Advice from a former DTC and CPG investor turned brand founder (with Sonia Nagar, founder of Little Rituals)

1. “When you find good people keep them close, even if you don’t know yet how you might work with them.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD
2. “Once you take venture capital funding, the pressure to grow is on and you have to commit to a certain timeline for growing, a certain rate of growth, and a certain rate of spend.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD
3. “Even if your unit economics don’t show growth right now, there has to be reason to believe at scale you will get there.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD
4. “You have to have some sort of content strategy to keep your community engaged and some sort of community strategy to bring people together around your brand.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD
5. “In the early days, storytelling is everything, even if you don’t have a strong business yet.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

• [01:05] About Sonia and her background
• [03:05] Why Sonia made the transition to founder from investor
• [04:05] What Sonia is building at Little Rituals and what the product stands for
• [05:30] Learnings as an investor that Sonia is bringing to Little Rituals
• [09:55] How Sonia’s experience in tech has helped her build Little Rituals
• [11:45] As an investor, Sonia shares what founders often miss
• [13:45] Indicators for brand success that Sonia looks for
• [17:00] How Sonia determines whether a brand will make it or break it
• [18:45] How Sonia is making sure Little Rituals has a compelling growth story
• [19:50] Sonia’s most creative brand strategies she’s seen
• [21:30] How to handle being out of stock and avoid missed revenue
• [24:40] Sonia’s advice to brands trying to raise funding
• [27:20] Common challenges Sonia sees and how to get over them
• [30:05] What’s next for Little Rituals

We spoke to a former investor now turned founder to learn what makes brands grow

Sonia Nagar, founder of Little Rituals, joins the POD to talk about her experience as a former brand investor and now current founder.

Little Rituals offers organic caffeine-free teas and vegan vitamins for little ones (kids) to learn emotional and social skills.

Before founding Little Rituals, Sonia had experience in the tech industry and was last an investor for brands at a venture capital firm.

During her time as an investor, Sonia learned what brands that win do well and some of the pitfalls brands face.

During the early stages of a brand, storytelling and the ability to acquire customers outside of performance marketing are huge.

Ads should not be your sole acquisition strategy. This expense usually increases as your brand grows so it can make it difficult to grow if you rely on ads too much.

Investment shouldn’t always be your first strategy

Bootstrapping is a great way to grow a DTC or CPG business. Actually, it’s preferred.

The more you can hold off on outside investment, the more you can prove out your business and the more of your business you get to keep.

It’s very easy to start a store with Shopify today. With so many plugins too, try to build as much as you can on your own before raising money or spending.

Once you start growing, be on the lookout for your performance in key metrics like LTV, CAC, unit economics, organic acquisition, and ROAS.

Stay tuned as Sonia shares with us what founders often miss, how she determines whether a brand will be a success, and more.

If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Mentioned Links:

Little Rituals’  website: https://www.littleritualskids.com/

Little Rituals’ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littleritualskids/

Sonia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonias3/