- Duration: 10 min
- Platform: zoom
- Source: Read.ai 01J8N8TXR178PFWP9KG1BNMT0D (https://app.read.ai/analytics/meetings/01J8N8TXR178PFWP9KG1BNMT0D)
Transcript
[Ben Ornstein]: Hey, LEILA. [LEILA SHAMS]: Hi. [Ben Ornstein]: How you doing? Good. Well, thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it. [LEILA SHAMS]: Yeah, great to meet you. [Ben Ornstein]: Great to meet you as well. Yeah, can I ask what context do you have for that? [LEILA SHAMS]: I have no context. [Ben Ornstein]: Got it. OK. Perfectly fine. So I’m not sure. I’m not exactly sure how you found us, but Michael Houck. [LEILA SHAMS]: So my Sally who works for me, who kind of like runs everything, she set this up. She said it was related to fundraising. [Ben Ornstein]: Yes. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Okay. [Ben Ornstein]: So in the way it’s related to fundraising. So I work for this guy, Michael Houck. He has a newsletter. He has like a 60,000 person audience. It’s mostly founders themselves in the audience. As well. And so in one of the he creates a lot of content. So he’s got the newsletter. We’re launching a podcast as well next week. And another product that we built was speaking to other founders about their fundraising journeys and, you know, how much they’ve raised today. All these there’s a bunch of softball questions around around the fundraising. And basically, it’s just those conversations. And then we’ve about, we’ve like a library of 60 of these that are behind a payment gated wall for people to then access all of these. Because we figured, you know, what’s the best way to learn? Is there a better way to learn about fundraising than from people who’ve actually done it themselves was the theory. [LEILA SHAMS]: Got it. Does that make sense? Yeah. So is this a pitch to get to pay for that service? [Ben Ornstein]: So this conversation is turned into, we have a read AI guy in here because I turned the transcript into one of the case studies. So you’d become another member in that library for people to have access to hear your story kind of thing. [LEILA SHAMS]: Oh, got it. And then do I get to read other people’s stories? [Ben Ornstein]: You would have to pay for the membership. [LEILA SHAMS]: So what’s the benefit to me? [Ben Ornstein]: Yeah, no, valid question. It’s really, if you want to tell your story, it’s totally up to you where it’s kind of the ability to tell your story and have other founders read about it. And we can leave contact info if you’d like for them to reach out to you afterwards. Yeah, most of the time, that’s really the quick answer to that one. We’ve had people who have asked the same question. Some people said, OK, well, this isn’t worth my time. Some people are like, you know, if this is a cool way to tell my story. Totally up to you. It’s, yeah, it’s however you have. [LEILA SHAMS]: I haven’t raised any money. [Ben Ornstein]: Okay, well, then maybe, I guess you’re the, maybe the woman was a little uninformed who sent this to you and maybe it wasn’t clear. How did she even find us? Do you know? [LEILA SHAMS]: No, I mean, she’s just always on LinkedIn. So I think she had, the impression that Michael helps people raise money? [Ben Ornstein]: Well, so that is something he does. He does have advisory slots, which I don’t know his availability on that. He’s pretty precious with his time, but he does offer advisory services to help fundraising. Okay. So I think that’s what she wanted. Got it. Okay. So if that’s of interest, I could connect you to at least have a discussion on that. [LEILA SHAMS]: Great. [Ben Ornstein]: Got it. Well, yeah, now that we’re here, I would just love to hear about the product and what you’re building, just out of pure curiosity. [LEILA SHAMS]: OK. I am the founder and CEO of TA3. It is a shaping, swim, and fashion company. So I’ve been a fashion designer for 25 years. So I’m very familiar with the industry. But I was always really bothered by how I looked in a swimsuit, getting ready to put on a swimsuit. Like when I was about to go on vacation, I was obsessing over my weight, I was dieting. So I just wanted to be able to eat and have fun without thinking about my body. So that’s why TA3 is Eat Backwards. We launched in June of 2020. That was like depths of COVID when no one is really But people were really looking for that boost of confidence. And I just started with a piece of content that was just like me in a competitor suit and me in my swimsuit doing a little turn. And it took off right away. I mean, we did $100,000 revenue the first year. The second year, we did $3 million. The third year, we did $16 million. Last year, we did $19 million. So it’s been steady. [LEILA SHAMS]: steadily growing this year, we’ll be profitable. So it’s been good. We did raise a venture debt round, but we never raised like a true, like, you know, traditional equity round. So that’s kind of what I was interested in, what we need right now. [Ben Ornstein]: So you did 19 million in revenue last year. And so you’re just kind of looking to get the VC funding, just get that extra boost to kind of like grow things. [LEILA SHAMS]: Yeah, it’s getting, you know, with swimsuits, but we’ve launched into general shaping apparel. So we have shaping dresses, shaping tops, and then you have things that go back to that. So as the line has expanded, it’s been really hard to hold the amount of inventory that we need to hold to keep our sell-throughs where I want them to be. So it’s the main thing, you know, just like being able to hold the inventory. We’re just constantly sold out right now. [Ben Ornstein]: Wow. Good problem to have. But frustrating at the same time. Yeah. [LEILA SHAMS]: Yeah. Definitely frustrating. And, you know, being in the apparel space, like investors are never particularly excited about apparel, like, you know, and especially swim. I mean, I’m happy that we’ve, we’ve really established, um, the non-swim part of the business and it’s growing, but no, no one was interested in doing swim really, you know? Um, and I’m always like, we’re shapewear, we’re not swimwear, but you know, apparel is apparel and, and, especially seasonal apparel, and people are like, oh, thank you. So I’m hoping things will be better now that we’ve really established the non-swim, non-seasonal part of the line. [Ben Ornstein]: I like that pivot. Yeah, no, apparel’s tough. I did a clothing brand with a couple of friends of mine, and that achieved absolutely nothing. So I know how much goes into that. So you’re doing 19 million. You’re a bit farther along than I was. But yeah, no, that’s amazing. That sounds great. Thank you. Cool. Well, no, I will. It sounds awesome. And yeah, hard, hard sell out. Michael is great. He knows he definitely knows what he’s doing. I’m sure he’s got amazing ideas for you here. Great. Let me chat with him. And regardless, I’ll kind of send you an email to say if he’s open to it or connect you to or whatever, whatever will come from that. [LEILA SHAMS]: Sounds good. [Ben Ornstein]: Awesome. All right. Well, it’s great. Thank you.