The Honey Pot's Bea Dixon on why 'better-for-you is the new conventional'

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0:51Hello and welcome to the Modern Retail Podcast. I'm your co-host, executive editor Anna Hensel, and I'm here with my other co-host, senior reporter Melissa Daniels. Melissa, how's it going? It's going well, Ana. I'm very excited that it's April. You know, official start of Q2. Let's go. I did not think about that, but you are correct. Happy Q2 to all who celebrate. Change your calendars. Start your new Excel spreadsheets. Fresh start. Absolutely. Well, this week on the podcast, I had Bea Dixon, the founder and CEO of The Honeypot, which is a plant-derived feminine care brand. Melissa, have you heard of The Honeypot before?

1:39I have heard of The Honeypot. I feel like I've seen them in some aisles. I feel like I've seen them online. You know, it seems to me like they're one of the brands that's made a name for themselves in this sort of new wave of period care. Yeah. So we talked a lot about just how the category has evolved. And it's a really fascinating category. And one that I would add is generating a lot of sales. So last year, the Honeypot sold a majority stake to Compass Diversified, which is a holding company for$380 million. But what's been really interesting about the feminine care space, first of all, I will say this podcast probably sets a record for the amount of times we say the word vagina, just giving a teaser to the listeners out there.

2:31I say that because what's really interesting about this category is it's one that kind of has been talked about in hushed tones for a very long time. And what I see in this category that's happening is a new wave of startups that are talking a lot more frankly about just the products and how they work and just issues that their customers experience. What are you seeing in this category, Melissa? Yeah, I think that's a great observation. And I think it's one of those categories that's had some sort of product differentiation that's maybe added to some of the sales and the size and just the way that these companies can grow.

3:12You know, I remember when we first started seeing Diva Cups in the aisles of Walgreens and CVS, you know, that was not always the case, right? That was maybe something that you had to go find at a really niche natural product store or something. And now it's all super mainstream. Same with period underwear, right? I mean, these are things that you couldn't find in the aisles of mass retailers that are now all over Walmart, right? so it's a fast growing category and I think it's really cool to see just some of like the demystification you know I think tampons pads these were shy buys for a lot of people and now as these companies come out with you know so many different products and some really fun branding you know it's sort of taken away some of that taboo stuff I think those are all great points.

4:00I mean, period underwear and diva cups, those were either products that really didn't exist on retail shelves, or maybe you'd see one brand that sold those. So it is a case where we're seeing innovation related to more types of products in this category and also new branding. And also what Bea and I talked about, which I think is something that a lot of companies are trying to be more mindful of right now, is just how do you communicate to customers what the function of your product is? So we talked a lot about how they just recently redid their branding and things like a lot of their products are herbal derived, talking more about why they include that in their products.

4:52It's not just for things to smell good. There's a function to it. And I think that's a takeaway for, honestly, every business executive right now. I think as there's more competition, more innovation in every category, brands are finding they have to really fine-tune how they talk about the function of their products. Totally. There needs to be a there there. You know, there needs to be a reason that you're giving your customer something to choose you over your competitor. And if that reason isn't clear, they will very quickly move on. I think we're seeing that in a lot of categories. And this is one, you know, where in personal care, I think people are extra discerning these days.

5:34I think you have customers who are very concerned about wellness and things that go on and in and near their bodies. You know, they're becoming more ingredient conscious of what those things are. And so I think brands like the Honeypot are sort of well positioned to play into that if they can position themselves to, you know, explain, hey, here's why this is going to be a good alternative for you. Absolutely. Well, this was a fun conversation. I'm excited for people to listen to it. And here is my talk with Bea Dixon.

6:09Bea, welcome to the podcast. Hi, I'm so glad to be here. Thank you. For those who aren't familiar with the honeypot, can you give us a quick rundown of the brand's origin story. So first of all, I'd like to say thank you, Ana, for having me here. It's always a pleasure to be able to speak to people about what we do. The way that we got started back in 2012, I had an almost year-long bacterial vaginosis infection that I could not get rid of to save my life. I lived on antibiotics every single month because because that's when I would get it right after my period. I lived on Google trying to find solutions.

6:53I was talking to people on Google forums. I mean, I was doing everything that you can imagine. I was putting on, yeah, it was wild. Not to be TMI, but you know, this is what it is. This is real life. That happens. It is. It is. And like all of us do it. If we have an ailment, what's the first thing we do? Go to Google. Yeah. Why does X, Y, and Z look like this? Or why does it smell like that? Or whatever, you know? And so it was really hard. And one day, you know, to make a long story short, my grandmother came to me. My grandmother transitioned when my mother was a child. So I never met her in this life other than in this moment.

