Samantha Coxe: Founder & CEO of Flaus

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, everyone. It’s Kara Goldin. And welcome to the Kara Goldin show. I’m so excited to have my next guest here. We have Sam Cox here who is the founder and CEO of an incredible company that you are going to want to get your hands on immediately called Flaus. So kinda like house spelled sorta like that word floss, but it’s actually pronounced Flaus. So Flaus, and I’m really really excited to have her here. So the world’s first electric flosser revolutionising dental care with high performing dental floss and sonic vibrations that make flossing as quick and easy and comfortable as using your favorite electric toothbrush. So flouse is on a mission to help people keep their teeth for life by transforming daily rituals into delightful ones. And I’m excited to have her here with us today to share her story and hear more about her journey. I admitted to her before we were talking but I am not a good flosser. So if my dentist add Goldin is listening, he’s constantly on my case, even though I have good teeth, he is like, come on one day, it’s gonna catch up. So now I found my, my favorite new toy. So and it’s, it’s awesome. So anyway, welcome, Sam. So great to have you on the show.

Samantha Coxe 2:13
Thank you, I’m so excited to get to be here and get to chat about Flaus and all things oral care. That’s

Kara Goldin 2:20
awesome. So I read that you just closed a round of funding. By the way, congratulations. I know as a fellow founder entrepreneur that, you know, it’s it’s never easy. It’s my, it’s my least favorite thing to do. I don’t know about you. But it’s always exciting when it’s done. And

Samantha Coxe 2:42
so I feel just so grateful to have been able to raise this round and close this round and have such incredible investors backing Flaus, including, you know, the team at Getty capital, and just bringing really their strategic expertise to to this journey. And especially as a female founder, it’s even more empowering, because I just know how it’s already so difficult to raise with what’s going on in the macro economic environment. But to be able to do as a female founder doing consumer electronic hardware. It’s definitely something I’m very, very proud of. And very relieved is over.

Kara Goldin 3:18
Yeah, I bet. So that’s, that’s awesome. Super, super exciting. So So tell us the inspiration behind flouse. What made you decide that you needed to have this consumer electronic?

Samantha Coxe 3:37
Definitely. So it’s actually a pretty interesting story. So at the time, I was a fourth year, m&a attorney at a massive law firm called Skadden. You know, just working those grueling, grueling big law hours and I had a dentist appointment popped up on my calendar and at the time, I was an amazing twice a day toothbrush or admittedly a horrible flosser. So about a week leading up to the dentist appointment. I started vigorously flossing. So when I got in the dentist chair and she asked me you know, Sam, have you been flossing? My answer would be yes. And right away, she knew I was a liar. There was blood everywhere. I ended up leaving with like a $5,000 dental bill, something outrageous. And even though I had really good dental insurance, and I came home and I thought to myself, I hate flossing by love using my electric toothbrush. Why don’t I just go buy an electric flosser that could do it for me. And I actually went online to go purchase one. And I was shocked to discover nothing like this existed. So that was really my first moment of like, Wait, this seems so obvious. How doesn’t this exist? And then over the course of the following weeks, I started talking to my friends and colleagues about their oral care habits because I had never really done that at the time. I think I just assumed everyone was flossing. I was like, the only weirdo not doing it. But that’s when I discovered oh my gosh, flossing is a massive pain. For most people, and the majority of Americans aren’t flossing in a big subsets never flosses. So, that was really when I, when I then realized I was putting all the pieces together and I was like, All right. This is something that people use every day, they’re being told to be using it by medical professionals. It’s a space that has not been innovated in at all. And it was a pain point that I experienced myself. So I always had known I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I never thought it’d be oral care. So just to have this idea of plop right into my lap, it was very Kismet. So

Kara Goldin 5:36
you were an attorney, for a moment went to you and I were just chatting about NYU Law school where my husband also went to school a few years before you more than a few years before you but so so what was the moment when you just decided I really want to go and try and go and, you know, see if I can’t do this,

