How to Host Events People Want to Attend

0:00This was going against the current, but, you know, nobody finds maternity sexy. and I found the fact that it was really empty, incredibly sexy. That to me was the opportunity.

0:13Hey, I'm Benjamin Gottlieb, back with another episode of Shopify on Location, coming to you from our space in New York City. Your next business idea could be sitting right in front of you. Bear with me here and let me tell you a little bit more about Ariane Goldman. The Garment District of New York was her backyard and she quickly discovered that if you couldn't find something you needed, you probably could just build it yourself. She started Hatch more than a decade ago with the 12 key pieces she needed before, during, and after pregnancy. Her business model has been the standard in this space, but the lessons are universal for entrepreneurs at any stage of their journey, especially if you're looking to disrupt the traditional ways of doing things.

0:57Ariane, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. You're so welcome. Let's start with this, if you don't mind. What was missing in the maternity clothing market when you started your business? I was pregnant at the time, and I was really excited to kind of get onto my next adventure and understand what was out there. I was looking for a brand to talk to me about what I was to expect and provide me things that I didn't know I needed. And when I was searching in the middle of the night because I couldn't go out drinking with my friends, I was pregnant and excited. I was shocked to find that nobody was actually kind of meeting me on the other side of this.

1:32Often when you're redoing your apartment and you go couch shopping, you're looking at couches for the first time and what's in the market. And there's, you know, a whole supply for you to go out. There was nothing speaking to pregnant women. And it just dawned on me that if I was looking for a solution or even a brand that could be my friend through this unknown next step, that other women must have been looking for the same solutions. And so that's when the light bulb went off and I realized that there was a white space and that's kind of how it all began. It's an incredible story. We're going to talk some more about how you speak to your customers because that's really interesting.

2:00But what do you mean exactly by speaking to you? I'm a big brand builder at heart. And so I think connecting with the audience and providing them, knowing what they're missing and being able to tap into that, hit on that from an emotional level, a beautiful creative level, something that is, you know, attractive, affordable, kind of hits on those senses. That's what I mean by talking to a customer, relating to them, and then, of course, building trust to continue that relationship with them along the way. And it's so fascinating because you would think that would have already existed in maternity clothing, right?

2:36I mean, it's a market that's reliable. You know, there's a demand for it. And yet, it wasn't there when you were looking for it. You know, when I started Hatch, it was before the craze of social media and selfies. And so being pregnant was still rather taboo for women. People were hiding it, not telling their bosses in fear of losing their jobs. It really, your body was changing. Vogue wouldn't put pregnant women. They wouldn't speak about maternity. It was really something that people covered up.

3:09And so it didn't make sense as the world was changing. And we were recognizing the strength of women along this zeitgeist over the last decade. That we celebrate the fact that we're so badass and we're having babies. and were capable of working and becoming a mother at the same time. Why weren't there people out there acknowledging that? Why weren't there brands out there allowing us to dress that part and feel like we didn't have to necessarily be ostracized for 10 months out of our life and sit on the side while we got pregnant? And really, if you think about it, this was a disruptive idea because it wasn't there.

3:40You just mentioned Vogue didn't even put pregnant women in their magazine. When you're disrupting an established business, there must be pushback. Oh yeah. I mean, this was going against the current. But, you know, nobody finds maternity sexy. And I found the fact that it was really empty incredibly sexy. That, to me, was the opportunity, was that everybody looked the other way. And that just inspired me to say, but look at it. It's an incoming freshman class of new pregnant women every single three, six months. And so you know that there's demand there. And there's definitely room to speak to them and provide them with stuff.

4:14And it's a really big market. And so I figured, again, my history, my journey has been about what do I need and how do I, you know, if it's not out there, how do I fulfill that need? And it's that instinct of being the customer myself that's allowed me to put myself on the brand side of giving that. And so in speaking to my needs, I was able to create a brand that was speaking to other women like me. And by the way, if you're looking for more stories about how to start a business like this story, head over to our website, shopify.com slash podcast. We have so many interviews there. You're going to love them.

4:47Getting started, Arianna, is one thing, right? But convincing customers that they want what you're selling, especially if they haven't even thought about it before, that it's a completely different skill set. So how did you start to market this concept of elevated maternity clothing to women that maybe didn't even know that was a possibility for them? So as you mentioned earlier, I started this about 10 years ago, and the world was very different then. PR played a very different role in starting a business. And I didn't raise capital at the beginning to go in and have a huge acquisition strategy of Instagram ads.

