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0:00Welcome to the Emerging Brands podcast. Sharing the stories behind brands you'll want to shop next. I'm your host, Kelly Bennett. I am a New York City-based brand strategist for CPG Food and Beverage Brands. In each episode, I'll take you behind the scenes of founders that are building better-for-you products and bringing them to market. Also, I talk to brand builders, retailers, industry experts, and tastemakers who help bring those cool products to your shopping cart. You will hear stories of real-life founders, their launch strategies, and practical advice you could use to grow your own brand or simply discover what's next on shelf.

0:42And the best part is you could shop all the brands featured on the show. This podcast is brought to you by Glimpse. Glimpse is an AI-powered deduction management tool that disputes and recovers invalid deductions, winning brands thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours back to founders so that they can focus on what really matters most. If you're a brand selling in retail, go to tryglimpse.com backslash trial for 30 days free and let them know I sent you. Now, let's dive into the new episode. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. The awesome industry expert that I have on today has been a founder of brands that I have been following, and I've been so excited to have Suze Dowling.

1:43She is the co-founder and chief brand officer of Pattern Brands for gear. And Pattern Brands has been on my radar for a while. So Suze, I'm so happy to have you on the podcast to talk shop with you because I love how you approach brands and these brand family that you're building. And just thank you again for coming on the show.

2:07Suze Dowling:Thank you so much for having me. I've been so excited to chat and I feel like we're going to have a really fun conversation. I love it. So kick things off with Pattern Brands first, just to help listeners have context of how all of the brands fit together under Pattern. So Pattern, we like to say it's a family of brands. In actuality, it's a portfolio of brands, but for us, it's all in the family. But essentially, Pattern is a family of brands unified by a shared mission. And I think that's really important because it creates that thing of, oh, these brands all actually make sense together. And that mission is to help people enjoy daily life at home.

2:51Suze Dowling:So for us, we say it's those micro moments of your day that so often go unnoticed, whether it's stepping out of the shower and wrapping yourself in a great towel or curling up in bed with like the coolest, comfiest sheets, or in the case of gear, maybe making yourself some scrambled eggs in the morning and getting your, you know, protein goals in, but with an amazing spoonula. It's those moments that actually bring you joy in your day. And so often I feel like people think it's about these big grand moments, but it's not. It's about bringing it back into the everyday. So essentially that's our mission as a portfolio is to launch and create brands that have kind of this enjoyment of the everyday.

3:34Suze Dowling:And then we run them as a fully shared services team. So what that means is that it's one team working across the entirety of our portfolio. So we obviously will have different team members that might spend more of their time focusing on one area or the next, but we know how hard it is and how complicated it can be sometimes to grow and scale a brand. And so we want to be able to give each brand kind of the expertise that it deserves in this shed services model. I love how you have set this up. And again, I've been watching Pattern Brands for a while and I appreciate how you just broke that down because it totally makes sense.

4:15So how did Gear then join the family?

4:19Suze Dowling:So Gear joined the family in early 2021. So what actually happened was Pattern first fundraised in 2018, launched to market in 2019. And we were actually first incubating brands and then COVID hit. And we were like, wow, okay, incubation just got a lot harder. We can't travel more. And so honestly, if COVID hadn't hit, I would have had a DIY hardware brand in the portfolio. That was what we're in the middle of incubating. And then when COVID hit, it was also when Amazon aggregators were really having this moment, right, where I feel like you couldn't read any industry news without seeing something about them.

5:04And we said, wait a second, like, they're acquiring brands?

5:08Suze Dowling:Why couldn't we acquire brands, maybe we can still grow the portfolio. But for us, we were really passionate about really owning that customer relationship. Like that is at the cornerstone of everything we do. We're so customer first. And I think that is, you know, mission critical in building a brand. But honestly, it was, we called reached out to the gear founders at the time and to a bunch of other founders. And we said, hi, we're pattern and we're acquiring brands. We didn't know how to acquire a brand, but I figured with some Google, I would figure it out. And lo and behold, we did. So in 2020, we first began conversations and by early 21, we'd brought gear into the pattern family.

5:52Suze Dowling:And I think it was our first acquisition. And it was just a brand that we immediately fell in love with. How can you not? The products are truly, they do bring me joy. Like I never thought I'd get this passionate about a spatula. I am. No, I get it. Yes, no, I get it. And it just fulfilled that mission for us of saying, wow, this product is amazing. The customer loyalty is amazing. There is something that is so special in this brand. How do we make sure that we can honor the brand that exists and then bring it to, you know, many more people and really help scale it over time? So cool. And also too, how did this first come to be?

6:39I know that before we were hitting record, I know your background is in brand strategy and developing, launching brands. How did you first come up with pattern brands as a portfolio to start this whole process?

6:56Suze Dowling:Honestly, it was a really organic story. So I have two co-founders. We've all worked together at this point for, gosh, 14 years. I literally met one of my co-founders. I'm from Australia originally. And so I hopped off a plane in New York, didn't know anyone, arrived on a Friday, met one of my co-founders on the Monday morning. And I feel like sometimes things in life are just meant to happen. But we had run a brand agency called Gin Lane together, which became, you know, I'd say pretty influential in the space of kind of brand building with early stage entrepreneurs and our kind of process at Gin Lane was very much focused on understanding the customer, developing a really human feeling brand, and then using digital to enhance that, you know, with direct to consumer.

7:49Suze Dowling:And we realized that we, you know, really had something very special there. And with that business, we actually took a portion of equity in each of the businesses that we helped to launch and scale. And then we said, wow, it's so amazing working with these entrepreneurs, but why aren't we doing this for ourselves? Like, we want more. And so in 2018, when we fundraised, it was interesting because honestly, the business had never been better in terms of our agency business. It was after so many years of sacrifice and of struggling to figure out how we'd make payroll and, you know, all of the things that happen as you're building a business, we finally were turning away like 90 % of emails that, you know, reached out to us to work with us and we were on top of the world.

8:37Suze Dowling:And we decided to walk away from it all. Because that's how kind of wholeheartedly we believed in pattern and this mission of, you know, helping people enjoy their daily lives at home. And I think the shared services model, honestly, though, it was very much born out of running an agency because with an agency, you're always working across multiple brands. And so I think, honestly, when we were ideating, we had no idea that that was going to be, you know, very challenging. and we've gone through so many org evolutions and we've made mistakes and learned and grown. But it really was us being quite naive and saying, oh, it'll just be like running an agency when we founded Pattern.

9:19That's really interesting of how you shifted from an agency and now having a portfolio of brands, but still plugging in the services that you were providing and I'm sure expanded on too. and how it's like a similar business model in some senses, but also totally different.

9:42Suze Dowling:That's exactly. I think, you know, at first we thought it was going to be very similar and we actually thought the same, you know, profiles of individuals would be, would make sense in an operating business as they did in an agency business. I think what we learned was in an agency business, you're paid to be perfect. You need to measure a hundred times and then cut once. and you paid for a kind of picture-perfect expertise and taking the time to really drive impact in that way, in an operating business, that's the first thing that will kill you. Perfection and the pursuit of perfection is going to kill you.

10:22Suze Dowling:And I say that as someone that is a perfectionist and is definitely a recovering perfectionist, but I had to really unlearn those tendencies. I think what has always remained true though is our belief in building brands that feel really human and evoke emotion and put the customer relationship at the center. That has never changed. But certainly, you know, the ways that we've learned to operate has evolved. You know, I think with time, with the, you know, with, you know, COVID happening, we also went remote first. So then we expanded and thought about how we build teams globally now with AI. So, you know, the world has changed since our agency days, but I'm very thankful for the grounding that it gave me in kind of creating pattern.

11:12So going back to gear, that was an acquisition. It's in 2021, you said?

11:19Suze Dowling:Correct. Yep. Beginning of 2021. So what did that first start looking like as far as acquiring a brand and seeing, okay, this is what's working, but this is how we can essentially amplify, right? What the founder already created. And coming to 2026, I would love to hear how you've been approaching gear and what you needed to shift in order to help really leverage the growth. And what were some of those things that really caught your attention too about the brand? I think with gear initially, what we fell in love with was that there was really unique product IP. And so you may think, well, how can that be when we're talking about spatulas and flippers?

12:06Suze Dowling:Really, it's like the amount of industrial design that had gone into those products was really incredibly impressive. There was a proprietary and a core. But also importantly for me, I loved that it was using the highest grade of silicone, so pharmaceutical grade silicone i feel like only in more recent years has america in particular become more aware of like black plastics and the power but this was something that we were very aware of years ago and really loved that gear stood for quality and that it was this aesthetically beautiful and delightful the use of color was so fun but again it came back to this highly functional product that brought joy simply in how usable and functional it was and that there was such customer loyalty there you know gear had really started by that founder getting so sick of her spatulas that had two like a head attached to the handle falling off when she was mixing up crazy amounts of dough and whatever else and then she saw that there was yucky gunk inside like the head of the spatula which if you do have a two-piece spatula at home i encourage you to like break it apart and take a look it'll horrify you so she was like there has to be a better way and so So essentially she came up with what's called a unibody core, which means that our spatula is all one piece.

