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Hey everyone, I'm Austin Hankwitz.
And I'm Jennise Torres. Welcome to Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories, a podcast brought to you by Intowit, QuickBooks and iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio. In each episode, Austin and I chat with small business owners as they share their stories about the ups and downs of owning a small business.
That's right, Jenise, and I'm really excited to talk to this episode's guests. But before we do that, let me ask you. We've both traveled a lot. I know you just got back from New York, which was really exciting, and being an entrepreneur, we both have a little bit of freedom as it relates to scheduling our trips. So do you prefer to go on vacation and travel with a group or by yourself?
I think there's a time and place for both. I like the group travel. I like traveling with my family and friends. But I also have been very intentional about doing quarterly retreats as a solopreneur, and these are solo retreats, so it's kind of my time to reset, plan for the next quarter and just really give myself a break from all the responsibilities that come with owning a business.
Mmm. I like that a lot, kind of giving yourself the opportunity to reflect upon the last couple months here and build the business that you know you're doing a really good job of building. So you mentioned traveling solo and doing that on a quarterly basis here, but it's
important to remember you're not ever really alone, right. You still need that Uber driver, you still need the airplane pilot, the hotel employees, or even just the random people you meet at the coffee shops that are helping you out and allowing you to have a good time, which is
just like when you're a solopreneur. No matter what industry your enterprise falls into, you still need to have some people in your corner, whether they're other founders with more experience, or mentors that can help you out with business, or even people that can guide you through the intricate paperwork side of things. I've personally had a lot of intricate paperwork come my way now that we are navigating tax season, which is why I think QuickBooks Live is such an
instrumental tool in helping people build their businesses. Now with QuickBooks Live, you'll have access to expert bookkeepers who will help you keep your books organized and balanced.
And who doesn't need that, honestly, because when you're a solopreneur with a good team, you basically get the best of both worlds. You run your own show, but you still get live experts helping you achieve success.
Lloyd knows I need that same.
Oh my gosh, you know. It's just you got to be able to not always try to be the smartest person in the room. And I think as a solopreneur, I've gotten really good at just knowing where my limitations lie, not trying to DII why my way to success in areas where I just don't have the expertise, and really knowing and getting good at relying on my community to source potential, you know, connections or new ideas that I didn't even think.
About one hundred percent, right, is like, wait a second, I need to start caring about bookkeeping. I need to start caring about taxes and payroll and things like that. So what did I do. I've reached out to my community of other solopreneurs and content creators to see what
they were doing right. And being able to lean on your community when you have these types of problems, as well as provide feedback to other people when they have problems is probably one of the most rewarding things that comes from being a solopreneur.
Absolutely. I think it's also really important as someone who is hyper independent, right, And I'd like to say it's the trauma response of being an eldest daughter and just not wanting to ask for help. But one of the things that I've learned in entrepreneurship is how critical it
is to have a sounding board that community. I think about it a specific example where I got my first, like multiple five figure influencer marketing brand deal, and I was just like, I don't feel qualified to read these legal contracts and I don't feel comfortable signing my life away potentially, And so I called my mentor and I'm like, do you have anybody who can help me with this? And she actually introduced me to her agent, who now
manages my own partnerships too. And so it's just the power of community is something that I don't think we can emphasize enough because unless you're in this world of entrepreneurship, most people around you are not even going to know how.
To help you one hundred percent. And I just want to also hammer home the idea that at least this has been my experience and I'm sure it's been yours as well, Janie, but like people are really excited to meet other people who are solopreneurs or building small businesses. Right, everyone believes that it's not a zero sum game. We can all win together. And by me sharing with you a tool or a resource, right, your mentor introducing you to her agent didn't mean that you're taking anything from her.
I mean, we're all here to help each other. And I think that's such a big, big, big thing for solopreneurs to understand as they build their business. Right, It's not a zero sum game and we can all win together.
