The First Customer - Shark Tank Series: Fresh Smiles from Grit with Joelle Flynn and Sonia Hounsell

[00:00:27] Jay: Hi everyone. Welcome to The First Customer podcast today. I have a very special episode with two founders, Joelle Flynn and Sonia Hounsell, both co founders, both co CEOs, they created a product called FunkkOFF their own Shark Tank. and I'm very excited to have them on today. So it's a little bit different for us.

We don't have a lot of physical products. This is very interesting to me. I'm a tech nerd, so this is all fun and interesting new stuff for me. How are you guys doing?

[00:00:53] Sonia: Really nice to be here. Thank you for having us.

[00:00:57] Jay: Sure, thank you for giving me some of your time. so Joelle, start with you real quick. did you have any entrepreneurship in your background? you know, where'd you grow up and did that have an impact on you being an entrepreneur later in life?

[00:01:08] Joelle: Absolutely. so just a backdrop. Sonia and I have known each other since seventh grade, so we both grew up in Maryland in Potomac and went to an all girls high school. for me, I'm just a serial entrepreneur actually started working at age 14 and a half and paid my way through college. I was a stockbroker at the age of 22 in the D.

C. Area for about a decade. Started and sold a fintech, started, you know, managing property, flipped some houses, started a nonprofit, and then kind of eventually got to, to FunkkOFF. So in a quick nutshell.

[00:01:37] Jay: like, breezed over some very impressive things there. So maybe we'll wrap back around to some of that. Sonya, how about you?

[00:01:42] Sonia: yeah, so, grew up together with Joelle. I'm a first generation, American. My dad's from, Italy and he was an entrepreneur and he absolutely positively did not want me to be an entrepreneur. He did everything to push me in a different direction. and. For a long time, I wasn't, I, after grad school went and worked in brand management and consumer packaged goods,had a good long, very fun career running brands like Trident, Dentine, Coppertone. and that, that was fine. Somewhat entrepreneurial because, you're basically running a little business, but within a big company with a lot of resources and help. So it's not entrepreneurial in that sense. I did, pivot away from being in big consulting company, which was really my first foray into entrepreneurialism. and then ultimately joined up forces with Joelle to create our own consumer package goods company.

[00:02:40] Jay: Okay. so whose strengths are whose, it sounds like you maybe have the marketing and kind of,branding chops, Joelle sounds like maybe some of the business side of things. Am I picking up that right? who does what in the org today? Or is it just kind of a shared responsibility for everything and feel free, either one of you guys to jump in.

[00:02:57] Sonia: I mean, I'm definitely,the marketing, and branding. and, you know, I love strategy. I love actually, my undergrad was finance. And so I love, you know, spreadsheets and forecasting and projecting and analysis and analytics. Joelle and I share quite a bit, but those are definitely my areas of expertise and what I really love doing.

[00:03:22] Joelle: So I do not like spreadsheets. I can read them, understand them. I don't like putting them together. and, you know, I'm the crazy entrepreneurial side of things, but we really do share in, in all business decisions. you know, as far as managing the company and running it, I mean, if we had to put a hat on marketing and sales, Sonia's marketing and I'm sales.

I mean, at the end of the day, but we both do both. and we, we certainly, make a great team and running all aspects of our business. We have fun doing it. So that's good.

[00:03:47] Jay: that's a big, uh, factor there. and why did you guys team up?

[00:03:53] Joelle: why not? no. so the idea for FunkkOFF, um, I slip, I'm in Southern California now, Jay, and the idea for FunkkOFF came when I was living in Northern California. And, it was just because of more product and you don't have much product. You said on your podcast. This was what I was carrying around all the time.

so. Trying to get the purple FunkkOFF of my teeth from the wineries I was visiting every weekend. and so, I wanted something that was very quick and easy to use, like my lipstick was to put on, but for my teeth, because that was carrying around bulky, you know, products. so the invention kind of happened way back in, the idea for the invention back in 2010, and over the next eight years filed the first eight patents on, our product.

and we actually now 10 U. S. patents and a China PCT. but I got, I don't, you know, my background is not product marketing. I don't know how to launch a product into the marketplace. I use products all the time, but I certainly didn't have the exceptional experience that Sonya has. So, in 2019, we teamed up and we find the designs and the, You know, and the look and feel and all of the, this is the prototype actually from way back when, which is a round spinning toothbrush head on a chapstick container.