5:20I mean, again, it was the days of Warby Parker starting. And so this whole idea of paid spend was really new, and it wasn't the way to start. Brand building grassroots from ground up was the way that I approached Hatch. And to tell you the truth, I lent myself money from my first brand that I created in the bridal space. I was successful there to give myself the confidence to do this second run. And so I lent myself$200 ,000 for inventory and a website. And I built this beautiful website. And crickets. Nobody came for the first three months. And I said to my husband, I really think I screwed this up.

5:54We just put all of this, you know, we doubled down on my entrepreneurial dreams. And I'm sorry, buddy, I really think. And I had a baby in my arms because it was conceived when I was pregnant with my daughter, Charlie. And I thought it was an epic fail. And lo and behold, we were on a trip in India, and I got an email from the Stiles reporter of the New York Times. And she said, I'm seeing what you're doing, and women like us need this, and I want to highlight what you're bringing to the table.

6:25And, you know, the Times isn't necessarily a revenue driver, but it just opened the door to, you know, just the momentum. And when I got back, the transaction started to come. Other people wanted interviews. And so to go back to your question, the way that I really got the word out in changing the game was to use PR and really a gifting strategy to get celebrities in my stuff. Because the days of Us Magazine and really like who wore it best and really seeing women and celebrities in your stuff was the way to get recognized before Instagram and a lot of the stuff that's working today. Is it no longer?

6:58Oh, no. I think print is dead. and I think the role of celebrity has changed so much and influencers, so it's a whole different strategy today and it's evolved over time. I mean, you have to be so nimble and quick on your feet to keep up with what's happening today and it's a ton of money and so we can get into it, but what's happening, you know, what's working today is more of like a more spray strategy where, you know, it's cheaper, but you have more hits out there going out to more people, more micro-influencer pieces instead of kind of that one big celebrity. But back in the day, it was much more of the strategy and that's how we kind of broke through.

7:29I got some of the celebrities in Hatch because there were no other options. Their stylists loved it. I'm a New York girl, so I had those relationships. You asked for favors, and we got off our feet. You brought up your previous business, the bridal business. I mean, talk about following your own journey with your companies. I mean, it's incredible. That is the dream, right? To build something that not only follows your own life's path, but also serves what you need in your life. It's incredible. I want to get back, though, to this idea of kind of building something first, having everything set up before you start this big marketing push.

8:02We do a lot of these interviews, and I hear themes throughout the course of doing these. And the businesses that are around that are successful today, they started with a very, let's call it humble and honest approach to what they were doing. And you've done that as well. Is that no longer the way to pursue a successful business? I applaud and think that you should always go for your dream. And if you have an idea to wholeheartedly believe in it, and if you have the right story to tell that's compelling to you and your community, go for it because you only live once. I think back when I was able to start Hatch, there was just a runway for new ideas and fresh perspectives.

8:43And so I was able to really go out there and try things because it wasn't saturated yet and it wasn't so noisy. And so I had more room to play and things were a lot less expensive. I bootstrapped the brand for the first six years, so I didn't raise capital. I think that whole perception has changed completely. In order to start a business, you do need a lot of money these days just to get on the map with any sort of paid strategy, anything to just get your name out there. Back then, I had a little more space and time to kind of build it organically, do trunk shows, meet with customers, understand what they were looking for, and build that awareness really one-to-one with the customer that gave me that launch pad.

9:20I love trunk shows. you know, my grandmother, she had her own women's golf and tennis clothing company. And they would fly over to the conventions and all sorts of stuff. And you're right. The environment has changed. It definitely has. But at the same time, the principles are the same. You have to have a good product and you have to be able to market to your customers wherever they are, wherever you're looking for them. I would imagine that's changed for you in the past decade plus. Today, when you're looking at your customers, how are you targeting them?

9:57We needed to diversify, especially with the iOS change. We had to kind of figure out another way to get into people's households. So the game changed then. It just was, you know, much more difficult to capture information and to understand where she was. You know, I mean, it was very helpful to understand if someone was pregnant, we could get right in front of her pretty quickly. I do respect the privacy rules. So we just had to diversify. And we brought in-house an influencer strategy where we're gifting our product directly to pregnant women. And we're relying on these women and these ambassadors to go out to their networks and really approve of the brand and talk to women.

10:27The beauty about the category I'm in is it's quite intimate and it's personal. And so establishing trust is so key. And so through the product and the community efforts that we've made, we found a tremendous return on spend by using our network and our people as kind of our advertisers and our word of mouth.

10:47So that's been incredibly successful. I also think collaborations are a huge, huge win. So where we're not technical, let's take it athletic wear or work wear or swim or even, you know, cosmetics. We'll collaborate with a partner who is experts in that field, who wants to get in front of an incoming mother because she's so attractive on so many levels. She's going to become the household purse power. And so we're that acquisition tool for this brand that we're partnering with. And so it's a beautiful way to cross-pollinate and get each other's customers and, you know, open that conversation of, hey, this is the trusted brand in maternity for new moms.

11:22And this is the best denim company. And, you know, kind of really think through the product together. This idea of cross-pollinating and also being where your customers are, a big part of that for you, especially in the early days, but I would imagine today as well, were events. You put on a lot of events. Why was that such an important part of your marketing strategy? It really kind of fell upon us. I have to say, when I started Hatch, I did not anticipate community being so important to the brand. And today I can say that it's my most proud moment and the halo of what makes Hatch so special.

11:55So we opened our first retail space here on Bleecker Street in Soho in 2017. And it had a downstairs area that we wanted footsteps into the store. We wanted to gain traffic. And it wasn't about just sales. It was about bringing women in for education so that they can form their own community of like-minded women having babies around the same time. We started bringing in doulas and sleep trainers. And we had dads come in to train how to swaddle and how to change diapers. From dudes to dads, it was called. I still can't swaddle, by the way. It's tough. It's harder for guys. And what happened is the traffic, these events just would go to capacity, and it was just incredible.

12:31And people would walk out with a smile on their face, not necessarily a shopping bag. But what we found is that the attendees started to become long-term customers of ours. And the word of mouth that came from that was just amazing. And the smile that we felt as a team and as a culture to provide this education and this support to women became a priority for the company and the brand. And so when COVID hit, we decided to digitize our events so that it wasn't just about if you happen to be in Soho in New York, but you could access this information from anywhere. And that's when - That wasn't on lock, that must have been.

13:01I mean, it was just gigantic. And since then, now we have 25 ,000 plus RSVPs to some of these events. We follow up with relevant product offerings to make sure that we can get them into the loop and we can support them with product. And Babe, our content platform has just completely blown up. And it's just a tremendous piece and pillar of Hatch that I didn't anticipate, but I couldn't imagine, you know, not. It's one of those things that as you build a brand or as you evolve, you know, it's just incredible that something that you didn't plan for could just kind of happen. And now you can't imagine yourself without it.

13:33Yeah, and if you have sleep trainers at your events, Let me tell you, if you can help someone get their baby to sleep, I mean, my wife and I are lucky, but if you can do that, you better believe they're buying some maternity clothing after that. No, but it's fascinating, right? I mean, building something and not expecting it to be as successful as it becomes, what's the lesson there? Just try, just do. Like you said, you could spend 200K and be like, oh my goodness, what did I just spend my money on? Is the learning, just go ahead and try stuff? I think ultimately. I think many founders might be control freaks, right?

14:06I mean, you have an idea and you want to execute it, and then you're the only one that can execute it to, you know, the level that you sought, you know, your vision. But I think there's something really powerful in the surrender along the journey of letting things happen and evolve. And a business plan, for example, might be the parameters and the blueprint that you set out. But you have to open yourself up to certain things that can happen, both the shit's going to happen, like the bad stuff's going to happen no matter what, right? So also allow the creativity and the evolution of areas and categories and relationships to impact the brand and be open-minded because there's no business plan that you're going to start on day one that's going to be followed through exactly, you know, a couple years down the road.

14:47Life changes too frequently, especially now. So you just have to be nimble. And you have to try things. You have to try things and life changes, just like you mentioned, from bridal to first and second kid. And now to where you are right now, which we're going to talk about in a moment. My guest, Ariane Goldman, founder of Hatch. Before we continue our conversation, I want to take a moment to thank you for listening to the show. You know, the best way to support our program is to subscribe wherever you're listening and to leave a review. Or better yet, share this episode with a friend so we can continue to grow.

15:22Thank you. Is there a dark moment that you can recall from your own experience where some of those pieces of advice paid off? There's lots of different types of dark moments. And, you know, it's funny because as you get bigger, the moments become bigger and more meaningful and scarier, right? So you also have to make sure you're, you know, some of the best advice I got was, Aaron, make sure you know how big you want this thing to get. Because sometimes keeping it small and profitable, even though we're so tempted by growth and bigger numbers and top line, sometimes you're going to make more money at the beginning than you ever will later on as you keep growing and growing and growing.

16:04And it's just interesting now in retrospect to look back. And this Hatch Collective is gigantic and it's a category leader and I'm so grateful. But the dark moments and the issues that we face are immense on a new level. And that's a whole new exercise as a founder. that I'm undergoing right now. So it's letting go a little bit and letting the moment ride. I think you have to have strength and empathy and you just can't give up. Arianna, a big part of your job now, if I may, is looking at some of these more established brands and stepping in, taking them over or investing in them and bringing them up to date with the standard that you've set with Hatch.

