Podcast.

So if you've ever had a great idea for a product or a service and you told it to people and

nobody got it, or if you ever felt like you were too young, too old, too fat, too something

to really make it in your industry, you are going to love today's interview.

I have the one and only Katie Sturino on, she is the founder of Megababe, which is an

incredible company that creates nontoxic products for things like thigh chafe and boob sweat

and butt pimples.

I really think you're going to enjoy this episode, so let's get into it.

Katie!

Oh my goodness.

Hi.

Thank you so much.

I've been wanting to have you on the show for so long as you know, because we talk about

it.

Same.

I know.

It's like now we're doing this and we're in different parts of the country.

We have so much to talk about today, but I want to dive in with your badass company,

Megababe.

Where did the idea for a Megababe come from?

Tell us the backstory.

I have had thigh chafe my entire life and I always thought I was kind of alone in it

because I didn't see anyone talking or hear anyone talking about it.

I didn't hear of any solutions that really made sense to me or appealed to me.

And then when I started my blog right around April, I would start to talk about chafe season.

I'm like, it's chafe season girls.

What are you going to do?

Are you doing short shorts?

Are you doing those lace band things?

What's your program?

Because I would try everything.

And then at the end of that summer I was like, why the F am I hyping other people's products

that I don't even care about and why is there nothing out there in the world that is really

just for a cute girl who's looking to walk to work without getting a thigh burn?

Yeah.

And how many years ago was that?

It will be three in June.

Wow.

So not that long ago.

No.

And when I was doing some background research, which we do for every interview, I read somewhere

that you shared, the only products on the market were like for guys and sweaty balls,

essentially.

Deez nuts for her.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's true.

It feels like anything that was made for sweat or chafe is kind of awful marketing and you

don't really want to talk about it.

Right.

And so when you had the idea for the company, you've never run a company that's a product-based

company before, right?

So was there any part of your mindset or just the conversation even internally that was

like, can I do this?

I don't know how to do this.

How do I get started?

Walk us through what you were thinking.

I still feel that way.

I'm always looking to people who have done this before and I'm looking to them for the

answer.

Then I find time and time again, they don't have the answer.

So that's a thing that you just keep having to learn no matter...

As the stakes get higher, you're just like expecting someone to come in and tell you

how to do it.

Yeah, I was very concerned that I was starting up a... everyone kept calling it niche.

My least favorite term, niche.

They were like, it seems like I'm a niche product.

I don't think you're going to sell much of it.

I don't know how many people have that problem.

I've never heard of that problem.

These are the common things I heard when I was launching and I really had no idea if

they were right.

I mean, I thought just like scientifically, mathematically that they were wrong.

Yeah.

Because I didn't think I had a very unique problem.

But yeah, I really had no idea if this was going to be a thing or if it would just die

on the vine and we'd have 10,000 units of thigh rescue in my parent's garage, so...

So even creating more context, before you started this company, so you had your blog

and what was your main career or source of income at that point?

What were you doing for a living?

What I still do right now, which is I'm a style influencer.

So I work with brand partners and that's how I make my income currently.

I have a collection with StitchFix that's launching.

We're launching our third collection on June 2nd, so that's going to be really exciting

and yeah, brand partnerships are how I make my income.

I still don't take a salary from Megababe.

No one does because we're self-funded and we just... all of us are lucky enough to have

a secondary income, but it also means that our time is split.

Yes.

Yeah.

I want to talk about, first of all, I think the branding for Megababe is so genius, I

loved it from the moment I saw it.

I mean, I loved you from the moment that we met.

I love you.

I was like, we're meant to be friends.

But I want to talk about the writing and the positioning aspect of Megababe products.

You have products called Rosy Pits and Bust Dust and Le Tush Butt Mask and Thigh Rescue.

What's your process, if you have one, for naming things?

Do you do the copywriting or someone on your team?

Is it collective?

My best friend Kate is my...

So it's my sister and my best friend Kate, and we are the founders of Megababe, and neither

of them have thigh chafe, by the way.

It was just like, I was like, "Guys, I'm going to make a stick," and they were like, "Okay,

we're with you."

But it's basically Kate and I'll get on the phone and we start to spitball ideas and right

now we're naming a product for the fall and we're kind of stuck on it.

So that's what we do.

We go back and forth and then we have a small group of people, just friends that we'll send

names to and we're like A or B and they'll let us know.

I mean, that's how it is.

Yeah.

No, I think naming is so fun and I think that, for me, because I'm into copywriting, I love

teaching people about writing and also just the power of using the right words to describe

something.

You can have a product that's amazing and if it's positioned in one way it feels kind

of boring.

Yes.

And then you do something else and all of a sudden people are like, "That's fun and

it's effective and I want that.

How do I go get that?"

So I think you guys do a brilliant job of that.

Thanks a lot.

You're welcome.

So, okay, three years in, Megababe.

I know you also just launched this not too long ago.

Hand sanitizer.

For those listening on the podcast, I'm holding up one of Katie's newest products, which she,

thank you by the way, you were so kind to send me.

Josh and I went on a bike ride yesterday.

We had to get something from the hardware store and he's like, "I'm taking this Megababe

hand sanitizer."

I'm like, "Yes you are."

Yes, you are.

Yeah.

When did the idea for this new product come?

My sister had a baby about a year ago and she's like a psychotic new mom.

Look, I'm holding my microphone like I want my microphone to be on a stand like your microphone.

It just keeps inching up like this.

You're adorable.

It's almost like a little ice cream cone, too.

You're like, "Oh, hi."

No, I'm like, okay, I'll just keep it here.

My sister had a baby about a year ago and she was using Purell and her hands were just

cracked, and I was like, "This is awful.

Have you looked at yourself recently?"

We need to make something better.

And then we found through the research when we started developing it that most inexpensive

hand sanitizer is full of fillers and chemicals and all the things.

So I was like, we can do better.

We can have a better hand sanitizer experience.

I'm a big hand sanitizer fan.

I always carry a little bottle in my bag.

And so we went with plant-based alcohol.

We took out all the fillers and we put in oil that made sure that your hands won't crack.

And isn't that interesting how far back...

We launched in January.

Yeah.

Oh my goodness.

And we launched in January and then all hell broke loose.

Yeah.

And has it been selling out?

Have you been able to keep it in stock?

Yes, not easily.

My sister basically is like a bulldog and she is taking on everyone from big hand sanitizer

companies that need components to every small brand who's trying to capitalize on what's

going on by launching a hand sanitizer now.

So we have been fighting for raw ingredients.

Fighting for bottles, caps, pumps, everything.

And we have been able to stay in stock.

We were out of stock for two weeks.

Wow.

And now we've been back in stock and we should have enough inventory to...

I think other people will start launching hand sanitizer soon, but we're selling it.

In Target it sells out like anytime it goes live, it sells out right away.

Ulta, it's still in stock on Ulta, which is good.

But yeah, it's been tough.

And it's also been really interesting because it's kind of, the whole world is derailed

right now, but it's derailed our...

We were laser focused heading into... this is our third summer, chafe, this is our thing.

We're going to have a breakout summer, we're going to spend some money on marketing for

the first time, and then it just completely derailed.

And now we've been really grateful for the hand sanitizer.

Incredible.

Yeah.

So for anyone listening right now, and I want to get to size inclusivity and the amazing

stuff that you do in a little bit, but I want to stay in the business and the product-based

business for just a second.

If anyone's listening or watching right now and they're like, I have an idea for a product,

what do you wish that you knew three years back when you first started Megababe?

Is there anything that you would tell someone who's just at the beginning of their journey?

This is going to sound negative, but it's not meant to be negative.

It's just reality.

It's just that every step of the way I expect someone to save us.

Meaning, I thought, you know what?

It's like we got to keep pushing so hard on D to C as soon as we into a big retailer,

which we did like a couple months after we launched, we were in every single Ulta across

the country and I thought this is it.

This is where we take off.

But getting into Ulta just added a whole new set of production problems and new marketing

costs and now you've got to acquire those customers.

And then we got into Target and I was like, if we could just get into Target and Ulta...

That's, I think, a mentality that I've had to really work on getting away from, is like

that something will come to make it easier and it's not.

It's never easier.

It's always harder.

It's that arrival fallacy.

Yes.

I feel like we have that in business and we also have that in our lives.

I mean, there's been so many times, we human beings do this, I'll raise my hand to that

because it's how we're built.

It's like, oh, when I finally get that VP of Business Operations, then the business

is really going to take off and run.

When I get that next XYZ person, or even personally, right?

When I have X amount of money in the bank or we have this house or whatever the thing

is, it is almost like a fantasy that things are going to magically change.

And we're like, "Nope, that's not how it works."

So I love that.

Interesting.

I don't think it's negative at all.

I think it's actually realistic.