Samantha Coxe 6:04
you know, that I can remember this moment like it was yesterday. And it was such a what would seemingly be an insignificant moment, but it was so significant to me. And it was I was actually in the middle of a deal. We were working super hard getting towards a signing, and I was at the time a junior associate. So I was the one tasked with doing all the diligence, going through all the documents and writing up all the memos. And I was doing that. And during that same time period. Me My girlfriend’s at the firm, we’re celebrating Valentine’s. And we were making five, I was tasked making a flower bouquet for one of my my colleagues. And so I was doing this diligence memo, and I was like you want I’m just gonna, it’s late, it’s like probably 10pm At night, it’s late, I’m working. And I’m like you want, I’m gonna take a little break. And I’m just gonna make this flower bouquet. And then I’ll go back to doing the memo. I sit there, I probably spent 20 minutes making this beautiful flower bouquet, it was like very, very fun. And then went back to doing my diligence. And I thought, oh, my gosh, I just got more intrinsic value out of making a flower bouquet for 20 minutes I have from a single second at this job. And that’s when I was like I am, I am not only extremely I not only have very strong analytical capabilities, but I am a true creative. And, you know, I worked so hard to go to law schools, take the bar, be at the top law firm, survive for years. But I felt no purpose in anything I was doing. And so that was really a very, very small, what, again, seemingly insignificant moment was just a light bulb for me where I was like, Okay, I need to go be creative, and go create something myself.

Kara Goldin 7:48
So you had this idea. You had this experience. And but did you see anything out there that you were like I could do this better? Or? I mean, you really were taking a stab not just had a product and a company but in an entirely new category? Right. I mean, that’s crazy, entirely new

Samantha Coxe 8:09
category. He was, you know, I think that up until that point, I have always been someone that when I put my mind to something, I’ve accomplished it. And throughout my time, even at Skadden, and you know, being with some of the most intelligent people in arguably the world at NYU Law, you know, I just quickly realized this hidden secret of adulthood that no one actually knows what they’re doing. And everyone’s just figuring it out. And I think that gave me a lot of courage to, to feel like you want, I can go and take this risk. There’s, I’ll never regret betting and investing in myself. And I had this urge to create and to be a founder, and I just had this, this amazing idea that popped into my lap. And, you know, that’s not to say that I didn’t do you know, hundreds of hours of diligence prior to deciding to leave the law firm, like I made sure that this was a viable business idea, and a viable business model that there was actual market for this. It’s not like, you know, it was only me who wanted this. And so I did a lot of different things to really test the waters before decided to take the leap. But it was all these just little moments adding up that it became very clear to me that I would always I felt that I would regret not trying to do this. I felt like if I didn’t do it i and someone else did, I would live with that regret. And so I was like I’d rather try and fail and to not try at all.

Kara Goldin 9:36
And you have a co founder as well. Right? Yeah.

Samantha Coxe 9:39
So we’ve had I have a co founder. Yes. And we actually went to USC together, which ad which is actually there was three of us at one point and one unfortunately had to just step away from the business for personal reasons, health reasons, but we all went to USC together and it’s interesting. So when I came up with this idea I started it on my own. And then as it started to develop, and after I launched a really successful Indiegogo campaign, I then reached out to my to my current co founder from USC and said, you know, you have an industrial design background, you’re great at branding, these are all skill sets, I don’t have, I would love to be able to bring you on to my team and get to get to build this with you.

Kara Goldin 10:24
That’s awesome. Very cool. So you knew each other before it wasn’t a just, we knew

Samantha Coxe 10:29
each other before, but we were not. Exactly but we weren’t, we were not close friends. So we were acquaintances at USC. And how we knew each other was we were both like super involved. We were both student government in clubs and like leadership of our sorority, so very go getter. So I just knew her as being like a very like minded here. And you know, people of all very much respected her and everything like that. And we actually got connected at a friend’s wedding. And I was telling her what I was working on, and she was like, you know, I would I would love to help you out. And she actually came on to flouse first as an independent contractor, so first helping me in that way. And then once again, after the Indiegogo campaign, it was like, Okay, I would love a teammate to go out and build this.

Kara Goldin 11:16
That’s awesome. So you talked about the Indiegogo campaign, I’d love to hear more about that. Because I think a lot of people think, Okay, I’ve got this idea, how am I going to fund it, even my initial kind of right, you know, moments, and especially there, I think there are investors, friends and family that will give some people money to just go and follow a dream, right. But there are many people who are like, I would totally go start something, but I don’t have the ability to do that. So talk to us about this Indiegogo campaign. So

Samantha Coxe 11:52
I first invested about $80,000. And it was essentially my entire savings into flowers. And luckily, I was at a great career where I did have this disposable income that I was saving, ideally, you know, eventually, to maybe buy a house instead of I bought my boat, my own company. And the after that point it did get, especially when you’re doing consumer electronic hardware, it is very capital intensive. And even for, as you mentioned, other budding entrepreneurs that maybe are doing a board game or another type of consumer product. A lot of these things require a lot of upfront capital that we just don’t have. And so when I was going out to raise some money from friends and family, a piece of feedback I was receiving was people were saying, Okay, well, we want to see that people are willing to put down their credit cards for this. And I’m like, well, we don’t have a product like nothing’s built, I don’t know, what are people paying for. And so I went back and forth with the idea of either doing a crowdfunding campaign on an Indiegogo or Kickstarter, or doing a pre sale, a pre order on my own website. And I decided to launch an Indiegogo campaign for a couple of really specific reasons. And it was honestly one of the best decisions, and I’m super excited to get to chat about it. Because I was so methodical, I learned so much doing it. So with Indiegogo, some of the benefits are one, these consumers understand that they are buying the first of its kind product they’re typically buying in at like the beta stage. So they understand that they’re not going to necessarily be receiving something that’s perfect. Like, compared to how a typical traditional consumer would be when you purchase something you expect it to be in very good working condition. To the Indiegogo customers also are very used to waiting a long time in between putting down their card and backing a project and actually receiving the product with consumer electronic hardware, it could take up to a year to do the manufacturing production line, everything like that. So that was another aspect that was like, Okay, I think that this makes the most sense to go and do an Indiegogo campaign. So what I did from there is I went on to both IndieGoGo and Kickstarter, and I went and I looked up other products in similar verticals, obviously, there was not another electric foster by when I looked up electric toothbrushes, I went and looked at electric razors, other like personal care items in different verticals. And I went and I found the most successful campaigns. So I narrowed in on those. And then I analyzed all of them. And I said, What are the common themes on all of these pages? And why are these ones so successful? And what I discovered was that almost every single one of them had been working with a crowdfunding marketing agency. So there’s like, five of them really. And every single one had been working with them and is at the very, very, very bottom, it’s like sponsored by rain factory who was ours. So I went out and I interviewed all of them, and I ended up going with a rain factory who was ours, and that was such an incredibly important decision. Because IndieGoGo and Kickstarter I’ve been around for so long now that it’s a hyper saturated platform. It’s hyper saturated, it’s really hard to stand out. And a lot of these backers are serial backers, and a lot of them have been burned. So they’re already on high alert for like potentially fraudulent campaigns. And that’s happened over and there’s really no recourse at all for these backers. So and so you’re dealing with a different type of consumer who’s done this before, but who that that’s kind of on edge and a little cynical. But also, it’s a very unique marketing funnel, right? So let’s say your we were marketing through Instagram and Facebook. And I had never purchased something ever on Indiegogo before. So imagine getting this ad for this cool electric flosser, you’re like, Okay, I just had my dentist appointment. I mean, this looks great. I want to use it, you click it, and then you’re taken to an Indiegogo campaign. I know, for myself, I would immediately drop out of the funnel, I’d be like, Whoa, what is this, I just want to purchase. And so what these crowdfunding marketing agencies do, what their secret sauce is, is because they’ve been around for so long, they are able to tap in to that text Splore target audience that is really ripe for going down the entire marketing funnel. And so we did things like a landing page, about a month and a half before the campaign had about 10,000 email leads going into it. Because Indiegogo is all about FOMO you just want to create this FOMO effect. And so there were just so many different things that that we learned. And it was a very, very methodical process. And And now, you know, we sold over 4500 units, we were fully funded under three hours, we finished in the top 1% of campaigns ever on Indiegogo, and to be able to walk away one, we’ve successfully delivered all of our product. We’re now upgrading all of our Indiegogo customers, we call our founding flowers into it flouse, too. But to be able to have this community of such passionate advocates and backers, it has been so incredible. But it was scary. I was scared. I was like, what if this fails, and it lives on the internet forever, like this failed campaign. And just like leaving Skadden, it’s like you just have to take the risk and just know like, you will always land on your feet, you’ll be fine. If it doesn’t work out.

Kara Goldin 17:26
No, I love that story. So it real quickly. So Indigo. So once you bring this, this agency on there, what are the economics like roughly to do that kind of thing. So

Samantha Coxe 17:40
the agency they were about, so they charged about $20,000 upfront. So it was an upfront investment for us and 20,000 about upfront, but that was for them to set up that email collection landing page to run surveys, we had like a 2500 person survey that we got responses back to, to create the entire IndieGoGo page that is an entire very, very methodical process. As well as helping us with, you know, doing our video assets and photography assets. So just managing the entire campaign. And then it’s very interesting. So Indiegogo, I would not say for people that are really trying to raise money. I don’t know if I would necessarily, Indiegogo takes a cut of the proceeds of your profit of your just gross sales. So not even just your profit. So the gross sales, then rain factor, your your marketing agency will take a little cut as well. And then you have the payment processor stripe. So I think when it was all said and done, I think in total, the amount of fees that were taken out of what We raised three $360,000 was about 18% of it 15 18% already out the door. But we ran the numbers and we were like this makes sense for us. This can help fund our initial manufacturing and production line and get this initial inventory out the door. And I was really viewing Indiegogo as my first major benchmark to then my next might a bigger precede funding round, which which it that’s what it led to is my first $2 million raise was right after that.

Kara Goldin 19:18
Well, and you’re building buzz and confidence, right, that you can actually go do this and that there’s going to be people to your earlier point that people are going to write a check for this. And so are they getting equity as well? Or can you share a little bit about that knows,

Samantha Coxe 19:35
yeah, so there’s two different types of crowdfunding. There’s actually multiple, but two major ones. So this one is rewards based crowdfunding, so backers just pledge a certain dollar amount and in exchange, they get rewarded with a perk. And that’s assuming the campaign actually fully gets funded. They actually successfully create the product and deliver it, which a lot of companies do Do but so the first one is a reward based crowdfunding. So no equity is exchanged just just dollars. The second type is an equity crowdfunding. And there’s a lot of amazing like, I know Republic is one, there’s a bunch of different, really great equity crowdfunding platforms. And that’s where people are giving you money, and then you’re giving them, you know, the promise for future for future equity. And that’s actually something we’re super excited about looking into in the future, to really continue to foster that sense of community, with our customers who are just such loyal brand advocates, and who have been with us from day one, like, we get emails all the time from customers being like, can I invest? And we’re like, okay, not yet. But I think equity crowdfunding is an amazing way to build community, and a lot of them do recommend actually doing it right off of an Indiegogo or Kickstarter campaign. It’s

Kara Goldin 20:59
so smart, really, really smart. So you obviously love innovation, you created this machine. So how long did it take you to actually create? Oh, my

Samantha Coxe 21:09
gosh, oh, I mean, so I came up with this idea now about three and a half years ago. So I’ve been at this for a bit. And when I first came up with it, you know, my first reference point was, was electric toothbrushes, and really utilizing that as the proof of concept and putting a floss Tech head on it and saying, like, Okay, what does this feel like? Does it make it easier? Does it make it better, and immediately, I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is so much more enjoyable and quicker. That was my knee a proof of concept. So then I turned around, and being a lawyer with no dental or engineering background, I nearly went and I found two dental advisors to come on board, one who was my actual my neighbor and my downtown LA apartment at the time. And then I went and I found an engineer, and I just Googled, like, engineers near me. And I found I interviewed a bunch and I found one that really, I felt hit the core pillars I was looking for in terms of accessibility, sustainability, beautiful design, you know, customer centricity, everything like that. And so we were I was probably in product iteration. For like, a year and a half, just prototyping. So just going through drawings and honing that in and then doing 3d printed prototypes and running around LA and putting them in people’s mouths. And, you know, a large chunk of my story, I left scattered and launched this Indiegogo campaign and in March of 2021, and so we were peak COVID, like, this was peak COVID, I have something that has to go in people’s mouths. So I’m trying to, like run around. And you know, ideally, you don’t testing your friends and family’s mouths, because they’re a little bias. But that was my only choice. I was walking out on the streets in Manhattan Beach, I used to live there. And I was going up to strangers being like, I have a $10 Starbucks gift card, like will you test this and they’re like, Get away from me, crazy lady. So I was like, Okay, I need to go the friend, the friends route. And so I just drove around all of LA, just putting flowers in as many people’s hands and mouths as possible. And it was just this honing and honing and honing process and eventually got to the place where I was like, Okay, it’s, it’s good enough, let’s get in into production. And, of course, when you go through your first round of beta production, that let me tell you, especially consumer, electronic hardware, it is not perfect the first time. And so it’s all about just continuing to iterate and get the product in customers hands because you become so close to the product, that there are obvious things you will miss. And I think for a lot of other founders budding founders out there. It’s such a dangerous journey to be building in secrecy. I think it’s so important that you are constantly validating and speaking to customers, because you can build, build, build, and pop your head up and be like, wait, no one wants this.

Kara Goldin 24:08
Yeah, no, it’s it’s definite. That is so so true. Because it’s I remember when we were first launching hint, we, you know, delayed, not a lot, but we delayed slightly and we had clear labels on the bottle because I felt like, okay, everything needs to be clear. And and so we need to have a clear label anyway, what I did not and many incredible designers who were designing our labels had done other products. They had never done a clear label before, but we didn’t take into account that the lighting on the shelf. And so and also, who were we going to be next to which had nothing to do with our product, but how was it going to actually show up? And so if we were next to a bright pink, vitamin water, for example, we just got lost on the shelf. And so there was so many law lessons that we learned in that first iteration. So I always tell people, get it on the shelf, get in every industry and see what consumers are saying. Because you’re, there’s no doubt that you’re going to shift things. And obviously, it has to be safe for the consumer, but it needs to, you know, you can change packaging, you can change the product, all of those kinds of things. So, yeah,

Samantha Coxe 25:25
absolutely. One of a little tidbit on that, following that one of my, one of my, like, closest advisors and mentors is Dr. Jason, the founder of theragun, are now known as Thera body. And I went to him with my flouse, one device, and I was like it, he, he uses it, but I went to him with my class, one device, my beta product, and I was like, Oh, it’s too loud. It’s too this, it’s to that. And he was like, Sam, it is good enough. He’s like, get it out into market, and you need to get customer feedback. And I will never forget, he brings in the first and second iteration of theragun. And he’s like, look at this thing. Yeah, he’s like, it is a basically a power drill with a silicone head on top. And he’s like, this is what I was selling. He’s like, this is he’s like, I would tell you, if it wasn’t good enough, he’s like, you just have to get it out there. And so that was really like, a moment where I felt like, okay, I can do this, I don’t need to be perfect perfection is like that’s going to slow a slow us down. And as you mentioned, you just, you can’t really imagine all the different ways consumers are going to be using it and where they, where they’re going to be using it and all these different things. So I totally agree. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 26:39
Jason was on our show, as well. He’s awesome. So yeah, amazing. He’s super amazing. And such an interesting, you know, incredible guy to has also had a different career prior. So really, really, super interesting. And really incredible product. What is the hardest, most challenging part of, of, you know, maybe look at the question two ways of being an entrepreneur in this industry. And also, I don’t know, maybe maybe there’s aspects about developing a product that has to have different certifications on it, that you’re like, oh, my gosh, I never really thought about this. But now I’m in it. And so we’ve got to figure it out.

Samantha Coxe 27:29
Right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, absolutely. I guess I’ll tackle the second half of that first. So, yes, so flows is a class one medical grade device, we do fall under the 501 K exemptions, as most electric toothbrushes and toothbrushes do so it’s a little bit lesser of a burden. But the I did not realize that we were going to be having such stringent, like regulatory requirements. And so that was a really interesting process. And, you know, getting some different like FDA, regulators and advisors involved to help us and it’s so interesting, everyone has a different approach to things some people are way more lacks. Some people are like, you need to follow everything, by the book to a tee. And as a lawyer, that’s how I was trained. Everything is like hyper, hyper risk averse. And it’s interesting, because your mindsets a bit different when you’re an entrepreneur, you know, you do have to be willing to take some risks. But obviously, when it comes to safety, and compliance and everything like that, you know, we’re making sure that we’re following everything that we can, and to the best of our abilities. But that was definitely an aspect that probably caught us a little bit off guard from a cost perspective of like, oh, okay, we weren’t budgeting having to do this. Or, for example, we want to go out for the ADA seal of acceptance, so the American Dental Association. And in order to do that you have to undergo to double blind clinical studies. And that can be upwards of 100 $150,000. So a pretty massive investment, but it’s so worthwhile to be gaining your consumers trust, and even just consumers trust. Also dental professionals, you know, and so, there have been different aspects where you’re just kind of like, okay, I didn’t expect this. And I think, especially as we were talking about earlier, in today’s, you know, fundraising environment, it is so important that you’re operating as efficiently as possible to get to profitability as soon as possible. So, when you have these kinds of surprise, expenses come up, it can it can be difficult to be like, okay, you know, where are we take, Where’s this coming from? Like, what other pool? Can we take this money from reallocate? Or how can we try to like get scrappy and increase our sales with a really high ROI? So we’re able to offset these costs, things like that. And so, you know, if anything, what I love most about being an entrepreneur is that I am learning every single day. I wear so many hats. All of a sudden, I’m a web developer, and next day, I’m an FDA regulator. You You know, and it’s just the most incredible experience. But it’s tough. And on the personal side, what I would say, and it’s actually something I was just struggling and I texted Dr. Jason about actually, this today, I text him this morning, and I was like, I have been following in a career path. I’m sure anyone who’s a lawyer or doctor, any PhD would understand this, where there was such obvious steps of what was next, you know, you go to law school, you take the bar, you climb the ranks as a lawyer. And now, I have no idea what comes next. It there’s so much uncertainty with what I’m doing. And there’s really no feedback loop of being like you’re doing a good job. So you’re just kind of out here, like, you know, the proof is in the pudding if you’re doing a good job or not. But that has been a very challenging aspect. Because, you know, it’s, it can be really difficult. And then sometimes it can be really overwhelming to just the thought of, I don’t know, what comes next, will this be successful is all the sacrifice going to be worth it. And I think that that’s something that just you kind of have to ride the waves of the high highs and the lows, lows, and just know that, you know, I’m on this incredible journey, and I have so much gratitude to get to be making something that’s helping people. And so that’s how I really tried to like reshift my perspective, but I reached out to my mentors all the time. And I’m like, telling me this is normal. And I cannot tell you how many of them are like, Sam, I still feel this way. 12 years later, I still feel that way. I don’t know. And I was like, okay, that just makes me feel like, okay, this isn’t a sign something’s wrong, like this is just part of like the human experience.

Kara Goldin 31:42
Yeah, definitely. And I think it’s also I found when we were growing hint to that, I would feel that way. And then I would always find something new, that I could, you know, dig into inside of my company and learn and that sort of pushed me to go and start asking outside of the company outside of my industry, sometimes for guidance, like how, how would I saw you did this. And what I found by forcing myself to, I had a, I had a point of actually trying to get to another founder to do this, but I would learn so much more. And I would hear like you’re doing this with Jason, for example, but yeah, on how he dealt with that. But you’re also, you know, trying to learn and trying to innovate along the way. So I totally understand what what you’re saying. But I think, you know, it’s whenever you don’t feel that way, I think you have to force yourself out EY actually, early on, I was part of this great program that they have called EY winning women, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard about it, but you should definitely now I love to be a part of it. But it’s a lot of entrepreneurs that in a lot of different industries that are at your stage, I’m happy to make an introduction for it. But the thing that they always said was, you know, get outside of your company, and start to figure out, like, you know, where you can, where you can learn more, because you’re going to be able to bring that into the company too. And I think be able to make your company better. And I don’t know that just really, those words have always rang true for me. For you know, as, as I’ve been growing the company, absolutely.

Samantha Coxe 33:41
I couldn’t agree more one I would, I would absolutely love to be a part of something like that. I feel like finding other female founders and mentors is something that’s really, really important to me. I feel like I look around. And I don’t know if you feel so I’ve looked around a bunch. I’m like, why are all my mentors and investors men? Like everyone, I’m like, where am I women at? So I’m always looking for that and not for lack of not trying? Or being cognizant of it. But um, yeah, it just, you know, again, going back to this idea that I was a lawyer by trade, having no experience doing any of this. That was my strategy all along has always been to get advice from others who have walked this path before me because you don’t have to reinvent the wheel even though I’m creating something so innovative and new. A lot of this is pattern recognition, right? Is understanding okay, like, these are the things you should be looking for. These are things these are common mistakes. And I want to I had a lot of success and I don’t know if I’m not sure what method you did to do this, but I utilize LinkedIn a lot. I do a lot of cold outreach on LinkedIn as a people that you know, I haven’t now an investment advisor and see lead the oral care innovation at Dollar Shave Club and was doing brand innovation out Oral be right before that. And so I just found him random. And I was like your background is right on point. And I want to learn more like what do you know? And it’s amazing how many people want to help, you know. And so it’s like just putting yourself out there and being persistent doc, Dr. Jason took like 20 to 30 emails to get my first meeting with him. That’s

Kara Goldin 35:21
awesome. I love that story. Well, flouse is so awesome. And I wish we had three more hours to chat but everybody needs to definitely go on to your site. You’re primarily online right now. Right? Direct

Samantha Coxe 35:39
to consumer online at go flow. Stop calm. Yes, primarily online for now. But eventually retail.

Kara Goldin 35:45
Awesome. So best of luck with all of this, you’re not you’re not going to need it because you guys are gonna kill it. I love it. I love it so much. And hopefully we’ll also see it in a dental offices soon, too. So it was such a pleasure meeting you and you were just a force for sure. So I’m really, really thrilled that you’ve done this and, and very excited for everybody to try this and grab them as well. So thank you so much, Sam Cox. And the company again is is floss. And thank you everybody for listening.

Samantha Coxe 36:25
Thank you.

Kara Goldin 36:26
Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would, please give us a review. And feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit and of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin. And if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen. Or pick up a copy of my book on daunted which I share my journey, including founding and building hint. We are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And thanks everyone for listening. Have a great rest of the week, and 2023 and goodbye for now. 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 know. 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