Absolutely. With that being said, let's meet our next guest. Sierra Monti May is an entrepreneur based out of New York City. After suffering from one too many itchy scalps while wearing her favorite protective styles, Sierra realized she deserved better and set out on a mission to find it for all of us. And when she couldn't find any quality sustainable hair extension products, she decided to make her own. Siara founded the first ever plant based faux hair brand, Rebundle.
In twenty twenty. She left her fintech job to pursue Rebundle full time. She launched her first product, bread Better, in twenty twenty one, and has since relaunched as a direct to consumer brand and raised two point five million dollars in seed money. Siera is passionate about providing quality products, building a better Earth, and about the importance of black women being cared for. Siera, Welcome to the show.
Thank you, thanks for having me.
I first of all, love the name Rebundle. Can you tell us the story behind it.
Yes, it's a short one because I didn't come up with the name myself, and I actually wasn't sold on it at first. I didn't think it made sense for what I thought we were going to be doing at the time, but it was really catchy, so we stuck with it and we've grown into the name.
Yeah. I love that that it's not necessarily the first idea that would come to your head. But when did you know that this was the name that you wanted to continue with, Like, what was that sign? Well?
I would sometimes feel not connected to the name rebundle in those early days because the word bundle, in as it relates to hair and pertains to hair, is a colloquialism for human hair bundles, and I was squarely focused on creating an alternative to synthetic hair, so I didn't
think it made sense in the context. But as the product evolved and the brand evolved, it did make sense because we started calling our products bundles rather than packs, because we're providing a more luxurious experience and elevated experience, and I wanted to disassociate from packs that are, you know, anywhere from a dollar to eight dollars, something more premium,
like what we pay for human hair extensions. So it started to make sense to me then, and I was like, oh, okay, well we can we can keep I mean, we had already spent so much on the branding at that point, but I always had a nagging thought in the back of mind, like someone's gonna call out that it doesn't make sense to call it bundles. And then no one ever did because we started moving in that direction.
You have to believe it before anybody else does, right, So I think it's part of just the importance of having conviction when you're putting yourself out there as an entrepreneur and as a brand.
Yeah, that's exactly what happened.
Yeah, I love that. Okay, So have you always been into like sustainability in the environment.
In a way, I can say that for as long as I can remember, I've always had an inkling or a desire to learn more about sustainability and what it looks like, and just curious about how my presence on Earth impacts the environment and the well being of the environment in ways that I could mitigate, mitigate my individual contribution. And I've always been very encouraging to other people at the bare minimum, recycle and recycling really is the bare minimum, And that was all that I knew of until I
started grad school. I went to USC and studied social entrepreneurship, and I was just exposed to one a totally different lifestyle in Los Angeles compared to the Midwest where I grew up. But the projects that my classmates were working on also exposed me to different types of sustainability and
just expanded that definition for me. So I took those learnings and started to apply them to my own life and got more curious about the movement for sustainability and the zero waste lifestyle and content that was being created around environmental justice and intersectional environmentalism. Just all these concepts that I was learning about that really resonated with me and then subsequently translated into the products that I was
using and am familiar with. And hair just made the list because it was part of my life and my identity at that time.
That's brilliant. It's I think it's a good example of just like how your environment and can influence you as an entrepreneur, and how the community that you surround yourself with can have a direct impact on what that business turns into. So I'm curious for you, when did you realize that there was a market for this that wasn't being fulfilled.
The summer of twenty nineteen, so I was working at an HBCU and was wearing braids really often because I was trying to figure out how to be an adult and go to work on time and minimize my morning routine. So at this very same time that I was learning more about sustainability, I was having issues with scalp irritation from the hair and just had this sort of aha moment that maybe there was something more that could be
done about the way synthetic hare is disposed of. And then that meant understanding, well what is it made out of? And that brought up all this stuff about synthetic hair
being plastic. And I think at this time twenty nineteen, somebody had just passed a law or some regulation change that we couldn't ship our trash to China anymore, and all these things that was coming up about the world changing and responding to climate change, and I'm just sitting here scratching my head and like, well, this is a plastic product that is probably not on anyone's radar and could use innovation like everything else.
