November 18, 2021 • 22 mins
For decades, buying paint for the home was a chore. Learn how Nicole Gibbons, who had already made her name in interior design, built the success of Clare, which offers designer-curated colors and an easy, enjoyable online experience.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Made by Women by the Seneca Women Podcast
Network and I Heart Radio. At a moment when businesses
face some of the biggest challenges in recent history, we
bring you inspiring stories, practical insights, and shared learnings to
help you successfully navigate in today's environment. I'm Kim Azzarelli,
(00:26):
and thanks so much for joining us today. Sometimes the
best business ideas come from the most ordinary places. Take
household paint. For instance, the experience of shopping for paint
had gone largely unchanged for decades, and then in two
thousand and eighteen, Claire came along. Claire turned buying paint
(00:46):
into a convenient and enjoyable online experience. What's more is
that Claire offers high quality, designer curated paint that is
sustainable and free of toxic solvents. Fast Company has called
Claire the war be Part Parker of paint. Claire founder
Nicole Gibbons, who was already well known as an interior
design expert on h G t V and the Oprah
(01:07):
Winfrey Network, was credited with upending the paint industry. Reviews
in publications like Apartment Therapy said Claire is simply quote,
the best place to buy paint. How did Nicole Gibbons
pull off this feat very methodically, it turns out, and
that's just one of the lessons we're going to learn
from her. Please enjoy my conversation with Claire, founder The
(01:28):
Coal Gibbons. Well, thanks so much for joining us, Thank
you for having me. So your company, Claire has been
called by Fast Company the Warby Parker of paint. How
would you describe Claire and what is the customer experience?
So funny? I feel like every startup is the warby Parker.
(01:49):
Fill in the blank. But um, I guess it's a
compliment because they bolt a fantastic business. But Claire is
a modern paint company. We make the process of buying
paint for your home really easy, um with designer curated
paint colors, everything you need to paint delivered to your door.
Plus our paint is better for you, better for the environment. Um.
And we make sampling really easy with our pel and
(02:10):
sticks watches, so so much easier overall process than going
to a place like home depot. I love it and
I totally could see how you're disrupting the market with that,
because getting paint is such a hassle and not fun
and what you've just described sounds amazing. So um makes
a lot of sense. Your background is an interior design
and you are a style influencer for sure. You've appeared
(02:31):
on h G t V, on the Opra Network, g
M A L Decor. But I want to take you
back to your early days. Where did you grow up
and how did you get to where you are? I
grew up in suburban Detroit. My career journey was along
winding road. I'll give you the abbreviated version. When Northwestern
thought I wanted to do broadcast journalism, came out doing
pr um in fashion. I did pr for a decade,
(02:54):
and while in that job, eight I started a decorating
blog because I was super passionate out all things home.
My friends used to kind of joke and call me
like Mark, you know, Martha Steward and like a almost
like like a shade kind of way, you know, like
I don't know if it was a compliment, but um,
(03:14):
you know what at twenty five, when everyone else was
out at like bars and you know, clubs or whatever,
I was like at home, you know, trying to perfect
like the perfect vanilla kick recipe, and you know, decorating
and doing d I Y projects and all of that.
So then I think it was definitely a compliment. Then. Yeah,
So I you know, I was always passionate about home,
and one of the things that I realized at the
time is I was like, you know, there's no one
(03:36):
that I see on TV speaking to me and my generation.
You know, all the personalities that were on networks like
called HDTV or other other kind of homebook as networks
were much older. Their style was a lot more you know,
maybe conservative and traditional or like just not as young
and kind of style forward as as my own personal style.
And so I think initially my idea was perhaps I
(03:59):
could be that kind of voice of authority on home
for a younger generation of people who are you know,
super passionate about their homes. And um, that's kind of
how I set out to build my career. So I
felt like I needed to establish myself as a designer
first to build that credibility. Um, I started taking on
side projects, but I still had a day job. I
was a global director of pr at a huge, you know,
multi billion dollar retail organization, and um, you know, I
(04:23):
sort of wrote out the whole entire recession and UM
at the beginning of is when I finally kind of
had the courage and you know, confidence to really take
the leap and focus on building my business full time.
And so I evolved pretty quickly into operating my design
firm full time, working on projects in and around New
York City, and I also simultaneously started tackling opportunities and media,
(04:43):
which is how I ended up booking a role on
the show UM on the Opra win Free network that
I did for three seasons. It was a D I R.
Decorating show, Homemade Simple that's actually still on UM. And
I really kind of worked super hard to position myself
as an expert. And then the next chapter, I started
thinking about how can I evolve my aesthetic. I had
started to really establish my design firm. I had a
(05:04):
lot of them work that was published, you know, got
featured in a lot of you know, amazing places, and um,
you know, I you know, again going back to the
Martha Stewart business model, I kept thinking, how could I
evolve my own personal brand into something that's a massive
scale or or a much larger scale, so that I
could help, you know, really tie back to my core mission,
which has helped people make their homes beautiful. How can
(05:25):
I do that on a broad scale? And so I
kept exploring different market opportunities and I came across the
you know, pain or you know, as a designer, I
was super passionate about color, and I realized this industry
was archaic. The shopping experience was broken, and that's how
I knew I had a good opportunity on my hands.