Going to designers, but Sonia and I worked very closely together to make sure we had a nice working refined product. That, is what you see here. Is that the right setup? Ah, I did. which is the only all in one toothbrush and toothpaste that's reusable 30 times. but the reason we teamed up is because Sonia has, you know, awards basically, she does for launching and bringing, you know, products into the marketplace.

So, that's where the two heads came together.

[00:05:18] Jay: And I'm curious about that becausedid you hit a wall and say, I need Sonia? Or did you kind of organically just think of her? Like, what made you reach out and like connect the dots and say, we should actually do this together as a real thing?

[00:05:32] Joelle: Great questions. So like I mentioned earlier, we are, we've known each other since seventh grade, which we like to say was about five years ago, but there's some extra years added in there. But through the years of me filing patents, you know, we talked about the product and the business, and she's always kind of been a part of FunkkOFF, even whether or not we had our, you know, corporation formed in 2019.

not everybody can do it all. And so I know what I was lacking. and Sonia was exceptionally selling in and, you know, running her own business on brand management. So and marketing, product. So in innovation. So that's what that's

[00:06:05] Jay: And Sonia, I mean, what, how would you have enough confidence to like jump into this and become the co CEO, when you had your own thing going, which you have full control over and you're, you know, you're setting your days and you're booking your clients and you're doing your thing. what, other than, you know, and by the way, I was in seventh grade five years ago too.

So it was great. It was, it's great that we all, are such recent graduates. But,what kind of gave you the confidence that this product was the one to jump out of your consulting career and go help, help, you know, build.

[00:06:38] Sonia: well, there were a few things, And before I get into the product, you know, the timing was also a big part of it for me. I had quite a few number of years and a lot of experiences. And so that gave me a lot of confidence. I had launched, I'd launched over 25 products. And launched one major big brand, gum brand. And so, you know, it was, I had that all under my belt, which was great. and then, you know, the, the product itself is extremely innovative, to the point where we have 11 patents, right? And so that's a very powerful piece of the equation, that, that gave me confidence. It was filling a need.people have, and that's really what you need when you launch a product.

You want to make sure there's a need and you're solving a real problem with a good solution. And so, you know, that's what we were doing. And if you wrap all that together, it, you know, it ends up being a good, a good formula for success.

[00:07:37] Jay: I like that. And I, you said you went on Kickstarter, before the show. Um,how did you guys decide that was the way to go to launch the first one? And did you have a working product then? Was it the prototype, the chapstick prototype back then? Or was it the actual kind of full product when you put it on there?

[00:07:55] Joelle: We definitely did not have a product, to, we had, the workings around the CAD work, computer aided design work, the 3D renderings. and, I don't believe we had this before the 

[00:08:05] Sonia: Read this one, 

[00:08:07] Joelle: we did. So, so, you know, as before we jumped on the video, you know, we did the Kickstarter successfully.

it's a great way for, I think there's kind of a trajectory for an entrepreneur to raise funds. You kind of do it yourself for a while. And then, you know, Kickstarter, is a great crowdfunding platform where anybody can, and a lot of friends and family helped to fund our product. what was not fun was we were to deliver that product May of 2020, which was a really great time in our history here where everybody was masking up their.

teeth and not going out. So that was a challenge. And plus, logistically was a complete nightmare trying to get the product to market. So we actually didn't launch until July of 2021. So we're coming up on three years, but, Kickstarter, we just, it just felt like a rite of passage, to, you know, start sort of jumping into the venture capital world of private equity or PE, we didn't have a product, we didn't have sales.

So it was kind of just the natural and also proof of concept, right? It was something that, you know, You know, not just our friends and family went to, but we had other people. We didn't know, of course, on Kickstarter funding our product because they, they saw the need, like Sonia said. So.

