YouSaid · the spoken record

Sarah Kauss

lines on the record: 92
first: 2020-04-06
most recent: 2020-04-06
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

“But at the same time that I started the company, there were so many people around the world waking up to the issue of climate change and global warming and how they potentially had the need to take personal action. And so yes, it's been a lot of work, but all of the stars aligned in a really lucky way for that work to have turned into something.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know, I think it has to be both. You know, I would say that it absolutely has been hard work. It's been a lot of hustle. You know, no one's ever going to outwork me. And I live for swell. And this has really been my life's work these last 10 years. But I have to say, luck has played such an incredible role in our success. I was lucky to be born to parents who are entrepreneurs, who taught me the power of hard work and positive thinking and doing the right thing. I was born in a country and a society that values education for girls. And I went to great schools and I have a network of friends who supported me on this journey. And the power of timing was so lucky. You know, I started swell because I had a personal mission to eliminate single-use plastic bottles.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And trying to do your at home workout while you're homeschooling your kids and, you know, trying to be the cook and we're trying to say we've got products to help you. But at the same time, like can we be this place to kind of keep you healthy and happy while you're staying home and staying positive? But we know that all of our retailers aren't going to make it through this time. We're just trying to be supportive. And if there's ways for us to weather the storm and get out on the other side, what I'm really hopeful for is that we have sort of a renewed sense of community and why companies that have a mission really matter.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I have to say these are really uncertain times. No one knows where this is going to end up, myself included. I do think that there's going to be more pain and more disruptions before we get out on the other side of this, unfortunately. But, you know, what I hope that we find on the other side of this is sort of a changed business environment, sort of a new sense of community and relationships that businesses have with their customers. You know, one of the things that I'm working on and I'm optimistic about is just really leaning into the mission of Swell. And I think one of the things that we'll be left with on the other side of this is really how COVID-19 or otherwise, you know, we're all intertwined and we're interconnected and that my actions and your actions matter for our communities. Our key messaging is really like, how can Swell be your companion at home right now? You know, we're trying to have a sense of humor about video conferencing and”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Incredibly happy that I did bring in a CEO who is absolutely the right decision for Swell before this global pandemic, but especially now. And I'm following the leadership of the CEO who started just six weeks ago. So it's not the transition I was hoping for for him. But in trying times, that's when leaders step up and he's doing an incredible job.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's correct. I found that the more that I talked about our revenue numbers, the more that we seem to have a bit of a target on our back. Yeah.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's been great, honestly. The poor guy, you know, he never applied for a job. He basically got kidnapped one day. It was one of those situations where”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I like to think that we really did create part of this movement of people carrying a reusable water bottle. Part of why I started swell was I was trying to get people to stop drinking so much single-use plastic. And so it makes me very happy to see so many water filling stations pop up and so many people carrying a reusable bottle.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was chaos for sure. You know, it was drinking out of the fire hose or, you know, any one of those analogies, but it was. It was a really interesting fun time. You know, it was trying to figure out, you know, how do you get six months ahead of yourself instead of always being three months behind? But it was a lot of fun. I mean, I had a really energized, you know, team. There was something that was a bit magical to our scrappiness that we seem to be able to get through a lot of that chaos and make, I don't know, thrive on it really.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would say yes, although I think with every phase of the business there was always something that sort of put me on the back foot. And so I didn't have time to have too much swagger or overconfidence because there was always something that I could have done better or I should have known or a person or a process or a system that needed to be upgraded. And so I think where I really have come full circle on the confidence piece is being able to meet that sometimes things aren't working perfectly and to be able to be honest about that imperfection and ask other entrepreneurs or even just other employees for advice or help because I think that if I had been overconfident in any step of the journey that it might have blindsided me or the company for sort of that next big step forward on the growth perspective.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, I definitely heard that from a few people, but I honestly was so focused on what I was trying to do that I wasn't really that concerned about what others were doing. I had a lot of confidence in Swell and in myself and what I was doing. And, you know, I have met some really nice investors. I just didn't meet anyone that I thought was really going to be that helpful to what I was trying to do”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we had some really interesting conversations, but at that point, we were just so busy and trying to scale this company or like painting the plane after we took off. We didn't really have time to think about an investor pitch or really what that would look like. So luckily we were self-funding pretty well at that point. We really didn't need the outside capital.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. I had a moment before I went to go talk to him and I was grabbing my swell and thinking about what I wanted to say. And I just thought, how am I going to get on the plane tomorrow back from Seattle Live with myself if I don't go do it. I mean, the worst that can happen is he says, No, thank you, leave me alone. And the best is that something comes of this. And so I thought, well, I've got absolutely nothing to lose and it worked out. You know, from that, we sold a lot of product. But more than that, we became more of a household name. Yeah. We had a sign in all the Starbucks that said Starbucks' favorite hydration fasten accessory is swell with our logo bigger than the Starbucks logo. I mean, wow. That's better than sales. That's brand recognition”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. So I think 10,000 stores in the US and Canada, 25 countries in Europe, all over Asia, Russia, South Africa, I mean, it was incredible.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And he listened. He said, okay, well, here's my card. And why don't you contact me? And after the holidays, we'll sit down and have a meeting. And he was true to his word. He had me in for an hour and a half the following February. Yeah, and we hatched a plan. It was one of those incredible moments where I really would have kicked myself if I hadn't done it. But I still can't believe I actually did it.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so, yeah, I just had this moment where I realized that this was my time to try a much bigger pitch for Swell at Starbucks. So I asked my buyer, I said, hey, do you want to come with me? I think that's your boss over there. And she said, oh, God, no. She said, I'd be way too nervous to speak with the CEO. And so I said, okay, well, here, hold my bag. And so I give her my purse. I grab my swell bottle and I beeline over to Howard before anyone else can get to him. And I just told him my story and said, hey, listen, we're both CEOs here. I'm running a much smaller company. You're running a much bigger one, but we could be doing so much more business with you if you could just give us the opportunity to sell in more stores.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I actually was at Starbucks headquarters for a meeting with our buyers talking about the program that we were doing in Austin and Atlanta. And it was very fortunate because at the time, this was in December 2014.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that's the thing that I have the hardest time with is it's not just that they didn't buy the product from us. It's just that customers are having an inferior experience. And it could really be turning customers off from our brand because they're not getting the real thing. And I think that's where it really gets my blood boiling.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is a lot. I mean, it absolutely affects the bottom line. I think it's hard to quantify, but I think you're right. I think more than that, it's the brain space. It's the opportunity cost of time when you have your time and attention or your team or the fact that you're spending money on legal and not on product development or marketing. It really creates a lot of stress and strain on the organization. It also creates a fair amount of confusion for customers in the marketplace. We hear from customers customer service that they bought a swell, what they think is a swell, and it's not working. It's not keeping things hot and cold or dense or the paint is coming off. And we ask the customer, hey, send us a picture of it, and it's not real.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Correct. So we've had a number of lawsuits. That one included of individuals and companies that are there making products that directly infringe upon our intellectual property rights.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I mean, I had done the initial registration of the patents and design patents and intellectual property, but certainly didn't have a lawyer on staff or really the budget. Unfortunately, we did have to hire some attorneys and we really did have to try to get to the bottom of it to make sure that this was stopped immediately.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We contacted the officials that were running the show and showed them my business card and showed them the SWAL website in the US and said, listen, this is a counterfeit company. This is not SWEL. We are not showing at the show. We found someone that had the keys to the display case and we took all of the samples out, stuffed it all into our bags, and we went back to our hotel. I mean, we couldn't believe what we had just seen.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, he said, Oh, hi. Tell me about this. And the gentleman that was working in the booth was super smiley and happy, and he pulled out his business card and gave it to us and said, oh, hi, I'm from Swell. And his business card also had Swell on it. Of course, I had never seen this man before.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I didn't believe it. And I was there with my boyfriend at the time, who's now my husband, and luckily he kept his wits about him and went over and started talking to someone standing by this display case.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was the same logo and it had the trademark symbol on the side. Oh my God. And it was all of our colors. It was everything. It was as if we had gone to the show ourselves.