May 28, 2024 • 23 mins
Imagine being inspired to change your career path because of a chance encounter. That’s exactly what happened to Dr. Cindy Trice, a veterinarian who transformed her passion for relief work into a thriving business. In our latest episode, Cindy recounts her unconventional journey from a freelance production worker to founding Relief Rover, a platform designed to connect relief veterinarians and technicians with job opportunities and resources. She shares how her early experiences and an inspirational figure led her to embrace the dynamic and flexible nature of relief veterinary work, which eventually sparked her entrepreneurial spirit. Cindy’s story is an eye-opener into how diverse experiences can unexpectedly shape one's career path.
We also delve into the intricacies of building a two-sided marketplace and the emotional highs and lows that come with it. Cindy describes how she sustained the business without initial revenue and the subscription-based model that ensured its success. Moreover, she talks about the strategic merger with Hound, aligning with partners who shared her vision and integrity. As if that wasn't enough, Cindy opens up about her personal battle with chemotherapy and how it led to the creation of Kick It Pajamas—functional yet stylish clothing for women undergoing medical treatments. Her resilience, creativity, and dedication are a testament to the power of turning personal challenges into impactful business ventures. Don’t miss this episode filled with insightful stories of entrepreneurship, growth, and meaningful partnerships.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ira (00:40):
Today, I'm here with a very , very special guest, Dr Cindy
Trice.
Cindy and I were actually vetschool classmates back in the
day.
I don't know that I wouldnecessarily say we were friends
as vet students.
We were certainly friendly andwe knew and liked each other,
but we actually became friendslater because of our respective
(01:03):
entrepreneurial journeys, and soit's absolutely a pleasure to
have you on the show today,Cindy.
Welcome.
Cindy (01:09):
Ira, thanks so much for inviting me.
Ira (01:12):
All right.
Well, today the plan is goingto be to hear about how you
accidentally became anentrepreneur and to share the
story of some of your journey.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit first about what the company
that you started first wascalled and what it does?
Cindy (01:33):
So I started Relief Rover , which is a platform to connect
relief veterinarians and nowtechnicians to opportunities.
So mostly those are clinicaljobs and hospitals, but
sometimes we would haveopportunities for where a
company would need anindependent contract vet for
(01:55):
writing or for consulting or fortelehealth or something like
that.
So they were.
You know, we have all sorts ofopportunities, but mostly to
connect them to clinical workand also to connect them to
resources, Because that wasanother big part of what I
wanted to build with ReliefRover was helping relief vets
and techs spin up their ownbusiness and start their own
(02:17):
business and do it themselves.
That is a huge part of whatwe're doing at Relief Rover.
Ira (02:24):
That is a huge part of what we're doing at Relief Rover.
Yeah, relief veterinary work isso common nowadays that it's
(02:47):
sort of figure out how to goabout all of the specifics
legalities, like how you getpaid, like all those little
things.
But nobody really really knew.
And I knew a couple of peoplethat did relief work, but it was
almost like this, this weirdsecret thing, whereas nowadays
it's kind of ubiquitous likethis weird secret thing, whereas
nowadays it's kind ofubiquitous.
Cindy (03:11):
Yeah, weird is right.
Well, I will tell you so.
I'm a vet as a second careerand in my other career I did
production work and so I was afreelancer.
So I got used to this lifestyle.
I would go work on a movie, aTV show, a commercial, a
documentary, and I just wouldhustle work wherever I could,
and so maybe I'd be on a showfor two months, Maybe I'd be on
a show or a commercial for oneday, and I loved that cadence.
(03:36):
I actually loved that cadence ofworking where I'd work really
hard, you get really close toyour crew and your team and and
you become best friends becauseyou're working these really long
hours and you're all in forwhatever period of time that
show is, and then, poof, you'redone, it's over, and maybe you
(03:56):
stay in touch with a few of yourbesties from that show and go
out for drinks or whatever.
But you have this period oftime possibly, and it may be
days, it may be weeks, hopefullynot months if you are really
relying on the money.
But you'd have this time whereyou've got to like rest and
relax and reset and and then youdo it all over again and
(04:18):
sometimes you know, then there'dalways be the crew shuffle and
you'd have some of the peoplethat were on your crew from
before, and sometimes not, andyou'd meet new people and I
honestly think that that set thetone for me really liking
relief work as a veterinarianand the other experience I had
early on that I was working whenI decided I wanted to go to vet
(04:41):
school.
I went and worked as areceptionist at a pet hospital.
I was living in San Franciscoand I had never.
I don't wanted to go to vetschool.
I went and worked as areceptionist at a pet hospital.
I was living in San Franciscoand I had never.
I didn't know what a relief vetwas.
And we had a relief vet in oneday because this was a single
doctor practice and she came in.
I thought she was so cool, sherode up on her bike, she came in
(05:01):
.
