The Startup CPG Podcast

[00:02:12] Sandra: How are you? I'm great Jessi. So good to see you. Yeah, so

[00:00:24] Jessi: Hi Sandra, welcome to the show today.

[00:02:16] Jessi: good to see you as well. It's great to have you here and it was so fun to watch your shark tank episode that we're going to talk about today. Um I had friends over and everything that we watch it on hulu the next day because we didn't have access to ABC But we had a little, we had our own little watch party right? When it aired on hulu and that was so much fun. So yeah, could you start us off by telling us a little bit about yourself and about Nopalera.

[00:02:43] Sandra: Sure. Well, so I used to be a musician. I thought that that's why I was put on earth was to write songs and tour the country and make albums and I had no no idea inclination or plans to become an entrepreneur, let alone a beauty entrepreneur and it just kind of happened, it just evolved this way I found myself unemployed the age of 43 I used, you know, work in CPG sales and it was just a moment of really self responsibility honestly, because you know the funny thing about being unemployed is that you all of a sudden have time to think because when you're employed and you're busy, you're just like day to day, day to day, like, you know, and so it was this moment of like, wow, okay, I really am like at this like fork in the road in my life, I can either try to go get yet another CPG sales job and go down this path or I can start something new and you know, when you have nothing to lose, it's like, well what do I have to lose? You know, so I had this idea to start this, you know, polenta, this high end Latina brand that would really disrupt the beauty space, which is, you know, historically been Eurocentric french and italian brands and kind of makes no sense anymore because that's not really who, who lives here, you know, it's not reflective of like who lives here and who is spending money in this category. So it was a bold move to say, hey, I'm unemployed, I have no money, I have no savings, but let me just start a high end Latina brand um, and but that's what I did. So I launched in the pandemic, you know, we make body care products. So soaps, scrubs, solid lotion bars and obviously working on new products as well. Awesome.

[00:04:14] Jessi: Yeah, I think I must have met you. It must have been like a year ago now. And you know, I was, I was prepping for a call with you. I was listening to a podcast you've recently done at that time and you were mentioning like, you know, all the, why do we pay so much money for these? Like Why is it when something says a fancy French word that we're willing to just fork out endless money for it. And I was like, that's so true. I was like, why don't like, why, why when I'm at the store? And I, you know, I'm like, oh, that makes sense. That that lotions, $14. And it has a French name and I was like, I need some Nopalera in my life. And so I put in an order and I've got my like the moisturizing bar. Like seriously? Like I became immediately obsessed and the sharks loved it as well. But like remember last, last year before the summer, your, you know your email campaign came out of get your moisturizer bars before they melt in the mail and I stocked up and I, you know, I may have accidentally purchased lifetime supply because they last, they last so long, but I just, I love them so much. I don't really like lotion. I love that. There's like not the plastic packaging, it's just like, it's such high quality and then the soaps and the scrubs like, so I'm like, I'm truly like a big fan like using the products like they're really incredible and like they're, they're amazing premium products. So I love that you've like, you know that you're bringing this to consumers and showing people that there are, there are more way there are more options for premium beauty

[00:05:43] Sandra: products. Thank you, I appreciate that. So

[00:05:46] Jessi: how would you describe like Nopalera's stage right now? Like, you know how many retail doors? Like what major retailers are you in? How many employees do you have just to kind of get a sense of where the business is at right

[00:05:58] Sandra: now. Yeah. So you know, I started and it was just me, right. I think it's important to say like how I started, which was just me making the products in my Brooklyn apartment. I made the products myself for the first year, which I don't recommend? I only did that because I had no other, I was like, how do I find a co packer? How do I even find ingredients? How do I find anything because this was not the category that I came from? I did not used to work for Estee lauder. I'm not, I was not a beauty industry insider and so here where I am today, two years later, I have nine people on payroll. Um I have a full team, you know, VP of sales director of ops, two people in marketing. We have in house brand, photographer, videographer, uh you know, finance team, customer support, kind of like all the key things that you need. And we are now in, I don't know, over 400 retailers. So the name, ones that people recognize our Nordstrom credo, beauty free people. And you know, the bulk of our wholesale though really comes from these 400 plus boutiques that are across the country which Which is really our bread and butter and wholesale at the moment they pre pay their they don't require any marketing support because a very small and highly curated. So there's just less competition on the shelves and we love them. I love that we have this channel open to us because as we're a personal care brand, but also a gift herbal brand. So these, you know, beautiful lifestyle boutiques want to put our product on the shelves and then really the business is like 50% to see 50% wholesale right now.

[00:07:17] Jessi: Yeah, that's super helpful. And I'm curious how a lot of our listeners also probably know you from your DistroTalk class that you did when you did a lot of CPG food sales. I'm curious like how did has that experience and helped in the beauty world or like how different has beauty been compared to you know all the time you spent in CPG food.

[00:07:40] Sandra: So there's the similarities are that you have to understand how people work, you have to understand human psychology because as a farmer sales rep sale is really just knowing how to have a conversation and making sure that it's centered around the person across the table from you, right sales is not pushing an agenda, it's not tricking somebody, it's not trying to convince somebody to buy something from you. It's really understanding what are their needs and how can you position your offering as the opportunity? So that part is super helpful um and and that's really important. That's just a good skill to have in life in general because really what it comes down to is empathy. It comes down to us understanding what other people need and how can you be the solution to that problem. And that's really when you're building a brand, it should all be about that, it should all be about what people need and what is the problem, How can you provide that solution and then you know position brand positioning, you know how can you position yourself in the category to stand out because I mean grocery is a great example of like which cereal do you choose? I mean the cereal wall is like massive you know there's just so many choices. I mean granted a lot of them are owned by the same like monopoly. Right? But um, so just brand positioning. I think those, those are the things that I carried over. What's radically different in beauty is that there's no distributors and as you know, right from Distro 101. That is what I used to teach people about, about how to work with distributors because if you're a food and bev brand, you're trying to go into the grocery space, you're going to work with distributors and so you're going to need to know how that relationship works. What are those margin requirements? Whereas in beauty we sell direct. So that's, that's kind of the vast difference.