It's amazing as to hear you talk about that, because
(05:45):
a lot of people think there's like an idea in
the middle of the night and someone jumps out of
bed and starts their company. But what you just described
was so thoughtful, such a thoughtful process of what you
wanted to do and establish your as you say, your
credentials and your credibility, and then then you saw an
opening in the market. I'm gonna ask a very simple question, though,
how did you come up with the name? Yeah? So
I saw that all the brands in paint were hyper masculine.
(06:06):
So you know, Benjamin More, Erwin, Williams, Dutch Boy. You know,
they all sound like dudes and plaid shirts. And I
know from my experience at home and that the people
who were really making the color decisions and household or
women UM, and I felt like brands were failing to
appeal to women. UM. So I intentionally wanted a name
that was feminine, approachable, easier to remember, friendly sounding, UM,
(06:29):
and a name that could be personified so you could
really build a personality around the brand. And then lastly,
I wanted a name that tied back to some deeper
meaning related to color. And so Claire comes from a
Latin root word claris that means bright and brilliant um.
And so the word play there felt really appropriate because
both brilliant in terms of being innovative and forward thinking,
(06:50):
but also in terms of color, and it was, you know,
it kind of checked all those boxes. And it was
originally just a working title because I wasn't sure what
to call the brand, but after a while it just
felt right and sort of stuff. So what were the
first steps you took to get this vision off the ground. Yeah,
So first I really thought about it for you know,
about a year. UM. I kept you know, super busy
(07:12):
in my company, and I kept thinking like, this is
such a good idea. You know, how do I make
this happen? What do I do to focus my attention.
So I thought of this as an idea in the
beginning of and then you know, really kind of thought
about it off and on the entire year. Um. And
then in the meeting of January, you know how you
wake up on the first of the year and it's
kind of like new Year. Knew me, what am I
(07:33):
going to do with my life this year? UM? I
came back to the idea for Claire, and I'm like,
if I don't do this now, I probably will never
do it. So what are the steps I need to
take to need to take to make this happen? So
I decided to take a quarter off from my design firm.
I was in a lucky position that I was wrapping
up a couple of projects from UH and so, you know,
(07:55):
I finished up those projects, but I didn't take on
any new clients, and I spent I said, I was
going to give myself one quarter to explore the opportunity.
I'm going to talk to people in paint industry figure out,
you know, how I might go about doing this, and
also how to get the company funded. So within a
month I sort of had the plan. I you know,
um UH serendipitously got connected with someone who UM is
(08:21):
a leading architectural coding's chemist in the in the industry. UM,
and she gave me some wonderful advice around paint formulation
and how to think about, you know, kind of the
kind of production side of things. And then UM, I
had a chat with a VC who gave me some
really positive feedback just about the idea and some advice
(08:42):
on raising capital UM and both of those conversations gave
me a lot of confidence. The person who, UM, you know,
works in R and D and paint was like, I've
been in the business for twenty years and even I
hate shopping for paint, So I think you're you're onto something,
you know. She's like, I know every ingredient in paint
and still shop. It's still a terrible experience. UM. And
(09:03):
then the VC was just like, this is a massive
market opportunity. I had no idea the pain industry was
this big. I'm really curious to learn more. When you're ready,
I'd love to hear your pitch. And the fact that
even just one BC was interested in hearing my pitch
signaled to me that there would be a lot of
others whose interest I could peak and who might potentially
(09:23):
help help me get the business off the ground. So
did you did you go out early and raise a
raise money or did you wait? Um? I raised So
I ended up spending the whole pretty much majority of
the year building out our supply chain and kind of
laying the whole foundation for the business. Um every single supplier, UM,
every you know, partner to build a website, you know,
(09:45):
just operational processes, just how we were going to actually
do this, how are we going to ship paint, what
does the financial model look like? And then putting together
pitch materials to go out and fund raise. And so
probably by the fall I had all of that, you know,
kind of checked off off and went out to raise
capital in the fall, and by the end of the
year I closed or preceded round, which was two million dollars. Well, congratulations,
(10:08):
it's a huge accomplishment. Thank you. We'll be back with
Senecas made by Women after this short break. After hearing
you speak about this, I mean, you just seem so
on it and so organized about your vision. What were
(10:30):
the obstacles you faced early on? If any? Yeah, I
mean I think like our biggest because you know everything,
I don't want to say it felt easy, but because
I think I was so thoughtful about it, a lot
of things went exactly according to plan in the pre
launched days, you know, like everything went super smoothly. The
brand exactly as I envisioned, came to life, and then
(10:51):
we launched right. And so I think I think the
biggest challenge, like, you know, getting to launch is one thing,
but then once you're alive and out into the world,
you've got to actually sell a product. And so I'd
say like that was a bigger challenge than actually like
developing the brand and kind of getting you know, getting
that off the ground and getting the product manufactured. You know,
to be able to grow in scale business ad venture
(11:12):
expectations required a lot of learning something I've never done before. UM.