She wasn't particularlyfriendly but she was all
business, she wasn't mean, shejust wasn't like she could have
cared less about anyone on thatteam.
She just wanted to come in, gether job done and go and I was
just enamored with that and herfor some reason.
And she came in, she did herwork and then she took off on
(05:21):
her bike and I was like, oh,that is a cool way to work and
not the not friendly part,because I'm such a people person
.
Actually, one of my favoritethings about being a relief is
getting to know all thesedifferent teams, but that like
breezing in doing your job andbreezing out.
I loved the idea of that andand so I think that also was
(05:43):
another thing that planted aseed, because I I started relief
work only a few years after Igraduated, so we graduated in
2004.
I became a relief vet in 2007.
So and then I spent virtuallymy whole career doing relief.
I had a little four and a halfyear break somewhere in between
(06:04):
where I went back and worked atmy previous associate position,
but I still was doing relief onthe side.
Ira (06:11):
Living that glamorous jet setting relief lifestyle.
Cindy (06:15):
I totally lived a glamorous jet setting relief
style yeah.
I loved it.
Ira (06:22):
That's great.
And so you were doing reliefand at some point you decided
you wanted to build something.
How did that come about?
Cindy (06:32):
Well, I had these evolutions as a relief vet, so I
first went into relief in 2007.
So a little backstory is that Ididn't enter, I graduated and I
went to do an internship inTampa, florida, at what was
called Florida VeterinarySpecialist but was actually the
first Blue Pearl, and I had todrop out because I got sick.
(06:55):
I dropped out.
I went and worked as anassociate for a year and a half
and it bugged me so bad that Ididn't finish that internship.
I really wanted to go back.
So I went back and I did,started the internship over and
I finished in 2007.
And so then I had this choiceto make I could either go back
(07:15):
to my associate position or Icould go look around for
something else to do, and I didreally like the hospital I
worked for.
I was one of the lucky vets whogot a really good experience at
my first job, with greatmentors, things like that.
I actually still do a lot ofrelief for them.
But I'm also just a curiousperson and I was thinking of
(07:37):
that vet in San Francisco andhow cool she was.
I was like I want to be thatgirl and so I decided to go
around and just see what elsewas out there and I honestly
didn't know what I was doing.
I didn't know if I was doing itto to find another place to
work, like maybe there'ssomething better out there.
But I was very aware that if Istayed in one place I would get
(08:01):
stuck in one way of thinking oror I was afraid of that.
I think I was fearful of that.
That may not necessarily alwaysbe true, but I was afraid of
that.
And so I was really just and I'malso kind of nosy I wanted to
see, like, what are other peopledoing in their practices.
So my initial motivation to doit was curiosity and just seeing
(08:26):
what else was out there.
And that's when I had anotherevolution as a relief vet.
I suddenly realized at thatpoint oh wait, a second, I'm a
business to business serviceprovider Like this can literally
be a career.
And I ended up deciding to befull-time relief again because,
for the same reason, a lot ofrelief vets do it today.
I got burnt out.
(08:47):
So you know, the first time,curiosity.
The second time I need I amburnt out, I need more control
over over how I work, and sothat was when I decided to to
spin up Relief Rover.
Ira (09:03):
Fantastic and like what was it when you first started it.
Cindy (09:07):
So I I don't know anything about software, how to
build software, and I mean I hadsome really grand visions.
I made a business plan.
I really detailed outeverything that I wanted to
provide to this community, andthen I went and shopped it
around to software developmentcompanies and all this this, and
(09:31):
I was coming back with likehundreds of thousands of dollars
quarter million, half a millionand I was like like I was so
deflated because I was like, ohI, you know, I got maybe like 15
grand just on this, and I wasjust got laughed out of the room
because I was bootstrappingthis and I it never, ever
(09:52):
occurred to me in the beginningto try to find investors or do
anything like that.
I literally just wanted to spinthis up.
So so I ended up scaling wayback and I got a website
provider, built me a WordPresssite, which, and basically a
two-sided marketplace.
So that was where where Istarted.
(10:20):
And that was, um, I spent$21,000 on it and that felt like
a lot of money like coming outof, you know.
And I was like Jimmy, are youokay with this Like?
And then I did it and I waslike, once the money like went,
I was like okay, here here?
Stacee (10:30):
we go.
Cindy (10:30):
I just spent so much money on this, like, here we go.
Ira (10:33):
I can't turn back now so you reminded me and my
recollection is that for I thinksome years after you started
relief rover, whenever we wouldconnect um, the sort of feedback
was the traction is great, likethere's a ton of interest,
there's a ton of interest,there's a ton of community and
we are delivering on the missionof Relief Rover, but like
(10:59):
there's really not substantialrevenue coming in to support all
of the time and effort and workthat goes into maintaining that
on your part.
What did you ultimately sort ofdo and how did you navigate
that?
Cindy (11:16):
Well, there was no revenue like none.
