Scaling Up a Queer-Owned Fragrance Brand With Inclusivity and Authenticity with Matthew Herman, Co-founder of Boy Smells

There are about a million different inspirational quotes about being your authentic self and how to bring authenticity to everything you do — including your business. Matthew Herman and his company, Boy Smells, brings those cliches to life in real and very cliche ways. Boy Smells produces candles, fragrances, and more that defy the traditional gendered lines that have been drawn for decades in favor of creating a genderful experience that allows all customers to bring a mix of masculinity and femininity to their lives as they see fit. On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, Matthew and I talked about what that looks like in practice, and we dove into how and why Boy Smells has pivoted from focusing on wholesale, to DTC and now to retail and partnerships. 

Main Takeaways:

• Finding Functional Experts: Adding headcount is one of the most stressful parts of scaling. To make things easier, the focus should be on finding and bringing in functional experts. You will save time and money bringing in a better candidate who might cost more but can get to work quickly rather than bringing in a novice and trying to train them to work in your system.
• A Pyramid of Products: Creating products that can stand the test of time is important. But having one evergreen product won’t sustain a business. You have to strive to have a three-tiered pyramid mix of products, which starts with a base of core products, followed by seasonal products, and topped with special, one-of-a-kind, buzzy products that can drive sales and engagement.
• Don’t Jump In: You hear all the time that when you have an idea, you should jump in and do it. In reality, you’re often much better served by gaining experience at already-established companies so that you can learn from their successes and failures and bring that knowledge to your own venture.

For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.

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For a full transcript of this interview, click here.