[00:09:07] Jay: Whose idea was it to go in Shark Tank?

[00:09:11] Sonia: you

[00:09:13] Joelle: I, we both decided to go. I'm an obsessed fan of Shark Tank. It's in its 15th year now. I think we've, I've seen every episode a couple of times, but I actually applied season year four by video and I did an open casting call season 10, in San Diego, brought my daughters with me. but they eventually found us, and asked us to apply, February of 23.

February, I have to think where we are. February 22, we filmed our episode July of 23. No. 

[00:09:43] Sonia: of 22. 

[00:09:45] Joelle: Yeah. Like I said, seventh grade was five years ago. Yeah.

[00:09:48] Jay: Yes. Well, in these these last, I mean, I don't, I think we should all get like a mulligan for these last five years when you say what the wrong year was, because nobody really even knows. So, and how was that experience?was it stressful? Was it like, you know, you're, I mean, I know it's a show, so it's, you know, A little more goes on than what you see on the screen, but maybe Sonia, what was your take on being there?

Was it, you know, obviously everybody kind of gets the Shark Tank bump a little bit after the show is over, but just from, you know, initially hearing about going on to going on and then afterward, how was your experience?

[00:10:28] Sonia: and I mean, it's hard to even answer that in just a few minutes because it's a long process and there's a lot of steps along the way. Sort of for someone from a decision making standpoint, then also, but also from, you know, a,you know, stage in your business standpoint. And so, There's a lot of due diligence that happens before you even get on that stage.

So we had another full time job. We were trying to launch and build our business. And we literally every week had to have so many different documents. We had to do multiple videos, multiple meetings with the producers, which was A lot of work, but really valuable because then once we got on the stage, we actually felt really confident. And so, while walking on the stage was stressful, we had all of that under our belt, which was good. it was very exhilarating. I think that's the best word I can say, because there's fear, but there's also fun in it. And that exhilarating feeling, you know, happened. You know, the whole day, waiting in the green room for hours and hours. and then finally getting on the stage and then being bombarded by all these questions by the sharks,and just dealing with the hot lights and the pressure. and it was very cool. And yes, I, you know, I'm, I. I don't know that I even watched Shark Tank before they reached out to us. I, you know, it's not that I don't like the show, I'm just, I never watched it.

of course I binge watched it, you know, once, once we knew we were going to be on it. But, yeah. But it has been an extremely powerful experience and I'm so glad we did it.

[00:11:59] Jay: I love that. any thoughts on that, Joelle? just anything to add?

[00:12:02] Joelle: Exhilarating. It was super fun. We were absolutely prepared to go on there. you know, it's, it's last year's season. So it's season 14, episode 14. So you can go to YouTube and watch it. I think the most nerve wracking part for me, and we were very much, although we bring different skill sets to our company, you know, we approached things a little bit differently sometimes, which makes it all work, but I was most nervous about walking in with.

The red glass of wine in my hand, because if I were to trip, it was like a one take thing. They said, you know, you don't get, you don't get second chances on the pitch. You don't get anything. And so that was, it was a real, we had to get a little exception on that. we'd like to bend the rules a little bit or at least ask to bend them.

so we, I think we're the only ones that have ever walked into a Shark Tank with, alcohol, true alcohol in our hands. And we, you know, all the sharks had it and they were drinking it throughout as well. And so that was the most nerve wracking part. Yeah,

[00:12:52] Jay: strategy to loosen them up a little bit

[00:12:54] Joelle: that's right.

[00:12:55] Jay: I like that. so what have you learned about your customer since you guys first started? Because everybody starts a business and they say, Oh, this is a good thing for me or for my friends. Like you said, your friends or family and we do the Kickstarter and it's fine.

But I've What is change? What did you guys think that you needed to deliver to your customers? and you can both answer this one, but what do you deliver today that's different than when you first started? And, uhJoelleelle, go ahead. You're, you've got the floor.