It's kind of amazing that this all came together the way it did because you built something that falls in line with your values of sustainability and also is providing a solution to scalp irritation when people get synthetic extensions, And just for those listening who may not know, oftentimes, when people get extensions in a form like braids, like you mentioned, you can use human hair, which costs a lot more money, or you can use synthetic hare, which
is more popular because the lower costs and higher access, but the quality is not as good as human hair.
Yeah, I remember being really excited about this question of if it's plastic, can it be recycled, which I then learned that all plastics are technically recyclable, but it's dependent on the municipality and what they want what they don't want. Hair was likely never going to make the list, but I wanted to know for the heart to recycle plastics like synthetic hair, you know, where could you send it
for it to be properly disposed of? And there were not any initiatives that were focused on this waststream in particular because it's a product that's predominantly used and worn by black women. So I knew that if I wanted to find a way to sustainably dispose of it, I was probably going to have to create it myself, because nobody was looking at this waste stream as one that
needed attention. So the recycling program was developed and has since been maintained as a way for people to choose sustainability no matter where they are in their journeys, and to help mitigate some of the waste that's created by this industry. Overall.
I love that. I think it's so powerful, and I really commend you for sort of building that from scratch. You talked about studying entrepreneurship in school, and you know, I studied a little bit of entrepreneurship. I think I took a couple classes in college myself, But I don't think school really prepares you for entrepreneurship, right, So were there maybe challenges that school did prepare you for versus have anything you know blindsided you? You've phraised two point
one million dollars. I don't remember learning how to do that in school.
I didn't learn how to do that in school either, And I've actually raised two and a half million dollars since twenty twenty one.
Two and a half. Okay, I stand corrected.
But I think that the only thing that can teach you how to be an entrepreneur is to be one and to like be in the thick of it. But what I was grateful for in both undergrad and grad was to help develop my entrepreneurial mindset and to give me the right community who were also working on challenging problems and starting things from scratch. Also helped with the vocabulary and certain concepts and practices that I didn't know beforehand.
And it was interesting and I didn't know I could make a career out of it before I started school, So I feel like I got a lot of that. And I do find that people who are just starting out and didn't study entrepreneurship in school are like starting from scratch.
You mentioned something really important, which was community. When you're in school, you're surrounded by other people who are excited about entrepreneurship. I'm curious how that community has followed you outside of school. Have you leaned on them at all with different problems over the past few years.
Yeah, I would say yes to all of the above. There are definitely people that I met in undergrad that I've gone back to, whether that be professors or students alike, that I've been able to go back to for questions or feedback, support, introductions, etc. And then following me from undergrad all the way way through my fellowship with VFA, I'm friends with a lot of those fellows, some that
have started businesses and some that work at startups. So I think there are different communities within those communities that I can leverage for different purposes that you know, I've helped in ways that I can't even begin to recall, even if it's an intro or just an ear. Things just come up. Things just happen for you when you when you expand your network with people that are interested in some of the same things that you are, whether you're following the same path or not.
Most definitely, and you know, speaking of expanding your network of people interested in the same things, you know you are definitely a part of this environmentalist community as well
as now the entrepreneurial community. So maybe can you double click on how you're expanding your network with keeping school in college away for a second, but like post college and post schooling, how have you been able to expand your network of other environmentalists or other just entrepreneurs in your surrounding area.
So it's a pretty tight knit community, and many of them, you know, you meet one and then they introduce you to another person in their community, and even if that one on one connection doesn't happen, I also get to see who's a part of their community. So I was finding a lot of people that were involved in the environmentalist movement from creators that I was following and entrepreneurs that I was following, and she exposed me to people who were like minded and were doing, you know, their
own thing. I would say. Another good example is I was asked to mentor in the Times of Main incubator program. So there were both mentors like myself who had some level of involvement in environmentalism and then activists who as
another layer of people involved in the environmentalism movement. And so one of the other mentors posted about an event happening here in New York tomorrow, So I'm going to go to that, So who knows who all while meet there, But you know, just capping in with people following their work and networking not always vertically, but also be horizontal, like people that are working at different level different stages that you know are still maybe on the ground level one hundred percent.
