I Built Betches Without Investors, Then Sold It for Millions

0:04Hey, business besties. Welcome back to Female Founder World. It's Jasmine. I'm the host of the media brand for women. We started in 2011. I started it with my two childhood friends in college, never meant to be a business and grew it, bootstrapped it and exited in 2023. Wow. Seven multi seven figures. Wow. Yeah. So I'm still the CEO and scaling the business today. Okay. All of these things, like it's so impressive. And there are so many things I want to cover with you. I want to talk about the early days of building a brand, getting traction. I want to talk about the state of building in the media space right now and your advice for getting attention and creating content online.

1:00Let's do it. We're going to talk about hiring. We're going to talk about bootstrapping and what happens after an acquisition. So these are all things we're going to cover. But let's start back in 2011. You started as a website, right? Yeah, a blog. Okay, a blog. Yeah. Back in the day. Yeah, it was a blog. Post after post after post. Just one a day. How did you get started? Boy, it was 2011. So we were in college. We were seniors in college. Me and my two co-founders, Jordan and Sammy, at the time, they were just my friends. And we were actually friends since we were 10 years old. We went to elementary school together.

1:34Like Sammy and I were on the bus together. Jordan and I are both our moms are OBGYNs and they introduced us at our fifth grade graduation. And we at the time, there was like a really strong bro culture that existed for men, especially in college. And for women at the time, the Internet culture was really all about how can you be perfect for your man? And it was all about being perfect. Paired with the three of us were in a sorority and everything we were hearing was also like, look cute for these frat parties. And the three of us were like, no, like absolutely not. It was like the antithesis of everything we believed in.

2:14And but at the same time on TV, we saw Chelsea Handler. She was just so unapologetic. She was so funny. She was just speaking her mind. Amy Poehler and Tina Fey writing Mean Girls. That was like our Bible. We loved it. And then we just there's many killings and there was just so many women who were comedians or who were almost speaking their truth via humor. And that's what we related to. And we were like, that doesn't exist online. Let's start a blog, make fun of ourselves and our friends. Let's talk about how flawed we are. Almost kind of like bros do. It's like a glorified culture. Let's do that for women.

2:52Let's call it betches. And let's not tell anybody that it's us. And so we launched this blog totally as like a hobby. We were all creative. We were writing like a TV show also at the same time for just fun. I wanted to be a doctor at the time I was pre-med. I studied pre-med. I graduated pre-med. Did not become a doctor. But it just went viral. Like it went viral on Facebook. People sharing it wall to wall. Like really because, like I said, it was anonymous. So I saw like one girl tagging her friend being like, is this you? How do you know me so well? This is the funniest thing I've ever read.

3:27And at that time I was like, what? Like, I've never been to North Carolina. Why does this person think that I know them so well? And it just kind of became this phenomenon at that time. And it was funny because we were like, I'm not going to tell anybody that it's us because we want jobs. and and I we try to understand like really why was it so popular and what I now understand is that we were really describing what it was to be a woman at that time a young girl and not in a way that was condescending like we weren't telling anybody how to be it was like this is how we are and let's make fun of ourselves you 100 are just so um clever at making women feel seen for how they are exactly what you just said.

4:13Thank you. It's so amazing to see the through line of where you started and where you are today. And even though the business is so much bigger, you have a hundred employees, you've exited all of these things. It's like that kernel, that essence is still exactly what the brand does now, but just amplified. Yeah, absolutely. That is my why. That's why I get up every day. It's to make women laugh and to feel a little less alone. And that's what we're all trying to do right like we're always everybody's in this pursuit of happiness pursuit of joy like what brings more joy than laughter even in the darkest of times humor is the medicine for that and then also aren't we all trying to be a little bit less lonely so like isn't it nice to feel seen online when somebody just kind of gets you and then you can then share it with a friend so that's that's my why that's why I get up and some of the other milestones that you didn't mention, Betches reaches 250 million plus people, which is incredible.