It was actually I was justworking a ton of relief and
extra relief shifts to pay forit, which I think, and I always
knew, eventually I was gonna payfor it.
But I was building thistwo-sided marketplace nationwide
.
From out of the gate it waslike, okay, at what point is it
(11:40):
are?
Is each side big enough toprovide value?
And there's no, you can't read.
You can read a thousandentrepreneur books and no one
will tell you that becausethere's no answer to that.
Right, there's no, you can'tread.
You can read a thousandentrepreneur books and no one
will tell you that becausethere's no answer to that.
Right, there's no answer.
It's like, um, you, just, youhave to try at some point to
(12:00):
start charging.
The business model was that theemployers would pay a
subscription and we thought ofit like it's like a dating site.
So basically they would pay aum, a subscription to be on
there and have access to all ourrelief vets.
They could reach out, theycould post as many jobs as they
wanted, and we would also givethem some resources as well to
(12:23):
try to help them understand howdo you onboard relief vets?
How do you most productivelywork with them.
So we were always trying toprovide education and resources
in addition to just theopportunity to interact with
this community.
Ira (12:37):
Fantastic.
And yeah, I think there was asignificant amount of time when
Relief Rover sort of was CindyTrice, right, but then at then,
at some point I know we had someconversations about this like
you know, it's sort of you knowkind of got to be ready to take
(13:00):
that sort of next step in itsevolution.
And you know, maybe you cantalk about sort of what, what
prompted that and how that thatwent.
Cindy (13:07):
It did get to a point and I had like probably a lot of
entrepreneurs have had thisexperience.
It was up and down.
You know, they say it's arollercoaster ride for a reason.
So there were times when I feltreally good and like, oh my
gosh, we're doing something,this is really great.
And then there were times I waslike, oh my gosh, what am I
doing?
Have I lost my mind?
I'm really, I'm giving so somuch to this and I'm neglecting
(13:32):
other things as a result.
And how am I, an idiot like amI an idiot?
And um, and then something goodwould happen and I'd be back at
the you know top ready to weeddown on the fun part of the ride
.
But I did get to a point whereI was like, okay, we are at a
point where I either need tosell it or runaway screaming.
Ira (14:01):
Last one was probably not the best option.
Cindy (14:03):
Right, one of those four things.
I would not have runawayscreaming because I think I'm
too stubborn, you know, whichmay or may not be a good thing.
And so I was starting to lookinto getting investment and
starting to think about, likewriting my little pitch decks
and looking into how I could dothat.
(14:25):
And then Hound came along atjust the right time.
Ira (14:30):
And for those that don't know, hound is a next generation
recruiting platform forveterinary professionals, you
know.
Also a startup I think in itsown right it's fair to call it
but growing and gainingpopularity, and certainly made
perfect sense to me when I heardthe news, why you were a great
fit to join forces with them andwas that just sort of like a
(14:57):
natural fit or were you lookingat sort of multiple options at
the time?
Cindy (15:00):
just sort of like a natural fit, or were you looking
at sort of multiple options atthe time?
Well, I had had, I had hadother people big, some big
groups actually two big groups,three talk to me about buying
Relief Rover and it just didn'tseem like the right fit because,
also because I I, I did and docare about the integrity of what
(15:23):
we're doing and and I wasworried that the alignment
wasn't right.
You know that that what theywanted out of it was not this,
the thing that would be good forthe relief community in the
long run.
I wanted that to be, you know,upheld.
Ira (15:42):
Yeah, I'm thinking that you know with with Eprep, which is
my company, you know, one of thethings that just always gave me
the most joy was to meetsomebody that had used our
product, loved our product andwas thankful and appreciative
for how much it helped them.
And I think you had a ton ofthose same types of people at um
(16:04):
, at relief rover, and when youare looking at a new big
partnership or selling a companyto somebody else, yeah, that's
what I worried about the mostwas like, oh man, like I'm okay
with no longer like being theguy, but I would just be
devastated if you know, a fewyears from now, like you find
(16:28):
somebody.
Like, oh, you were the founderof this company.
Like, oh, yeah, that sucks now.
Right Like you know that's whatyou don't.
Want that to happen, right Likethat's just that's your baby
right Like you want it to growup and do well.
You, that's your baby, rightLike you want it to grow up and
do well.
And and so, yeah, I thinkfinding finding the right
partner that you think can kindof help it to grow up into
something you're going to beeven more proud of is is really
(16:50):
important at that stage.
You mentioned, you mentionedsomething earlier I wanted to
follow up on and I actuallyremember having a conversation
with you maybe maybe it wasduring kind of one of those
little downs in the rollercoaster of Relief Rover and then
you sort of mentioned to me andthere's this other thing that
I've been working on and likeyour eyes just like lit up about
(17:14):
.