Building a team, UM. You know, a lot of those
things were really challenging and are still challenging because you know,
we're still a young company. We're not yet three years old, UM,
and so we still have a lot of growth to achieve,
and we still need to grow our team, and um,
(11:32):
you know, really trying to figure out the right secret
sauce to building a team and the right secret sauce
for for growth. UM, you know, are probably the two
biggest challenges because without those things that are you know,
there's no business because I can't do this by myself.
So um, those are really you know, have have been
the biggest challenges. And paints some really tough category. It's
(11:54):
high consideration purchase. It's not the kind of thing you know,
like I always say that beauty is like the best
business is a little over saturated, but you know, super
high margins, small and light to ship, you know, really easy,
you know, kind of straightforward just from a from a
fulfillment process. You know, paint is super complicated, heavy to ship,
high consideration, their samples involved before people actually buy the product, um,
(12:19):
you know, and just really trying to unlock all of
that and understand the data around that. You know, it
takes a lot of time in learning because you know,
people don't just buy paint sight unseen off a click
on the on the internet, you know, and once they
buy samples, they have to then convert into a paint buyer,
and so it takes a while to kind of learn
and gather the data so that you can kind of
(12:40):
take those data driven insights and then optimize your business.
So um, you know, a lot of things. With our category,
we're just maybe probably a lot slower than maybe it's
kind of higher, higher impulse, lower consideration type of product
UM And that adds a layer kind of challenges in
complexity to everything we do. One thing that makes your
(13:02):
products so unique beyond its convenience, is how sustainable your
products are. Can you tell us a little bit about
this and why sustainability is so important to your business? Yeah,
I think UM two core reasons. Number one is because
it's it's personally important to me. You know, I really
care about the environment. I really care about UM. You know,
at least how I lived my day to day life
(13:22):
making the best possible choices for both my own personal
health as well as the environment. And I wanted, you know,
my business to reflect those personal values as well. But
then secondarily, like the industry has been UM notorious for
misleading consumers about what's in their product. Um and has
been one of the least transparent industries. And it's actually
(13:44):
quite a regulated industry, believe it or not, because it
is a chemical product, and because UM a lot of
other paint contributes v O C s into the environment,
which you know, contributes to global warming, and you know
all of that, and so UM you know, it's actually
a pretty highly regulated industry, and so from that perspective,
(14:06):
we just I wanted to do everything I could to
make sure customers felt safe using our products, especially since
we were a new to market brand. Right Like, you know,
there's this idea of, oh, maybe we trust a brand
that's been around for a hundred years, but rien in reality,
those are the brands that have actually been the most misleading,
you know, stemming back to the days of UM. You know,
(14:28):
lead paint. Lead was banned in paint in the in
the seventies, but before that, similar to like the water
crisis in Flint, Michigan, everyone knew at a certain point,
probably twenty years before it was banned, or probably more
than that, that paint was harmed or sorry, that lead
in paint was harmful to human health, but many paint
companies continued selling it for decades because they just didn't
(14:52):
want to change what was driving business for them, right Like,
we're driving revenue, We're selling lots of this paint. So
if it ain't bro if, we're not going to fix
it unless we're forced to. And so, you know, some
of the biggest paint prints in the world. UM knowingly
sold lead paint two consumers for decades, you know, things
like that. Yeah, and even when when the EPA started
(15:14):
regulating d o C contents and paint brands were super
shady and misleading about UM the v o C contents
in their in their product. A lot of people don't
realize this, but when you buy paint at a traditional
retail outlet, they're really just stocking a white bass and
the paint is tinted at the store, right you all
see in the paint counter at a home depot or
lows um Well brands would produce the base formula according
(15:36):
to the e p A regulations, but the colorance were not.
So you think you're buying a zero BC paint. But
when they actually tint the paint in the store, because
no one's buying untinted paint, right, they would tint the
paint and it would put all the VOCs back in
the in the container and you you're really not getting
what you thought. Um. And so those are just examples
(15:58):
of how the pain industry has been really really misleading,
and we wanted to do the polar opposite of that.
We're like, how can we be as transparent as possible.
What can we do to give customers the utmost competence
that our product is, you know, kind of better for
for your home, your health, and the environment. And we've
kind of made that a priority. And I think, you know,
at the end of the day, we're not reinventing paint.
(16:18):
I think we're reinventing the experience, and we're taking a
different approach around transparency and the kind of relationship that
we build with our customers, and I think that's really
what differentiates us. Well, thank you for doing that, because
that that seems like a major, a major disruption and
an important one for all of us. What's been the
impact of the pandemic, Unclaire, It's it's you know, it's
(16:39):
a bitter sweet to say this, because I wish there
were never a pandemic, but it did drive a lot
of growth for us, you know, with people reconnecting with
their homes and being forced to stay indoors. I think
a lot of folks were staring around at their walls,
looking at all the things they don't like, and wanting
to improve their space and how they feel when they're
in their home. And so that resulted in lots of
people buying paint. We saw a tremendous amount of growth
(17:00):
about five from the year prior. UM and uh you know,
it really put our business on a different trajectory and
also helped to increase our brand awareness a ton. So
you know for us, UM, you know, we were very
um lucky beneficiaries of the kind of pandemic home boom
(17:22):
so to speak. UM and uh you know, we I'm
really grateful for that. Let me ask you, for the
women out there who are thinking about starting a business,
maybe on the fence, what have you learned that you
wish someone would have told you early on about starting
your own company. I think there's two things. I think
the biggest thing it prevents people from starting business your failure.
(17:44):
And statistics show that most startups will fail. But I've
in this journey have met a lot of people who
startups didn't work out. But I never once heard someone
say I wish I hadn't have done it. Um. What
everyone who I've talked to has how a failed startup,
UM says is that I learned so much and I
(18:05):
would not trade that experience for the world. So it
really will challenge you. UM. It is the hardest thing
I've ever done. And everyone I talked to is running
a startup says it's the hardest thing they've ever done. Um,
And it's I think it's a little bit different for
companies that launch and our small businesses and want to
stay pretty small and kind of cell phwned, but for
(18:27):
companies who have raised venture capital, but just the expectations
for growth that comes with that and the pressure that
comes with that adds on a whole other layer of
like kind of challenge and stress and anxiety and all
of that to do the job. So I'd say one
thing is like, just like, do not be afraid because
regardless of the outcome, this is an experience that will
(18:49):
forever change you for the better. Um. And then I'd
say the second piece of advice is just be sure
this is something that you really love because it is
going to be a very ballenging journey and you you
have to be dedicated and in it. I see so
many people who think, like, oh, I got to be
the Warby Parker for fill in the blank, and this
(19:09):
is gonna be the We're going to crush it and
this is a great market opportunity and there and they
they're they're really focused on a market opportunity versus something
that they're truly passionate about. And what ends up happening
because the journey is so challenging as they end up
giving up really soon. Um and maybe they you know,
get acquired or you know, shut down or whatever just
(19:32):
because they're they just aren't deeply invested enough to um,
you know, kind of deal with the all of the
ups and downs and challenges that comes along with growing
that business. If it wasn't an instant success. In most businesses,
even the ones that look from the outside looking in
like they were runaway smash successes, behind the scenes, it
still is a giant uphill battle. And um, so you
(19:55):
have to make sure that you are truly committed and
you're not just, like know, using this as like a
business school case study because you think it's a great
market opportunity that can turn into a business. I think
it's harder and harder to grow a Warby Parker esque
business these days, and that you you've got to really
love what you're doing and be super passionate. Awesome advice.
(20:17):
I totally agree with everything you just said, so I
cannot let you go before asking you for your advice
on your favorite paint colors. Ah, that's like asking a
parent their favorite child. I love the ball, now, I
mean I do have some personal favorites. I am. I
happen to be sitting in my living room, and my
living room is our best selling neutral color called Penthouse.
(20:38):
It's a really soft shade of grage, and grage is
like the category of colors that we define is the
perfect mix between gray and beige, and so it's just
an airy light color. So if you want to settle
him too, color on your walls that's not white, that
adds a little bit of warmth and a little bit
of dimension. Penthouse is such a beautiful color, So that's one.
I also love a lot of our more vibrant colors.
(21:00):
Head Space is a really soft airy blue that's calming
and serene, hence the name head Space. Um. And another
favorite is Current Mood. It's a super deep, super deep,
rich moody green that everyone loves. It's super popular on Instagram,
and it's our best selling non neutral color. So fun,
so fun. I'm so I'm gonna look into that immediately
(21:21):
because I am looking for some new colors. So thank
you for that it was a personal, personal request. Yeah, well,
thank you so much for everything you're doing um to
really make it healthier for all of us in our
homes and to make it more beautiful, and also for
just sharing your journey. Really appreciate it. Thank you, thanks
so much. There were so many valuable lessons in that
conversation with Claire founder Nicole Gibbons. Here are three things
(21:45):
I took from the conversation. First, Nicole was extremely methodical
in building her skill set prior to launching her company.
She enhanced her credibility in the space by taking on
all the side projects she could before focusing on her
business side full time. She found success by first learning
all she could about what she was getting into before
(22:06):
jumping in with both feet. Second, Nicole shows just how
important it is to make a detailed plan, and when
she made her plan, she followed it to a t. First,
she networked with as many people in the paint industry
as she could to learn the lay of the land.
Then she spent a significant amount of time developing her
supply chain. Once she had all the pieces in place,
(22:28):
she was able to get her online business going. Finally,
it was important to Nicole to focus on sustainability. She
wanted to sell paint that buyers could trust. Her unwavering
desire to be transparent with customers about ingredients has resulted
in a loyal customer base who shares her values. Made
(22:49):
by Women is brought to you by the Seneca Women
Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with support from founding
partner PNG
Welcome to Made by Women by the Seneca Women Podcast
Network and I Heart Radio. At a moment when businesses
face some of the biggest challenges in recent history, we
bring you inspiring stories, practical insights, and shared learnings to
help you successfully navigate in today's environment. I'm Kim Azzarelli,
(00:26):
and thanks so much for joining us today. Sometimes the
best business ideas come from the most ordinary places. Take
household paint. For instance, the experience of shopping for paint
had gone largely unchanged for decades, and then in two
thousand and eighteen, Claire came along. Claire turned buying paint
(00:46):
into a convenient and enjoyable online experience. What's more is
that Claire offers high quality, designer curated paint that is
sustainable and free of toxic solvents. Fast Company has called
Claire the war be Part Parker of paint. Claire founder
Nicole Gibbons, who was already well known as an interior
design expert on h G t V and the Oprah
(01:07):
Winfrey Network, was credited with upending the paint industry. Reviews
in publications like Apartment Therapy said Claire is simply quote,
the best place to buy paint. How did Nicole Gibbons
pull off this feat very methodically, it turns out, and
that's just one of the lessons we're going to learn
from her. Please enjoy my conversation with Claire, founder The
(01:28):
Coal Gibbons. Well, thanks so much for joining us, Thank
you for having me. So your company, Claire has been
called by Fast Company the Warby Parker of paint. How
would you describe Claire and what is the customer experience?
So funny? I feel like every startup is the warby Parker.
(01:49):
Fill in the blank. But um, I guess it's a
compliment because they bolt a fantastic business. But Claire is
a modern paint company. We make the process of buying
paint for your home really easy, um with designer curated
paint colors, everything you need to paint delivered to your door.
Plus our paint is better for you, better for the environment. Um.
And we make sampling really easy with our pel and
(02:10):
sticks watches, so so much easier overall process than going
to a place like home depot. I love it and
I totally could see how you're disrupting the market with that,
because getting paint is such a hassle and not fun
and what you've just described sounds amazing. So um makes
a lot of sense. Your background is an interior design
and you are a style influencer for sure. You've appeared
(02:31):
on h G t V, on the Opra Network, g
M A L Decor. But I want to take you
back to your early days. Where did you grow up
and how did you get to where you are? I
grew up in suburban Detroit. My career journey was along
winding road. I'll give you the abbreviated version. When Northwestern
thought I wanted to do broadcast journalism, came out doing
pr um in fashion. I did pr for a decade,
(02:54):
and while in that job, eight I started a decorating
blog because I was super passionate out all things home.
My friends used to kind of joke and call me
like Mark, you know, Martha Steward and like a almost
like like a shade kind of way, you know, like
I don't know if it was a compliment, but um,
(03:14):
you know what at twenty five, when everyone else was
out at like bars and you know, clubs or whatever,
I was like at home, you know, trying to perfect
like the perfect vanilla kick recipe, and you know, decorating
and doing d I Y projects and all of that.
So then I think it was definitely a compliment. Then. Yeah,
So I you know, I was always passionate about home,
and one of the things that I realized at the
time is I was like, you know, there's no one
(03:36):
that I see on TV speaking to me and my generation.
You know, all the personalities that were on networks like
called HDTV or other other kind of homebook as networks
were much older. Their style was a lot more you know,
maybe conservative and traditional or like just not as young
and kind of style forward as as my own personal style.
And so I think initially my idea was perhaps I
(03:59):
could be that kind of voice of authority on home
for a younger generation of people who are you know,
super passionate about their homes. And um, that's kind of
how I set out to build my career. So I
felt like I needed to establish myself as a designer
first to build that credibility. Um, I started taking on
side projects, but I still had a day job. I
was a global director of pr at a huge, you know,
multi billion dollar retail organization, and um, you know, I
(04:23):
sort of wrote out the whole entire recession and UM
at the beginning of is when I finally kind of
had the courage and you know, confidence to really take
the leap and focus on building my business full time.
And so I evolved pretty quickly into operating my design
firm full time, working on projects in and around New
York City, and I also simultaneously started tackling opportunities and media,
(04:43):
which is how I ended up booking a role on
the show UM on the Opra win Free network that
I did for three seasons. It was a D I R.
Decorating show, Homemade Simple that's actually still on UM. And
I really kind of worked super hard to position myself
as an expert. And then the next chapter, I started
thinking about how can I evolve my aesthetic. I had
started to really establish my design firm. I had a
(05:04):
lot of them work that was published, you know, got
featured in a lot of you know, amazing places, and um,
you know, I you know, again going back to the
Martha Stewart business model, I kept thinking, how could I
evolve my own personal brand into something that's a massive
scale or or a much larger scale, so that I
could help, you know, really tie back to my core mission,
which has helped people make their homes beautiful. How can
(05:25):
I do that on a broad scale? And so I
kept exploring different market opportunities and I came across the
you know, pain or you know, as a designer, I
was super passionate about color, and I realized this industry
was archaic. The shopping experience was broken, and that's how
I knew I had a good opportunity on my hands.
It's amazing as to hear you talk about that, because
(05:45):
a lot of people think there's like an idea in
the middle of the night and someone jumps out of
bed and starts their company. But what you just described
was so thoughtful, such a thoughtful process of what you
wanted to do and establish your as you say, your
credentials and your credibility, and then then you saw an
opening in the market. I'm gonna ask a very simple question, though,
how did you come up with the name? Yeah? So
I saw that all the brands in paint were hyper masculine.
(06:06):
So you know, Benjamin More, Erwin, Williams, Dutch Boy. You know,
they all sound like dudes and plaid shirts. And I
know from my experience at home and that the people
who were really making the color decisions and household or
women UM, and I felt like brands were failing to
appeal to women. UM. So I intentionally wanted a name
that was feminine, approachable, easier to remember, friendly sounding, UM,
(06:29):
and a name that could be personified so you could
really build a personality around the brand. And then lastly,
I wanted a name that tied back to some deeper
meaning related to color. And so Claire comes from a
Latin root word claris that means bright and brilliant um.
And so the word play there felt really appropriate because
both brilliant in terms of being innovative and forward thinking,
(06:50):
but also in terms of color, and it was, you know,
it kind of checked all those boxes. And it was
originally just a working title because I wasn't sure what
to call the brand, but after a while it just
felt right and sort of stuff. So what were the
first steps you took to get this vision off the ground. Yeah,
So first I really thought about it for you know,
about a year. UM. I kept you know, super busy
(07:12):
in my company, and I kept thinking like, this is
such a good idea. You know, how do I make
this happen? What do I do to focus my attention.
So I thought of this as an idea in the
beginning of and then you know, really kind of thought
about it off and on the entire year. Um. And
then in the meeting of January, you know how you
wake up on the first of the year and it's
kind of like new Year. Knew me, what am I
(07:33):
going to do with my life this year? UM? I
came back to the idea for Claire, and I'm like,
if I don't do this now, I probably will never
do it. So what are the steps I need to
take to need to take to make this happen? So
I decided to take a quarter off from my design firm.
I was in a lucky position that I was wrapping
up a couple of projects from UH and so, you know,
(07:55):
I finished up those projects, but I didn't take on
any new clients, and I spent I said, I was
going to give myself one quarter to explore the opportunity.
I'm going to talk to people in paint industry figure out,
you know, how I might go about doing this, and
also how to get the company funded. So within a
month I sort of had the plan. I you know,
um UH serendipitously got connected with someone who UM is
(08:21):
a leading architectural coding's chemist in the in the industry. UM,
and she gave me some wonderful advice around paint formulation
and how to think about, you know, kind of the
kind of production side of things. And then UM, I
had a chat with a VC who gave me some
really positive feedback just about the idea and some advice
(08:42):
on raising capital UM and both of those conversations gave
me a lot of confidence. The person who, UM, you know,
works in R and D and paint was like, I've
been in the business for twenty years and even I
hate shopping for paint, So I think you're you're onto something,
you know. She's like, I know every ingredient in paint
and still shop. It's still a terrible experience. UM. And
(09:03):
then the VC was just like, this is a massive
market opportunity. I had no idea the pain industry was
this big. I'm really curious to learn more. When you're ready,
I'd love to hear your pitch. And the fact that
even just one BC was interested in hearing my pitch
signaled to me that there would be a lot of
others whose interest I could peak and who might potentially
(09:23):
help help me get the business off the ground. So
did you did you go out early and raise a
raise money or did you wait? Um? I raised So
I ended up spending the whole pretty much majority of
the year building out our supply chain and kind of
laying the whole foundation for the business. Um every single supplier, UM,
every you know, partner to build a website, you know,
(09:45):
just operational processes, just how we were going to actually
do this, how are we going to ship paint, what
does the financial model look like? And then putting together
pitch materials to go out and fund raise. And so
probably by the fall I had all of that, you know,
kind of checked off off and went out to raise
capital in the fall, and by the end of the
year I closed or preceded round, which was two million dollars. Well, congratulations,
(10:08):
it's a huge accomplishment. Thank you. We'll be back with
Senecas made by Women after this short break. After hearing
you speak about this, I mean, you just seem so
on it and so organized about your vision. What were
(10:30):
the obstacles you faced early on? If any? Yeah, I
mean I think like our biggest because you know everything,
I don't want to say it felt easy, but because
I think I was so thoughtful about it, a lot
of things went exactly according to plan in the pre
launched days, you know, like everything went super smoothly. The
brand exactly as I envisioned, came to life, and then
(10:51):
we launched right. And so I think I think the
biggest challenge, like, you know, getting to launch is one thing,
but then once you're alive and out into the world,
you've got to actually sell a product. And so I'd
say like that was a bigger challenge than actually like
developing the brand and kind of getting you know, getting
that off the ground and getting the product manufactured. You know,
to be able to grow in scale business ad venture
(11:12):
expectations required a lot of learning something I've never done before. UM.
