YouSaid · the spoken record

Holly Thaggard

lines on the record: 106
first: 2020-06-08
most recent: 2020-06-08
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And then once you've mastered that, go on to the second measure. And if you continue to break it down like that, you eventually have a beautiful song. And I think also, though, for me, because I started performing at such a young age, it gave me so much confidence. And if you think about, you know, playing, here comes the bride to a church that's full of people that are everyone's dead silent and you are the music. You're the only thing that anyone's listening to And this is this bride's biggest day of her life. Really gives you the confidence to think you can do anything, and that helps me and has over the years as we've been fundraising. And you've got to be completely confident to walk into any scenario and pitch your brand and sell them on a valuation that you believe in. And I think the music really is what gave me that.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think being a musician has really helped me in just learning those how to break it down. And, you know, you can be overwhelmed if you open a picture opening a piece of sheet music and there's just notes everywhere and staff and it can look very jumbled and like how in the world am I ever going to learn this whole song? But what you learn in music is to break it down and learn the first measure, learn the right hand, then learn the left, and then put the right and the left together.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's a little bit of both, guy. You know, if I think back, was it skill that positioned me next to Roxanne Quimby in Vegas? No, but it was very strategic in that I was telling my story to everybody that would listen. Same is true with my launch at Sephora because, gosh, I was lucky the skincare buyer that year happened to be pregnant and shopping and giggle. But, you know, I put my number on the carton. And so anybody could reach me and that was strategic.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, fortunately twenty nineteen for Supergoop was our year to get to profitability and double digit profitability this year. Having Amanda, a brand president, and a husband and a brother that's all very strong in finance. We have remodeled the entire year to remain profitable and continue pushing and even spending money.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Still there, and you mentioned direct to consumer is still very, very strong. We, in fact, relaunched our supergoop.com platform yesterday. And this time has given us all a minute to really focus on these things and how business in general is being impacted by what's going on.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, I mean, I think definitely we had to set reset, but I think what's been really neat is we're having real breakout conversations.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. And having had Amanda to help was a real turning point for me in realizing the time to put your foot on the gas and build the team that we needed to take this and make the magic of SuperGoop happen.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, so we had our Series A followed our friends and family, and one of the former partners at TSG, John Kenney, was going off on his own to create what is now Colt Capital, and he asked to lead our Series A round. And he said, Holly, what is it you want to do for this next phase of Supergoop? And I said, John, I want to build a team. I want help. I want a presence in New York City. And we decided together that it was time to go on that search for a brand president who could be the perfect integrator for my vision. And she's been now with us for four years.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so we flew out there and spent a day visiting with she and her agent. And honestly, put the deal together really quickly”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so that was just a phone call from her agent that said, I'm Maria Sharapova's agent, and I'm like Googling Maria Sharapova and seeing what's in the word sunscreen. And he said, she found your product at Sephora. And it's the only product she can compete in. And it doesn't burn her eyes. And so she's interested if you guys have ever thought about making an investment. And actually, this was just about the same time as our friends and family was still open. And I thought the first thing I needed to do is get to LA to meet her because, of course, if we're going to have an investor come into the brand, she's becoming part of our family. And so I want to make sure.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You don't. You just have to sell them on your bags. But for me, I've always looked at it like I have to convince first people why it's so important that they protect their skin. And then secondary to that is why Supergoop. So yes, it's been very expensive from a marketing perspective. And I was still not profitable at that point. So raising money was something that was just a necessary thing that we had to do.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yep. No, no, and I've always known, you know, when you have this vision to change the way the world thinks about sunscreen, scaling is super important. And also I'm dealing with a category where we actually have to convince people why they need to wear SPF and then why Supergoop. So, you know, I often say like, imagine I was having lunch with the founders of MZ Wallace, which is a handbag brand. And I said, you know, imagine if you had to convince women everywhere to carry a bag with them everywhere with their water bottle and their wallet and their purse and their phone and their umbrella.