You know, being the founder of such an innovative business means that you have to really use every part of your brand, which means the logistical side of running the business every day as well as the creative side. So, Sierra, do you have any strategies for keeping your books balanced while using community connections and networking to raise money and crew your business at the same time.
First, you need a good bookkeeper. I really love the bookkeeping team that we have. What they have really impressed me with is they built us a financial dashboard that lists all of our spending in and out. We have budget templates and all the sales are linked to transactions in quick books, so I can always see in real time time how far or how close we are to being on budget. So I would say that has been a really monumental process that we've implemented. It really gives
me peace of mind. And that was a connection that I had made through someone else who I knew through someone else who I knew through someone else.
It's that mental rolodex.
I mean, come on now, Yeah, it goes back deep, coming up after the break. The only way we're going to grow is by serving this community and serving them well. So I want to give them the opportunity to help guide our product development roadmap. With a few dollars we have.
We'll be right back with Mine the Business. Welcome back to Mind the Business, Small business success stories from iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio and Into It QuickBooks. So, Sierra, you've spoken in interviews about the challenges of being a black business owner, and as an entrepreneur coach myself, I know very well the statistics do not favor people of color, especially when
it comes to raising capital and funding. Can you talk about what have been some of the challenges that you've faced in your journey and do you have any examples of where your community has come in to overcome them or to help you overcome them.
I'll start with that one. So with the product like hours that is predominantly used by black women and people of color in general who wear braids, I would say I don't have to spend as much time explaining or convincing them that this problem exists and that the solution should also exist, and so I get a lot of excitement when I tell people within our community about what we're doing, and you know, they want to refer their friends and their co workers, their family members who identify
with this issue. On average, one in three wearers are going to experience scalp rotation while wearing braids. So if I'm talking to someone who looks like me, if they themselves are not prone to scalp rotation, they know someone else that is. And so we've been able to leverage
word of mouth in that regard. But with that has come challenges on the funding side and the storytelling side of making a compelling case for this problem that we're solving in the solution that we've developed, because there's very limited data that exists around consumer behavior in this category spend in terms of how the market is segmented players
along the value chain. These are privately held companies whose data is not made public, So we're making assumptions and educated guesses based on the data that we can find. And venture capitalists are data driven. They make decisions based on biases that they see in their portfolio, but also readily available data that helps drive their investment decisions. So that's two things that I can't always provide in a
very astute manner because it doesn't exist. So when I get frustrated, I find myself saying, like, what you're asking me for does not exist.
It literally doesn't exist.
Here's what I can tell you. And so having to give really thoughtful answers while also being candidate that we're building in a white space, and we know that there's money flowing through here because that much is available online, but some of the more nitty gritty details that are more readily available through consumer research is not quite there for hair extensions today.
Well that makes sense, right, because it really depends on who's doing the research and who they're talking to, and a lot of this information can be very anecdotal, and it's not something that you'd necessarily have a pie chart that you can go and reference to. So it makes sense why you'd have those challenges. There was a recent statistics that I read the other day that was about forty six percent of black business owners site community support
as a primary motivation of their business. Would you say that that's a primary motivating factor for you one hundred percent.
I would say since the beginning, we've always had a good relationship with our community, and more so today because a lot of my focus this quarter, in this year is on building relationships with beauty supply stores and salons, and so I get a lot of energy from talking with these usually sole proprietors about their small business and their challenges and what they need to succeed, and why we should work together, why they should carry a product
like hours in their store. Many of them are taking a bet on us because we're a new product and a higher price point in a category that has not seen partly any innovation, and so I have to explain to them why we're doing what we're doing, what success we've seen to date, and then in return, I get to learn about their individual businesses, how they came into the beauty industry, what questions they get from their customer base.
