Todd Gagne:

Bridget, welcome back to the podcast. I think you are the first person that I've had on TWICE. So you were in season one. You had a wonderful story that was great, that we're gonna pick up and talk a little bit about. But, thanks for playing ball and coming back.

Brigit:

Gosh, Todd. That's such an honor. Yeah, no, I'm excited to do a combo. It's gonna be fun.

Todd Gagne:

It'll be good. And I think a lot of water has gone under the bridge since we last talked. And so I think this is good. I guess maybe what I'll start with is I appreciate your authenticity. I think you were super vulnerable.

I think you were pretty clear about, like, some of the challenges and stuff you had. And I think what was interesting to me was we did the first episode and then you and I kind of kept in touch and then some of the things weren't working as well as you'd hoped. And you were able to basically right the ship. And so a lot of what we're trying to do today is talk about lessons learned and giving real world experiences about like, this isn't always fun and it's not always buttoned up properly. And there's definitely some valleys in these journeys.

And I think sometimes we gloss over those and we talk about the successes, which is great. But I think like getting there is that. So maybe why don't we start with you giving a little bit of intro about like where you were before you started a company called Fomento, the genesis of it, you got some traction, you had some good press, you won some money, And then you're in a different spot today. So maybe I'll let you start with an intro there.

Brigit:

Absolutely. Thanks for teeing that up. So, yeah, my name's Bridget Torbord. My maiden name is Blodie. And, yeah, exactly to what you said, Todd.

So basically when I was in college, a few friends of mine and I started a startup in the fashion tech space. So we were basically creating this aggregator. We wanted to tap into big online secondhand clothing stores like Poshmark, ThredUP, Depop, eBay, things like that, pull a very filtered version of their best inventory to one location. From a consumer standpoint, if you're looking for a Patagonia jacket or something very specific in your size, you'd be able to find the best options. So that's how we originally started, and we ended up raising some capital off that, and yeah, just like going to town

Todd Gagne:

building You won some money in a business plan competition?

Brigit:

Yeah, Yep. So during the height of COVID, we were pitching in the Holt Prize, which is a accelerator for essentially college university students. I think it takes place in, like, one hundred and twenty one countries over close to two thousand college campuses. So the pandemic hit right when we were going through that experience. And so what used to be like a very in person accelerator program turned out to be like a online, like hunker down from our college dorm rooms experience.

Where we would get up every morning at eight am and pitch our startup and we'd get ranked and it was super fun, honestly. So we worked our way through there and ended up winning some capital from that. And then, yeah, we ended up raising from some angels for some additional capital to to build out the initial product. And, it it was really fun. We had no idea what we were doing

I mean, I was twenty one.

Todd Gagne:

Like a lot of people.

Brigit:

Yeah. I mean, seriously, how can you know until you really get after it or or, you know, have some solid mentorship? And even then, it's a lot of it is just you're learning by experience, and that's what we were doing.

Todd Gagne:

So Did you say there was two fundamental problems with it? I think there was a unit economics problem, and then you had a technical problem. Like, those are the two that at least I remember you probably talking the most about when you were talking about Fermento. Is that fair?

Brigit:

Yeah. That's totally fair. We yeah. I mean, we got to building. We started building

I mean, actually, I think there's a third problem there that has come up or resurfaced more recently. But, essentially, yeah, we didn't have a technical cofinder ever, so that always was a big challenge, especially pre, like, the AI boom that we're in now. There's so many tools today that just did not exist when you were building a few, you know, five, six years ago, and it's so cool to me to be able to see how much entrepreneurs have at their fingertips just to create a, like, a minimum viable product, like an MVP today, whereas we did not have access to those tools. So, yeah, number one, biggest struggle, never had a technical co founder. Number two, unit economics.

I mean, just imagine you're selling secondhand clothing. There's only one of every kind. I think I might have mentioned in our conversation, I was fundraising and, you know, flying around New York Tech Week, stuff like that, just trying to get conversations with VCs. And I ended up booking a meeting the the founder of TripAdvisor because we have similar business models. Anyway, we have this conversation.

He's sitting down. He's like, yeah. Cool idea, but, like, this will never work. Like, the unit economics don't make sense. He's like, I can sell a hotel room night after night over and over for years.

You can only sell one piece of clothing one time. Everything's one of a kind. So we definitely were hitting some rough roadblocks in terms of the unit economics of that. But then the third thing I will add too is product market fit. Like, we built something that everyone said was cool.

Like, people were like, wow, this is really cool. Essentially, yeah, it was an aggregator and there's this component where this feature where you could thrift what influencers are wearing, so you could scroll through the app very similar to Pinterest, at one point I know our users were calling us like the secondhand Pinterest but it felt very similar, scroll through influencer photos and we could thrift their outfits, and it was cool, like it was, but it wasn't like solving a pain point. People would get on there and be like, wow, this is really awesome, and then it would end there, not like, oh my gosh, like I'm going to do all of my clothing shopping through this app. We didn't ever get to that point, And so, I'd really say the third problem there was product market fit, like not totally nailing the pain point that users had and then offering the best solution. Might have been a cool solution, but it wasn't like truly the best fit.

Todd Gagne:

Yeah, yeah. Okay, well those are good. And I think, you know, those are all big ones that, you know, if you don't nail, you don't have a business

Brigit:

And

Todd Gagne

so talk to me a little bit about A, coming to the realization. That's hard, right? It's saying your baby's ugly. And then not only that, but like lots of people, right? You went to talk a ton of VCs and people to raise money.

And, you know, some people are probably more direct than others as far as like they vote no, but they don't give you that specific information sometimes. And so how do you reach a conclusion of like, this is not a business that's actually going to work as it's current currently constructed?

Brigit:

Yeah. So, I mean, to address the part of the baby being ugly, like, it's devastating. Honestly, like, you especially being so new to this industry, I mean, you raise capital and then you you think you've got it and you're onto it and it's gonna work. And I became so passionate about this. I mean, I was a college athlete.

I stopped, you know, competing early because I we had raised capital. I wanted to go all in on this. Like, there's a lot of sacrifices that you make as an entrepreneur. And so when it doesn't work, it's not even just that the business didn't work or the stream didn't work. It's like you

Todd Gagne:

all checked

Brigit:

a lot.

Todd Gagne:

Yeah. It's

Brigit:

personal. So I mean, yeah. I mean, I think that was the first and foremost difficult thing. It's just like, oh my gosh, this dream is, like, not working out how I thought it would be. That's really devastating.

But in turn two, like, you know, one door closes, like, a billion more open, and it's been, I mean, we're even having these conversations today, so clearly, like, good things are right around the corner. But yeah, I think yeah, it was just hard to answer your question. Was really difficult, but opened up a lot of new opportunities, which was fun.

Todd Gagne:

But, like, talk about your folks, right? This isn't just you. You had multiple people in this and stuff. And so were people getting tired? Were people like getting to the point where like, I guess I'm just trying to figure out like how do you make this decision?

Right? Like, you know, because I think entrepreneur is a fine line between lots of people telling you no and you still do it. And then in some cases, like people telling you no, there's a reason. And so I think that's super hard to go, is this a time to keep pushing or is this a time to, like, readdress and figure out, like, do we have the model wrong?

Brigit:

Yeah. So it was a bit of both. Right? Like, to your point, some of the things that were just screaming on us, like, it's time to pause. It's time to, like, reset, repivot, start new, whatever we wanna call it.

It would, like, they were we were hitting an inflection point where change was about to happen, and a couple things brought that on. One, I mean, it costs money to live. Like, you get to a point where you're a founder and you're like, gosh, darn it. Like, cash flow. I like, the biggest reason businesses fail is because they run out of cash and so, definitely, like, the bank account was getting low.

You know, it's really interesting to being a founder when you're in your twenties, you're transitioning into like the quote unquote real world, like the real world comes with health insurance and it comes with like all these things where certain, you know, co founders and members just like hit different parts in their lives or be like, I need X, Y, or Z. I'm not getting that anymore from the startup. You know, my risk tolerance is decreasing for whatever reason, which is totally respectful. Like, it's Yeah. That's real life.

And so I think just internally with the team, like, things were changing and people were just needing to get some more stable jobs for sure. And, yeah, I think, yeah, and obviously the cash flow of the business was starting to be like, oh, this is getting to a point where like, yeah, it's just maybe not making sense. Like, things need to change. And I think that's even, Todd, when we had our first conversation, it was more of, like, I know this is the second time we're on the podcast. The first time I mentioned this to you earlier, like, was not, like, I think I was unresponsive to your emails.

Was like, I'm not talking about this experience. Like, this is going downhill. I'm not going to share this publicly.

Todd Gagne:

Here we are.

Brigit:

Here we are. Here we are. Yeah. So I think a lot of things changed. And yeah, we definitely got to the point, just risk tolerance, where it was like, okay, this doesn't really maybe make the most sense right now.

Todd Gagne:

Okay. So that's good. I mean, that's a hard fork. And you have two choices, right? You you can basically say, I'm gonna pivot and do something different with some of the same concepts, or it's just dead and we all go find jobs.

So what makes you go, there's something here still? I'm still passionate about the space and I'm willing to still make those sacrifices because, you know, like, you get burnt hard and you put a lot of time and effort. You make some concessions, like you said. And not everybody followed you through that whole process. Right?

You you don't have the same founders. But, like, I think that's hard. Right? And I know the same thing from my standpoint. Like, the I my first startup, I I lost everybody's money.

I basically sold my car to make payroll. I got out of my apartment to make payroll and I still, know, it still went up in smoke. And so I didn't go back and redo that one because I knew that one was kind of wrong, but I did another one and started and had more success. But you basically are kind of saying, like the concept. I like the space.

I've got a lot of domain expertise around this. I've thought about the problem. And so what makes you want to say pivot versus go get a full time job?

Brigit:

So I did a little bit of both actually. And yeah. So, I mean, to your point, Todd, like, one, I think I am just I just have an entrepreneurial spirit. I like solving problems. I don't like the fact that a lot of, like, regular academia, there's, like, one path to get one answer.

And, like, in business, the thing that I love is, like, no, there's actually, like, a billion different paths, and there's a billion different answers, and they could all be really good. So creative problem solving and just spotting problems and trying to offer fun solutions. It's really cool. I just get super excited about it. And so I think I started to find out about myself personally.

Like, I love entrepreneurship. I frankly, I kind of love the risk of it. I recognize that I'm young and, like, I have my whole life to be comfortable. I just want I want to, like, see what, like, what can be done here. And, I think that goes beyond age too, though.

Like, there's a lot you could be eighty and have that mindset. Like, you know, I just

Todd Gagne:

We started we started an accelerator. I'm, like, fifty four.

Brigit:

Yeah. Exactly. Like, why not? You know? I think yeah.

I mean, I just I, I'm, yeah, I'm a firm believer in just, if you're excited about something and you're really passionate about, like, try it, like, you'll make it, you'll, you'll at least explore it, and you will grow because of that. I mean, so even, like, the, to your point, did you get a full time job? Did you keep going? I did get a full time job, and I would I would not have ended up. I'm in a startup right now, a financial modeling startup called forecaster.

I wouldn't have this job if it weren't for all the risks I took at forecast or at Yeah. At Flomeno. So Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, like, one door closes, some other ones open, really good things are around the corner.

I'm like always really big into that, but yeah, so I ended up getting full time job like, you know, parallel to exploring like a pivot, just so that I could both balance like what I needed to meet my day to day needs, and then also to just continue exploring like what could be here. So definitely looked for what opportunities would be able to balance both, and I think that's just something every entrepreneur who has a full time job is always trying to figure out how to juggle that, and I don't know if there's clear answer to how to do it gracefully, but you just kind of just have to do it. Yeah, not sure if that totally answers your question, but that's kind of the path that I started to take as we were exploring, you know, how to use all the knowledge we learned of this industry and figure out if we just weren't solving the right problem or that one problem in the correct way.

Todd Gagne:

Okay, so I guess maybe this is where you and I had a couple of conversations about joining Wildfire Labs. And I'm curious from your perspective on so you have a new kind of model. And I would say you're not you haven't figured everything out. But you basically, I would say, have a new business that has upside in it. And you know, the early results are better than what you did before.

It looks like there's a viable business for you. I'm curious about just like what's different, right? I mean, obviously you have a book of experience that you've done. I think, you know, certainly wildfire provides some structure. It prior to some mentorship.