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“By the way, I've never told that story. It just popped in my head, which is so crazy. But I literally remember going into stores and pushing products onto the store shelves.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Apparently, you know, the swipes were a huge hit and the world loved them. And the problem was I knew that my sales couldn't be great if there were no products on the shelf. And so I started what I later coined within my family as reverse stealing, but I didn't know how to get product to the shelves. And I knew I couldn't make the numbers if there weren't products. So I'd go into as many stores as I could with swipes in my bag and literally like stock the shelves. Like I'd give them product.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. Well, because of that 12 months of distribution, I think that really shaped how I thought about product. I've always thought about innovation in SPF and how do I create products that are game changing that you will reach for in those shoulder seasons. And I had created these sunscreen swipes that were a way to reapply your SPF in a talent. And they were at the time pretty new to the world. And I didn't really realize it at the time because I didn't know what success meant at Sephora, but I would go around to stores during that period. And the swipes were always gone. They were just wiped out the shelf.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, and I had nurtured the Nordstrom relationship along the way and keeping in touch. And we launched in 47 stores. So I had full distribution in Sephora and 47 Nordstroms and a lot of work to do.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With that, I was ecstatic. This sounded like a dream. It sounded like something that I could manage. Again, I didn't have a team. I didn't have a marketing team. I didn't have people in the stores to help sell it. I felt like that was positioning us in the skincare category, which is how I've always seen our brand as not a sunscreen brand. We are a true skincare, but all about protection. And that's our thing. So I was just thrilled.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So they later called and said they were excited to share that they were going to open a new wall in Sephora called Skincare Favorites, and they have secured six inches of space. And to pick my two favorite products.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Didn't expect that they would hold that for a 12 month period, so I convinced them, and this is how I really knew that Sephora was the right partner for me. They listened and they said, you know, let us take this back and think about how we could do this and assure you 12 months of distribution, which I also didn't know that that's kind of crazy. Really, retailers don't launch with any guaranteed one year of distribution.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I don't. An end cap is that big fancy thing at the end of the aisle where you have five shelves and it's full of product.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, and she called and said, Holly, it's Kim, and I'm super excited to share that we are going to prepare for a summer launch in all stores and a big hint and cap for the 12 weeks of summer.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And he agreed, he said, you know, Holly, I think if he were here today on the podcast, he'd probably say, you know, I was betting on the jockey, not the horse. And he put in initially $750,000.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The rest of that year, actually. And so that's when my husband and I were kind of tapped out on the money side and we went to my brother who after graduating SMU moved to New York, started a business and has been super successful building it to several hundred people with his partners. And we asked him if he would. Be interested in investing.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so, well, and to back up a little bit, I got home and for several weeks didn't, you know, I sent my follow-up email, my, you know, exactly as I should have post a meeting, but I didn't hear from either of them.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She sounded really interested and optimistic. Again, she didn't give me any answers, you know, Johnny on the spot, but she sounded interested and I felt good about flying home and then doing the follow-up that was needed to land both of these accounts. And I feel like that was a real important for me was when I think about where I saw our brand, I felt like so the Sephora demographic, the customer was young. And they're playing with makeup. They needed to understand how important it was to first protect their skin. And for the Nordstrom customer, I felt like that was the mom with three kids in tow. A stroller, and she really needed to be instrumental in teaching young children these healthy habits. So I felt like the two brands were the ideal launch pad for me in the country together.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, actually, the next morning woke up and, you know, my father growing up had this thing about doing things in twos. And he always said to me, the best time to accomplish something is after you've accomplished something. You're on a high, you feel optimistic, you feel good about yourself. And so whenever I had done something well, he would say, that's awesome, Holly. That's so great. I'm great to hear it. Now what are you going to do? And so I felt like that next morning I had to figure out what the answer to, like I felt really good. You're right. I wasn't crying, but I felt like I had to know what was next”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They did not. They just. They just said we enjoyed meeting you. I thought the meeting went really well. It lasted, you know, a good hour and a half. And I felt pretty good about the potential and they said they would be in touch.