Our product is 100% organic cotton. It has a woven core, so it doesn’t contain glues. No dyes. No toxins. No plastics. In addition to our mission of having non-toxic products, we're also concerned about the environment. Most tampons have plastic applicators, and on average, people use 9,600 tampons in their lifetime. Multiply that by the millions of individuals in the U.S. that use regular tampons, and that's a lot of plastic going into our waterways and our landfills. Plastic has a huge environmental impact.

We use a smooth, thin, cardboard applicator that is completely compostable. Our packaging is made with recycled paper. We don't use boxes in our packaging. When you subscribe to Tampon Tribe, your first order arrives in a burlap bag, designed to look nice and fit inside your bathroom cabinet, or on the shelf. Then, every month, you get a refill pack, in a recycled paper bag. You can select your combination online depending on what size of tampon you need and what your flow is. You let us know ahead of time what you need for that month's delivery, and that's what we send out to you. It's completely customizable and affordable. Our monthly subscription is $8, including shipping, and includes 16 tampons. If you're going to a CVS, a comparable (but non-organic) product would be about the same price, $6.99 to $8.99.

We’re talking about a $16 billion global industry that’s expected to grow to $42 billion in less than ten years. Most people spend between $6 to $10 a month on their menstrual product. A cheap box of Tampax is still about $5 or $6. Then, you buy some pads to go with it or something like that. For organic, you go to Whole Foods, and there are a couple of options, but they’re limited in terms of their size, they don't have applicators, and they can range from $8.99 to much higher.

I came across the idea from both a personal health and a convenient business point of view. First of all, nearly everybody runs out of tampons every month, even if you've had your period since you were 12. It just happens. You run out and you're always rushing to the store or you're getting your partner to rush to the store to buy you tampons.

My first idea was to create the Dollar Shave Club of tampons. Tampons are an essential item for 70% of menstruating individuals in the U.S. I thought, “Wouldn't it be great if you just arrived at my front door every month?”

The more reading I did, the more I came to find out about Toxic Shock Syndrome, and about the environmental impact. Our search changed a little bit and segued over to the organic and the certified organic cotton. I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if we could do this with organic products and still keep the price low?" We're still looking at a 55% profit margin on our costs and that's only at low purchasing levels.

Secondly, health reasons came into it. From a personal level, I went through a health situation myself. As I started to speak to more and more of my friends who had been touched in some way by a health issue, often cancer, which does actually hit one in two people in this world, we realized the importance of looking more toward organic products and being a lot more conscious about what we put into our bodies or against our skin. Those two things combined to move forward with the business.

Then I thought, "How can we create a business that is more inclusive?" I wanted a business that creates this great ecosphere of people who want to get involved with our charitable aspects and want to give back. I envisioned creating this great tribe. We're quite different from anyone else on the market in that aspect as well. People want to get on board and just be part of Tampon Tribe. They want to wear the t-shirt. They want people to talk about tampons. They don't want this to be taboo anymore. It's a product that pretty much everyone either buys for themselves or for someone else or knows someone who needs it. It's something we should have out a bit more in the open.

Since our first raise, we've accomplished quite a lot. We saw an 876% net subscriber gain since the beginning of 2017, which was really exciting. It was about a 25% month-on-month growth for that year. So, that put us exactly on target for where we needed to be with the number of subscribers. We were really happy that we were able to leverage the PR and a lot of acquisition-only marketing. We ran a few promotions and we're working really hard on increasing our LTV, or Lifetime Value. Our average spend per customer has grown as well. It was $8 per month and now it’s $13. Our customer acquisition cost is also pretty low, $15. That only takes into account our subscription providers.

We've been doing a lot more customer engagement on our social channels, so we're letting people know a lot more about our product. I think the fact that we're plastic-free is starting to be really recognized in the market. We're the only people who have plastic-free pads and pantyliners. A couple of companies have now started selling plastic-free tampons, but they're still wrapped in plastic. So, we've seen great feedback and growth regarding that. And we’ve made people aware of the range of products that we have. People who like our tampons are starting to add pantyliners and pads to their orders, which is great confirmation for us that people are enjoying the products and want to use more.

It's a bit of both. People really engage with what we put out on social media. They really enjoy our blog posts and like hearing about women in the field doing their thing. People are starting to recognize us for the company that we're building.

Also, last year, just after summer, we ran a college ambassador program, which was really good. We had about 15 ambassadors from colleges in America and they got samples of our products. The program actually was good and then it had some pitfalls. We’re going to take it to the next level this year, which is really good. We haven't had any paid influencers yet, because it’s expensive. We do have some great influencers lined up, but we need a little more money in the bank before we spend.

We've had people who love our products and have come to us and volunteered to help get the word out. We've also just been featured in a book for UK Greenpeace, highlighting our company for creating plastic-free products. So, we're starting to get more and more recognition and virality for the company that we're building. People are reaching out to us.

We've also got some great corporate placements now, especially in the Santa Monica area. We're in the Exhale Spa, which is in the Fairmont Hotel, and that's really great because they've got a lot of locations. We’re in Orange Theory, Cross Campus, Love Yoga, and quite a few corporate workplaces as well. We have a film production studio, which reaches a whole other segment. They've all started recommending us to their corporate headquarters and that's a great way to grow really, really quickly. We’ve also been pinpointing some of the corporates that have busy locations.

We started a small retail line to complement the subscription line. We're now in the four Erewhon stores in LA, which are a chain of natural, organic grocery stores in the Los Angeles region. We have different packaging, and it looks amazing. It brings in a market that we don't really reach with subscription. These are avid organic shoppers who go into Erewhon and spend a lot of money. They're in Venice, Santa Monica, Calabasas, and The Grove, and we're one of their local brands. That was a great win for us as well.

Also, in terms of retail, we have just been selected by Urban Outfitters to run a trial in their wellness shops with our products, which is super exciting. And for about eight months now, we’ve been working with a big bulk buyer who provides products and subsidizes products for Girl Scouts and other organizations. So that’s been really good, too.

We also won the Georgetown Alumni start-up entrepreneur pitch competition a couple of months ago. We were awarded $7,000, so we were really happy about that. We’ve had some really good media coverage, with a press conference, TV shows, and print and online publications. We keep going from strength to strength. We're really proud of our first sixteen months of growth.

We basically reach out and they buy our product on a monthly basis. Most pay about $150 a month. So, this is really increasing our margins and bringing down average costs, since we can ship a large amount of product for one cost. We do a corporate rate, but we still boost our revenue. And once again, it's great marketing because we provide our little display with the products and all of our information. And we give little discounts; we’ve seen many people convert to subscriptions this way. As we grow, we’ll have more physical resources to keep reaching out to universities, businesses and co-work spaces. We've had a couple of universities order with us, and they’re interested in re-ordering. Those are $1,000-plus orders, which is great for us since shipping is one of our major costs.

We saw the expansion as a great way to increase revenue with a group of people that the subscription model doesn't reach, and to amplify acquisition and marketing efforts to get our brand out there in more visible places without having to spend a lot of money.

The retail aspect is not pulling away from our subscription market at all. It's just targeting a market that we wouldn't normally get to touch if we focused solely on our subscriptions. We’re reaching personal shoppers and high-end shoppers who don't shop online, and that’s a different market from the subscription market.

Our main competitor is a company called My Lola. They do cotton tampons, but there are a lot of differences between them and us. Our branding and core audiences are quite different; Lola uses predominantly plastic applicators and plastic packaging. And they don’t have the “tribe” mentality that we have. They’re starting to do condoms and lubes and that kind of thing. Our focus is remaining on plastic-free, organic menstrual products. That’s what we want to continue to be recognized for.

There are a couple of other companies that offer organic cotton products, but they're very expensive and they don't offer a monthly delivery. And they're very heavily packaged in plastic. They're targeting the executive market, which, of course, is our market as well, but we want to target everybody, not just people who spend $20 a month on their products. We come in at an affordable level and we tick all the boxes, including organic and toxin-free, and, of course, we want people to feel like they want to be part of Tampon Tribe. It's like Dollar Shave Club; people want to be part of a club.

There are also some people who are re-boxing products, putting various care packages together. But I think we’ve held our ground in our niche. It’s a big industry, and as long as we all continue to stay true to our mission, it’s pretty cool.

One competitor, Conscious Period, has dropped out of the market since we did our last raise.

I think what happened was, for any startup, you see these people who have great ideas, but you need more than an idea. You need to know what you're doing when it comes to business and that's where I think we stand alone with that. We are really serious when it comes to business. We've made that first raise last. We've still got money left from that raise. We make sure each dollar is spent in an efficient and effective way. That’s really important to us, to maximize the spend of every single dollar.

A lot of tampons are made with a range of different materials, like a synthetic rayon. They contain chlorine bleach. Chlorine has dioxin, which has been directly linked to cervical cancer. They have perfumes and dyes in them. The cotton has not been grown in an organic way, which means that the GMOs or any of the fertilizers in the soil can come into your body. Toxic shock is a real thing.

We like to do a little test. If you put the tampons in water, ours is organic cotton, so it just absorbs the liquid and you can squeeze it out, not that you would do this with a tampon! None of the fibers come off. With a more generic tampon, the fibers actually break off. They stay in the woman's body. If they contain a toxin, they may cause toxic shock. I've met a few people that have reached out and told me their story of getting toxic shock from tampons. One of them is a model from Venice who lost her leg. People have had hysterectomies at 13. We don't like to market the scary side too much because we don't want to scare people into purchasing. But by the same token, there's a very real health risk when you’re putting products in or on your body that contain chemicals and toxins.

We are also completely plastic-free – our pads and pantyliners are wrapped in a biodegradable potato starch film and we don’t use glue. It’s just an all-around win in this day and age.

We're producing out of Europe. Our manufacturing partner is ICEA-certified, which means ethically produced and organic. Every single part of the production process has to meet really strict European standards. The standards in Europe are a lot higher than the standards in America. In terms of ethics, it means that they can't overuse water in the process. They can't put any chemicals or fertilizers on the product. They have a quick turnaround, as well.

Well, we’ve reached capacity with what we can do by funding ourselves personally. You can only take the company so far with that. So, what we want to do with this next raise is to increase inventory and have larger stock imports with packaging and products, which is really exciting.

We know the demand can grow quickly, and we don’t want to explode with orders and not have enough inventory to fulfill them.

We’re also looking at putting a little bit of the money toward payroll. Not a lot, but a little bit. We’ve had interns, and the four of us Gaby, myself, Giana, and Tracy, continue to do everything we can, but we’re at capacity.

We want to put more into marketing, as well. We did a lot of testing with the company in our marketing funnels last year. We assessed what did and didn't work so we could really figure out how to maximize our spending. So, we have those funnels that are in the background that we want to be able to put money behind because we know what we can generate from them.

We want to be in large, corporate health organizations. For example, gyms have tampons in all of their bathrooms across America. Being in the bathroom of a gym not only increases our sales, but also increases our marketing outreach because people will see Tampon Tribe everywhere and associate that with health. I think that's another area in terms of business that we're going into that our competitors don't look at.

First and foremost, we've created a lot more than just a business. We keep people involved at every level. A lot of people want to support the green, individual, smaller businesses. They don't want to support Proctor and Gamble. That's our market. We're looking at one to five percent of the entire market who have already converted to the organic sphere. 

We also have a social outreach side. We are partnering with charities that change the lives of young girls and boys for the better. We’ve also been working on our Period Pack Project where we get menstrual products to individuals experiencing homelessness.

In terms of our employment strategy, we are looking at partnering with organizations in LA, such as Chrysalis, who do retraining programs. We’re also focusing on hiring veterans and special needs adults who are often underemployed. 

We have a holistic view of everything we do. We're completely transparent, and when it comes to people who are buying and purchasing in this sector, that's important to them. They buy ethically.