[00:13:22] Joelle: Oh, boy. you saw how dirty my floor was right now underneath this zoom desk. no, you know, it's the state. I, we always say this and it's a very open statement, but, you know, 99 percent of people have teeth. We've been corrected. We've had some people tell me their state only has 82 percent have teeth,

[00:13:38] Jay: Depends on what state for sure.

[00:13:40] Joelle: I won't tell you what state that was.

We were at a trade show. She's like, Oh, honey, no, it's 82 percent in our state. I'm like, okay. but,

[00:13:45] Jay: had that number.

[00:13:46] Joelle: Pretty much in general, everybody eats and drinks and while it was red wine, you know, stained, initiated, everybody drinks coffee. I get salad in my teeth all the time. I mean, with everything right now, You know, we kind of just went after, it could be in your purse next to your gum and your mints for your breath, you know, and lipstick and chapstick for your lips.

This is for your teeth and it's wherever those places and those items are. Fast forward today, what kind of came our way is, you know, anything from the neck up is really a beauty product. so we consider our product is, it's the intersection of oral care and beauty. and so, Who's really embracing our product right now are people that really care about their white and straight teeth.

So people that use Invisalign or whitening treatments, this is a great compliment to that, where it's really a narrow focused customer that wants this because, you know, it's just like an add on and an easy, you know, way to maintain what they're doing, but Sonia may have different.

[00:14:38] Sonia: Yeah. And yeah. So, you know, our target has always been, women, you know, 18 to 45, just from a demographic standpoint, from a media buying standpoint, but, you know, at the end of the day, like Joelle said, the need goes well beyond those, those age groups and even men like that. buying our product.

we came out with a black color. So this was our original blue color. We came out with black and white and we thought men were going to take up the black more, but yeah, they actually like the blue. and one of the, one of the things that we hear more from men than women is they like the breath freshening color.that it actually freshens your breath, which it does. so, you know, between people who whiten their teeth, people who, wear Invisalign, that was actually another surprise. Invisalign and aligner penetration has taken off. And if you eat or drink on the go, when you have aligners in, you need some way to clean your teeth. And so that has been a nice surprise that helps our patients.

[00:15:41] Jay: I like that. Yeah, go 

[00:15:42] Joelle: on because we are talking about our multi patented certified women owned product. we also formulated the gel inside our small with the chemist, but it is 100 percent natural and vegan with no fluoride. So you we want to make sure you could just swallow it on the go and just rinse and go on.

We wanted a product that was very much something we were proud of and want our Children to be able to use and we can use. So we even went down to aerating the cap with three stars and there's a mirror on the bottom to check your teeth. But the gel inside is a proprietary formula and it's, tastes really good.

It's a nice, beautiful, natural vanilla mint. So anyway,

[00:16:16] Jay: Love that.

I love it.

[00:16:18] Joelle: peppermint. 

[00:16:18] Jay: Peppermint.

and it's our partnerships with Companies like Invisalign, something you guys are going after, like, are you trying to get with companies that have the same customers as you guys and trying to kind of add this as an add on to their stuff? Like, how are you guys going down the partnerships vein since you kind of listed some of the bigger, you know, teeth alignment companies and stuff like that, orthodontists, etc. who, who on the partnership side have you guys tried to engage with or are you engaged with now?

[00:16:45] Joelle: Jay, you're hired.

[00:16:47] Jay: I mean, look, I'm on a part, I'm on a partnerships kick lately. And let me just tell you, it has been illuminating for me to re engage in partnerships. So that's why I asked that question.

[00:16:57] Sonia: Yeah, no, it's a really important part of our strategy going forward, because it's a powerful way to have an endorsement as well. And one of the things that happened after Shark Tank, and there were quite a few, but one of them was that we, were suddenly recognized by a lot of people. Places and groups that we didn't expect so quickly and the dental community was one of them and we've actually, been embraced by the dental community.