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, I was so prepared. I had phone boards with each of my products, the pricing, you know, and I had product with me. And they just said, tell me about what you're trying to do here. Walked them through my story from teacher to where we are today and why I needed their help and why I felt like they could help put a megaphone to this message.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I went to bed that night, and at 11 30, my cell phone lit up and it said Sephora on it. And that's how I had programmed her name into my phone was as Sephora. And I don't know why she was up late at the office that night, but she said, I think you might be in San Francisco. And she said, well, we would love to meet with you. Are you available tomorrow morning at 10 a.m.?”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, so I felt obligated to go to San Francisco because I said on her voicemail that I was going to be there on other business and I was afraid that she might eventually call during that week. And then if I weren't in San Francisco, she'd be calling me out. And I didn't even have a hotel reserved when I got on the plane to go there. I just knew that I had to be there. And I cried the whole way there and found a shoebox of a hotel in Union Square that I remember like going in and it didn't even have windows and the bathroom was down the hall. And I was so upset because we didn't have a lot of money. And this was an expensive thing for me to go do when I didn't really have anything to do there.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I called her and left her a voicemail and told her that I was going to be in San Francisco the following week. I gave her a five or six day range because I wanted to make sure that she could find a minute for me on her calendar. And she didn't call me back.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no, we're not. This was in a couple of years after that press and growing. And my revenue went from 45 to I know 150 to, I think, 600. So we were, you know, we were increasing and growing the business. It was by no means profitable. And I don't think I was even keeping quite good track of the finances like that. I just knew I had to keep going. And it was actually in 2010 when I felt like I was ready to talk again to Sephora.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That was a hundred percent donation. I had to create a custom box because I wanted my story to be on the box because I knew that if it weren't, nobody would know what the meaning behind the product was, so I really kind of went out on a limb there.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We launched in their apothecary, and there are things that came from that that were super inspiring along the way, like being asked to, I know we got a call once from Elon Musk's team to put Supergoop into all of his roadsters that were taking a press tour down the BCH or something. And I thought, you know, gosh, if SuperGoop makes sense because the Roadster was a convertible, you know, could be in every cup holder A lot of cool people would see it. I think that's the year that we also were asked to join the TED conference in Long Beach and put our products into the hands of all the attendees.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We did, and we also got that helped a lot with the launch in Barney's New York, which Nancy set up an interview with the beauty buyer of Barney's. And she actually was a skin cancer survivor. So she really, and very fair skin. Her name is Bettino O'Neill. And she bought into the idea of building a skincare brand with a foundation in SPF”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think I might have said, have you been listening to everything that I've been talking about because I'm trying to deseasonalize a category and it's never going to happen if I'm only talking to the beauty editors? And I think, you know, everybody's going, oh my gosh, she's trying to like convince now Nancy to take a 12-month retainer. I always credit my husband for this because that sounds crazy to pay 12 months of a retainer when we weren't even making in revenue. But he was adamant about you've got to do this, Holly. This is your path to Sephora and that's your elephant. And we will figure out how to pay for this.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, that was the hard part because when it got to be the last page of her proposal was where we started talking about money and knowing that the world of PR wasn't going to talk about SPF outside of the summer months. She pitched me on a six-month contract that would go from January to June. And she felt in that time we could in January hit the long leads to make sure we were in the April May books. And she would charge us $12,000 a month, but only six months out of the $12. So $72,000.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, well, then I grabbed my sister, my brother, my husband. You know, the company was still just me. So I had to put people in the room to look like we were doing something bigger than we were. And I did, in fact, get several other PR meetings with quite a few of her competitors based on being able to call and saying, I'm coming to New York to sit down with Nancy Berman next week, and I'd like to also, I hear I should also be talking with your firm.