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The Trailblazers Experience Podcast
Join us for candid conversations with remarkable women in business and entrepreneurship. We celebrate the successes of women across various fields, including digital, e-commerce, STEM, content creation, and more. Our guests share their inspiring career journeys, lessons learned , significant milestones, and the challenges they’ve faced while climbing the ladder of success. These women are true #IRLTrailblazers, and their stories will motivate and empower you.
In each episode, we explore topics like resilience, leadership, work-life balance, and the importance of community. From entry level to making bold moves in senior roles, our guests provide valuable insights into their industries. They discuss imposter syndrome, building strong teams, and revolutionizing their respective fields. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned professional, or simply curious about the experiences of trailblazing women, this podcast is for you.
The Trailblazers Experience Podcast
EP57.Rima & Morgan: Co-Founders of Peachies Revolutionizing the Diaper Industry with Sustainability and Innovation
Imagine transforming the traditional diaper industry from mundane to modern and eco-friendly! In this episode of the Trailblazers Experience podcast, we're thrilled to host the dynamic duo behind Peachies, Rima and Morgan. They share the captivating story of how they went from sceptical classmates at Imperial College London to successful co-founders of a premium diaper subscription service. Discover how their childhood dreams, from becoming an astronaut to growing up in entrepreneurial households, set the stage for their innovative business journey
We also explore the grueling yet rewarding aspects of entrepreneurship, from fundraising hurdles to the personal sacrifices of blending professional and personal lives. Rina and Morgan share their insights on the importance of resilience, collaboration, and community support, particularly among women entrepreneurs. Their tips for aspiring business owners, including the value of starting now and finding the right co-founder, are invaluable. Tune in for an inspiring episode packed with real stories, practical advice, and the triumphant spirit of women-led ventures.
Chapters
00:15 Introduction and Background
10:08 The Inspiration Behind Peachies
17:04 The Green Mission: Implementing Eco-Friendly Practices
24:47 Challenges in Starting and Growing the Business
41:55 The Power of Networking and Partnerships
46:14 The Story Behind the Name 'Peachies’
50:12 Partnerships and Trademarks
53:13 Taking Risks and Figuring Out Logistics
56:36 Lessons from Female Founders
01:07:16 The Importance of Self-Care
01:13:00 Trailblazer Takeaway Tips
01:14:39 Talking About Your Ideas and Getting Started
01:18:02 The Value of a Supportive Co-Founder
Watch Episode on Youtube : https://youtu.be/1b2mP6mGswM
Find us
Shop Wearepeachies.com
Instagram @wearepeachies
Linkedin : Morgan Mixon https://www.linkedin.com/in/morganmixon/
Linkedin :Rima Suppan https://www.linkedin.com/in/rimasuppan/
Forbes Article :https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattsymonds/2023/03/08/10-inspiring-founders-of-startups-focused-on-women/
Listen : to the audio version Apple Spotify .Amazon Music Google Podcasts
Watch and subscribe to my YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@Thetrailblazersexperience
Follow Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazersexperience/
Welcome to another episode of the Trailblazers Experience podcast, the podcast where we share candid conversations with women sharing their career journey. Really excited for today's podcast because I've got a double act, a power duo two amazing ladies who started a business called Peachies, which is a diaper or nappies subscription service, and my two amazing guests, co-founders Rima and Morgan. Good morning, good morning, Thanks for having us. And Morgan, good morning, good morning, thanks for having us. It's such a pleasure because I'm thinking to myself I have two children 19 and 16, and would I have loved to have a subscription service when they were younger? Hell yes. So talk to me about your paths as co-founders and what led you to start your business, because I've read your pieces in Sifted and Forbes and I believe the businesses had different iterations and different names. So do you want to sort of introduce yourselves Because you are co-founders?
Morgan Mixon :maybe we'll go with Morgan first, and then Rima, I'm happy to take it away and thanks again for having us on. We're super excited to be here. Peachy's is exactly that. It's the modern nappy brand for contemporary parenting. Uh, peachy's is exactly that. It's the modern nappy brand for contemporary parenting. Uh, we focus on a premium nappy which we think offers families on uncharted value in terms of things like less laundry, less nappy changes, cleanliness
Morgan Mixon :, to provide families with really an unrivaled diaper or nappy experience.
Morgan Mixon :Peachy's, yes, you're right, we started as cleanest. Actually, way back when Rima and I met actually at business school at Imperial College in London, we had a crazy idea to pursue nappies. We saw an unloved industry and thought what a great opportunity to actually kind of turn the game on its head. And we were actually at that time vice president and president of a student club, actually the innovation and entrepreneurship club, because we're little nerds and we love business and we always have, and PeachyGs actually came out of that time of us working together and we I don't know we had like this symbiotic sort of working relationship from the very beginning. So PGs is a business school project that has made it somehow out of the classroom and into the market. Rima, over to you.
Rima Suppan:Yeah, I think I'll give a little bit more flavor on how we actually met Morgan. I bumped into Morgan, or actually Morgan and some of her new classmates, at the beginning of the school year in the orientation week. I walked up. I remember I walked up to them complimenting one woman for her dress, and then Morgan was told me she was thinking what a weirdo Walking up to a woman to say that she likes her dress, but also nice, um, she thought she would never see me again.
Rima Suppan:And a week later turns out that we were matched together to run this, this club, together, and then really quickly actually found out that we even though it was covid and we never spent any minutes, uh, together in person, that we just really loved working together. And you know, we both had this passion for entrepreneurship. We were both raised, we both come from family business backgrounds. We were both raised from, I would say, strong mothers that managed to combine their career a really steep career in both cases with raising children at the same time, which I think now, as we're going through this and see many, many customers or parents, of course, in our community go through this, yeah, how exhausting and how demanding that can be. So we're really proud that we have that background and I think it certainly inspired us to, at some point in our lives, become entrepreneurs.
Rima Suppan:We had a little idea that it would happen that fast, right out of business school, and so this kind of love for, or this passion for, entrepreneurship and this love for creating brands that people love certainly inspired a lot of how we started Peechies and then before actually kind of really, you know, like going on to company's house and paying the 25 pounds and actually starting the company in real terms we said that we wanted to sit down together and meet in person before actually starting something like this, and so we met in a park somewhere in East London and shared a bottle of wine on a blanket East London and shared a bottle of wine on a blanket and we went through that wine quite quickly and then realized that, yes, we can actually also stand each other in real life. So let's do this.
The Trailblazers Experience :I love that. So did you both always just going really back in terms of your childhood and growing up? Was that your original goal, to say we're going to go to university, we're going to study and then we want to start businesses, or did you have other goals before that Curious.
Morgan Mixon :It's a great question because I always, whether I get asked this or grapple with this question, people always say like, are you born to be an entrepreneur? And actually I don't think so. I think anybody can learn the essential skills and actually entrepreneurship, because it's such a creative path, is open to so many people. That said, I went to space camp as a kid, so I was pretty set on being an astronaut.
Morgan Mixon :Turns out, physics is not really my forte or I didn't spend enough time on it but that got dashed pretty quickly. But both my parents were entrepreneurs and I came from an entrepreneurial environment, so I was predisposed to that kind of career path more than things like biochemistry, for example, or being a doctor. I didn't have any exposure to those kind of things, not for any lack of effort on my parents. I just grew up in my parents' business, which was water treatment in the oil and gas industry and we're talking niche beyond niche but also sustainability. Well before kind of anybody was really talking about that at an industrial kind of heavy industry level.
Morgan Mixon :But I did do, when I reflect on it, I did do things like try to start small businesses. My friends and I would have lemonade stands, like you know, the very quintessential sort of American childhood entrepreneurship thing. But I did that on the weekends, in the summer. Or you know, I would put cupcakes in people's mailbox, which in hindsight they probably thought they were like bombs or something, but they were trying to start a bakery business or you know whatever it was. And I and I remember having this little book as a kid. American Girl Dolls were big when I was, when I was a kid in the nineties, and American Girl Dolls also had a book about entrepreneurship, of course labeled something very differently, but it was about how to start a business as a child kind of, and I used to carry that thing around with me, like cling to it and flip through the pages and try to think of ideas and just try stuff. And it's only upon reflection.