5:07And your engagement is 15 times higher than your competitors. Yeah, that's pretty fun. That's pretty amazing. Yeah. So you were anonymous in 2011. It wasn't until 2013 when you released a book that people found out who you were. The thought now of building a media brand and being anonymous, just with all of these like being a founder cancellations and like everyone's on TikTok and you have to build in public and it just would be so nice. I would love to be invisible behind this brand, but it's impossible now. Yeah, it's impossible. Even I, like I am a private person. I like to kind of just, I'd rather build privately, but I also see the benefits of, you know, founder marketing, founder led marketing and all of that.

5:47So. And here you are. And here I am, you know, it's also like, it is uncomfortable for me personally. Like I am not a public speaker, But I've learned that and I like learn to flex that muscle over time. And it's tough. I agree with you. And you, as well as being the co-founder and the CEO and leading this business and this team, you also are on a podcast as well. You're also like creating media products. How do you switch that hat? I've been doing it for a long time, to be honest. So like the trajectory of the business was, okay, so we launched this book. It's a New York Times bestseller. We've written two books since then, also bestsellers.

6:26In the meantime, we launched an e-com business to diversify our revenue from advertising. And we launched our first podcast. And that was really early on in 2015, maybe the end of 2015. And so I've been learning how to podcast since then. And that's 10 years. Oh my God, that's 10 years. And so I've learned how to switch for that long. It just takes practice. And now I'll go from like a finance meeting directly into a podcast recording where I'm talking about like Hailey Bieber. And then I'll just switch it back. It's tough. I think earlier on I was doing podcasts that were a lot more personal about my life.

7:10One was called Diet Starts Tomorrow. I did that for four years. That was like insanely popular. Talk about building a community. There were people, our fans, go DSTers. They would go on vacation together because they found each other through the show because I was just sharing really vulnerably and very openly. And I would say switching from that was way harder because you, I, you would call it like a vulnerability hangover where you just feel like, Oh my God, what did I just say? Who did I just let in? And as a private person, that's hard. I'm shy and it was tough, but now I've kind of pivoted away from that because I found I'm not that I couldn't show up to be the CEO that I needed to be while also feeling that way.

7:54So I've pivoted to being a little bit more, doing a little bit more surface level content, like pop culture and friendships with my two co-founders. So that's our at Batches podcast, so that I can go from like finance to podcast, Daily Beaver to ops or growth. And so that's been a really intentional switch for you. Definitely. Yeah, definitely. I think about this a lot about exactly what you said, Like who are you going to let into this really personal stuff in your life? And what is the trade-off for being like participating in the vulnerability Olympics? That is the internet in order to grow your company.

8:31And it is, it's a vulnerability Olympics. It's like who can be the rawest and share the most on the internet and have the most, like the biggest reaction and the trade-off for doing that about like how that feels, even if the response is positive, like the, like the, the rawness that that takes and sharing from this point of, uh, and this is like an old boss of mine used to say this. I've worked in media for a long time. And she used to say like, you should, you should share from a scar, not a wound. And this idea of like sharing in the moment of when you're going through something is really like quite dangerous.

9:04And actually once you have a bit more like perspective to be able to share about something and offer some more insights, like that's when you should share, but no one does that. no no one does that and I definitely didn't do that when I was doing the DST podcast but I did grow from it personally like I really learned from it so much so that I felt the confidence to step away from it and that was really nice growing opportunity but no I 100 % agree with you and I love that phrase sharing from a scar the thing also that I would say is when you're sharing and being vulnerable online is that once you go there your audience expects it yes so you have to be willing to then show up consistently like that.

9:44And that's a commitment. Sure, you can pivot, but then you might lose that audience. You have to be willing to do that. I would say, I don't think you need to be like so raw to grow a community. And to connect with people as well. Exactly. I think you have so much to offer and it's really finding what do you feel like is sustainable for you to talk about for, call it five years. I may not be able to talk about this forever, but I can talk about this for five years. And also I don't see, I don't see many male CEOs talking about infertility on the internet, you know? And a lot of infertility is because of, you know, is because of men, but they're not talking about it on the internet.

10:27Good thing, whether that's good or bad. No, you're right. You're right. But women are expected to. It's an interesting one. Okay. So 2013, you launched the book. That's really the first time you made money from the business, right? Yeah. Yes. I wouldn't say, yeah, we got an advance, small advance share between the three of us. And that was the first time we made any money. And that was the first time my parents were like, okay, you can, I was living at home for two years. Again, like I was planning to go to medical school, so I didn't have any money. And I was planning to spend, like go into debt after that to go to medical school.

11:01So I didn't have any money. So I asked my parents if I could just like live at home while I build this business. They were like, okay but if you're going to live in the city you have to make your own money and then pay for that apartment so of course I listened I don't you know my parents are smart thankfully I listened and yeah that was kind of the first time I was able to afford this apartment I was like one of those fridges that were under the counter and many many floors of walk upstairs I've had one of those yeah we all we all do we've got a pretty big gap to bridge now between getting acquired in 2023 and where you started the business.

11:37And there's all of this growth, hiring, scaling that needs to happen in that stage. And I think a lot of the business bestie community who are listening to the show are in that stage now, and they're trying to figure that out. And I want to learn a little bit more about what you did, like what some of those steps were that you took to help get to the point where this business could be acquired. Okay, great question. I do want to say that I wasn't looking to scale at that time. That's what I'm kind of trying to do now. I was really just trying to grow a sustainable business that made profit and a brand that could create legacy.

12:12That was what I was focused on because, again, it took me like now 14 years and I was acquired a year and a half ago. Yeah. So I and I wasn't making like crazy amounts of revenue those few years. There was considerable growth towards like the back half of that, but I would not call it scaling because I still only have about 100 employees. Like, so I was really focused on that growth. What I was also really conscious of growing is that I didn't want to create a brand that was centered around myself and my co-founders. Like that was a very conscious decision because we wanted it to live on its own.

12:56And we knew that, or at least I knew that for it to sell at some point, for it to be valuable, it needs to live without us. Otherwise, it's a talent-based business. And even when we were acquired, we were considered a talent-based business because we were kind of the heart of the brand. But I've done considerable amount of work to extend and expand the IP beyond just the batch's IP through our shows and the various temples that we have so that it can live outside of just us as founders. And I think that I've done a pretty decent job of that since, but I'm still trying to grow that. And I think a lot has to do with defining what the company is.

13:36So for me, the company was an entertainment brand. I wasn't trying to be a publisher. sure I wasn't trying to compete with Cosmo or do anything like that. Just wanted to create an entertainment brand that's rooted in how can I make, like I said, how can I make people laugh and feel seen or less alone? And that's what I was growing from. What can I build that can A, sustain without me and B, live beyond me, right? So for example, I always thought if Instagram disappeared, would people go stand in line for Betches on Broadway? And that was like the test that I always asked myself as we were building Betches.

14:16And I still believe the answer is yes. We have that really engaged community. So I was building for people to come back on their own, creating content that was just so good that made people feel so good that they would just kind of want to come back on their own or come in line for Betches on Broadway. way. How does Betches make money? Like what is the, what are the revenue streams that you unlocked as you're building the business? As we unlock, so the, so when we first started, we were, I didn't know what an RFP was, which is a request for proposal for those starting out. And we were kind of just monetizing on like Google ads on our blog.

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15:37And then we launched our Instagram account and accidentally we started monetizing our Instagram. It was really a happen, like a brand came to us and was like, hey, like your web is great, but what about your Instagram? And we were like, our Instagram. I thought that was just for fun. And because we were really just doing it to grow our audience and engage our audience. We just thought this was a great outlet. Like it's a great way to translate our blog into short form. And, but we saw a brand that was interested. And we're like, okay, great. Let's try it. And in the beginning, it was like, I'll throw up an ad that they sent me.

