From $200K to $4M in 3 Years 🦷 How This Dentist Couple Crushed Kickstarter, Amazon & IP Wars → Brynn Snyder

[00:00:00]

Brynn Snyder: flossing is to get rid of the things you can’t see, because plaque turns into tartar in 48 hours. Yes. And once it’s tartar, it can only be removed by a hygienist. And so 50 percent of Americans have gum disease. And if you have gum disease for more than five years, you’re 70 percent more likely to have dementia.

Mhm.

Brynn Snyder: Looking back, people just don’t realize how hard it is. Like it is a really rough road. But I believed in the product and I believe that it would change people’s lives. And if I didn’t have that belief, I don’t know if I would have got through the hard part.

Mhm.

Introducing the 2X eCommerce Podcast

Kunle Campbell: So on today’s episode of the 2X eCommerce podcast, I talk with someone who’s created a product that’s making flossing easier, healthier, and surprisingly effective while growing a business from scratch to $4 million in just a few years.

This is the 2x e commerce podcast hosted by Kunle Campbell.

Kunle Campbell: Hey everyone welcome to the 2X eCommerce podcast.

I’m so excited for you to hear today’s [00:01:00] episode because I sat down with Brynn Snyder. The co-founder of Slate, electric flosser, to talk about how she created a product that’s changing the way people think about flossing. Yes, I did say flossing. Brynn’s story is incredible.

She and her dentist’s husband saw a problem. Most of us ignore. And built a patented product that not only makes flossing easier, but also solves big health issues tied to gum disease. Even more amazingly they’ve grown their business from zero. Absolutely nothing to over 4 million in sales. While navigating all the ups and downs of scaling a direct to consumer brand.

And they’re just beginning. This conversation is packed with practical tips on product development. Customer feedback and scaling with very limited resources and how to stand out in a crowded market. So if you’re an operator, founder or someone with the big idea, You’ll want to take notes in this one and Hey, if you are enjoying these conversations, be sure to give this podcast a follow. [00:02:00] Wherever you listen to it.

Your support helps us Brynng more stories like this one. Let’s get into it.

Hey, Brynn, I want to welcome you to the 2x e commerce podcast.

Brynn Snyder: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Kunle Campbell: Brilliant brilliant. Okay. So today we’re going to talk about Slate. Electric flosser, which is your hero product Slate is the brand. We’ve had prior conversations about it. I’m super excited for the innovation you’ve put into this brand, but it comes with a story with a backstory, which I’d like you to share with the audience.

Please.

Brynn Snyder: Okay. Well, a little bit about me. So I am the co founder. The other co founder is my husband, Danny. He’s a dentist. I went to design school to be a product designer. And I worked, did an internship with Johnson and Johnson. Originally I wanted to be a shoe designer, but then I did this medical one and I became super passionate being able to make a [00:03:00] product that I felt would change people’s lives.

Then my husband went to dental school and I had four children and he decided to buy a dental practice in Spokane, Washington. And he was so excited to help people and help them. And then what he realized is. Oh, my gosh. So many people are anxious at the dentist, like 80 percent of patients that come to the dental office are anxious.

So he implemented some things to try to help them. His, his staff was so good. But what he realized is people were anxious because they were either going to be told they had cavities or they were going to be told they had gum disease. And he was like, Those things are, are totally something people can do something about.

All they have to do is floss. And we all know we need a floss. So why aren’t we? And he was like, I’m going to invent a way to help people floss.

How Slate Electric Flosser Works

Brynn Snyder: But what he notices, a lot of people use floss picks. Do you use floss picks?[00:04:00]

Kunle Campbell: I do. I do. You mean the plastic it was contractions that have a flosser there, they’re very convenient.

Brynn Snyder: Yes. So

Kunle Campbell: I.

Brynn Snyder: yeah, we noticed like everyone was like, they’re super convenient. I use them. But hygienists would be like, what? I can’t even tell they’re flossing with those and they’re getting out big things like popcorn or beef jerky, but they’re not getting rid of the biofilm or the bacteria. So my husband was like, okay, how do I make the floss pick more effective?

Cause it needs to be super easy. So we actually, we invented a product that has what we call gum sweeps. So they go where the gums and teeth meet, and they have these little bristles and ribs and they go in there. And they have sonic vibrations. So we’ve matched the floss pick with electric toothbrush and made a product that makes flossing easy and effective.