Morgan Mixon :You know I'm 34 now, looking back on my career, which has been very winding, and nothing has sort of touched nappies or diapers or entrepreneurship necessarily. But I remember that book and I remember, you know, being in the office with my parents sitting under my mom's desk at Deutsche Bank, and you know being in the office with my parents sitting under my mom's desk at Deutsche Bank and you know her having to balance being a mom on the trading floor and having kids and of course, me being homesick or something. And all of those things melt, you know, they accumulate and they do impact you and I think I knew I wanted to do it at some point. I knew I wanted to do it at some points. I think I was fortuitous to go to business school and to meet Rima and to be able to make that dream a reality much sooner than I initially thought and to have somebody alongside me as a co-founder that was willing to take the risk, that was willing to dive in and that I trusted implicitly from the very beginning, made it doable.
Rima Suppan:It's funny, and I didn't know that story about Gil Morgan, but I have a very similar childhood story about. Of course, you don't grow up thinking you wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I also set up them and I sense, uh, back at home, I used to sell my parents whatever came to my mind, whether it was glasses that they already owned, or creating some sort of paintings and then selling that to them, or some sort of services you know, massages, uh, just trying to come up with whatever. I think, yeah, I thought that I couldn't make money with uh, and, and something that that always excited me was this idea of creating something, and so I think what makes an entrepreneur a great entrepreneur is this I think you have to be a good generalist to really be able to. You know, you don't have to be specialized in any way or know exactly every single detail. Of course, at some point you do that. You don't have to know every single detail about the industry that you want to step into.
Rima Suppan:We were certainly not nap your diaper experts. Today, we can chat your ear off about strike-through rates and all the chemical, technical aspects of the product, because we, of course, need to ensure that that's taken care of and that we work with people that we trust on that front. But I think a great entrepreneur is a generalist, in a sense of you know you wear so many hats on a daily basis Sometimes. You know you go from fundraising to customer conversations, to marketing, to operations, to team building and strategy, et cetera. So there are so many different areas of the business that you need to be aware of, that need to be taken care of, that. I think this on this, this generalist we always call ourselves, we're proud generalists.
The Trailblazers Experience :That is an important trait to have in order to um, yeah, to step into something like building your own company yeah, someone posted on linkedin the other day about if you're a specialist you only have a narrow view, whereas a generalist you have a wider view because you're looking at different pieces of the pie and you can see and understand holistically the whole business. But I'm really curious to understand look, being an entrepreneur, hats off to you to even starting the business. But why diapers? Why nappies? I know the three reasons why it's important to do so, because for me, when I was raising my kids, it was the absorption rate was really important. What is it doing for my child's bums? And then also the smell as well is how contained is everything else?
The Trailblazers Experience :And one thing I did realize is I thought actually that nappies or diapers were biodegradable, but actually they're not. As a parent you could probably think, okay, that should have been my light bulb moment to start this business. But for you, you come out of business school, you have that bottle of wine. Write your business idea in a fact pack. Why diapers? Why nappies?
Morgan Mixon :it's a great question. We saw something unloved, um and I'll cover it from kind of a product perspective and and rima can cover it kind of more from the industry. But nappies have been around a long time and you know we've seen over the progression of the decades sort of a move towards commoditization of of the products and and you know it's no secret that like, even if you don't have children or if nothing, you know no relationships to them. You know, pampers it's like so socially ingrained in us we were laughing before we started this episode, right that you're like I have to remind myself not to say pampers, because it's so ingrained and we totally get that and we've experienced, you know we, we all have had that experience.
Morgan Mixon :But what was so interesting to us was we thought this is a product category that's really a necessity good, it's an essential good as you raise children, and it's one where we've seen the product quality move down as opposed to up. And we thought what a great opportunity to actually bring sort of high design into nappies and not just for the sake of making a premium product, for the sake of just having something that's you know, quote luxurious. But actually what does premium design mean in a category like this, with the product that you use every single day, multiple times a day, on what is very precious to you, which is your children, and what we thought what we could do with premium was kind of cross off two things. We could well even three. We could ensure parents had something that was skin friendly on their children and, and you know, solve issues like nappy rash.
Morgan Mixon :We also saw, if we invested in design, we could make something really comfortable to wear that could be worn for a long time. So things like absorption and fit were really important to us, and that investment in that premium design also unlocked for us something I'm sure we'll dive into more, but a sustainability part of our story, which is if we can use products like ours and parents can have less changes in a day, for example, we ultimately send less nappies to landfill because, you're right, nappies are not biodegradable and that's a huge conversation in our industry that hasn't fully arrived yet. But there is much we can do to try to improve the status quo of the industry and we think actually taking nappies towards a more premium side of the industry and we think actually taking Nappy's towards a more premium side of the market, indeed, creating a new category in our space is a way to deliver not only on the promises to parents for excellent product quality, but also look at things like sustainability more critically.
Rima Suppan:From a brand perspective, we got really excited by the industry when we started digging deeper and saw that it's really an industry, or one of the last consumer industries, consumer product industries that hasn't really changed much. You know, pampers and Huggies, of course, dominate almost 80, 90% of the market and since the 60s 80s there hasn't been much change in the industry. And so, also from a from a brand perspective and from a service model perspective, we saw a huge opportunity for innovation. So service model, I mean it is the perfect subscription model. It is bulky, it's essential and, pardon the language, you need a shit ton of them, meaning that you know exactly how much you go through and in, you know which size you need, sometimes not always, but you know exactly how much you go through and you know which size you need, sometimes not always, but you know exactly how many you need in each size and for how long, until your child is body trained. And, of course, for us it's the perfect subscription product. Hence why we? Why pgs is a subscription-based d2c company. But, on the other hand, what we saw from a brand perspective is that the companies we've already mentioned, they're really, they're kind of your mom's nappy company or diaper company, not yours. They're not designed for millennial or Gen Z families. For example, we see, you know pastel-toned non-inclusive brand language photography colors that just do not represent what millennial or Gen Z families like to purchase. And we see it more from a community standpoint also. You know we are creating a community of like-minded parents that value high-quality products, that value a community where they feel, where they can feel like they're, they're part of it, they're, they're building it with us.
Rima Suppan:We really try to also involve our customers in the conversation, meaning you know when we bring, when we launch new products, when we create new.
Rima Suppan:You know even email flows, you know it's, it's, it's small things that we need to look after, but in the end we want to design for the family, for the families, and make their life a bit more joyful.
Rima Suppan:And if we can meet them in the exact right moment, when they're about to run out of nappies, we want to know exactly when that moment is, so we don't send you unnecessary emails, but send it exactly in that moment when you need to reorder or when you, you know, in case you need to top up, for example. Same with information that we put out. You know, we we've seen that it really resonates when we speak about taboo talk, speak about torn vaginas and leaking leaking boobs, speak about torn vaginas and leaking leaking boobs. It's just something that is so normal but, for whatever reason, we never no one talks about it, and we see the highest open rates on on emails like this, same on social media. Those are, those are our posts that perform best, and so I think there is a huge opportunity, opportunity for us to create this community of PG's parents.
The Trailblazers Experience :So you've done the whole three the triage of product, brand and community. And community is so important. You know it's that. So what? You're finding your why behind your product, and there is actually a niche, a customer base out there who's? You can see it from the type of prams that they're buying to the clothes, and if it transcends to the diapers as well, I mean that's brilliant. So let's talk about sustainability, because it's a very big critical concern. Talk to me about your green mission and how you're implementing eco-friendly practices in your business.
Morgan Mixon :Happily. And I think one thing we didn't even mention yet, actually, when we had the idea for Peachy's was we weren't parents. We were tapping into kind of yes, our sort of nerdy sort of business sense of seeing opportunity and wanting to pursue it. But we were immersed in communities where, whether it was family members I had six nieces and nephews at the time or friends that were really starting to enter this chapter of life and to see not only the joy it was bringing them but the toll it was taking on them. And so you really start to pinpoint those, what those issues are where those frustrations are for the people that are closest to you and that we want it to design for. And ultimately, we want Peachy's, although it's a premium product, to be something that is more accessible and to educate customers about. If you are taking some of that hard earned money and putting it somewhere else or spending a little bit more in a particular good that you purchase on a regular basis, what value are you unlocking? And we want that to be all the things we mentioned, plus the sustainability piece. So you know we are operating in an industry where children well, we're operating in an industry where volume has always been what drives it right. You know there's realities of what it's like to be one of the big players in our industry where your business is so established you make millions and hundreds of millions of units of diapers in a year that your incentive to change no matter kind of the tide of customer demand. It's difficult. It's difficult to cannibalize your own business right, whereas when we're coming into the market for the first time as people that are not entrenched in an industry for the last 20 years, we were not limited to what's been done. We weren't limited to old ways of thinking. We actually had the opportunity, as generalists and non-parents, to think very laterally about what the opportunities could be and therefore design a product. Sustainability from the very beginning was a driver of that, and not only because we see customer demand for that, but we just think it's good business sense and it's not just about how you design your product, it's about how you hire people or how you think about your business holistically and its impact not only on the planet but the communities in which you're involved. And so we try to think about that in all different ways, not just about our product or our packaging, but try to think about how we can create long-term value for customers and for our community and indeed now our investors.
Morgan Mixon :So sustainability from a diaper perspective, you know, children use like somewhere between five and 7,000 by the time they're potty trained. I mean, it's a massive number. But what we saw was in our industry there was sort of the market leaders and then there was like the eco brands, so to speak, and despite their best intentions, a lot of those eco brands actually really fall short in terms of product quality. So if the nappy is falling apart, leaking, tearing, you're using more of them. Then what are we actually solving for? Because it's obviously not doing its original job. So we saw this opportunity to create a middle ground, something where you could really rely on that premium performance and, by nature of that, unlock some of the sustainability credentials. So less changes in a day, for example. We also take a huge effort to include more eco-friendly materials in our product, but, crucially, where it makes sense, because we think, you know, the best thing we can do is give you an excellent product and then not over index on the same problems that our other. You know, some of our competitors in the industry do result in negative product quality, even if you've done more eco-friendly substitutions right. So our philosophy is a kind of no bullshit design that's what we call. It is like what's the best opportunity to create a great product but also alleviate some of this green guilt that we see parents have over and over again.
Morgan Mixon :But the other half of that is actually like viewing nappies sort of like. Our approach to nappies sort of is like preventative medicine. If you diet or if you take care of yourself, you eat well, you sleep, you exercise, you take time out for self-care, you're going to end up going to the doctor less and certainly to A&E a lot less. We see the same way with nappies. If you use something like peaches, you're investing in your overall well-being, both for you as a parent the comfort that something works, but it's also going to be great for your child. You're also alleviating as many nappies as we can that need to go to landfill.
Morgan Mixon :On the back end, we'll, of course, always continue to invest in our product design and we always think about things like biodegradability as a target in which to achieve. And we're very transparent with customers about where we stand today, where we still use plastics to get a nappy that's really going to make it through the night, for example, but we just want to empower them with information so that they can make the best choice for their family, and so we think there's no reason to kind of like greenwash or bullshit people. It's like this is the ingredients list. This is where we've made green substitutions. This is where we're still working. You know that if you purchase from us, we will continue to invest in research and development so that we can get to a product that has an even lower environmental impact.
Morgan Mixon :We also have to think about very, very boring things that, like only Rima and I will nerd out about, which is waste infrastructure, for example, because it's not just a product problem, it's also an infrastructural problem, and we want to make a positive contribution in our industry to that, and we're always very thinking about. You know, what can we do to collaborate with others in our industry, with waste management, for example, so that we can drive those changes. But it's a long road, and so we just have to be, you know, thinking ahead. We have to invest in research and development, but we also have to stay super true to customers, which is we want to help you on this journey. We're making smart substitutions and trying to solve this for you. But we're not perfect yet. But if you stay on the journey with us, we'll keep pushing. And you know that approach, that open, transparent and always striving for better sustainability.
The Trailblazers Experience :Credentials is really what drives us as a brand as well. The US Pizarro is obviously convenience, with the subscription service, but a high quality product that is serving my baby's needs, which is very important. So, if I know that, that's okay to tool. And the third element is obviously you're working on the development and so on and so forth from a sustainability perspective. That, for me, is just being transparent, is really important as founders. Now let's talk about launching a business or a company. It is no small feat. I'd like to understand are you bootstrapped? What's sort of the revenue right now? And do you have loads of investors? Just talk to me about the challenges that you faced. We know that less than 2% of investment goes to women, so that's already a hurdle that a lot of startups and businesses such as yourselves are trying to face. But what are the challenges that you faced since that toasting to that bottle of wine and starting the business all those years ago?
Rima Suppan:Well, we're here, Ian to that bottle of wine and starting the business all those years ago. Well, we're here. I was just gonna introduce introduce the fundraising topic. Well, um, fundraising is is never really an easy topic, um, but there have been a lot of moments. Uh, I would love for you, morgan, to talk us through what our fundraising journey looked to date. Um, for me, it it was. I think there are so many other things that we can mention. You know, for us it's less, for example, about revenue, but more about customers and seeing. You know, having thousands and thousands of customers in the first year was one of the big, I would say one of the biggest milestones for us is to see how our community is growing and how the word of mouth is spreading and, yeah, this momentum that people like to call it is finally happening.
The Trailblazers Experience :Well, it's a metric itself, Rima. So customer acquisition, how many customers you have on your database, and the lifetime value. So how many customers have you managed to achieve since launching the brand?
Rima Suppan:So in our first year we managed to get over 5 000 customers that's brilliant.
The Trailblazers Experience :You know, most people only get five or ten. If we count all the family members, the biggest challenge is getting someone outside your family to buy the product.
Rima Suppan:That's it, and honestly launching our business in I think it was mid of June 2023. The first day was great and we had I think it was probably 10, 15 purchases from our database from friends and extended friends and family members and we thought, oh my God, we're making it, this is great. And then the next day I think almost the next day it was zero and you realize, okay, this is not, this is actually not easy to to be done and you start to understand how many moving pieces in a in a d2c consumer business there are, and it's not just about, you know, customer acquisition from a performance marketing perspective, but you need to understand your email marketing channels. You need to start to you start to understand how organic marketing works and how organic influences performance and how that influences email and how, in partnerships, influence the rest. And so you kind of start building like you start very small in all those areas and then at some point they start to to interconnect and that's when when the real magic happens. So, to say so, when you would have asked us in our first month, I think I wouldn't have said 5,000. That is, of course, what investors would call hockey stick. I personally don't like that word because I think, for us, sustainable growth in a way that we can maintain it and not run out of inventory, for example, that we can maintain it in terms of having a healthy work culture for our employees and making sure that customers always receive a high quality product, high quality customer service, which is something that is incredibly important We've found in the online space, because you have so little direct interaction with the customer in the first instance that whatever goes wrong, things do go wrong Sometimes, most of the times.
Rima Suppan:For example, when a customer experiences a leakage which is, of course, the reason why we've designed peaches is to avoid all of that and to have a nappy that lasts through the night and gives you two or three hours more sleep, but sometimes that happens lasts through the night and gives you two or three hours more sleep, but sometimes that happens and it's, I would say, 90 to 99 and a half percent of the times it's because they're in the wrong size, and so what we've created, for example, is a nappy concierge service that reaches out, or, when customers reach out, we have someone to take care of exactly that point and make sure that we bring parents in the right size, and so many times we've actually had customers come back to us say can I leave another review Because actually the product is great now it works.