[00:09:14] Jessi: Very interesting. Can you tell us a little bit about deciding to apply to shark tank and like what, what went into that decision? Had you watched the show before? Was that something when you started your like, oh, someday I'm going to apply to shark tank or like tell us a little bit about the background of

[00:09:30] Sandra: applying. Yeah. You know, so funny. Of course I've seen the show. I mean it's kind of like american idol, right? Everyone has heard of it or at least seen some part of it, but I didn't originally have any inclination to apply. It wasn't until I talked to a friend of mine who had actually been on the show, Another beauty founder in fact, um, mabel from luna magic. And she was like, oh, we were just having a normal conversation, not about shark tank and she just in passing said you should apply to shark tank. I was like, what? No, why would I do that? Like I need to go raise like, you know, lots and lots of money and you know, it seemed like a lot of work, you know. Um and she was like, it's just, it's a great opportunity. You should just do it. And I was like, listen, we don't have to lose, let me just, you know, at that point and I still do this, I just apply for everything and then I kind of forget about it. And if I get like a congratulations email, I'm like, oh, I totally forgot I applied for that. So I applied literally over a year ago. I mean it was must have been like february March of 2022 then got the call back to, you know, hey, we're interested to learn more about you and that, you know from there all the way till you know, you're at the sound studio. It's like months and months. I mean it's almost the entire year. So much changed in my business, you know, with everything. When I finally got to, you know, the actual studio to, to film it. But at, at that point it's like you're invested, right? It's like you've put in so much time and energy and literally the just like the hoops that you have to jump through the paperwork that you need to submit is no different than what you need to submit to investors. You know, financials, you know, intellectual property, do you own the formulas, you know, who is your team? What are, you know, all of that stuff you need anyway, like in the data room if you're going to raise money. So I was already doing that anyway. So it was, it was a lot of work, but it was work that I was already doing and you know, I think the thing that people don't know about, I think is that you can go through all of this process, like months and months of preparation and film it and your episodes still might not air just like

[00:11:20] Jessi: just how crushing

[00:11:20] Sandra: that would be. I know, I know like my heart literally breaks for those who have gone through all of that. They literally go into the tank, they do the whole thing and then like they don't ever get the email that says, your episode has been selected to air, you know. So I went in there with full, like in full, you know, I was used to be a musician. So I luckily had performing, you know, in my back pocket. I was like, this is a gig I'm going to perform on stage. I'm going to bring all the energy and treated like a gig. And so I was just very conscious of the fact that this is a television show and they're also very clear about this too. They're like, this is a television show, it needs to be entertaining, you know, So I went in there with just, you know, I'm going to leave it all on the stage type of vibe. Yeah,

[00:12:04] Jessi: wow. And I think, I think I read too that you did like, you have a really great, like, affirmations process. Like you did some like, affirmations and everything before you went out, I believe. Can you talk a little bit about that? Like mental prep? It sounds like your musician training really helps. But I'm curious too about some of the other prep

[00:12:21] Sandra: that you did. Yes, I prepped a lot. I mean I already do a lot of, you know, I do like guided meditations. I do a lot of, I have like affirmations all over my house, on post it notes and very much about that. So I, you know, went in there like, this is an opportunity not just for me but for all Latinos because we are sorely missing on this show and this is the time, like our time is now and I'm going to make this about us. I'm going to literally conjure the spirits of all of my ancestors. Like I pictured my grandparents on my father's side. I pictured my grandparents on my mother's side and all the things that they've gone through and I mean it sounds like really cheesy, right? It sounds very woo woo, but I literally just pretended like they were next to me so that when I walked in the tank, I felt like I was rolling, like it wasn't just me up against the sharks, it was like my entire lineage, you know, on both sides was there standing next to me and to be honest, I feel like that feeling was felt in the room and that's why, you know, they were very respectful of me, you know, and even when they declined, it was very respectful decline, you know, like Daymond john saying like, you know, I'm gonna, what I'm going to ask for you is going to be too much and it's not going to be good for you. So for that reason I'm out, I was like, wow, thank you so much. I really respect where you're coming from with that because because you do know that what you're going to ask for me is too much and it's not going to be fair to me and what I'm building, so thank you for removing yourself, you know? And so yeah, those are the exercises I did and just, it helps to remove the anxiety about it being so focused on you because I just made it not about me, I felt like I was a messenger, like someone has to go and stand there and say these things and right now it's me, but I'm going to make this about us.

[00:13:59] Jessi: Yeah, I mean your episode really did have like just a really, even it even comes through through the tv of like the vibe and like you said like the way the sharks treat you and like all of it like it's just it's really incredible that didn't just happen like, you know, there was a lot of prep and yeah, intentionality that that you did to to show up in that way. So that's so

[00:14:18] Sandra: cool. Yeah, because you know, it's a once in a lifetime experience, you don't get to do it twice. So if you were given the opportunity, like any opportunity like that where it's like you only get to do this once, then you know, go go there like you're gonna give your Oscar winning speech. Yeah.

[00:14:34] Jessi: And how long were you actually in the tank talking with the sharks? And also like I think you mentioned something about it being like kind of eerily quiet like there's no music in real life. Can you talk a little bit about just being in there? How long it was what it's like

[00:14:49] Sandra: without the music. Yeah. You know, first of all they don't allow you to bring your phones into the green room. So there were no clocks. So I literally had no idea what time it was when I went in. No idea what time it was when I came out and it felt like it flew by. I felt like I was in the tank for not that long. It felt like 15 minutes. It felt very fast. It was probably closer. I can't imagine that it was more than half an hour honestly. And some people are in there for like an hour and 20 minutes. They don't put a cap on it, they just kind of let it flow depending on how the conversation is going. But you know, I was fortunate to have other founder friends who I knew, who could reach out to, who had been on the show to tell me like, okay, tell me everything that ask you, what do I need to prepare for? And you can just tell by watching the show, you know, what kind of baseline questions they asked Like what are your cogs? You know, what is your, what are your sales? How many retailers are you in etcetera? But what no one prepared me for was how quiet it was. And I was like, why did no one tell me this? You know, like, I'm trying to tell everyone now because I just actually had a call last night with some other founders who are CPG founders, who are contenders for next season and I was like, the first thing you need to know is that it's really quiet.

