We Crashed Coachella With Zero Budget and Sold Out in 24 Hours

13:32Tessa Cohen:different energy I would imagine totally yeah it was very special can you assess what impact

13:40Sara Sebastjanska:Coachella ultimately had on the brand.

13:42Tessa Cohen:We sold out of Lovely Bunch in 24 hours. And that I think was because largely Coachella, I guess. Our first video also went viral. It was just a simple video of as we were building the brand, we wanted to capture everything. We're like, one day we'll use these clips as annoying as it is me being with the camera in front of ourselves all the time. I was like, one day we'll use it. So we made this basically like problem solution video where we're like, hi, we're Tessa and Sarah. We're two best friends. We founded this Benji because we felt like there was nothing on the market that existed. While we were doing it, we learned this thing.

14:21Tessa Cohen:And then here we are. And that video went really viral and it got people really excited. And at the same time, we launched at Coachella, which was like a snowball effect and everything just came together.

14:33Sara Sebastjanska:You both come from a marketing background. When that video went viral, how much of it came as a surprise to you versus how much of it felt like it was like a product of your expertise?

14:43Tessa Cohen:A lot of our background is performance marketing. So we haven't done that much organically on this side, but I've like always loved content creation and all these things. So definitely did not expect the first video to go viral. We were really excited about it. And I think it was just the perfect video to explain, hey, this is us, get to know us and get to know our brand.

15:06Sara Sebastjanska:And it's not a reinvention of the wheel, right? You see this very often with CPG founders, right? They do this sort of introductory TikTok saying this is who we are and why we're doing this to varying degrees of success, right?

15:21Tessa Cohen:Why do you think yours stuck? There just hasn't been any disruption in this industry. And I don't think bandage is something that people think of. And now they're like, oh, there's a brand that does it better. I think also bringing brand awareness to the fact that not all bandages are good for you and people not knowing it because it's not something they think about. So I think having a product that's very unique and just hasn't been disrupted in so long definitely helped. Yeah. I think also like people are so unique and they love expressing themselves. And now here's a product that you've never used to express yourself before.

15:58Tessa Cohen:So it's a really exciting place, especially our lovely bunch. People love the animals and the denim. It doesn't disrupt your outfit. So I think people are really excited to have a product that they can express themselves in this unique way. And it feels more like them rather than a Hello Kitty bandage. No shade.

16:17Sara Sebastjanska:No shade. No shade to Hello Kitty. Taking me back to being nine years old. Yeah. But sometimes we don't want to be nine years old anymore. What advice do you have for other founders who are looking to make a splash on a shoestring budget?

16:32Tessa Cohen:There's just so much content out there, right? It's really hard to stand out. And I think thinking of those little things that either haven't been done or feel unique to you will definitely help. For us, it was showing up in those unexpected places like Coachella. But also part of our guerrilla marketing is we make our PR boxes from scratch. So we care about sustainability. That's a part of Benji in general, but we were like, all these influencers are getting so many PR boxes sent to them and it costs so much money. Again, we're bootstrapped. So how can we make it unique? And as time consuming as it is, we make every single PR box from scratch.

17:12Tessa Cohen:We take our Amazon boxes. We take get boxes from our friends, we paint them, we customize them, and it just feels different and unique. And that made sense more personal. That made sense for us as a brand because you have that aspect of sustainability where we're not just buying more boxes, but also it's unique and I think different and hasn't been done. So I think thinking of something that makes sense to your brand, thinking outside of the box, because I think it's really easy to do content that's been done over and over again, but trying to really think what would resonate with my audience.

17:49Sara Sebastjanska:Just how long did those PR boxes take you?

17:51Tessa Cohen:Well, like one, sometimes one box can take most of the day, which makes us be very intentional. Multiple days. It depends. Like sometimes we're putting like embellishments on it. Oh, that's right. My Bethany Frankel box. A few days, for sure. It took days. Yeah.

18:07Sara Sebastjanska:And how have they paid off for you?

18:08Tessa Cohen:They've paid off really well because suddenly this influencer who gets PR all the time gets a box that's like has an inside joke that they say with their audience on it. And so they want to share it because they're like, oh, my God, guys, look at how funny this is. And then we have access to their audience and it's a very organic moment. So it pays off really well. We sent one to one influencer and it pushed our product to sell out. They want to share it more because they're like, this brand took time to make something so personal. To me. And I think when we make the box that feels very unique to them, whether it's like a saying, their name, they're more likely to share it.

18:47Tessa Cohen:And their followers also are more likely to come to our page and be like, oh, this brand's doing something different. So we're trying to make them as personalized for every person as we can. Very time consuming, but as long as we can do it, we're going to carry on with it. it's not as scalable. Yes. And we're aware. We are aware. But it is something that means a lot to us because it's sustainable. And that's a big part of who we are. Like our box is made with no plastic. Our wrapper doesn't have any plastic. It's rice paper. So you can see through it and know what design it is without having to use plastic.

19:22Tessa Cohen:And this was a way to incorporate that and kind of like walk the walk of what our brand means to us. It's fun to make. Like it's a little art project when things are really stressful in the day I'm like I have to make a box I'm so sorry

19:37Sara Sebastjanska:gotta walk away so it is nice kind of a nice excuse to do something creative when you've been mired in other things that you want to set aside you're also speaking to doing something Sarah as you were saying like that's so custom and bespoke and like what does anybody want in life other than to feel seen so I think there's like such an incredible lesson in this it's like Like, yes, like send your product out. But if you can really show the person who's receiving it that like you really did your research and you really thought about them, then, you know, your chances of them actually resonating with it, it feels like it goes up exponentially.

20:15Tessa Cohen:Yeah. And it's not like a transactional relationship. Like we're sending these things to them because we love these influencers or these actors or whoever it is. We grew up with these people and we're like, we get it. We've followed you for a really long time and we want you to have our product because we love you and you're so cool. And so it comes off way more genuine.

20:35Sara Sebastjanska:Because it is. Yeah. It seems almost like a dream scenario, right? Like you launch and you have this huge moment at Coachella and you have this TikTok that goes viral. You sell out very quickly. Certainly not every video can perform in that way. You're not going to have a Coachella all the time. Like how do you think about keeping your momentum going as you move forward? And what are your metrics for success when you came out swinging?

21:00Tessa Cohen:Coming from e-commerce and performance marketing background, we know that this isn't a sustainable way to grow your business, just consistently relying on virality. So up to this point, everything we've been doing has just been purely organic. But as we grow, we're continuously thinking of like, how are we sustainably going to grow this business without relying on virality? But we're always trying to think like, what is the next thing we're going to do? How are we going to send out? So we're always trying to think of different ways to keep it up. And then the other thing we'll do is try to figure out like, who's big and going on tour?

21:39Tessa Cohen:Can we be at their concert? Can we do something unique around that? So it's like finding cultural moments to be a part of as well.

21:48Sara Sebastjanska:Nice excuse to do fun stuff too, right?

21:50Tessa Cohen:Yeah. And I think like to all the founders listening to it too, it's like your video might go viral and the next one might not. And it's okay. I think we all get in our heads about, you know, well, one video went viral. What's next? Like not, it's not going viral. I'm going to be so upset about it. No, that's just the algorithm. You cannot control it. So just got to keep going, stay consistent and always be out there.

22:14Sara Sebastjanska:It sounds like it kind of started almost like an aesthetic exercise for the two of you. Like, let's make these cuter. And then you started digging into the research and all these other things came to the fore. What was it that you were finding?

22:26Tessa Cohen:We saw a study by Momovation where they actually looked into bandages to see what chemicals were there. And that was the first indication to us that people weren't intentionally making them. They were just solving a problem of needing a bandage for a cut. But these things have direct access to your bloodstream, they shouldn't have chemicals. Everything is a chemical, but they shouldn't have chemicals that are forever chemicals that are bad for our environment and bad for your body. So that was really how we started to like think about things and pull this apart and re-imagine it together. But it definitely started off as we wanted an accessory that people could express themselves with.

23:11Tessa Cohen:A lot of our friends are allergic to latex too. So it's important for us to make sure that they're latex free. They feel just much softer on your skin because they are made from bamboo. Sometimes bandages can feel very plasticky and it's just not nice. So that was another thing that we wanted to make sure that we really touch on.

23:30Sara Sebastjanska:Yeah, I'm sporting one right now. Looks cute on you. Thank you so much. I feel like it goes with my outfit very nicely. It is a lot softer than a regular bandage. And I can also see that like one could just wear it sort of as an accessory. I mean, like full disclosure, I don't actually have a cut underneath this. You know, I feel like it's really, it's really working, but I feel like you guys had this inflection point early on where you go into it with one idea, right? Best laid plans as founders. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh my God, there's chemicals in these that we hadn't considered.

24:06Sara Sebastjanska:Now it's like a totally different game that you're playing. Was there any part of you that like looked at each other and said like, maybe we've hitched our horse to the wrong wagon here?