Rima Suppan:It works way better than any other nappy or diaper I've tried in my life, and also your customer service is outstanding. And so I think what I'm trying to say here is you start small in many areas, but then you kind of start to see how it overlaps, how areas overlap and how positively they can reinforce each other.
Morgan Mixon :It's so funny to think about launch because A it's something you build up so much in your mind, like launch, when is it going to happen? When is it going to happen? When is it going to happen? And two interesting things. One we got great advice from early investors of ours that backed us, that founded the world's largest kids bike brand called VOOM. They've been very successful in their own rights and great collaborators with us.
Morgan Mixon :The product designer of those bikes told us he was like, if you think it's time to launch, then you're too late. So you know you have to sort of step into this uncertainty and it's something you build out in your mind and then actually one day you just like turn it on and see what happens. And it's just for some reason that effort to turn it on is so daunting because you go from like the dream, like you've been selling the dream, to like okay, now we got to make the dream work and practice. So that's been a very interesting journey. I was also on my baby moon, because, of course, these things coincide. So I was seven months pregnant and my husband and I had planned and you know it was time and grease together and I was like, well, okay, it turns out we're going to launch peaches this week as well. So kind of true to the entrepreneurial uh life that like. It's such a blend of kind of fluid between what's personal and professional at the same time and go back to your question.
Rima Suppan:It's so funny talking about when you when those milestones happen. They for some reason always happen when you're planning to go on holiday for a week. So we've closed, for example, both of our fundraising parts of the ground, both of my holidays in the last two years yeah we switched warehouses.
Morgan Mixon :On friday I was on holiday, not so much, yeah, exactly, it's just always holiday all the time it does. It does sound like it, um, but you know, I think the fundraising journey you're right, and rima said it it's never easy, uh, even more so as a consumer products business, even even more so as to women, I mean you, you, you mentioned the statistics, which are, which are shocking, and actually, among my previous roles, I was in uh, an organization that was focused on trying to get more investment towards women entrepreneurs and also get more women into the tech industry, and so I had seen a lot of those systemic issues before even entering into the, into PG's, and putting myself in the, in the entrepreneur's shoes. Um, so not only did we launch during, during, uh, when I was pregnant, but we started our last fundraise, which was the beginning of this year, uh, right, as I came back from maternity leave after three months. So that was a shock to the system in a massive way, which I'm so glad I've lived through and is great evidence as to what it like having a co founder, and this is something Rima and I will say over and over again is probably what has kept us in peaches this long is.
Morgan Mixon :Having each other and doing it by yourself is really, really hard, hard, and of course people are cut out to do it. But I know I'm not and there's no way I could have gotten through that, that period beginning of this year without rima to lean on. Um, and a great example it does take a village to get these things done and we are not bootstrapped. We. We actually raised money, uh, kind of across 2022 and 2023 and then the beginning of this year, um, so we've done two rounds.
The Trailblazers Experience :What series are you on at the moment in terms of fundraising?
Morgan Mixon :we would consider the last one to be seed, I guess. Yeah. So we've raised a total of 1.4 million uh to dates and in this last round, brought on a couple of smaller funds. Well, not both small, actually, one is one of the largest vc funds total misnomer. Uh, antler uh backed us, um, as a direct investment, which is quite cool. And then another way. Venture is based here. London is, uh, consumer products powerhouse in their own rights, and then the rest are angel investors.
Morgan Mixon :Fundraising is pure grit and networking, honestly, those are like shameless, shameless networking. If somebody's like, oh, I don't have any, I don't, I like I can't invest, like okay, so who do you know that can? And like literally just being that bullish all the time and being really willing to just talk to random people about your business is what has gotten it done for us. Rima is so good on the origination side. She's like I went to this and I came back with like 10 new leads. I'm like thank God, because I just want to sit in the corner and sip my glass of wine and not talk to anybody. So thank you for doing that.
Morgan Mixon :I do a little project management. That's exactly that's me. That's me. But like I get. You know that's we.
Morgan Mixon :That's a good example of how we like play to our strengths respectively, and then like also both have to step out of our comfort zone and like that is kind of truly whether it's the fundraising journey or just our journey as entrepreneurs to our experience is it's like a heavy mix of how can we play to our strengths and that of our team and then who can we bring in if we can't fill any of those bases? And then the third part is like stepping out of your comfort zone and just being willing to be curious and vulnerable curious to learn, vulnerable to fail and just like keep pushing forward and that's how we've got it done. Frankly, it's like it's hard. It's hard. It's hard to meet random people, it's hard to get cold connections, but like people do answer on LinkedIn and people will like if you go to these networking events, sometimes they really do pan out. And if you talk to anybody no, that's founded a business, they're going to tell you just have to get kind of comfortable being uncomfortable.
The Trailblazers Experience :I mean you've talked about some amazing milestones. Look, you need to pat yourselves on the back. I guess three A you launched, you launched your brand, you had that idea and you launched. Secondly, you've got those customers 5,000, you can build into something else and you've gone into an industry where people be making babies for a very long time. So if you can build on that traction, very great business model. And last, you've raised over a million pounds. That is a feat in itself. So be proud of your milestones. I guess I'm also interested in understanding the challenges. What challenges have you faced?
Rima Suppan:I mean, I would consider fundraising a challenge, especially in 2023. But for me personally, it was taking on the sole leadership of pg's when morgan went on maternity leave, which, of course, she had every right to do so, but the moment she told you were on your own.
Rima Suppan:Yeah, the moment she told me she was pregnant, I was like yay, oh my god, what does that mean? And and that was, you know, before we had even launched. So I knew kind of within the first three months, she would leave the business completely for for three months, which is, of course, nothing in comparison, but still, I wanted her to also have this really valuable time with her in one and and it's something that you only get to experience one, two, three or however many many times you decide to to have babies, of course, uh, but for me it was, um, I was also a few a year younger than than now and a year more inexperienced than now. So you grow with the business also, you, you develop really a lot of resilience over time. So I think right now it would hit a different spot. I guess A year ago it was for me, the first time running a team in my entire life. It was.
Rima Suppan:Another hard part was taking decisions without having a sparing partner. You know, morgan and I, we always say that, yes, we have complementary skills, but also what makes us us, I think, is that we can fully step into the role of the other person, and so what we like to do is, you know, when it comes to important decisions that we take, I just love having her perspective on it. And even if I don't take it we don't I'm not saying we agree on every single thing, we certainly do not we always treat each other with respect. I think there was only one little fight that we had over the last two or three years which I think was so overdue. But we but we like to to just, yeah, get the perspective, get the perspective of the other person. And so for the first time in those three months it was a really yeah, it was a walking on the edge of where do I include her still, where do I take my own decisions? Also some sort of feelings to run those things on my own, because we had been building Peachies for such a long time before together and have taken so many decisions together, and then kind of this shift towards being a solo entrepreneur, but also not, was really challenging.
Rima Suppan:And I think the last point that I will mention on this point is I've mentioned this at the beginning is the amount of hats, of different hats, you wear every single day, and sometimes several within an hour, is certainly exhausting and so kind of taking care of your mental health became a really important topic in that period. I think it stayed. I still think this is, as an entrepreneur, you need to be hyper aware of your mental state because ultimately, it's a marathon and not a sprint and you need to power through it or you want to power through it. And this is also why you know we take holidays, why we encourage our employees to take holidays, and holidays meaning time away from your phone, because basically, your phone is your most important work asset at that point, apart from your laptop. But, yeah, really taking this time off to to recharge we always see, uh is incredibly important. So, yeah, I think for me it was. It was this, this maternity leave. And I was very happy when she came back and I I remember her telling her morgan, we need to fundraise now.
Rima Suppan:We should have, we should have started yesterday, but now it's the time. I remember I had like the financial model prepared and half the half of the slides that we needed for our investment deck. It's like, morgan, I need you because on that that is the last point from my side on fundraising there is a, there is a beauty when you found a business as two women to do it together, to tell your story, uh, together. I think we just we're just different. If we're the two of us, then then just of us. I have my side of the business, so to say, and she has hers. I think when you bring that together, that's when the magic happens.