16:13And like, I made some money. I was like, this is more money than I made on my blog. And in order to scale a website at that time, I knew I was not going to be able to afford that. I would have had to have raised money to scale that website. And I didn't want to let anybody else in the business in terms of like investors who can like change the trajectory or the course of the future of the company and edit our creativity, our creative voice. So I was like, how can I sustain what we have without having to raise money or let anybody in? So I was like, OK, I'm not going to like build out this website that's going to compete again with the likes of the Cosmos.

16:52And I was also seeing what it meant to drive that kind of scale for an audience is that you had to spend a lot of money on paid media for you then that whole arbitrage game. So it wasn't for me. Couldn't do it. And I also didn't want to pay for clicks. I wanted people to come back on their own. So that's when I decided this is where we're going to make our money is social. Let's figure that out and see how it goes. Low margin business. Let's do that. And that just continued to grow and grow and grow. And then I started, as I said, our e-com shop, our merch business. And that started to grow. And that's how I started to diversify the business.

17:27That's when me, Jordan, and Sammy started to diversify our roles too. Because I was like, you know what? I'm going to take, we were all three writing one post together. We were like sharing content. We would all write our notes in for this one post because it was a craft. Like we call it the betches in the detail. Like the craft of creating one voice between three people takes practice. And that's what we were doing. And then we were like, you know what, maybe this is not sustainable. So we, I started just shop batches on my own. I was like, you know what, I'll just build my own website on Shopify.

18:03I did the customer service. I designed the products. I found the models. I found the photographer. I creatively directed the shoot. Like it was my baby. It was so fun. But, and that grew really well but then I watched our advertising revenue like really overtake that that scaled that grew at an exponential rate to where I could not ignore that so much of my effort was directed towards that and I had to find somebody else to run the shop and that's kind of how we continued to build we wrote two books so we our advance kind of grew from there and we just kept funding the business through the profits.

18:40That was the key. You were one of the early brands on Instagram to do SpawnCon. I would never call it SpawnCon because it was so much more than that. Yeah, I know. But yes, because we weren't influencing, like I was in front of camera. Yeah. Like we were just, we were creating, how can we create an asset or a piece of branded content for a brand that doesn't require our faces, but still have that authentic voice that we use for betches. And that was our pitch. It was like you have the creative minds that are creating all this original content with this insane engagement rate that's growing exponentially against everybody else.

19:18We can make that branded asset for you. And that was kind of how we pitched ourselves at that time. And people wanted on board. Brands wanted on board. Bumble was one of our earliest clients. They sponsored our second book party. And it was amazing. It was so cool to be part of that story. The way that a lot of like media brands work that I understand is that they kind of have, yes, you have the like partnerships, advertising part of the business, and they have these like content studios within that that are developing that content and working with brands. How does Betches work with brands and like what does that setup look like?

19:54So over time, I've really changed the model of how we work with brands. So in the past, Like I was saying, it's a bit more transactional. Like I can put a one-off on. Over time, I was like, I don't want to do these one-offs. I want to build relationships with my clients. I want to make meaningful impact for their business goals because every business has problems and every business has a challenge to solve. How can we do that? And so we were working with clients and businesses that want to reach our very coveted audience, like female millennials and Gen Z, soon alpha, are going to be one of the most sought after audiences.

20:38And we knew we had something there. And so now the way that we work with clients, and we did so many different iterations of what that is, so much test and learn. I took many a risk. And now the way that we work with our brands is exactly in that way, in that very consultative manner, being like a marketing partner for our brands. And as I said earlier, we weren't the face. Now we have so much talent within our business. We have a creative studio. Again, we have so many of the creatives who create our original content as part of our marketing branded content, but it's so much more than branded content.

21:17Like we start with strategy. We start with data insights then we go into creative then we go into like how is this going to live on betches how is it going to be distributed beyond betches like we are real marketing partners for our clients we work with pepsis peacock duncan is a really big brand partner of ours and it's only growing like l 'oreal is an amazing client and things like that so it's only going to keep building and I'm really interested in how can I continue to innovate in this space? How can you create partnerships with brands in a way that's not just like slapping on a logo or these, you know, you see really cool Super Bowl ads, but like, how can you create like truly meaningful content for an audience that's not just like a one-off piece of content where a brand is integrated in and it's part of the story?