We're in dental offices. Now, we're looking at a number of partnerships, you know, until, you know, until things are inked. We can't really talk about things,

but you know, what you just described is definitely the direction we're going. whitening companies as well are potential opportunities for us, because if you whiten your teeth professionally at a dentist or in your home throughout the day, this is a valuable companion product to have to. Maintain and extend the whitening benefits that you work so hard to get and pay so much money to get.

[00:17:57] Jay: it. And what about like influencers and that sort of thing? Are you guys in the, you know, on that side of the thing where you're getting the pretty people with the really white teeth to help hawk this thing? I mean, is that another avenue for you guys to market this?

[00:18:12] Joelle: You know, influencer is a whole nother or you talk about venture capital being a whole nother world. It's a whole nother world, right? Because, of course, you wouldn't want a massive celebrity using this. It just comes with buckets and buckets of dollars to have that. And so then you look for micro influencers, and then you really don't know, even though they might have 20, 000 followers, and they look different.

Perfect with her teeth and you know, he or she or whoever it's a crapshoot. You don't know what's going to actually come back, but we've tried affiliate marketing, you know, influencer, we were, it's part of the strategy. I mean, because it's, you know, tick tock is life now. So we're trying to work that angle on top of Instagram and Facebook.

And, you know, but Sonia, please add, cause 

[00:18:51] Sonia: Yeah. I mean, I think we're being choiceful about how we do, the relationships with influencers, because it's a very crowded place now, and there is. Skepticism around some of these sponsored influencers. I think, you know, even just a few years ago, there was much more, potential, but now there's a bit of skepticism from users.

And so we want to be, we're very genuine, our brand, it's a very genuine brand. And so we want to have genuine relationships. and those are the kinds that, you know, that we're looking for. and now, you know, there's so many. So many platforms, like we're actually just starting to work with Amazon creators, which is really, really exciting because Amazon is our biggest growth engine in terms of sales. So, there it's a, it's their form of influencer marketing. so we're excited about that.

[00:19:43] Jay: Yeah. it's funny you say that because it is, there was some weird inflection point where like You kind of noticed when people started hawking stuff and you're like, people came a little more dubious. Like, is this really like, and that's what that does. I another question just popped in my head.

And I again, I don't have a ton of product folks on the call. So I'm very interested to hear. What do you guys do with negative reviews? Like, how do you deal with that? Like, I mean, you're based on that star rating a lot of the time. And it's like such a crazily important deciding factor. I mean, I even sort by it on Amazon a lot of times, you know, low to high average customer review. How are you guys like attacking that as a first line? You know, it's the first thing a lot of people see for you guys when they click on your Amazon thing. how do you deal with that rating or how do you improve it?

[00:20:30] Sonia: Yeah, no, that's a really good question. And it's it is hard on amazon because amazon doesn't give you a lot of opportunities or access They used to allow sellers to respond to Reviews now you can't. There is a short window that we literally just uncovered. Thank goodness. We have someone that we work with who's still An expert in Amazon that uncovered that you can actually reach out to consumers within a very short window. and we are, we stand behind our product. We have 100 percent money back guarantee. And so if anybody is not satisfied, we offer to replace or refund their money. Because, you know, we want people to enjoy using the product and we know sometimes they don't. Sometimes things happen. and we are a newly manufactured product.

And so there are, there have been some glitches along the way, but, and that's normal. I mean, having worked in big CPG company years, things like that happen, but, you know, on a,and just a few reviews can have a big impact, but we stand behind it. We give money back, we replace it. And, and we listen, really, we just listen to consumers and let them know that we're listening.

and Joelle actually handles a lot of the customer service stuff that comes through in our email from our website. And, her sales background is wonderful because she's, she's very people, focused and customer focused.

[00:21:55] Joelle: I pay her a lot to say good things about me, 

[00:21:58] Jay: I was going to say, she must have a nice,

[00:22:00] Joelle: and she pays a lot of money 

[00:22:01] Jay: home. 

[00:22:04] Joelle: No, it's hard to wrap. It's harder for reviews. I like you, Jay. I live on Amazon. I mean, my grocery, there's so many. My whole life is on Amazon and I do sort by reviews as well. And unfortunately, because we are new, you know, one bad review against, you know, we don't have 10, 000 people reviewed yet.