24:15Tessa Cohen:A lot of times. Yeah. Definitely during like testing. Because we had to get all of our claims validated. And also we wanted to make sure that as we're setting the standard, it was actually meeting the requirements that we decided were important to us. We are a class one medical device too, which we didn't really know going into it how we would have to be compliant with the FDA and do all these things around it. Once we got to that point, it was like, oh, this is a bigger project than we thought it was going to be. And I think because this is such an untouched industry, not something that's been questioned or done before, there just wasn't a lot of answers.

24:58Tessa Cohen:and we worked with so many FDA consultants and we tried to get all the answers we could, even though they're wearing the clearest of the answers. But we wanted to make sure that we set the standard for this industry. It's not just like, you can probably get away with it. It's probably not a big deal. It's just a bandage. But we didn't want to take that for the answer. We wanted to set the standard.

25:19Sara Sebastjanska:You said you worked with so many FDA consultants. Why?

25:23Tessa Cohen:I think they were just used to working with class two medical device. So we just didn't seem like a big deal to them. Yeah, I think their experience was different. So we ended up paying them to kind of like learn about the industry and we can learn about the industry. We didn't know what we didn't know at the time. And I think any consultant is willing to take your money. And that's something that we learned is that we need to be requesting like before we give them any payment, what would your plan B and understanding how they're going to work with us and how it makes sense. But yeah, so we worked with, I think, three different ones.

26:04Tessa Cohen:And we interviewed a lot. Yeah. But a lot of them didn't even want to take on the project because it's something that just hasn't been touched or done. So they didn't know how they could help us. And ultimately, we ended up doing so much research on our own. And that's not our background at all. but we knew that we just needed to figure it out. If you have a goal you have to be unrelentless in figuring it out and really devoted and so we read a lot of materials about what's required, what isn't required and like even just the testing methods to make sure it made sense to us because you could pass one test in one format but then you could fail it in a different format and we didn't want that to happen to our product.

26:49Tessa Cohen:We wanted to pass no matter what kind of testing method they used. So it was a very interesting process and very difficult. The fee to be part of the FDA is really high. We didn't know that going in. So it's just been a very fun, but that's probably the most frustrating part of launching Benji.

27:09Sara Sebastjanska:I mean, you're speaking to a lot of obstacles that you didn't and really couldn't have anticipated when you were first starting this journey. At every obstacle, you have the opportunity to say, it's too hard. I don't want to do this. You know, did you guys ever have that dark night of the soul?

27:25Tessa Cohen:I don't think so. I feel like we just knew we had such a great idea. And we were like, if we don't take this leap, someone else will. So we believed in it so much, even though when we pitched the ideas to friends and try to like tell them about Benji, they weren't always the most understanding of it. but we believed in it so much. We were like, no matter what happened, we'll get it figured out. Even if it takes multiple consultants, us spending our nights just doing all this research, we believed in it so much that we didn't take no for the answer.

27:58Sara Sebastjanska:Yeah. That's the key. What was some of the pushback that you were getting from people in your lives?

28:03Tessa Cohen:I think they just didn't get it. And that's fine. We actually stopped talking about it completely with people, partially, I should say, because Sarah and I didn't, we thought it was a great idea. We didn't want anybody else to ever hear about it and beat us to the punch. And we didn't want to like speak it into existence. Every time I opened TikTok, I did it with like one eye closed because it's like, I don't want to see anything. Anytime we throw a bandage anywhere, we're like, oh, please don't be. But I think also like statistically, if you start sharing your ideas before they're like acted on, you're less likely to do those things because you get that validation.

28:39Tessa Cohen:And so we were really cagey. Even with some of my closest friends, they were like, what are you working on? I was like, can't talk about it, but you'll be the first to know. Top secret. Yeah. Annoyingly. Yes. A lot of it too was, why would you need a bandage? Like people don't think about buying bandage until something happens. And I think our goal was to change that conversation around how do we make people think about having them on hand for those little moments of healing when something happens, but also it doesn't take away from their outfit. So some of the pushback was also like, why do I need to have it?

29:14Tessa Cohen:And we're like, no, that's our goal to change that conversation. Yeah. I think if I started out my night with one bandage on at my wedding, I would have been good. But by the end of it, I had like seven bandages on because the blister had just gotten so big. Like, so preventative wear is really big for us too. You should always keep them in your purse. And as soon as you feel your shoe starting to rub, put a bandage on, cover it up, and you're good to go.

