681: Dr. Angela Spent $350K Building The Skincare Brand Her Daughters Needed — Now It Does $40K/Month

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1:06Welcome to Little Empires, brought to you by the team at Founder. At Founder, our mission is to support the next generation of e-com founders. So while you may know us for interviewing some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, this series is a little different. Little Empires shines a spotlight on the builders inside our own founder community, the entrepreneurs who are in the trenches, taking action, learning, and building their businesses in real time. These aren't overnight success stories. These are real journeys, real lessons, and real founders creating their own little empires one step at a time.

1:39This podcast is proudly produced by the founder team to give our students a platform to share their experiences, wins, challenges, and honest realities of building a business from the ground up. Now, let's dive into today's episode. Welcome to the Founder Little Empires podcast. I'm your host, Leah Finch. Today's guest is Dr. Angela Casey, based out of Ohio. Angela is a double board certified dermatologist and the founder of Bright Girl, a skincare brand to helping the next generation build healthy skin habits for life. Angela's been drawing on years of clinical experience. She created Bright Girl to make preventative skincare simple, accessible, and empowering.

2:25So we're really keen to learn more about Angela's story, building Bright Girl through the founder community. Angela, welcome to Little Empires. It's great to have you here. Thank you so much, Leah. It's really great to reconnect with you. All right. So we want to start from the very beginning, Angela. I know there are lots of members from our community listening. They will be really keen to hear your story, juggling your full-time profession. Also, you're a mom, juggling that family life, and then how you have built Bright Girl. So take us back to the very beginning. Did you have any experience in e-commerce before you started?

3:01Not a bit. And I love to share that because if I can do it, anybody can do it. In undergrad, I majored in molecular biology and mathematics. If that tells you the kind of student I was, I went straight to medical school, then straight into residency training and fellowship and into practice. So really, at no point did I have any business classes other than very basic accounting that was required to graduate from college. And really in my family life also didn't have any sort of entrepreneurial mentorship. My father's a physician. My mom stayed home with us. So I didn't have a model or an idea or really an experience of seeing how this all worked.

3:47I do have an amazing husband who has some background in business development and marketing. But neither of us is really prepared for the beast of e-commerce and what that involved. And we've done a lot of flying this plane as we are building it along the way. At some point, you've just got to have liftoff and figure things out as you go. Yeah, that is like true words of anyone in the entrepreneurial space. Like build the plane as you fly. So you've got your clinical background, right? So you are a double board certified dermatologist and dermatological surgeon. So how did the product idea come to life?

4:26What was the inspiration for launching a skincare brand? Well, so Leah, I practiced dermatology and Mohs micrographic surgery, which is skin cancer surgery, for almost 15 years before this idea came to me. And when it hit me, it was so clear in my mind. What I was hearing from patients every day in my practice was, Dr. Casey, I just didn't know how to take care of my skin in my younger years. I grew up in an era where we didn't have sunscreen. We didn't have sun protection. Nobody knew how to take care of their skin. And then pair that with raising three teen and tween daughters that my husband and I are raising our girls.

5:09And I am feeling like a failure as a dermatologist because I'm struggling to get them excited about wearing sunscreen and using proper skincare. And instead of using the brands that I would recommend, that our dermatologist recommended, that all my colleagues love. My girls were turning to products that were really formulated for adult skin. They were much harsher products, really not appropriate or beneficial for young skin. So I'm seeing this mismatch in the world of like what my patients wish they had done, what my girls wish that they had, and really seeking a solution of where those worlds meet.

5:50I searched and searched for a brand that was exciting and engaging enough for my girls to want to use it every day that would teach them those good habits. It was also safe for their skin and I never found it. So that's really what inspired Bright Girl. To me and to any dermatologist out there, it is so clear how important it is to start good skincare habits from a young age. It's just like brushing and flossing your teeth. You don't wait until you're 30 to do it. You start it from your childhood years when you have your first tooth. Our skin is no different. We have to start really caring for it from the day that our children are born.

6:28But the key for our teens and tweens is really equipping them with the proper ingredients, the know-how, and the products that they're going to want to use every day. So they are building those good habits and that's setting the foundation for lifelong skin health. Yeah, and you can see that this cause, you're really passionate about it and it's something that you're connected with professionally. but then also of a mum of three and how important this is. And so what is it that makes the formula, I want to get into sourcing and manufacturing shortly, what is it that makes the formula of Bright Girls specific to young skin?

7:06We have so much research and an abundance of knowledge in this day and age of what ingredients are most appropriate and supportive for skin during that time, during the teen and tween years. Skin is very unique at that time period because our skin barrier is still evolving. The skin microbiome is changing and then we throw in the influence of hormones. So between the ages really of I'd say eight up into the early 20s, skin is very unique. It has unique needs. It's more sensitive. It's going to be producing more oil. Skin's kind of adjusting. And again, the skin microbiome is completely resetting and shifting during those years.

