To learn more visit: https://www.joinguava.com/

Key Takeaways

Don’t Discount Your Past Experience!

• You have transferable skills to help you on your entrepreneurial journey.

• There are things that will have to learn but that’s any job. to dismiss the years of experience that you had in your former [pre-founder] life and say that nothing has prepared you for this moment isn’t true. I think there are definitely tools that you learned. There are things she learned from being an HS math teacher that she brings into Guava.

Be Comfortable with the Unknown

• “The thing that all of my professional experiences is that there was an unclear path. Nothing is known. being comfortable with the unknown and I have taken that with me throughout my career.”

Be Open

• The idea for Guava came to Kelly while she was working on a nonprofit she co-founded

• By being open during the fundraising process for this venture, she discovered that very few funders looked like her and her team

Learn How to Say “I Don’t Know”
You don’t have to have it all figured out - no one really does! Learn how to be okay with saying that you don't know yet and you will figure it out. Your resourcefulness and creative problem solving will help you get there.

• Tips fro Rani & Kelly

  • “I don’t know, let’s make it a discussion” or “that's a really great question/I am not quite sure yet but I will get back to you.” “I put someone more thought to what you asked and here is what I came up with.”

Be Curious

• By talking to Black-owned small businesses and asking questions, Kelly learned that they need something to bridge the gap between them and funding.

Our Current Funding Options are Inequitable

• Black-owned small businesses face countless hurdles - getting a checking account, loans, etc

• She is actively working to close this gap - meeting with range investors and VC

• A large % of Black-owned small businesses are solopreneurs due to a lack of capital

• 80% of Black-owned small businesses don't have a commercial business account - Guava is seeking to change this and get money into the hands of those that need it.

What is Guava

Guava is a digital bank designed to support Black-owned small businesses. They not only provide a business bank account & financial help but, they have created a platform for folks to connect, meet mentors, partners, and support other businesses. Guava is creating a real pathway for entrepreneurs to connect so that they can all grow together 

Quotes

"Nobody knows what they're doing. You don't have to have it all figured out - knowing the next 2-3 steps right in front of you is all you need. Get comfortable with saying that you don't know yet because you will figure it out. You are intelligent and smart!"

- Kelly Ifill

“You don't need to have directions, you just need to know the destination. This is where conviction, confidence, and trust come in.” - Rani Mavram

Action Step

This week, ask for something that makes you uncomfortable.