Thinking about THINX: The Rise of Purplewashing

We’re a female-owned software company, and take a LOT pride in what we’ve built.

 

And we love supporting other woman-owned ventures, which is part of the reason we were both big fans of THINX. This was a product developed by women, for women, and it helped to change the public conversation about women’s bodies.

 

Good for women, and good for the environment? Consider us sold. 

 

So when we heard about what went down with THINX and Miki Agrawal, we knew we needed to talk about it. 

 

Investigative journalists did a little digging and found that both THINX underwear, and their work environment, were toxic. 

 

As consumers, we felt duped. But as business owners, we were curious to see how this would pan out. 

 

As female business owners, this sparked a lot of conversations about the ethics of branding, the reality of female-owned business, and why being female-owned doesn’t necessarily imply feminist.

 

Here’s a peek at what else you can expect:

 

• The strict standards for female business owners
• Cancel culture and the space to fail
• Our main takeaways from THINX
• Taking ownership of our failures
• The ripple effect of the failure of one female-owned business
• Can you be a feminist company and still be aiming for rapid growth?

 

RESOURCES

 

• Patriarchy Proof: Thinx and the Perils of Emphasizing Female Founders
• The rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes
• A Culture of Failure: The Story of Elizabeth Holmes: Episode 119 of And She Spoke
• My Menstrual Underwear has Toxic Chemicals In It
• Taylor Swift - NPR Tiny Desk Concert
• Disrupt Her: A Manifesto for the Modern Woman

 

Know Your Numbers

In our business, we're big fans of financial literacy and accountability. Knowing your numbers is an essential aspect of building a successful business and inherent responsibility for any entrepreneur. 

 

What you focus on grows, so pay attention to your money.

We use Bench for our bookkeeping. It's simple, elegant and saves us so many hours that would otherwise be spent neck-deep in receipts on the other side of a spreadsheet.

Each month our transactions are automatically imported into Bench and we get on-demand financial reports. We even enjoy opening up our profit and loss statement to review each month. When tax time comes around, we are up to date and ready to go. And this is what Financial Empowerment feels like.

 

Use this link to save 20% off your Bench Accounting plan for the first six months!

 

This podcast is brought to you by Namastream

 

This podcast is brought to you by the Namastream software platform. Namastream is an easy to use platform that helps you build and sell your own courses memberships and live-streamed programs. Go from idea to open for business in just minutes. Unlike other startups, Namastream was created by women for women. If you're looking for a simple, streamlined way to build and grow an online business. You can learn more at Namastream.com

This Week’s Joy: We’re big fans of Taylor Swift as a person (‘Shake it Off’ is still the best advice ever) which is why this week’s joy and hustle are all about her! 

 

We recommend watching Taylor’s NPR Tiny Desk concert, especially with your little girl if you want to show her what a great role model looks like.

 

This Week’s Hustle: Seriously, we cannot get enough of Miss Americana, Taylor’s Netflix documentary. We love that we get to see Taylor evolve from this people-pleasing girl, to a woman who’s  not afraid to speak her own mind.