29:40Sara Sebastjanska:You are changing the perception of bandages in a big way. This dopamine hit that you're speaking to, like when you talk about something before it's done, it sort of tricks your brain into thinking that you've done it. And then you can kind of get away with not doing it. At the same time, there's something to be said for manifestation and speaking things into existence.

30:01Tessa Cohen:We're so big on that.

30:02Sara Sebastjanska:Right? It's a double-edged sword, right?

30:05Tessa Cohen:We manifest together. We actually had a whole session where we sat down and we wrote out goals that we honestly felt ridiculous saying. Where we were like, we want, you know, this person to post about us. And a lot of these things came true in the first, like, month. So it's been really cool. but manifestation is huge and so important and we we do it often yeah and we didn't really believe in it until we started doing it and we're always like when this happened not if this happens and honestly it makes a huge difference so anytime we want something to happen we're just like we're

30:40Sara Sebastjanska:gonna manifest this and it will happen I love to hear that yeah we never say if we always say when

30:46Tessa Cohen:we always speak about you know what Benji is gonna look like in five to ten years we're never ever doubting ourselves or our product.

30:56Sara Sebastjanska:What's one thing that you were jointly trying to manifest that when it came true, you were like, oh my God.

31:02Tessa Cohen:I think mine was the Dye Line post because design is so big for me. And I've been on that platform for so long looking for inspiration. And I really wanted them to notice our packaging and say, it's great. So when we got that published, that was the best feeling in the world. It was huge for me. and I think for me we are launching in a retailer in October that it's just always been on like my dream list I'm like such a CPG gal I love everything CPG so we put it on there we're like it's gonna happen one day and we didn't think it was gonna happen so soon so manifestation yeah and you can't yet reveal what that retailer is we can we can we're going to launch and pop-up grocer in New York.

31:48Tessa Cohen:Yeah. Really exciting. Yeah. We're so, we're so really excited.

31:53Sara Sebastjanska:Congratulations. I love it. I love it when we get business advice like this, like manifestation is really, it works. It's like really a story of being incredibly resourceful. You know, you're like, we don't have the budget to be at Coachella. We're going to figure out how to be there anyway. We got to figure out how to be FDA compliant. We're going to try to like get as much knowledge from these consultants as possible and then essentially do it ourselves. Have you both always been super resourceful or is this something that you sort of had to learn out of the necessity of this experience?

32:23Tessa Cohen:We both don't take no as an answer. And I think that's what we really love about each other. We were coworkers first, then we became best friends, then we were coworkers again. And I think when you work with someone first, you've learned a lot about how they are, what their work ethic looks like. And I think that's what we liked about each other. We're like, we're not taking no for an answer. We're going to figure it out. I've always noticed that Sarah matches my energy of how hard I want to work. And that's where there's a reason we've worked together at multiple companies and then started our own thing.

33:01Tessa Cohen:It's because we work so well together. And I think your chances of succeeding with a good co-founder go up because you can split the workload. You can be in two places at once. You also have somebody who can understand the things that you can't. And so we divide and conquer when necessary. But I've always known that she's like the most resourceful and she does not take no for an answer. And I feel like I'm very much so the same and try to try to be that way. And it inspires me to continue to be that way because I'm like, oh, am I being annoying? And Sarah's like, no, get in there. Do it.

33:37Sara Sebastjanska:And the journey is hard, right? So it's like when one of you is having a really tough day, the other one can sort of be the cheerleader and vice versa.

33:44Tessa Cohen:It happens a lot. One of us will have a crash. The other one's like, no, snap out of it. We got we got a job to do.

33:50Sara Sebastjanska:What is one thing that you feel comfortable saying that you want to manifest for Benji in the next six months?

33:57Tessa Cohen:I really want a cool collaboration. I think do either like a brand or a really great influencer. I would love to do a collaborated box. I would love to work with Alex Earl, if you're listening. Speak it into existence. Alex Earl, if you're listening. And I think for me, it would be doing something IRL. I think while we're doing great online, we definitely want to be out there. Like Coachella was such a fun moment for us as a brand, but also as us founders. So doing more things in person, having like a cool brand or being a part of something that's in person where we get to meet people who also love Benji would be really cool.

34:38Tessa Cohen:Wow.

34:39Sara Sebastjanska:I look forward to having you back and you guys can tell me about how you brought those things to fruition. Sarah, Tessa, thank you guys so much for being here. Thanks for having us. And thanks to you for watching. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss a new episode. We drop weekly. We'll see you next time.