7:53So if you're not really tailoring skincare to that scenario, then you're missing the boat of being able to provide the best results and helping skin perform its best during these years. And that's what our teens and tweens are seeking. They want their skin to look good. They want it to feel good. They want products that they are going to look forward to using and they want to be adult about it, but also really have those products that speak to them and that brand that connects with them. So what sets Bright Girl products apart is that we've done all the research. It took three years of research and development and we can get into that more, but I had access to all the clinical studies, the white papers, the research on how ingredients act on our skin.

8:42And that allowed me to identify what we wanted to include in the formulations and what we wanted to leave out. So I combined all of that research along with almost two decades of clinical experience that I've seen in my own practice. And I really think that that's what allowed us to land in that sweet spot of formulations that are very elevated and exceptional and very different from anything else that's on the market. Yes, this is fantastic, right? And I can really see that you're an expert in this space and you care about the quality of the ingredients. And so I want to learn a bit more about validating the product idea, right?

9:18Before you laid down any money on sampling, formulations, ordering stock, how did that validation and testing process go? You knew that this would work and this would sell. So being the scientist that I am, the physician that I am, I'm very data driven. And it wasn't like, oh, we have a good idea. We're going to go out and create this. First of all, I sent out hundreds of surveys to anybody who I had an email address for. My husband and I created surveys in SurveyMonkey and sent them out to hundreds of individuals. So parents, grandparents, teenagers, like anybody and everybody to get their feedback and say, you know, what brands do you use?

10:01What do you like about them? What are you seeking? What scent profile do you like? What ingredients are important to you? What ingredients are important that you're not exposed to? We wanted to gather all of that data. So that was first and foremost. Then I spent a couple of years questioning thousands of patients over the course of those couple of years before this brand was brought to life. And same thing. I have the advantage of having patients of all ages, from teenagers up to patients in their 90s and some even over 100 years old. So I'm questioning the teens, their parents, their grandparents, maybe their great-grandparents.

10:38I'm wanting to know, like, what products are you using? What's important? What's a priority? What's on your mind as a teenager when it comes to skin care and your skin health? And so I'm getting all this feedback. And what I was hearing consistently from both teens and their parents and their grandparents was, we have no idea what brand to go buy for our 14-year-old. There are all these brands out there. We're seeing all these brands on social media. We go to the store. There are hundreds of options. We have no idea what to buy. And so they're coming to me for advice. And I'm thinking, again, we don't have a brand that's really speaking to these young people.

11:16Then we went out into the field, so to speak. Michael and I and our girls went to every major beauty retailer, Ulta, Sephora. We went to the big box stores, Target, Walmart, everywhere and anywhere to see what brands were talking to teens. We went into Macy's and they tried to sell my 12-year-old an anti-aging eye cream. There was just nothing on the market available. So the universe was telling us from the surveys, from all of our patients, from talking with friends and families, from going into retailers, there's not an option there. Like where is that go-to brand that mom can say, ah, this is the brand that I'm going to get for my 15-year-old daughter.

12:00And I trust it because it was created by an expert. So it wasn't there. I created the skincare brand that I wanted my own daughters to have. And I put my heart and soul and years of research into bringing that to life. Wow. Okay. So really thorough, really intense validation. I love all of that survey because you learn so much about your customer, their demands, their pain points, their challenges through that process. And it helps to refine the formula, the scent, the branding, the messaging, like it's such powerful data. And I also, I love what you said there around teens and tweens approaching skincare and wanting to approach it like an adult, right?

12:41We see this massive trend on TikTok of skincare routines done by 10-year-olds or even younger, right? And they're doing their skincare on TikTok much like an adult. So I think with the rise of TikTok and social media in general, there's so much more of that. So they want to have that skincare routine that they enjoy and take seriously. Yeah, there's a lot of marketing noise now and teens are very much bombarded by this information. So it's very confusing. It can be very overwhelming and they love a solution. They love a clear answer. That's what we strive to give them. I also want to just mention that my point of view as a mom and dermatologist is only one point of view, which is why it was so important to go out into the world and gather all of that data because what we found were some of the concerns that were really top of mind for teens were different than I would have thought that they were.

13:37And same thing with parents. What was a priority in terms of ingredients is different than what I think of as a priority in ingredients and skincare. So it was just very helpful to kind of objectively evaluate all of that information and then put that to use as we were creating the brand. Yeah. Okay. And now I want to learn more around that manufacturing process. So you spent a really long time doing that R &D and that really thorough research, validation, surveying hundreds of people. Walk us through what did that first version of the products look like? Yeah, so back in 2019 is when this idea first came to me.

14:20My husband will tell you the story of the moment I came home from work one day and said, I know what I need to do in this world. And he just looked at me and shook his head and he said, okay, I guess We're going to do this. That started a process of interviewing literally dozens of teams of cosmetic chemists all around the world until we found the right cosmetic chemists that could help us bring this to life. The next step was identifying benchmark products. And I was very fortunate as a dermatologist, I've had access to the most premier brands and skincare that are available over the course of my career.

14:58So I knew I wanted a moisturizer that absorbed like this and a cleanser that had the hand feel of that and a sunscreen that blended like this. And I could really assemble those benchmark products as the standards of what we wanted to use to guide our formulations and the feel and the experience of the products. Next, we did a lot of massive shopping trips to beauty retailers, gathering anything and everything of brands that we admired, especially in the clean beauty space, because we wanted to formulate our products to meet the highest and most rigid clean beauty standards. So really seeing what that looked like, brands that exemplified that and using those as we're creating the products.

15:44As I mentioned earlier, I went back to the white papers, the clinical research and all the studies that we have in dermatology to look at the ingredients and then brought all of this together. Once we identified our cosmetic chemist team that was the right fit for us and had the knowledge and experience to bring this to life, we went through, I'd say, three rounds of revisions is what we needed. And the reason we only had to do three rounds of revision is because I was so clear and really communicated all. I had done all the groundwork ahead of time. So it wasn't like we just threw together a moisturizer and then said, OK, what do we like?

16:23We're going to go back and change these things. Once we had samples available, I handed them out to anybody and everybody. And again, we went back to surveys of, you know, what do you like? Will you rank the absorption of this? Rank the smell. What do you think? Like, how did this feel in your hand? And again, going back to data, because I'm just one point of view, my family's one point of view, we wanted to really gather experience from a much, much broader focus group. And I think that that is really what helped us succeed and stand apart. And how did you find your manufacturer? Can you run us through minimum order quantities, pricing, timelines?

17:03What was that like? Yeah, we found our manufacturer through a lot of research online, asking anybody and everybody that we knew that worked in retail of some sort, if they had connections and would they introduce us to somebody who would then introduce us to someone else. We live in Columbus, Ohio, which we are fortunate. It's the 15th largest city in the U.S., but it's also a hub of several major cosmetic manufacturers, including Bath and Body Works. So we have a lot of individuals that work there. Procter & Gamble is just down the road in Cincinnati. So we've got major connections within our community and people who know people that even though we didn't know those individuals ourselves, They could make the introductions to help us identify our manufacturer.

17:54Through that system, we found packaging designers that were actually based in California, and they were the individuals who helped us identify the company where we would ultimately and still do source our packaging because we have customized packaging. We did not want to go with packaging that was mass produced. We wanted to create something special because, again, this brand was to be elevated. and differentiated from others on the market. So that was how we identified them. It took, again, Leah, this was years in the making. It's not like we found the packaging experts and then two months later we had our packaging.

18:35It was a much longer process than that. Minimum order quantities, we had to purchase 10 ,000 of each design because it was customized packaging. So we proceeded with that. That was a big leaping off point for us because when you're purchasing that many units and we launched with four SKUs, so 40 ,000 bottles and jars that we had to order and pay for up front. This was in 2020, then COVID hit and our cost for shipping the products went up 6x. So we had not budgeted for that. The costs were tremendous during that time because just as we were about to bring this to life is when all the supply chains came to a screeching halt.

19:25So we had to make that decision and we pushed through. We made the investment. It cost us a lot more than we budgeted for, but we pushed forward. Wow. Okay. And how about that timing? What was the cost of that first run? All in for the packaging, the manufacturing of the products themselves, the secondary packaging, we were close to$50 ,000. And that's not including all the other packaging that we did not fill at that time. So this is the first run of what we filled, which was what, a thousand units of each SKU. So 4 ,000 units total. We still had 36 ,000 empty bottles and jars in reserve. So all in, if you add that, it was probably closer to$120 ,000.

20:12And that doesn't include the cost to design the packages and working with a branding expert. so to launch this brand if you want like a quick like summary it was probably close to$350 ,000 to launch everything and years of research and development like time effort energy the money to back behind it like let's not underestimate how much has gone into it and so I want to fast forward to your marketing like can you tell us about up until today what has been your strongest marketing channel that you've leveraged to grow Bright Girl? I would say two major marketing channels. It's hard to dial in on just one.

20:54First of all is branching into distribution through dermatology practices. So we started branching out to dermatology practices in, we launched the brand in April of 2022 and then it was spring of 2023. So after about a year of D2C sales through our website, getting proof of concept validation that this was a product that had good market fit. Then we circled back to the experts and we said, OK, we've got validation from the population at large. We need to go back to the dermatologists and get validation from them. And that was the ultimate test because dermatologists are the most skeptical, discerning, very pessimistic about any new skincare brand that comes to the market because we're pitched all the time.

21:42I can tell you I am one. We get pitched all the time. And so our tendency is always to say, no, no, like we've got plenty of options. When the dermatologist recognized the differentiation of our brand, so much so that they started recommending it not only to their patients, but for their own children, that was validation. And then they were saying, we want to sell this in our office. So we started growing through dermatology practices. And when your first point of contact was with a brand is in your dermatologist's office and you go in and you see that brand, there's instant trust and validation just in that simple interaction.

22:24And that really helped us grow through that second year and eventually helped us be very successful in mass retail. And the second, I would say biggest. So that was a big, big ramp up for us through the dermatology practices. The second biggest ramp up that we've seen is through launching on Amazon. And that's simply because everybody does their shopping on Amazon. So once you have your brand awareness through social media, through retail, through word of mouth, email marketing, et cetera, everybody loves to throw an extra product or two in their cart in Amazon. And we've seen tremendous growth.

23:05We just launched our Amazon store a little over a year ago, and we have seen tremendous, I'd say month over month, like we're growing at a steady, like 10 to 20 % month over month, which is a real steady climb. All right. So I want to learn more about your different sales channels and how your sales have been performing. So you started with D2C. So you started selling online to Rector Consumers. Then you pursued Stocking Right Girling Dermatologist Clinics, which I think is fantastic, right? Like you said, you walk into a specialist appointment, you're going to instantly trust that brand that your specialist recommends.

23:42So that is so powerful. How are your sales tracking and what does that look like across these different streams? Yeah, so we are seeing now close to$40 ,000 in sales a month through our website alone, another$5 ,000 to$7 ,000 through Amazon. TikTok Shop has also been a tremendous channel for us. And I would say with TikTok Shop, we have a little bit more of peaks and valleys of sales, depending on which creators are promoting us, what the season is, special occasions, etc. But we're seeing consistently at least a few thousand dollars in sales from TikTok Shop average every month, which is tremendous.

24:30And then our wholesale also is probably another 20 % of our sales. And wholesale being not only through dermatology practices, but through major retailers like Beauty Space by Space NK, which has us in Walmarts, Nordstrom, Macy's. So we have a really nice mix, I think, of major retailers along with the online channel. What I would advise to first-time founders is really solidify that good D2C foundation because that's your core community. And yes, they might find you in other retailers, but you have to establish that base and then support it through your social media and email marketing. I'll really credit Founder was so tremendous for helping us learn the importance of email marketing.

25:25Christy Whitehill was just a wonderful mentor to us in that aspect and showed us how she had done that for her brand and that took us to a whole new level where we now see close to at least like 15 to 20 percent of our sales that are coming through our website coming from email marketing so it's exciting and that number continues to grow as we refine and improve that okay wow and so that opened have a whole new channel for you. I was going to ask you, what would you say was the most impactful thing of working with a coach at Founder? That was the most impactful in terms of seeing a direct impact on our sales.

26:05There are so many wonderful pearls of wisdom that we gathered from Founder. I think really helping us get a better handle on how to run our business. In the beginning, we probably spent money on things that we shouldn't have. We spent a lot of money on PR, a lot of money on marketing. There are things we could have done ourselves. We hired people to do these things because we didn't have confidence in ourselves until we worked with Founder and we started to understand how to run meta ads, how to run Google ads, how we could do marketing on our own, how to better tailor our social media and be clearer in that.

26:46So although we still do work with some teams to outsource some of those tasks because we simply don't have the bandwidth to do it all ourselves, understanding all the principles allows us to really direct those teams in a very clear manner so that we're achieving the goals that we're seeking. Thank you. I love hearing about that experience and how you leveraged a mentor to help you see things from a different perspective and also to empower you to build upon these skill sets. Like, as you've mentioned, it challenged you around ways to learn yourself. The biggest win with having a mentor, though, Leah, was being held accountable.

27:27When we knew we had the meeting coming up with Christy, we were like, okay, we've got to make sure we've got all of our ducks in a row and that we've done all the things that she told us we had to do. It's like having a teacher that's waiting on your assignment. When you're doing it on your own and yes, self-taught and self-paced courses are great, but the mentorship brings it to a whole different level. And when I mentioned those growth trajectories and when we really saw some tremendous growth, it was during that time that we were working with Christy initially and learning from her and she was sharing her experiences with us.