The Star: April 04, 2019

The Star Thursday April 4 2019
23
environmentally-friendly cleansers
What has shocked you the
most about the growth of
your business and being an
entrepreneur?
This is going to sound
ridiculous, but I am always
surprised when people really buy
into it and love it, because it still
feels like this tiny project that I
created in a kitchen. Why would
anyone take any notice of it? We
have some massive retail brands
who are chasing us to get our
product in their stores around
the world and it’s just a bit weird.
Was there ever a ‘wow’
moment when you realised how
big your brand was getting?
There has been quite a few now.
I can’t say the name, because we
are going to announce this in
a couple of months, but we are
going into a massive retail chain
in the US. Every retail customer
we have had, has approached us
initially, which is really exciting.
But when the US one reached out
to us, that was very exciting and
also scary because it is a very big
job. What was most exciting was
when the largest pharmacy chain
in the world reached out to us. It
was about July last year and we
are expecting to launch into their
pharmacies in July this year. They
literally just sent an email. You
think they would reach out in a
more official way, but they just
sent through a message to our
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Brianne West said Japan is now her favourite place after
launching Ethique there in January.
customer service email saying:
‘Hi, we want to have a chat.’ At
first I feel panic, and then I think:
‘Oh god, are these people for
real?’
I understand you made
history – you attracted the
highest number of female
investors ever in PledgeMe
history. Tell me about your
crowdfunding campaigns?
We have done two so far. The
first one was in middle of 2015. I
think it was down to two things,
the first being that we have
particularly female products,
let’s be honest, and also that
as females, we tend to want to
support one another. So I had
a lot of offers of shareholders
wanting to come on board at
an early stage. They should be
very pleased now, because the
company has grown an awful
lot, due to their initial support.
We did another one at the end
of 2017 and raised half a million
dollars in 90 minutes, so that was
pretty exciting.
What do you do outside of
work?
I am a bit of a book nerd, I read
a lot. I recently learnt how to play
tennis. I also enjoy horse riding
and I just learnt how to scuba
dive. I get bored very quickly and
like to move on to something
new.
What are your plans for the
future?
We have lots of products in
the future and we are going
into more countries. From a
personal perspective, I’d like
to start getting involved in the
not-for-profit area, particularly
conservation and environmental
protection. I have this exotic
idea, I would adore to go to
Africa. I would love to spend
three months driving through
the entire continent. If I went on
holiday more, I might have some
more business ideas, but when
you are busy day-to-day, they
don’t tend to come up. I want to
go to Sumatra this year, or Costa
Rica or Nicaragua, I want to go
on a big adventure.
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