Building a team, UM. You know, a lot of those
things were really challenging and are still challenging because you know,
we're still a young company. We're not yet three years old, UM,
and so we still have a lot of growth to achieve,
and we still need to grow our team, and um,
(11:32):
you know, really trying to figure out the right secret
sauce to building a team and the right secret sauce
for for growth. UM, you know, are probably the two
biggest challenges because without those things that are you know,
there's no business because I can't do this by myself.
So um, those are really you know, have have been
the biggest challenges. And paints some really tough category. It's
(11:54):
high consideration purchase. It's not the kind of thing you know,
like I always say that beauty is like the best
business is a little over saturated, but you know, super
high margins, small and light to ship, you know, really easy,
you know, kind of straightforward just from a from a
fulfillment process. You know, paint is super complicated, heavy to ship,
high consideration, their samples involved before people actually buy the product, um,
(12:19):
you know, and just really trying to unlock all of
that and understand the data around that. You know, it
takes a lot of time in learning because you know,
people don't just buy paint sight unseen off a click
on the on the internet, you know, and once they
buy samples, they have to then convert into a paint buyer,
and so it takes a while to kind of learn
and gather the data so that you can kind of
(12:40):
take those data driven insights and then optimize your business.
So um, you know, a lot of things. With our category,
we're just maybe probably a lot slower than maybe it's
kind of higher, higher impulse, lower consideration type of product
UM And that adds a layer kind of challenges in
complexity to everything we do. One thing that makes your
(13:02):
products so unique beyond its convenience, is how sustainable your
products are. Can you tell us a little bit about
this and why sustainability is so important to your business? Yeah,
I think UM two core reasons. Number one is because
it's it's personally important to me. You know, I really
care about the environment. I really care about UM. You know,
at least how I lived my day to day life
(13:22):
making the best possible choices for both my own personal
health as well as the environment. And I wanted, you know,
my business to reflect those personal values as well. But
then secondarily, like the industry has been UM notorious for
misleading consumers about what's in their product. Um and has
been one of the least transparent industries. And it's actually
(13:44):
quite a regulated industry, believe it or not, because it
is a chemical product, and because UM a lot of
other paint contributes v O C s into the environment,
which you know, contributes to global warming, and you know
all of that, and so UM you know, it's actually
a pretty highly regulated industry, and so from that perspective,
(14:06):
we just I wanted to do everything I could to
make sure customers felt safe using our products, especially since
we were a new to market brand. Right Like, you know,
there's this idea of, oh, maybe we trust a brand
that's been around for a hundred years, but rien in reality,
those are the brands that have actually been the most misleading,
you know, stemming back to the days of UM. You know,
(14:28):
lead paint. Lead was banned in paint in the in
the seventies, but before that, similar to like the water
crisis in Flint, Michigan, everyone knew at a certain point,
probably twenty years before it was banned, or probably more
than that, that paint was harmed or sorry, that lead
in paint was harmful to human health, but many paint
companies continued selling it for decades because they just didn't
(14:52):
want to change what was driving business for them, right Like,
we're driving revenue, We're selling lots of this paint. So
if it ain't bro if, we're not going to fix
it unless we're forced to. And so, you know, some
of the biggest paint prints in the world. UM knowingly
sold lead paint two consumers for decades, you know, things
like that. Yeah, and even when when the EPA started
(15:14):
regulating d o C contents and paint brands were super
shady and misleading about UM the v o C contents
in their in their product. A lot of people don't
realize this, but when you buy paint at a traditional
retail outlet, they're really just stocking a white bass and
the paint is tinted at the store, right you all
see in the paint counter at a home depot or
lows um Well brands would produce the base formula according
(15:36):
to the e p A regulations, but the colorance were not.
So you think you're buying a zero BC paint. But
when they actually tint the paint in the store, because
no one's buying untinted paint, right, they would tint the
paint and it would put all the VOCs back in
the in the container and you you're really not getting
what you thought. Um. And so those are just examples
(15:58):
of how the pain industry has been really really misleading,
and we wanted to do the polar opposite of that.
We're like, how can we be as transparent as possible.
What can we do to give customers the utmost competence
that our product is, you know, kind of better for
for your home, your health, and the environment. And we've
kind of made that a priority. And I think, you know,
at the end of the day, we're not reinventing paint.