You know how excited you wereabout this other thing, because
you know running one startup byyourself wasn't enough for you
and so in the thick of all that,you started a second business.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about the inspiration and
(17:34):
why in the world you started apajama company?
Cindy (17:41):
So in my mind it is actually not as random as it
sounds.
Ira (17:46):
It is not at all, actually, yeah.
Cindy (17:48):
So when I graduated I alluded to this earlier in our
conversation I graduated, I wasin an internship for about two
or three months and I gotdiagnosed with advanced cervical
cancer and so I dropped out.
I was in the hospital a lotbecause they did my chemo in the
(18:09):
hospital.
They would check me in for aweek, I'd get chemo for a week,
I'd get checked out and I'd goback in and then I had some
complications.
So I ended up in the hospital afew more times and, um, and the
first time around, that firstweek that I was in the hospital,
one of my very, very goodfriends gave me a pair of
pajamas to wear while I was inthe hospital, cause I was just
(18:30):
wearing a hospital gown.
That's what they gave me.
I was wearing it, but, um, andthat was game changing for me,
truly game changing in a waythat I would never have expected
from myself.
We're vets, we're sloppy, wewere scrubs all the time.
You know, like I'm not you knowI don't typically care about
that stuff Like I'm like, fine,whatever.
(18:53):
It's a little thing that goesover, but it was scratchy, it
was uncomfortable, and what Ifound is that when I was feeling
sick and feeling vulnerablelike that, having that gown on
made me feel even morevulnerable, and that's why the
PJs made such a big difference.
I was also dating who is now myhusband at the time and he
would come visit me, and when Ihad the pj's, I just felt better
(19:15):
.
I just felt more dressed.
But the problem was they didn'thave the appropriate
functionality for the medicalstaff.
So I thought to myself well,duh, why don't you just make
cute pj's with snaps on thesleeve right, like how hard
could it be?
And so that was when the ideaof Kick it Pajamas was born.
And so, of course, I had a lotto go through, and I didn't end
(19:39):
up doing anything about it for afew years.
Then, in 2008, I was.
I was like you know what I wantto.
This idea has just been sittingwith me all this time.
I really want to see if I canmake something happen.
I know zero, zero, zero aboutfashion and or how things, how
clothing gets made, or anythinglike that.
(20:01):
So I went to a fashion schoolin Tampa and I just started
emailing instructors and I got alot of crickets, but finally
one emailed me back and she saidsure, let's have a meeting.
And so she ended up helping mespin up some prototypes.
I came up with some branding onmy own.
(20:22):
I, you know, curried favorsfrom friends and other
industries and and I ended up,but I couldn't.
I couldn't figure out how toget them manufactured, and so,
anyway, I just got stuck and Iwas again doing this all by
myself, and I'm trying to be avet and have a life and all
(20:43):
these things, so I threw it inthe closet.
Fast forward 10 years, a friendof mine who's a business person
had met these women who own aclothing company and she said
hey, can we?
I always love that idea thatyou had.
Can we spend this back up?
dust off the old pajamas so wedusted off the old, but I pulled
out, like I had this, likeagain three ring binder, like
(21:05):
with all this, like research Ihad done, I had my business plan
, I had all these things, and wejust pulled it out and we and
we, just we figured it out andwe started over.
So we started selling um,really get december 2020, so
really December 2020.
So just, we'll call it 2021.
Ira (21:23):
Fantastic, and how's it going?
Cindy (21:26):
It's going really well.
Our sales are increasing everyyear.
We are still very much astartup.
We've gone from pajamas to awhole line of clothing.
So we have pajamas, gowns, thatare good for the hospital.
We have some that are designedfor if you're not in the
hospital, but all of them havespecial pockets or snaps or
(21:47):
specific designs that are meantfor comfort, for functionality
and for style.
We wanted them to be pretty andwhere you would feel nice in
them.
We also developed some clothingthat we had chemo centers in
them.
We also developed some clothingthat you know we had chemo
centers in mind.
So I used to volunteer atFlorida Cancer Specialists and
(22:07):
my job was to pass out warmblankets to people getting chemo
.
And you know, those blanketsare great because they're in
this like little warming thing,but they stay warm for about a
minute and a half and then theyget cold and then they're kind
of weird and they're crispy.
They're just not thatcomfortable.
So we ended up, you know, basedon my experience with that, we
(22:30):
ended up creating what we callthe cape, which can be taken on
and off while you're hooked upto an IV line.
We have a dress coming out, wehave this cardigan coming out.
So what we wanted to dobasically was to support women
in any part of their journey.
So whether they're out runningerrands but they still may have
drains or other medicalequipment, or they've got scars,
(22:51):
or they've got a colostomy bagor a urostomy bag or whatever,
we wanted to provide clothingfor them where they were
comfortable and felt good in it,where it didn't feel like
medical clothing.
Ira (23:03):
That is amazing.
Thanks so much for sharing someof your story with us today,
cindy.