7:31And obviously I've met her more since then, but she basically came to me and told me that she had been walking with me and she had been seeing me struggle and that she knew what to do. She knew the solution and she handed me a piece of paper and it had a list of ingredients. And she told me I needed to memorize what was on this paper. And so that's what I did. I just started saying the ingredients over and over and over again. Finally, she told me to wake up because I was asleep. And when I woke up, I literally woke up saying apple cider vinegar, lavender rose, coconut oil. Like I remember it like it was yesterday.

8:05It was wild. And I worked at Whole Foods at the time. So what I did is I went to work that day. I compiled all these ingredients. I bought all this stuff. I didn't know what I was about to go home and make. I had a background working in pharmacy and I worked in IV rooms and compounding pharmacies. And, you know, I worked in chemo pharmacies. I've done all kinds of stuff. And so my grandmother knew that if she gave me the ingredients that I'd be able to figure it out. And what it turned into was a wash. And I started using that wash that night because I had BV at the time. And within four or five days, it was gone like magic.

8:44And that was the moment that I was like, basically, this is what I do now, you know, because I felt like if it could work for me, it could work for other people. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And that's how we got started. Yeah. I mean, if it works for me, it could work for a lot more other people. Very classic entrepreneur kind of light bulb moment, right? But so you said that was back in 2012. And so to fast forward to now, part of the reason why I was really interested in talking to you is last year you sold to a company called Compass Diversified for about$380 million. First of all, as an entrepreneur, just like what was that moment like?

9:26How did it feel as there was all this press around the fact that you sold? If I'm honest with you, that moment was hard because I've never been one to talk about how much money we raise or how much money we make or because I don't want people valuing us based on that. You know, it just feels weird. But I also felt very grateful because it's really hard to go through a process. And we sold a majority stake of our business to Compass Diversified, which is Compass Diversified as a private equity investment group. Right. But there was a lot of emotions, you know. So let me ask you this. Have your emotions changed in the years since then?

10:07Like a year out, how have your feelings changed around talking about it? Look, I got over the not talking about it because I had to die to it because everybody wants to call you and everybody wants to talk about it. Right. I think what was hard for me in the beginning is that people thought that we had sold all of our business to Compass. Right. And that wasn't the case. We didn't do anything different than what most businesses do when they want to do a majority stake or minority sell. And then they're setting themselves up for the future to find a proper home for their business. So in the beginning, it was hard for me because I felt very misunderstood.

10:49There was a lot of mixed emotions, but now I feel great. You know, I feel I feel lucky to have a partner. I feel lucky that we were able to make whole the investors that had been with us since the very beginning. And even the partners, the investment partners that we have brought along along the way, you know, which was actually venture capital and private equity partners, be it from New Voices and then from VMG. So it felt good to be able to get them whole. You know, it also feels good to just have one partner. Right. Yeah. Rather than having like, you know, five, six, seven investors. They're really good partners.

11:28They really believe in our vision. They believe in our business. They believe in what we do. They believe in humanity. They believe in, you know, they're just beautiful partners. And so I feel really good. You know, like anything, when you're beginning a new relationship, it takes time for you guys to kind of get into a flow state. Right. But I'm grateful to say that I feel like we're in flow state. That's great. So how has your role changed, if at all? It hasn't changed. Okay. It sounds like that's what you wanted, right? Yeah. Yeah. And that was part of the reason why they felt right, you know, because they were the ones that were literally like, we believe in you.

12:07We believe in your leadership team. We believe in this team. There was no, we're going to come in and we're going to change this and we're going to pull these people out and we're going to absorb these departments because we just weren't at that point yet. There's still so much growing that Honeypot has the ability to do. And there's so many humans that we're still looking to reach, you know, so it didn't feel like it was time necessarily for a full on sale, you know, so I just feel really lucky and I feel really grateful.

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13:29So what would you say your priorities are this year? It sounds like you said you want to reach more humans? How are you trying to do that right now? Well, first of all, I think one of our biggest priorities is our team and making sure that we kind of put a lot of structure in how we're building the team and how we're maintaining the team that we already had had and how we're essentially putting in growth levers for how we can all grow within our respective fields or jobs. And so we're really focused on our team right now. We're also extremely focused on bringing new humans into the brand and also loving on and continuing to feed the relationships that we already had with the customers that we've had for so long.

14:16sometimes when you hear about bringing new humans in, it's almost like, well, what happened to the humans that you've been serving this whole time, right? And so I think really making sure that we're maintaining those relationships and nurturing those relationships while also looking to grow new relationships with new humans. Yeah, that's, I mean, it's such a challenge. So it is, it's hard. What kind of activities or things are you focused on to keep your existing customers in the fold versus bringing new humans in? I think first and foremost, there's no versus, right? I think, and I'm not trying to correct you.

14:54I just think that, you know, even we were kind of looking at it like that in the beginning of, you know, when you're starting to build and build your strategies, but it has to be an and, you know, anytime that we're doing innovation, we talk to a lot, a lot, a lot of people, right? We do a lot of brands of human contact. We don't just throw things out into the world. We actually talk to our customers. We talk to people who aren't our customers. We want to know, you know, so we do a lot of consumer data. You know, we we've hired, you know, consultants that help you with shopper insights and really understanding how to reach people.

15:33You know, we're talking to people who are not our customers who may have never even heard of us actually literally putting them in aisles and showing not necessarily pointing out our brand at first, but like trying to understand how do they shop when they go into the store? What do they look for? Right. And then when they do get to our products, what would make you want to buy this? Why didn't you pick it up? Why, you know, just understanding the mechanics of why they liked it or why they didn't like it or why, and not necessarily that they didn't like it, but why weren't they attracted to it?

16:10Right. Yeah. That's so interesting. What have you learned from this type of consumer data and insights? Have you made any changes because of that? I feel like a lot of I know one thing I talk to startups a lot about is changing packaging, for example, to stand out more on shelves. What have you learned through that process? So part of why we're doing it, first and foremost, is just to understand how people connect to our brand as it stands today. Right. And then that information is in service to because we're basically coming out with new branding. Right. But when you go into a project like wanting to rebrand your products on the shelf and wanting them to show up in a different way, you have to understand how it's currently showing up and how it's communicating or how it's not communicating.

17:03And so we're doing it in iterations. the first packaging that's going out is actually going to be our herbal menstrual pad or just our menstrual pad portfolio, to be honest, not just our herbal. Yeah. Because we also are doing our cotton comfort, which used to be called non herbal, but now it's called cotton comfort. And so we've developed really beautiful new branding for that line. And when we started that, not only did we talk to people prior to us designing the new packaging, but we also put several, it felt like hundreds of iterations in front of people so that we could really dial down to what would be the best version of said new packaging, right?

17:47And new design. And so, you know, so we've learned a lot, right? We've learned that we wanted people to be able to look at what we were showing them and feel an emotional connection to it, you know, and we just weren't willing to sacrifice, you know, not just to sacrifice, but to settle. So it was very important to us that we came to a really beautiful place with that packaging. And I'm so grateful to say that we did, you know, and so it's been beautiful. We've learned about a lot about what people want to see what they don't want to see. Some things that we have on packaging may not even be important to be there.

18:28Right. But the only way to learn that is to actually talk to people, you know? Yeah. So I'm curious, was anything in particular you can remember about people said this wasn't important, something that you had on your packaging previously? Yeah. Like one of the things that popped up was people, some people didn't necessarily understand what the pH range was on our washes, for example, right? Because not everybody's familiar with what pH ranges are, right? The healthy pH range for a healthy vulva and vagina is between 3.5 and 4.5. Well, that showed up on our packaging, right? And that was something that people didn't understand.

19:07Some people that walked in the aisle didn't understand, for example, like what our foam washes did. Should you wash that off or do you keep it on? Do you wipe it off, Right. We went through different iterations of our packaging for our herbal menstrual pads. You know, some of our first iterations made when we talked about the herbs, people felt like that was just fragrance. They didn't realize that those herbs weren't in there just to serve as a sensory experience just for you to smell, but also a sensory experience for you to feel. Right. Then when we actually drew, basically, we put an illustrate a really beautiful hand drawn illustration of what the actual herbs were.

19:50So there's there's there's beautiful lavender, there's aloe, there's roses. And it's kind of like an in the wild experience. So when people saw that, they felt like, wow, this actually feels really good for me and I can connect to it. It doesn't feel like I'm just trying to hide a smell or an odor, you know? And so we learned a lot. And I'm really excited because at the stage that we are in business, we're actually at the point where we're able to do these things. You know, these were things that we always wanted to do. But it's good to be at the place where this can happen because these things aren't cheap.

20:27It's a major investment, not just financially, but it's also a major investment through your team because it takes a lot of time, you know? Right. I mean, when you're a five-person team, like you have to do product and marketing and find time to talk to customers. Yeah, it's crazy. When did you redo your packaging? Was this this year, last year? It's literally going to market like in April. Okay, great. In days. Yeah, that's exciting. This also got me thinking, I mean, there's so many startups I see in the feminine care space these days. How do you feel like the space has changed since you first started the honeypot?