And it provides some focus, right? Like we're pretty accountable on, like you got goals and you got to keep going through them. And what we're really trying to do is create focus so that you know what goals and what dependencies you have on it. So kind of take it wherever you go. I'm curious on just like, you didn't have a lot of structure or a lot of your support structure, I think, in your first startup version of it was not great.

I mean, just I think like the mentors that you had around you, you had some, but I think like people that were in the day to day to basically to be able to solve those three problems probably weren't there to help you kinda go, I don't know if that's gonna work or not. Because they didn't have expertise probably. But I'm curious on this kind of pivot and why you feel differently and kind of what you got out of a process like ours that made kind of the outcome different.

Brigit:

Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, I still remember the first time. I remember exactly where I was even in our apartment, like, when I was talking to you on the phone, Todd, because I was at that point, and I think a lot of startup founders get there. Right?

It's like, this isn't working. I don't wanna give up, but, like, I don't know what else to do. You know? Like, I don't know what other options there are here and I'm getting burnt out here. So, yeah, I I just found myself through the whole experience of doing for mental like I'd I never I had I had some good mentors, you know, but I didn't have like full on mentorship of someone helping me figure this out and I think with every startup, it's so hard.

Unless you're a seasoned veteran and you've done this, you've been around the block, like, to our point from the beginning, how are you supposed to know what to do? When you're getting faced with brand new problems and usually the way you're learning how to overcome them is by just trying things and failing. And at some point, you know, that you burn through cash faster. You you you know, you waste time. You do all these things where it starts to make founders tired.

So I always wanted, and I remember this so clearly with Fomeno, I found myself in these positions where I always wished I just had someone I could pick up the phone and call. And at some point, like, my parents just, like, can't fill that void all the time, you know, just on them, and so I just, yeah, I mean, with wildfire, like, remember talking to on the phone and I was like, okay, you know, this would be worth another shot if I had, one, a little bit more structure, a little bit better of, a framework to figure out our ICP and figure out where we're going wrong with how we're, you know, offering our solution. And then most importantly, like, I want to have someone that when X, Y, or Z comes up, I can just pick up a phone and call someone and just be like, hey, what do you think? Like, what am I not seeing? What how would you go about this?

And I think that's just like the biggest value add from Wildfire is that you guys have done that for me and more and for our entire team as we've been building out this new company.

Todd Gagne:

Okay, well, that's good. I appreciate the kind words. I do think that having people that have been in the trenches and actually done it is a big part of this, right? I think so many times mean, part of this is domain expertise. Some of it is there's finance people that want to help, but they're looking at it as an investment.

You got people that are community leaders that are well intended but have never run a business. And you know, and I think we only do software, right? And so that's all we know. And so when you think about Mike and I, I mean, that's what our backgrounds have been. And so diversifying from that just doesn't make any sense because we can't add as much value.

And so I think it's good from our standpoint. So maybe talk to me more tactically. You I mean, it was a messy process. You you basically gave Fermento. You wanted to basically close that business, get rid of the cap table, investors, restart with something else.

You know, things like social media where you're like, I have a community over here that probably fits the community over here. How do I like, what do I do with all this stuff? And so, you know, like, I think it's kinda messy, but I think lots of entrepreneurs are kinda going, yeah. Yeah. I've had this problem.

Or, like, I might have this problem and, you know, tell me how, like, how you navigate that because it's not easy.

Brigit:

Yeah. Yeah. I again, to the point of, like, there's not a clear black and white, like, here is your execution plan. I mean, there are definitely some key takeaways that I'm like, oh, I would have done that differently or this or that. But everybody's position is different, your team is different, your dynamics are different, what you had access to in the first startup is different than what might, you know, everything's different, but what was cool is, to your point, we had a very similar community to some degree with the first startup with what we were expanding to and the new startup, which I can even explain in a second and just like how even the new startup works and how we, you know, kind of pivoted, but we had a similar community.

And so when we started transitioning things over, I guess we, well, before I even go into community, I'd say the biggest thing is just like, you know, being willing to say that like, Hey, we built something that it just like straight up isn't working. And I think for me, was so, oh my gosh, like I was dreading telling our investors. I was super dreading telling like our community. I was embarrassed about it. I was just like this, you know, this isn't what I wanted to have to share.

And frankly, like from the investor standpoint, I I know, like our investors have worked hard to for the money that they invested in the company. And I felt that responsibility. Like, I want to be a steward of this these funds. And I feel like I'd failed in that category. And so that was really difficult, too, is like having to say, like, you believed in me and, like, oh, I'm so sorry.

I feel like it's hard. Yeah. I'm sorry. But, yeah, that was the first thing. It's like, I just need to communicate this with our investors first and foremost and, like, work my way out of the circle.

So starting obviously with the team, just getting it on the same page of like, where are we going here? That was difficult. Just honestly having difficult conversations and being okay with them being hard was probably the biggest starter internally, like with co founders and early team members, been working our way out, going to the investors, telling them where we're at. We're not necessarily done, but, like, this is where we're gonna be. Do you have questions?

And they did have questions. And so it was, like, being willing to answer those questions and let them know, like, we're this is my first rodeo. Like, I've not I have not done this before. If you have advice, please let me know. This is the best way that I see about going this for right now.

But I have open ears and I, like, wanna work through this together. And then going a step farther in the circle is like in working our way out was social media and the community, the people who had used our app, the people who had followed along and yeah, just being able to tell them like, unfortunately, what was happening but leaving everybody with a sense of hope like, this isn't a failure. You're like, you can call it a failure if you want to but there's so much good that came out of it. If anything, I got to meet the coolest people ever. We did build a community that's worth something and so, being able to just like pull out the positives and like lean into the fact that like, we're we don't want this to be the end.

We want it to be just like the beginning of something that is new. So it's kind of a ramble but definitely like working our way out of the circle and just starting first and foremost with having those conversations was yeah, the biggest thing that we had to do when starting to figure out, like, what what's going on here? Where are we going?

Todd Gagne:

So I guess there's a couple things in this that I'd like to maybe just articulate even harder. I you know, You're a pretty authentic person and I think you wear your emotions on your sleeve, which is this good. And so I think the people that work with you feel like you gave them a shot. I mean, whether it's your people internally or whether it's your advisors or it's your investors. And so I think one of the takeaways I would say in this, Bridget, is being authentic, right?

