Abby Barsky

every year, roland garros (the french open) asks an artist to create a poster for the tournament today, the collection has become an *incredible* display of tennis as modern art let's take a look at some of the best ones — starting with this iconic 1984 poster by gilles aillaud

Ever heard of Native deodorant? Their story's wild: • Exited for $100M • Within 2.5 years What's even crazier: • They ONLY raised $500k total It's the kind of biz that inspires you to just *start* something... Here's the story: Moiz Ali got the idea for Native after reading the back of an Axe can. He had no idea what the majority of ingredients actually were. At the time, Moiz knew that 'natural' products were on the rise (natural deodorant was the number 1 product on Etsy in 2015). And so... He decided to start a natural deodorant company. Bear in mind - at this point, Moiz knows NOTHING about deodorant. His reaction is one of the reasons I love this story – it shows how important mindset is in business: “I know nothing, and in six months, I’m going to become one of the world’s leading experts on deodorant. I’m just going to spend my time learning, and I’m going to figure it out.” So - how did Moiz make the first bar of Native? He went on Etsy, found the best makers of natural deodorant & asked them to white label their product. This was smart because on Etsy, Minimum Order Quantities (MOQs) are ~100 (rather than 1000s with manufacturers). And as is often the case, it took dozens of no's before one woman agreed to make their product. At this point, Moiz launched on Product Hunt. With no deodorant in-hand, he sold his first 60 virtual units. That's when he ACTUALLY put in the first order. This is a theme in business success stories: lowering risk by testing the market before committing. The worst possible case? He's in the hole a couple hundred $. FAR better than taking out a huge loan, ordering 5,000 units from a manufacturer & then realizing no one wants to buy them. Another thing Moiz did right? Hyper-focus on customers. Despite early traction, he quickly realized the first product wasn't great. So he spent the first year fine-tuning the product – by sending out free samples & iterating on feedback. The results? Native went from a 4-star rating & 25% repeat order rate to a 4.7 rating & 50% repeat order rate. We know repeat orders are king in D2C. Coupled with killer A/B testing on FB ads, Moiz scaled the biz from $50k revenue in Jan 2016 to $1M in Nov of the same year. Other ways they grew so fast: • Launching subscription plans • Asking for video customer testimonials & using these as ads • Sending humanized, fun emails & cards with purchases (i.e. upgrading customer experience) In 2017, Native had hit between $25-35M in revenue – with ONLY 8 fulltime employees (5 in customer service, 1 in ops, 1 in marketing & 1 working closely with Moiz). They were acquired by P&G for $100M. This was the first purchase P&G had made in 10 years. Moiz says there were 4 main reasons he went with P&G: • Value alignment during negotiation (no over-the-top diligence requests & respecting Moiz's vision) • The dedication that P&Gers showed toward their work • Alignment on brand & creative • Resources for future growth I love this founding story – I'm inspired by: • Moiz knowing nothing about deodorant but picking a simple biz model • His obsession with customers • How insanely fast they grew • The care behind the exit It's one of those stories that makes you think... "I could make it if I just took the leap."

The future of subscription NFTs (and why you should give a s*** in the first place). 🧵