How to grow a brand with intent, Izipizi: Charles Brun

0:00Charles Brun:I see this, especially in the US here, people are obsessed by being fast and raise a lot of money. When we started our company, we had no money. We only injected€5 ,000 each. We had the first product that we launched in 2010, which was a disaster. I've loved Easy Peasy Sunglasses for five years. So when the PR reached out to see if I wanted to interview the founder, Charles Brun, I jumped to the chance. We talk today about how to start a brand with intention. We talk about purpose and we talk about how B Corp certification can play a part in that. But also we talk about how to maintain your enthusiasm for starting a brand with purpose.

0:37This episode is about starting a brand with intention and keeping it. So keep listening to hear how Izzy Bezzy turned an everyday functional product into a global lifestyle brand and what founders can learn about how to start a brand that truly resonates with its consumers. Hi Charles, thank you for coming on How to Start Up today to talk about how to start a brand with intention. I would love it if you could start with an introduction as to you and a bit about the brand that you started.

1:07Charles Brun:Yes indeed, so my name is Charles. I co-founded Easy Peasy 15 years ago with two friends, two friends from high school. They are my best friends and my partners, Xavier and Quentin. So the company is based in Paris. We are doing glasses. We started with readers. wedding glasses. And now we say that we do glasses for all the family and every moment in life. And how long ago did you start? So it was end of 2010, 15 years, a bit more than 15 years ago. Amazing. And we are around 250 people now between France, other countries of Europe and US. We have a subsidiary in the US now. Incredible. And I discovered your brand six years ago, I think, in a co-working office and everyone was wearing you it's like they're really cool they're really functional and you'll never lose and you'll break them because they're not that expensive compared to luxury sunglasses at 250 pounds you can buy into the brand i think so 35 pounds 40 pounds yes and they're gorgeous frames super stylish and i go on holiday and i might treat myself to a new pair because why not and i went to the antarctic and i bought myself some glacier glasses so you're right it's for every occasion and then obviously with age my eyesight's going and i have reading glasses so I love them because I feel like I can wear glasses and look cool at the same time or attempt to look cool.

2:25But for you, you started with two friends and presumably you are all still friends now. You also started a brand with some good intentions. How important is intent when you start a brand?

2:37Charles Brun:Since the beginning, our aim is to do great products, great design, great quality, affordable price, but with a very selective distribution. And since the beginning, our aim was to sell our products to the best fashion stores, design stores, concept stores, high-end optic stores, department stores. And yes, since the beginning, our intent is to build a brand, to build a worldwide brand. It's funny because we have always been passionate by brands. We come from Paris and a bit like London and other cities, we are surrounded by amazing brands. And when we decided to start a company with my friends, it was sort of a challenge at first.

3:11Charles Brun:It was a game. We were 24 years old, so we had just finished our studies. We had not much experience, but we wanted to do something together. It was both doing a business and a brand. And 15 years after, I can't say we have a worldwide brand, but we are trying to build this worldwide brand. We still have many examples for us, but yes, we are always looking forward. And what year did you become a B Corp? B Corp was four years ago. So I think it was 2022 or 2021, maybe. Since the beginning, we tried to do things in a good way with the good materials, how we produced, how we distributed, how we shipped our products.

3:48Charles Brun:And in 2018, we measured for the first time our carbon footprints. And this was a big exercise. It took us a lot of time. But we had a number of emissions per pair of glasses. And we said, OK, within three years, we want to reduce this number by two. So we changed the materials we use. We completely changed the way we ship our products. Before it was only air shipments because we were always out of stock and needing to deliver our customers very quickly. And we decided to change completely that. So we replaced our air shipments by boat shipments between our suppliers and our warehouse. So it means you have to change our forecasts, the way you manage your stocks, etc.

4:30Charles Brun:Now all our products are made out of bio-based material also. We changed some stuff in our office, in our stores. So we achieved to reduce this because it's our philosophy. We are here to build a business, to build a brand, but to do it the good way. And I think in the fashion industry, in the accessories industry, there were so many companies doing some greenwashing. We were a bit afraid about that. So for many years, we had decided not to talk about it. And after we started to get more and more requests from our customers saying, I like Easy Peasy, but I would like to know how are they produced?

5:08Charles Brun:What are you doing? And we decided to talk about it. But before talking about it, we wanted to do things. And so the first thing was this carbon footprint evaluation and then this B Corp certification. Because for us, B Corp is the best label. It's for the planet, but it also proves you do things in a good way for your team, for all your partners, all your suppliers around you. We are also a great place to work, but among the top great place to work. So we don't want our customers to buy ZPZ for this. We want our customers to buy ZPZ because they like our products. They like the quality. They like the design, etc.

5:47Charles Brun:But for us, being big up is important also, but on top of the rest. Yeah. And it's almost on the inside, isn't it? We know we do this. We don't need to broadcast it, but it's just the right thing to do. That's why we did it as well. It's like me as a business owner, I can sleep at night knowing I've been audited and that I'm doing good in the world. And I'm still a profiting business. But for you, you started at 23. You could call it intention. You could call it purpose. You could call it sustainability. Was that always important to the three of you? Or did it kind of grow with you? Yes. Since the beginning when we started our company, so end of 2010, we had launched a first product, which was before our readers.

6:25Charles Brun:And this product was already made in France. It was assembled by disabled people. Since the beginning or so, our obsession was to do these products in a good way. And with a team also, I think if you meet some of our team, I think everybody's happy to work for Easy Peasy. It's a great challenge. It's a great journey, but with good values also. And this has always been the case and it will be the case for the long term also. Well, I was going to say it does make things harder for you when you're starting a business. Also, starting at 23 where you haven't necessarily had much work experience elsewhere, you then make another rod for your back of, okay, we're doing something that hasn't been done before.

7:03We've not done this before and we're going to add in all of these values. Do you think setting up a brand with values from the beginning makes it easier or harder in the long run?

7:15Charles Brun:I don't know if it's easier or harder I think it depends on what are your values we wanted this company to to be a projection of our values with my partners I think we are lucky because we are friends I think we are good people and we wanted this company to be a good company also we want our team to be happy to come working every day we are called easy peasy so it's very important also I think our name defines our company so we want our customers to be happy also It's a joyful brand. It's a colorful brand. It's affordable. When you go on our website, you'll see they smile everywhere. And I think this is us.

7:51Charles Brun:We are happy people. We are smiling people. And we are like this every day when we wake up. So I think the company is a bit like us at the beginning. It's what you preach. Yes, exactly. And now we have an amazing team around us. But I think all the values we have at the beginning, we are lucky because even if the terms we use are not exactly the same. Finally, the values are the same since 15 years. And I hope they will continue for the next 15 years or so. That must keep it quite simple in some respects that like attracts like, you know each other and you know the kind of people you want to work with.

8:25And it's sort of quite obvious when someone potentially wouldn't fit.

8:30Charles Brun:Yeah, totally, totally. And we take a lot of our, it's very important for us when we hire people or the onboarding is very important also we have our way to to onboard people and i think this is the one of the main success of easy peasy is we get the feedbacks from our team and after three days after three weeks after three months and what one of the good things we did at easy peasy is this onboarding and the way we select our team and the way we hire them amazing and how did you learn all this because you've come into this new brand at 23 years old with two mates like we're going to start a product-based business, which as everybody out there will be listening going, that's not easy.

9:10Adding that extra layer of kind of vigilance to it. How have you taught yourself all of this?

9:15Charles Brun:We talk a lot. We try to learn a lot since the beginning. Luckily, we had amazing mentors. When we started our company, we had no money. We only injected 5 ,000 euros each. So it was not a lot. Luckily, we had won some prices, competitions. So we had bank loans on the company, but this was not enough to really develop. So after three years, we raised money. But for us, it was money to raise, but it was among selected persons. And luckily, we had amazing mentors. It was a French businessman, successful businessman, who invested in EasyPZ. And they didn't invest to make more money because I think they had enough.

9:54Charles Brun:They invested to have a new entrepreneur life with three young guys, which were with my partners. and these guys have been for us business angels but amazing mentors like i would say great uncles and we learned so much from them i remember business launches which were doing i don't know two hours three hours four hours and at first we were talking about numbers and after 10 minutes we were talking about life and values and how did they succeed and what they were doing in their company how did they develop internationally their brand and their business etc so we learned a lot from them. And then we tried to join the networks since the beginning at EZPZ in Paris, entrepreneur networks, and to meet other founders, to meet other leaders, and to try to learn from them and say, okay, what do we like from them?

10:44Charles Brun:What could we apply to EZPZ immediately or after six months? And we tried a lot and we changed also. So it's a bit our magic sauce, if I may say. Well, how important was your gut feeling in all of this? Like you going into business with your friends and if you, did you disagree with them at any point? Yes, of course. Yeah, three minds and starting a brand, you must have clashed a little bit. Who had the final say? How did you work through conflict? How are you still friends with each other today? It's funny because we often say that we are a triple. So it's a couple of three people. And I would say a bit like a couple, a business relationship, you have to take care of it.

11:27Charles Brun:So we spend a lot of time together. We discuss a lot. When we argue, we take time to talk about it. Luckily, it's never the same two against one. And I think we always took time to share our frustration, to share when we were in disagreement also, but to find a solution on which we align the three of us. And we may don't agree sometimes, but when we are in front of our team, it's always important to align and to be on the same path the three of us. Yeah. I always talk to founders that have co-founders because I'm a sole founder and I don't have anyone else I have to ask or think about. I can make a decision and it's done, it's final, and it says a lot about me.

12:13But I also miss the support of having a co-founder I think with three of you, it's actually probably easier than two of you because it will be two against one. You're always going to have a majority vote. Whereas if it's one against one, that could be quite hard. So odd numbers. This is where we go with this.

12:29Charles Brun:And also being three, I think it's great because when you have difficult times, you can share. When you have good moments, you can share also, share the success, share when we face the ups and downs as every company and every leader. But we often say, said to each other, luckily we are free because I think sometimes we took more time to take our decisions. But at least being free when we take a decision, we thought about it. And I would say it's better decisions. Oh, I'm renovating a house by group mentality and Instagram. So I put things up going, right, guys, you all tell me what to do. This color or this color, that or this.

13:08And it's so much easier when someone else. And I have so many friends to stay going, right, I just need to pick your brains. and no matter what, someone will have a good idea about something once they come in with fresh eyes. It's like, maybe I should be doing the business as well. We're taking a quick 30 second break from this episode to ask, are you thinking of starting your own podcast? If so, this is great news because we run a course that will train you how to produce your own podcast yourself. This course is for people who do not want to outsource and pay someone else to do it. You want to learn how to do it yourself.

13:41we teach you everything that you need to get up and running with your own podcast show and so much more just dm us at hello at fallowfield mason to book your spot but given purpose obviously when we're talking about starting a brand with intention we're talking about purpose here i think what advice would you give to new founders starting a company how to define their purpose or how to kind of lean into their values how did you work out what matter to you?

14:09Charles Brun:Yes, it's a good question. I think it depends of who you are, what you want to do, what are your values, what you want to bring to your company, how ambitious are you? Is it for your market? Is it for the world? Is it a service? Is it a product? On our side, we knew since the beginning that we were very ambitious. We didn't want to limit ourselves to the French markets and not to the European markets. We wanted to sell our products worldwide. We also knew we wanted to develop a brand. So we had several examples of brands that we loved. One of them is Swatch, the watches. And we always loved what Swatch was doing.

14:46Charles Brun:And when we started, we say, okay, we want to become the Swatch of the vision. So it's a bit less the case now. It changed, but in terms of quality, colors, design, affordability, timeless also, and produced in a good way. So I think it's important to look around you. Who are your mentors? Who are the examples you want to follow and apply it to yourself. And I would say also, take your time to choose your partners. Because I met so many companies who found their partner like a speed dating and it worked well for three months, six months, two years. And after two years, they found it was not a good relationship.

15:23Charles Brun:And between the products for the company or the partners, I would say that the partners is so much important. So take time to choose your partners. Yeah, and get a really solid partnership agreement in place because I can't remember who it was in season one, probably five years ago saying, just sit down with a lawyer and ask all the horrible questions. If you, my business partner, has an affair with my wife, what happens to the business? If you run over my cat, what happens to the business? If I am on life support, what happens to the business? Carry the umbrella and it won't rain. And that's quite a good lesson.

15:58For you, 15 years in, is there anything you would do differently with the brand in terms of values or proposition or sort of building that brand with intention? Is there anything you would have gone, oh, had I known I'd have done it differently?

16:13Charles Brun:It's a good question. There's a lot. When we started our company in 2010, e-commerce was way less developed than today. We had no money. So for us, building a worldwide business was to be done through wholesale. So our obsession since the beginning was to make sure we had the best stores selling Easy Peasy all around the world. At the time, there was an amazing place in Paris called Colette, which was the temple for fashion, the temple for design. And luckily for us, after maybe 10 or 12 meetings with Colette and her daughter Sarah, we finally convinced them to take Easy Peasy. It was tough because at first they were saying, we are not opticians.

16:54Charles Brun:We don't want to sell readers. It's not a product for us. And finally, they accepted to make a trial. Luckily for us, it was a great success. I think it was after five or six days they had sold everything. And being at Colette for us was amazing because thanks to that, we could enter in all the best other stores around the world. St. Frugia's and Harrods in London, the MoMA in New York, Isetan in Japan, et cetera, et cetera. So I would say the six, seven first years of our company, we were focused on wholesale. And after these years, we noticed that wholesale was great, but that if we wanted to build a brand, it was not enough.

17:30Charles Brun:We had more and more products that we couldn't present. We couldn't expose our brand DNA, our brand universe also. So we opened our first easy peasy store in Paris. I think it was in 2017. So it took us seven years to open our first store. And then our website has always been there. But during the first years, e-commerce was not like today. I feel a bit like an old dinosaur saying that. But at that time, stores were saying internet as a competition and they didn't want us to sell easy peasy on our websites. So we had to hide and we didn't communicate on our website. So I think our website really emerged also 2016, 2017, something like that.

18:09Charles Brun:But sometimes I feel that we were a bit too shy. We were a bit too discreet. We were a bit too much good guys following what our customers were saying. So maybe I would say today we should have opened our first stores earlier and we should have focused more on our e-commerce business earlier. It's so hard, though, because I remember when I was traveling before university and I read on a hostel, Lou Dorr, it said experience is what you get after you've needed it. and you can look back and be like oh had i known that then and starting a business that roller coaster that level of responsibility the resilience you need those three r's are so hard and they can take their toll on you to the point where you're exhausted and you're making bad decisions and you don't know what you're doing but then you look back and go oh had i known that it would be easy but this is why i love the podcast right because there's people like you have been through the hard yards who can go don't do that focus on this look at this and for you Given that you can get caught up in said weeds, how do you pull yourself out and kind of think big picture, long term view without getting caught up in the day to day?

19:17Because that's quite hard when you've got a brand with huge purpose. At the core of it, you need to think big picture. How do you keep thinking long term?

19:26Charles Brun:I think it's rituals we have put in place with my partners. Every Friday we see each other to talk about day to day business. However, several times a year, we take one, two, three days, the three of us. We go out of Paris when we talk long-term. So we have a long-term business plan. Now we are working on the 2032 business plan, for example, per channel, per country. And we are talking about products, the products of today, the products of tomorrow, the markets of today, the markets of tomorrow, what kind of innovation we want to bring, what kind of changes we want to bring with our company. year.

20:04Charles Brun:So we have this exercise, the three of us, but now we have an amazing team around us with Comex, which are great people. And it's something on which we work with them. So at least two times per year, go with them out of Paris or so for two or three days. And with them, we talk about long-term projects. So yes, this is really important. This makes a lot of sense because every time I come into the store, I'm like, what's new? It's like a candy store. It's like, this is going to be something new and exciting, but you always know the frame shape and how it works so the mechanics of the store and the brand are the same but you always have an exciting lens color or shape or something and you want to go in to discover what's new but this makes sense because you're working on a lead time and to anybody listening that's thinking about marketing and pr you need a lead time and we often meet clients that we do we train people how to do their own pr and keep pr in-house and let founders enable well, to own their storytelling.

20:58But they all go, well, we're launching tomorrow. What press can we get? I'm like, absolutely none. You should have been thinking about this six months ago. So you thinking long-term, it just then trickles down and feeds through the whole business. Obviously, the design team, production team, shipping, and you've got the option to ship sustainably because you've got lead time. This organisation, and forgive me for saying this, I've worked for many French brands. This is kind of unusual in the brand world to be this strategic. I've worked for Chanel and Givenchy and all sorts of brands. And I'm like, oh God, this sounds like a really gorgeous spreadsheet somewhere in the business.

21:34So I'm sure your team are very grateful for it.

21:38Charles Brun:We are in March 2026. I can tell you that all our products for 2027 have already been conferenced, validated, etc. Whether we know what we launch at what time. All our marketing plan for 2027 is already finalized month per month, week per week. I'm going to clip this and send it to every single client. And be like, learn from these guys. Because it works. Because you've got the production schedule for the photography. You've got all the assets. And you can really put the support behind it to launch, which is why it looks so slick. This makes perfect sense. After you have to remain agile, and we are also bringing newness sometimes within one or two months, But at least the core connection is really anticipated minimum one year in advance.

22:26Charles Brun:But yes, as you were saying, we don't have choice because there's the production lead time, shipping lead time, and all the identity you have to work on, the brand assets you have to work on, all this takes ages. Even if thanks to AI, you save time also. Yeah. Well, given you've obviously got great intentions for the brand, how do you keep that refreshed for yourself? of how do you not let the day-to-day business wear you out? How do you keep enthusiastic for that part of the business? I think, first of all, we are enthusiastic people with my partners. We love our products. We always say the good thing with glasses is that it's the first thing on people's face.