So it's really rewarding to be able to network pretty horizontally. Actually, they are small business owners like I am.
Technically all right, So we've talked about the importance of networking amongst your entrepreneurial circle, and we did talk about how community has impacted your own mission as an entrepreneur. What strategies do you have for fostering returning and happy customers.
Good customer service and authenticity, also being able to connect with your community in person. So we're prioritizing more of that this year as well. But I would say I've seen huge returns from providing customers with a pleasant experience
from checkout to install. So we have our Braiker's directory on our site, which allows our customers to browse professionals near them if they want to go to a rebund to approved breider, and even something as simple as software that we have on the site that makes suggestions, our FAQs that are really thorough, and having a chatbot on
our website for quick answers. So you know, really just trying to provide a seamless shopping experience for our audience has really paid off in terms of returning customer rate, but also building a really strong opportunity for referrals from one customer to another.
That's great. That word of mouth is really powerful, so when it's harnessed in a way that's strategic, I think it can have a really big impact on building out that community for sure.
So before this interview, Sierra, I jumped on your website and I clicked around on your products, and I saw you had a bunch of great reviews. But while looking at these reviews, I also saw that you were doing a really good job of getting back to people right, thanking them for their feedback or even their considerations moving forward for your products. So how has reviews helped you foster community, helped you find your super fans and those awesome returning customers.
It's a great question. The reviews can be scary, Like whenever I get that email they have a new review, my heart always drops good or bad, and so I always make a point in as usually me responding if not one more person from my team. But I always think it's a good idea to make sure people feel validated with their reviews because they're leaving it for the company to see, but they're also leaving it for other people to see. So I just want to make sure
that they feel like their concerns have been acknowledged. In some of them, we may send them an email separately asking for more questions or asking them if we can use their review for content, etc. So I think that reviews are a really key way to build trust among new customers. Your current customers are probably not reviewing the reviews till after the fact, but it does give new customers an opportunity to make an informed purchase. The only way we're going to grow is by serving this community
and serving them well. So I want to give them the opportunity to help guide our product development roadmap with a few dollars we have.
I love that perspective, and Jennie and I are always looking for sort of you know, the happy customers and the people who are leaving the reviews, especially the positive ones, are the people who go out and tell people about your product, right So having that awesome relationship with them and sort of building a community of those super fans I think is incredibly important for all solopreneurs out there right now.
Yep him in percent.
So you've talked about the importance of black women feeling comfortable and cared for. How does that mission inform the way that you build your brand and your market your products. I would say in the.
Early days, we really wanted to evoke the feeling of resting and being at peace and at ease and not having to worry when you get your hair braided. And since then that motif has evolved in the end to end experience of getting your hair braided. So the other products that we've added on in edge jail, which can also be used as a do it all jail for your install, high quality edgebrush, and we're launching some other
products later this year. We believe that when people get their hair braided and they make an investment in this experience, they're making an investment in the hair, but also in the takedown and all the other steps that are involved with getting braids, even to the person that's installing them. So we're focused on making sure that when people think about the future of hair extensions, it includes safe and non toxic ingredients, a seamless checkout experience, a seamless install experience,
a seamless takedown experience, and reusing. Our bundles are on average about an ounce and a half bigger than standard plastic bundle, so you don't need as much hair for an install with rebundle, and then because of the thickness of the fibers, they're also better candidates to take down and reuse them after your install. You can reuse the bundles up to three times. You can wash them like normal.
You can also use drash shampoo if you're in a rush and do it all over again, and once you're done with the hair, it can be composted.
I love that. It's like you're infusing the idea of luxury and that soft girl life into the brand.
I guess so, yeah, I don't live a soft life, but hopefully our customers do.
I love it. So your products are great for the health of the planet and the environment, but they're also great for the health of your customers. What are the plans that you have for Rebundle's future.