The Trailblazers Experience :That's amazing and do you know, I think you've touched on a very important point is you are both powerhouses, but the fact that you both found it important for Morgan rightly so. You're pregnant and take that time off and recuperate. You've just had a child, et cetera, and Rima just having to take the reins and manage the business. It's important because then you're coming back with fuel, creativity of greater things you can do as well, and Rima's probably learned some things about herself during that time working you two. And then you realize, oh, we actually need more runway, we need to raise more money. So it's, in a sense, lots of challenges because, yes, you are wearing different hats. I think when you realize that you're at a scale where you can delegate things, that's when you know that your business is now in a safe space. But for a few years now, you're going to be wearing multiple hats and getting involved in the nitty gritty of every part of the business as well.
Morgan Mixon :For sure.
The Trailblazers Experience :Let's talk about networking and you've talked about how it plays such an important role in the business and the growth, getting the investments, building the community. It's so pivotal and I always talk about it on the podcast because there's a fear of how do I start talking to people and we live in a world that is you're living offline and online, so your phone is your friend, building those networks and connecting on every social media platform out there, from Snap, telegraph, linkedin to anything out there to get your name and your brand. But are there particular connections or partnerships that you think have been pivotal to building your networking circle, especially as entrepreneurs?
Rima Suppan:For sure, partnerships and networking. Partnerships and networking, as we mentioned, played a massive role in our growth. I view it, or we view it, in kind of threefold approach. One is partnerships from a founder perspective, partnerships from a marketing perspective and partnerships from an environmental perspective, so to say. The first one, from a founder perspective, we've been part of a few accelerator programs. The one that I think is important to mention here is the Amazon Sustainability Accelerator, which has been one of our most important, not only accelerator programs, but networks that we've formed over time, and the reason for that is because Amazon managed to bring together 12, I think it was consumer companies, consumer good companies, from sustainable toothbrushes to pet food, to cleaning products, to, ultimately, nappies, diapers. They've just provided us with an invaluable network that we still tap into almost every single day. We shared an office space for one and a half years. I call fellow founders. If there is an issue, you go through the same problems or challenges at a different time and even if you don't sell the same product, you still face the same issues. You talk about who to hire, what to launch next, how to go about your warehouse breaking down or not working in the way you want it to, and so this is certainly one of the most important communities. The other one that I of course need to mention here is Imperial College, who have been where PG started, and they're still supporting us in every shape and form till today.
Rima Suppan:And then from partnerships. From a marketing perspective, that is a little bit different. The reason why I'm mentioning this here is because, for us, we use it as a marketing tool to partner with brands where parents would least expect us to be. So we think there is huge value in breaking outside of the baby care category, and so we love to partner up with fellow founders that we like, brands that we admire. So, for example, we partnered with past evangelists around the topic of really unexpected heroes of your family's to-do list.
Rima Suppan:We partnered with sexual wellness company Hanks around rediscovering intimacy intimacy postpartum and our recent collaboration was, of course, within the baby not baby care, but mother space, with four mamas with their pregnancy retreats. So kind of tapping into different audiences, but also, yeah, finding a creative way and thinking outside of the box of how can a partnership actually help both of us or both or all companies involved in that partnership. And the last part of partnerships that I mentioned at the beginning is partnerships in terms of environmental not environmental, but sustainability. So we see sustainability has also a social aspect, and so one of our partnerships that we have is Save the Children. We fundraise in aid of Save the Children to support families in, because we think that social impact is just as important as environmental impact.
The Trailblazers Experience :It's really great to hear that you're taking a different approach to targeting audiences, because the classic way and you'd probably just be spending so much marketing dollars, pounds if you were targeting the same audiences as 80% of who owns the market you actually need to go the other way and say who are people resonate with our mission, our vision and our brand and what are the issues that matter to us to tap into those audiences as well. So a very good approach and probably you know much better for you as Peachies. But you know, what I've always wondered is where did the name come about? Because Peachies is a really interesting name for a diaper subscription brand.
Morgan Mixon :It's a great question and actually the true answer is it's kind of a happy accident. We had been looking and pursuing a very different name actually, and knew, going into the trademark battle, that we were going to have some problems with trademark application and like, okay, we got to come up with a backup and we had something close to peachies. It was like peachy or something, and we didn't quite like that. It ended with a y and so we ended up combining it, basically peach and the IES, to make peaches, which was so the IES was taken from the other, the other name, and when we saw it on the page we were like this is brilliant. It's. You know, the peach emoji looks like a little butt and peaches are soft and sweet and it sounds fun and playful, without sounding too babyish. But also, at the same time, I'm from Atlanta, georgia, I'm from the Peachies State, and so it was like kind of a happy coincidence that all of this kind of came together and could represent both the product in an intuitive way without being like huh, like our original name, cleanest way back when we were at Imperial, everybody thought we were cleaning products business. So rima and I went through this like process. We sat on the video call and visualized and closed our eyes and said now, visualize a warehouse full of cleanest. Is anybody going to buy them? And we opened our eyes. We said no. So we knew we had to change. And yeah, peachy's we had.
Morgan Mixon :You know, we were in, were in a, in a session with with our branding agency and some, some advisors and a friend actually who is a parent and a very good marketeer, and she said why don't you just combine them and name it peachies? And we're like Sarah child, that is amazing and shout out to her for helping us connect the dots. So it's truly just one of those like confluences of all the beautiful things that you've been working on and we ummed and awed for months on this. I mean months and months. Again, it sounds like I'm always on holiday, but on my honeymoon I was on my honeymoon in brazil I was like texting rima, like we're just texting names, like anything, anything. We couldn't come up with anything. And so when we saw, saw the kind of the logo and I even have our snazzy new water bottles here that I'm showing you on camera but like the fact that the E's could look like little bums and stuff, it just kind of all fit together.
Morgan Mixon :And we find it so often in our journey with Peachy's that, like you can never only rely on your gut, like you need data and analysis and inputs and you know you, as a founder, it's your job to sift through all that information. But the end of the day, your gut tells you everything and we could not land on a name that we thought we could take forward. And then we found Peachies and we're like that's it and it just clicked and you just kind of know, even if you don't have all the information, or, as Rima and I always say, even if you see the staircase but you can only see the next one or two stairs instead of the kind of full journey, you kind of know when something feels right and peaches glitz and now we're like, we love it, it's so much fun. It's like it's such a fun name to play with and to do things with and I think it represents our mission as a brand to really actually represent parents and to keep parents as the protagonists. So it's something that they would probably have in their house or display or talk about without being like it's this little kind of kiddie, cutesy brand.
Morgan Mixon :That like is like everything else I kind of shop from in my category. So, yeah, it's, it's a happy, happy little journey for us and it's just a name that, honestly to day, brings a smile to my face. And like when I see because I also am a pg's customer myself when I see the box arrive to my house, I like look at it. I'm like rima, can you believe we made these to this day? We're over a year in and I like touch the box. I'm like, holy shit, little dream for a couple from a couple of ladies.
The Trailblazers Experience :Um, here they are so yeah, I mean, especially with that unsexy job of IP and trademarks. That is when you realize, oh my goodness, the more crazy the name is, then the more chances we probably have in terms of registering it for the category, Whereas the more sense it makes someone has already registered it already. Does that make sense Totally?
Morgan Mixon :Actually, we were so happy that within I think like three weeks, we went to one of these big baby shows where, you know, a lot of different vendors are present and, like thousands of pregnant women will come through in a weekend and be shopping for all the like you know, all the kids basically. And we were walking around and I think I came back to the stand and I was like Rima, there are five other companies with some derivative of the name we were looking at, and Peachy's is distinct, and so I was like we dodged a bullet on that one. I'm so glad that's not what we took forward, even though it worked in many ways. Um, so, yeah, you kind of have to bet on being different. That's that's. Yeah, that's where that's the only way we'll be able to stand out in a category that's as big and as and as kind of incumbent as ours.
Rima Suppan:I think the name peaches is also a good reflection of the type of messaging we put out to the world in general uh, we, we always say, or we've we're. We've realized very early on you need to be really bold and distinct in order to stand out. There are so many, of course, great companies out there, but that also means there's a lot of competition, not only in the NAPI industry, but also in many other industries, and people's time span has become so limited and people are just. People's time span has become so limited and your, you know your attention. You see so many ads every day that whatever can stick out or is sticky as a brand will stay with you. And now we, of course, have data around this. But even you know even real life interactions, like when I go.
Rima Suppan:I went to a networking event two weeks ago and in the, in the google headquarter, and I signed up, uh, in the at the reception and told them, well, rima, from peaches co-founder, and he was like what's, what's peaches? And I said, well, the next generation nappy company. And then two hours later, uh, when he he walked past me, he was like you're peaches, right, you're nappy lady. He didn't remember my name, but he remembered peaches, of course, peaches, yeah, which to me was the best thing that that could have happened. And so, yeah, it is be bold, honestly, like say the things that 80% of people would probably not like, because that's when they remember it exactly you need to grab that 20%.
The Trailblazers Experience :And I have one question. It wasn't in the deck of questions we sent, but you've been around for a year. How did you, in terms of logistics, were you drop shipping at the beginning, Because obviously you don't want to produce a large amount of peaches, nappies and then have it tanked because you haven't sold? You've only sold the 15 to your family members. How did you figure out your logistics at the beginning?
Morgan Mixon :no reason, I say yeah, right, like it's, that's such a good question, uh, so we did have to buy a whole bunch of daffodils up front, uh, and that was, you know, a huge part of our what was the moq for beginning a million? Oh my god yeah, shipping containers worth. So we were nervous let's put it that way when they were not.
The Trailblazers Experience :You know, when you launch on day two, you're like Amazon was going to be the next place to sell it at a discount.
Morgan Mixon :Yeah, exactly, I don't think we considered it because we were like this has to work. So no, we brought our, we bring our product over from North America, canada and Eastern Canada and we ship from there and we ship all across the UK and it was just part of a risk of setting up our business. And that's part of why we think there is little sort of quote. Disruption in our space is because it's not an easy game to break into it's capital intensive, into capital, it's capital intensive. You know, I don't think you could bootstrap a nappy brand really unless you were starting with like a nice pool of bootstrap cash.
Rima Suppan:Yeah.
Morgan Mixon :Exactly, without bank account clocking down to like 11 pounds every single month for like 18 months. Uh, we were not really in that position, so it was tough. I mean, logistics was it was something we had to take a bet on, and that's why we had to raise money before launching even um, and and we're able to kind of drip feed it in the early days, uh, to be able to get it off the ground. Because, yeah, as, as you know, exactly what you articulated was our ultimate fear, fear having half a million nappies sitting in a warehouse that we're liable for and can't sell um. But it taught us really early to like get comfortable with the uncomfortable again and just like you know, have to have to do it.
Morgan Mixon :I mean, I feel like it is true. A lot of life events happen in the middle of big moments the week of my wedding I think there's a thread.
The Trailblazers Experience :I'm connecting the dots here.
Morgan Mixon :It's really it's really kind of shocking, rima, and I thought it was all over. We were like it's done, we, the, the manufacturer wants us to buy way more than we're prepared, or even have money for blah, blah, blah. And we realized, though, there's always a solution, and you just like cried out first right out first for a day and and then you start finding a solution.
Morgan Mixon :It's 100% true. That's exactly what we did. We cried it out, we were like it's over, the dream is over, and then we, like, sat up the next morning, brushed ourselves off. I'm like I'm sure there's a way we can figure this out. And there was, and we figured it out. And I think fortunately for us, though we met those kind of challenges really early in our journey, and so we kind of started to like, okay, we have to have thick skin, you know. We have to know we're going to be rejected, and whether it's investors or customers or whatever the detractors are, whoever they are, they're always going to be there, and, in a way, the more people tell you you're crazy, the more you know you're right, and so, like, like, you have to kind of find that, that resilience. And so Rima and I, yeah, took on a lot of risk, and it's made us. It's made us better entrepreneurs, because that's part of it, yeah, and I think next time around we'll do a different type of business.
Rima Suppan:Well, next time around we might have that exit.
Morgan Mixon :We're hoping our next venture because we already know we're going to work on it together is I'm just going to sit back and invest in in women-led businesses. That's going to be our hopefully our dream paying it forward what?
The Trailblazers Experience :what's your plan in your head in terms of when you'd like to exit? What's the dream?
Rima Suppan:I think I honestly think we can't, we shouldn't or we always say we shouldn't talk about the exitiom, but it's like kind of you see, that this could be an option in the future. But you also know that life always happens differently and you probably know you're not there yet exactly and, like, staying humble is such an important thing when you're an entrepreneur. You know, as I, as I said, it's a marathon and you need to have thick skin and patience and for us it's, honestly, this is not what gets us out of bed in the morning. Yes, money is great. If you can get through your month and pay your rent and like cover your main costs and have some sort of a more or less a nice life depends.
Rima Suppan:This is, of course, subjective, but ultimately for us it's. You know, seeing customer reviews, customer emails, happy um. Or seeing it out in the wild. When I walk through london and see a box in front of someone's doorstep, that is like the happiest moment ever. Or, for example, a review we recently received from from a mother saying I'm so grateful pegs was around when I had my first baby because it eliminated my anxiety of a first time, of being a first-time parent, and that is something so beautiful that we wouldn't have expected, like having this impact on families lives not just, you know, providing them with longer nights of sleep and and a great product or whatever, but like it, yeah, making them less anxious. Great, wonderful. Um, that means that we're really creating something beautiful.
The Trailblazers Experience :It's seeing that impact, isn't it, like you said, the recognition, people remembering your brand name, then you know you're a brand. People are actually referring to you as peaches, the Nappy Company, and there's a lot of traction in there as well. Let's talk about you as female founders. How do you perceive women empowerment in the entrepreneurial space? What are the things that you've seen and that you've enjoyed? You've talked about the community and the programs you've been involved in, but, for example, buy Women Built is an interesting community as well, but what's your perception of women empowerment in the entrepreneur space, even though funding is low in terms of investment to that subsectors in women, but how do you see that?
Morgan Mixon :It's a great one, and Buy Women Built is a brilliant community. We are part of it and huge fans of what they've put together. Um, yeah, I think what I love about that community so much is just the collaboration you see across across companies. Um, and I think that's that is an example of a wider experience we've had is women standing up for women and being in being there to help drive each other's business forward, and you know whether that's partner with you. Know hanks, for example, they have an brilliant female founded team and, um, we swap notes on things. You know how's your business going, how's our going, how's your ways going, blah, blah, blah.
Morgan Mixon :And I think finding those, those like-minded entrepreneurs, is incredible, and there's no sugarcoating how important it is for women to also keep lifting up each other and championing each other's work and not being competitive but collaborative, and I think there's space for all of us. We've seen because of the numbers, the numbers prove there's space for all of us, and lifting each other's businesses over time will mean, hopefully, that more of us kind of wealth really to be able to reinvest in the next generation, and so I think this is, this is a huge effort that we're all part of and you know it doesn't only require women, by the way like we don't only have to solve our own problems. We have to bring in um other people and galvanize other groups to be able to support us. But, um, it's important and it's something we really believe in. I mean, we, I don't know. It's like the same way that I like cry every time the us wins an olympic medal. It's like not as annoying thing to say from an american was the only thing I'm patriotic about is, uh, it's the same way when I see other women businesses, when like that's amazing and what we can do to try to lift up other brands, collaborate with them in marketing initiatives or whatever it is we love to do because it's really important and it's important to create role models. And you know, rima and I would probably say we have a lot more work to do before being like, oh, we're role models, role models.
Morgan Mixon :But I guess at some point you just realize you've got a lot of at least your experience to share and that experience alone can help somebody find the confidence to kind of even just take the next step forward. And you know certain things that feel super unknown we can shed light on, like, how do you set up a business? It's like actually just log into company's house and create a business for like what? 25 pounds, something like that. Like you don't need a lawyer, you don't need anything, you need literally chat, gpt and some Google search, and like you can start a business tomorrow, right now, this hour, whatever.
Rima Suppan:And so I think this is in the UK we have to disclose the ad that happened in the UK. In Austria, where I'm from, things are a bit different.
Morgan Mixon :It is a lot more money and a lot more kind of bureaucracy. But, you know, there are just like ways to demystify this journey and I think we're early enough in ours where we have those details very fresh, and so we'd like to be able to share where we can. But community of women is who we rely on most and you know, and the allies around us that have actually done an amazing job of of opening opportunities for us. You know, we have other companies we're close to, founded by men that will recommend us for podcasts or speaking panels or whatever, and like it's a huge impact, um, and so we try to. We try to make sure we pay it forward for the same way, or give back to communities that lifted us up, uh, so that we can make sure more and more smarter women come up behind us.
Rima Suppan:And I think, because you mentioned the role model aspect, I think everyone can support other businesses in the smallest ways possible.
Rima Suppan:Whether you know, a friend of yours starts a business and now knowing what this means and what a beast of work that is Leading a review, for example, purchasing a product, a small one, posting an Instagram story about their product, tagging them on Instagram or TikTok or wherever this is such a small gesture, but it can mean so much to someone starting out and actually encourage them to continue doing it.
Rima Suppan:Because, as we mentioned quite a few times already, those some days are really not easy. Some days are fun, like when you do a podcast recording or when you talk about your business, when you see happy customers but they're also the hard days where you're struggling to keep envisioning that dream and, as Morgan mentioned, the staircase is really what we talk about a lot and this emoji we haven't sent each other that in a while, but recently it happened again the bears on the roller coaster is our favorite gift that we use. This is how it feels sometimes and it's okay. It's part of the game, but I think it's okay to emphasize here that it's not easy and some days are hard. Some days are great, and having a co-founder to lean on is the most beautiful thing ever.
The Trailblazers Experience :Rima, you've mentioned really an important part about how to support founders. If you don't have the cash to invest or to buy the product because it doesn't resonate, it's, like you said, simple things such as just hit that follow button, because if you can get more people on your Instagram, that amplifies with the algorithm and then you can do the dirty work of trying to get people to actually buy your product. But it's little things and it's this misconception that people think support is actually buying the product. You don't have to. There are other things you can do as well and you'll keep on on that roller coaster to grow your business. But it's little things, isn't it? It's the things that add up the incremental gains that will grow the business over time.
Rima Suppan:For example, we've recently started to talk openly about other female founded businesses that we admire on LinkedIn. We would just dedicate a weekly LinkedIn post to them, and it's a beautiful initiative that can support other women. And LinkedInin, by the way, I think is one of the one of the most essential uh tools. As an entrepreneur, it it is definitely outside of our comfort zone. Creating content as a founder on whether that's for instagram, linkedin, it's never. It's it to us at least, it's not fun. We're trying, we're starting to enjoy it because we see that it resonates with our audience. So to say, audience or our community audience is only one sided. Community is two sided, so I think in that case we do get a response. So it's two sided, but we see that people are actually excited about what we're building and what we're talking about and even if it's the things that the challenges, the things that didn't go, that we got wrong, those actually perform best. I think people just share that with each other and it's the things that no one wants to talk about that perform best.
The Trailblazers Experience :Now you are two amazing powerhouses, co-founders, navigating peachies in various ups and downs. What does self-care look to you? We need you to be strong mentally, physically, and be able to have that headspace to come back even better. Start with you, rima. What does self-care mean to you?
Rima Suppan:For me, self-care is a mix out of mental and physical self-care. We've mentioned things like being able to go on holidays or take a weekend off and actually turn your phone off from time to time. Of course, morgan and I can't do that always. We're mostly 24-7 at least available. Also, on the weekends, when things require our attention, we're there. But we also sometimes try to give each other the space to to, yeah, just enjoy life.
Rima Suppan:Apart from that, I would say to me it's having a, yeah, quite a solid routine, especially in the morning. I have recently started to incorporate walks into my day in the morning. I've read that phrase on LinkedIn the death walk, which I think is quite a brutal way of saying it, but imagining that you're actually going to be dead at some point while you're walking for 20, 30 minutes in the morning and kind of getting the. It just gives you calm and gratefulness and a perspective that you're actually like this little beep in the world that at some point is not going to be there anymore. But now we have the time to make the most out of it. That has certainly helped me. And then, apart from that, for the past I think three or four years, I think I've had little days off from Pilates with my New York-based Pilates teacher. Shout out to Melissa Wood at this point. I think she doesn't need the shout out anymore, but I'll give it anyways. She's accompanied me through every single phase of my life in the last few years.
Rima Suppan:And then meditation. I truly believe in meditation and in personal development going to see a therapist. I think we should talk very openly about those things. You can go through really tough phases mentally, but having someone there to listen to you and to actually start you really self, to start to be really self-aware and start to see where, also within a day, through which phases you go mentally not every hour is fun there isn't. There is a fun hour, um, and kind of, yeah, just being aware of this, this shift, that that happens inside of you and how different behaviors in your life can influence the, the decision you take as an entrepreneur, the way, how you can show up. So really, yeah, prioritizing yourself and taking care of yourself and you know, limiting things like alcohol and so on.
Rima Suppan:I know it's summer and it's fun, but ultimately we are not getting any younger and the moment you need two days to recover a hangover, you ask yourself the question twice how many apparel spritz you have?
Morgan Mixon :I think Remus has hit some really, really important things, and what I would maybe add, that I kind of incorporate to mine, is we're just building on the kind of point about having other people to talk to, so like neutral third parties that are not necessarily connected to the business or you personally, is really valuable. Somebody else that can be that kind of sounding board In my case it's a coach, you know whether that's a pastor or a therapist or whatever that, wherever you can find that, that source, I think it's it's really valuable. I am around all the time, but I also do go on holiday on places where there's no Wi-Fi on purpose, so that I can get that mental space away.
Morgan Mixon :Rima and I always kind of laugh that the second we kind of get up from the desk and go walk around the block is when all the creativity happens again, and so you really carve out that time for yourself because you can recharge and you come back fresher, of course, but you also have more creativity. So for me it's playing tennis. I love to play tennis, I love sports generally, but that's really kind of my outlet. I suck at going to the gym and I've kind of let go of it instead of trying to force myself into being that person, because I'm not that person. I love spending time with my family.
Morgan Mixon :My son's 10 months old and, um, he's in a well, I'm sure he'll always be in a cool phase, but he's in a really cool phase at the moment and soaking it up is is really beautiful. Um, and I'd love to read, frankly, like, if I can carve out some time for me to to read something um, usually fiction, except for emma actually just gave me robertger, the CEO of Disney's book that he wrote in 2019. And I like devoured it in the weekend. That was a break from my fiction bent. You know, finding what you it's really knowing, like what brings you joy and energy and knowing what doesn't, and being able to kind of manage the time between those things. And being able to kind of manage the time between those things. You will, you know you always have to do things that drain you, but it's like how can you best manage the time?
Morgan Mixon :And I think now becoming a parent, I'm like rigorous about time management even more so, and it's because it's necessary, it's necessary for Peachy's, it's necessary for my son, it's necessary for me and that actually has been a big one. And I totally agree with remote and things like changing lifestyles up. Um, you know, like I drink a lot more non-alcoholic beer or low alcohol drinks than I ever have and like I'm super grateful for it, both for my body but also for my mind. Um, and that's been, that's been a big shift also. I mean not that I was like I like to have a good time before my baby, like we had a great time, you know, get some dance on dance floor, but like now, hang, being a parent with a hangover is like it's the worst. So, uh, yeah, I think you, you have to assert yourself and create boundaries in a way, and that is like if you can do that from the beginning of founding a business, then you're setting yourself up for success. I feel like I guess it's.
The Trailblazers Experience :you know, setting those boundaries for the different phases of your life, isn't it the times of, like you said, the long weekend and having those amazing drinks? And now you have to be focused and agile and running a business and a household? Then they're just different priorities and thank God now we've got alternatives't it? The zero percent market is booming, so it's giving you that feeling of I'm still a wine, uh, I've tried it where I've been like this is actually not so bad.
The Trailblazers Experience :so I'm still able to partake in uh activities with my friends without questioning why I'm not drinking. It's, it's, it's like a statement I'm having my 0% and that's fine as well. Last but not least, so, we always end the show with our Trailblazer takeaway tips, something to leave the audience with as a keen summary, things they can put in their notes in their phone and just help them. So, reflecting on your journey so far, what are the key lessons you've learned that you'd like to share with our listeners, whether it's being a founder, a parent, working together, investment, funding the three tips that you want to leave the audience with. So we'll start with you, rima, so you get six, basically because of the two reviews.
Rima Suppan:So that's amazing. I'm sure we can come up with even more than six, but we'll try to limit it. The first thing I would like to talk about is talk to everyone about your idea once you have one. Um, I'm actually quite opposite to what everyone thinks is I need to try my and keep my idea secret because if, what if someone steals, steals it and executes on it, and so on. First, 90% of an idea is execution. If you're the right person to do it, you'll do it.
Rima Suppan:And now knowing, two or three years after starting and building pgs, it has been a lot of work, honestly, the it is not easy to to replicate that and to replicate exactly our story, and so go out there and talk to as many people as possible. You don't know who someone might know. You don't know. You know, maybe the, the friend that you, from which you would have least expected it, knows, maybe knows the manufacturer you're going to work with, or maybe your mother actually knows another investor, or something like this. So it's really getting out there with your idea and also accepting if some, if people tell you, peter, that you're crazy. You, of course, need to be careful with those statements Because, as we've mentioned, you know, someone told me at a fair in Geneva who would ever buy nappies online when I told them about our idea. And clearly there was something here. So, yes, the crazy aspect is one. But also, if people tell you, I don't think there is a market for this, um, start digging deeper and start digging into what that means, because maybe there is no market, but then at least you realize that quite early on. Uh, instead of investing years in something that might not be, um, might not going out there early and talking to a potential customer audience, for example, and starting to understand if this is something that you should pursue? That was tip number one.
Rima Suppan:Tip number two is just get started. It's yeah, how should I say it? Chat, gpt and Google can become your best friends at the early stages and should become your best friend. You know, google has so many answers, and whether that's setting up a business or whether that's figuring out how to set up a Google or, in the meantime, a Google meta ad and you've never done it in your life you really need to go out there, get your hands dirty and just upskill yourself as much as possible, and so, whatever you can teach yourself, you don't have to outsource, which, of course, is expensive, but also in order to outsource and in order to hire the right talent, it's good if you at least have a basic foundation and even better if you know a bit more about the area, yeah, what the job requires and what do you actually want from them, because otherwise you're always tapping in the dark. You're always relying on other people's opinions and whatever you don't know, you can only believe. And my third tip is get yourself a co-founder, as we mentioned within the episode.
Rima Suppan:We couldn't have done this without each other Knowing the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. In the meantime, you know the highs are a little higher, the lows are a little bit less low, I guess, and can just really bounce ideas off each other. You, you, yeah, you can rely on each other. And I think the reason why I'm so grateful to have Morgan is not because she does the work, but because she has been there for such a long time and we've both kind of made this decision together to pursue this and no matter what it takes to be there. We sometimes joke that it feels like being married to that person you kind of are. Morgan, of course, is married as well. I'm not, but yeah, we're certainly in some sort of way married to each other and it's.
Morgan Mixon :It's beautiful, but it also requires some work and we put in that those were brilliant, and now I'm struggling to think of what mine will be, but I think, um, I'll kind of focus maybe more on the kind of sort of interpersonal things.
Morgan Mixon :I think staying humble is really important. I think Rima mentioned that earlier, but that humility, even if you know you have like the most badass idea, I think is really important, because humility helps you see where you're vulnerable as a business owner and where you need to kind of whether upskill yourself or bring in other help, I think can not only make it so that you can do things like attract talent, but when you have really high highs and really low lows, like what is inevitable as being a founder you're able to weather that storm a lot more if you maintain humility. I actually think vulnerability, though, is also a big one. You know, rima and I don't have all the answers. We never will. We're also not, you know, experts, so to speak, in our category. We are, we are generalists, we said, and we have always been shocked as to what the results can be is if you just ask the question you know, the worst somebody can say is no, and if they tell you no, it's going to tell you something about whatever that question was.
Morgan Mixon :But asking questions is incredible what you can achieve and what people will be willing to lend to you in terms of time or experience if you just ask. And so I think that vulnerability of not being worried about being a know-it-all is actually a huge, powerful tool. And number three thing what's number three? Number three is your to-do list is never going to shrink, literally never going to shrink. It will only get longer. So you've got to spend a lot of time thinking about how you invest your time and the sort of the like. So what is it?
Morgan Mixon :Einstein's matrix kind of thing of like do, schedule, delegate or throw away. That is something I've even sort of re-implemented into my life recently and it's had a huge effect because you are more aware of what only you can achieve and need to do and execute on and what that impact will be. But also, where can you ask for help? Because you not only will your to-do list not get any shorter, but, like you need help. You can't do it all by yourself, and we find Rima and I find actually things we collaborate on is what we do best, because you have a sounding board, you have somebody to give you feedback and you implement it.
Morgan Mixon :Even if I ask Rima, look, this is my idea, what do you think? And she says, have you thought about this? I'm like that's valuable, no matter what you know, like she'll always have something to add. And so I think, yeah, learning to kind of look at that to-do list less as a source of anxiety and more of a source of opportunity will help you kind of tackle it each day. And and for me I pick off what I call eating the frog, which is like the one thing I'm going to tackle in the morning that I like dreading, but if I get it done in the morning, when I'm kind of most alert and full of beans and filling, Today was 5.30 in the morning, right Today was 5.30 in the morning.
Morgan Mixon :That is 100% true. I even woke up before the baby. I mean, I was just like, oh, my to-do list, but you just kind of eat it and I think, yeah, thinking about those is these are opportunities of what I can achieve today, or um, is kind of a nice positive way to not get too daunted. Um, because it is incredible all the hats you will wear and if you're open to that experience. Um, yeah, I mean the founder life is super fulfilling in that way. Amazing, the founder life is super fulfilling in that way.
The Trailblazers Experience :Amazing Morgan Rima. Great story Peachies, subscription nappy products out there for you mothers and fathers who don't want to be schlepping nappies from the store. You can have it delivered to your door. I mean, that guy in Geneva needs to eat his handkerchief or whatever he was saying back in the day. Honestly, yeah, because I'm just thinking about my days. My kids were born in Germany and I was there with a pram and it's the biggest purchase you have. You have to schlep it with you. I definitely could have needed peaches in those days, but, amazing story, it's really great. You're both so humble for you to share openly and be transparent about your journey, about fundraising, about the decision even to start the business, working with a co-founder and what are the key elements. I'm sure that you inspired some woman man out there. This is. You know, this is a show for women, but we inspire everyone, which is really important. So thank you so much for sharing your journey. Thank you for having us.
Rima Suppan:It was a pleasure.
Morgan Mixon :Absolutely, it was a pleasure.
The Trailblazers Experience :So for the audience, this has been the Trailblazers Experience Podcast. Remember to tell another woman about the podcast. Follow, subscribe, like we are on all streaming platforms, wherever you watch your podcast. And until next time, thank you very much.