So it really, it can affect, you know, it would have, you know, it can affect our purchase, but we're just doing the best that we can and try to, you know, hand touch and hold any customer that we can and make sure that, like Sonia said, we list it and then we go, Oh, we didn't think about that.

Let me, that's, you know, and, you know, be part of our community and help us grow and make our product the best it can be Amazon just makes it really tough to have any touch point with the customer just, but it's a necessity to be on there. Like Sonia said, it's our fastest growing channel. So, you know, for anybody listening, just, know, go buy FunkkOFF and give us a five star review and we'll have no 

[00:22:50] Jay: Yeah, I was going to say, I think that's the only way to combat it, right. Is more positive reviews. I mean, that's the only thing I guess you can do. I didn't really, I mean, that's obvious, but I didn't really put those two together. All right. Well, I feel like I could talk to you guys all day. You're just a wealth of knowledge when it comes to marketing and sales and running a business and everything else.

I didn't get to touch on the venture stuff too much, but I do want to ask each of you. A non business related question. One more, and it's the same question to both of you, but I'll give you a chance to, to each answer it. Sonia, if you could do anything on earth and you knew you couldn't fail, what would it be? And Joelle gets a little bit of a leg up here cause she can wait to answer. So think of a good one, Joelle.

[00:23:30] Joelle: I can start,

[00:23:31] Jay: go ahead. If you have one,

[00:23:32] Sonia: Go 

[00:23:33] Jay: it.

[00:23:33] Sonia: it. 

[00:23:34] Joelle: my mom, my God rest her soul. My mom just passed, but she, she was a humongous, influence on my life. And, truly the Barbara Corcoran, you know, real estate mogul entrepreneur. when, You know, women weren't real estate brokers in the seventies and eighties and nineties. And she told us four girls, I'm one of four girls that you can do and be anything you want in this world, even be president of the United States.

So I would be president of the United States. I want to 

[00:23:56] Jay: Oh, there you go. I've never actually heard that

across

[00:24:01] Joelle: Joelle

[00:24:01] Jay: hundreds of interviews. I've never heard. That's a great one. vote for a show. So Flynn 2024, would you got time to put that together between now and November? You think,

[00:24:11] Joelle: problem. No 

[00:24:12] Jay: I mean, I think people would welcome a new face, honestly, the two that are there.

I don't think we're all excited about, but anyway, it's not,what about you, Sonia, anything on earth and you couldn't fail? What would it be?

[00:24:21] Sonia: I don't know if this is so much of a job. I mean, if it is and I couldn't fail, I'd sign up for it. But, to, make everybody like each other and eliminate the polarization that's in the world right now.

[00:24:35] Jay: Speaking of elections, that's a good, that's a good comment. yes, I like that. that's a great one. all right. FunkkOFF, go buy it, put it in your purse. Or your wallet, I guess. and then just put it on your teeth. how do we, how do they reach out to you guys individually? and then we'll cover how to get the FunkkOFF.

But Joelle, if people want to reach out to you, cause they'd like something they heard today, how would they do that?

[00:24:54] Joelle: Here's what's great. You can reach out to both of us. If you just go to FunkkOFF and we have a really easy email that we both monitor and see and it's smile at FunkkOFF two Ks two F. So smile at F. U. N. K. O. F. F dot com. But any of the channels that were on, if you hit any kind of messaging, these are the two ladies that will be responding to your messaging.

So you can't mess it up.

[00:25:15] Sonia: And we're on,

we're both on LinkedIn.

and so feel free to connect with us, and reach out on LinkedIn as well.

[00:25:22] Jay: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, those very inspirational, story and, just the American dream, right? I mean, you guys came up with an idea, you made it, you're working after it, and it's impressive. So keep up the great work, ladies, and we'll catch up with you guys again soon, all right? 

[00:25:37] Sonia: all right?

Thank you. 

[00:25:38] Jay: Thanks for being on, guys. See ya.

[00:25:40] Joelle: you. 

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