21:10I imagine the space has gotten more crowded. Are there certain selling points that you found really worked in the early days that now this is kind of table stakes? Just overall, how has the space changed? changed i actually think the space is changing for the better yeah but i think that that's just kind of globally across everything whether that's food whether it's skincare i think water has a little bit of ways to go but better for you is the new conventional yeah right like you're not gonna see a tampon or pad company come out that doesn't have clean cotton it's just not gonna to happen. You know what I'm saying?

21:51Yeah. You know, in the beginning, that pH range was important to us because we wanted people to understand that the washes that we make are actually at the same pH as what your vulva, or excuse me, what your vagina should be at. Right. And whatever you're using on your vulva, even though it's not being used inside your body, it's being used externally, it still can affect what's happening inside your body. Right. Yeah. And so but now it's table stakes for pH to be a common part of the language. Right. You know, like it's table stakes now for cotton to be clean. Right. The conventional players, they're they're launching lines that have clean cotton, but they are buying companies that have clean cotton.

22:37That doesn't necessarily mean that they're going kind of retrograding back to the products that they originally put on shelf. I wish that they would because that would be powerful if all of them could at least just make clean cotton products. Right. But, you know, maybe in the future they will. Right. Who knows? But I think those things are table stakes. I think even in the vaginal wellness space, which is traditionally called Fem High, but I call it vaginal wellness, you know, with washes and wipes, it's commonplace for people to understand now that they actually need to use a vulva wash on their vulva, right?

23:14Because typically body washes and soaps have a really high pH, which can throw your pH off. So now you're seeing lots of vulva care companies come out. And this is all good for the category, right? Out of the category of menstrual and fem high, menstrual obviously is the much bigger category. But there is something to say about what's happening in vaginal wellness. I mean, it's growing. Not at the rate of menstrual, but. And I mean, I think it's just, it's great to see more people talking about it. Because what's interesting about this category is it's, you know, decades ago, these were products that were stuffed under your bathroom cabinet.

23:56right? And people didn't talk about them that much. I'm curious what spaces you're going into to, again, reach more humans. I've covered some of the partnerships the Honeypot has done with the WNBA team, the Atlanta Dream, for example. I'm just curious, what type of events and partnerships do you try to target? Oh, yes. So sports was really important to us, especially it's called women's sports and I'll call it that especially women's sports we started off like you said partnering with the Atlanta dream you know and it looks like we're going to continue to foster and grow that relationship but I am excited to see what other sports we can kind of start to invest in and partner with I think when it comes to other relationships I think it's really important to be where people are.

24:51Yeah. You know, and so like figuring out creative ways to make sure that we're, we're there at some of the largest festivals that are happening across the country. That doesn't necessarily mean that we always have to have a booth, but maybe we have a bathroom activation or, you know, or maybe we're, we're passing out samples, right. You know, I think even what I'm doing with you, right. With showing up on podcasts, you know, partnerships with really great influencers, partnerships with the medical community, you know, all of these things are really, really, really important. Even looking at different life stages, right?

25:30You know, our traditionally, our customers have really been, we've been focused on millennial and Gen Z, but looking at humans with vaginas that are over the age of 45 and maybe going into perimenopause or menopause, you know, talking to them and showing up where they are. Like, you know, I think when, you know, talking about bringing new humans in, it's not just based on what people look like or what color their skin is, but it's also like, where are they at in their life? You know, are they going through their period for the first time? Right. Are they about to stop being on their period because they're going into menopause and they haven't bled for a year, right?

26:10Right. You know, like, and how do we serve those humans? Because traditionally, you know, if I had a dollar for every time a mature woman, you know, who has really gone through her life beautifully and has gotten to the point to where her body doesn't need to bleed anymore. You know, typically they're like, oh, I don't need those products anymore, right? But the thing about Honeypot is we're a vaginal wellness brand. So we don't only make menstrual care, right? We make products that you can use. You know, your vagina still works, right? You know, so you're still going to wash it. You're still going to moisturize it.

26:46You're still going to do all these other things. And we have all of these other products outside of products that you need just for when you bleed. And I think that that's what makes us so powerful as a company and as a partner to the humans that we serve, you know, is that we can really, we can follow people through the life stages. even the life stage of matricence, right? Like when you're having a baby or once you've had your baby, we're also in that life stage as well. We make a really beautiful witch hazel wash, vulva wash. We make really beautiful witch hazel wipes that you can use for after you have the baby, right?

27:25And our products are, those products are pregnancy safe. And so, I think that that's one of the biggest places that you'll see us focusing in is on meeting people wherever they are in their life stage and their shopping journey. Those are some of the places. Yeah. You also mentioned doing bathroom takeovers, which I didn't think of it, but because your category plays in this one space in particular, I feel like that it presents opportunities for you to show up in really creative ways. Where are some of the places you've done bathroom takeovers? We actually did a cool one when Beyonce came to Atlanta.