YouSaid · the spoken record

Kirsten Green

lines on the record: 132
first: 2020-01-20
most recent: 2020-01-20
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

“I kind of think about you say where can it go? That's really Emily's story to tell. But I would, in my fantasy world, I think about Nike starting with a shoe and starting with inspiration and saying, you know, just do it. Like go be a champion. Wear this shoe as part of your journey in doing that. But Nike is, they have great products But they're about a feeling. People buy into it because of a feeling, because they want to be part of that tribe or that movement or they want to find that inner champion in themselves. I think that Glossier cultivates a lot of that too. And I think a big theme is to be you. You know, be the best version of yourself. Like beauty comes in all kinds of forms and looks and packages and novels. There's not.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Which is cool Tog Which was interesting. And people who love makeup, and people who don't care about makeup. So I think the thing about it is hard to just put in a sentence together, but it really elicits a feeling.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, it is. Which is cool. It was, hey guys, daughters, mothers together. There's a lot of daughters' mothers, which was interesting, and then people like me, like what was I doing there? And then doing selfies. And people who love makeup and people who don't care.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think one of the most fun things is when you go to any glosse store and you look around to see who's in the store. And it's a little bit of everybody.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, how far can you take an idea like Glasia? Because, you know, people, again, this seems like it could get bought, it could get, you know, you have stores now, which are fascinating. I went to the one in Los Angeles, which was crazy. You know, mothers and daughters in there, you know, it was an experiential situation.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's the thing Think one thing that is really important to keep in mind is like customers are smart. Crappy product, they might buy it once, but they won't buy it again if you have a cheap product, they might be. Motivated to try it, but they might not buy it again. So I think that's table stakes in a lot of ways, building a great product. I think the win comes when you have a unique approach to the market and you have a unique way of connecting with it that's underpinned by a business model that makes sense. So how far?”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I'm like not a teen. That's the thing. And it's fascinating. I don't know why is it the way they design the packaging? It's actually the product. It sounds crazy, but the actual product is pleasing in a way that I can't explain why it's different than anything I'd grab, like ceravye, whatever.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But I No, I know that. I hate to say it, but I think she's. Thinking about it. I've heard all the criticism back and forth about that, and I was like, you know what? That freaking face cleanser, that milky jelly, it's the best one. I don't know how to explain it. It's the best product everyone I use is the best product.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a long journey ahead. There's plenty of time to do more skews, but I think we were very deliberate. She was very deliberate about wanting to make the most of each one and be thoughtful about. No, I know that”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a great ingredient story. Right, yeah. Like, let's build a business. I think there's good businesses to build there again, but is that a venture business? I don't know, right? I think Emily wanted to say, this industry is changing. This customer doesn't want to go to the drugstore or the department store on their own. They want to talk to people and share and get ideas from each other. They're also, she also had a view, which ultimately became glossier on like what product and messaging and product was missing in the market.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it was interesting, right? She didn't pitch a product. She didn't pitch a brand. There was no glossier She talked about a consumer. She talked about a change that was happening in the space. She talked about a void that she saw when she thought about all the products they were covering or where the consumer was going. She had a view on like what was missing in the market and she wanted to meet that need. And it was one part product, it was one part inspiration and brand and it was one part in how you reach them.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And she had an idea about where they wanted someone to take them or go or what was missing from the market. And she wanted to fill that. And when I initially met with her, she had what I think of as like multiple business ideas that she had packaged up in one. And I felt that maybe one of them was great, maybe five of them were great, but one would be too hard to do all those things at once. But I thought her understanding and her ambition for the opportunity was so unique that I was captured by the... Opportunity to build a business. Why do”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was a media company to start. It was a media company. Right. She had a camera. She had a notepad, which a lot of these. And she had ambition to go out and talk to people. Yeah, there were. But she wrote more in-depth pieces. She had a franchise called Top Shelf that really kind of, I think, became something people wanted to read at whatever day of the week it was she published. But most importantly through that, she had a really deep understanding of that audience.