We are continuing to explore other applications for the fiber technology that we've developed, so other types of hair extensions beyond just braids. And then I'm also really focused on how we make this product more accessible and available. So pricing is always going to be a point of contingency for people that are trading up from a lower price synthetic, but we know we can capture more of them with
different strategies in our pricing strategy. This one area that we're working on this year, but also making sure that the products are available in beauty supply stores, in big box retailers where prestige beauty is because we do see our product as a luxurious experience, So there's some development on that side that we're working on to make this product more widely available.
I love it. Do you have a story that sticks out to you from your community that's really shifted your mindset in any way?
Yeah. I would say there's been a number of customers who've told us that they're wearing braids again for the first time in several years. It is something that they thought just wasn't for them anymore. Their scalps couldn't tolerate it, and so they've just sort of given up on it. Which braids are an really intricate part of black culture and black hair, So I can't imagine what it would be like to not be able to wear braids, but
that is a lot of people's reality. So it's really invigorating to hear from someone say that, you know, they were able to wear braids again for the first time in a long time, and they're able to rejoin part of their culture.
That's really important, and you're literally allowing folks to rejoin the community that they're a part of and experience what it is to embrace your culture proudly wear it. And I think only a person from the community can understand how to best serve that community in this case, and I think you're doing an amazing job at this, Sierra, So I just want to congratulate you and the team
at Rebundle. It's such an inspiring story, and I know this is just the beginning of so many waves that you're going to make in the haircare industry.
Thank you appreciate that.
Where can we find you online?
You can find us online at rebundle dot co and on Instagram and TikTok with the same handle.
Amazing. Thank you Sierra for being here.
Thanks so much.
Yeah, thank you both.
Sierra and her story is such an inspiring example of what success looks like, especially when you rely on your community. Austin, I'm curious for you, what was your favorite part of our discussion today.
I learned a lot from Sierra, not just from a solopreneur, but also from someone who also studied a little bit of entrepreneurship in school and was able to take that into my own sort of journey here. But I think the biggest takeaway for me was how important she thought customer feedback and customer reviews were not just for her business in real time right. She mentioned like, oh my gosh, my heart drops because of how important it is to me,
you know, as the CEO of this business. So I think just kind of leaning in on how important it is for customer reviews, customer feedback to not just you know, build new products and services for your customers, but also find those super fans, right because the customers who love your products are going to be the ones that drive the new ten, fifteen, twenty customers.
Right.
Just having that one customer to refer you to all their friends is so important, and I've certainly seen that in my own entrepreneurial journey myself. So I would really say that being able to identify and build community around your biggest fans as customers and take their feedback into account and launch new products with that feedback is just really really important, while also reminding them like listen, here's
an email address. Send us all your positive feedback, negative feedback, like we're here for it because it is what's part of building a long standing business. What about you?
Yeah? I love that perspective, Austin, because I often get the question should you launch the product or should you build the community first? And I'm a firm believer that you need to build the community first. You need to get people excited about what it is that you're building, and maybe even like bringing them along for the ride can be such an awesome part of your whole marketing
strategy as a business. And I loved Sierra's perspective of being a member of the community that she's trying to serve. Right when she's able to identify the known issues that come with installing synthetic hair. It just gives her a unique perspective that I think makes her a better entrepreneur. I think it gives her a strategic advantage versus someone who would be coming in without any knowledge of what those real pain points are from the customers that you're trying to serve.
I totally agree, right, And I think it was some really good advice that she gave when we asked her about what sort of piece of advice would you have for someone who's trying to create a more sustainable product that already exists out in the marketplace, and she said, you know, you don't have to reinvent the wheel, right, there's a ton of products out there right now that do need a little bit of reinventing from a sustainability side.
Of the equation and that's exactly what she did. It's just it's so inspiring.
Absolutely another incredible episode that was fantastic, And if you're loving this show, you need to subscribe and continue.
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