[00:15:56] Jessi: That sounds so eerie.

[00:15:57] Sandra: I know, but it is eerie and that's, its only eerie because um, you have to over emote like you have to bring the energy like you have to pretend like there's music playing because it is a dead silent sound stage, you know? Um and that's why they that's why you know, you always see the sharks like cutting each other off and like creating drama because they have you have to create the drama, it's not in the room like there's no agitation in the room, it's a sound stage, you know, so that I was like okay, no one warned me about this, I need to go yell at all my friends, they tell me but that it was a little awkward

[00:16:35] Jessi: and when can you tell us a little bit about your like the you know the offer that you went in with and then kind of the negotiation process, what was going through your mind live as you got offered, like yeah, tell us a little bit about that and and how it works to set an offer because since it's for tv like it does do producers input like do they give you feedback on your offer? Kind of Yeah.

[00:16:58] Sandra: Yeah, absolutely. It's a great question and yes, they do give you feedback on your offer and I don't I don't have any regrets but I originally wanted to go and ask for $500,000 for like, you know, I don't know, 5% or something. Um and they actually were like, you know, you should, you might want to reconsider because the way that the rules of the show work is that you cannot take less than what you go in asking for. So I was like, oh okay, so I should ask for less and then like go up, you know what I mean? So that's why I changed it to 300,000. And I think the bigger question is about valuation which is really tricky. You know, the people watching at home, they don't know what evaluation means, you know, they don't know what 30% of your company really means. You know, pre money, post money like that. Those are all like industry terms, you know? And so it was really tricky because I was also starting to raise by the time I finally got my film date. Like now I'm like in full fundraising mode. So now I'm like deep in like valuation, like dig into my financials, you know, and working with a third party to like, you know, back up my my evaluation. And so it was that's the hardest part, you know, like how do you value a company and founders ask me this all the time. Like it's one of the biggest hurdles when their fundraising for the first time, how do you come up with a valuation? And it's like the market decides like what does that mean? It's so vague, you know? Um because it's like, you know, why is the Picasso worth $40 million? Well it's because it's worth that because someone decided to pay that and therefore it's worth that. I mean, That's a really kind of abstract example, but just right, that's kind of what it is, it's like it's worth whatever people say, it's worth whatever they're willing to pay for. And so that's the tricky thing about going to shark tank, right? Where like kevin is like, I don't think you're worth $6 million you know, you're worth a million bucks and I'm like, oh my God, please, you know? Um so, but again, normal americans watching don't know what that means, you know, So that that was tricky, you know, and um I did have a ceiling in mind, like I just, I knew that like my lawyers would kill me if I gave away more than 10%. So I was like, we cannot go above 10%. And that's why when the the quote unquote negotiation began, I was like, well if you want more equity, it's then now it's $600,000 you know, And then it was like, let me tell you how the show works, you know, and the mansplaining from Damon, which you know, to me just makes me laugh. Um but you know, I think everyone, every brand has to go in there with like, okay, here's my ceiling like this is where I'm willing to go up to and I think the other thing that people might not realize, you know, maybe people that listen to this podcast already know this, but the general public does not realize that just because people say yes on tv does not mean that the deal actually goes through. And so I really went in prepared to just be super honest. You know, like I didn't want to say yes if I didn't really want it that you know, if it wasn't good enough. And so the producers I think are also trying to clamp down on people saying yes on tv and then like backing out afterwards. And so they were very clear like don't say yes unless you really mean yes. And I was like, ok, because they actually said your episode might not air if we find out that like you're yanking our Cubans chain afterwards. You know, like we might not air your episode. So I was like, okay, I'm going to go in and just be very honest then, you know, um, and that's what I did. Yeah.

[00:20:10] Jessi: And that's really interesting that you can't uh, you can't take a lower amount. I didn't realize that. That's really interesting that you got that feedback in advance. And and also I think, you know, I I think it's so cool that you stuck to your offer as well because your brand is like all over your branding is standing your worth and for you to go out there and stand in your worth. Like I think that that message like you said about being more beyond more than just you. Like the the inspiration that you gave to people of, of that as well and not making your attorneys upset as well.

[00:20:47] Sandra: I was literally like, she's going to kill me for this.

[00:20:51] Jessi: Yeah. And how well I want to dig into this a little bit more later. But for context to like, you know, you mentioned that you were fundraising, you know, by the time you're filming the episode, like when did you start fundraising compared to when to apply to the show? Like how did the timing of that kind of dual track with shark tank airing and then we can dig into that more later but kind of curious on the context.

[00:21:15] Sandra: So the timing was that I applied for shark tank really early in the year. Like, you know, March maybe even february. Honestly, like early 2022 I didn't start fundraising until like the end of june so it was much later in the process, you know? And of course the producers always like asking you every time they meet with you on zoom, they're asking you for an update. Like, have you taken investment yet? Have you had your cap table change? Has anything changed? So it was much later. Um, and you know, then I filmed at the end of july at that point, I was like, in full fundraise because you know, again, a lot, you know, like a lot that happens in the tank doesn't make it to the final episode. And so we did talk about that in the tank. Like Mark Cuban asked me do you have any offers right now from other investors? And I said I have a lot of strong interest which was true at that time in july and it wasn't until, you know the beginning of september. So like a month later that I had, you know, a lead investors say like okay, we want to be the lead and then of course the angels follow after that. So everything kind of happened in september like a month and half after I filmed. Um, is when I, you know, and I think I closed my seed round in october officially. So that was kind of the timeline of it.

[00:22:21] Jessi: Okay. Yeah, that's helpful and you ultimately raise $2.7 million, is that right?

[00:22:27] Sandra: Yes, 2.7. And I also like to tell people super transparent about this because no one talks about this. When you hear about people raising money like okay, I raised $2.7 million, $100,000 goes to legal right out the door. So there's never 2.7 in the bank. So let's be clear about that. Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah.

