Erin Deering Started One of the Most Hype Brands of the 2010s, Triangl

0:01Hey everyone, it's Jasmine. Welcome back to the Female Founder World Podcast. my guest on the show today is Erin Dearing. She's the co-founder of a swimwear brand called Triangle, and she became one of only eight women on the BRW Young Rich List just three years after she started the company. Reports pinned her net worth at the time somewhere around$36 million. And she just started the business in the most accidental, wild way. She was on a date with this guy. It was their second date. They were going to the beach, and she could not find a bikini that she wanted to wear. And so he said, hey, let's start a swimwear company together.

0:39So how does someone go from that situation and working a job in retail to running one of the most hype swimwear brands in the world? And what are the steps to get there? And then what happens when you eventually leave that brand and that relationship? What happens to your sense of self? In this interview, I sat down with Erin and we talk about the absolute cult hit that is Triangle and all of the lessons she wants you and other female founders and brand builders to know today. If you enjoy the show, don't forget to tell someone. The number one rule around here is no gatekeeping. So share this with a friend, share it on your Instagram stories and tag at Female Founder World.

1:20Okay, let's get into the chat. You are now entering Female Founder World with your host, Jasmine Garnsworthy. Erin, welcome to the show. Hi, Jasmine. I'm so excited to actually finally be on and in person. Yeah, I feel like this has been a long time coming. We've been in each other's DMs since like before the podcast started. And I saw that you were in New York and I was like, we have to do this in person. I want to actually meet you and do this face to face. I know. I know. Well, thank you. And I know that you, I mean, you've just had a little baby. So I mean, yeah, it's a wild time leaving the house.

1:54And I was messaging you before the show, but like leaving the house without him, he's 11 weeks now. And I feel like I'm missing a limb. Like it feels like I've forgotten something. And that must just be like a biological thing. You know what I mean? You feel like someone's going to tap you on the shoulder and be like, ma 'am, you left your baby. Yes. Like, oh, yeah. I'm on the subway and I'm like, oh, no, I've only got one bag. Like, yeah, you're like, oh, shit, I left the nappies at home. And then you're like, no. No, I don't need them. I don't need them. Yeah. I know. And even like setting a time to meet people is hard because like you don't know like they're going to have a poo explosion before you leave or like they're going to be hungry even though you just fed them.

2:31I know and he's like taking I mean god sorry everyone listening I'm on a tangent everyone's so sick of like listening to me talk about my baby. Not the mums though we're like yeah I am I am breastfeeding and he's still feeding every three hours and he's taken a bottle a couple of times but it's pretty hit and miss. Yeah like sometimes he just doesn't want it and so I've left it with my husband just hoping he doesn't starve you know. Yeah, yeah, he wore it. No, I used to get the message from Craig, especially with Oscar, because I breastfed him for two years and no bottle. He didn't take a bottle.

2:58And so, like, I'd be out and I'd be rushing around trying to do my things and I'd get that inevitable text from Craig going, I think Oscar's hungry. And I knew that that meant that he was screaming his head off. But, like, Craig's trying to let me just have my time. He's trying to let me just have my little moment. And I'm like, okay. And then you start to get the sweats and you're like, I've got to get home right now. And they're fine. The babies are fine. Of course they're fine. but it is such a biological thing okay anyway let's talk about business that's what we're here to talk about this is a different podcast we could talk about that all day I know truly um okay triangle yeah so yeah I often before we do these podcasts I'll jump into our online female founder world community I'll be like hey I'm interviewing Miss Founder do you guys have any questions for her what do you want me to talk about and when I said I was talking to you people were really really excited.

3:46And there was one, one person jumped in there. She was like, oh my God, the chokehold that Triangle had on me in college. That seems to be a common thing here in the States more so. I think because I was like living in Bondi when Triangle came out, for some reason, I don't think I realized the global nature of what you had built and the cult following behind this brand. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we were in, we were in Hong Kong and then in Monaco. So we were even further removed from anything like that like we had no idea and then we'd come to the states we'd come to new york and so like no one we had no idea and so we were getting that information from australia saying you guys are actually really and we're seeing the sales come through so you were popular but to know that it was more like a movement yeah than just selling bikinis that was the thing that i think only we realized almost like after the fact a little more because we were in it so when you're in it you can't really like see through it we're going to talk about all of that and how to build that cult following and the branding, all of those pieces.

