I wanna give up.
😭
And girlfriend.
That’s OK!!!!
The year is 2016.
And that.^
Is my fake dialogue with Remi Brixton (RB).*
Founder of “Go Freck Yourself.”
A Kickstarter* for girls like her. Girls who want fake freckles.
And yet.
Beauty standards SUCK.
There’s a proliferation around technologies designed to remove blemishes. Not increase them.
So yeah, RB is pretty naive about market fit in 2016. And that naivety sparks a really emotional response.
From Jimmy Kimmel???
Who runs a three minute segment.
On fake freckles. Her Kickstarter. And his security guard’s face - penned with fake freckles.* (Yes. Sharpie is the hero in Jimmy Kimmel’s narrative).
So yeah!!!!
“I wanna give up.”
Is a narrative that Remi Brixton knows all too well.
The Kickstarter fails. And Remi does too.
For a month.
One month!!!
Then she’s back to the drawing board.
Because fake freckles ROCK. An idea validated by Google Surveys.* Even if the journey itself is rocky.
Okay.
RB sells 20% of Freck.
For $15,000.
Highway robbery. But hey, physical products are expensive!!! And most people need capital.
We’re talking. Ingredients. Molds. Minimum order quantities.
Supply chain logistics, baby! (Don’t sell 20% of your company for 15K).
The year is 2017.
And RB buys out that really crummy investor.
Sales are down. And Remi 👏 leans 👏 in.
To Instagram! And influencers. And their power over millennials. (Keep in mind that influencers aren’t called influencers in 2017).
An account does a product giveaway.
And Freck Beauty takes off.
Which brings us to RB’s business partner.
Des Wilson.
And their really cute friendship.
Des actually reached out to Remi during her Kickstarter. To represent Freck as a women’s showroom director.
The two never met up. (Thank you, Jimmy Kimmel). Until now. 2019.
They meet over Craigslist.
Remi needs a place to live. And Des confirms that the gal touring her house is indeed “that freckle girl.”
The rest is history.
Des Wilson is Freck Beauty’s COO.
And she does things like -
Secure distribution in Europe. And shelf space at Urban Outfitters.
Okay. You sell something. You need more product. It’s cyclical. And I’ve outlined Remi’s fundraise journey in the footnotes.*
Huge thanks!!!!
To Jimmy Kimmel.
And all the people who said she couldn’t do it.
Cause now. She’s in Sephora, baby!
So take one from Remi Brixton. Entrepreneurship is messy. And that’s just life. Find your Des!
And that’s the skinny.
* Everybody has a voice inside their head. And BTW - that little voice is NOBODY’S friend. But I am. So listen up. You got this, girlfriend! ✊✊
* Kickstarter is an alternative way to raise money. “Creators” set a funding goal and deadline. You hit that goal. You build the product. In Remi’s case, the funding goal was $215,000. She never met that threshold. So she never got the money to build her initial kits.
* Jimmy Kimmel’s security guard’s face penned with fake freckles:
* There’s no data on the fake freckle industry. Because there is no fake freckle industry. Google Consumer Surveys are a function of Google’s business suite. You pay X amount of money for a survey, and Google finds X amount of people to respond to that survey (according to previously set constraints and demographics). Data MINING, BABY.
* Okay. “Turnkey manufacturing.” It’s when you outsource everything. (Ingredients, formulas, packaging, the final pack out, etc…). Before Jimmy Kimmel destroyed her life’s dream, that’s how Remi planned to build her initial kits. After he destroyed her life’s dream, she focused on vendor relationships and finding labs with lower MOQs. Product iteration, baby!
* Retail is expensive. Innovation is expensive. If you’re selling a consumer packaged good, you’ll likely need to fundraise.
Remi needed money.
After that crappy experience with investor number 1, she held off on raising money the traditional way. Instead, her and Des took a bunch of loans from PayPal. Personally guaranteed. Yikes. In 2019, they did a small angel round to fulfill orders for Urban Outfitters. Then a $2 million seed round (finally) in 2020. That’s because - raising money later meant raising at a higher valuation.