13:25Suze Dowling:There is no separate head and handle. It's all one piece. It's completely seamless. There's no opportunity for any gunk or nasties. And it also makes it pretty much indestructible. I've been in many retail meetings where we've sat there and the buyers sat there trying to break it in half and they have not been able to break it in half. And that's what we wanted. I think when we acquired the brand, there was a lot for us to learn. I think if there's anything I've learned, it's to take your time and to really method act and never be a something. You're looking to find the truth of the brand, not your truth.

14:04Suze Dowling:And I think that that's something where we had to really pick it apart, like little puzzle pieces and say, okay, there's this incredible framework here. How do we make sure that we can just expand this, amplify this messaging, bring it to a larger D2C audience? But also in the case of gear, we're really passionate about omni-channel. This is something where it's funny. I come from such a direct-to-consumer background that everyone expects me to say DTC is the only way. In fact, I'm working on a passion project. It's literally called the DTC operator. But I do think you need to be, again, mindful of your customers and look at your product category and see what makes sense for them.

14:46Suze Dowling:In the case of spatula, honestly, I don't know that many people that first would be like, I'm going to go buy a spatula and only a spatula from a website that specializes in spatulas. That's not like the average. They might be going to a digital marketplace like Amazon because they need a new spatula. Right. Often they're in store. And so we knew that really expanding our retail presence was going to be a key goal there. And we've had some pinch me moments over the years. we managed to work really closely with Trader Joe's. And that was just like such an iconic moment where - That's so cool. I was like, wow, how do we do this?

15:24Suze Dowling:Like for me, I'm like a kid from country Australia originally. I'm like, wow, this is pretty cool. And then with Costco as well. And so I think that that was, you know, important part was expansion. I think the other thing that's really important as you think about expansion strategy is again, meeting your customer where they are and with the context that they have. So our signature line, which is kind of our direct to consumer line, is it's it's very premium. And it's it's something where well designed, you know, for the everyday home cook, we have a lot of professional chefs that actually use that line in their kitchens.

16:00Suze Dowling:And it means that it is, you know, on the more premium end of the range. And something that I personally am really passionate about is creating products that, you know, also are amazing products, but are more accessibly priced. I didn't come up with, you know, any money as a, you know, as a kid, we really, you know, didn't have anything. And so that's been something with gear where we've also created an essentials line, which essentially still uses that same pharmaceutical grade of silicone. It's actually an incredible tool set, still has that unibody framework, still kind of, you know, it has all of the things that make gear special.

16:42Suze Dowling:and we were able to then offer that for a much more cost-effective mass market price, which has also really helped open up that world of retail and Omni. How were you able to decipher between the two? Because it has such a premium quality product, but also creating an essential line, I could see that. It's funny because you can talk about also how does that cannibalize? Right, it could almost compete with each other. In fact, I'll tell you, some of my team who are amazing home cooks actually reach for our essentials line as their preference because it's a little stiffer. And so, you know, I think that there is absolutely, as you think about expanding a line, the risk of cannibalization.

17:29Suze Dowling:I think our perspective was we always think about things from both the customer perspective, but then also you have to really understand your P &L. And that's something that as a founder, even if you come from a more creative background, like I didn't think my life was going to be as involved in spreadsheets as it is, but you need to understand it. And if you are not, if it's not a natural strength, I'd say like Claude and the Claude XL plugin, amazing, will change your life. But we really looked at it as also where can we drive the most contribution margin dollars? And so that was something where by opening this up to a wider audience, even if there was some slight cannibalization of the signature line, we were still going to be able to drive more significant margin dollars.

18:15Suze Dowling:and we were also strategic about kind of the assortment and merchandising so while essentials does have up to 10 pieces you know in the set of the core 10 pieces gear signature has a much wider and more specialized variety of tools to really satisfy a kitchen if you are an avid home chef or baker but if you are a person that might just be cooking to feed yourself or your family on a more everyday basis, you know, the essentials line can be a really perfect fit. Thank you for breaking that down because that's like the real side of building brands and business and scaling and retail. So I really genuinely appreciate you sharing that because that's like the real nuts and bolts of what a founder needs to be thinking about.