I think you've always been authentic. And then having hard conversations while being authentic, I think is good, right? And so I think as entrepreneurs sometimes we tend to shy away from this because we're like, Man, that's sticky, hard, I don't wanna go do it. But I think like ethically you have to go do it, right? You have to have the conversations and then you have to do it in a way that's fair but it's honest about it, right?

And so I think that's one piece. And I think that's a good skill regardless of what you do, right? I just think that like the more of those in the corporate world and your, you know, startup that you're working in today, like those skills are super good. If you can have hard conversations and you can do it constructively and fairly, like I think lots of things get easier. Because I think so many people just put that under the rug and they just basically say, we'll let it build up.

And then bad stuff happens. And so I think there's good hygiene in in doing that with your team as well as externally. So that's one. The second one is, I think you reframed it without saying it, I think external failure may be internal success, right? Where it's like you learned a ton.

My first startup, I failed, but I learned something that I'll never forget for the rest of my life. And so externally, people looked at it as a failure but like I learned a ton and I'm applying it to whatever job I'm doing, whether it's the next startup or whether it's my corporate job. And I think we have a fear of failure in this industry where it's like I think people are so afraid of like taking risks because of this. Whereas I think if they reframe it a little bit where it's like I learned a ton and I'm not gonna do these five things again because that's what I've learned from and I'm gonna apply it to whatever I do next. And so I think we have to have that mentality and it's okay to like basically sunset something if you have that mentality in my opinion.

And so I don't know if you got any comments on either one of those but I think those are two big takeaways that I think are things that will drive you going forward and I think are really healthy.

Brigit:

No, I couldn't agree more. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. That's what's going on, Todd.

Todd Gagne:

Okay. So let's pivot to what are you doing? What is host happy hour? And how is this, like, a derivative of what you did before? And what's the new model?

Brigit:

Okay. I love it. Yes. Let's share. So, basically, host happy hour.

Again, still a work in progress, but it's a work in progress that is showing signs of, like, this is sticking. It's it's a sticky business.

Todd Gagne:

There's a business.

Brigit:

Yeah. It's so fun. Prior, Fomeno, we had over thirteen thousand users on our app. We were building the sense of community. We were starting to get there.

But, like, the, you know, the customer retention was really difficult to keep because the product, like I said, wasn't really product market fit and also revenue, like period. It was so hard to monetize on this app. We never actually truly monetized with our core product. Originally, we were trying to take a cost per transaction, but it was really hard to monetize the partnerships. There was just a lot of things going in there that were very difficult and it was this constant friction where it's like just things aren't clicking like we thought.

Whereas now with host happy hour, basically what we're doing, well, one to that point, we're making revenue, which is super fun. No, it's just, it's a clear sign like you're on the right track, like things are starting to click.

Todd Gagne:

You're adding value, right? Like somebody's willing to basically pay for value.

Brigit:

Yeah. Exactly. And I think that's one of the coolest tests to run is, like, if people are willing to put pay and they don't know you, people don't know you and they're willing to pay for your product or service, like, you're taking steps in the right direction. It might not be the perfect version, but, like, we have a problem that is worth money to solve. So that was just a really fun thing.

I still remember the first, like, dollar we made. I was just like, this is great. This is so fun. Basically Elevator

Todd Gagne:

pitch. You gotta give me the elevator pitch for what it is.

Brigit:

Happy hour. What are we? We are a closet clean out event experience. At least that's how what we've been thus far. So basically what happens is if you are trying to clean out your closet, you know, you have a lot of good pieces in there, they just don't serve you anymore, you don't wear them, but you spend some good money on them, you can come to our events, you can reserve a rack.

The rack usually costs twenty five dollars for one or thirty dollars for two racks. The racks fit about thirty pieces of clothing items a piece. You'll come in, you'll have your rack reserved, you'll hang your items, we have all the materials there for you, you'll price your items quickly, and then you'll leave. And then the next day, we'll host an event where we bring the community into Shop Your Racks, and then you'll make like sixty five to seventy percent of the sale. So I'd say on average, our sellers are making at least three fifty dollars which is really cool compared to industry standards right now and what you can make on the clothes just sitting in your closet.

So, yeah, I mean, the events, though, like, they're not just supposed to be some, like, oh, let me do, like, a garage sale type thing. They're supposed to be fun. And I think that's really what we're anchoring around is, like, a fun experience for the community that, yes, it has to do with clothes and and, you know, getting rid of your closet and, you know, things of that sort. But we call it a pricing party when people come in to price their items, and, oh my gosh, we had an event in Minneapolis last month, and man, was it a party. It was, like, the most fun party I've ever been to.

Like, we had champagne. We had, like I mean, the music was playing. It was so elevated. Like, I've never had a shopping experience, let alone a secondhand shopping experience that felt so bougie. Like I felt like I was an influencer at this event and it was just like crazy to experience that as just like a normal gal so yeah and the shopping part was too, like we had partnerships with local vendors and coffee shops, the coffee was on the house, the coffee was closet clean out, like flavors.

And oh my gosh. It was just it was so fun. And so we were partnering with, a wedding venue and have been ever since in terms of, like, actually hosting these events. They feel very elevated and fun for them.

Todd Gagne:

How many people did you have at the Minneapolis event? Like, give me a sense of scale.

Brigit:

So we sold out of racks. So every event that we've done, we've basically sold out of selling clothing racks, which, again, product market fit. It's kind of fun to absolutely be, like, at the threshold of capacity. So we sold over one hundred clothing racks, and we had I think sixty five sellers at the event. And then in terms of shoppers who came, I think we had like three fifty to four hundred people within four hours come through.

Todd Gagne:

That's pretty cool. So Yeah, that's awesome.

Brigit:

It was fun.

Todd Gagne:

That's good. And so what made that one so special? Like where does all of the elevated bougie part of this come from? Is it your marketing? Is it the venues or a combination of you from a partnership standpoint as well as the venue?

Like how do you recreate that in a box that is not just tied to this Minneapolis event? And as you do something in Omaha, it's gonna be similar kind of look and feel.

Brigit:

Yeah. So we've we've had four different I mean, we've had since we started I mean, from from the very beginning. Like, the first time we started hosting one of these events, we were hosting it out of, like, a vacate like, unvacated just, yeah, building, basically. Yeah. And it's just like a free space.

Todd Gagne:

They can business.

Brigit:

Yep. Yeah. Exactly. So was it bougie and elevated? No.