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That was also about intuition on people. I mean, I met Emily early on. She had a Emily Wise, yeah. She had a blog into the Gloss. She had started it all on her own.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You could debate that along the way, and I think when enough things align and if a founder feels like that's the right thing to do for the company, that's generally the right thing to do for the investors. Right.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that that's important, right? I mean, it's important to get in and in the right way, and it's important to get out in the right way. And sure, we all want to try to maximize what the opportunity is.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Michael had a lot of deep understanding about his business and a real vision for where it needed to go. And at that point in time, he felt strongly that it would benefit from having a partner, a partner of that scale. And he also felt like that company was valuing the things that were really unique about the business, that we had created a new channel that they couldn't do. And it is a really tricky moment where it's like you could keep pressing forward on your own and get a little more value out of it. But I think he felt like the journey that we'd been on for the four years that we'd been there, the value that had been created in that time period, and thinking about how to navigate the next chapter, it felt like positive.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And they had to be at the forefront of the change. Right, exactly. You know, I think there's a lot of companies that are still doing interesting things, and let's call it the direct-to-consumer space. They have compelling products. They have compelling marketing messages. They have compelling value propositions. There's probably a good business to build there. Does it necessarily fit the venture model? Are they doing something that, you know, are they in a moment in time where they can, again, exploit one of those efficiencies to have breakout success? Are they leading the path towards something new, which makes them kind of either invaluable to an incumbent or it makes them get scale faster because they're ahead of the curve?”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“By the fifth year, I was like, no, we'll get back to you next year, which was very funny at one point. But certain companies did fit in that genre. They had to be sassy. They had to be interesting and innovative. And they had to be.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's no way to sell that in a lot of those conversations. You know what I mean? I appreciate every company trying to think about how the future, but he would get up.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. We had a guy that come to my conference, a co-conference every year from Hellman's management. Yeah. He's like, how can Hellmans get digital? I'm like, they can't. You just can't. There's no way to sell that. I've had a lot of those conversations. You know what I mean? There's no new way to sell. I don't know how you can get people interested in mayonnaise in a way you're interested in war. I appreciate it.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On Facebook, I was like, this is not going to work. This is not how people think about mustard. It's not. Well, so then that's where you get kind of back to the understanding about mustard.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And make that really work for you And that's what you need to do as a company long term. A fit too, because I remember some mustard people coming to me. Do you remember they did the Dijon mustard thing on Facebook? I was like, this is not going to work. This is not, this is not how people think about mustard.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, in the market and make that really work for you. And then you need to continue to evolve and grow and find the new channels. And that's what you need to do as a company long term.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Facebook was still new territory in a lot of ways for advertising, and the timing was good to exploit that in the most positive ways. Right. I mean, you can't count on that to go forever, but I do think a startup, when I think about timeliness relative to a startup,”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, my original worry before I even met Michael when I just heard about the investment was razors. $5 razors or whatever dollar razors, like low ticket item, low margin item. Super hard to have enough dollars for all the other things it takes to run those business at some point people thought like oh if you go direct to consumer you can cut out all the margin it's not true the reality is is like costs are just flipping around in different ways and you still need to have a healthy product margin you still need to have a healthy absolute dollars so that you can support it with great marketing with great customer service which is there's there's no way to cut cunners on great customer service the customer expects it you got a lot of times you've got to figure out how to work shipping into your model and fulfillment and all of that and then you still need a team you know and it's not getting simpler to do business you now have all the things you've always had plus all the techniques right so originally i looked at it and i thought like low ticket generally low margin item in a space where there's a juggernaut competitor with billions of dollars like if i've got a few things to do a year this might not be something i have to do when i met michael like he really you know one he”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And when I met him, he really told the story of the consumer and the challenge they were facing and how he thought he could address it in a bigger way.