19:03Suze Dowling:Yes. Look, I think so often people can make, you know, being a founder either seem so glamorous are so glossy or just like they were an overnight success. And if I have anything to say, it's definitely none of those things or hasn't been for me. But I think it is really understanding the foundations of your business and your customer and hopefully building a business that can last and grow for many years versus being fragile. So two more questions. I could talk to you for hours, but I know I have to let you go. I could talk about this for hours. I love it. You're going to have to find me back.

19:39Yes, please. Hopefully everyone enjoys this. We can do this as a series. So one question, where is gear going? Like, where do you see this brand really expanding?

19:52Suze Dowling:I think that's a great question. I think, like, for now, we've actually really focused only on North America. So I think, A, one day I'd love to see us going global. Right. But I also think, you know, Gear Essentials, which is our more mass focus line, has really only been in market for less than 18 months. And again, I think to be aware of as a founder, right, we've owned this brand for over five years. We didn't rush to immediately, you know, evolve. Again, take your time, do things thoughtfully, do things well and really focus on impact and don't try and do 10 things at once. And so I think your essentials, you know, I'm really excited by the reception that it's had.

20:37Suze Dowling:I'm really excited by some of the scaling and retail that it's already had. But I also see so much room for opportunity there. And I also will say, look, we love product development. I love to nerd out on product development. It's the favorite part of my day. And so, you know, hopefully continuing to develop more incredible products that, you know, have really great resonance. You know, one of our more recent products was an amazing quad chopper, which essentially is like a little kind of modern day masher, but it's great. It's all 100 % silicone. And so we're always trying to think, again, how do we get multi-use items for our customers?

21:18Suze Dowling:So good. So good. And then last question is what piece of advice would you share with someone who really has those early ideas and they are excited about this product idea that keeps coming back to them, but they're not quite sure what maybe is the most important aspect to focus on or what does that really look like to turn that into a brand that you could see at these incredible retailers like you mentioned? Any last piece of advice you would share with them? I think there's a couple of just nuances I'd say there. One is your product is key. So like this is something where you can't buy your way to product market fit.

22:01Suze Dowling:You cannot market your way to product market fit because if your product is not meeting a true consumer need, there is not going to be the resonance there and the repeat purchase there, which is mission critical, especially in a direct to consumer environment. So I think really know that your product is solving a need. And I think linking directly to that, understand your customer and don't wait too long to get your customer insights. There are ways of getting feedback from people well before pre-launch. I think so often founders hold something so close to their chest because it's not quite perfect or it's not quite ready.

22:41Suze Dowling:That's the single worst thing that you can do. And I say that as someone that did that in my first brand. And that was actually, that brand ended up failing and didn't work. And we then took those learnings and, you know, revised that to, you know, then come out kind of with a V2. So I think the kind of product itself, the customer insight, and then the reality is, especially if you're a bootstrapped brand, but even in the world of VC-backed brands, that the fundamentals and the economics need to work. And so this is something where before you ever manufacture something, you need to really understand what is your fully loaded gross margin.

23:21Suze Dowling:So what is it going to cost you to deliver this to a customer? And what money do you then have left over? and so again I think this is something where I'd say on average if you can be at least greater than a 67 % gross margin delivered to the customer that will give you enough room to spend on marketing and scale or to sell in retail at scale because again retail requires you know 50 to 60 % margin so it is a numbers game as well as a creativity game and then the last thing is just be prepared for journey. This is going to be something where you cannot be so attached to hold on to something that no longer serves you.

24:04Suze Dowling:I always say to the team, we are so much smarter today than we were yesterday, than we were a week ago, than a month ago. How lucky are we? But to honor that, we have to then change the actions that we're taking based on the information we have today. And so I think one of the things I've seen with founders is they will hang too long onto an idea, then maybe the customer saying, hey, this isn't the right idea. All the economics don't do that. Learn from the mistakes that I made and really be prepared to pivot because that's how you're going to be able to be agile enough to create something that can have impact and have that lasting impact.

24:46So well said. Thank you so much for breaking that all down. I'm literally going to send this to all my clients. That was perfect. I'd be like, listen to Suze. She knows what it's up.

24:58Suze Dowling:I'm so passionate about this. You are. I could tell. And you're really speaking truth and breaking it down to the really important things to focus on. Because it can get really glossy and shiny and social and all the things. It so can. These are the true pillars. I'm like, hopefully, I don't know whether it'll be out by the time the episode airs, but I've been working nights and weekends for over two years on a passion project called the D2C Operator, where basically I'm writing down playbooks and templates and all the things that I wish someone had handed to me up front, because I feel like there's so much founder education out there, but so often it's so glossy or high level.