No. No. No. Was gone. And I I mean but we we got the model down.

Like, we were like, oh, this works. Like, we sold out the closing racks at that event. So what would happen if we increase the square footage, elevate the experience? What could happen then? So yeah, we started from the bare bones.

It didn't start off as like this bougie elevated Minneapolis experience, but we got the systems and like the core business model to make sense and to work. So yeah, I would say to your question, like what does that? I think one, for sure, it's the right venue. I mean, we all experience that. You go to an event and it's the right venue.

It doesn't have to be this incredible, incredible place, but like definitely clean and having that elevated experience to walk through is first and foremost very important. But like we call it host happy hour. Happy hour being the brand like coming together with friends for discounts, fun times, like discounted clothing in this instance, but also you can have a fun little beverage to sip too. It's really like what we're anchoring around, but we are calling it like host happy hour because we feel like we're hosting an experience, at least from the experience form of happy hour. It is something we're hosting, and when you have the right partner in this instance, these wedding venues to host with us, oh my gosh, they are the professionals at hosting, and frankly, we're learning so much from them.

But wow, yeah, when we have the right partner, it's incredible how fun these events can be.

Todd Gagne:

Well, and I think the idea of doing

Brigit:

it

Todd Gagne:

with a wedding venue is good because that's their job, right? They're creating a special event and so their ability to understand the details, to understand how to make that a special day, if they just basically take fifty percent of that and apply it to your event, you have a pretty special thing. So I think like that was smart to to pick them because there's good alignment on making a moment special. So that's good. You know, a lot of this seems like it's it's got a pretty heavy marketing component of it, right?

Where a, it's a brand which we kind of talked about in creating experience. And so, and then you're basically have kind of two demographics, right? You have people that want to buy and then people that want to clear out. And my guess is they're different. You've got the people that are getting rid of their stuff in their closet probably maybe have a little bit more disposable income.

They're probably a little bit older and then the people that are coming are maybe younger looking to upgrade their wardrobe. And so maybe talk a little bit about just honing in and understanding I have two different buyers in this that I have to engage in a network, really.

Brigit:

Totally. I think that was one of the cool things to figure out, especially in the early times of running this event before it became an elevated experience, is really digging out those personas. Because, correct, like our sellers and our buyers are slightly different. There is some overlap, but I'd say in general, like it's primarily female. Our seller, she's probably like twenty five to forty five years old.

A lot of, like, moms who, you know, bodies have changed, styles have changed, you know, preferences have changed. I remember this one mom came in, and she had this beautiful white wardrobe, and, oh my gosh, everything. Like, I wanted to buy absolutely everything. And I was just like, oh my gosh, why are you getting rid of these clothes? She's like, oh, yeah, I love them, but, like, I don't wear white these days.

Todd Gagne:

Like I kids.

Brigit:

Yeah. Exactly. I'm like, oh, right. Makes sense. Makes sense.

Which you could Yeah. It was just It was kind of fun to see. And it's kind of like that big sister, little sister mantra, like, mantra almost. It's like these slightly more, like, grown up, sophisticated women are Like, have these awesome clothes that just aren't serving them as much anymore. And knowing that they can, through us, like connect with the right up and coming young female who's maybe just getting started in her career and like doesn't have as much disposable income, looking to shop a little bit more like sustainably, you know, there's a lot of different things there, but it's the older sister who's like, oh my gosh.

Yeah. Just check out my closet. Like, I've got a lot of pieces for you. Oh my gosh. You can have that at such, like, a discounted rate, almost getting it up for me kind of thing.

So, yeah. We've we've really it's been fun exploring the different personas of who the ideal seller and and shopper is.

Todd Gagne:

And so what do you think about, like, just buyer fatigue or seller fatigue? I mean, so, you know, basically, if you went and did this event in Minneapolis at this venue, could you do it two, three more times a year? Do you think you engage the same audience? Is it a different audience? Is it eighty percent the same?

Like, what do you anticipate as you do repeats in these regions?

Brigit:

So it will be exciting to see what does happen. We have a couple hypotheses though going around with this. And every place where we've hosted it one time, the second time we posted it, it's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. Awesome. Bring their friends, right?

And so it's like, that's what it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be a community event. So the fact that in Minnesota, our first time ever doing this, and truly so much of this comes down to the venue that hosted with us, there were couple of, like, influencer, like people who sold, where honestly just people like influencers are such a vague term, like, even people who are just so rooted in the community that have other friends that have great closets that could clean out, I mean, wow. The power of that messaging and sharing that has been so powerful for us even when it comes to first launching in a new market. But for Minneapolis, we are looking at potentially, in any location for that matter, doing it seasonally because as the seasons change, so does typically your wardrobe.

True. And just knowing that we might have to find new ways. Like the Minneapolis venue, every parking spot was filled. Like there was no more room from a shopper perspective to come in. So we're like, okay, how do we manage this as we this is the first time, like, what about the second time?

Like, what's that gonna look like? We wanna make sure that the shopping experience stays high level, and definitely we were getting to a point at at one of the hours, like, think it was an hour in, where it was almost too busy. So just trying to which is, again,

Todd Gagne:

the best Great problem.

Brigit:

Great problem. All of us, but co founders look at each other. We're like, this is the best day ever. This is so fun. So lots to learn in in figuring all of that out.

But, yes, I think they're only gonna continue to grow. Just being able to make sure that we can get on top of despite growth, being able to still create a very positive experience for those coming to shop and sell. And then, yeah, hopefully doing it seasonally and then maybe adding in some additional revenue streams make sure that this is sustainable for us in the long haul.

Todd Gagne:

I'm just kind of curious on the seasonal part. Like, do you think that people sell their stuff seasonally? Or do they just bring like, I'm just going through my closet and I'm doing everything. And so I get the seasonal, like, things change. But, like, do people that are selling stuff out of their closet delineate this is summer versus winter type stuff and how they sell it?

Brigit:

Yeah. I think it depends. I think that honestly, there's a lot for us to get in the middle of that and be more of like a strategic, hey, here's the best way to organize your closet. And yes, some of that does come with cleaning out the items that no longer are serving you and that you're no longer maybe loving. So us getting in front of it and just almost acting as a guide to clean out seasonally is something that we're working on right now.