[00:22:46] Jessi: And was it you mentioned that you got some third party valuation which I like assessments which I think is really interesting because like you said so often like when I worked a little bit in the angel investing world, it was just like all over the place. Like some investors would have, you know back of the napkin math that they would do somewhere just kind of like gut feel or their, how much do you want to raise and then come up with a number that sounds kind of reasonable to us. Like it was just so arbitrary. So did that like was that an expensive processes as well? But did you feel like it was worth it to kind of give you some confidence in going into shark tank and fundraising?

[00:23:22] Sandra: Yeah. So that last part, right? It's really about that. It's really about giving you the confidence to like back up your valuation anywhere shark tank to investors Vcs And you know, I don't have regrets about doing. It wasn't actually that expensive to be honest with you. Um And it wasn't my idea to do it. It was actually my lawyers, my first lawyer, I actually had to change lawyers in the middle of my fundraise to like a bigger firm. But my first lawyer was the one that recommended it. And when I asked other disease, hey, do you reckon do you ever ask your the brand that you're investing in to go out and get like third party, you know, valuation assessments and they're like, no, never don't don't spend your money on that. But my lawyer really pushed for it. And it was really just about that point that you brought up. It's really just about you being able to have the confidence like you've you've seen the research of the market, you've seen the market comps, you know, um because they have access to data that we don't us plebeians do not, you know, they have access to like more insider, you know, market comps. But unfortunately a lot of companies are still private so like the data is not available and so therefore it kind of fell short a little bit but it still gave me it was still valuable. You know, it's like I don't regret it. I can't say that I would recommend like I wouldn't like go out and tell every founder to go like get a third party evaluation. Um So and also the people that I worked with were kind of like generalist right? So like they didn't really know beauty, you know, so it was like I had to really guide them on like here are the brands I need you to pull data from. Um And that was challenging because not not everyone had data available. Yeah.

[00:24:45] Jessi: That's super. I appreciate you sharing about that though because it's helpful to know that you did that in the process and yeah, valuation is such a tricky topic as you mentioned. That's such a common question. So yeah, I just appreciate you sharing a little bit about that. And also as far as the as shark tank, I'm curious a little bit about the response from consumers and both. Like I listened to your episode on your podcast which I highly recommend and I'll link in the show notes one of my favorite podcast, but where you and your marketing team talked about prepping for the show and kind of like getting numbers from other founders of like, okay, do we think it's going to be this video orders, this big orders, this, the orders. And then I noticed that you did eventually sell out of your shark tank bundle, you know, on your, you know, not eventually, but like I saw you in a negative way, but I saw you sell out because I know you've done so much prep. So can you tell us a little bit about the prep and then the actual and yeah, I

[00:25:42] Sandra: thought about that process. Yeah. Again, rarely fortunate to have a network of other founders that I can go to and say like what's going to happen here? Like what should we be preparing for? And literally the answers were like, the range was so wide. You know, I had, I talked to because I'm in the Target Accelerator alumni slack channel. So you know, I asked in there, I'm in the new Voices Foundation slack channel. I asked in there, there's founders in both that have been on the show. And so one founder, um, said that she only received 1000 orders after the show and I was like, okay, so that was only on the lower side. Most founders told me to expect around 3000 orders. So that's what we were preparing for. We were like, I told my ops Director of Ops, I was like, okay, we need to have 3000 of everything available. And so that's what we had. And then our, our warehouse 3PL called and they were like, oh no, you guys need to, it's going to be way more than that. You should expect double that. They said we had a baby brand, like a brand that's old baby clothes and they had 7000 orders. So I was like, oh crap, like we're gonna, we're not, we don't have enough, we're going to run out. So, you know, we had our Director bob like double the existing purchase orders that were already out to our co packers. Um so we were prepared with inventory to like to have like, you know, 10,000 of everything just to be safe. And we ultimately ended up getting sick 6000 orders from january 20th to february 1st. So it was more than 3000. It wasn't quite 10,000, but it was, you know, I'm glad that we upped it right, that we after preparation and that was really split between Shopify and amazon. So we definitely got, it was kind of 50 50. Honestly, it was like 3000 orders, Shopify, 3000 orders amazon. And then of course, our retail partners also saw a huge lift like Nordstrom and Credo had like a 300% increase in orders as well. So that was, that's good for, you know, that was great for us with those retail partners. Um, it was really about the preparation to make sure nothing broke, you know, not even just inventory, but like is your SMS setup, are your email flows? Like are they talking, are they set up to talk to like new people who have no idea who you are? You know, give them some education like what is an opal, you know, whatever and you know, make sure that our customer support agent like was going to be like online, you know, make sure that our ticketing platform, everything like do we need to update our F. A. Q. S like we up our website like, you know, F A. Q. S. Product pages, we had our photographer like make new videos of like how to use the lotion bar, how to use the scrub, you know, put those on the, on the P. D. P. S. Uh, so that's the kind of preparation we did, which, which I think worked really well and I'm glad we did all of that. Um, obviously, you know, the more you get, the more you get of everything right. So um, the most popular item was definitely our lotion bar, It was also the most returned item on amazon because people just don't know what a lotion bar is, you know, and there's a lot of customer education that is required. Um, and anyone out there that has a product, you know, in CPG as well that has, that requires customer education. They know that it's like a really heavy lift to teach people how a new thing works or what it does. So I don't know what people were expecting. They thought it was going to be like a roll on, you know what I mean? Like people like, it doesn't glide. I'm like, did you think this is like a dry idea deodorant that's going to glide on your skin? Like this is a natural product, you know, But um, but obviously, you know, it's always easy to focus on like neck, you know, reviews but overwhelmingly positive. Right? So still, like, you know, we did um about 300,000 in sales. Um, you know, for, for that, um from like january 20th to february 1st, wow. Yeah,

[00:29:02] Jessi: that's, that's very, that's very interesting. And I found it really interesting when you were talking with your team on, on your show about prepping. I thought it was such a good angle that you mentioned as well, just like, okay, you know, often people are finding like, what lens do I, I need to look at our emails, our website, everything through as someone who just saw this on television. They may not even have social media or have seen this on social media, so they have no context, like how do I look at everything with those eyes? And I was like, oh, that's so interesting because, you know, your mother, maybe normal customer flows are totally different. Somebody that just saw it on tv and is like, oh, that lotion bar look cool. They need, they need so much more education in such a different journey. So that's really interesting.