4:42But I, the first thing I want to talk about, I've heard you call yourself an accidental entrepreneur. Like what is that? So I was like, had this realization only a couple of weeks ago, really, because Craig and I started the business together and he was 10 years older. He'd had a business. He'd had, I was 27. So my experience in the workplace was pretty limited. I kind of was like, I'm just going to get in and I'm going to get promoted. I'm going to climb the ladder that way. So then when Craig suggested we start a business on that kind of second date, I was like, why not? Like that sounds fine and easy and people do it all the time.

5:16They've been on a date like that. Yeah, it was a really insane second date. It was like, oh, okay. And yeah, and so I kind of got thrown into it. He knew what to do. So he took me along and I learned everything. So I started off as this girl that just had a job and ended up as the founder, co-founder of this global business accidentally in a way because I always I feel like if I hadn't met Craig and gone through that process I would have eventually got there because I had that ambition and I would have seen other people doing it and going I want that too but because I wasn't there yet I was just literally thrown in and I was like had to learn everything really really fast and work everything out and we were in Hong Kong on our own and it was online which is still a new kind of space and it was just and then Instagram which had never been for businesses before so it was a lot of accidental like, you know, errors and mistakes and learning.

6:05And then now I have all these experiences, but I still was never someone in the start that would actually say, oh, I'm an entrepreneur or I'm very entrepreneurial. It was not. It was not in my – it was not in my resume. I know that the business took off fast. I remember just kind of – it didn't exist and then all of a sudden everyone on Bondi Beach was wearing the neoprene bikinis. Yeah, the neoprene black binding. Yes. Yep, I had them. How fast? Like talk me through what life was like for you then. Yeah, so we launched our first, like we started in, well, actually we started the idea of the business at the end of 2011.

6:40And then obviously, you know, once you have an idea, it takes a very long time usually to, and we felt like we were working really quickly, but we didn't actually move to Hong Kong to sort of think we were going to start the business till mid 2012. Then we didn't, and then we had a few months off because we were trying to sort of assimilate into Hong Kong, I guess, and we're a bit like, oh, there's a lot going on here. And then we had our first sale online in 2013. So we launched the website, we had our first sale and we kind of went from there. So in that respect, you know, cause I actually am writing a book, which I just finished, which has been, thank you, which is one of those things.

7:18I'm an accidental author. I was like, this can't be that hard. Oh my God. It's like, I've written 65 ,000 words. It's a whole book, every word it's been but it's been a real journey you wrote it yourself a lot of founders end up getting a gross driver no I was really well actually my publisher because I I I think along the line somewhere along the lines I said I actually love writing and I used to be quite good at it because I did and so she took that as oh you can write the book then I was like sure so I've written it all myself every word um but during that I've been able to relive that timeline and realized that we actually, so we, it was January, 2013.

7:55We were, you know, it was sort of in like even June, July that year that we were actually getting pretty good traction. We weren't going, you know, we didn't have any of that, that crazy success started probably a year after that, but we were very steadily growing already at that point. Sort of, you know, we launched with, you get one or two sales a week, you know, and we're like, well, that's good. We always saw growth. I think that's a really important thing is that even if it really was tiny, tiny growth, we always were growing. Like it would be one or two a week, two, three or four a week to maybe when someone posted on Instagram, we got like two sales off the back of that because it was for those styles and you just saw things working, but very slowly because it was, you know, every week felt like a one extra sale or two extra sales.

8:41So, but that was about six months of that. And then then it kind of started to kick into gear like we were here in New York in September 2013 paying for our own trip to come here as a holiday with a few friends which was kind of a really big step for us but we were able to go I mean we still worked every day yeah but we were able to go we're actually doing well enough here to do something for ourselves but that was sort of you know nine months of insanely and we almost didn't go on that trip too because we had something happen with factory and we were like maybe we shouldn't go and it's so cool to hear you talk about those first six months I think a lot of people you know they get started and they kind of expect they're going to have this big launch yeah and it can be really disheartening if you're like oh like three sales yeah no or oh I've only done five more sales than last week and then you kind of see you see the success stories of other founders at the finish line and hearing that for a business like Triangle that's what the start sounded like.

