How Right here We Flo Broke Right into a Crowded Market

No founding story is full with out mentioning main turning factors for the enterprise. For the founders of Right here We Flo, a type of “actually massive deal” moments got here in 2019 after they noticed their merchandise on the cabinets of a Boots retailer for the primary time in London.

As much as that time, co-founders Susan C. Allen and Tara Chandra had been largely working Right here We Flo as a facet hustle. After elevating about £14,000 in a Kickstarter marketing campaign a pair years earlier, the ladies had been slowly constructing a buyer base by convincing native retailers and well being meals shops to hold their period-care merchandise. 

Right here We Flo is amongst numerous period-care startups up to now decade—together with Cora, Thinx and August—that use natural elements or a extra frank advertising method. No matter distinctive spin these corporations take, they’re all making an attempt to chip away on the three behemoths—Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and Edgewell Private Care, which accounted for 78% of U.S. tampon gross sales in 2023, in response to Euromonitor Worldwide. 

Touchdown shelf area on the U.Ok.’s largest pharmacy chain—no small feat, by the best way—paved the best way for Allen and Chandra to construct out Right here We Flo and rent its first two staff. The deal additionally meant Boots consumers might scoop up a substitute for the likes of Tampax, Playtex, Kotex, and o.b.: a shiny pink, ice cream tub-shaped package deal crammed with 100% natural cotton tampons. 

Playful packaging might assist entice the attention of some consumers, whereas fine-print particulars are the promoting level for others. The corporate donates 5% of all income to charity from gross sales of its vary of merchandise—tampons, pads, interval pants and condoms—which are all organically-sourced and sustainably packaged. The founders prefer to have enjoyable, even within the pursuit of those environmental and social commitments, however they’re additionally chasing a extra severe mission: To alter conversations about female well being and sexual wellness, stamping out any disgrace or stigma, so the subsequent era has a unique expertise when encountering life’s messiest moments.

Right here We Movement modified the age-old dialog

“We need to make folks giggle, then we need to make them assume after which hopefully that’ll form of set them as much as have a dialog,” Allen says. “It’s having these conversations that’s actually going to alter the best way society views these items.”

Conversations have at all times been on the coronary heart of Right here We Flo. Throughout a break in-between lessons on the London College of Economics within the mid-2010s, the duo had been chatting about enterprise concepts—the place else however the lavatory—when inspiration struck. Whereas Allen wished to start out the feminist mafia—just like the PayPal mafia however higher, she says—Chandra had a extra tangible downside: The San Francisco native was having hassle discovering natural tampons in London, a metropolis replete with different pure fare.

That’s now not a problem for different girls. Final 12 months, Right here We Flo bought practically 2 million merchandise throughout its varied product strains: Flo (natural interval care), Glo (sustainable bladder care) and XO! (eco-friendly vegan condoms). Yow will discover the merchandise seemingly in all places, together with Amazon, Goal, Walmart, Complete Meals, Sprouts, Tesco and WHSmith, together with the bogs of the BBC, WeWork and Netflix places of work.

Some key partnerships and accolades have helped the model develop in recent times. Right here We Flo not too long ago teamed up with Netflix on a co-branded line of period-proof underwear. Then in 2022, the corporate debuted a 30-second TV industrial—dubbed “No Extra Interval Drama”—after it was named the Grand Prix winner of the inaugural Sky Zero Footprint Fund, which got here with a £1 million price range for promoting on the British broadcaster. In 2023, the corporate was named a Licensed B Company® in recognition of its social and environmental influence. And this 12 months, its merchandise had been featured within the first-ever interval care show at Complete Meals.

Key partnerships—just like the one with Netflix—have given the corporate extra clout and model recognition, Allen notes. Armed with a “very tiny” price range, Allen has overseen a advertising technique outlined by a voice she describes as humorous, feminist and fierce. “That model voice has actually resonated with our buyer, who we lovingly name ‘the genzennial,’ in addition to their dad and mom which are purchasing for younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha.”

Whereas success has come by way of a mixture of exhausting work, luck and timing, social media has performed an essential function in rising the model. Right here We Flo has constantly seen excessive engagement on social media—the place followers quantity about 40,000 throughout Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn—the place you’re as more likely to see posts celebrating the corporate’s milestones as you will see meme-worthy posts, shoutouts to trailblazing girls who encourage the minority-led staff and primers on extra severe matters like cervical most cancers. 

“I’m proud to say all the pieces that now we have executed has at all times been genuine, and we tried to maneuver as transparently as potential so I feel that our prospects and group are capable of develop with us,” Allen says. Whereas the staff is making an attempt to alter the narrative—one pinned Instagram submit advocates folks cease utilizing the phrases “hygiene” and “sanitary” in reference to menstrual care—additionally they hearken to conversations occurring on-line. 

These conversations have change into “far more uncooked, trustworthy and natural” up to now decade, which has led to a notable shift in how corporations market female care merchandise, notes Olivia Dreizen Howell, who based the advertising company March Lion Media in 2013. Social media storytelling has unleashed a complete new advertising methodology that attracts on vulnerability and honesty—and he or she’s executed the identical in constructing her divorce registry enterprise, Recent Begins Registry, by sharing “uncooked and trustworthy” tales, together with about her divorce.

“Entrepreneurs shortly realized that one of the best ways to promote to girls was to achieve their loyalty on social media,” Howell says. “As soon as customers felt seen and heard, they usually might relate to what the influencer or advert was saying, they discovered themselves extra more likely to buy the product.”

Guaranteeing prospects really feel valued and heard because the model evolves

Ensuring that buyers really feel seen and heard has additionally been a core worth at Right here We Flo. Suggestions from prospects has allowed the corporate to study because it has grown, Allen says, they usually’ve even made some tweaks, together with altering the composition of combo packs, because of this. And you may even see Right here We Flo popping up within the feedback part to answer unfavourable suggestions.

Moreover, some youthful prospects have been a driving pressure in demanding transparency on its natural and sustainability commitments—or, as Allen places it, “verifying our integrity as a model.” 

For Right here We Flo, the founders are waiting for new alternatives to develop. Some seven years into enterprise, it stays scrappy and lean—the present headcount is 12—and Allen says the corporate has constantly been “punching above its weight.”

With plans to boost cash from institutional traders quickly, Allen is trying ahead to rising the staff—and her advertising price range. Nonetheless, Right here We Flo is making traction as a challenger model, notably within the U.Ok., and is on a quest to gobble up market share from its a lot bigger opponents. 

“My dream is to be in all places company interval care is,” Allen says.

Photograph courtesy of Right here We Flo