[00:29:47] Sandra: Yeah, Yeah, you do have to, I think periodically it's good for every company to just even quarterly, I guess at the, at the minimum, like comb through all of your assets, you know, your website, your flows to make sure that they are still relevant that they're, that they're really talking to the people that they're meant to talk to and you know, all of that ongoing.

[00:30:05] Jessi: And speaking of amazon, is that something that you set up knowing that you might share on shark tank? How did you, how did you think about amazon? Was that a channel you've been in before and what kind of prep went into into prepping amazon for shark tank?

[00:30:21] Sandra: Yeah. You know, amazon was not on a road map. I actually was not planning to launch on amazon until like this year. And you know, once I was going through the process of shark tank and it seemed it felt positive like, okay, I think, I think I'm moving forward to the final round, like, and by the way, they never really tell you what you're in, you're like, you're like, am I in the finals right now? Like, have I made it yet? And like, they literally tell you until the, until the moment you air that like your episode might not air like captain, keep reminding you, it's so nerve wracking. I'm like, can we tell people, are we allowed to promote this yet? Like I don't understand. Even in the congratulations email, Jessi was like, congratulations, you're episode has been scheduled to air, your episode might not air like they still have to tell you that. Um, but you know, so amazon um my other founder friends who you know, were on the show were like, you have got to be on amazon, like everyone's gonna go there, you're going to lose thousands of dollars if you don't, you're not on amazon. So, um, so I reached out to my good friend Jessi, Freitag startups PG podcast and I asked her for any recommendations for an amazon agency and she recommended one um who was really good and so I got, I had no bandwidth to like run amazon myself. I mean this was like back in september, I was like literally in the middle of fundraising, like trying to close the, well I was in like five million accelerators, you know, it was like a team of two and so back then and so um thank God for the agency, like, you know, here's all the assets, here's all the pictures, you know, and they built the page, they got it up and running, we got the inventory there and um you know started to spend a little bit on as like not very much compared to what we spend, you know on you know on the dTc side um and and thank god it worked, you know like again $90,000 just from amazon because of shark tank, you know, and now it's like at a new level like now it's like consistently at like $1000 a day like with us not really having to do anything just because it's just been the brand awareness is there. And I guess the algorithm honestly I haven't tried to shop for myself on amazon yet, but so that's cool right? It's like obviously the big buzz dies down at some point but like you're at a new plateau than you were

[00:32:20] Jessi: Before sets you at that higher bar. Yeah. Yeah, interesting because when you said that the sales were kind of split 5050 between Amazon and your website, that was way more of it for amazon than I was expecting. So that's

[00:32:33] Sandra: wow. Yeah, I mean I will say like it's 50 50 in terms of number of orders but in terms of dollar value much higher on our Shopify site because the average order value so much higher and on amazon people are buying like one thing you know I think like the average units per orders like 1.2 or something. Like maybe people are buying two things but people are mostly buying like one item, whereas on Shopify they're buying the bundle, right? It's like 100 and $30 and so much higher average order value. And

[00:32:56] Jessi: did you did you where most of the orders for your bundle that you just mentioned or where people do, did you see a mix or did a lot of people go for that, that bundle? And what kind of thinking went into that where you know, I see founders, you know often put together like a bundle for shark tank, so kind of curious about that.

[00:33:14] Sandra: Yeah, I once we got the, you know the green light that it was going to air slash maybe not air. Yeah, I was like okay, we have to make because I knew how the episode went. I was like right, I know that I said this is how I know how it ends. So let's create a bundle that is about that and because we just don't have that many skews, I was like let's just put all of our excuse in it. You know, it's literally like our entire line with the exception of merch. And I think a lot of people bought the bundle, a lot of people bought the bundle because um they're just so excited, they're like, it's just an easy click, it's like one click, they don't have to think and a lot of people didn't buy the bundle, they bought another bath set, which is again like three items, So not really, people don't really come to our website to buy like one item Yeah, you know, which is very

[00:33:58] Jessi: interesting. I also um this is going back a little bit to shark tank, but I had heard when we had rosa from wildwonder on the podcast about shark tank, she was saying that your like first couple minute pitch like that all is like pre done and like they're like paying attention to like what you're gonna wear and like can you talk a little bit about some of the like vetting, what it looks like to get that first couple of minutes of your pitch together because that was really interesting to me that I was like, well yeah, you are on national tv and they don't want to cut that any, have any cuts in there. So it has to be just the way, you know, has to be okayed to be on the airwaves.

[00:34:35] Sandra: Yes. And you know, to your point of like the vetting, I mean, I had to submit pictures of my tattoos, Jessie, like my gosh, I think they need to make sure my tattoos don't say like a curse word, you know what I mean? It doesn't have like a swastika or something, you know what I mean? So, um and they only asked me to do that because I was in California at the time and for the like the month of the filming and so I got to drive to the studio to drop off my display. Like most people have to mail it in, I just drove up from san Diego and I just dropped off my cactus and whatever. And so they saw me in a tank top and so they saw my tattoos and then they were like, oh, can you send us pictures of your tattoos? But yeah, everything is vetted. They need like three outfit choices. Like there's a google folder with the pictures of your outfits, you know, because they also need to make sure that it works on camera, like no stripes, no polka dots, you know, nothing that's going to, I forget the word, but it's like, it warps the camera, um, like it's like mar or something, I forget the word. But anyway, um, everything is vetted the pitch to your point is 100% rehearsed, like perfected memorized, you know? And so the trick is like, you have to make it come across natural, like you're just walking in and being like, hey sharks, I'm calandra and here's just, here are my thoughts for today. You know, it's not that at all, it's completely rehearsed completely memorized and crafted, right? So you get to first draw the first pitch and then like your producers that you're assigned to help you cut it down or edited or like refine it. Um, but a lot of what I originally wrote is like in there, you know, and I noticed that when my episode, they actually still edited things out, like they didn't, they didn't actually show the entire pitch, but everything they showed was like the most important parts, you

[00:36:10] Jessi: know, I also noticed, I think it was the next morning that Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of kind had tweeted about Nopal era, like what was it like to wake up to that? Like was the, like was that kind of a nice little bonus? Uh,

[00:36:23] Sandra: in the morning is always, I was like, yes, fist bump, you know, fellow mexicano and uh, you know, he obviously is a very nice person and he, he really is kind, you know, and, and he really is that way. And I think that he just, you know, he wanted to support us even though like no deal was made. He, he wanted to use his platform to help fuel business, you know, you know, people to our site or just anything and um, and so that was, I really appreciated that. So I hope to one day be able to meet him and thank him

[00:36:53] Jessi: well. And then I'd love to talk a little bit about your recent fundraise as you know then as well. So, so that closed by the time it aired, that had closed. But can you tell us a little bit about kind of the fundraising process, anything that was kind of surprising in there. I know you already mentioned a few things, but just kind of curious about some your other insights because I know everything that you do you, which I love about you, like you're such a documentary for like you document everything, you're so intentional. So I'm like, you know, if there's anybody, I want to learn how they, you know, how they went about the fundraising process, like your insights or I know just super

[00:37:35] Sandra: helpful. Yeah, I have to, you know, chalk that up to being raised by a homicide detective Jessi. So my father taught me to document everything. That's why that's why I'm such like a crazy documentary. Um so I think one of my biggest learnings from the fundraise just to like zoom out a bit is to what I learned and what I experienced firsthand, which still kind of blows my mind is that money begets money, like once you have money, people want to give you more money and this is both how life is and also how why life is unfair, right? Because the people that don't have the money are the ones that need it and it's kind of like how people give things to celebrities for free, it's like they actually have money to buy things, but yet people just want to give them things for free and, and um I always, you know, in the back of my mind, I always think back to like Arlan Hamilton, you know, the, the VC from backstage capital, you know, who has an amazing story, right? She was like homeless? Then she, you know raised her first fund and you know, she's a black woman and she always says like you know if you don't have the money, you have to become the money and that's truly what I experienced during my fundraise because it really takes a lot of you know, audacity, courage, self belief, mindset, everything to show, show up to these pitch meetings and and even though you are desperate for money, like please somebody give me $1000 you have to show up like I don't need it, you know like no you need me and that's how you know that's like the vibe that you have to bring to these meetings, obviously you also have to be extremely informed and like know all your numbers and all of that, but just the attitude, right? Because people want to invest in, people with big ideas, people want to invest in visionaries who are going to, you know, bill the next $100 million brand, people want to invest in C E O S who are going to build that, you know, million dollar team, right? And so if you show up and you are not confident like that does not give confidence to the investor to want to invest in you, so you can't let you can't wait for the money to be given to you to have the confidence, you have to have the confidence first and then the money will come to you, and that is um is not easy, right? And not everyone is built for that type of pressure, you know? Um So that was one of my biggest takeaways. I literally had zero contacts Jessi when I started, like, I did not even know how do I even find the VCs, how do I find the people with the money? That was me? Right? And now I'm on the other side where I literally have investors reaching out to me now, like, literally, like this week, someone just wrote to me to, people wrote to me, can I get on your list? You know, are you still taking investment? And I'm like, where were you back in june when I was like crying on the floor, You know, and it's because once people also investors are just normal people with como, right? So let's also say that they're not they're not superior human beings, they're just people, like everyone else, nobody wants to be first on the dance floor. So once someone's first on the dance floor, everybody wants to get on the dance floor, right? Once you have, you know, 2.7 million, then people are like, is it too late. I literally had to turn people down, like, at the end of my fundraise because I was like, I need this to close, I need the money to go into the bank, like, you know, but it's just that, that was wild to me, you know, that that and like being able to experience, that was really wild. Um so I, you know how I met people was literally just, I enrolled in a lot of, I applied to a lot of accelerators, any kind of cohort that would put me in the room with investors or people that new investors, because once you meet one Jessi, you meet three. Yeah. You know, just like once because all the rich people hang out together, they play golf together, just like all the poor people know each other, you know, it's literally the same. We all live in our economic bubbles and they're no different. And so you just meet one and then they're like, oh, let me introduce you to. So, and so, you know, but it does require effort on, on our part, the founders to go put ourselves into new rooms. How

[00:41:11] Jessi: long did it take from like when you're like, all right, I'm gonna start fundraise to that like that. Yes. Where somebody is like, all right, I'm going to lead the round and then kind of all the dominoes fall of everybody getting fomo like how long

[00:41:24] Sandra: was that process? It felt like a million years, but it was not, it was really only like, I think I started, you know, in june so, and then people warned me they're like the summer, it's a terrible time to raise. All the rich people are on vacation and I was like, well that's too bad because I need to raise. So it was a little slow, like in august you know, where I was like starting to get nervous like, okay, I need people to write me back, I need, you know, um, I need someone to say yes and um, so it was like june july august and then by september it was when, you know, I got the lead investor and then the angels had already been kind of talking to angels, but the angels kind of came all in at once at the end. You know, again like that fomo like, you know, um, so that was a really interesting, like two individuals, like I have six angels to individuals who are actually, who actually work for the lead investor invested personally. And so that was really fascinating because they're seeing the deal happen right there. They're part of that team, but they wanted to personally invest right? As angels. So, um, I have two angels that are, you know, that work for the lead investor, which is interesting.

[00:42:29] Jessi: And what does it look like? You know, kind of operational, like, you know, the day to day of doing that fundraising? Like are you connecting with people via email and video calls? Like were there in person events with like the accelerators and events you participated in, like getting in those, you know, was it physical rooms you were sometimes getting in and also as part of that, like how did you intentionally kind of set up your team to make sure that the rest of the business kept running to give you enough bandwidth to do the fundraising. That is so much work.