9:40I think it's very like reassuring. Yeah. I mean, we, when you zoom out, it looks like an overnight success because you go in three years, we were, you know, we had 3 million followers from sort of 500. And so when you zoom out, you're like, oh my God. And it is impressive. But when you zoom in, it really was very slow growth at the start, but growth is growth. And I feel like when you have that growth, no matter what it is, as long as you are getting that, even if sometimes you go up and then back a little and then up again, it's still growth. and it still means that you're doing something and to just like be super hyper aware of that.

10:13But it's true. Everyone wants a big launch. And the thing is as well is if you get a big launch, that's not going to necessarily mean that it's going to be continued growth. Like sometimes a big launch can actually be a real false economy and you might have done this great launch plan. And then afterwards you're like, well, what do I do now? Because everyone's already burnt out. You put your best stuff out there and you have no plan after launch. I reckon that's more risky than launching small and like it's safer to launch small because you can test things out that way and you don't have all these eyes on you, you know.

10:42What do you think happened at six months that really flipped the switch and turned things up? It wasn't like it wasn't anything, you know, because we had obviously the Kendall Jenner story, but that was a year later. That was 2014. Okay, tell me about the Kendall Jenner story. Okay, so we actually went a little viral on TikTok, which is hilarious because I'm not really on TikTok and people were like, you're going viral. and I'm like I think everyone goes viral there at some point. I don't think it means anything. But I was on a podcast and I told this story. So we were really big on gifting and that was our big strategy on Instagram.

11:13We were really fortunate to ride the Instagram wave. They were realising as their own company that they could utilise their platform with businesses. They could sort of, you know, help brands grow. So we kind of rode off that because we were like this is like amazing and, you know, like why not and rode that wave. So that kind of, that was sort of the initial growth. And then what happened with Kendall is it was sort of like it would have been early months of 2014 and we were just picking big people to give to. We had a bit of traction. So we were starting to look at, you know, bigger names, bigger models, bigger influencers, bigger anyone.

11:51And we were like, who's the biggest sort of influencer in the world? And it was any of the Kardashians. But we honed it on Kendall because she was just more our vibe. So we were very big at Triangle. Even though we were seeking out big people and big followings, we still wanted girls that were aligned with us. And Kendall was always in bikinis. She was young. She was like 16 back then. And she was always in bikinis, being sporty, being active, had a real Aussie vibe for an American girl. And so we were like – and she was like a Triangle girl. Like she was, you know, lean and athletic. And the Kardashian, they had like the big boobs and big bums.

12:25And that wasn't – we weren't familiar with that space yet. And our bikinis, neoprene doesn't have that much give, so it wasn't going to suit that body type as much anyway. So we were like, she's the one, she's the one. So we knew we couldn't just reach out to her because we didn't have an email. We didn't want to go through any agent or anyone because then you have to pay. So we were like, let's gift all of her friends instead. And we were already doing this strategy a bit because, and it wasn't, we were gifting groups of friends, but we weren't leaving anyone out. This was the first time we gifted a group of friends and left one of them out on purpose.

12:58and so we left Kendall out hoping just like a crazy place. We always had so many crazy plans like this that most didn't eventuate but this one we were like, okay, let's gift. There's like five, you know, and we went through and we found the friends. Who are her besties that are going to give her FOMO? Exactly. And you know what? Two of them are actually women that we know very well now, Hayley Bieber back then, Hayley Baldwin and Bella Hadid but they were just like little Cali girls back then. They were not who they are now. So we were already gifting them. They were already triangle girls. And if you go way, way, way back, you'll see photos of both of them pre any fame on our page.

13:37And so we gifted them and there were a few other girls. Anyway, so that all happened and I don't even, can't even remember how long. It would have been maybe a week, a couple of weeks because obviously they get the bikinis and they probably all wore them together or whatever and they're like, you know, at the pool. I'm picturing them like, yeah, literally by a pool in Malibu somewhere. Yeah, and Kendall's like, what are these? and they would have always been like, we got these gifts. And she's thinking, well, I'm actually famous here. Why am I not getting one? And you know what? It wasn't that we were – it really was also that we just couldn't get to her anyway.