We are going to have you backfor another episode soon to talk
a little bit more about thingsfrom the entrepreneur
perspective, but I hope folksenjoyed your story as much as
I've enjoyed seeing your story,as much as I've enjoyed seeing
your story along the way andhearing it again today.
Cindy (23:25):
Thanks so much for having me.
Stacee (23:28):
Thanks for listening to the show today.
If you want to learn more aboutmy story or Ira's story, be
sure to check out episodes twoand three.
And if you are an accidentalentrepreneur and would like to
be a guest co-host on the showand spin the wheel, just message
be a co-host no spaces to1-833-463-9727 and tell us your
(23:52):
story.
See you next time.
Today, I'm here with a very , very special guest, Dr Cindy
Trice.
Cindy and I were actually vetschool classmates back in the
day.
I don't know that I wouldnecessarily say we were friends
as vet students.
We were certainly friendly andwe knew and liked each other,
but we actually became friendslater because of our respective
(01:03):
entrepreneurial journeys, and soit's absolutely a pleasure to
have you on the show today,Cindy.
Welcome.
Cindy (01:09):
Ira, thanks so much for inviting me.
Ira (01:12):
All right.
Well, today the plan is goingto be to hear about how you
accidentally became anentrepreneur and to share the
story of some of your journey.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit first about what the company
that you started first wascalled and what it does?
Cindy (01:33):
So I started Relief Rover , which is a platform to connect
relief veterinarians and nowtechnicians to opportunities.
So mostly those are clinicaljobs and hospitals, but
sometimes we would haveopportunities for where a
company would need anindependent contract vet for
(01:55):
writing or for consulting or fortelehealth or something like
that.
So they were.
You know, we have all sorts ofopportunities, but mostly to
connect them to clinical workand also to connect them to
resources, Because that wasanother big part of what I
wanted to build with ReliefRover was helping relief vets
and techs spin up their ownbusiness and start their own
(02:17):
business and do it themselves.
That is a huge part of whatwe're doing at Relief Rover.
Ira (02:24):
That is a huge part of what we're doing at Relief Rover.
Yeah, relief veterinary work isso common nowadays that it's
(02:47):
sort of figure out how to goabout all of the specifics
legalities, like how you getpaid, like all those little
things.
But nobody really really knew.
And I knew a couple of peoplethat did relief work, but it was
almost like this, this weirdsecret thing, whereas nowadays
it's kind of ubiquitous likethis weird secret thing, whereas
nowadays it's kind ofubiquitous.
Cindy (03:11):
Yeah, weird is right.
Well, I will tell you so.
I'm a vet as a second careerand in my other career I did
production work and so I was afreelancer.
So I got used to this lifestyle.
I would go work on a movie, aTV show, a commercial, a
documentary, and I just wouldhustle work wherever I could,
and so maybe I'd be on a showfor two months, Maybe I'd be on
a show or a commercial for oneday, and I loved that cadence.
(03:36):
I actually loved that cadence ofworking where I'd work really
hard, you get really close toyour crew and your team and and
you become best friends becauseyou're working these really long
hours and you're all in forwhatever period of time that
show is, and then, poof, you'redone, it's over, and maybe you
(03:56):
stay in touch with a few of yourbesties from that show and go
out for drinks or whatever.
But you have this period oftime possibly, and it may be
days, it may be weeks, hopefullynot months if you are really
relying on the money.
But you'd have this time whereyou've got to like rest and
relax and reset and and then youdo it all over again and
(04:18):
sometimes you know, then there'dalways be the crew shuffle and
you'd have some of the peoplethat were on your crew from
before, and sometimes not, andyou'd meet new people and I
honestly think that that set thetone for me really liking
relief work as a veterinarianand the other experience I had
early on that I was working whenI decided I wanted to go to vet
(04:41):
school.
I went and worked as areceptionist at a pet hospital.
I was living in San Franciscoand I had never.
I don't wanted to go to vetschool.
I went and worked as areceptionist at a pet hospital.
I was living in San Franciscoand I had never.
I didn't know what a relief vetwas.
And we had a relief vet in oneday because this was a single
doctor practice and she came in.
I thought she was so cool, sherode up on her bike, she came in
(05:01):
.
She wasn't particularlyfriendly but she was all
business, she wasn't mean, shejust wasn't like she could have
cared less about anyone on thatteam.
She just wanted to come in, gether job done and go and I was
just enamored with that and herfor some reason.
And she came in, she did herwork and then she took off on
(05:21):
her bike and I was like, oh,that is a cool way to work and
not the not friendly part,because I'm such a people person
.
Actually, one of my favoritethings about being a relief is
getting to know all thesedifferent teams, but that like
breezing in doing your job andbreezing out.
I loved the idea of that andand so I think that also was
(05:43):
another thing that planted aseed, because I I started relief
work only a few years after Igraduated, so we graduated in
2004.
