733 Samantha Gold: Founder & CEO of Motette

0:00I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be.

0:09Kara Goldin:You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to The Kara Golden Show. Today, I'm super excited to be joined by Samantha Gold, who is the founder and CEO of an incredible, fairly new brand called Motet.

0:55Kara Goldin:And it is a fast-growing children's clothing brand, redefining modern parenting with super stylish and ultra, not just ultra, but ultra, ultra soft bamboo essentials and built-in sun protection. So in under a year, she's grown Motet 300 % month over month, landed in over 35 U.S. boutiques without a showroom, by the way, and scored major features in editor-favorite roundups across many incredible publications. But before launching Motet, Samantha was the CEO of another incredible brand called Elizabeth James, the label, where she scaled the women's clothing brand into an eight-figure business. So now she's gone back to ground zero and applying what she knew, but has been forced to get a little scrappier and starting her own brand from scratch and doing it so, so well.

1:57Kara Goldin:So I can't wait to dig into the journey and what she's learned and also talk about the brand, of course. But Samantha, welcome. So excited to have you here. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Very, very excited. So, okay. So for someone who's hearing about Motet for the first time, how would you describe it? I would describe it as a brand for moms that are tired of cheesy prints and want a style for their babies and toddlers that reflect their own. Actually, just yesterday, we launched Mommy and Me as well. So we are expanding into women's. And so moms can truly match their little ones and wear elevated prints and timeless styles.

2:44That is a true reflection of their own style.

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4:25Kara Goldin:So I can, I'm so excited for this new collection that you're talking about. So what was going on in your life the days leading up to the decision to actually launch Motet? So I was, as you mentioned, the CEO of Elizabeth James, the label. And prior to even taking that role, I was exploring starting my own business. I feel like I've had this desire to do this, this urge from such a young age, just wanting to create something that was truly my own. My career actually started out in tech and consulting. So I spent many years at Salesforce, really working my way from the ground up and then ultimately leading different sales teams.

5:07And then that transitioned into various consulting opportunities where one of those I was consulting for Elizabeth James, the label. And ultimately that led to me becoming the CEO. But, you know, when you're the CEO, you're still working with a founder who might have different perspectives or ideas on where they want to take the brand. And I knew that, you know, I wanted to build something from the ground up that was my own. And after the birth of my two kids, I have a three and a half year old daughter named Blair and a son, Wesley, who's two. They're 19 months apart. I just felt like as a mom, there was this gap in the market in terms of, you know, prints and styles for kids that really had that sophistication.

5:51And so I incorporated my love of interior design into the brand and launched Motet using, as you mentioned, the ultra soft bamboo fabric that's hypoallergenic. Great for kids with skin issues, if any little ones are suffering from things like eczema. Also, any sensory challenges, everything is tag free. And so I truly built a brand that as a mom, I wanted for my own children.

6:18Kara Goldin:I love it. So when you were looking at launching the company, I read all about some of the offshore tactics that you've used in relationships. Can you talk about that and kind of how that has really helped you to not only launch, but also grow your company pretty efficiently? Definitely. And so honestly, very early on, I decided to lean on offshore support. And now I'm helping other female founders and product based businesses do the same. But ultimately, it came down to the fact that I was completely and I am completely self-funding Motet. And so I didn't have a big budget to bring in an agency or even hire someone.

7:02You know, I'm the only still the only full time employee for Motet. But I needed help. Right. I think as a founder, you're wearing all of these hats and that's just not scalable. And so I needed help at an affordable price point. And that was where I turned to offshore support. Fast forward to today, I now have eight women in the Philippines who are all moms who work part time for me and really like kind of soup to nuts help me with every aspect of the business, whether that's meta ads, email marketing, you know, website updates, all of my PR outreach, my wholesale outreach. truly, they help me end to end.

7:42And I've been able to build, you know, processes and onboarding documents, you know, really anything that's a repeatable process. I've been able to build, you know, standardized operating procedures around to make sure that they're successful and supported. And that is truly how I've been able to grow Motet, you know, as you mentioned, 300 % month over month and get into over 35 boutiques in less than six months.

8:09Kara Goldin:That's incredible. So how many SKUs did you launch with? So I launched with 16 prints across both babies and toddlers. And then sizes with all of them. Yeah. So about 125 SKUs in total. That's incredible. How did you know what to do there? Because it wasn't like, I mean, obviously you you had been working for another apparel company but it's uh it's different right like it's baby and i mean how do you figure all of that information out yeah i think you just start and you start testing and you start having conversations with different people i mean i truly um you know yes as you mentioned i came from this background but in terms of you know factories and manufacturing my connections were all in the women's apparel space and so i was starting with zero connections, honestly, and just doing research online and trying to find a factory that I thought would be a great partner for me.

9:06I first started with looking at Alibaba. I didn't have a great experience. If anyone is listening and curious about starting their own brand, I made the mistake of making way too large of sample orders to start. And I would see these photos online that were beautiful. And I was like, oh, this leaves like a great fit. And then you get the product and it doesn't match the photos with the quality that you're looking for. And so just start small. I think this process is going to take longer than you imagine. For me, the whole factory discovery process took at least about six to nine months, honestly, of going back and forth and different iterations and trying to figure out who was going to be the right partner.

9:44I found my partner, someone gave me this tip on importyeti.com. And so I don't know if you're familiar with that, but if there's a brand that you admire, Import Yeti tracks imports into the United States and you can often see information like factories. And so I was able to go to a brand that I truly admired in terms of the quality of the pieces and figure out who their factory was and then did some more Google researching and was able to source their contact information and sent them, you know, a WhatsApp message to this person in China. And that is, you know, the beginning of my relationship with my factory.

10:21But again, you know, you just have to start and you have to start somewhere and know that it is going to take time and resources. And we were fortunate enough that we were living in Charleston, South Carolina, and we had sold our home. And I basically put the proceeds from the sale of the home into funding Motet.

10:40Kara Goldin:I love it. So when you first launched, you were, were you primarily going into stores versus D2C or how were you actually, what was your go-to-market strategy? My go-to-market strategy was actually D2C to start. Something happened really organically about six months prior to launching the brand, I started building it in public. And so what I mean by that was I started my Instagram and I started sharing day to day what I was working on behind the scenes. And ultimately what unfolded, which I still have today, and it's kind of the foundation of the brand is something that I call my inner circle.

11:20And right now it's over 3 ,500 moms that truly weigh in on every decision related to upcoming collections like prints, print names, styles, and they share with me what they want to see. And essentially what I do is I add them to the close friends feature on Instagram, and then I create polls on a daily basis based on what I'm working on and get their feedback. And so ultimately what happened was 80 % of my sales on launch day, and we almost sold out our debut collection came from the moms in that inner circle who had truly been, you know, alongside for the ride, helping me build this brand. And it was moms in that inner circle that said, hey, you know, I have a child with sensory issues.

12:03Have you thought about tag-free labels? And I'm like, no, that's a great idea. So I did, you know, heat labels instead of an actual tag. They helped me. I had some challenges with naming the company where the original name ended up not being a viable trademark option. And so I went back to the drawing board and I was sharing with them the different ideas and, you know, the background behind them. And Motet is basically a made up word off of petite motifs and everything is based on these tiny prints. And so that was the one that the majority liked. That was the one that I went with. And so my strategy from launch day was truly direct to consumer.

12:42And then it was these moms in the inner circle. And I continue to also reward them too for being a part of this. And so, for instance, we launched women's yesterday and the first 25 moms in my inner circle that purchased from the women's collection received a$25 gift card towards their purchase. And that's just a thank you for all of their help in helping me co-create the collection. I love it.

13:06Kara Goldin:Well, I think nurturing a community for any brand is so critical today. And it's not just, I think, gone are the days where you can just ignore social media altogether because I think so often the consumer wants to know what's behind the brand, right? And I feel like, you know, you're just a testament to that. And one thing that I'll add on that point is Meta had a stat for 2024 that said that DM, so direct messages on Instagram, convert six times more than any Instagram post or reel. And so I have someone on my team that sends 100 to 150 direct messages to women on Instagram or moms that fall within my target demographic on a daily basis.

13:54And I think the ROI on that is so much higher than even my meta ads. And so if you haven't thought about that, or, you know, someone listening that has a brand, I'd really recommend, you know, looking at that strategy in terms of community building, but ultimately driving sales.

14:10Kara Goldin:That's awesome. And so did you find that not just on Facebook, but on Instagram as well or on both of them? Yeah, on both of them. And what I do is I'll go to other brands that are in a similar category and I'll look at their followers and I'll message moms that have babies or toddlers in their photos. And it's a manual process for sure. But when you're paying offshore support to do that, it's super cost effective. And when you look at the customer acquisition costs on something like Meta, if it's like$20 for a new customer, it's so much lower to send a direct message that takes two minutes, right?

14:48Kara Goldin:That's so, so interesting. So you were previously CEO of Elizabeth James. How did that experience prepare you for launching and scaling Motet in the way that you've seen today? I learned so much at that company. like I truly would have probably taken an unpaid internship. And because it was my it was my first experience in, you know, really in retail, which honestly, I think a lot of people are like, well, did you feel like you didn't have that background and that hindered you in that role? And I actually felt like it was almost an advantage because I came from, you know, I approached it with an outside perspective.

15:28And so I was challenging the way that things were done. And some members of my team would be like, oh, we don't do things like that. And I'm like, well, why not? Let's look at, you know, changing this process in a way that's just more effective. You know, I truly learned so much about, you know, communicating with the factory, what that looks like, the going back and forth, the timelines of, you know, you're truly designing six to nine months in advance, right? Things don't happen right away. You have to get samples before you place your bulk order. Also, you know, just end to end from a marketing perspective, whether that's direct to consumer or wholesale.

16:03I hadn't had any experience with wholesale. And so that was just, again, a great introduction into what it looks like to actually manage these retailer relationships. Did I want to go down the showroom route? Did I want to bring someone in who was a rep internally? And so understanding the different ways that I could approach wholesale was definitely something that I learned as well during my time at Elizabeth James.

16:28Kara Goldin:I love it. So tariffs are such a huge topic of conversation today in the U.S. for brands that are selling into the U.S. So how has that kind of changed your company? I guess you started in the middle of this conversation. So it wasn't like you had one price out there and then you've got to totally adjust that in some way, but how has that as a founder, as a CEO, how have you had to think about, you know, it's kind of an uncharted territory for many, many CEOs to sort of have to think about and act on. Yeah. And so I think the biggest thing there is not being overly reactive and impulsive. I think with the tariff conversation and everything that's coming out, there've been a lot of changes, a lot of fear around it, but truly sticking with, okay, faith that everything's going to work out exactly as it's meant to, having open conversations with my factory in terms of how they're handling this, what I can expect.

17:37My factory delivers duty paid, and so DDP, and so that means that they're actually the ones that are paying those tariff fees. But I knew ultimately if those were going to be increasing, then that would probably impact my unit pricing as well. So far, it hasn't. I was basically, I mean, you know, luckily outside of that window where there was that big spike, I had actually had my bulk order already delivered. And so I wasn't directly impacted by it. But I think, again, it goes back to that fear, right? Of like, what does this mean? You can go straight to this is catastrophic. I need to shut everything down.

18:16My business is not going to be sustainable. But really not, you know, just pausing. And I think in waiting for all the information to come in before we make a decision, that's what's important. And then again, like not being afraid to have those conversations with my factory in terms of, hey, you know, there's a lot that's being said. What are you seeing on your end? How is this going to impact my pricing? And just being upfront about it and getting all of the information before I make a decision. So far, it hasn't impacted my pricing.