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Even predating that. Right, exactly. And a lot of people wanted to chip in on Dollar Shave Club because. And they thought the ad was magical. This is the founder. He did sorry for Michael Dubin Unique. Right. 2012. A very particular market where they bought everything in a drugstore, essentially”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Products you should bring to market and how you should price them and how you should talk about them and all of that. And so, you know, I felt like that was, it was an incredibly exciting move forward for the business. And he was at the right time in the right place with a compelling ad and a compelling conversation in a particular market, a very particular market.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And this was, well, and when I started for MRIs, even predating that. Right, exactly. So actually, the first investment I made as kind of true foreigner in our first institutional fund was Dollar Shave Club. And a lot of people wanted to chip in on Dollar Shave Club because they were compelled by Michael and they thought the ad was magical. This is the founder. He did sorry for Michael Dubin. I wanted to lead that investment because I also thought the founder was magical and the ad was unique. More importantly, I felt like he was really understanding the change that was happening with his consumer and the change that the CPG industry would be facing or was already well into facing in terms of like they didn't have a touchstone to their consumer. They didn't have that information and data. And in 2012, it was a time when we were really talking about the importance of data in your business and the importance of kind of using that to understand who your audience and what”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not me. Why not me? Why not me? Well, they also weren't investing in that area. Everyone went Amazon won, essentially. I think that's what the mentality was. You couldn't get them interested in e-commerce. And, you know, there had been some investments like NastyGal and some others, but they had not had a great interest in commerce.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Why not me? Why not me? Why not me? I could do that. And I thought that, but the reality, too, was that I had this particular view on the market and I had honed a thesis around a particular set of companies and nobody was begging me to add that to their portfolio. Well, they also weren't investing.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Jen Alpha. You've got a great learning label for decades. I know for decades. So you You had an angel fund of smaller. I had $5 million. $5 million. And I really took that opportunity to one establish this portfolio and look at the ecosystem inventor. It was like my first time I was really playing in the venture ecosystem, right? I've kind of been on the outskirts this whole time and watching what firms mattered and why they mattered and what change was happening. And that was a time period where there was a handful of kind of micro VC firms that had started and that was sort of born out of the lean startup and they were being nimble and they were investing in the most exciting companies. And I thought.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of Gen Z. Yeah. I agree. It's where we find hope having Gen Z children. And now I have an alpha children. I guess Jen Alpha. Wow. Jen Alpha. You've got a great learning lab for decades. I know for decades. So you raised how much with 400. You had an angel fund of small million funder.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They hate it and they hate delivery. I love the consciousness of Gen Z. Yeah. I agree. It's where we find hope. Having Gen Z.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think there's so many things that are on the consumer's mind right now that stand to undermine some of those big platforms of business. Well, we're going to talk if you look at Gen Z coming. Yes, completely. My kids hate.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then it shows up next convenient. It's not it. Right. That's convenience. It's very fascinating to dirty. You feel badly on many levels because you're not using local retailers, but you can't find those things because it's all there, which is kind of fascinating.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think Glossier does. It's a delightful experience in terms of the fact that you do one click and then it shows up next convenient. It's not delightful. That's it. Right. That's convenience. It is not like it's not inspiring. It's not fun. It's certainly not emotional. And rarely do you go down the rabbit hole of finding a new thing that you want to buy. You're really kind of executing a transaction versus kind of engaging in explorating and discovering.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I still think it is. I still think it is like one of the holdbacks from total domination of those platforms is that it's not.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It has Right, right, you know, which would have been on a very basic level. Merchandising. Merchandising, creating context for products. And take payment in order to customer in a lot of ways. I'll never forget an interview I do with the head of Creighton Barre, all this old guy. He's fantastic. And he essentially bought a 20-cent plate in Thailand or wherever he got it from and managed to put all this stuff around it and then sell it for $8. And I was always fascinated. Merchandising was merchandising. And that was my issue with Amazon in the beginning. A lot of these retailers is they didn't know merchandising very well, which I think was a critical part of any retail experience.