YouSaid · the spoken record

Nancy Twine

lines on the record: 95
first: 2023-12-04
most recent: 2023-12-04
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 don't even know if there's a word for it, guy. Like, I don't even know if proud. Really justifies the feeling. But I have always felt like my mom has been a part of this journey. There have been so many incredible things that have unfolded over the course of the past 10 years. And I am a spiritual person. And I do feel her spirit has really helped to guide me down this path. And I just know that she is watching with eyes of joy and excitement. And I'm just so grateful to have had the opportunity as a young child again to see someone who looks like me defeat the odds and to overcome the challenges and to create success.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's the latter plus something else you didn't mention. I don't, yeah, luck sometimes happen, but luck is not what this is about because that means I would have struck luck over and over and over again and luck is more of a random thing. I think this is all about the hard work and the time that I've put in, as you mentioned, but there's also a mindset of believing in myself that I've established that I think is probably the biggest attribute towards succeeding in anything that you put your mind to.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was really exhausting, and I kind of felt like there were so many people kind of coming out of the woodwork. And like, I get it, but I don't believe that it is the responsibility of black people to fix the problem. However, I do feel that it's important that black people have a seat at the table when certain decisions are being made about progress. So for me, it was very much a fine balance of how do I allocate my time to the things that I think I can be most impactful knowing that I can't say yes to everything. But I have to say yes to some things because I can't just sit back and say, okay, it's your problem, go figure it out. Like I know I have to be a part of the conversation. I really believe that.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and I think, you know, the way that we think about hair care is very much from a treatment perspective. So it's less styling, but it's more treatment focused. And I think People have a bit more time to really spend on their self care.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, I'm so fortunate guy in that our business is doing phenomenally well. We actually ended up revising up our pre-COVID budget.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, it was really funny to see. I mean, I get it. I guess, you know, having Sephora. Behind the brand and seeing that growth definitely creates a much more compelling story than having a sketch on a piece of paper. But yeah, it was really interesting because the dynamics had changed quite a bit.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so by that time I had started to exhaust most of the money that I got from Phil. But I knew that I was going to need more money. So I reached out to Phil, put together a little deck of how I would use the funds to basically scale the growth of the business, which he was incentivized to do given his equity position. He felt like it was a good business case. I had, you know, POs to point to. So he loaned me another hundred and fifty K.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, absolutely. That's a really good question. One of the things I'm very transparent about is that Briogio products are not 100% natural and where we cannot find an effective, clean substitute, we will opt with. And there is an organization in Europe called ECOSERT, which declares what synthetic ingredients are safe for use in... Natural products. And so we use a synthetic but eco-cert preservative system that allows our products to have anywhere from a 24 to 30 month shelf life.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so Sephora has a cadence of twice a year in which they roll out brands into stores and march in September. So we launched on.com in August and we weren't yet ready to go into store just a month later in September. So once we hit March, we were ready for it. And it was such an incredible moment. And the idea of having Briogio, these four products I created sitting on a Sephora shelf was just the experience of a lifetime.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. And our most universal product is our deep conditioning mask. And I thought it would be a good idea to sample that to a couple of hundred thousand people. And so that was a very difficult decision because I had to fund all of that inventory for that sampling program up front. But getting that product in the hands of about 200,000 people translated into incredible conversions at Sephora.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, one of the most incredible investments I could have ever made at the time was partnering with a beauty sampling box called Ipsy that curates different beauty samples for hundreds of thousands of subscribers.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, yeah, I mean, I was using the little bit of cash that I had because the thing about retail is that you don't get the money until, you know, several days after you ship the product. And so I wasn't launching in Sephora until August of that same year. And they didn't place the order until July. So I left Goleman in April and I was living on no income from the business. I mean, I had some of the small orders from urban outfitters, but that wasn't enough.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's got to work. I mean, I put everything on the line. I resigned. I had no more income coming in. I wasn't paying myself. It was scary.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I knew it was the right thing, and I really knew it was the right thing when I talked to my brother and a couple of other friends and family members. And I was actually surprised by how supportive they were. I thought there was going to be at least one person that said, are you sure this is the right thing? Do you really want to do this? And not one person said that. They said, Nancy, we believe in you. Go for it.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, so I was still at Goldman. And once I received that email from Sephora, I knew that it was the opportunity of a lifetime. And I knew that if I was going to do it right, I could not continue working a full-time job. And I owed it to myself to really give this opportunity a real chance.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it was a test, and the test was online only. So if I hit my targets, the next step would be to launch Briogio in 25 of the then 400 Sephora stores.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh my gosh, I just It was the opportunity that I needed because I knew that I could do it. I just needed the opportunity.