14:08Like we couldn't comment on her Instagram because DMs weren't around them. We couldn't comment. Like everyone was. She was famous. So there was no way to even get them to her. So it was – even though it was sneaky, it was actually genuinely the truth. Anyway, so I woke up one morning and as usual I woke up in bed in Hong Kong and I pulled the laptop onto my lap and I had an email from Kendall or from an email address that was like Kenny Killer. I can't remember what it was. It was a Gmail and I just knew straight away it was her because it was just one of those like random emails. And it said like, hey, I can't find the email, which hurts my whole soul.

14:50I've lost it. And it was like, hey, like a lot of my friends have these bikinis. They're so cool. am I able to get some too? And it was like, oh my God, that worked. Oh my God. And I swear to God, that was our launch into the States really, because she tweeted, she didn't even put it on Instagram. She put it on her Twitter, which I think she linked to her Instagram and she had 5 million followers on her Twitter and however many on Instagram. And that was really, that was enough because it was already on these other girls too. So it wasn't like it was nowhere, but it was like all these little, little tiny little bits of social proof.

15:24And then the big fish and everyone was like, okay, this is a brand we need to be wearing because everyone's wearing it. So once you have a moment like that and it's going to catapult you into the next level, what do you do to continue building that momentum? Like I remember seeing you guys in, I mean, I was a fashion editor then. I wrote about Triangle all the time. So I saw a lot of press. What were you doing to kind of keep that momentum going? Yeah. So it was still gifting. That was the main, main strategy. We weren't using really, we kind of dabbled with a bit of PR only really in the states we had we sort of would like tap into an agency and then tap out because it was like like not really like it was hard to see the results we were getting such good return on instagram so we were like couldn't see that when we're paying these retainers and couldn't see the returns we were doing a bit of that but mainly it was gifting mainly it was you know we were still even when try when it when it like flipped and when we went from being this brand that reached out to everyone and when it flipped to everyone reaching out to us we were still gifting like we were still pushing that sentiment of building this triangle girls community and giving these girls bikinis so like we would be gifting and we were still gifting micro influences even when we were quite a well-known business and they would they would probably already have bought triangle and then they were suddenly getting that they got like the golden email or the golden dm or the golden comment being like hey it's erin from triangle or by then we'd hired a few people you know hey it's triangle we'd love to send you a pair and so it turned from actually even being gifting these girls that didn't know us to almost just like are you lucky enough to have gotten a free bikini so it kind of went from gifting to to like or went from this strategy to just gifting like it was like and these girls were like oh my god I've been like acknowledged by the holy grail that is triangle and that was so we just kept doing that and I don't know because I exited five years ago we were still doing gifting up until like up until like at the time I left and we had this fully global, very steady business.

17:20We never stopped the gifting during my time there because that sentiment always, I wanted to continue that because it was like, it was kind of like a very small version of like the golden ticket. It was like, I got one. I'm a triangle girl. Because it meant if you got that offer, you were a triangle girl. When you think about the growth of the business and all of the traction that you got and I can see how much work that you put in there. Yeah. But it's an amazing success story. Yes. How much of it do you think is magic and fairy dust and just triangle with something really special? And how much do you think is replicable for people now?

17:55Yeah, look, I do think about this a lot. I think definitely, you know, luck, timing, magic is part of it. And it was just one of those things. Everything worked for us in that time. You know, we Instagram and the fact that gifting wasn't really ever done. Everyone thought that you had to like ask for something in return. And so we did all these things, you know, online was still kind of new and it was still a bit like I can buy like from my laptop on my bed so like everything was that that's very hard to replicate those things today but things that I still think are replicable are like the customer-centric behavior and the persistence of different ideas and knowing that a lot of them won't work and just testing things just testing things small you know that was Craig's really big thing was like small tests all the time to just see what people liked and even a lot of that was just for our own understanding of like different of like what people didn't want or what like we weren't going to do in terms of colors or fabrics or whatever it was but really for me the thing that I think is is that people lose so easily that can be so like easily brought back in is customer-centric behavior and Triangle was really built around that like I always viewed the customer as number one and everything I did was with them in so like any even the gifting that's why I didn't want to just go for the big fish all the time because I wanted every girl to feel like it's just a matter of time before she might get that email and have that feeling of like, oh, yay.

19:22And it wasn't just like we were picking girls that were pretty. Like it was like just girls that looked like they were enjoying themselves on social media. And so we wanted to acknowledge that and be like thanks for this, like for sharing the way that you do it. It's really nice and aligned with us. Here's a bikini. So that was always customer-centric thought process. And everything we did had that in the forefront of my mind, which I think so many brands don't do because they get lost in everything else they're trying to do. But if you really, really step into that and think about that from that place of thinking what the customer wants and how they want it and blah, blah, blah, that's something that I think is really replicable that will result in perhaps like slower success.

20:01But I really do think it ends up because you can't go wrong if you're always listening to what they want. Yeah. I love what you're saying there about testing and learning and just trying new things because there is something about I just I feel like a lot of people that we talk to in the community sometimes can get quite disheartened they're like I missed the Instagram boat now I feel like I've missed the TikTok boat like I haven't been quick enough to get on these platforms and I challenge that with okay well what's the next thing because there is always something else that's out there that yeah like there is something that people haven't discovered yet that's going to work and you need to be the one who's testing and trying it and experimenting to be the one that's the first riding that wave.

20:39You know what I mean? It's not just luck that people end up on these platforms. There's something else behind it. There's something else. And I think a lot of it is grit and determination and facing failure and walking through it to the other side, you know, because like that's the truth of it. Like most people are like, I am scared to try this because it might not work. So they don't try it. So they don't know if it's not going to work and they didn't learn a lesson from it not working so it's like that's I think the difference between successful businesses and successful people are not so successful is that like just just like doing it you know I love this like idea of the founder who doesn't have an MBA and doesn't have a business background yeah and who gets thrown in the deep end and learns on the job and makes a real go of it and that's exactly what you did I love this idea of you just like building this multi-million dollar company after you you've been working retail before and lessons from that yeah how were you I guess like up leveling as a you know your business skills as you were doing that but also like that mindset around being somebody who felt comfortable leading a business of that size is it just something you you learn on the job and it's slowly growing and off you go you feel comfortable or is there something more like concrete there no no like we were it was like comical when we became really successful and we would be having these big meetings with these big agencies and you know we were looking at partnering up with Saatchi and Saatchi and we I was in their New York office and in a boardroom with like 10 people that were like at me and I'm like I'm that at you like I'm that at being here like you never feel I feel like if we ever felt like we'd arrived and that we were meant to be there then it would have lost its gloss like it was like that was the beauty of it and I think that's the appeal of of when you kind of think of triangle because it's these two people going like what are we doing here like how did we get because it was we just neither of us had studied and and you know Craig had experience in business and fashion before by having a business that he'd gone bankrupt with you know and I hadn't had nothing so you know we never felt like we'd arrived or that we were meant to be here or you know at all and and it was a lot of almost I think even for me in a slightly more negative way it was a lot of imposter syndrome because I didn't have that worth in myself so I was like just waiting to be caught out and I felt very uncomfortable often sitting at those tables and in those boardrooms and having these discussions with big because you know people wanted to buy triangle all the time like we like private equity were just at us like big big companies being like can we get in can we get in can we buy can we buy And so we would have these meetings and just sit there and they would just be gobsmacked at what we did basically at just being Craig and I.

23:27They're like, so what's your team? And we're like, well, it's Craig and it's me. And we had a designer, Chantel, who was with us and we had a little supply chain in Hong Kong. But like we didn't have any, you know, marketing, social media, PR, like no like, you know, no big infrastructure at all. And in fact, that became a deterrent for a lot of them because they're like, we're going to have to do a lot here because it was all here. Craig and I just had everything up here, you know, every system, every process, everything was like, if someone didn't know what to do in terms of anyone in like our team at all, it would be like, I'd have to call like us to ask because it was all stored here.

24:02So how do you get over that, like imposter syndrome then? I think that for a lot of businesses, they kind of, I do, I do think that as I'm watching and I see a lot of businesses grow as like the founder themselves and like unlocking like the next level within themselves. But it sounds like Triangle was just a runaway train. Like that was happening and you had to up-level with it. Yeah. So like if I had my time again and what I do suggest for anyone that's a founder to do is to do that self-development work separately to the business. So like actually work on yourself, like see a therapist, do spiritual work, do some inner trauma healing, whatever it is.