[00:43:00] Sandra: Yes. That last part is the hard part, right? Because most people that are fundraising for the first time, they don't have a team. So you are like trying to do it all. And that is honestly the hardest thing because fundraising as everyone tells you it's a full time job. It's not like a full full time job, but it's like more than a part time job. You know, I'll say it's like a three quarters job and I didn't meet anyone necessarily in person. I was mostly zoom meetings. Um, and just asking for introductions through other, you know, other investors, I started, you know, I joined twitter to kind of follow other investors. A lot, a lot of Vcs are on twitter just to kind of follow what they're saying what they're thinking. You know? Um, and there was definitely a lot of cold outreach, you know, like high, you know, you don't know me, but you know, so, and so recommended you obviously, if you can ever get a warm lead, that's always the best and a lot of investors say that, but again, when you're starting from the outside, like how if, you know no one, how are you supposed to start? You know what I mean? Like you need someone to first let you in the castle wall you know to introduce you to someone so you can like meet more people. So it's just a lot of cold outreach, a lot of emails and then like that hopefully lead to zoom meetings um and you know using doc send you know for my pitch deck to be able to give people private links, you know that weren't downloadable. You don't want like millions of versions of your pitch deck floating around out into the universe. Especially because you're always updating it. You know like every time you have a meeting you're like okay so that was interesting. They were confused about this point. Let me clarify that in the deck. You know I think by the end I was like on version seven of my pitch deck. So yeah so it's I'm glad that it's over like it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do also because I didn't know what I was doing. You know like if you've never done it like you're trying to understand like what is my valuation like what and then you have to go on and present like you know exactly what the next five years of your life you're going to look like um And so you know in terms of my team, my team was like two people at that point for us, it was really like sam our marketing manager me and we had an intern helping her in marketing. So Edith who's now full time was an intern at the time. And then my partner Sean who was like dealing with all like logistics, you know, So I did have help. I wasn't like, you know, it wasn't a solo founder but it's not like how it is now where we have like full time VP of sales, full time director of ops, you know, so that, that's really challenging. Like my, you know, my heart goes out to all founders who are in that like team of one or team of two, like trying to run the business and also fundraise. Yeah.

[00:45:23] Jessi: Did you feel like you're like sales experience helped come in handy with the sending emails, getting people to open a cold email, tracking your follow ups. Like I feel like there's so much similarities that, that like tenacity and systems you developed in sales would, would, even though it's really hard, would apply to the fundraising

[00:45:41] Sandra: world. Oh, 100%. I think if you ever have any sales experience, it's so valuable because so much of it is No, no, no, no, no. And just getting ignored that you can't be fazed by that, you know, and you just really have to be like, you just know that all you need is one. Yes. You know, so it's it's really just a math game. If you, for every 10 people you reach out to one person writes you back then that means you need to reach out to like 30 people if you want three people to get back to you. Do you know what I mean? It just becomes like a math game. So yeah, definitely that work in sales and also being a musician, I used to book my own tours and like so many people would ignore my emails, you know? And then one person will write me back and you know, it felt great. So I have a lot of experience with, with rejection and that is very, very useful,

[00:46:22] Jessi: right? And how, so when you're, when the funding raised, like when the fundraising round closes, how long from like, alright, it's full, nobody else, nobody else can get in, no matter how much they want to get in to like money in the bank minus, like you said, legal fees, which is really important note, but like, how long did that take? I feel like it's another piece of like, alright, we raised a bunch of money, but like, it's another thing for everybody to actually wire transfer the money and it all to come and for you to be able to like start using it. How did that

[00:46:51] Sandra: work? Yeah, it wasn't, again, it felt like a million years, but it wasn't um, fortunately my lead investor was generous enough to give us an advance, like a promissory note. I was like, I need to 50 K like tomorrow, like yesterday actually you know before like as we're waiting for the for the real money to come through. So they did and that was super helpful because we had outstanding purchase orders. Like we had, we had money bills that were, do you know it was a really tight spot to be in. Like I mean it's it's it feels really weird to be like you feel like you're about to go out of business but like $2 million is about to be deposited in your bank account, you know? Um And so luckily they gave me in advance so that was great and the only thing that's loaded up was like just paperwork like the more I guess my advice to other founders is like all of your corporate documents, all of your, you know your board, all of those terms you know have those done you know and approved because those are the things that can hold you up so and that and like the due diligence, one thing that I guess slowed us down a bit. Again, it wasn't long, it felt like a long time at the time, but it wasn't really was you know the intellectual property piece like they just, you know, I've had, you know, it was like the back and forth with the lawyers of just like you know proving that the formulas were mine proving that you know, whatever, you know anything that could hold it back. Like those are the things that they're trying to comb through because they want to eliminate any kind of liability. Um So the more you can have those documents like done you know then you will have those, that's the only thing that holds back. You know it's like you get caught in diligence of like on some point that they need clarification on you know for me like intellectual property was one of them. So

[00:48:23] Jessi: what does it look like using the funds that you raised over the next year? Like what are kind of the next steps in scaling you know what's kind of next in in your planning and executing?

[00:48:33] Sandra: Yeah we just you know we just had our all hands team meeting this morning actually and we were talking about this because you know we still have all the money in the bank right? Because we have made money right? So it's like the balance hasn't really gone down. I mean the balance went down in the beginning because we had bills do so like a lot like hundreds of thousands of dollars went out the door like immediately. But that was like back that was last year you know and so you know we were talking about this like I I am always wrestling with like we need to you know spend the money like to grow sales but I also want to hold, I don't want to spend too quickly because I want to endure the recession, whatever that is and how However long that lasts, like still no one really knows, I mean we're all seeing the layoffs, you know, massive tech layoffs everywhere, you know? And but it's it's going to be different, you know, than like the 2008 recession, like it's not going to look the same right? And so I think everyone is still trying to figure out like what does this look like, what does this mean? You know? Um and so it's like it's like this balance of like spending the money but also wanting to hold on to some of it. So really, you know what it allows for us to do is to first of all hire people obviously that's what that's what everyone should when they raise money, you know, it's higher team and then have a real marketing budget because you know, any CPG brand in my opinion is actually running a marketing company and I think it's, I think it's naive to think that we're running ingredient companies, our product companies, you know, like pasta is pasta right? Like soap is so, you know like yes, we all have differences in like tweets in our formulations but it's ultimately brand, you know, and it's like it's who we're talking to and how we're talking to them and which is marketing marketing is like how we talk to people. So you know, having a real marketing budget and like really allowing ourselves to kind of dream of like what are the things we like to do, you know what kind of activations we'd like to have like so we're starting to do like in store activations, we're going to do you know, agile last mile trucks which I know wild wonders doing it as well which are like you know basically billboards on trucks, you know? Um And you know those are things that we would have never done before because we didn't we couldn't afford them, you know, so doing those kinds of things um you know investing in software that makes our life easier, you know and you know that's what we spent the money on so far having like a better accountant obviously cost more money, you know? Um So and that's like that's headcount, that's like team, you know um hiring the right people having the right systems um and having like an R. And D. Budget like now we can, you know, formulate new products and you know that takes time and money so it's kind of everything. We're using the money for all of the things you know that we that we really need, you know.

