867 Brynn MacLennan: Co-Founder & CEO of Slate Flosser

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. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is sponsored by Wayfair.

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5:34Kara Goldin:Our next guest saw that problem differently. To her, flossing wasn't just a motivation issue. It was a design issue and, of course, one of health. So today I'm excited to be joined by Bryn McLennan, who is the co-founder and CEO of Slate Flosser, a female-led oral care company rethinking one of the most overlooked habits in preventive health. After purchasing a dental practice, Bryn saw firsthand how much of our mouth brushing alone doesn't reach and how oral health is connected to much more than teeth. With a background in product design, she spent years developing a patented dentist-invented three-in-one electric flosser designed to make flossing easier, more effective, and something people actually want to do.

6:29Kara Goldin:I cannot wait to get into the story of Slate Flosser. I have read all about the Kickstarter and obviously got to try the products and am a huge, huge fan. So I'm excited to dig into... Oh, thank you. You're welcome. So I'm excited to dig into Bryn's journey from product to CEO to how Slate is continuing to grow in a crazy world that we live in today. So Bryn, welcome to The Kara Golden Show. So excited to have you here. I'm so glad to be here and have the opportunity to talk on your show. So thank you. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Grooms. This time of year, I want more energy, not more steps.

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12:06Kara Goldin:It's free to sign up and posting a job is easy. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U-P-W-O-R-K dot com, Upwork dot com. Very excited. So for listeners just discovering Slate Flosser, also known as Slate, how do you describe the brand and what makes it different from maybe traditional oral care products? Yeah, so our product, my co-founder was a dentist and we knew that people knew they needed to floss, but they didn't do it. And so for me, I was like, one, it's hard. And two, it's because people don't really understand why they need to floss.

12:57So we have like two missions at Slate. One is to educate people so that they're like, wait, this is connected to dementia. I'm going to floss. Or this is connected to erectile dysfunction. I'm going to floss. You know, and so once we have the knowledge, that's going to help us change. But what we'd noticed was the biggest factor was the design issue. And so as a product designer, teaming up with the dentist, we were like, let's make this so it removes the bacteria that we're all missing. So that's our goal at Slate is to disrupt the whole mouth. And that's why it's actually called Slate is because we want your mouth to be a clean slate.

13:33Kara Goldin:Oh, I love it. I was going to ask you that, how you came up with the name. I absolutely love that. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Thrive Cosmetics. This time of year, I always look for small ways to refresh how I feel. Sometimes it's a walk outside, sometimes it's getting organized, and sometimes it's as simple as taking a few minutes to look a little more awake and pulled together before a busy day. That's why I love Thrive Cosmetics. Their products are 100 % vegan, cruelty-free, and made with clean, skin-loving ingredients that work with your skin, not against it. And they make it easy to amplify your everyday look without over-complicating your routine.

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16:34Kara Goldin:And here's the important part. Fatty 15 is on a mission to support healthy aging for all, including all ages and stages of life. You can get an additional 15 % off a 90-day subscription starter kit by going to fatty15.com slash Kara and use code Kara at checkout. That's an additional 15 % off a 90-day subscription starter kit by going to fatty15.com slash Kara and use code Kara at checkout. So take us back to the beginning. So you had been a product designer. Obviously, your co-founder is the dentist. But it's one thing to have this idea. It's another thing to actually go and develop a product and a company and, you know, go and get into incredible partnerships as you have with Target, etc.

17:28Kara Goldin:But take us back to the beginning? What were the initial steps that you took? And why did you believe that this had to be you? So many things. One is at the dental office, when we had patients come in, we had educated, wealthy patients. So there's literally no reason why they shouldn't be flossing. They had the funds to buy whatever products they needed. And I was like, they're not doing it. So I saw the patient interaction and I actually had a patient that had raging gum disease and his choice was to like get his teeth extracted and get dentures or to floss. And I was like, floss, it's not hard.

18:10So with like my background in product design, Dr. Schneider was like, what if we made a product that made flossing so easy? And so we were like, what are the multiples of products that we want people to use in the dental office. So we want people to tongue scrape. We want them to stimulate their gums. We want them to floss. Everyone understands the toothbrushing part, but our product is all three of those things. And so it not only goes between the teeth, but it stimulates the gums with our gum sweeps and then tongue scrapes on the back.