(16:18):
I think we're reinventing the experience, and we're taking a
different approach around transparency and the kind of relationship that
we build with our customers, and I think that's really
what differentiates us. Well, thank you for doing that, because
that that seems like a major, a major disruption and
an important one for all of us. What's been the
impact of the pandemic, Unclaire, It's it's you know, it's
(16:39):
a bitter sweet to say this, because I wish there
were never a pandemic, but it did drive a lot
of growth for us, you know, with people reconnecting with
their homes and being forced to stay indoors. I think
a lot of folks were staring around at their walls,
looking at all the things they don't like, and wanting
to improve their space and how they feel when they're
in their home. And so that resulted in lots of
people buying paint. We saw a tremendous amount of growth
(17:00):
about five from the year prior. UM and uh you know,
it really put our business on a different trajectory and
also helped to increase our brand awareness a ton. So
you know for us, UM, you know, we were very
um lucky beneficiaries of the kind of pandemic home boom
(17:22):
so to speak. UM and uh you know, we I'm
really grateful for that. Let me ask you, for the
women out there who are thinking about starting a business,
maybe on the fence, what have you learned that you
wish someone would have told you early on about starting
your own company. I think there's two things. I think
the biggest thing it prevents people from starting business your failure.
(17:44):
And statistics show that most startups will fail. But I've
in this journey have met a lot of people who
startups didn't work out. But I never once heard someone
say I wish I hadn't have done it. Um. What
everyone who I've talked to has how a failed startup,
UM says is that I learned so much and I
(18:05):
would not trade that experience for the world. So it
really will challenge you. UM. It is the hardest thing
I've ever done. And everyone I talked to is running
a startup says it's the hardest thing they've ever done. Um,
And it's I think it's a little bit different for
companies that launch and our small businesses and want to
stay pretty small and kind of cell phwned, but for
(18:27):
companies who have raised venture capital, but just the expectations
for growth that comes with that and the pressure that
comes with that adds on a whole other layer of
like kind of challenge and stress and anxiety and all
of that to do the job. So I'd say one
thing is like, just like, do not be afraid because
regardless of the outcome, this is an experience that will
(18:49):
forever change you for the better. Um. And then I'd
say the second piece of advice is just be sure
this is something that you really love because it is
going to be a very ballenging journey and you you
have to be dedicated and in it. I see so
many people who think, like, oh, I got to be
the Warby Parker for fill in the blank, and this
(19:09):
is gonna be the We're going to crush it and
this is a great market opportunity and there and they
they're they're really focused on a market opportunity versus something
that they're truly passionate about. And what ends up happening
because the journey is so challenging as they end up
giving up really soon. Um and maybe they you know,
get acquired or you know, shut down or whatever just
(19:32):
because they're they just aren't deeply invested enough to um,
you know, kind of deal with the all of the
ups and downs and challenges that comes along with growing
that business. If it wasn't an instant success. In most businesses,
even the ones that look from the outside looking in
like they were runaway smash successes, behind the scenes, it
still is a giant uphill battle. And um, so you
(19:55):
have to make sure that you are truly committed and
you're not just, like know, using this as like a
business school case study because you think it's a great
market opportunity that can turn into a business. I think
it's harder and harder to grow a Warby Parker esque
business these days, and that you you've got to really
love what you're doing and be super passionate. Awesome advice.
(20:17):
I totally agree with everything you just said, so I
cannot let you go before asking you for your advice
on your favorite paint colors. Ah, that's like asking a
parent their favorite child. I love the ball, now, I
mean I do have some personal favorites. I am. I
happen to be sitting in my living room, and my
living room is our best selling neutral color called Penthouse.
(20:38):
It's a really soft shade of grage, and grage is
like the category of colors that we define is the
perfect mix between gray and beige, and so it's just
an airy light color. So if you want to settle
him too, color on your walls that's not white, that
adds a little bit of warmth and a little bit
of dimension. Penthouse is such a beautiful color, So that's one.
I also love a lot of our more vibrant colors.
(21:00):
Head Space is a really soft airy blue that's calming
and serene, hence the name head Space. Um. And another
favorite is Current Mood. It's a super deep, super deep,
rich moody green that everyone loves. It's super popular on Instagram,
and it's our best selling non neutral color. So fun,
so fun. I'm so I'm gonna look into that immediately
(21:21):
because I am looking for some new colors. So thank
you for that it was a personal, personal request. Yeah, well,
thank you so much for everything you're doing um to
really make it healthier for all of us in our
homes and to make it more beautiful, and also for
just sharing your journey. Really appreciate it. Thank you, thanks
so much. There were so many valuable lessons in that
conversation with Claire founder Nicole Gibbons. Here are three things
(21:45):
I took from the conversation. First, Nicole was extremely methodical
in building her skill set prior to launching her company.
She enhanced her credibility in the space by taking on
all the side projects she could before focusing on her
business side full time. She found success by first learning
all she could about what she was getting into before
(22:06):
jumping in with both feet. Second, Nicole shows just how
important it is to make a detailed plan, and when
she made her plan, she followed it to a t. First,
she networked with as many people in the paint industry
as she could to learn the lay of the land.
Then she spent a significant amount of time developing her
supply chain. Once she had all the pieces in place,
(22:28):
she was able to get her online business going. Finally,
it was important to Nicole to focus on sustainability. She
wanted to sell paint that buyers could trust. Her unwavering
desire to be transparent with customers about ingredients has resulted
in a loyal customer base who shares her values. Made
(22:49):
by Women is brought to you by the Seneca Women
Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with support from founding
partner PNG
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