I became a relief vet in 2007.
So and then I spent virtuallymy whole career doing relief.
I had a little four and a halfyear break somewhere in between
(06:04):
where I went back and worked atmy previous associate position,
but I still was doing relief onthe side.
Ira (06:11):
Living that glamorous jet setting relief lifestyle.
Cindy (06:15):
I totally lived a glamorous jet setting relief
style yeah.
I loved it.
Ira (06:22):
That's great.
And so you were doing reliefand at some point you decided
you wanted to build something.
How did that come about?
Cindy (06:32):
Well, I had these evolutions as a relief vet, so I
first went into relief in 2007.
So a little backstory is that Ididn't enter, I graduated and I
went to do an internship inTampa, florida, at what was
called Florida VeterinarySpecialist but was actually the
first Blue Pearl, and I had todrop out because I got sick.
(06:55):
I dropped out.
I went and worked as anassociate for a year and a half
and it bugged me so bad that Ididn't finish that internship.
I really wanted to go back.
So I went back and I did,started the internship over and
I finished in 2007.
And so then I had this choiceto make I could either go back
(07:15):
to my associate position or Icould go look around for
something else to do, and I didreally like the hospital I
worked for.
I was one of the lucky vets whogot a really good experience at
my first job, with greatmentors, things like that.
I actually still do a lot ofrelief for them.
But I'm also just a curiousperson and I was thinking of
(07:37):
that vet in San Francisco andhow cool she was.
I was like I want to be thatgirl and so I decided to go
around and just see what elsewas out there and I honestly
didn't know what I was doing.
I didn't know if I was doing itto to find another place to
work, like maybe there'ssomething better out there.
But I was very aware that if Istayed in one place I would get
(08:01):
stuck in one way of thinking oror I was afraid of that.
I think I was fearful of that.
That may not necessarily alwaysbe true, but I was afraid of
that.
And so I was really just and I'malso kind of nosy I wanted to
see, like, what are other peopledoing in their practices.
So my initial motivation to doit was curiosity and just seeing
(08:26):
what else was out there.
And that's when I had anotherevolution as a relief vet.
I suddenly realized at thatpoint oh wait, a second, I'm a
business to business serviceprovider Like this can literally
be a career.
And I ended up deciding to befull-time relief again because,
for the same reason, a lot ofrelief vets do it today.
I got burnt out.
(08:47):
So you know, the first time,curiosity.
The second time I need I amburnt out, I need more control
over over how I work, and sothat was when I decided to to
spin up Relief Rover.
Ira (09:03):
Fantastic and like what was it when you first started it.
Cindy (09:07):
So I I don't know anything about software, how to
build software, and I mean I hadsome really grand visions.
I made a business plan.
I really detailed outeverything that I wanted to
provide to this community, andthen I went and shopped it
around to software developmentcompanies and all this this, and
(09:31):
I was coming back with likehundreds of thousands of dollars
quarter million, half a millionand I was like like I was so
deflated because I was like, ohI, you know, I got maybe like 15
grand just on this, and I wasjust got laughed out of the room
because I was bootstrappingthis and I it never, ever
(09:52):
occurred to me in the beginningto try to find investors or do
anything like that.
I literally just wanted to spinthis up.
So so I ended up scaling wayback and I got a website
provider, built me a WordPresssite, which, and basically a
two-sided marketplace.
So that was where where Istarted.
(10:20):
And that was, um, I spent$21,000 on it and that felt like
a lot of money like coming outof, you know.
And I was like Jimmy, are youokay with this Like?
And then I did it and I waslike, once the money like went,
I was like okay, here here?
Stacee (10:30):
we go.
Cindy (10:30):
I just spent so much money on this, like, here we go.
Ira (10:33):
I can't turn back now so you reminded me and my
recollection is that for I thinksome years after you started
relief rover, whenever we wouldconnect um, the sort of feedback
was the traction is great, likethere's a ton of interest,
there's a ton of interest,there's a ton of community and
we are delivering on the missionof Relief Rover, but like
(10:59):
there's really not substantialrevenue coming in to support all
of the time and effort and workthat goes into maintaining that
on your part.
What did you ultimately sort ofdo and how did you navigate
that?
Cindy (11:16):
Well, there was no revenue like none.
It was actually I was justworking a ton of relief and
extra relief shifts to pay forit, which I think, and I always
knew, eventually I was gonna payfor it.
But I was building thistwo-sided marketplace nationwide
.
From out of the gate it waslike, okay, at what point is it
(11:40):
are?
Is each side big enough toprovide value?
And there's no, you can't read.
You can read a thousandentrepreneur books and no one
will tell you that becausethere's no answer to that.
Right, there's no, you can'tread.
You can read a thousandentrepreneur books and no one
will tell you that becausethere's no answer to that.
Right, there's no answer.
It's like, um, you, just, youhave to try at some point to
(12:00):
start charging.