18:40Kara Goldin:What is it about flossing that you think has kept people from doing it? Obviously, it's like just another step. I mean, people want to brush their teeth, but you would think that they would want to floss them as well. But it's ironic, really, that some people just don't do that. Well, it was interesting because I grew up in a house where I floss my teeth every single day. And so I didn't get why people weren't flossing. But what I realized is when people have inflamed gums, and 50 % of Americans do, it's like a negative, sometimes a negative tactile experience when they use string floss because they jam their gums then they see blood then it hurts their gums are sore so we're like what if we made it so it was a positive tactile sensation so that it's like after you brush your teeth you know you feel your teeth and they feel clean and that's like what if after you're flossed you also had a positive interaction and so our sonic vibrations paired with our our gum sweeps go in and they give people a positive positive feedback so they're not jamming their gums anymore.

19:47And it feels feels so clean, like you just went to the hygienist.

19:51Kara Goldin:How long did it take you from the time you had this idea to actually launch Slate Flosser? But almost took three years. So we started thinking about it in 2019. In 2020, we applied for our patent. In 2021, we did our Kickstarter and then we had product to sell by the end of 2022. That's amazing. So let's talk about the Kickstarter, because I know many people think, Like, okay, I don't have the money to actually go and launch a company. Can you talk about your experience and how did you get that idea as well? Yeah, so in the product design world, a lot of people use Kickstarter. It's funny, if I actually went back, I probably wouldn't have done it.

20:32But I think it's because I've learned so much. I think you need to... But it was really cool. We were in the top 5 % of all Kickstarters. So the reason I like the Kickstarter is it proved the proof of concept. We knew people liked brushing their teeth, but for years and years, no one's been flossing. So I was like, we may care about flossing because we're in the dental industry, but how do we make sure the consumer cares? And so doing the Kickstarter did show a really good proof of concept. We were able to make about$200 ,000 doing our Kickstarter. So it was really great feedback. we had. And then the great thing about Kickstarters is you have an engaged group of people that want you to succeed.

21:19And so you can ask them questions. And so there are a lot of positives about Kickstarter. A few things that we learned in the Kickstarter that was negative was you have to price your product, right? And we hadn't really figured out how much shipping was going to cost. And so we had just made it so our margins were really tight with our Kickstarter.

21:39Kara Goldin:So you launched with one product. And how has that changed over the last four years? Yeah, so we launched with just one product. It was our battery powered flosser and it had a button on the bottom. And we learned so much. We got a lot of feedback from people. It was a really good price point. It was$79.99 for a battery one. And then people were like, we want it to be rechargeable. and what we've learned about like our consumers is we have different types of consumers and because of that we launched our rechargeable but then we learned people really wanted a more affordable price point too so we now have three different products a mini an origin and a pro and then we also have five different floss heads so we've had a lot of product expansion and it's been really exciting.

22:36Kara Goldin:So can you talk about the different products? So you launched with one and then you just mentioned the pro as well as the mini. So can you talk about the different ones and maybe what are the differences between all of them? Yeah, so let me start with our floss heads because the cool thing about them is they're compatible across our whole product line. And so what we realized was the reason flossing maybe didn't work for people using floss picks is because they flossing is technique sensitive um they're supposed to do a c shape if you're using string floss but that the average person wasn't doing the c shape so they could use a floss pick and go to their dentist and their dentist would be like are you flossing they're like i floss every day and you're like well i can't tell um and so our product and the little gum sweeps are meant to mimic that c shape so they go into where your gums and teeth touch and they're going to pull out the plaque and bacteria with the little bristles and ridges that they have.

23:38So our floss heads are super cool that way, but we have three different kinds and different colors. So we have a braces head for people in wired braces. Then we have our standard head, which is designed to act like a glide floss, but we didn't want any chemicals on our floss. So we didn't want PTFEs or PFAs. So our floss is a woven floss, but is laid out in a way for it to go between your teeth really easily. And then our third kind of floss is our nanohydroxy appetite floss. So our consumers are really focused on longevity and wellness and health. And they said, how do we get something in there?

