people you can find, whether they’re your friends or not.
2 Be impeccable in your word. If you demonstrate accountability, it will inspire others to do the same.
3 I’ve been working on WordPress for ten years now, and I plan to do it for at least ten more.
4 I’m patient, and I don’t mind working on the same problem for years at a time.
5 Don’t run out of money.
6 The people I work with have had the greatest impact on my own success.
In June 2013, my opportunity magnet went into high gear when I met Ido Leffler, cofounder of Yes To Inc., a natural-beauty-products company that’s the number two natural brand in the United States; you can find Yes To … products in more than twenty-eight thousand stores in twenty-five countries—including Walmart, Walgreens, and Whole Foods Market.
Ido and I are connected through many of our entrepreneur networks—we have at least fifty colleagues and friends in common—and it was very easy for us to vet each other. We quickly discovered that, for the past couple of years, we’d both been thinking about starting a new business—one that would introduce a ground-breaking line of beauty products. Given our mutual interests, we decided to see if we could combine our energies and talents and networks to create something fun, new, and interesting.
So, I flew to San Francisco, where Yes To Inc. has its headquarters, to meet with Ido. When I arrived, I didn’t really know what the plan was for our day other than that my day was going to be spent with Ido. We were going to see if we liked each other and if we could make our concept work and if we could make it have life and breath and vision.
We immediately started discussing creating a line of beauty products for women—Ido and I are real go-getters in every sense of the word, so it didn’t take us long to create our list of products. Ido also asked me to create a list of must-haves for myself as a founder and also for myself as a woman who knows the market. Soon we were in Union Square doing market research, walking from Bloomingdales to Target to Walgreens, checking out existing products.
After our market research in Union Square, our next stop was the Yes To Inc. office and then we headed to lunch and began to map out what this company would look like. We discussed the details of selecting and trademarking a name, moving forward with branding based on that name, researching the products that we wanted, and creating and testing products. We asked: What does the market have and not have and really need? Where do most women shop? What are the must-have products? We made a list of key roles that we would need for our founding team—the positions and which departments these positions would be in, and then we literally plugged in people from our respective networks that we’d immediately turn to for consultation or full-time employment. We did the same for an advisory board, deciding which perspectives would be of value, as well as the people who could bring them to us. We wrote that down and then made a list of people to reach out to. We talked through our marketing strategy, our distribution strategy—the whole nine yards.
Throughout the day, we further developed our idea. We headed to Factory Zero, a unique live-work facility for entrepreneurs who are creating new businesses. The resident entrepreneurs live upstairs and work downstairs; if you have a meeting, you have it in one of the downstairs workspaces or on the patio.
We dove into phoning our respective networks, saying, “Hey, I’m working on a top-secret company. It’s in this genre, and it’s with this individual. Will you advise, will you this, will you that, will you get prepared and know that I’m going to ask more of you? I’ll share more about what’s going on in thirty or sixty days.”
It was an absolutely amazing day. It was a lot like those “startup” weekends that they hold in the technology world, when a few hundred aspiring entrepreneurs have forty-eight hours to meet a cofounder and present their business concepts—the best company wins. We did everything that those entrepreneurs did in forty-eight hours, but we did it in one day with only two people. And it was the most efficient, productive, exhilarating, exciting, fun day I’ve ever had in my life.
After a few hours, we decided to leave because Ido had made a promise to his family that he’d be home by 5 pm every day that he’s in town. Before we left, Ido asked me, “So, are you excited? What are you thinking about all this?”
I replied, “I’m excited, yes. If I seem like I’m not that excited, one thing you need to know about me is that I’m big on planning, and I’m big on details. I’m super excited, but my mind is racing.”
Ido asked, “So where is your mind racing to?”
I said, “My mind is going exactly here: company name, trademark, operations, legal stuff, incorporation, up and running, picking a PR firm, branding around the name, branding everything else—from logo to website to the look—and making sure we can get the URL. I’m thinking about hiring the first two or three core people, along with the right interns if need be. Yes, I’m super excited but my head is in all these places.” He looked at me, put his right hand up. I put my right hand up and we gave each other a high five.
Ido and his wife, Ronit, invited me to dinner that evening and I was able to meet his children, who are within six months and a year, respectively, of my own. It was a great opportunity to get to know the man I was going into business with on an entirely different level.
Later that evening there was a charity event for an organization called the Mama Hope Foundation, founded by our mutual friend, Nyla Rodgers, who we knew through Summit Series, a highly private invitation-only group of leaders that meet at an annual conference and work to inspire and connect entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, and nonprofit leaders. Ido planned to attend, so I went with him. We ran into a bunch of people at the event that we both knew; it was a confirmation that this new business was a good move for us and that we were going in the right direction. As we got out of the car, I said to Ido, “Look, we’re probably going to run into a lot of people we know—what do you want to say when someone asks us what we’re up to? Should we tell them we’re working on a ‘stealth start-up,’ like everyone else in San Francisco?” But Ido had a different idea. He said, “Let’s call it our ‘top-secret project,’ and let everybody know that we’re going into business together.”
So that’s what we did, and everyone was buzzing—wondering what we were up to. “Oh my God, Lauren Maillian Bias and Ido Leffler doing something together? So what is it?” “Is it organic?” “Is it natural?” “Is it clothing? It must be fashion—or beauty.”
Of course, Ido and I were smirking, “We can’t tell you; it’s top secret!” But it was an absolute confirmation that this was going to be an amazing opportunity, a great partnership, and that this awesome future lay ahead of us.
For me, this was a major claim-it-and-shine moment (see Chapter 8 for more on the concept of “claim it and shine”). Together, Ido and I had sketched out the beginnings of an ambitious brand that had game-changing potential for the beauty industry while making a meaningful impact by giving back. We’re in a socially conscious society today, where people want to know that they’re doing good—even with the products and purchases that they make. It’s the new way of making philanthropy accessible. We ultimately said, “Let’s focus on getting the company right and let’s come up with one nonprofit that is most deserving and really fits our mission best and who we believe in and have a connection with.”
As you consider the people in your network, make no small plans. When you think big, you honestly never know where your connections will lead you. Be prepared for and open to anything. Be a powerful venture magnet, attracting amazing opportunities into your life and business.
FOR REFLECTION
You don’t have to be big to think and believe big. Start getting comfortable with the latter.
Want more for yourself (theoretically) than anyone else ever could.
In order to grow, you have to be in permanent beta, always.
Work hard to become