22:08And that's what I'm thinking about now. But, you know, it's just keep evolving over time and testing and learning your story is not gonna be the same as mine but yours is gonna be maybe better and more you know you might go somewhere completely different direction do something crazier I want to know so for for the people who are listening who want to explore partnerships maybe not exactly the same format like maybe their brands they want to do b2b partnerships with other brands how do you how do you bring those big companies in to want to work with you? In what way? Well, like how do you, what's the process?

22:44Like very specifically, how do you, like what are the, what are the assets that you need to, when you're pitching? What's the process of like getting in touch with someone? How do you attract a big brand like that to want to work with you? It depends. Like I have a sales team. I didn't always have a sales team. I didn't always have a sales team. And in the beginning we were really lucky that brands were just kind of coming to us like that. And our challenge over a course of years was pivoting, like from being where we have to be the proactive ones. Otherwise we're not gonna be able to grow. Like we can't just wait for people to come to us.

23:15Like how lucky is that? That's going to turn off one day. You need to learn the skill to go out and be proactive. So that was a big pivot for my business and like bringing on the people who knew how to do that. In terms of how do you do that? It all starts with knowing what you are good at. If you are not a salesperson, if you don't know how to speak, how to pitch yourself. There is no better salesperson though than a founder, I have to say though. So A, I would work on that pitch with somebody, really figure out what impact can you make for that brand? A lot of people I see like pitching themselves as like, here's all the things that I have, but no, change it to, here's all the things that I can do for you and the challenges that I can solve for you.

24:00And let's make something great together. That's the approach, I would say, how to go about that. So let's say you don't have a salesperson. Look up on LinkedIn, who's the person who makes decisions? It's usually somebody on marketing, on brand. Make a connection. Be persistent. Have your elevator pitch. And always think about that. Like, why is this person going to care about your message? Make it the size of a tweet. like make it cute small maybe two tweets whatever and don't sound so sales pitchy I find that when I sound really salesy doesn't work so I go back to my roots how do I sound authentic how do I sound like a person a human being speaking to another human being and so I'll say something like do you want me to do it yeah okay tell me let's do it I'll probably say like hi I'm the CEO and founder of I'm Eliane the CEO and founder of Vetch's Media if you've never heard of us just ask any millennial or Gen Z woman, just trust me.

24:58And then I'll ask, like, would love to talk about what you have going on. Do research. So look at something that they're doing. Take out, take an insight that you would say, I see that you are X, Y, Z. I'd love to support you in that. Here's what we have going on. Or like really briefly, like we are creating a space for women to whatever or whatever you're as an influencer or creator what are you what's your message what are you doing for an audience pull out like a really key stat that's huge like I would say I was like we have the highest engagement rate on social like I would only say that one because no one's gonna remember anything right they're gonna see one thing and then go from there just go out and do as many of them then you need materials so they're probably gonna ask like send me a deck Your deck should be very short and it should have the most punchy things on there.

25:53It should say what your why is. It should show some brands you've worked with that are big. And don't overwhelm with stuff. That's also something that we had to pivot it away from. We put all of this, all of these words on a page that I was like, I don't even want to read this about myself, let alone somebody who has to read so many pitches a day. That is such good insight. If you don't want to read it, they don't want to read it. And actually that goes for everything you do. If you don't like the thing that you've created, even if it's a deck, a piece of content and email, if you wouldn't read it, don't put it out in the world.

26:26Trust your gut on that. Don't do the things you think you should do. It comes off so forced and inauthentic. Do what you would want to do or read or listen to or whatever. Switching gears for a second. Who was your first hire? Her name is Chloe. We're still in contact. We follow each other. She's a wonderful little boy. She was, I hired her to help with Shop Betches. And then that evolved, as I said, like as a business, she evolved to be more of like a right hand. She did a bit of everything, graduated from college. So she was like just looking for experience and she loved Betches. That was a key thing for finding somebody who was a fan, who loved what we did, who just kind of loved the product.