24:39It sounds woo-woo but it's a thing. It's so important because I didn't do it before Triangle And then we just had this experience that I would have had no time to do any self-development work at all. Like I had to pick one or the other because we were just that busy. And so I put my entire identity and purpose into Triangle, which really destroyed me as a person, but was important to the success of the business. So I'm happy it all happened. It also gave me a lot of learnings to be where I am now where like if you are a founder, because it's so lonely being a founder, it's so isolating. You feel every day like every issue is going to be the thing that kills your business.

25:13You're like, oh, well, today's the day it ends. Like, you know, today's the day my business is over. If you had that level of like calmness and understanding that, you know, not only to know that that's actually not the reality, but to also know that if it did mean it was the end of your business and that's actually okay too, you know, that level of inner, like it's like, you know, just inner knowing or any self-development work, that is like you have to do that if you have a business. Like you have to start to do that work on yourself. It's so, so important. So you ended up leaving the business in 2018.

25:47Yeah. And so you're just talking then about your identity and purpose and all that being wrapped up in it. I have found, you know, this isn't about me, but I found myself, I had a beauty business and it didn't work and I closed it. And I found closing that business and leaving it, and obviously like very different circumstances to you, you had a huge win. But I found that identity shift honestly like more distressing than I found having a baby. Oh, yeah. That was way more of a shift for me than having a baby. How did you handle leaving the business and then like unraveling yourself from that sense of self?

26:23Oh, it took a really long time and it was the worst. Like I really struggled during Triangle's successful years because of that imposter syndrome. You know, everyone thinking I had this dream life, but I had like a lot of mental health issues, which you know what, everyone has their own mental health issues. I just had this unique experience where because everything looked like it was perfect from the outside I had such shame that I wasn't feeling great so I had that through the whole triangle experience and then I naively thought that leaving triangle would heal that because I was like well now I can just huh and you know and I left triangle and it was the worst feeling ever and I had a whole year of I exited and I stayed in Monaco because that's where we were living at the time and Craig and I had separated romantically sort of a few months prior to exiting the business as well.

27:13Obviously that was the catalyst for it and that was all fine and amicable but it was like as soon as I left Triangle I remember so clearly when I finally said I wanted out and I just want to cut ties and I don't want to have anything to do with it and I was like thinking I was going to feel so free and I was like this is the moment where I'm going to feel like myself again. Yes. And I was like oh, I feel really bad still and got worse, you know, because I'd lost everything that I'd thought was my identity and I was also very reluctant to let go of Triangle, especially when I moved back to Australia a year after that.

27:48And in Australia everyone was like, yeah, like, oh, you're so like, oh, Triangle. And my ego was like, hang on to this, you have to hang on to this because if you don't have this, you're going to be nothing and people are going to be like, who, like, what are you, Like you're just back here. You're no one. And so I had so much just inner shame and all this just chaos in my mind of no identity. You know, I had two children. I was like maybe I'm just a mum. Maybe I'm just going to be a mother. And, like, I'm so ambitious that I knew that wasn't for me anyway. And it was just I didn't know what to do.

28:27And everyone's like start, like, you know, like start a new business, like write a book, start a podcast, like all these things. and I was like I don't I just want to like like start my own engine to be me again like I just had no nothing it was really it was such a terrible terrible time it was just like a numb it's hard to even put into words it was just like a really numb yeah I've been following you on Instagram for a while and I've noticed in the last I don't even know how long I'm in such a time means nothing yeah I know it's like maybe the last six months yeah but you've definitely like something's shifted and you've stepped into I feel like a sense of a sense of self as somebody who built something amazing and you're moving into a new kind of phase of life you're showing up much more like publicly yeah you've launched a podcast you're writing a book yeah what shifted and how did you get there yeah like it was kind of like a like a lot of things like I feel I mean I did a lot of self-development work and so what happened when I did that as well is that I did that pretty much as soon as I got back to Australia and I launched into this big healing journey.

29:30But what I did during that process was I was so desperate to get back to my real self that I abandoned, I was trying to abandon triangle Erin. And so I kind of did that for a really long time and I was like so dismissive and I just want to leave that chapter behind and that's another life and I refer to it as my past life even, which is fine. But what I realized recently in the last six months to a year is that that's actually I am still that. I am all those things. And once I realized that, you know, what we did was incredible and amazing and special and like I have to honor that and own that because that actually was me.