The business model was that theemployers would pay a
subscription and we thought ofit like it's like a dating site.
So basically they would pay aum, a subscription to be on
there and have access to all ourrelief vets.
They could reach out, theycould post as many jobs as they
wanted, and we would also givethem some resources as well to
(12:23):
try to help them understand howdo you onboard relief vets?
How do you most productivelywork with them.
So we were always trying toprovide education and resources
in addition to just theopportunity to interact with
this community.
Ira (12:37):
Fantastic.
And yeah, I think there was asignificant amount of time when
Relief Rover sort of was CindyTrice, right, but then at then,
at some point I know we had someconversations about this like
you know, it's sort of you knowkind of got to be ready to take
(13:00):
that sort of next step in itsevolution.
And you know, maybe you cantalk about sort of what, what
prompted that and how that thatwent.
Cindy (13:07):
It did get to a point and I had like probably a lot of
entrepreneurs have had thisexperience.
It was up and down.
You know, they say it's arollercoaster ride for a reason.
So there were times when I feltreally good and like, oh my
gosh, we're doing something,this is really great.
And then there were times I waslike, oh my gosh, what am I
doing?
Have I lost my mind?
I'm really, I'm giving so somuch to this and I'm neglecting
(13:32):
other things as a result.
And how am I, an idiot like amI an idiot?
And um, and then something goodwould happen and I'd be back at
the you know top ready to weeddown on the fun part of the ride
.
But I did get to a point whereI was like, okay, we are at a
point where I either need tosell it or runaway screaming.
Ira (14:01):
Last one was probably not the best option.
Cindy (14:03):
Right, one of those four things.
I would not have runawayscreaming because I think I'm
too stubborn, you know, whichmay or may not be a good thing.
And so I was starting to lookinto getting investment and
starting to think about, likewriting my little pitch decks
and looking into how I could dothat.
(14:25):
And then Hound came along atjust the right time.
Ira (14:30):
And for those that don't know, hound is a next generation
recruiting platform forveterinary professionals, you
know.
Also a startup I think in itsown right it's fair to call it
but growing and gainingpopularity, and certainly made
perfect sense to me when I heardthe news, why you were a great
fit to join forces with them andwas that just sort of like a
(14:57):
natural fit or were you lookingat sort of multiple options at
the time?
Cindy (15:00):
just sort of like a natural fit, or were you looking
at sort of multiple options atthe time?
Well, I had had, I had hadother people big, some big
groups actually two big groups,three talk to me about buying
Relief Rover and it just didn'tseem like the right fit because,
also because I I, I did and docare about the integrity of what
(15:23):
we're doing and and I wasworried that the alignment
wasn't right.
You know that that what theywanted out of it was not this,
the thing that would be good forthe relief community in the
long run.
I wanted that to be, you know,upheld.
Ira (15:42):
Yeah, I'm thinking that you know with with Eprep, which is
my company, you know, one of thethings that just always gave me
the most joy was to meetsomebody that had used our
product, loved our product andwas thankful and appreciative
for how much it helped them.
And I think you had a ton ofthose same types of people at um
(16:04):
, at relief rover, and when youare looking at a new big
partnership or selling a companyto somebody else, yeah, that's
what I worried about the mostwas like, oh man, like I'm okay
with no longer like being theguy, but I would just be
devastated if you know, a fewyears from now, like you find
(16:28):
somebody.
Like, oh, you were the founderof this company.
Like, oh, yeah, that sucks now.
Right Like you know that's whatyou don't.
Want that to happen, right Likethat's just that's your baby
right Like you want it to growup and do well.
You, that's your baby, rightLike you want it to grow up and
do well.
And and so, yeah, I thinkfinding finding the right
partner that you think can kindof help it to grow up into
something you're going to beeven more proud of is is really
(16:50):
important at that stage.
You mentioned, you mentionedsomething earlier I wanted to
follow up on and I actuallyremember having a conversation
with you maybe maybe it wasduring kind of one of those
little downs in the rollercoaster of Relief Rover and then
you sort of mentioned to me andthere's this other thing that
I've been working on and likeyour eyes just like lit up about
(17:14):
.
You know how excited you wereabout this other thing, because
you know running one startup byyourself wasn't enough for you
and so in the thick of all that,you started a second business.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about the inspiration and
(17:34):
why in the world you started apajama company?
Cindy (17:41):
So in my mind it is actually not as random as it
sounds.
Ira (17:46):
It is not at all, actually, yeah.
Cindy (17:48):
So when I graduated I alluded to this earlier in our
conversation I graduated, I wasin an internship for about two
or three months and I gotdiagnosed with advanced cervical
cancer and so I dropped out.
I was in the hospital a lotbecause they did my chemo in the
(18:09):
hospital.
They would check me in for aweek, I'd get chemo for a week,
I'd get checked out and I'd goback in and then I had some
complications.