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What happened? So I had gone to so many trade shows, you know, over the first year. And here I am in Hong Kong and I saw a big, you know, promotion for a trade show. And I thought, great. I spend all my free time at trade shows now. Why don't I go check out this show to see what it's like? And not only were there swell bottles at this trade show, but the swell bottles had won in award and had a ribbon on a display case at the trade show.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, exactly. And so in a couple years ago, Shonda Rhimes was one of the TED speakers. And she wrote into info at Swell Bottle herself and said, oh, hi, I'm Shonda. And I just got a swell bottle at the TED conference. And she purchased swells for all six of her shows at the time. Wow. And the cool thing about that was then you had the likes of Carrie Washington and all of those amazing stars that she has access to because of her shows all walking around with a swell bottle. So it's really hard to really quantify, but when you pull back and you think, you know, how did I meet Shonda? How did we meet LinkedIn? How do we get a bottle to Gyroz? It was a big, you know, calculated expense, but at the same time, it certainly has paid off for us.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, it is hard to track, but we can try to see where orders come from, you know, on the website. We have a little, how did you hear about us line? So we try to see, you know, are people talking about TED there. But we have a pretty big corporate business where we actually work with big companies and we put their logos on bottles. And some of the first bigger corporate orders that we received were CEOs and founders of companies that had attended TED. They actually wrote to us from the TED conference.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Ted does not buy it. It's a donation. It's a donation. It's an expensive two, 3,000 people that go every year. And so, you know, but it was very deliberate because as you can imagine being as scrappy as I was starting swell, I didn't have a marketing budget. And so I thought, how do I get my bottle in the hands of influencers, of people that are sort of on the cutting edge of ideas? Ted being one of those real obvious places. And I had sent a bottle to Ted and said, you know, again, this is my bottle and this is my story. And surprisingly, they called me back. And even though that's really what I wanted, it was a huge decision to pull the trigger and make the donation because it was expensive and it was product that I had to basically give away and not sell with the hopes of something coming out of it.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I considered it, but then quickly discounted it because I thought you know what, this is going to be a big waste of time. And I'm not really sure if it's going to work. And so why don't I just wait until we're bigger and more successful because we'll have a better pitch and a better story to tell to investors if that's the path we want to go down.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was also the first time we figured out how to make a barcode sticker. Creighton varrel was our first national account, so it was the first time we had to read a vendor guide. So they had these requirements that said you have to actually have a SKU number and a barcode sticker. So I Googled how to do it and I printed out the barcode stickers on my home printer, invited my girlfriends over and we had pizza and wine and stuck all the stickers on. I actually shipped the bottles from my warehouse to the house to put the stickers on because the stuff that was in our warehouse wasn't compliant with their vendor guide. And so it was a real learning opportunity to say, hey, listen, if you're going to start working with some of these really big partners, you're going to have to get smarter on how to service them.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Crane Barrow was a bigger thing because it gave us a bigger stance. It gave us national attention. And in some cases, from a press perspective, they really want a retailer to tell their readers to go to. And so we started to sort of get a little bit more pressed because we had better retail placement.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I went to 17 trade shows that year and was exhausting. I would say on friends' couches and start doing customer service for the e-commerce site or billing credit cards, being the only employee and doing all of the jobs. And of course, my friends would want to talk. You hadn't seen them in years and you'd say, oh, can I crash at your place in Atlanta? The last thing you want to do after talking about a water bottle all day is talk to anybody. So those were trying times, that's for sure.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I think Creighton Beryl did hear about Australia attention, but the way that I actually met them was through a trade show. So I had been going to some of the gift trade shows and standing in a little booth, almost like a science fair booth, you know, where you stand there next to your poster board and you say, oh, hi, this is my product. And I remember being very excited to meet the buyer from Creighton Barrel. And, you know, they said they were going to put us in all of their stores, but also their catalogs that go to so many homes in America. So that was a really big, exciting turning point.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, at the point that I had ordered the additional inventory, I realized I was going to need a fulfillment center. So at that point, I wasn't actually sending the orders myself from the post office. So I had set up a fulfillment center, luckily. And worked with a company that basically works with direct-to-consumer companies. So surprisingly, even though we were a pretty small company, orders were going out in a day or two.