24:19And so at Slate, fluoride is also a good remineralizing agent, but people, our average consumers sometimes doesn't like fluoride. So we offer nanohydroxyapatite infused into the floss in our blue and green floss heads. So once you have our floss head, that's like our magic is the floss heads. Then you have the three different options. Our origin, which is our battery, has one speed. It's powered by a double A, which means you can take it all over the world with you and you don't have to think about charging it or different things like that. And the battery lasts a really long time. So, you know, you can use it for a few months and then you'll need a new battery.

25:01Our pro is, you know, three different settings for three different types of people. You know, some people, our favorite setting is the middle. It's 1200 sonic vibrations. It's about the third of a toothbrush. But what we saw is some people don't like intense vibrations. So we have a lower setting at 8 ,000. And then for people who have really tight contacts, we don't want them to have a negative experience of jamming their gums. So we have a higher setting at 14 ,000 sonic vibrations. And we don't want it to be much higher than that because we don't want to hurt our gums. You know, our gums are sensitive and people sometimes can be aggressive with their gums.

25:41So we made it so that the floss is great. It's really tight, but the sonic vibrations travel all the way to the floss. And because of that, we stop it at 1 ,400.

25:52Kara Goldin:And the actual floss pieces, now, are those, you dispose of those every day, whenever you're flossing? So 52 of our heads is equivalent to 736 floss picks. So you replace it once a week. Amazing. So just like your toothbrush, you're going to rinse it off and let it air dry. it's crazy like four football fields worth of string floss is the same as 52 of our heads and so we're really trying to also reduce waste we're from the pacific northwest we love being outdoors um and anything we can do to reduce waste is great yeah no that's what i absolutely loved loved about it. So after you developed the product, I guess you spent a few years actually developing it.

26:44Kara Goldin:When did you know that the Slate Flosser was not just a product, but a real business, right? That you would scale and that this wasn't just a Kickstarter campaign anymore. When did you know that you had it? I think there's two things that matter to me. We've seen in the oral health industry that there's been a few companies that have amazing marketing. And the consumer gets behind it, but the dentist doesn't. And so we cared about both. We wanted the consumer to be excited about us and the dentist. So we sent our product to 500 hygienists and 200 dentists and said, what do you think of this? 74 % of them said it was better than any tool that existed on the market and massaging and stimulating the gums so that moment was like oh okay we got the dentists and hygienists to back us but our first year in business we did over a million dollars in sales and that was like by word of mouth um and different things and so I was just like okay people do want to floss they want an easier way and we just made it easy so I think the first year we had sent our product to a dentist called ask the dentist he he's on Instagram he's a well well known and he posted organically about our product and just said like I tried this and I loved it and I was just like this is so exciting And then we were lucky enough to be on the How I Built This episode with Guy Raz.

28:21And Guy Raz had tried our product and he said on the podcast, I love this product. So I just think it's really easy for people to use. They understand why they're using it. And then they're like, oh, and there's a tongue scraper on the back. So it's just like, it's just fun. Kind of have like some surprise and delights. And we're really excited to be part of people's wellness journey.

28:44Kara Goldin:I love it. Well, I felt really happy about it because I loved, I've always felt like all the string that you have to take out and floss with and, you know, what is happening to that product in, you know, once you throw it away, the waste that comes from it. So I loved that there's less waste here and plus the experience of it. I thought it was just absolutely terrific. So when you're developing any product, first of all, it takes more time, right, than you ever thought. So much time. We thought we'd have it by the beginning of 2022, and we were wrong. Yeah. And was there a pivot involved? I hate to say failure.

29:34Kara Goldin:their like learnings that maybe surprises when you were developing the product that you saw that really kind of forced you to kind of think maybe what you originally thought? Yeah, I think there's definitely a lot of grit involved in a startup, especially when you're developing a product. We decided to start our product in the Philippines and I loved our factory, But, you know, like there were so many things we didn't realize, like, OK, are plastics going to come on a boat to the Philippines? But sometimes people in the government at the Philippines would hold it there until they were given money behind the table, you know, to get it off the port.