But I think it really just depends on the seller. There are some people who love to shop every day. You know, it's payday. We're going shopping or like, you know, I mean, some people just have more disposable income and they just love clothes and their styles change. It really the buying habits of the consumer are just very interesting, and there's definitely different buckets of people.

So it's not really a one size fits all, but definitely there are a lot of people who do like shopping, do like buying. Their styles change, their preferences change, and so they wanna clean out their closets accordingly. So definitely, definitely some wiggle room and things still for us to figure out and explore exactly, you know, who falls into what bucket and how we can best get them in at the right time. But definitely, are a lot of people who do clean out their closets seasonally just to make room for, you know, the winter clothes, the spring clothes, and seeing what they don't really like anymore in the process.

Todd Gagne:

So you alluded to a little bit about like maybe some ancillary services above and beyond this, right? And so one of the things that's interesting is you're building a community of people, right? And the demographics are pretty tight, right? Like you talked about two personas, but there's a lot of overlap from a shopping perspective. They may be in different stages of life and career and financial.

And so that gives you some opportunity to think about like other ways to monetize this in between events. And so maybe talk to me a little bit about what you're thinking there because if you go to an event and you end up having four hundred people plus a handful of sixty five sellers, pretty interesting. And you start multiplying that times, let's say you get to hundreds of these a year, that becomes an interesting list that has a pretty tight demographic that there's probably other things that you can monetize and sell to them.

Brigit:

For sure. This is the exciting part about, like, what's ahead for us that, at this point, we have these events. Absolutely. Like, there are ways that we can improve and elevate them, but we know how they work. I mean, we can set up and tear down.

I mean, even just the systemization of packing all this equipment into, like, the most,

Todd Gagne:

like Pack space you can. Yeah.

Brigit:

Yeah. I mean, we put so much work into it. So the events themselves at this point are, like, in a pretty good spot. It is just the sense of, you know, with these events, if we just even think again, back to the basics of why our last business didn't work, unit economics. If we relook at that just topic of conversation, with these events right now, we make, well, to host of these beautiful wedding venues, I mean, it would usually cost upfront thousands and thousands of dollars to host a two day event, but we've worked out, like, a profit rev share with them so they make a percentage of every sale, which also incentivizes the venue to really get the workout, tap into their community, etcetera.

Todd Gagne:

And you're it in a time where they probably aren't the most busy with their so it's sitting vacant for a lot of it, and so monetizing it is beneficial to them.

Brigit:

Right, yeah. So with that, you know, they get a, you know, a profit share, we get a percentage of the profits, but the seller really takes most of the profits home, like at Yep. This previous Minneapolis venue, I mean, sellers made seventy percent of everything that sold, like that's crazy, and that's also why we got so many great sellers in because they had really great brands and they knew what they were worth and they wanted to capitalize. But so then that leaves us with like a ten to fifteen percent margin at the end of the day, which is like, oh, okay, on secondhand clothes, we're back to the same question that we had in our previous business, a little bit better off, but still it's the same unit economics problem. So how we've begun to frame this internally, and again, work in progress, but I think it's really cool in today's society to just see like the brands that start with the community and then add products off of them.

If you can build a great community with people who have similar alignments and values and things like that, it's so awesome to see how you launch a little product or you test run this or you throw that in there and see who bites and like what hits. And so we're starting to reframe this as like, could these events be more of just like a community experience where we're bringing the right people to the right tables and then offering them maybe an additional service or product or something? Maybe it's styling, which is something we've really been exploring just because that's something our team internally has some experience with. Maybe it's, you know, product suggestions, maybe it's a bit of both, maybe, you know, there's a lot of babies here of what it could be, but first and foremost, like we have nailed being able to bring hundreds of people into a location in one, in a very small period of time where they love the experience. And so yeah, definitely leaning into like what are the potential options of what we could add on to that to continue to add to the experience that we could potentially monetize a bit more off of.

Because these events are like, I mean I was driving all this equipment around. I mean we did one in, yeah, the Black Hills, Fargo, Omaha, and Minneapolis in one month time, so yes I drove all this equipment. Like it's expensive if we were to pay someone else to do this at scale. So just making sense of, like, how to scale it up definitely requires an additional revenue What

Todd Gagne:

percentage of the women that are shopping for goods are you married, do you think? I mean, is there a referral? Like, you basically get this wonderful experience at, like, a wedding venue. Mhmm. And if fifty percent of them are not married and, you know, is there an association or a brand association with when the time comes, here's how to think about it.

Because you'd you'd think that there's some overlap and some good experience for them that maybe the wedding venue would really appreciate.

Brigit:

Totally. I mean, even, like, Molly is shout out to Molly. She's, like, one of that Hutton House's lead ladies, which is the Minneapolis venue we went to, she's awesome, she totally was like she saw the vision of this before we could even articulate it really and was like, yes, I love it, let's do it, but it was really fun to see at our event in Minneapolis, her walking around. And anytime people were checking out, especially if they brought, like, like a husband or a boyfriend or something, and they even, you know, they're at the checkout counter, we would ask, you know, WeChat. Like, we were we're looking to build a brand.

We're looking honestly, just to make friends with people and, like Yeah. Oh, it's it's so fun. But, yeah, we just ask, you know, what are we doing here? Like, oh my gosh. Have a ring.

Like, are you guys engaged? Immediately, they say yes. It was like, oh my gosh. Do you have a wedding venue picked out? Nope.

Molly, within two seconds, we're talking Molly. It's, you know, it was fun to even see some of that happening. And so that, to your point, Todd, is like, there's a lot of other ways in addition to the wedding venue that I think just bringing people together and understanding where they're at and what they're looking for, can kind of connect the dots.

Todd Gagne:

Yeah. Yeah. That's exciting. And so I guess to take away and to be super clear, I think you found one aspect of it that has some product market fit. I think you've got some operational pieces to think about it to make it scale.

I think what's interesting is, you know, if you get these venues kind of on a long term contract, does some of that operational complexity go away? Right? They basically either are buying the equipment to keep there because they're doing multiple ones a year. And so, you know, there's probably still some work for your team to go do in each one of those scenarios, but you're not shuttling stuff around the Midwest trying to, you know, get the same equipment to all these different locations over time. So that's one.

But I think, like, that's a beachhead that basically is looking like there's a value prop, there's revenue being generated, and there's a community. And I think now what you're saying is I've got all these opportunities to think about from a community perspective and I'm gonna do it again. I'm just gonna run a whole bunch of experiments and I'm gonna figure out what works and we're gonna continue to build on this. Is that a fair way to kind of, maybe summarize kind of where you're at?

Brigit:

Yeah. Totally. I think we're totally we're at that point where it's yes. We understand the community. The community is excited about these events.

Like, what else could we release that not only is of value, we that one of the biggest things for us is we relate to our customers so deeply. We are them. And so we we do not we care very deeply about, like, what we offer them and what we encourage them to buy. Like, we know how hard our customers are working for their money. Like, we we do the same thing.

And so we're very, very, very, like, about how they spend their money and very, like, protective over how they spend their money. And so, yeah, I mean, that's one of the things that we really have been taking into consideration too is just, like, making sure if we are offering something else because we know that is coming, that it is worth paying for, and it solves a problem that they have. But, yeah, it's exciting to explore, like, okay, we've nailed this one component, like what more else is there? And I think a lot of businesses go through that. It's like, let's start with the core product, which we've kind of nailed in some capacity.

It's like, okay, now what next? Like what's next on deck here in terms of like leveling up the offering that we have for our customers?

Todd Gagne:

It is exciting. It is. So we're about forty five minutes in. I guess maybe pivoting to kind of the last question I would have is, know, this hasn't been a linear two year progression for you by any stretch of the imagination. There's been a lot of, you know, jags in the road.

And I'm curious about if you were talking to other entrepreneurs about your journey or your takeaways over the last, you know, handful of twenty four, thirty six months, what would be like the top three kind of takeaways or things to like maybe share that basically are some lessons learned? Because I think that's ultimately what people want, right? They're like, how do I not have as painful of experience? I'm gonna have some problems. I'm gonna make some mistakes.

Everything isn't gonna work out. But like what would you share as advice of maybe top three things that you would recommend entrepreneurs really think through?

Brigit:

Not to plug wildfire here, but like low key, whether it's somewhere else, genuinely. I mean, there's so many takeaways we learned from building a business that straight up didn't work and then also building one that's like starting to work. Regardless, like I am just such a firm believer that if you want to go far, like you need to go with the right people, and good mentorship is so, so, so important. Like genuinely Todd, like I wish everybody could have the experience of working with Wildfire just because of the value add. Yeah.

I mean, seriously, it's it's so powerful. And there's so many entrepreneurs out there who have these great ideas and understand this these industries, and they wanna make it happen.

Todd Gagne:

They just

Brigit:

don't have the little places.

Todd Gagne:

How do I do it? Yeah. How do I do it?

Brigit:

Or they just, like, get stopped. Like, there problems they simply can't face, and their lives are busy, and they just kinda it's not even that they give up. It's just that they stop working on it. And so, yeah, I would say first and foremost, like, find good mentorship and just not even just, like, the word mentor. It's, like, find someone, like, a true mentor is someone who, when you're facing a problem, you can call them and there's not gonna be judgment.

It's gonna be like, let's figure this shit out. You know? Exactly. Let's figure this out. And so I just yeah.

I appreciate that so much with you and your team. And so that would be number one. Find someone you can call when you have the problems. The second thing I would say is like, you know, especially when it comes to building a community, people work with people they like. And one of the best ways I think to be likable to people, I don't even like phrasing it like that, but it's like, give, like give first, like, you know, show up to these conversations.

How can I help you? Like, what do you need? What is your dream with even these wedding venues? It's like, what are your values? Like, let's make sure we align here.

Let's, you know, let's have coffee. Let's chat about it. You know, it's just like people buy things from people they like. You don't want to, like, go in selling first. It's like, no, just like build a genuine connection with these people and and genuinely want to help them.

Like, this is this is real stuff. These are real people and they have dreams too, like learn what those are and see how you can align and yeah, I'd say that's number two, it's just like, yeah, people buy things from people they like, so build genuine connections with people and you can go so far. And then the third thing I would say is, yeah, I think like it's inevitable when you're building a company that like you're going get exhausted and they're going to be days where you're like, this sucks, like I don't think this is going to work. I mean, they can be more than days where I think that period of time.

Todd Gagne:

No question.

Brigit:

It could be months where you're like, this is crazy, you know, and you're probably going to hear it from a lot of people, like family members who are concerned, is this the right thing? Are you wasting your time? All the things like that, but genuinely, like back to our initial point, something that me and my husband talk about a lot is just the fact that like, life is really short and if this was a startup where I didn't connect with my consumer, I didn't really like that product and service myself, like, you know, I didn't really think it was actually solving problems, you know, I should probably throw in the bag, I mean, that's just my personal opinion. It's not worth it to me. Like, I don't get it.

Like, it doesn't add value to my life and like get me excited, whereas like this startup genuinely, I was thinking about this. Was like, if I, if it ends up failing and I don't make a single dollar and actually I'll lose money off this, I'm still going to consider it a success, like to your point, an internal success, Todd, because of the friendships I made from this, of the things that I've been learning that are only going to set me up for maybe what is next in the future. So I think I just, yeah, I mean, on the days where I'm like, is this working? Like, does this make sense? All the things.

It's like, I mean, even if it doesn't make sense, like, I'm figuring it out. I'm having so much fun doing it and like that matters. So, yeah, I don't know if that's maybe more so of like a hopeful thing of like the hard work you're putting in. Yeah, it might not turn out the way you want it to. It might.

It might actually be better than you even dream of. But I'm just like a firm believer if you're aligned with like the values of the company you're building, it is worth it.

Todd Gagne:

Yeah, maybe just to like maybe tighten some of what you're talking about is, I always feel like if I'm focused on something that I'm really passionate about, I bring the heat. Like I will actually do it really, really well. But like I have to like get aligned with what I wanna do and like the opportunity and basically do it. And so there's been tons of times where it's like I picked up something that I was kind of interested in but like just didn't have it longer term. And so I think always trying to figure out like is this what I'm supposed to be doing right now?

And if it is, then generally a lot of things that people would see as work are not work. And don't get me wrong, there are still hard days. I mean even doing this accelerator, it's not been super easy but we've had a lot of green lights because we're doing the right things. We're listening to people like you. Right?

We're basically saying, what does Bridget need in a program? And then how do we just consistently get better? Right? Like every year you look and say it like, I'm just getting better. And I think if we do that, then basically, you know, I have a lot of reason to get up in the morning.

Right? And I think it's the same thing for you. Yeah. And so I think all three of your ones are really good. Think that the mentorship is a good one.

I mean I think our program is great from that standpoint. I think that you just want people that have been there too, right? I think so many times there's a lot of mentors that are well meaning, but like is their experience for what you need today as applicable as it needs to be, right? Where it's like it's a different type of business, it's a different scale, it's a different dollar amount. And so different operationals, I think there's all different things like that.

And you know, like a lot of things in digital are different than brick and mortar. And you're kind of mixing both, right? And so making sure as you continue to scale, you find people that are at your level. I think that's the important thing to continue to scale that. We as founders are, you know, we're generic, We just know software.

And so I think finding those people to kind of fit the specific needs you have is really good. So I think those are good. I appreciate you taking some thought and thinking about like what can people leverage. Because your journey is not unusual, right? I think there's lots of people that go through iterations, they go through pivots.

I just don't think we talk about it enough, right? Because I think we only want to talk about the success stories and like, Yeah, I went from here to here and it just everything went well. And it's like, Well, ninety percent of the things are not like that. It's not a linear process. And so I think you sharing your experiences, especially from season one where it looked like you had a lot of things going in the right direction.

And I didn't know all the details. Right? Like, and and so it wasn't until after, you know, we hung up and you and I talked a little bit where, like, there's some hair on this one a little bit. We gotta go figure it out. Thanks for being transparent and honest.

Brigit:

Absolutely. So, Todd, even last last comment, I'm curious, like, if you, you know, were looking at yourself back in the day, like, starting off an early company, like, you know, what what would be one or two key points that you wish, you know, you could tell yourself or, like, someone in my shoes, if you were going through it?

Todd Gagne:

Yeah. And so, I mean, I I think like when I did my first start up, I probably had more ambition than skill. Right? And so and I think for my first start up, the thing that I just didn't understand was go to market. I didn't understand sales.

And, you know, there was nobody in this community that had that experience. And so I floundered. And so and then, like I said, you know, I probably had sixteen employees. You know, I I sold my car to make payroll. I got out of my apartment to make payroll.

And, you know, you still believe that something's gonna work. And then when it didn't and you had to go to all these people and say, this isn't gonna work, that's a scar that stayed with me the rest of my career. And I said, I am never ever gonna make that mistake again. So every single one of those things that I've ever done, there's a lot more thought about sales and marketing than I ever did. And so and to me, I always think about startups as it's really product and sales.

Really, that's the only two things you focus on. Right? And so and I think a lot of entrepreneurs are probably better at the product than they are at the sales piece of it. Right? So they're like, I can envision how to go build something but can I actually get people to go do it?

And so I think if I had some advice, maybe going back to your original question is, it's just that reinforcement of you cannot, you need to lean into the sales and the marketing component of every startup. You may not be the long term salesperson, but you're going to do the first handful of them. And I don't care whether you're a technical resource or a product resource, you're going to have to do sales. And then the same way, we have some salespeople that are great at sales, but they don't wanna touch product. And it's like you need at least a working knowledge of product.

And so if you don't have those two pillars in some sort of alignment, they can't be like overly corrective like one you're super good, the other one you suck at. Like I just think that you need some balance in both of those because I don't it doesn't matter early on you can't afford to hire anybody else. You have to go figure that stuff out. So that would be my, if I went back, those are the things that I wish I'd learned earlier.

Brigit:

It's really good advice.

Todd Gagne:

And you know, honestly, when I was at Concur, I had one of the founders say that exact same thing. He just said, Todd, really there's only two places to be in a high growth startup. It's either product or sales because everything else is a derivative off of that. Right? Then it's support and it's implementation and it's account management.

Well, that doesn't happen unless you have sales. Right? And so and then you can't get sales unless you get product. So I thought that was a good and that was a company that was doing, you know, five, six million dollars when I started. And, you know, we took that model and got very good at both product and sales.

I would say I would say that we are sales driven culture. And, you know, when I left, we were one point two billion dollars. Right? And so that's a big change. But I learned a lot, right, from that perspective.

So I do think it's important.

Brigit:

Absolutely. Gosh. That's awesome. Any anything else?

Todd Gagne:

I think your ability to learn is a is one that maybe gets under thought about. Like, I think, like, your ability just to continue to scale. And I think it's hard with entrepreneurs. Right? Like, you wanna be a bull in a shiny shop because you're doing something that nobody else sees.

But on the flip side, how do you take constructive feedback and sift through that to say, that's a nugget and that's not. Like right? And so you have to like continue to grow and be accretive to all this feedback. And it helps that somebody's got some credibility. But at the flip side, I think, you know, you've been super coachable.

Right? I mean, so that's one of the things that I think is is good is like we have some entrepreneurs that basically don't make the cut because they're just not coachable. They they got it all figured out. And we're like, hey, not a great fit for our program. Right?

And so you're going to make some mistakes. And what we're trying to do is keep you out of the ditches. You're gonna make some small mistakes and you can afford that, but you have to be willing to listen. And so maybe that's the other piece of advice that I would say is is be coachable because that's not always easy to do.

Brigit:

Well, it's much easier too when you do have good coaches as well. So

Todd Gagne:

Yeah. Yeah. That's true.

Brigit:

No. I mean, I know, like yeah. I mean, as a start up going through wildfire, like, you guys are truly some, like, the most wise counsel of anything I've ever had, and it's so digestible. I mean, even even sitting here, it's like, okay. Keep talking, Todd.

Like, what else you got? So no. I just I I super super grateful for all the wisdom that you guys have, and, ultimately, it's just come from years and years of experience, which is super valuable. So love it.

Todd Gagne:

Well, it's good. Well, Bijay, I appreciate it. I appreciate you being honest about kind of the rise and fall, and then hopefully the rise again. And then just your experiences. I think it's good for other people to hear because it's not a linear process.

It's not always gonna be easy. And I think some of the guidance that you've given are super valuable. And hopefully in another season or two, you come back and you talk about what the next version of this is because I think it's interesting to see the evolution happen.

Brigit:

Let's do it. Let's look forward to

Todd Gagne:

That's good. Well, good. Well, thanks, Bridget. I appreciate the time.

Brigit:

Awesome. Thanks, Todd.