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then in February of 2014, I received an email that changed my life. I had sent the merchant buyer January's press summary. And a couple of weeks later, she responded and said, Nancy, it's so great to hear from you. The stars must have been a line because we just got out of a town hall with our CEO and he wants to start building out our hair care category at Sephora in a more meaningful way and we want to test Briogio. Still have the email”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did because you know it was similar feedback that I had gotten from some of the other buyers. It was like, why hair care? Like it's not the most interesting or like booming category within Prestige Beauty. I guess I was ahead of my time from that standpoint, but I also knew that like my time was running out in terms of putting the capital to work for my investors and also making that move to being a full-time entrepreneur. So I continued to stay in touch with the buyer just so that she knew that Briochio was in demand and, you know, things were going well.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was definitely a disappointing moment, and it was another moment in which I second guessed whether or not I had picked the right category because”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. I know. It's insane. It's so crazy thinking back at it, but it was so well worth the investment of the time and money because I really connected with that merchant. And she was also a person of color. She really took a particular liking to the fact that Briogio really represented diversity. But she was very honest with me and said, you know, Nancy, we just aren't focused on building out our hair care category right now. You know, makeup is the thing. And that's where we're focused. But if things choose, would love to be in touch.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I waited a month and then I said, all right, I need something that's going to make it like a no-brainer to meet with me. So I decided to collect all of the press that I had gotten over the past couple of months and I put together this really beautiful press book. And then I just decided to tell her that I was planning a trip to San Francisco, that I was going to actually be there. And so I finally got a response, which was And she asked her junior buyer to take over the conversation. She's like, yeah, let's meet up at Pete's Coffee and let's chat.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. No, it was definitely a bit of a puzzle. And I remember one of the women in that group who was kind of like the leader of the group, she had a unique, memorable name. Her name was Margarita. And that's all I remembered. So I did some Google searching and I found out her full name and who she was. And there was this website. I can't remember the name of the website, but it would help you to determine what the format of email addresses. And I emailed her. Send a little follow up email. I attached our brand book and told her that I would love the opportunity to come to San Francisco to meet with her in person to discuss the opportunity further. And I never got a response.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. So, one of the other investments that I made early on was a PR agency. And that was really important because I had to get the story out there. One of the things that I did that was a little bit different is I made myself available to the editors and I told my PR agency that I didn't want them to just pitch editors over email because I wouldn't be able to really tell the full story. And because I was in New York, I asked them if they could set me up with desk side appointments where I would actually meet the editor and be able to have a face-to-face connection. And so I was able to create relationships with editors at a dozen of publications. And I started getting press out of the gate. From even some of the bigger publications like Allore and Marie Clare and Refinery 29.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, yeah. I mean, that was huge. I mean, I knew that I could, you know, scale the next production run. It was still me at the time, so I wasn't at a point where I needed to invest in staffing, but it was really all about being able to scale the inventory.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, yeah. So that moved pretty quickly. So they did eventually put an order in that fall. And that was actually the milestone that Philip, who I spoke about a little earlier, Philip was then ready to commit some capital to the company.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and that's been a day one mission of the Brio Gio brand. And it really just kind of reflects, I think, my experience of growing up. And I've been so fortunate to have a diverse group of friends. And I never wanted any of my friends to feel like they couldn't use Brio too.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really displayed the diversity of our intended consumer. So I think when people saw the breadth of ethnicities and skin tones and hair texture types, I think it helped to offset maybe that stereotype.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know, I figured that people would, which is why when I design my booth, I was very intentional about having hair model imagery at my booth that”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Urban outfitters stop by. And by the way. There are people who assumed because you are an African American woman that this you were making products for quote unquote ethnic isle products you know what I mean like that that this was specifically for women of color I mean was there Did people make that assumption initially?”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Walked off, another brand came up to my booth and said, oh my gosh, how did the conversation with Sephora go? And I was like, what do you mean? And she was like, Oh, those four women were from Sephora.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so the first day I was handing out just lots of samples and buyers were very intrigued because they're always intrigued by newness and they had never seen the brand before. But the buyers that I gave samples to, most of them came back the next day and said, I use the products last night or this morning, like tell me more. And so some of those buyers included, you know, urban outfitters, Nordstrom. And then on the very last day, the Sephora team came by and that was what's really funny is that I didn't even know that they were the Sephora team until they left because there was a group of four of them and their badges were turned the other way because they don't want to be kind of like smothered by everyone who's looking for the Sephora team. So when they came by, I actually had no idea. And when they”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, yeah, it's very hard. And I actually did step away to the bathroom and miss the buyer who I was there for. Luckily, they came back, but that's how it happens.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and if you've never been to a trade show, it is a very, very overwhelming series of days because you were talking nonstop and you have to be on and you have to be at that booth because you never know who's going to come by.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, there was travel. I had to design the space. I needed staffing. So I think when it was all said and done, it was probably closer to 15,000.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. So I knew I couldn't just cold email them. Like, that just wasn't going to work. So at the time, I had started building up some mentors in the space that encouraged me to go to a trade show and to invest in getting a booth.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So after the lengthy process of formulating my first four products, I had now had a name for the company. I had the packaging design. I had done my first run of, you know, 400 pieces or whatever the minimum was. And I was tasked with figuring out how I was going to bring the products to market. It's funny, guy, because I just focused on one thing at a time. And so once the products were made, I had to figure out how I was going to get them in front of retailers. And I had a business plan. So I knew who my target retailers were. I was targeting the prestige retailers of the world, like Sephora, Nordstrom, et cetera.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I didn't call him. He called me. I was on the trading desk and I got this missed call, and I hopped off, and it was Phil. Phil had called because he wanted to follow up and he wanted to learn more. And that's where the dialogue started. And ultimately, a year later, after I had gotten my first retail commitment, he made his first investment in Briojio.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I presented with passion. I had a great presentation. And then after the stage pitches, there was a breakout room in which the five of us each had a table where we could display our product concept or technology. And so for me, it was that, you know, poster board with the sketches of the product. And no one came to my table. It was so embarrassing. I was so upset. And at the very end, as I was packing up my table, a guy named Phil came by and said, you gave the best presentation. And he said, as you can tell, I have very little hair, I know little about hair care. But he goes, I don't really invest in the products anyway, invest in the people. And he goes, you've got something. And here's my number. Let's be in touch.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“filled this space. And then there were five of us who were going on stage to pitch our ideas. And the four other men who were presenting all had tech companies. And I just remember being like, oh my gosh, not again. You know what's so hard about it, Guy, too, is that when you get onto a stage and you know that everyone there is probably not interested in what you have to offer and you kind of have to fake that sense of enthusiasm. It was painful”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This was in 2012 Yeah. And so I walk into this auditorium and I look around and I'm like, here we go again, exactly as you described. It was all white men, older men too.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so there was a investing network out in Long Island. And I remember racing from work to try to make it there on time, which I did.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Had so many like random names, I can't even remember, but I just remember I got to the point of frustration and knew that I needed help. And a friend of mine ended up putting me in touch with a guy who was a consultant. And for less than 500 bucks, he picked my brain on what I wanted this brand to be and gave me a ton of options. And Briogio stood out. So the word brio is an Italian word that means vibrant, colorful, full of life. That's like our DNA essence. And the word geo is Latin for of earth, of nature. And that speaks to our clean ingredient methodology.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I imagine these were predominantly men. Probably white men who don't use hair masks, and some of them probably don't have hair, and also probably don't really understand your specific hair needs either.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Which is why, like, going to these networking events was so discouraging because I was no one really cared about what I was doing. And I even felt like the people in the room weren't consumers of what I was offering.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and I had some artwork on a piece of paper. I would bring this thick piece of paper that had sketches of the packaging. It was a really hard guy to sell. A brand that existed on paper”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's so funny because, guy, I didn't even know it was a thing And I got invited to one of these things, and that's exactly what it was. You know, there was a line at each of these booths and you would do your one-minute elevator pitch. And it was nutso.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did. So I was self funding a lot of it, but I knew that if I was going to start to scale this at some point, I didn't want to put myself in a position where I was completely maxed out because I also knew that it would be hard for me to focus on growing my business if I was thinking about how I was going to pay my rent. So I did. I started dabbling in going to investor meetups and pitching sessions, which was quite the experience.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So by that point, the most money I spent was on the business plan, which was about $5,000. Some of the initial concepts for the packaging, which was north of 10K. And then you factor in everything else. I was probably close to 25K.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean. The project and process of building Briogio really became a therapy for me. I needed to take that energy and pour it into something positive. And there were a lot of people who were very quote unquote proud of me that I didn't self-destruct or get into negative behavior like drinking or drugs and things like that. And for me, I really took the emotions of that experience and poured it into this project. And I think that's why the hours that I was devoting, the lack of sleep, all of that stuff, I just kept going because it was my therapy.”
2023-12-04 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT