Ashleigh Hinde (Waldo) - Building a brand with a product you can't see - contact lenses

Our guest today is Ashleigh Hinde, Founder and CEO of Waldo. Waldo makes daily contact lenses without the hassle or price tag. We discuss how she’s building a brand with a product that you can’t see, how she approaches e-commerce and retail, and why she founded a contact lens company in the first place. Some of the questions I ask: What was the insight or pain point you went through that led you to founding Waldo? Did you always want to be an entrepreneur? How much do contacts usually sell for? How did you think about pricing strategy? How did you approach your supply chain/manufacturing? On the price point / margin side Efficient customer acquisition So you think about sustainability and It seems similar to what you are doing in contact lenses - making them more affordable, building a digitally native brand - it sounds similar to what Warby Parker did with eye glasses. What are some of the differences selling contacts vs. glasses? How important is having buy-in from eye doctors for customer acquisition? Does their recommendation have a big effect on the customer on which contacts they should buy from? How do you approach partnerships? How did you come to strike a big partnership with Walmart? Why? What does the customer journey look like? How do you build a brand with a product that you can’t see? What was the geographical distribution strategy? Why did you start in the UK then come to the US and how do you think about the contact lens market from a global perspective? How do you think about impact? How do you think you’ve grown since founding Waldo? What is the stickiness part of your business or how do you think about competitive advantages How did you approach fundraising? What was the biggest reason why an investor would pass or make the investment? What was the bet? What is one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?Professionally: The Hard Things About Hard Things Personally: Designing Your Life What’s the best piece of advice for founders?

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The Consumer VC takes a look into early-stage consumer investing and venture capital. If you are interested in learning about consumer trends, have a b2c business and interested in learning about the fundraising process at the early stage, you have come to the right place. Mike interviews some of the top venture capitalists in the world that focus on B2C and consumer type companies or have a deep track record investing in these categories such as marketplaces, SaaS, social, CPG and non-tech subscription. Mike also interviews founders that are building some of the most disruptive consumer facing companies in the world. The conversation usually includes the insight the founder discovered, fundraising strategy, and the pitch. This podcast also includes bonus episodes. Each bonus episode dives into a particular subject that might not have to due with the fundraise or venture capital, but still would be helpful to founders. For example, a bonus episode on brand strategy or how to construct a board of directors. All bonus episodes will be clearly labeled. For all episodes, please visit www.theconsumervc.com. For updates, you can follow @mikegelb on Twitter.