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, actually, I immediately kicked into well she needs to know there's competition because I know this is going to cost me an arm and a leg. And so I said, well, actually, I'm going to be in New York next week interviewing several other PR firms, and I'd love to schedule you in. Which was totally made up on the fly”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, it was the last day of the show. She said very quickly, how can I help you? I want to help. I like what you're doing. And I said, I need a PR firm in New York, and I can't get one to save my life. And an hour later, Nancy Berman was calling me while I was in a cab to the airport. And Nancy is the founder of Berman Communications, which was known as the biggest beauty PR firm in New York. And she said, I just got off the phone with Roxanne Quimby. And she says, I need to fly to Texas to meet you.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I went right back over there and I was like, Roxanne, how could you not tell me that you were Roxanne Quimby, the founder of Bert's Bees?”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, kind of. The last day when everyone was breaking apart their booths and everything, I was walking around and someone came up to me and said, gosh, you've really gotten to be good buddies with Roxanne. And I said, oh, I know. You know, we had way too much time to talk during this show. Not enough sales. And they said, well, I would imagine she could really help you. And I was like, what do you mean? And she said, you know who that is, Holly? It's Roxanne Quimby, the founder of Bert's Bees.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, so that $25,000 that my dad the next day left our home after Thanksgiving and he left a check on the counter and he said to me, Holly, go get your elephant. And that was his way of saying, stop messing with all these small little retailers and go get a big account. And so I went to Vegas. We put that booth together. What I found when I got to Vegas was just like, I could have cried. I had really fought to be in the natural and organic and very thoughtfully curated selections of the show. But what I found was I was smack dab in the middle of all of the granola and very homegrown brands and all of the very cool modern, beautifully aesthetic brands were up on the second floor. And the lady in the booth right next to me had a brand called Happy Green Bee. And she spent the whole show all five days knitting.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. So in 2008, you know, this is before Instagram and influencer marketing. And it was all really about those press placements that you'd get in the magazine that showed your product. And that's what sold product in Sephora. So I had none of that.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Personal cell number? Well, and that was so that if anybody wanted to talk about SuperGoop, they would reach me directly. And she said, we like what you're doing. And we don't think that you're ready for a meeting, but we thought maybe we could be helpful. And, you know, Sephora is known to really nurture indie brands and brands with strong founder visions. And she said, you know, I thought I would reach out and just share a few things that might be a good idea for you before. If you're interested in this, and then maybe you can get in touch when you feel that you've grown up a little bit.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“While she was a new mom and she had been shopping at Giggle, which was that little boutique retailer that I landed at one of my other trade shows, and she purchased it for her child and also took it to the Sephora corporate office and they started passing it around and having this conversation apparently what they shared with me was that they felt most skincare today and this was 2008-9 was really highly clinical and built on doctor driven brands and not fun and playful and they thought there was something really interesting about a brand that was very serious in technology but doing it in a very fun and playful spirit”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I needed the money to actually pay for the trade show itself, to pay for the booth. And I had at that point also received a phone call from the skincare buyer at Sephora.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He did. It was that, you know, every entrepreneur has the Thanksgiving dinner story. And I had another trade show I wanted to go to in Vegas. And I asked my dad at the dinner table, I think. if he'd be willing to give us $25,000. And that really forced this conversation of how are you planning to scale this? Because I think at this point, we were like literally making $45,000 in sales, I want to say, a year. And how are you going to scale this, Holly? Because even if you double, tripled your trade show at this trade show that you want to go to, you know, that's still not much money.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so my husband was not practicing law anymore. He was actually going out on his own in real estate investing. And so we were definitely depleting all of our savings. And it really wasn't until I think Thanksgiving of, gosh, 2008-ish that we asked my dad for $25,000, I think.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, so I started just looking at what retail would look like and what is the world of prestige children's retail. And how do brands go into what I thought were some of the best storytellers like FAO Schwartz in New York or the now defunct Giggle was a very popular, very highly curated store of just the best of the best things from San Francisco to New York. Started down this path of going to trade shows and showing my line to buyers of little prestige mom and pop and retailers that could help support my vision and tell the story in their in their location across the country.”
2020-06-08 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT