Michelle Razavi – Founder & CEO of ELAVI

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be I want to be, you just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked down knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control control control. Hi, everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi, everybody. I’m this is Kara Goldin from the Kara Goldin show. And we have our next guest here, Michelle Razavi, who is the founder and CEO of ELAVI, and Michelle is a former San Francisco Union Street. And for those of you who have ever been to the hint store on Union Street, you may recognize Michelle she taught classes in inside of Equinox there at the equinox the Michelle, and we were so thrilled to see that she finally launched her own bar. She is the co founder. She’s going to talk a little bit about her other co founder. And I’m super, super excited to have her share a little bit more about her story. So ELAVI is a nutrition snack company that uses collagen and its products to promote a healthy energetic lifestyle. And as I mentioned before ELAVI Michelle was working at the equinox in San Francisco, she’s now still teaching down in in Los Angeles. And before that, she was at Sephora, she was able to see lots of different products, and especially get a greater understanding of collagen and see what the benefits are of collagen. So I’m really, really thrilled to have her share a little bit more about her journey. And just on the ghost snacks, as many of you probably can attest to some of the lack of nutrients. And so many of these ready to go snacks when, when Michelle sent me some of the ELAVI bars, I was just so thrilled with just the nutrition rich protein that was in and they taste amazing, amazing. So, so, so good. You can also get them direct to consumer too. But she’s also in store, she’ll talk to us a lot about that, and just really her journey and starting this company and really finding her passion and having the curiosity to go start something new. So I’m thrilled to have her here. So welcome, Michelle,

Michelle Razavi 2:54
thank you, oh my gosh, what an intro. I’m just beaming you,

Kara Goldin 2:57
you should be beaming. It’s really, really fun that you’re that you launched this company and I I’m dying to hear more about your journey. So share a little bit more about the early, early days of Michelle and kind of where you got started. You and I were chatting, you’re down in Los Angeles are back in Los Angeles. Now you grew up there and share a little bit more about what you what you thought you were going to be doing later in life.

Michelle Razavi 3:24
Oh my gosh. So yeah, I am originally from Southern California. I went to UCLA. And believe it or not, I haven’t told many people this but I was planning for a career in foreign service. I my dream job was working for the CIA. I spoke multiple languages. I was fluent in three. So I spoke English, Spanish and Farsi. My my parents are Iranian. And yeah, I studied international relations minored in Spanish, and I was priming myself for a career in foreign service. I applied two times and didn’t make it through. And then I stumbled upon an elective course in diet and nutrition. And that’s where I learned about macronutrients about diet and wellness. And it was through that class that I healed all my gut health issues. So I did an elimination diet. I understood food intolerances and allergies. And I realized for the first time that the decades of you know, stomach issues and health issues that I was experiencing wasn’t normal, I thought it was just the way life was to always be in pain when I would eat certain foods, or to feel more tired or to just struggle with with, you know, going out to eat foods that I realized I had food intolerances. And so that’s where my journey began in my early 20s to cut out dairy and gluten and to really read food labels because we weren’t educated to do that before and be empowered to advocate for yourself when you’re ordering foods to to get foods that are clean and anti inflammatory. And so that’s where the initial kind of passion for health and wellness began was by a elective course in college, and that passion just remained consistent through now, I wish I could say I immediately jumped into a into a career in health and wellness right after. But as you can imagine the pressures of graduating and parents, you know, we wouldn’t go to law school right and get a doctor’s degree or, or, you know, do get a graduate school degree, that definitely kind of stifled me and really unleashing that inner fire within. And so I went for a more safer route, I started at a tech job in San Francisco and just use that as an opportunity to get others to Southern California, because I otherwise wouldn’t have left LA. And so that’s where I really establish my independence is living in a city fairly new, anyone in San Francisco just had that, that fire that electricity for startup culture, everyone was starting a new company, everyone had that, you know, cushion to try new things, everyone had a new idea. And that energy, looking back was what inspired me to even give me the idea to start a company years later, seeing so many young entrepreneurs, you know, start at such a young age and feel so empowered and passionate, by their by their ideas. So I was working at a tech startup, first at Eventbrite. And that’s where I got my first foray into E commerce and understanding footfall abandonment and friction and digital marketing. Then from there, I worked for a digital marketing agency in health and wellness of slowly transitioning myself closer to my passion. This is a great piece of advice for anyone in their early 20s. Your dream job is just like your like your dream job isn’t always going to be straight out of college. It’s your path that gets you there and just putting yourself out there. And then from there, I took a sabbatical traveled and when I came back, I really wanted to have a place of ownership and innovation. So most recently, I was working at Sephora corporate where I was on their innovation team, overseeing AR and VR and retail technology and consumer personas. And that was really fascinating to understand consumer behavior in a lens of retail. And at Sephora, specifically, they just have a fantastic ability to understand experiential, and really captivating the customer on different touchpoints whether it’s in store or digital YouTube channels, and really taking that customer journey along that’s what really fascinated me. And at the time, they’re really starting to invest in clean beauty. And that was where I was most passionate about is how do you make something super clean in its ingredients, but also functional, because usually people wouldn’t buy something that’s clean out of fear that it wouldn’t be potent. And so that was what was really fascinating to me was this resurgence of clean beauty of being just as strong, while being safer and healthier for you. And so, while I was working there, you know, I was still teaching fitness classes at the same time. So I was waking up at six in the morning teaching a fitness class at Equinox and Pine Street at financial district and running across the street. You know, changing real quickly working all day at Sephora than running home usually sometimes teaching another class up in the marina. So it’s very much a Go Go lifestyle living out of two bags, multiple outfit changes, and I’ve struggled to keep my body fueled during those days.

And I get it, you can get it Yeah, it’s not like you know, spawn young hustle. But yeah, you know, when you’re coming up against like these long, narrow days and you just need something quick and easy. It was really hard for me to find something I could trust. Every other protein bar in the market at the time, had either dairy protein, sugar alcohols, tapioca fiber, syrups and Yulin. You name it just all these fillers and additives that either extended shelf life or held the bar together with better structure, or was just cheaper. And unfortunately, that catastrophically damaged my gut health. And so I was afraid to eat food products, because they would cause so much pain that I couldn’t teach that I wouldn’t feel good that I’d be massively bloated. And so I would sometimes not eat and that wasn’t a solution, either. No. And so driven just by my pure frustration, I was creating, you know, my own personal protein bars and integrating collagen. And collagen, if you’re not familiar with it is most abundant protein in our bodies. What happens around your mid 20s is our natural collagen production declines. And so you’ll start to notice, you know, there’s this great emergence of collagen powders and pills and broth soups and, and on every woman’s desk, it’s abhorrent. Everyone had a collagen powder canister on their desk, and I was going around asking them like, hey, you know, how do you guys taking this? Like, do you guys like taking it just out of curiosity? Because I had heard about collagen 10 years ago when I was working in Korea for an internship and they call it and they’re saying, Yeah, I love it. I like it. But sometimes it comes to my coffee or I forget to take it or, you know, it’s not very that great of a ritual. And so I noticed that there was this demand for college and this desire to take it. But the current use case wasn’t really promoting that consistent use for it to be efficacious. And so everyone’s snapping, or it’s costly stacking at the office, people are gonna eat. And so was part of creating this hybrid of what if I created the perfect protein bar, but also a really unique, convenient way to take your college and at the same time, that’s awesome. So I created my like personal prototypes brought them to work. The hot though to Equinox. And everyone just loved it, they loved the flavor formulation. And the integration of my Iranian culture using honey and dates is very unique at that time, whereas everyone use sugar alcohols or artificial sweeteners, I was using the most natural sweeteners that I knew my body knew how to break down, and sweeteners that were also rich in antioxidants. And so this approach to formulation hadn’t been done before of creating a really clean, high protein bar that integrated the functionality of collagen and uncompromised and ingredients. And so that’s how the formula, the first prototype was born. And you know, what’s interesting, too, is at that time, I, as much as I loved like working in Sephora, I didn’t feel satisfied, and I felt like there’s so much more I could do. And I felt like I was just untapped to my potential. And I had this fire inside of me. And I was like, do I go to business school? Or do I kind of see this weird, crazy idea through? Or do I just stay quiet and just keep going in this path and do what everyone expects me to do. And so there’s definitely that crossroads moment. But I just thought back to, you know, being in San Francisco and seeing everyone start an idea, take an idea and turn it into a company and so that kind of why not me mentality? Why not now mentality, definitely, like, came through. And so I kind of just follow the rabbit hole of like, let’s just try this. Let’s just contact a co manufacturer religious, see some pricing, let’s just pay for initial prototype, and then one step left, like after another led to a purchase being made. And I that’s when I brought in my co founder who helps me finance that order.

Kara Goldin 12:13
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Michelle Razavi 17:24
So the summer prior to that, I got invited by Equinox corporate, to be part of their accelerator program. Every year, they open up this program where you can submit an idea, they select five finalists, and it’s throughout the whole global company. And they fly you out to New York, and you get to work on a case study for a week. And it’s kind of like a mini MBA program where you take an idea, and you work with department heads and you research it out, you build out your case study, you present it to the C level executives and the winner wins this huge profits. And I think going through that experience really planted the idea in me that, hey, I’m capable of taking an idea and running with it and building something and creating something and getting other people involved getting other people excited. And that was the see it to believe it moment for me where, where I needed to get that validation of like, I am capable of a lot more. And that was that moment that was lingering in behind me. throughout everything of okay, well, if I was able to do this, then I can take this further. I have what’s in me. So I’d say that was that, you know, very pivotal moment for me to take that leap and feel confident doing that.

Kara Goldin 18:30
Did they actually help you to? Did they give you money to actually go and start a company? Or how how did the program actually work?

Michelle Razavi 18:39
Yeah, so my idea was, specifically you know, how to increase group fitness engagement naturally, because as a group fitness instructor, and so I was integrating technology by adding in some new features. And through that, I was building out a case by showing data of how we would increase new member acquisition, retention, referrals and kind of different modules that they could use within their app to kind of gamify going to more group fitness classes and tracking that activity. And so they’re using now that idea, unfortunately, I didn’t get paid to execute that idea. It’s kind of like an incubator or accelerator program. Most companies do where it’s like you do kind of like a THON. But you know, that experience is just so invaluable in terms of being given that exposure and being given that opportunity to interact with so many people at the corporate level at Equinox to see how a larger company works and take those learnings to understand what it would take to execute on the idea.

Kara Goldin 19:45
So you decide to start Alvie you have got your recipe, people are liking it and you’ve got some samples, and what was the first place that you went to to actually get your product for For Sale?

Michelle Razavi 20:00
Yeah, yeah. So I remember very clearly went to Blue Wagner get on Union Street and went to them. And I just would not take no for an answer. And the store owner was Iranian as well. So speaking Farsi to him and trying to butter him up that way, using any tactic I could. And I think I just eventually wound down. And I was just like, you have to get this I promise you, I will send over every single person for my fitness class down the street over here. And kind of just adapting Sara Blakely is mindset of just like, get in there and send people over there. And, and that’s exactly what I did. I went to my classes, and I was like, please go purchase my bars, I’ll pay you like, I just need to prove this concept. So so that was, I want to say like early January 2020, when we launched and that was our first retail store. And we were mostly due to see. And that was almost a blessing. Because as you can imagine, January 2020, when we launch two and a half months in the pandemic hit so we didn’t have much time to establish a retail presence. And we had all these plans for all these gyms and fitness studios and workout events and those shut down overnight. But But yeah, it was very, very exciting to get you know, those first few early accounts in early 2020. And then the rest of our business was mostly online. For for 2020, which was pretty chaotic for a protein bar company.

Kara Goldin 21:30
Share your clubhouse story. I read about that. And I’d love to hear from you.

Michelle Razavi 21:37
Oh my gosh, yeah. So networking was hard. And in a pandemic, there’s no events that you could go to. And I was using clubhouse as a couple as a way to drive sales, to build that awareness and to fundraise. And so it was so hard to meet investors and clubhouse at the time, in end of 2020, early 2021 was such a hot place for celebrities, investors, actors, everyone, you had like Elon Musk in there. And so it’s really cool place to hang out. And it was great to get access to people and pick their brains. So what I was doing was a very calculated approach where I would schedule times to be on clubhouse during the day. And I had, you know, spreadsheets of notes that I would take listening to investors that I really wanted to connect with or people that I really wanted to connect with industry leaders. And I would take notes on what they would say then I’d follow up with them on LinkedIn saying hey, I noticed you said this and a clubhouse chat really loved what you said we’d love to set up some time with you to connect. And they were so flattered that someone listened and, and pulled out really cool nuggets that they you know, mentioned in it in a chat, and they will take a call with me and that’s how I found my one of my advisors, Kevin Rutherford of new hydration who’s stuck such a champion for us. It’s how I was able to build my portfolio of of different people that connected us to our next adviser. And it’s really how we found our lead investor. So I pitched live our lead investor on flip house. And we were his first investment via clubhouse and and love it what was really funny as once he was like, open to taking a an email from me with that initial pitch. Then we drove down from San Francisco to LA to hand deliver him products so that he can sample them to in front of us. And so I think he just saw the hustle, and the level of commitment and dedication and was just like Alright, these, these girls are intense and and worth backing.

Kara Goldin 23:40
That’s so great. And your co founder, you mentioned her so how did you guys connect?

Michelle Razavi 23:46
Yeah, so Nikki Elliot is my co founder, she and I met to chant Equinox, actually. So she was also juggling a variant tentacle, her job. She worked at PwC in mergers and acquisitions. So she’s a numbers loving CPA. So a perfect balance to my background, which is more in like sales and marketing. And she and I just bonded over this shared lifestyle of living out of bags, gym bags and changing her outfits and you know, living on no sleep and really relying on protein bars. But sharing this equal dissatisfaction with something that wouldn’t satisfy us or leave us something to be desired. And so she was equally intrigued by getting more collagen into our diet. She’s an endurance athlete. She’s done Ironman. And so she was really intrigued by this way to conveniently get collagen into her diet, and just love the idea of bringing in decadence to a category that would compromise on taste when it was on the healthier side. So yeah, she’s been along on the journey from from the early days as well.

Kara Goldin 24:49
You often speak about the importance of passion and curiosity. So what else do you think entrepreneurs need to know about You know, having that passion and curiosity that really makes being an entrepreneur that much easier.

Michelle Razavi 25:06
Yeah, I mean, passion is going to get you out of bed, when you’re exhausted, it’s going to keep you working until 2am, when everyone else is going to bed, or when everyone else is going on vacation or going into events, it’s what’s keeping you focused passion is what lights you up, and what connects you to your consumers and differentiates you from just a, like a company and I love brand. So it’s a passion is is the core of everything. And it’s what keeps you going as a founder on through the hard times, but also keeps you energized and excited and just connected to your greater mission and your purpose. And I think if it’s not there, people can see that. And, and curiosity, I would say, that is really what allows you to be adaptive, and responsive. Our first year, we’ve had our share of obstacles and roadblocks and fires. And I think that lens of curiosity allows you to take a step back sometimes and be like, Okay, this route is not working, what can we do instead? Or you’re seeing the term in the sense of, you know, customer engagement, you know, why are you unhappy? Okay, well, how can we make this thing for how can we make this experience better on the digital side in terms of the front end experience going through a website? And I think this lens of curiosity, it allows you to separate the ego or that personalization, I think sometimes I’m guilty of sometimes of attaching to any road bumps or failures or obstacles, and just approaching everything of how am I going to learn from the situation? And how can I learn from this to be better. And as I mentioned earlier, I was debating getting an MBA before starting this company, and this has definitely become my real world MBA. And so that’s how I, like kind of ground down into everything. I’m like, you know, what, this site, but I learned, and so I think the passion and the curiosity are so integral to not only grow, but also survive, you know, especially how hard it is right now to run a company.

Kara Goldin 27:07
Yeah, definitely. I feel like collagen overall, has become this really hot thing. You mentioned that you had known about it like 10 years ago. But how much of this product? It’s a great tasting product, by the way. I mean, llv is really yummy. But how much of LV Do you feel like there’s an education element to it, that people get kind of hung up on it? Right, like as you start to grow? I feel like there are a lot of people put in college and into their products, like, what do you have to share with the consumer? To be wary of right that I feel like it’s constantly when things start, maybe they’re more pure, and then they get kind of butchered. And in this isn’t just collagen? Maybe it is maybe it isn’t, but I think it’s just, it’s true of so many ingredients. And as as they grow, that they just are not as pure as maybe they originally were is that? Is that fair to say? I mean, is that for your industry? I mean, overall, is that something that? I’d love to hear your take on that?

Michelle Razavi 28:17
Yeah, I think I mean, in general, which is a great thing, consumers are demanding more transparency. And as a consumer myself, that’s really important. I wouldn’t put something in my body if I didn’t personally trust or feel safe consuming this every day. And so ingredient sourcing is really important when you’re looking at something. So we use wild caught Marine, collagen and grass fed bovine collagen and our protein bars. And that was just very integral to us in terms of understanding. Okay, what’s the supply chain behind that? Where’s it source? Is the source ethically How is it processed to make sure that it’s very clean and potent? Right? Additionally, four flavors we’ve had two or three flavors, we integrate berries into our bar so the blueberry and the chocolate goji berry have berries in them, and berries are a natural source of vitamin C and what not many people know is that you want to pair collagen with vitamin C so that you absorb the collagen more effectively. Additionally, there’s a lot of marketing going on about collagen vegan collagen. Unfortunately, there’s no not yet no such thing as vegan collagen. I’m hearing about some genetically modified collagen, you can make it a lab from bacteria. But collagen is derived from animals. We’re animals may have collagen. And so it does get a little frustrating when some people market plant based collagen or vegan collagen, when that actually is just a marketing term. There’s no such thing. Collagen has to be from an animal derivative. That being said, our collagen is sustainably sourced. And so that’s really important for us. But we did just recently launch with a whole new line of plant based food products and snacks that are super food nut butters. So there are cashew nut butters that are enhanced with a very vibrant superfoods like blue spirulina, pomegranate B, dark chocolate, and they’re colored by their color, nut butters. And so that was a response to our vegan plant based community who wanted something that is accessible to them. But yeah, there’s definitely education that goes into college in terms of how much to consume, you want to aim for about like five to 10 grams a day and consistently have it every day to see those benefits. We want to check your sourcing, ideally, you can pair it with vitamin C. And, yeah, you, you want to really make sure you’re reading your labels and looking at you know, where they’re coming from. So that’s, you know, really, something I’m really passionate about is understanding that and sharing that with our customers to

Kara Goldin 30:56
love it. And distribution. I mean, obviously, you talked about Blue fog market being the first and then you’re an equinox and where else have you really been focusing on as you’ve been continuing to build distribution?

Michelle Razavi 31:12
Yeah, so we’re based in LA. So Erawan was one of our earlier accounts that we weren’t able to land in Earth in 2020, which is a very hard time to land, a retail account. So I was really proud of that consistent follow up does pay off. And so we’re still the only one locations in Los Angeles were sold at some local stores in Marina Del Rey, such as the hive and rainbow acres, were sold at all the equinox cafes in Northern California now so Equinox cafes have a retail partner called Earth bar. So Earth bar Equinox are kind of synonymous. So all throughout Northern California, San Francisco, Berkeley, and we’re in the Lululemon retail experiential store and Mall of America, in Minnesota. So that’s really exciting to be in one of our dream partners, and most of our focus is still DTC directly from website and Amazon has been really accelerating our business growth. And so we’re really excited to see how that’s going to continue our growth for the next year or two.

Kara Goldin 32:15
That’s awesome. Very, very cool. So can you share a story about a challenge? Or maybe something didn’t go so right. I always talk about failures as the best learning points for us to be able to grow and I’d love to hear with Alvey. I mean, it’s such a new startup. So I’m not sure that there’s been anything that’s been a total failure. But I’d love to hear from you something that maybe it was unexpected that you didn’t know what’s gonna happen. But definitely you learn some lessons from it.

Michelle Razavi 32:48
Oh, my God, so many stories of things going wrong in our first year. And I don’t like to shy away from showing it. I think it’s really important to show nothing ever happens overnight. And we are building our ship as resilient. I would say the biggest kind of story that’s most exciting to share, fun to share. Now it’s fine. It was not fun when was happening. But we got to watch the lawsuit, I want to say within five months of launching, which was pretty terrifying. Whoa, yeah. And just to set the scene. So we launched early January 2020, a couple months and we were hit with a global pandemic that completely shifted our customer behavior closed stores down, we got furloughed from the gym, I lost income, significant amount of income and had already liquidated all my capital from savings to go full time in a lobby. So I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay rent. And Nikki was still full time. So she was helping float the company financially. But that trauma of not knowing how I was going to make ends meet was terrifying. And then five months and so just a couple of months after the pandemic hit, I got a letter in the mail addressed to me, threatening us with a cease and desist because our former name, which is called Bill Barr conflicted with another company’s alleged name. And so that was a paralyzing moment for me because I invested so much time and energy and love and, and thought and we’re gonna trademark so for context, I hired an Upwork lawyer granted I was being very budget about it. But I hired a lawyer and they did their diligence, they didn’t see any conflict in the in the market. So you go to USPTO, you fall through trademark, went through USB to PTO accepted it. And so we owned our MK. Now what happens is there’s this period where anybody can come and oppose you, you can still get a post even afterwards. So this other company with a similar sounding name, who was in the market just two months before us, came in opposed us. And they had a lot of money. They were very aggressive lawyers, and we even reached out to the founder so we were guessing the email reaching out like sending five emails to try to reach the founder were like, hey, founder to founder list Just chat, let’s just talk about this that lawyers, like worst problem in our company, we’re not trying to like come out or anything like we can peacefully exist. And the founder was unfortunately, very hostile, aggressive, not nice. And he said, I will go to the nth degree to make sure that you guys will not sell your products under this name. And so unfortunately, it’s very patronizing and very

Kara Goldin 35:21
mean, and your products were really different to right 100%.

Michelle Razavi 35:25
And so yeah, we were collagen protein bars, they were these, like keto, high dairy protein bars, so very different markets, very different audiences. And it was paralyzing, and I remember sobbing my eyes over the first couple of days, just seeing my company being gone, and then just lying on the floor, really paralyzed by what to do, and I didn’t know what to do. And so it’s contacting our lawyers, other trademark lawyers, friends who have gone through rebrands before. And the resounding feedback was just a rebrand. They’re like Michelle, like, technically, yes, you own the mark, you do have a case, but it’s going to cost you hundreds of 1000s of dollars to fight this, and you don’t have the time or the energy, or the money to do this to to fight this, you know, you’re still small enough, just rebrand. And, and that’s weird to hear. But ultimately, that was the right decision to make. And so we had to quickly find a new name. And at the same time, afford a brand new trademark. And and that’s expensive when you’re bootstrapping, you know, Nikki and I were just putting our personal money into everything. We didn’t have friends and family outside money going into this. This was just our personal savings. And it was in a pandemic. So I was taking my rent money to finance all this. And so because it was the pandemic was an interesting time where everyone was, oddly very responsive. And so we were doing some research. And in public legal documents, we found out that that company that was giving us a cease and desist, they were in a trademark battle with another bigger company. And so then I had to that bigger company kind of enemy of my enemy is my friend. And I went to that thing, and I said, Hey, I see that you guys are posing. Registration, they’re trying to oppose us, can I work with you and sell you our registration so that your claim is stronger? Because I’d rather work with you than see them when? And they thought about it, and they got back to us? And they’re like, Yeah, that’s crazy. And so I convinced the legal counsel, this is a big company. So I’ll say it offline. Or if anyone wants to message me, I’ll happily say the names. But it’s a very big company that we worked a deal with. And so then they paid us out. And we gave them like, whatever they wanted. And I just look back. And like the audacity that I had to just call up the legal counsel of this huge company be like, hey, so do you want to buy or mileage? That’s correct. And I was they, they ended up doing it. And they did. And then

Kara Goldin 37:57
you ultimately put your, your names together to come up with the new one.

Michelle Razavi 38:02
Exactly. So we had two weeks, we didn’t have, you know, a brand agency to help us. We just had like, 20 friends that were sending text messages that really Hey, what do you think of this? What do you think of this, we sent like five different names. And we ultimately landed on a lobby llv you know, different variations of pronunciation, just because it was our last names put together. So it was trademark protected. It didn’t it was a real word that anyone could dispute. And it also had a play on the word Elevate, which was very much in line with this elevated nutrition focus that we’re we’re very much all about projecting so that that’s really how our name came to be was from a trademark lawsuit, and a rush rebrand. And now we have this this name, this brand that we love.

Kara Goldin 38:54
I love it. Well, you found a way to move forward and not allow roadblocks to get in your way. And I love that story. It’s great. Super, super awesome. So where can our listeners by LV and support you and hear more about your journey as well?

Michelle Razavi 39:16
Yeah, so best place to buy us is directly on our website. It’s e l a vi.co. And if you want to check us on Amazon, we’re available on on there as well on prime and we’re sold at stores in LA Erawan Equinox cafes all throughout California. If you’re in Minneapolis, Minnesota we’re in the Mall of America at Lululemon and slowly expanding out hopefully soon as things are opening up. But yeah, really excited just to connect with our our customers are just people who are interested in the story and following along online so feel free to follow us at our Instagram and Tiktok handle. It’s at k e lobby H EY e li vi And if you want to connect with me personally, it’s at Michelle resolving my first and last name on Instagram.

Kara Goldin 40:05
I love it. Well, thank you so much for coming on Michelle. And thanks everyone for listening to this episode, don’t forget to subscribe to the Kara Goldin show so that you are sure not to miss incredible founders and CEOs like Michelle and hear more about companies like Ella v. And please be sure to send in those five star ratings. It really helps with the algorithm so that we can get high up on those charts. So super, super great. And I am available on all platforms at Kara Goldin. And please be sure to pick up a copy or download a copy of my book undaunted, and hopefully you will get a chance to if you haven’t already, to hear more about my journey in building the company I founded hint, and we are here every Monday and Wednesday, we are actually adding another day to the podcast because we have such incredible guests that are coming on and really, really fun building out this show. It’s my next entrepreneurial journey. A bit No, not really. But more than anything. I just love having people on the show and hearing their stories and helping them to get the word out about their incredible journey. So thanks, everyone for listening and have a great week and goodbye for now. Goodbye Michelle. I thank you so much. Before we sign off, I want to talk to you about fear. People like to talk about fearless leaders. But achieving big goals isn’t about fearlessness. Successful leaders recognize their fears and decide to deal with them head on in order to move forward. This is where my new book undaunted comes in. This book is designed for anyone who wants to succeed in the face of fear, overcome doubts and live a little undaunted. Order your copy today at undaunted, the book.com and learn how to look your doubts and doubters in the eye and achieve your dreams. For a limited time. You’ll also receive a free case of hint water. Do you have a question for me or want to nominate an innovator to spotlight send me a tweet at Kara Goldin and let me now and if you liked what you heard, please leave me a review on Apple podcasts. You can also follow along with me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn at Kara Goldin. Thanks for listening