[00:51:02] Jessi: Yeah getting set, getting all the building blocks and everything place to continue to just be able to keep working up the ladder and and scaling because it's easy to, it can be easy to kind of try to skip a step or not set up some of those fundamental blocks but if you can set them up and you and your team are so good about like documentation and you know, I'm a systems nerd and everything. So I always appreciate what you share about building out systems and everything. And so yeah, I'm just that it's so important for scaling later. And the marketing piece is interesting too, like you said because we have liquid, It's a water company, $700 million. Like that's, it's all branding. Like

[00:51:43] Sandra: that is like my favorite brand to talk about. It's just I think everyone is just jealous of like how brilliant it is. I'm like, I just saw, where was I was in the store like over the weekend and it was like, what was the name of the flavor? It was like bury me alive. Like like me or why? I was like on the floor, I was like I am dead. Oh my God, this brand like couldn't get anywhere brilliant, I can't take it. And yeah, so and I use the water category, it's literally my favorite category to explain the importance of brand because it's water, there's one ingredient and that ingredient is water and if I pour out liquid death. Evian, you know, essentially a and Poland spring all out into clear glasses of clear glasses. Like they all look the same because it's not about the goddamn ingredients, you know? And yeah, I love the water category as that. It's just, it's like the perfect way to expe the importance of brand. Are

[00:52:35] Jessi: there some new product innovations that you can share about that? Like any lines that you're sharing or is it all is it all still kind of in the works?

[00:52:43] Sandra: Um I mean, I think we're allowed to share, we are working on because you know, as much as I wish that the whole world would switch to solids and we eliminate, you know, know, everyone would stop buying body wash and you know, shampoo and plastic bottles of plastic. Most of it is water, right? So you're buying plastic bottles filled with water. Um people love lotion and they love body wash. So we cannot deny people, we're not going to put it in plastic though. So we are going to put it in aluminum bottles that you will refill that we're going to make them beautiful. So you never want to throw them away, You know, they're going to be like centerpieces of your bathroom. Um and so we're working on a body wash and lotion and obviously being able to make minis of things is also a new expense that we're able to afford because that's new molds, like the costing of the machinery to make minis of things like mini soaps. We're gonna make many cactus soaps. Um you know, minis of the lotion and you know, and the body wash, like travel sets, gift sets, um Discovery sets, whatever you want to call them. So those, those are all things in the works and of course people continue to ask us, you know, for shampoo bars. So, um in the very early stages of, you know, exploring that. But the body wash and lotion have been in the works for for several months.

[00:53:52] Jessi: Nice. Oh, that's exciting. And yeah, I'm team shampoo bar. I gotta, I gotta admit, I've been one of those people on instagram, I was like, what would you like us to come out

[00:54:02] Sandra: of our Yeah, yeah. What is your favorite brand? You have one that you like? I've tried a lot.

[00:54:06] Jessi: I mostly will buy whatever's at the farmer's market by our house because then I could just, you know, I could just take it home, no packaging involved, but if I could buy from local era, I would do that instead.

[00:54:17] Sandra: We are working on it. Yeah, it's a, it's a tricky thing to formulate because we always, we obviously want to make them for different hair types, you know, and, and, and yeah, and they're, they're tricky to make um because you want it to be hard, so it doesn't melt. But if it's like too hard, then you have to use ingredients that make it drag on your hair, you know, anyway, into the weeds here. But yeah, we're early, early stages, I have a bunch of, you know, um, concoctions in my kitchen right now, actually Nice.

[00:54:47] Jessi: I love it because you have a formulation background. So, you know, which I also love that you invested in yourself and getting the formulation so yeah, I think that's also so cool that you can still be involved in the formulation process and super informed and educated on it.

[00:55:02] Sandra: Yeah, yeah, totally, so yeah, I tried to get rid of the formulation, my kitchen was a kitchen for a while there, I was like, I'm done with this, we have co packers now and now, like again, I've kind of like commandeered the kitchen for like a formulation lab, I love it.

[00:55:17] Jessi: Well, I hope everyone follows if they don't already, I hope they follow along, go to Nopalera N O P A L E R A dot C O as the website follow Nopal era dot co on instagram, you can go on amazon, but you know, get some Nopalera in your life, if you haven't already watch the episode, which I'll link um and yeah, I just, I so appreciate you being here. I hope our listeners follow along and you know, continue to keep following the journey, I'm super excited to and just so grateful for everything that you've shared with your always sharing so much wisdom with the world and yeah, just appreciate you so much and you coming on the show and sharing with our startup CPG audience, it means a lot and I really appreciate you,

[00:56:03] Sandra: Oh right back at you, I mean what you guys have built, I feel like I was, you know, in the slide channel when it was like hundreds of people and now it's like over 10,000 people. So it's just amazing you know that you know the community you guys have And the time and energy that you guys commit to helping one another. You know, this kind of thing did not exist like 10 years ago. You know, government was literally on their own suffering alone and now you know, the community just really is, is just key, you know, to key to everyone's like survival and mental health, everything, you know. Yeah, awesome. Well

[00:56:33] Jessi: thank you so much. Thanks for being here and hope to hope to see you in real life at some point as

[00:56:38] Sandra: well. Yes, for sure. For sure.