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Rather than half the margin. The truth is that there's a really important role for retailers to play. There is still a lot to be said. Registration, merchandising. Merchandising. Creating context for products. And then having the service aspect of it too, which the brands have had to get good at. They've had to learn how to pick, pack and ship and take payments. I'm not a service customer in a lot of ways.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, in some ways it put the consumer in the driver's seat. Right, it has across all kinds of industries. I really think that it's the consumer that's been driving change kind of across multiple sectors. And particularly in retail, you know, again, they had this digital tool in their pocket. They could go on social media and discover new products and they could read blogs and discover new products. And there was a lot more consuming of media in general that referenced products. And then they could click through and go to a product page or a company page. And so with more kind of information and more agency in the consumer's hands, like they just played a bigger role in reshaping it. And I think brands felt the opportunity to step up to the plate and meet the consumer by, hey, they're coming to us directly. We can sell to them directly. On a very basic level, you look at it and think that's a better business model if you're a brand. Get the full market.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Face forward with companies to be able to kind of have a website, the natural evolution of that was at a consumer thought I should be able to buy here. So it forced brands to think about how to become retailers. It then forced them to rethink about their relationship with retailers. And as people had more places to shop and different paths to purchase, I think retailers had to get more clarity around what their role was. Right. And a lot of this ultimately forced reorganization in that ecosystem. Right, absolutely. And people to re-explore their business models. And that's where the opportunity has been that we kind of initial foreigner is initial wedge into the market was to explore that change in that ecosystem. How would it change?”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really pushing a new path to purchase, and how that was upending the whole ecosystem. You know, now everybody had access to information and influence digitally in their pocket, in their hand. And they were learning about companies through the social networks. They were learning about companies online through friends. They could look them up. And in doing that, that kind of made it more important for brands to have a”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And he said, you know, you're clearly passionate about that and want to do it. What is it going to take to get into that business? And I thought having an angel fund would be a great way to prove that I could edit a set of companies. I'd already proven that I could invest and partner with companies because I had a handful of companies doing that, but I was always raising money pitching the company as much as anything. Now I needed to pitch my view of the market and where the opportunity was. And really, you know, we've been talking about some specific companies. But at that point in time, like on a category level, it was about the consumer.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I had to in 2010 I raised an Angel Fund. And I had an initial single investor, and someone I'd known for 20 years who I developed a rapport with. He was a hedge fund investor, a really successful one. We had compared notes all along kind of the journey of me learning and him investing. And I think we'd grown to like and respect each other. And he'd offered me a job a couple of times. And I'd been sharing what I was working on and the kinds of companies that I, you know, where I thought the market was going and the companies that were unfolding and where there was opportunity. And then I came with these couple of companies that I was really excited about investing in.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Thinking tactically about the business, going and executing on the plan, coming back with learnings, and pushing the thinking forward. And to me, I was like, these are the kinds of people that I think could be successful. And maybe the idea right now isn't what the ultimate idea is, but they are going to. Execute their way into something because they keep learning as they're going. So that was as much about the people as anything in a big space that needed disruption, which I think is a lot about what this business is.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Knowing one group becomes a small ecosystem. I met some people at Stanford. I got to know some people at Warden. So anyways, what really stood out with them was they were”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, during that time period where I was making myself available for learning, I was meeting everybody. I mean, really, I was like open for learning, not open for business because I didn't have any money to invest at the time, but I was open for learning and I'd sit in coffee shops with people and like literally bat around their ideas and try to push the thinking somehow.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Going to be very tough to pull off, particularly this idea of this home try on how would you have inventory out on loan, you know, how would you get it back on time? What would the float look like on that? And what would the economics of that be? But I met with them probably over the course of five times.”
2020-01-20 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Kirsten Green · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT