812 Kailey Bradt: CEO of Sonsie

0:00Kara Goldin:I 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. 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 Carol Golden Show.

0:45Kara Goldin:Have you ever stopped to think about what clean beauty really means? Our next guest has, and she's approaching it from a completely different angle. So what happens when a chemical engineer, someone trained to think in systems, formulation, and science step into the CEO role of a mindful skincare brand built around simplicity and self-acceptance? I cannot wait to talk to Kaylee and hear a lot more about this incredible brand that she is the CEO of called Sansi. She launched it with none other than Pamela Anderson. So it was a very, very exciting cooperation that the two came up with. And I'm so, so excited and happy that she did.

1:38Kara Goldin:So Sansi, you are gonna hear a lot about them going forward. So such an incredible, incredible beauty and skincare brand. So very excited to meet you, Kaylee. Thank you so much for having me, Cara. Absolutely. So for listeners who are just hearing about Sansi for the first time, how do you describe the brand and what makes it unique and different? Yeah. Sansi is really about embracing who you are and being the truest version of yourself. really obviously Pamela is a huge inspiration behind the brand but she really felt most herself when she went back to her garden and peeled it all back and really remembered who she was where she came from and kind of who she is day to day and so when you experience Sansi when you see Sansi on the shelf we just want you to kind of remember like this is what you come home to this is like where you ground yourself.

2:37This is your reminder to like just be you. It's the most beautiful thing that you can be. Okay.

2:43Kara Goldin:So Pamela Anderson, amazing, amazing celebrity to have involved. And when I think about her skin and her beauty secrets that she must have to stay in the kind of like to look like she, I hate to say it about looks, but you can just tell that her skin is healthy. So it's exciting to see that she's decided to really not just launch a company with great products, but also a philosophy around authenticity and, you know, real tangible product decisions. So can you talk to me about sort of how Sansi came about? I mean, what was it that, But like, how did this come about? Yeah, we really started with this idea of like, what are the essentials?

3:40And we were building for people specifically with sensitive skin. So Amla has very sensitive skin. I have very sensitive skin. And it really came from this place of like, okay, where are people buying their essentials? And when we started asking around, it was like, you know, oh, my friend picks up stuff for me when she goes to France and goes to the French pharmacy. You know, that's a huge trend. It was a lot of people who were having reactions to something they had been using for years. So we were kind of getting these different groups of people, but everybody fundamentally gathered around the same thing, which was essentially, I have sensitive skin.

4:20I'm either, you know, having a really hard time finding something that's consistently okay for me. or I'm aging out of the brands I was using, kind of the elder millennial who was outgrowing these bright colored birthday cake lip balms and things like this. But they didn't wanna go to necessarily a highly clinical brand because they didn't like the smell or it was too intense for their skin. They didn't really know where to go to next. So we had this older demo and this younger demo coming together in this really beautiful way, connecting around like, I just want something that works for a sensitive skin.

5:01A lot of people have dry skin as well in our community and coming together of like, we just want something we don't have to worry about. And when you, you know, you can rely on these things, you don't have to stress about it. And I think that's really where, you know, especially Pamela, who's going on red carpets and traveling all the time. It's just like, you want something you can depend on. And that feels like grounding, as I said, just like, okay, this is a piece of home I can take with me that I know I can count on. And it feels really nice. So that's really where it started. And obviously, it's grown so much since then.

5:39But that was our beginning point, our launchpad.

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7:24Kara Goldin:60 days gives you plenty of time to see exactly how much time and money you're saving on every shipment. That's stamps.com, code CARA. That's stamps.com, code CARA. So how many products did you start with and how has that changed today? Yeah, we started with three products. So we had a lip balm. We had a serum, which is our hero product. That's kind of like the star of the show. Everyone loves the most. But we also had the multi-moisture cream, which is now an Allure Best of Beauty winner and has been quickly catching up to the serum. Everybody loves these three products. Obviously, we didn't launch with a cleanser.

8:11We really wanted to focus on those kind of problem areas. And we thought, you know, like people probably have a cleanser they like. Turns out everyone was asking us for a cleanser. So that was our next product that we made. That one was actually really fun as well because because we got a lot of feedback from our customer base about how they, you know, some people were coming from these brands that had heavily scented products. So a lot of those luxury brands that you're used to the fragrance, right? And so when they were coming to our brand, they're like, Oh, I like that it's fragrance free, but are you ever going to launch anything with fragrance?

8:51and being focused on sensitive skin, I actually was like, wow, this is a really cool opportunity to do a fragrance, transparent, you know, safe for sensitive skin tested formula because there aren't a lot of those products on the market. So we were actually able to then launch this cleanser, which again, it's not fragrance free, but it does just have a natural rose extract and it's safer sensitive skin. And it kind of gives you that like luxury, luxury world coming into like those really safe for sensitive skin essentials, which there's not a lot of that on the market. So that was really fun. Our next product that we launched was the Adapt Cream.

9:33So we're up to five essentials. We've been around for about two and a half years. And the fifth product was actually the first one that over time would actually help to improve your skin beyond just the maintenance and the barrier repair, but actually help to even skin tone, smooth fine lines and wrinkles. And that one is called the Adapt Cream. It sits between the serum and the multi-moisture cream. It's more of a mid-weight moisturizer. And it's also a really fun green color. So those are the five skis right now.

10:08Kara Goldin:So you had been, prior to jumping into the CEO role, you founded another company. What did you learn? I always love to talk to serial entrepreneurs because you always learn something, right, from the previous weather. And it's usually based on maybe the hard times, right? And I won't call it a failure, but it's the stuff that is just didn't see coming and it just makes everything really messy. I mean, I've heard from so many founders, whether it's the board or the investors or, you know, building teams or relying on overseas manufacturing, whatever it is along the way. But what do you think you learned from being a serial entrepreneur or in your previous venture?

11:07Yeah, I would say there's like three big learnings that I would give to anyone who's in the early days of their first business. The first one for me, which I think when I was building the first time, I didn't value myself enough, which probably doesn't sound great, but actually building around me and supporting more of myself and what I was doing, I really built out a team and continued to support them without giving myself more support as we scaled so for example making sure everyone even had an intern like to help them out on things I never hired an assistant I never hired someone that was really dedicated to helping me create content like things like that that today I definitely would say like hire support around you especially with the way that social media is number two is definitely tangible.

12:03It's like have really, really, really good partners. And I do agree, like you mentioned, manufacturing. It's so great to have a place. It doesn't matter if it's overseas or not, because I think there's technologies globally where everyone has their expertise. So it really does depend on the product you're building. But make sure you can go there and you can continue to visit those locations. And they're within reach for you. It doesn't necessarily have to be geographically, but with your schedule, make sure you're building that in. Relationships are so important and the people are so important.

12:36It's not just your immediate team. It's also those people that you put your trust in to develop every single part of your business, even if it's a postcard. You need to make sure you can call them. And the third thing is trust your gut. I think, again, to your point, I went the traditional venture route. I raised over$3 million with my first business, I lost not control of my company, but I would say some element of trusting myself and control of my decision making. Because it was my first business, I think there's always imposter syndrome. I was also very young. I think it was like 25 turning 26 when I closed a$3 million round.

13:16So very early in my career. And when you have that experience, I think you go from this extreme confidence to maybe even like more extreme humbling, you know, you have highs and lows. And so I really felt like these people have done it before these people around me have done it before. And again, I always come back to the people like these three all relate to people at the end of the day. But you want to make sure you have mentors that are there that trust you because they invested in you and they can continue to mentor you in a way that's not prohibitive to you trusting your instincts, which I think is really important.

13:56Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. I couldn't agree more. So many celebrity brands rely heavily on marketing, and Sansi feels product-led. So was that intentional from day one as you took on this role of CEO and obviously Pamela is very involved in the company as well. But why did you want to lead so much with product versus having a person and the marketing? Obviously, she's attached to the brand, but it's not all about marketing. Yeah. I think we're looking to build this world. And, you know, Pamela is part of that world. Product is part of that world. Our entire team is part of that entire world, right? And so with product, I think, especially for our brand, it's really important to make sure we have a strong product story because I think a lot of people do write off celebrity brands.

14:58And, you know, it's look, in some cases, it's not without reason. In other cases, there's brands that have celebrities attached to them that have built incredibly well. Like, obviously, Rode was the most successful recent exit we saw. But even Rare Beauty is doing a phenomenal job. They haven't sold. Whether they do or not, you know, I think they've built a great brand outside of Selena. And so with Sonsi, I do think it's very important to obviously have a strong product story and show what we're doing differently because we are very different than those other brands out there. We're putting sustainability first in a really big way.

15:42And we're also putting innovation first as it relates to sustainability. so there will be much more of that this year that we're starting to share um i i don't know when this episode will come out but i'm going to harvest some kelp in alaska and we're going to talk about this ingredient that we're using that's really good for the planet so we just want to show a little bit more and and not get stuck into this kind of like celebrity led brand where you know we continuously pull inspiration from Pamela and I speak to her all the time. We text. It's really fun to have her be a part of this, but we want to build a world of Sansi that people really feel like they belong in.

16:26And so that's so much bigger than one person. Where did the name Sansi come from? So it's actually this idea that, you know, your inner beauty is present on the outside. So kind of the feel good, you look good. Sanzi like literally means healthy outer appearance. So we just really felt like it tied to skincare as a part of wellness. And it's really the connection between the two.

16:54Kara Goldin:So Sanzi is focusing on the high performance essentials rooted in simplicity. So simplicity in kind of any lab setting, right, is there's a lot of components to it. But how do you keep it simple, right? How can you keep simplicity there? You're a chemical engineer by background, which is amazing. But I'd love for you to sort of talk about that a bit. yeah I think you know every industry has trends right even in fashion we see like really extravagant clothes and we see pairing back to the simple silhouettes like I think beauty is in that simple silhouette era and we need a little bit more of that I think we got a little bit crazy with clean even like clean got a bad rap for a while and you know for me clean has always been as synonymous with safe, actually.

17:58And that doesn't always necessarily equal every term across the industry. Sustainability and clean, to me, are separate. But I think sustainability should be present in a clean brand because for us, it goes back to our ethos. And so when we're talking about product, we always look at what is a simple formulation that does the job with good, proven ingredients? And then can we source those ingredients better? And can we get all the claims we're looking for when it comes to sensitive dry skin? And then of course, the final step is, does the customer actually notice it working? So we don't try to overcomplicate it.

18:39We're not the brand that is going to launch the$300 stem cell, you know, plant peptide serum that's going to like lift your face in a week. You're never going to see that from us. A lot of our customers do other things. For example, they might get laser once a year. And again, they want those products that they can come back and recover with. This actually happened to me last year. I got a laser treatment for the first time. And I was given this cream. She's like, use this. It's the only thing that doesn't irritate your skin. And let me tell you, it irritated my skin. And I went and I just put the multi moisture cream on.

19:20And I did two rounds of this laser. And the second time was like a piece of cake compared to the first time because I had such a negative reaction. And it's funny, I think, you know, we're becoming more sensitive to these things, especially as I've aged, I've noticed more sensitivity in my skin versus less. I'm like, that's never happened to me before. So you have to be really careful. And that's, that's where our formula is like, They're simple. You're not going to see 100 ingredients on the back. We don't do the sprinkling of marketing ingredients just so we can name seven actives. We're like, here are two actives, here are their percents, the rest of the formula won't irritate your skin, and they all play nice together.

20:02It's really that simple. And if you do have that crazy serum that you want to try out, maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. I've seen some pretty good technology recently. But it's okay to include that in your routine because you can build your essentials around it. You're still going to need a cleanser, right? But your cleanser doesn't need to be $80 and it doesn't need to have peptides. There's crazy things out there. So that's really where we're coming from.

20:32Kara Goldin:When you think about the... I mean, it's a system, right? You have the five products. And can you talk a bit about what people should do when they're using your products to have better skin? Yeah, absolutely. So you can use literally all of our products morning or night or both. Again, we really look at like every ingredient and cumulative as well. So our cleanser, great again morning or night it's meant to be like a calming and hydrating cleanser so it has a ginger root extract which is honestly so nice for cleansing the skin I know like origins used to have this like ginger line my grammy always used it and so I pulled a little inspiration from this cleanser that she loved as well back in the day I don't even know if they still sell it but that is actually an amazing ingredient for calming skin from inflammation to redness.

21:35It's amazing. So if you're one of those people that gets really irritated with cleansers or has that like dry tightening feeling after, like give this cleanser a shot. I'm so picky with cleansers. The first product I ever made in cosmetics was a shampoo. So cleanser chemistry, I feel like, is like my bread and butter. And then we have the serum, which is super nice. It's a water and oil serum. So it's an emulsion. It's not just a water-based serum. So you see a lot of hyaluronic acid serums, these kinds of things. This one actually takes you straight into your moisturizing routine. So it does hydrate and it also lightly moisturizes.

22:15It has 4 % niacinamide, which is great for skin at all ages. It's great at controlling oil, supporting the barrier. If you have acne or you're acne prone, it's really nice. If you have fine lines and wrinkles, it's really nice because it's helping to maintain hydration. So that's the first step. It's kind of the lightest step of everything. Then you have the Adapt Cream, which I mentioned is this like green cream. It's really fun. The green actually immediately gives like a slight redness cancellation. But then it has this bacillus ferment ingredient that comes from this bright glowing red river in Spain.

22:53It's like this crazy river, Rio Tinto. You can look it up. It looks like it's from another planet. And that actually helps your skin with firmness. So essentially increasing elasticity and with rebuilding your skin barrier and evening skin tone. You can literally see it working sometimes in two days. Like I've had friends of mine send me photos and be like, what did you put in this? And then you want to keep using it. And I think this is the problem with some products is like the peptide serums, for example. You expect them to work right away. So this one, we have the short-term benefit from the Bacillus ferment.

23:35And we have the long-term benefit from this peptide that we put in there. And it's a really cool peptide. It actually helps maintain collagen, not just build it. so that is a beautiful formula like you can use it as an eye cream you can use it as a spot treatment you can use it on your whole face I put it all over I have a lot of redness so I love it and then multi moisture cream as I mentioned it's an Allure Best Beauty winner it's one of our favorite products um especially amongst the more mature skin demo like you can literally see the smoothing effect on skin when you put it on. You can also wear it as a mask overnight or just like a quick daytime mask.

24:18It's such a cool product. I don't know how I survived winters before it because it's just like the best rich cream doesn't clog floors. Like it's, it's so good. Um, I also use it as a hand cream during the winter. So that's a little like hack. And then our lip balm. I actually, we re-released the lip balm because I put a peptide in it. So we have this peptide in there that not only increases collagen production, but also helps increase the hyaluronic acid in your lips. So your lips stay hydrated longer. Over time, the more you use it, you know, the more production you'll get. So again, it has short-term benefits that you would have with a normal lip balm, softening, nourishing.

25:03It has kind of a glossy finish. And then literally, you'll just be like, my lips don't get dry anymore. And I like to have short and long-term benefits. So people use products long enough to see them working.

25:17Kara Goldin:I love watching you build this brand and talk about this brand because it's clear that you're building a legacy brand versus a hype-driven brand. And oftentimes, you see that in beauty, right? You're going to launch with hundreds of SKUs and try and get into the Sephoras of the world immediately and do this. But for you and Pamela, it just seems like you're very conscious about building a brand that is going to be around for a long time to really help people. Was there a moment when you thought, we need to launch makeup and foundations and do a lot of that? Or did you really want to focus on the skincare side of this industry first?

26:08Yeah, I think skin is so important. We forget that it's our largest organ sometimes. There's so much to do with skin. And I think there's also so much we're learning about skin as well, which is really interesting. But in terms of like product, like I said, we've been two and a half years, we launched with three SKUs, we've only launched two additional core SKUs since then. We're really mindful about like what our community is asking for. And I will say they're asking for quite a few things. But we also want to make sure that there's a reason for that product to exist. so um you know we we will do a couple more skincare products that are specific to the face and then from there you know I don't see us going into like color in a big way anytime soon but there might be some things that we play with here and there depending on you know what our community wants and what they feel like is missing and all those things but yeah we're really mindful and I I think me too, being so passionate about sustainability and being really mindful about what we put into the world.

27:15I just don't want to create something to create something. I think a lot of brands rely on launching products for growth. And there's so many people in the world that aren't using the products you already made. So it's very important to be mindful about what you're putting out there. And again, a product for everyone is a product for no one. So find your niche and start building for those people and kind of see where it goes from there naturally.

27:43Kara Goldin:How are you distributing like your go-to-market strategy currently? And can you talk about how people find you? Yeah, we're really focused on online. We actually haven't even activated TikTok shop in a big way. So because we've seen so much growth in that channel, that's a big thing that we're doing this year. We're strictly DTC via our website right now, but we are opening global distribution facilities. So warehouses in our primary market obviously already exist because we're here in the US, but our second largest markets are Canada, the EU, and the UK. So we're looking to activate warehouses in all those places this year, which is really exciting.