18:44Kara Goldin:That's incredible. So when you think about your SKUs, your products, and the details about Motet that you think are really helping you to stand apart, What do you think is the key thing that maybe other baby manufacturers or baby apparel manufacturers are not doing that you're doing that potentially could have people knocking you off, I guess, along the way? And it's, I mean, the tags, you talked about that already. But what do you think you're doing that is so unique that is kind of makes you stand out? I would say, you know, going back to my inner circle, it's about listening to my customers.

19:36And so the other benefit of the inner circle is that I'm not placing orders without having customer insights. And honestly, there are times when I think, oh, this print is going to perform amazing and I put it up and I run a poll and it doesn't. And so that prevents me from making a decision on a colorway or a print that's not going to resonate and is ultimately going to lead to low sales. Right. And so I get that information that really helps me reduce risk from an inventory perspective in terms of making smart decisions. And I would say I haven't seen another brand out there that's doing that.

20:14And I think the other thing is like, again, leveraging offshore support. I have people on my team that are sending, for instance, my PR support assistant is sending 20 to 30 pitches a day to editors. I've been featured in Forbes, on Fox News. We have upcoming features coming out in different magazines, other news appearances. And so, again, I've just leveraged my background in sales. I write these pitches. I update them. You know, we're sending a sequence of three to five emails each time. We're hitting them up on LinkedIn, on Instagram. I don't see other companies that are kind of hustling this hard, especially in the e-commerce space.

20:55And I'm leveraging my background where, you know, I worked at Salesforce and I led a team in this Fortune 500 company where, you know, Salesforce truly provides kind of the MBA of, you know, the sales background. And so bringing that to the retail space, I think, is super unique. And that's how I've been able to get that visibility from a PR perspective, but then also grow wholesale. And so, you know, I've been reaching out to, you know, boutiques around the United States that are all a little bit more high-end children's boutiques. And so far, we're in 35. But again, that doesn't happen just by sending one message or one email to those people.

21:33That happens from following up aggressively. I actually have leveraged my inner circle. So I posted, you know, where do you shop locally for your children's clothing and then getting their feedback and then reaching out and saying, you know, so and so suggested that we'd be a great fit for your boutique. We'd love to have a conversation. And so thinking about it, you know, I think from a way that's super innovative and leveraging all of those resources and connections, like even followers on Instagram that you, you know, might not think might be able to help you, but they truly can if you leverage that in the right way.

22:07Yeah, definitely.

22:08Kara Goldin:We've had some other founders on here who have said exactly the same thing. I mean, everything from doing crowdsourced fundraising to, can somebody help me get into a certain retailer? I mean, you just never know who's actually listening, right? And I think it's so powerful. I was just going to add, you know, leveraging our leveraging your network. I'm a part of I don't know if you're familiar with Entrepreneista, but it's a group of women, female entrepreneurs. And so just like you said, like putting it out there. Hey, does anyone have a relationship at Bloomingdale's or Nordstrom? I have a call with Bloomingdale's next week from a woman that I met who has a connection there within the entreprenista community.

22:56And so, you know, joining these communities and asking for help, like I think people are often afraid to do that, but there's so many people out there that want to help. And so just just put it out there. What's what's the worst that can happen? You know, somebody doesn't respond or somebody says no. It's like, OK, you know, move on.

23:14Kara Goldin:What's a decision you made early on that, you know, was really scary, but became a turning point for the brand? I mean, I think honestly, like just quitting my job was so scary and just starting, right? Like, I have a husband and two kids and we have a pretty expensive lifestyle. And, you know, I'm a 50-50 contributor in my household. And so there truly was no plan B and risking it all in terms of this investment that we had made that really paid off our home in Charleston and the sale of that and putting that towards, you know, funding Motet. I mean, that was probably the biggest risk, right?

23:57It's really betting everything on this business. But I just know that I'm someone that loves a challenge. I have so much grit and hustle. And then I just was going to put everything I could into this brand to make it successful. and really make sure that I understood my target market and had those compelling differentiators that were going to set us apart. But yeah, I think it really just started with, yeah, making that leap, taking that leap of faith and taking that risk. I love it.