So I ended up in the hospital afew more times and, um, and the
first time around, that firstweek that I was in the hospital,
one of my very, very goodfriends gave me a pair of
pajamas to wear while I was inthe hospital, cause I was just
(18:30):
wearing a hospital gown.
That's what they gave me.
I was wearing it, but, um, andthat was game changing for me,
truly game changing in a waythat I would never have expected
from myself.
We're vets, we're sloppy, wewere scrubs all the time.
You know, like I'm not you knowI don't typically care about
that stuff Like I'm like, fine,whatever.
(18:53):
It's a little thing that goesover, but it was scratchy, it
was uncomfortable, and what Ifound is that when I was feeling
sick and feeling vulnerablelike that, having that gown on
made me feel even morevulnerable, and that's why the
PJs made such a big difference.
I was also dating who is now myhusband at the time and he
would come visit me, and when Ihad the pj's, I just felt better
(19:15):
.
I just felt more dressed.
But the problem was they didn'thave the appropriate
functionality for the medicalstaff.
So I thought to myself well,duh, why don't you just make
cute pj's with snaps on thesleeve right, like how hard
could it be?
And so that was when the ideaof Kick it Pajamas was born.
And so, of course, I had a lotto go through, and I didn't end
(19:39):
up doing anything about it for afew years.
Then, in 2008, I was.
I was like you know what I wantto.
This idea has just been sittingwith me all this time.
I really want to see if I canmake something happen.
I know zero, zero, zero aboutfashion and or how things, how
clothing gets made, or anythinglike that.
(20:01):
So I went to a fashion schoolin Tampa and I just started
emailing instructors and I got alot of crickets, but finally
one emailed me back and she saidsure, let's have a meeting.
And so she ended up helping mespin up some prototypes.
I came up with some branding onmy own.
(20:22):
I, you know, curried favorsfrom friends and other
industries and and I ended up,but I couldn't.
I couldn't figure out how toget them manufactured, and so,
anyway, I just got stuck and Iwas again doing this all by
myself, and I'm trying to be avet and have a life and all
(20:43):
these things, so I threw it inthe closet.
Fast forward 10 years, a friendof mine who's a business person
had met these women who own aclothing company and she said
hey, can we?
I always love that idea thatyou had.
Can we spend this back up?
dust off the old pajamas so wedusted off the old, but I pulled
out, like I had this, likeagain three ring binder, like
(21:05):
with all this, like research Ihad done, I had my business plan
, I had all these things, and wejust pulled it out and we and
we, just we figured it out andwe started over.
So we started selling um,really get december 2020, so
really December 2020.
So just, we'll call it 2021.
Ira (21:23):
Fantastic, and how's it going?
Cindy (21:26):
It's going really well.
Our sales are increasing everyyear.
We are still very much astartup.
We've gone from pajamas to awhole line of clothing.
So we have pajamas, gowns, thatare good for the hospital.
We have some that are designedfor if you're not in the
hospital, but all of them havespecial pockets or snaps or
(21:47):
specific designs that are meantfor comfort, for functionality
and for style.
We wanted them to be pretty andwhere you would feel nice in
them.
We also developed some clothingthat we had chemo centers in
them.
We also developed some clothingthat you know we had chemo
centers in mind.
So I used to volunteer atFlorida Cancer Specialists and
(22:07):
my job was to pass out warmblankets to people getting chemo
.
And you know, those blanketsare great because they're in
this like little warming thing,but they stay warm for about a
minute and a half and then theyget cold and then they're kind
of weird and they're crispy.
They're just not thatcomfortable.
So we ended up, you know, basedon my experience with that, we
(22:30):
ended up creating what we callthe cape, which can be taken on
and off while you're hooked upto an IV line.
We have a dress coming out, wehave this cardigan coming out.
So what we wanted to dobasically was to support women
in any part of their journey.
So whether they're out runningerrands but they still may have
drains or other medicalequipment, or they've got scars,
(22:51):
or they've got a colostomy bagor a urostomy bag or whatever,
we wanted to provide clothingfor them where they were
comfortable and felt good in it,where it didn't feel like
medical clothing.
Ira (23:03):
That is amazing.
Thanks so much for sharing someof your story with us today,
cindy.
We are going to have you backfor another episode soon to talk
a little bit more about thingsfrom the entrepreneur
perspective, but I hope folksenjoyed your story as much as
I've enjoyed seeing your story,as much as I've enjoyed seeing
your story along the way andhearing it again today.
Cindy (23:25):
Thanks so much for having me.
Stacee (23:28):
Thanks for listening to the show today.
If you want to learn more aboutmy story or Ira's story, be
sure to check out episodes twoand three.
And if you are an accidentalentrepreneur and would like to
be a guest co-host on the showand spin the wheel, just message
be a co-host no spaces to1-833-463-9727 and tell us your
(23:52):
story.
See you next time.
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