How To Start a Clothing Brand from Scratch

0:00Exciting news, Shopify Masters is now on YouTube. You'll be able to watch video interviews like this one with Hatch Collective. Just search for Shopify Masters on YouTube or click the link in our show notes. And as always, thank you for listening or watching. Now, without further ado, here is this week's episode. Hey, what's going on? I'm Benjamin Gottlieb and you are watching Shopify on Location, coming to you from New York City. You know, sometimes that next business idea, it's staring you right in the face. You just can't see it. That's what happened to Ariane Goldman, my guest today. She was looking for something that she couldn't find online, and so she decided to just build it herself.

0:43Ariane is here today, and so happy to have you. Thanks, Ariane. 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.

1:13I was shocked to find that nobody was actually kind of meeting me on the other side of this. Often 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.

1:39And 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. 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.

2:14And it's so fascinating because you would think that would have already existed in maternity clothing, right? I 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.

2:47And 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 we're 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, you know, 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.

3:19You 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.

3:53And 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.

4:26Getting 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 is 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.

5:00I 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, different business model that required capital. 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.

5:35We 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. No way. And, you know, the Times isn't necessarily a revenue driver, but it just opened the door to, you know, just the momentum.

6:09And 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. Is it no longer? Oh, 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.

6:42And And it's evolved over time. And 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. I got some of the celebrities in Hatch because there were no other options.

7:09Their stylists loved it. I'm a New York girl, so I had those relationships. You asked for favors, and we got off our feet. I love the – 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 – I mean, 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, building, having everything set up before you start this big marketing push.

7:48We 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? Well, I would not want, I don't know what advice I have to start a business today. And that's quite honest. I think, you know, the idea of filling a white space and there's so much out there, there's so much saturation that I'm not sure what's left to kind of modernize and come out with.

8:28But 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 in 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. And 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.

9:00I think that whole perception's changed completely. Like in order to start a business, you do need a lot of money these days just to get, you know, 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, you know, really one-to-one with the customer that gave me that launch pad. I love trunk shows. You know, my grandmother, she had her own women's golf and tennis clothing company. Wow. And they would fly over to the conventions and all sorts of stuff.

9:35And 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? I mean, we needed to diversify, especially with the iOS change, we had to kind of figure out another way to get into people's households. And by the way, for our listeners, this is a change to the privacy rules on iOS, Apple's operating system.

10:11Thanks for explaining that. 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 really go out to, as I mentioned earlier, 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.

10:39The 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, you know, a tremendous return on spend by using our network and our people as kind of our advertisers and our word of mouth. So 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.

11:16She'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. And 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.

11:50Um, 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. So we opened our first retail space here on Bleecker Street in Soho, um, in 2017. And it had a downstairs area that we started to, we wanted footsteps into the, 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.

12:26We 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. And 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.

13:03And 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. I 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.

13:36It's one of those things that as you build a brand or as you evolve, 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. Yeah, 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, just doing something and not expecting it to be as successful as it becomes. What's the lesson there?

14:07Is the lesson just try, just do? Sometimes, like you said, you could spend$200 ,000 and be like, oh, my goodness, what did I just spend my money on? Yeah. But is that the lesson? Is the lesson here, is the learning, just go ahead and try stuff? I think ultimately. I think many founders might be control freaks, right? I mean, you have an idea and you want to execute it, and then you're the only one that can execute it to the level that you sought, 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.

14:47But 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. Life changes too frequently, especially now. So you just have to be nimble. And you have to try things. 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.

15:28I 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 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 really 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 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.

16:10And 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?

16:40And 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.

17:17And 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.

17:47And 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. Yeah. So 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.

18:19And 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. And 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.

19:00As 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? I mean, it's just made it so easy for us to start to, you know, connect the dots and to, 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.

19:36And 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, right? Yeah, I mean, look, I'm not going to lie. Integrating these businesses is a beast. There's many, you know, we're - They'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.

20:08So 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. How 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 or 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.

20:56Target 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. And finally, it's turned around where the calls are coming into me. You send them the voicemail if you're too busy. Exactly. This social capital that you've built is really cool. And obviously, it's paying off in this space. Is it, is it possible to replicate that? If I was listening to this interview and I was like, man, I want to do what Arianna has done.

21:32I mean, how do you, how do you go about building some of that social capital today? I mean, just based on what I know, what you do is, must be meaningful, right? If you care about it, if it means something, there's a zillion ways that you can kind of dice that up to take it to market and figure out to connect. It's all about connections and I'm aging out. But what I'm seeing in this next generation is that that's what they're looking for, the appreciation and the connections. So you have to really care deeply and then figure out like what's going to trigger, what's going to impact, make someone feel something because everything else around us is just becoming so transactional.

22:10I think you're right. And at the same time, it might be the way in which we're interacting with our customers might be changing and it constantly does. But what we desire as human beings remains the same, connection, community, trust. You know, if I buy this thing, is it going to fall apart tomorrow? Can I put it in my closet and save it for the next pregnancy, for example, or wear it out after I give birth? I mean, these are things that are so important and they will remain important, don't you think? I think so. If anything, hopefully it'll come full circle. I mean, I'm a mom of two daughters and I'm watching what's happening.

22:42And I think there's got to be kind of a rebellion to, I mean, fortunately, like AI can't necessarily help you through pregnancy. Human people can, right? That relationship can. So I feel like our category might be safer than many right now for a bit. But I just think at the end of the day, you come back, you know, human to human connection. I mean, that's what this is about. So I think our attention is going to probably be tried and tested, but hopefully we'll come back to what matters most. First time we've talked about AI in this whole interview, and perhaps you're surprised it didn't come up earlier, but I'm curious, given the limitations that exist today, although those are starting to dissipate, how are you using AI at Hatch or Hatch Collective?