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Web traffic went up so much that we, and I say we, I was still the only employee, I had to really work on the back end of the website because we crashed immediately. So there was absolutely an Oprah effect. But I would say more than anything, it was sort of this stamp of confidence in the business that either gave me more confidence as I went into retailers or it gave retailers more confidence to try the product and put it on the shelf. I made a little sign that said, you know, as featured in Oprah's magazine, and that certainly helped opening up retail doors.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Said I will, and I literally hung up the phone. I walked out the door, I went to Barnes& Noble, I purchased a Pantone color book. I picked out six additional colors and I called the factory. And I said, listen, I need you to make me two bottles each in these six colors and FedEx them here. I need one for Oprah's magazine and one for myself to take pictures to put on the website so we can show that we're selling these products. And that's how we went from one color to seven. And we were featured then in the summer of 2011 in Oprah's magazine, which was a really big milestone for the business.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I can bring you as many as you want, but they only come in blue. And it was this heartbreaking moment because she said, well, call me back when you have more colors because we really need colors to go on the page.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But the catch was, she said, you need to send me one of every color you have because color looks good on a page. And you only had the message.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I took it on my family vacation to Peru and it worked. I use it every day. I kept my water cold. We really want to run this product and we want to run it on the OLIS, which is the must-have list for the summer.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“will at this time i was still working through my first 3000 and i got a call back from opra's magazine from the o magazine who i'd sent one of my samples to oh”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so actually, my target in the beginning was women because I was really making something for myself and friends like me. And I thought, you know, women also do a lot of the shopping for the household.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did. I told him about myself. I told him about what I was trying to do. I talked about how much plastic was in the ocean. I talked about how many people, women and girls primarily are affected by the water crisis and how we're trying to give back to UNICEF and make a difference in the world. And I talked about the product. You know, I said this is a hydration fashion accessory. This is not a water bottle. You've never seen anything like it before. And this is why it's important to your reader”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Would not know, but I would hopefully guess that if this, what I thought was a beautiful product would show up on their desk and they weren't the right person, that potentially they would pass it along. I also had a hunch that even if they weren't the right person and a product arrived, that they might just use it anyway. And that maybe that's one way that I could win people over, you know, having a swell bottle sit on the desk in someone's office as they're trying to think of story ideas, you know, potentially they'll think about us.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I went to Barnes Noble and I didn't buy the magazines, but I wrote down the address of almost every editor, mostly women's fashion magazines, and I started writing letters. And every day I tried to send out a couple of boxes to different editors with a letter and saying, you know, this is my product. This is what I'm trying to do. And here's a sample. I would love it if you could try it. And if you like it, could you write about it?”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I put it on my Facebook page. I told my friends and family members and I asked if they would repost it as well and created a swell Facebook page. And I just asked people to start liking it. I also started to reach out to the press at that time as well myself.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did. I did. So it took a number of months, but I eventually sold all of those bottles, some on the website on swell.com.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'd say, you know what? I really think if you use the product, I really think if you tried it, you would understand how great this is. And lo and behold, oftentimes when we get a call back and say, you know, I tried this. I put ice cubes in last night or I made tea before I went to bed and it's still hot. It's still cold. Come back and tell me a little bit more about this product. So, you know, I had to take a little bit of a risk and give away some product in some cases to try to get people to really understand it worked like I said it was going to.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Days and weeks actually that I would sort of pound the pavement and try to find people to buy the product and I would only get no's a bit depressing in the beginning. I wrote that manifesto that small business plan and said, you know, we're going to be sold in Bloomingdale's and the buyer said, no way, we don't sell water bottles. In those early days, I got a lot of no's before I got a few people to start saying yes.”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I literally just packed up and went into stores and I asked to speak to the buyer or speak to the owner in the case of smaller stores and just explain said this is me, I'm Sarah, this is my product. This is what I'm trying to do. How many can I put you down for?”
2020-04-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · S'well: Sarah Kauss · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT