How Bette Bentley Built Skimpies Into a No. 1 TikTok Brand Without Spending a Dollar on Paid Ads

0:00That's what I love about women. We are used to getting tips and tricks about how to live our lives from our friends. And if the product works and it's great, we'll buy it.

0:11Bette Bentley:How does a comedy writer go from working with Will Ferrell to inventing a first-of-its-kind underwear replacement? The answer isn't the punchline to a joke. It's the real story of Bette Bentley, who traded the writer's room for the manufacturing floor in the name of solving a very personal problem. I get to make something great from the bottom up in a category where no one does that. Bette is the founder of Skimpies, the world's first liner designed specifically for leggings. She joins us today to talk about what it takes to launch a brand new category, finding massive success on TikTok Live, and the realities of founder burnout.

0:41Bette Bentley:I want women to know that their setbacks are the slingshot that's going to launch them forward. Welcome to Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and scaling your business. I'm your host, Serena Smith. Bette, welcome to the show. Thanks, Serena. I love that intro. That was so cool. Thanks so much. I mean, listen, it's you. It's your life. You earned it. I'm fascinating. You are fascinating, right? Like, as I was doing the research on this, I thought, wow, like, the comedian to underwear replacement pipeline is probably one of one, and it's you. You spent years writing, performing, working with some of the greats.

1:21Bette Bentley:What was that season of your life like? I love comedy and it's still a huge part of what I do and what keeps like my pilot fire going. That season of my life, I was in my early 20s. I was in New York City. I was living in a closet and I was discovering who I was as a comic. I went through school being a very serious actor and writer. And when I plopped down in New York City for absolutely no reason, I had no right to be there. I found myself at UCB along with incredible other performers. Sometimes I think about that journey and why comics are so great at starting businesses. And I think it's because comedy is all about truth and being vulnerable and being authentic.

2:08It's not playing into the joke. It's seeing what's happening on stage and how can I be a part of this community and build this game together, help your joke succeed and solve this problem. And that is exactly what having a startup is.

2:26Bette Bentley:God, I love that reflection. And it makes me think of like the very core tenet of improv, right? Which is yes and. And how incredibly useful that must be in the world of being a founder, right? where you don't have the luxury to have the response of like, no, or that's not going to work, or I can't figure it out. You kind of have to yes and everything into your way towards success, right? Completely. It teaches you that what looks like a failure, what looks like a setback is actually like the launch pad for the next thing, because that's totally what doing improv is. If there's a moment where people mess up on stage, it usually gets a laugh.

3:08and you need to play into that. That's part of the game of the joke, right? And so I've totally done that. With Skimpies, there's been so many times where I felt like, wow, this did not work out. Or could I turn this on its head? Could I do a talking head video of this embarrassing moment and make this a great success? So completely yes-anding in your startup, in your business, with your community is always a good idea.

3:35Bette Bentley:Yeah, and you've really used that to parlay Skimpies into massive success, especially with TikTok live selling, which we'll talk about in just a little bit. Can you just explain what Skimpies is? Because it's not a panty liner and it's not a period product, right? So give us the brass tacks. Yes. It's actually the first liner that's been made that has no medical period purpose, right? It's made to be an undie alternative. So Skimpies is a small cotton strip that goes directly into your pants so that you don't have to wear traditional underwear, but you get all the freedom and line-free look of commando.

4:17Bette Bentley:Before Skimpies became a baby of yours, you stepped away from comedy to become a mom, which I'm about to have my first baby myself. I can attest. It's a sort of scary proposition as a brazen careerist. What inspired the decision for you? So I have always been a workhorse. I love working. And also, I just love people. I'm a people person. I'm a total extrovert. So the idea of not working was really daunting. But when I was seven months pregnant, my husband was hired to be the creative director of Best Buy. We were living in LA in a tiny apartment downtown. It wasn't a great place to bring our daughter into this world.

5:01we knew we wanted a different environment for her and the universe just plopped that right into our lap but i was like brian minnesota i don't know anyone in minnesota that's where the headquarters of best buy is i work a lot i film commercials i write i act like i was a part of supporting the ecosystem of our family i was like you have to tell them no so we did and then they came back with a different offer. And I was like, oh, you have to tell them yes. They sweetened the deal. Sweetened the deal. We moved to Minneapolis and thank goodness we did. Oh, was that a godsend? Truly, it was such a blessing.

5:41We moved there. We bought our first home on a beautiful lake, worst house on the best neighborhood. We fixed it up ourselves. We brought both of our children into this world in Minnesota. We were there for five years, But resetting and restarting in Minneapolis was a major ego check for me. I knew I wanted to work. And the industry is just different there. There aren't SAG projects shooting all the time. There aren't people who are pulling writers into writer's rooms for punch up. So I joined the little underground improv community there. And it was old dog, new tricks for me. I was on the main stage a few months after we moved, super pregnant, like you, Serena.

6:21And then my first main stage show with them, which was their holiday show, I did with Josephine and my little carrier and like blocked the whole thing and then handed her to my husband and would do the show. And I would like totally get milk through my little milk saving pads that were in my bra. But it was awesome. And it really taught me that it's up to you to be flexible and to be willing to learn and adapt.

6:44Bette Bentley:That flexibility and an openness to having a beginner's mindset. How does all of this lead to the genesis of the idea for Skimpies? So we moved back to LA, height of COVID, 2020 lockdown, parks were closed. Oh, I don't wish it on like my worst enemy. Terrible time to move. We moved back into like our hometown, basically, the city we fell in love in and where we knew we wanted to raise the kids. And I was in leggings more than ever before. I was nursing one baby homeschooling another baby Working and like working out is my piece. It's my therapy I feel like it's probably cheaper than therapy to go run around the block But i'm also old school and don't like talking about my problems with nobody even myself So I I was running around the block.

7:38I had lucky in the stroller. I was just like in leggings all the time And I was also at that stage of motherhood where I feel like you just need to be wearing work pants because being a mom is a workout And I really was kind of fed up with the fact that there was no good underwear solution. I was going commando in my leggings, and that's not great for your leggings. It's not great for your hoo-ha. It's not great for your Pilates instructor. So I was like, there has to be a solution here. So I tried wearing regular underwear. They bunched. They weren't comfortable. When I was doing squats, I was getting wedgies.

8:08I tried wearing seamless underwear, UTIs, not great, full of toxins, and they still had lines. They're not actually seamless. So then I tried putting a panty liner in my leggings and going for a jog and it totally balled up and like went up my butt. And then I stopped. I was two miles in and I was like, wait, this is an idea. This is a problem I could solve. If we can make a liner that sticks to panties, why can't we make a liner that sticks to pants? And why can't we make it better with like no toxins and like no bleach and no plastic? And then like it actually gives me goosebumps to this day.

8:43I was like, wait, I could do that. I could solve that problem for billions of women. And it could be a fun time. So I became like obsessed with it during COVID. It was my weird coat. Other people had sourdough. I had liners. It was like my weird project.

9:00Bette Bentley:How did you recognize that this was more than just a you problem? You said, you know, you became obsessed with the idea that you could solve this problem for millions, if not billions of women. Where were you validating that idea? So I started looking it up on like Googling it and there are dedicated Reddit threads, YouTube videos, TikToks that are super viral. I mean, the Reddit thread alone, like I still go back to that thread and I'm like, am I solving these problems for the, okay, great. Of people talking about what do we do? I go commando in my leggings and it's not my first choice. And then people would also say like, and please don't tell me to wear seamless underwear.

9:43Please don't tell me to wear a thong. Like, that's not the tea for me. And I was like,

9:48Bette Bentley:this is a thing. When I first found your product, you have one of those moments as a consumer where you're like, oh my God, yes, duh. Why didn't I know about this? Like, this is very much a problem in need of solving, but it's also kind of exists in one of those categories for people, maybe for women in particular, where we've just sort of accepted that there might be no solution. You know, it's one thing to launch a new product into the market, period. It's quite another thing to launch an entirely new category. You don't necessarily have people even Googling for the solution because they don't think the solution exists.

10:30Bette Bentley:So how were you reaching people? Before I answer that, I just want to say something you just said became like my driving force that women are just comfortable with the discomfort. We're used to it. We don't need dedicated products to solve our problems. We can hack things and deal with a bad experience. And I think that partially was why I became so stubborn and obsessed with it. Like I was like, I am too Texan and too stubborn to let my best friends, the most beautiful, courageous, amazing women in the world get like a wet spot on their leggings. Like I love them too much. I just didn't want women to sacrifice their comfort because there were no options out there.

11:18And we're so used to being uncomfortable and that being okay in a variety of ways. We deal with it. We're like kind of built for it. Pregnancy, our menstrual cycle, you know, our annoying boyfriends. we're built to handle discomfort and i want to be able to take a little bit of that stress off of every woman's shoulder i believe that women's essentials shouldn't be centered around shapewear they should be centered around organic cotton and fem high and underwear and i want skimpies to be the first brand to solve that problem for every woman in the world we started with the original leggings liner, but we are going to branch out into multiple other products.

12:03And that is the underlying goal for me.

12:06Bette Bentley:That's exciting. There's a whole horizon ahead of you. When you say Fem High, by the way, you're talking about feminine hygiene. So you connect with this German woman who is picking up what you're throwing down. And I always think it's so incredible in the founder's journey. And frankly, in all of our career journeys, like those instrumental people, like that one person who's like, I'll take a chance on you. I just kept calling manufacturers who make Femhi and was like, okay, this is this panty liner I tried. It balled up. Why? How do you make this? What's the process like? And pretty much everyone would hang up the phone on me.

12:43And then I got one manufacturer in Germany on the phone. I told her the idea and she said, that is a good idea. I would wear that. And I was like, oh my goodness. And so she sent me tech. She sent me books of cotton, samples of adhesive. She told me what can go through with the current machinery, what can't, why making it in the shape that I think it needs to be in after just cutting things up and testing on my own, why that would be really expensive. I just got so much knowledge from her. She let me pick her brain and I was able to develop our first prototype. And then I found someone who would make it, but making it in our now patented shape was going to cost$25 ,000 because there's a reason every panty liner is the same shape.

13:26They all use the same molds and it's what every factory has. So to create our own mold was going to be really expensive. So I had her make the first skimpies basically like in a sheet and I would hand cut them. I used to have a little, my own little mold and I would cut it around and that's how I would make skimpies. And then I would hand deliver them to our subscribers.

13:47Bette Bentley:I want you to take me inside the iterative process. You have no background in manufacturing. You have no background in product development. You have no experience being a founder. Like, what were those early days of tinkering like? And how many permutations did you have to work through before you found something where you were like, okay, this is good. It works. So many. I have a picture of me surrounded probably by a thousand iterations of skimpies, of just hand-cut liners. Our shape is so specific and so important. We're more narrow in the front, wider in the back. We have a patented way we lay our adhesive that no one has done before.

14:26And there's reasons why. It's more expensive. It's more complicated to lay your adhesive using the technique that we do, which is edge to edge and covers the entirety of the liner. We also are made without plastic. That is hugely important to the success of a liner sitting flat and being comfortable in a gusset. the plastic backing that you see period products have that's great for what they're made for but they're not going to be flexible and feel good in your pants so we had so much innovation that we had to do in an industry where no one is innovating i mean i don't want to be shady but like in fem high people like when you see new products come out they're just white labeled things of what's already out there like no one is calling manufacturers being like let's create a new mold Let's use new materials.

15:13That just isn't happening. So I also had to find someone that was willing to take a chance on me with manufacturing and do something completely different. Then they had no guarantee there'd be a second order. And I knew that I needed to pick someone small. I knew I wanted to pick a factory that was clean, that had certain environmental standards that are just personally important to me. And we don't even advertise that or put it on the box. It's just important to me. and I also feel like that good energy this is where I get woo woo I feel like that good energy makes your products better and healthier and feel better for women and so if I can take that back end stress off their backs where they're like oh this is biodegradable fab I didn't even know that like I don't have to stress about it great because we have so much stress so I just want to shave off as much as I can for our community for the skimpy sisters I was innovating in a space that no one wanted to.

16:05So I had to create multiple versions, you know, hundreds on my own. And I feel comfortable with that. I'm a crafty queen. I'm super stubborn. And I think that part of being a mom is realizing that a lot of your work is invisible. And sometimes there isn't a lot of verification that you're doing it right. There isn't someone at the water cooler being like, good job with that nap today, girl. You just do it quietly. And that was a real adjustment for me, being a performer who loves making people happy. But it was a great setup. And immediate validation. Immediate validation. And honey, I live for the applause.

16:51So it was a big adjustment for me coming into motherhood. But that really prepped me for being a founder. Because when you're a founder, pretty much everyone in your house is like, where's mom? Oh, she's doing that weird thing where she makes no money doing it and it's taking up all of our time. And like, why is she late for carpool? Like everyone, you're kind of getting devalidated, right? But you're used to doing things because you're going off your gut. You know, this is right. And you learn to trust yourself a lot as a mom. So I really pulled into that power in the early days of Skimpies when I was getting the product ready.

17:25Bette Bentley:Yeah. Did the people in your life think you were nuts? absolutely absolutely and i wasn't like really posting about it but i knew that there was something into it serena because i'd go to the park and people would talk about like what undies do you wear with your leggings like what's the you know no don't gatekeep yes women that's what i love about women we are used to getting tips and tricks about how to live our lives from our friends. And if the product works and it's great, we'll buy it. It's why our backs hurt. We are carrying the economy. It's so true. I talk to my husband about it all the time.

18:01Bette Bentley:I'm like, how do you find the answers to anything? Like I know the conversations happening on the text chains with my girlfriends, like we'll spend 90 minutes discussing like the back clasps on different strapless bras. It's like, this is how the grassroots marketing happens. It's so true. Or, you know, at the park and the conversations with other moms. And that's how I developed my little group of subscribers. I had about 10 subscribers. And they would just Venmo me. And I would drive them over some skimpies. And I'd wrap them in this cute little brown paper. And I'd put rosemary in it. And I would print out.

18:39I, like, had a terrible skimpies logo, which is, like, I think it was Garamond typeface that I just printed. And I would paste it onto the brown paper. I mean, it was so janky.

18:49Bette Bentley:No, but it was also homegrown, right? it's artisanal. There's something about that connection for early adopters where they see truly like how personal it is, you know, that I think can cultivate a certain kind of loyalty. One thing I want to say about being like a homegrown business in Fem High and underwear is that no one has done that before. And that's why when you walk into that aisle, it feels so clinical. No one's face is on it. The way people put their face on syrup or cookie dough, No one's like, this was my grandma's recipe. It's so clinical. And I feel so blessed. Like, it really is God's calling for me to make these products for women from the heart that start from my hands.

19:33Because I want my daughter to wear them. My mom and sisters all wear skimpies. Like, I just feel so honored that I get to make something great from the bottom up in a category where no one does that.

19:44Bette Bentley:And you are and have been and continue to be the face of it. So people know that it really is yours. But delivering these skimpies by hand wrapped up in brown paper with sprigs of rosemary while lovely does not a thriving, sustainable business make. So was there a light bulb moment for you where you thought, okay, I got to go all in on this? I was too scared to go all in. I posted no content on social media. It was all word of mouth. I would drive it to our subscribers and I would say, I can't wait to be in your pants. And we would laugh and we would hug. And it was just like fun, girly time. And then a few weeks after that, like I kind of had like this word of mouth business going.

20:28I found a tumor in my left breast and had a double mastectomy three weeks later. Wow. Okay. There's a lot to dig into there. There's a lot. So when I woke up from my double mastectomy, I woke up, I had no breasts. I had no career. I knew I wasn't going have a third baby. And I felt so low, like even talking about it right now, I have to like take a little breath. I felt so low and I just told God I needed joy in my life. Sorry. I told God I needed joy in my life. And I felt so connected to him in that moment. I think when you have those big moments like childbirth, like a major medical situation, sometimes you feel very connected to a higher power, like the bullshit just fades away.

21:19And like someone was speaking to me as clear as you are right now, I heard in my head, list your joy out loud. So I said, God, my kids, my husband and skimpies. And right when I said skimpies, I was shocked because like it was a side hustle. I was scared to go all in. I'd never even really post on the internet about it. but I knew, I knew that it was a huge source of joy in my life and that it was something I could do that would build a lasting legacy and help billions of women. And right when I said skimpies, this little hummingbird flew up to my window and I was like, that's it. That's my sign.

22:02My grandma told me she would visit me as a hummingbird. My grandma was the most badass woman I'd ever known in my life. She graduated from the University of Texas in her late 80s. Like she was such a cool Texas woman. And I was like, I can do this. This is my purpose. And it was clear and it was concise. So I told my husband, he came into the room and I said, we are going to buy a mold in China for$25 ,000 today. And I was like, what is he going to say? And he was like, yeah, we are.

22:32Bette Bentley:Oh, credit to supportive husbands. My word. And how incredible that you had that moment of absolute clarity in this aftermath of this like incredibly intense, not just medical, but psychological and emotionally trying situation. And to have, you know, on a list with your husband and your kids and God, Skimpy's come through in that moment. It's amazing. so after I decided to go all in on the business and I was recovering from my reconstruction I just started making videos I was like we are building in public the same way you test a joke as a comic you don't test it in your living room with your spouse you go on a stage in front of lots of people and you feel where they drop off and you feel what doesn't work and you tweak it and I can't test skimpies on my own I have to go out there in a big way so I just started going out there.