16:46I believe this is called the Hatch Collective. How did you start to do this? Well, again, like I just mentioned, things sometimes happen to you when you're not looking for them. And so we went out for a capital raise late last year. And some of the inbound excitement around Hatch involved different types of deals, different types of partners. And the one that really stood out to us was Marquee Brands, who owned the brand heritage of Pee in the Pod, Destination Maternity, and Motherhood Maternity. Pretty old school mass brands for moms that have a lot of brand equity. If you talk to our mothers and, you know, we still kind of know these names, but over the years have really been mismanaged over different leadership and have fallen off the map a little bit.

17:28And so Marquis had this beautiful portfolio of these brand equitable companies in the space that I now feel like we're the expert in because Hatch has been really the gold standard in the industry for the last decade. Is that because you understand what the new mother is looking for, that these brands, they've lost sight of that? Correct. And for what it's worth, I don't want to necessarily play gender games here, but being a woman-led organization, really speaking to women has really helped us connect with the customer and the product. I don't think that's gender games. I think that just makes sense, right?

17:59And these companies were not led by women, and I think they lost the connection to the customer and to the product. And so that just showed itself over time. Also, it was a heavily brick-and-mortar strategy that they were running, and they didn't keep up with modern D2C time. So there were many influences there that led it to where it was and almost a fate where the brands need help. And Marquis came in and we made a beautiful partnership where I now, me and my team, my wonderful team, oversee all of these brands under one purview. Which has been really amazing because Hatch, I established Hatch to really upstairs, so to speak, because it's easier to diffuse down the line as opposed to go upstairs.

18:36And I'm really talking from a price standpoint. Hatch is an aspirational lifestyle brand. It's a little bit more on the expensive range. However, you can invest in pieces. And as you mentioned earlier, you can wear them before, during, and after pregnancy. And they're really great quality. It's not too expensive, but it's something that you can keep in your closet after the baby. What I've always meant to do, especially as Community has built, was really stand behind helping more women, all women, when they embark on this journey of pregnancy with product and thoughtfulness. And that means at a mass market price point.

19:05And so what these brands are allowing me to do now is to do what I do best, which is listening and providing really thoughtful solutions, but at different price points to different audiences and to different women so that I can connect with more women across the country.

19:28So finding women who are looking for the same things, but maybe Hatch is not realistic for them. Correct. Listen, I mean, I'm a high-low shopper, and sometimes you want to spend and invest in certain pieces, and sometimes you just want something that might be relatively disposable after you use it for a couple of months, and I get that. And so this allows me to get great product out there at a better value. But I think as a brand builder, my biggest challenge, and where I'm most excited, is that now I get to architect these brands across the category. And rather than be nervous that they're going to cannibalize each other, it's how do you establish architecture between the brands that allows a woman to shop from all three and buy something different from the product assortment from all three.

20:11And to me, that's a true, true sign of success as a category leader is to be able to do that successfully. And so have three shopping bags of all the brands on someone's shoulder and not feel threatened that they're taking market share from each one. As an architect, so to speak, in this space, a big part of what you've done for these more established, longer existing brands has been taking them to Shopify, right? Or taking them online and kind of building this part of the business. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you, why Shopify? Why is Shopify the place where you are hosting and running your business?

20:46I mean, it's just made it so easy for us to start to connect the dots. And there's so many things and considerations to think about when you're starting a business, when you're fixing a business, when you're cleaning things up. You want solutions and you want them to be as easy as possible. And so Shopify is just kind of our go-to, you know, out-of-the-box solutions that allow us to kind of pick and choose and just be nimble with the directions we're going to choose for the strategies. So pick what's not working, for example, at a brand you've just picked up and say, hey, Shopify's got a solution for that.

21:15Yeah. I mean, look, I'm not going to lie. Integrating these businesses is a beast. There's many, you know, we're on old CMSs or on all sorts of stuff, right? We're integrating systems. We are moving 3PLs. It's a big beast. I mean, there's a lot of volume of units going on. So again, where we can simplify and work with partners that make things as easy as possible, that's what I want to provide my team. Another thing that you've done incredibly well, if I may, is collaborating with some of these more established brands, right? Target, J.Crew, Free People, an envious position for a lot of apparel companies or apparel brands.

21:53How do you do that? Look, again, what's unsexy is very sexy. I mean, the fact that we own the trust of these incoming mothers is very unique. And Hatch, I can credit Hatch with being that guiding light in maternity. And so when J.Crew wants to talk to an incoming mother, we want to do something cool for moms because we're recognizing the power of her. Our collaboration was a huge success and sold out pretty quickly. Target came to us and said, we want our women to feel fashionable. We need your taste that you're providing to the Hatch audience. Let's come up with a line together. And so at first when I started the brand, I used to pick up the phone and make calls and nobody would answer on the other side.