And the reason we did that was to help people be able to take charge of their oral health. So when they go to the dentist, they can be confident and they can also not have cavities or gum [00:05:00] disease. 50 percent of Americans have gum disease. And if you have gum disease for more than five years, you’re 70 percent more likely to have dementia.

So, once you’ve disrupted all that plaque and bacteria by flossing, though, it goes on your tongue. So on the back of our product is a tongue scraper. It has two rows to lift and rake the hairs of the tongue and one to squeegee it off. And how I became so passionate about this was I was working my plan wasn’t to work at his office, but he, one of his front desk got placenta previa.

She couldn’t be working. So I went and I started working at the front desk. And then she didn’t come back. So then I stayed until we got a new office manager. And as I went. And I learned all these things. I realized that the normal consumer doesn’t speak dentist or hygienist. They don’t understand that the pH of what you drink matters.

They don’t understand that flossing dictates your health. And so I was like, okay, we’re going to invent this product. And [00:06:00] I am going to become a dental interpreter for the average consumer.

Kunle Campbell: Yeah, there’s so much to unpick there, but I want to speak to your last statement and then I’ll go back to a lot of things you said.

Challenges and Successes in Product Development

Kunle Campbell: I think what I picked up from there is you as a product person, you immerse yourself in the pain points as in for you to be in that environment for an extended period of time.

A dentist, a dentist office your husband’s, practice, you were able to really understand the pain points. Understand it from a point of view of the end user, as well as understanding from the point of view of a dentist, your husband and that essentially give you all the elements to to design a groundbreaking patent patented product which is in, in, in the form of Slates electric flosser And a lot of product people tend to speak with their clients and have the back [00:07:00] and forth, but you had that opportunity to really do, to get this right.

And you did it full justice which I was super impressed with when, when I came across a product,

Brynn Snyder: Well, thank you so much. Like that’s actually something I really agree with. I don’t think actually I could have invented this product. Dr. Snyder, like, was so integral in making sure that these gum sweeps actually go into what they call the embrasure area. like, he used different impression material to shoot in between all the different angles, and then he designed it.

It just. This is very much Dennis designed.

Kunle Campbell: It’s dentist designed. And then, so how did you synergize your product experience with your husband, with Dr. Snyder? What did you break down, please? What the process was, the product development process was. I’m super excited, super interested rather in, in that.

Brynn Snyder: Well, I would recommend most people not having a husband and [00:08:00] wife try to work together on design because that makes it harder. But the cool thing is, is what we did was we use dental tools as our inspiration and then users. So what people don’t realize is why don’t you string floss? Well, because of dexterity.

So like a five year old or an 80 year old. can’t hold floss. So we needed to make the body of it a little bit bigger so that they could hold it. And then we, we created these edges so that people would know when they have arthritis or the harder time grabbing, they would know where it was in their hand because they need to know where these go in their mouths.

And if it’s just circular, Then they don’t know exactly where the gum sweeps are. We made this neck long enough so that it could go and grab that back molar. The back molar is usually the first tooth extracted in people’s mouths. And it’s because no one ever [00:09:00] grabs the, they need to grab this side and pull it.

It’s like every time I do it every night, I’m like, that much was hiding behind my back tooth.

Mhm.

Kunle Campbell: So remember our chat in May earlier this season, Episode 33 with Sam Piliero about scaling from $1 million to $10 million with Google Ads? We talked about the power of maximizing your ad spend. Now. Imagine supercharging your Google search and shopping ads with reviews. As a Google partner, REVIEWS.io enables you to seamlessly integrate product and company reviews into your ads. Helping you build trust and increase, click through rates. Adding verified reviews to your ads can be a game changer for standing out in any competitive space. One of my personal favorite ways to extend the reach of reviews is through their [00:10:00] reputation management feature. This tool helps you distribute reviews to third party platforms like Trustpilot and Facebook, or even Google itself. Whether you want to send all your views to one platform or have reviews, or are you automatically spread them where you need the most visibility? This feature ensures your reviews, are, working harder for your brand. With REVIEWS.io, you can manage both products. And company reviews in one place, which streamlines your efforts while amplifying your brand’s presence. If you’re already using reviews, but feel like you’re not getting enough, there’s a faster way With REVIEWS.io’s Review Booster, you can collect your reviews, not only from new customers, but also from past customers.

So you’re not having to wait around for fresh orders to start building trust. Simply upload a list of customer details and REVIEWS.io [00:11:00] will handle the rest automatically sending out review requests with customized email invitations. This means you can quickly boost your credibility and start converting more shoppers. And if you’re stuck a longterm contracts with your current reviews, provider REVIEWS.io makes switching easy for listeners of the 2X eCommerce Podcast. Through their contract buyout program REVIEWS.io will honor the time left on your contract so you can transition seamlessly without having to double pay for services. Once your buyout period ends, you will enjoy their flexibility. No commitment, monthly plans giving you freedom and results without being locked into something that doesn’t work for your business. Ready to make your reviews work harder to for your business. Use the code 2X to get 10% off your first year with REVIEWS.io. Just click the link in the episode description. Or ask the support team to apply the [00:12:00] code for you. Applies to new customers, only terms and conditions apply.

Mhm.

Kunle Campbell: So just to explain to majority of subscribers to this podcast audio only listeners. So they wouldn’t have really gotten what you said. So you’re holding what looks like an electric toothbrush. So the body of a Slate’s flosser feels like an electric toothbrush and then it has a neck.

That extends to it branches out to two tentacles and that’s where the floss string is. And you were talking about the dexterity, the, just the functionality or the grip of the handle, which has like contours that would allow you to figure out where your fingers should fit on there. So if you have arthritis, it’s just easy, you get it, you feel it. do you want to describe when, because I don’t have a Slate, [00:13:00] when you put a Slate flosser in between your teeth, what happens? Does it, does this sort of dip in and then come out?

Brynn Snyder: Yeah. So if people, so we, it’s kind of like a piece of floss with two triangles stuck on the side. And if you’ve noticed when your gums and teeth meet, there’s a little triangle. And so we, Want to put the triangle right in there because the stimulation of your gums is Why we floss and most people don’t even understand that Because the bacteria is sitting underneath the gums, and with the sonic vibrations and our product, it vibrates the gums enough for the plaque and bacteria to be disrupted.

Kunle Campbell: so you’re shaking it, you’re vibrating it and it loosens itself from the base of your gums. I just thought flossing was more around taking, that string of food, just debris, food debris from a mouth. So it’s a bacteria extraction [00:14:00] exercise.

Brynn Snyder: Yeah, I think most people think it is to get rid of the big things, but actually, flossing is to get rid of the things you can’t see, because plaque turns into tartar in 48 hours. Yes. And once it’s tartar, it can only be removed by a hygienist. And so we want to get it while it’s in its soft stage.

Kunle Campbell: out.

Brynn Snyder: So yeah,

Kunle Campbell: Okay. Okay. Now, I want to go back to your first statement, your intro, when you were given the backstory you studied as a product designer where did you study?

Brynn Snyder: I went to Brigham Young university in Utah. I’m actually Canadian, but I, I wanted to go somewhere that was warmer. And at the time, BYU was the top three program in the United States. So I was like, okay, I want to go there.

Kunle Campbell: absolutely from cold Canada to to, to hot Utah. Okay. Did you get into product? Why were you fascinated in product design?

Brynn Snyder: I love [00:15:00] making things easier for people. And I also loved creating. So my sister actually had a friend who was a product designer and that’s where I saw, I was like, you can design shoes. I loved sports growing up and I always wanted to have like a, the great pair of runners. And I was like, okay, I’m going to become a Nike shoe designer.

That was my goal. When I first started design school, I just thought I’m, I’m going to make products that Are ergonomic and then that people enjoy using

Kunle Campbell: Okay. So right off college. Up until Slate you mentioned something about Johnson. What was the trajectory? What were you designing? What was your everyday professional life like

Brynn Snyder: well

Kunle Campbell: to Slate?

Brynn Snyder: before Slate, I did 3 internships while I was in college. 1 was at Johnson and Johnson. You know, I wanted to see what do I care about? What do I like? 1 was with a child’s product and [00:16:00] then 1 was with a home goods company, but what I realized is I got married when I graduated and. My husband was still in school, so I couldn’t leave Utah unless he wanted to graduate to move schools, which he probably would have done if I needed to.

So I actually became a furniture designer and worked with Wadsworth design then. But as I did all those 4 different things. What I realized I was the most passionate about was the medical field, and I loved being able to work on products. So when I worked for Johnson and Johnson I worked in their breast care division, working on different devices there and trocars, which are when they, like, are doing a surgery in your stomach, they will blow it up with air and then they put devices almost like ports into your stomach, so they don’t have to make a bunch of incisions or cut you open.

They will then put [00:17:00] the, the different tools through what the trocar. And so it’s really cool and makes the surgery less intense for you to recover from.

Kunle Campbell: So Johnson and Johnson was is a medical device company. So it’s a really nice trajectory, like from medical devices to, to then dental. Oral care devices that, that makes a lot of sense. I could join the dots there. That that, that is interesting. And prior to floss, what was your, what, which of the projects were you most excited about?

What products did you develop that you were most excited about?

Brynn Snyder: You mean with Johnson and Johnson or with any,

Kunle Campbell: across the board.

Brynn Snyder: I, I think I would say like working on the trail cars was really cool because I got to see R and D with the engineers and then I got to see the [00:18:00] design aspects and, and it’s a little less like blue sky blue sky is what they call like Nike where you like can do whatever it’s like I liked that we were making a product that would be used and so it had the ability Have form and function with a but function was the primary goal of the design.

Kunle Campbell: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s full circle with Slate because it’s got the form factor. And it’s highly functional. It was built for function. So that, that’s super interesting. Now for listeners who are either developing their product or are thinking about developing a product, what shouldn’t they do, what should they avoid in, in the process of developing a product to market or Brynnging a product to market?

Brynn Snyder: You can [00:19:00] waste a lot of money in this process. So for me, I think the thing I learned the most was our initial design we did in the United States with engineers. Because our product, the internal components matter. Our second product we did with designers in China. And they were used to making electric toothbrushes.

So the cost difference was a lot less. When we use the designers in China, I think the problem, there’s 2 things that I learned is, is U. S. designers are going to listen to you and maybe come out with a better design, but the Chinese designers if you can have a great designer and have them work with Chinese, like the factory themselves, I think you get a better product that way.

And it’s going to cost less. I, I definitely enjoyed that process better than when I was working. In, in the United with the United States, which shocked me, I would have thought it would have been [00:20:00] different, but I just, I guess I get worried for an entrepreneur, like, we spent 200, 000 designing this product and.

I don’t think people think about that initial costs. At least we didn’t when we started.

Funding and Launching Slate

Kunle Campbell: how did you fund it?

Brynn Snyder: And so we did a friends and family round to get our initial stuff started. And we put our life savings towards engineers at first, and then we realized, okay, this is going to cost more money than we have saved. So then we had some friends and family. Then we did a kickstarter to get enough orders in and we were able to do 200, 000 on kickstarter.

So that was really cool.

Kunle Campbell: Amazing. Amazing. And how did it feel going to the unknown? A lot of people don’t talk about it. We talk about, Oh, we made X number of sales, but that stage, how did it [00:21:00] feel?

Brynn Snyder: I was almost sick to my stomach actually, like it was really hard because it, it was so unknown. My. I remember doing the Kickstarter and be like, we didn’t do enough market research, like we should have charged more for our Kickstarter than we did. Because I was like, Oh, we have to pay for all the shipping and we have to pay for all this.

And I thought we had thought it out, but Looking back, it’s people just don’t realize how hard it is. Like it is a really rough road. But I believed in the product and I believe that it would change people’s lives. And if I didn’t have that belief, I don’t know if I would have got through the hard part.

Kunle Campbell: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So really interesting. And was the Kickstarter campaign, was it eventually profitable?

Brynn Snyder: Yeah. So, I mean, it was, I, I live, so my husband is okay with more risk than [00:22:00] I am. I like to have savings. And so I’m like, we have five kids. That’s a lot of kids to just be like, Hey, I actually should preface with this started during COVID. We had given all of our money before COVID happened and then COVID happened and I asked, can we get our money back because we got shut down for two months as a dental office, which meant we had zero income for two months.

And we had given all our savings away. So I think also it was a double edged sword of, it was a stressful time

Kunle Campbell: layered with all that was going on. There was a lot going on.

Navigating Manufacturing and Iterations

Kunle Campbell: You turn on the TV you turn on the social media and there was just a lot going on with all of the, with the fact that you’re in the middle of product development, was it at the time with China or was it with your us

Brynn Snyder: we did. So it was with our team and a Philippines factory. So I,

Kunle Campbell: moved everything [00:23:00] to China.

Brynn Snyder: Yeah, just, just in the last month we were still doing stuff with the Philippines. I love the Philippines. The problem, there’s just some different problems, but now I’m nervous that there might be different problems in China with, if, if we get new tariffs, but yeah.

Manufacturing is just better in China.

Kunle Campbell: Yeah. Yeah. I think they have economies of scale at this point in time.

Brynn Snyder: Yeah. With the Philippines, we could only do like a 500 a day without making new molds and different things. And in China we can do 180, 000 in a month and not even that nigh.

Kunle Campbell: There you go. There you go. You said it better. That’s a comparison. So a lot of people listening to that will take a lot of value. We’ll soak up value right there from what you just said. And then in Kickstarter did you do when you brought it to market? Do you want to timestamp that please?

And did you, yeah. Do you want to timestamp when you brought it to market?

Brynn Snyder: Yeah. So [00:24:00] we did the Kickstarter October 21 and we got products to our people, November of 2022. We.

Kunle Campbell: over a year to,

Brynn Snyder: we had like the, the molds made in October. We thought we’d be able to deliver it by March, but add shipping issues with COVID communication errors with the factory, because we couldn’t have boots on the ground because of COVID.

It just, it lengthened the process. And for me, like, if I say I’m going to do something, I want to do it. And so that was very hard because I felt like. I told the people they’d get it this day, and they didn’t get it, and I do not like that.

Kunle Campbell: Yeah.

Brynn Snyder: They got it in November of 2022.

Kunle Campbell: Most kickstarters do not deliver on time. And we’re still there, there are many kickstarters that don’t even deliver. You’re on the right side of stats.

Growth and Future Plans for Slate

Kunle Campbell: So how many product [00:25:00] iterations have you, or design iterations have you been gone through since November of 2022?

Brynn Snyder: well, our original one was battery powered. We changed a few things with the button, but it wasn’t a major design change. And then, We decided that the, if we were moving to China, we wanted it to be rechargeable. And so we’ve really had two different design, major design modifications. But a lot of tweaks here and there.

Kunle Campbell: And. Again, this is for the listeners. How do you envisage iterations? Are they going to be planned annual updates? Like you have the iPhone or are you just going to wait for sufficient customer feedback till you iterate?

Brynn Snyder: Yeah, so we love customer feedback so much so that I sent an email [00:26:00] to every customer and ask for for feedback. And I get really great feedback. It’s so interesting. You only know what you experienced. So without other people’s feedback, you can’t make it better. And. I don’t have tight teeth, so I need people to tell me when they experience that.

But we will not, we, we have other products we want to launch. The iterations will be less. So I would say like maybe every two years, but we’re hoping to come out with new products in 2025. And they’re all secrets.

Kunle Campbell: It’s exciting. We can’t wait to see them. For listeners, do you want to give listeners an idea of the size of your business, both from a order volume perspective on your top line? I assume you’re profitable.

Brynn Snyder: Yes. So it’s been so fun to see our growth in, We did 200, 000 in 22, we did about a million [00:27:00] in 23, and this year we’re really close to being at 4 million, so I hope we can get there, but it’s been fun to grow. We introduced different colored floss heads this year and we introduced the rechargeable flosser.

So we’re at about 70, 000 users right now. So we’re very excited about

Kunle Campbell: It is.

Brynn Snyder: of how many people are having better health now,

Kunle Campbell: Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So I understand the 200 K was Kickstarter. Yeah.

Scaling from Kickstarter to $1M

Kunle Campbell: One was Kickstarter. So moving from 200 K to one M. What did you do differently?

Brynn Snyder: so many things. Well, people can’t buy your product if they don’t know it exists. So we started email SMS and we started doing meta and Google ads.

Building Trust with Dental Professionals

Brynn Snyder: And we also went to four trade shows to, we really care [00:28:00] about being backed by the dental industry. We want to know that if you asked a dentist. What electric flosser should I get?

They would say Slate, hands down Slate. And so we go to dental trade shows what that’s actually on the fence because we now see that we can message dentists through meta and it might be a better use of funds to, to do it that way. So but we care about being backed by dentists. So that’s a really big priority of

Kunle Campbell: So do you sample with dentists? You give them samples of Slate products.

Brynn Snyder: I would love to be able to give them free samples, but we give them discounted samples so that if they go to our website and sign up for our dental professional program, they get a coupon to purchase their 1st flosser at a discounted rate. So, if they love it, then we actually will send them demo units for their office.

Because what we learned is if a hygienist [00:29:00] can show you the Slate in front of you, then you’re like, yes, I would use that every day.

Kunle Campbell: Show me, don’t tell me, show me, don’t tell me. And that’s why the trade events in person trade events actually work because the decisioning process there, they have your full attention there. And the decisioning is just much more quicker than a meta ad that they might, come in and come up from super, super interesting.

So you went DTC in to, to get to one M after your Kickstarter. Was it just shop?

Expanding Sales Channels: Amazon and Beyond

Brynn Snyder: we did add Amazon in September. So, we were DTC the whole year. We added Amazon in September because we noticed a lot of, dentists were like, I just want to tell my patients to go get it at Amazon. And I was like, okay, well, is that, would that cannibalize our website? There was lots of different things I was worried about, but ultimately I am glad we’re on Amazon.

This in 2024, we learned a [00:30:00] lot more about Amazon. We were the only flosser on Amazon in 2023. Because we’re a brand new whitelisted product, we got a lot of knockoffs in 2024, but what we’ve seen is, is they come. And then they, they slowly go cause their product isn’t quality.

Protecting Intellectual Property

Kunle Campbell: Do you have any like IP protection service behind you?

Brynn Snyder: Yeah. So no one had this, this our floss head is what makes our product super special and that’s what we have patented. And so no one has knocked off our, our floss head yet. If they did, we have a patent on that and we would definitely

Kunle Campbell: Yeah.

Brynn Snyder: do something about it.

Kunle Campbell: so there is a service called IP moat. And they work with SMEs at a very reasonable annual prize. And what they do essentially is they will take your patent. They’ll go through all [00:31:00] marketplaces and they would act like lawyers to get them down. So they know exactly everything is automated where they get in touch with whether it’s a team or an Amazon and they will take down imitations basically.

So you don’t have to

Brynn Snyder: I, I need that info. What is it called?

Kunle Campbell: I’ll

Brynn Snyder: Okay, IP

Kunle Campbell: I’ll link to it in the show notes and I’ll send it, send you an email. I’ve been speaking to their team and it’s AI and they’re, yeah they’re fast growing. They’re fast growing. It’s super, super interesting for businesses such as yours.

So you essentially rip the benefits of your labor, really. It’s literally

Brynn Snyder: Yeah, because I, like, that’s the hardest part is, is if you have a patent, you have to enforce the patent and the patent, enforcing it is expensive. So

Kunle Campbell: They, so they told me about another company that does it for the likes of Nike and like the entry prize was just, I think it was like five figures a month. You pay them to do the work, but with their [00:32:00] one that they’re able to help, Shopify merchants, essentially.

To enforce their IP and essentially take action, not just say, Hey, you’ve been you’ve been knocked off here, but they do the work,

Brynn Snyder: that’s cool. Do they ever work in tandem with lawyers? I was

Kunle Campbell: the owner, one of the owners is a lawyer, so they’ve been able to automate it, but we’ll, I’ll send you the details and

Brynn Snyder: yeah, I, I think that is such an important thing to realize. Like, we decided we all apply for the patent and then we’ll full steam ahead because in order to enforce a patent, you have to have money.

We, you know, our product, we just got our patented, our patent, part of our patent granted just a few months ago.

And so it takes a long time for that to happen.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. Okay. Okay. I’ll introduce you. I’ll introduce you. Okay. So with, so you are you’re a DTC. So you had, so when you built out the when you set up the Kickstarter campaign, you also had a website. It was DTC. [00:33:00] So you were getting orders largely from Kickstarter, but some of it was coming DTC, then you activated Amazon.

How would you. Describe the journey from 1 million to 4 million in 2024.

Team Growth and Strategic Hiring

Brynn Snyder: so in 2023, it was me and a lot of contractors. I didn’t have any other team members. And so I was able to, In February, I was like drowning because I had like 20 contractors and I was working and I have five kids and I was like, I don’t have time for anything. So I got a team member and I, that’s kind of scary because I’m like, if I don’t make money, I can figure out what I need to do.

But when you have payroll of other people, you have to realize like, so I brought Caroline on and it was like a match, just a really great match. And we, Started moving full steam ahead. And then we [00:34:00] both got so busy in September. We were like, we have to each have someone who helps us do what we’re doing.

So I got an assistant and she got a graphic designer to help her. And I think the hardest part is, is you kind of want to hire C suite people. I read the book who not how two months ago. And I was like, okay, we got to get the right people, but usually the right people cost a lot of money. So we have a fractional CFO, we have a fractional like retail strategist, so it’s just trying to figure out.

The right people to help you grow. So the, the one to four, I feel like me and Caroline kind of could do that with a little bit of help of other people. But like, we just worked really hard in 2025, I feel like to go from four to eight or four to 10 or whatever, you have to have a lot more calculated decisions on like, Okay, how [00:35:00] do we make slow months not slow?

And how do we get out there more? So we’re, we’re really excited about 2025, but it’s putting a lot of pressure to really strategize on how to do that.

Defining the Slate Brand

Kunle Campbell: And what’s Caroline’s role?

Brynn Snyder: I call her my brand and marketing strategist. So what I realized is I was working with. someone from Amazon. I was working with someone from these different places and they were changing the brand. And I was like, you can’t change the brand. The brand is so important. So I was like, I can’t seem to manage them.

And Caroline is a great designer. And so she was like, okay, I’m going to make sure that the brand feels cohesive. We’re still working on, on making sure that happens. Cause anytime you hire a new agency or a new team member, they kind of put their own flair. On your brand and you’re like, nope, you can’t do that.

You got to stay in the brand.

Kunle Campbell: If [00:36:00] your brand, if Slate was a human, describe Slate to me, to us, to the

Brynn Snyder: think, I think there’s two, two Slate people. So there’s the 40, 45 year old who loves to exercise. They care about what they eat. They, they carry a care about inflammation. They are very health conscious. They’re, they’re trying to figure out how, when they’re 90 years old, that they are enjoying life.

Okay. That is our person. Our second person is the person who went to the dentist. They were told they had gum disease. And they were like, I don’t want that. I, what am I gonna do about this gum disease? I’m gonna use Slate. So those are our two people right now.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. That makes sense. Those are your ICPs, right? So one who’s learning from pain and one who wants to prevent pain long term,[00:37:00]

Brynn Snyder: Yeah.

Kunle Campbell: if Slate was a human and male or female, would Slate be male or female? How would they talk? How would Slate talk to me? Is Slate a dentist that’s, in glasses and serious?

Or is Slate a really playful, Gen Z type person who is Slate. How does Slate come across to the customer?

Brynn Snyder: we want Slate To come across as the kindest dentist ever that you know, like we’re not playful and funny But I don’t know we it’s like the dental interpreter person Like we don’t we want to have scientific data backing us up But it’s like your friend who’s the dentist you could call on the phone and say like I fell and I hit my tooth What am I gonna do now?

That’s what we want people to feel like they can trust us that we’re giving them something that’s going to [00:38:00] help their health. But we don’t want to feel like a stuffy dentist. So obviously I need to work on that. So I have a clearer answer next time.

Kunle Campbell: No it’s absolutely it’s good to it’s, yeah it’s interesting because there’s some brands, if like I get a, an email in text, I know it’s the brand just a plain text email

Brynn Snyder: See, I think we’re still working

Kunle Campbell: a scale yeah, no it’s amazing. It’s amazing. It’s a journey. It’s brilliant.

Brilliant. Okay.

Marketplace Strategy and Education

Kunle Campbell: So what has been your marketplace strategy across the board? So we have Amazon. Are you in any other marketplaces?

Brynn Snyder: We are dipping our toes in the dental market. So like there’s a few places like Benco and Dental City that you can as a dentist purchase us on, but it makes sense for them to come directly to us. So we have a, we have a wholesale through Slate, but that is a very Very small portion of our [00:39:00] business.

We’re mostly just Amazon and DTC. Our goal is to be in retail in 2026.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. Okay. Okay. And then you’ll, this is the building blocks of that 2025 is very crucial to get in there. Okay. You in, in my notes, you mentioned the need to educate people. The market just to educate the public about gom disease, about the need to, and how flossing is so fundamental to preventing it. If you look back at 2024 how have you, how has education how has Slate educated the general market?

Brynn Snyder: So that is our goal. So we hope through like our email campaigns and through our social media and our ads that we teach people. Why they need to floss. Everyone knows they need to floss, but most people are like, yeah, the last time I flossed was when I was at the dentist or when I had popcorn in my teeth.

But if they [00:40:00] understood anytime we tell people about gum disease and what it’s doing to your body, they’re like, if the dentist would have told me that I would have been flossing and, and the, and the dentist, like, my husband are like, I swear, we tell them that, but it just goes in one ear and out the other.

And I was like, okay, we need to tell people on a regular basis that, you know, the inflammation that comes from your gums. So the brain barrier, it’s crazy, kicks most thing out, but for some reason the bacteria that are in your mouth can go through the brain barrier. So that’s why it can affect things like dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, those are all under the same umbrella.

And then heart disease, like people don’t know, if you needed heart surgery, you have to go to your dentist and get a letter saying you don’t have gum disease.

And people are like, what? If you need heart surgery, you just get it. Well, the problem is, is there’s [00:41:00] a really high failure rate if you have gum disease. the heart disease, COPD, diabetes dementia, those are all tied. But what like blew my mind, and I didn’t know this till I was working at the dental offices, preterm labor, low birth weight. Those are from gum disease, too. And like as a woman, I just think there’s not enough research done for what the effects of gum inflammation is.

Like, we know it affects menopause. So, I just think when you understand, Oh, to have whole body health, I actually need to have oral health. Like, your gut microbiome is affected by your oral microbiome.

Kunle Campbell: Cause when you look at the journey of food, through our system, it starts with the teeth, it starts with the mouth and then goes into the guts. And so getting it right up front is so [00:42:00] key, getting that conducive environment to to, to taking more food, to digest, more food or crunch more food is so important.

So important. Your website is lovely by

Brynn Snyder: Oh, thank you.

Kunle Campbell: it’s, it just it’s got a very the visuals it’s so much on brand just looking at it. And I think speaking to the point you made I’ll just read this out to you by prioritizing education. We’re able to build trust with our audience and convert hesitant buyers into loyal advocates for our brand.

The remits, whoever is, whoever, designed your brand, got that Key, got that really well got that in and they’ve been able to educate without scaring. Cause there’s something happening now. What I noticed in on social media now with creators and influencers There are some creators you tap into or you subscribe to, and they fearmonger, all the time.

And there’s a clear line between a fearmongering and then educating. And I think [00:43:00] your website is

Brynn Snyder: very hard to do too, because we are like fear mongering cells.

Kunle Campbell: It

Brynn Snyder: And so I’m

Kunle Campbell: But does it retain? That’s the question. Does it retain?

Brynn Snyder: well, I think that with our current audience, they tend to care about their health. So we don’t have to fear monger them, but it’s funny. Our meta team was like, I think you should do more ads about how all these things. And I was like, we don’t want to be fear mongering. We want people to. Give them a tool that they can do that changes their habits.

But that means they have to want to do it. So is the fear mongering gonna give them that want? Or is it just gonna be a temporary thing?

Kunle Campbell: it depends on the ICP you’re speaking to yeah that’s a good one. But yeah it’s interesting to, do you want to speak to like influencers?

Influencer Collaborations and Performance

Kunle Campbell: How have you worked with influencers in in, in the past year?

Brynn Snyder: Well, this has been, you know, you [00:44:00] try and you see what happens. So we are Love littler influencers because we see that they’re great to work with and they have a lot of trust with their audiences. And so we only like to work with people who have tried our product and love it. That’s like our number one thing.

If you try it and you don’t love it, we don’t want to work with you. So we have a few dentists that we work with that really do a great job. We’ve tried moms. We’ve tried. Lifestyle influencers, they have to have some tie to health in order for it to be beneficial. We’ve seen so far like if a mom that has no tie to health shares it, it doesn’t really result.

We also tried, like there is an influencer who he teaches. Men health habits. So we thought, well, this will work great because our product is a thing to make you better. It [00:45:00] didn’t convert, which really shocked us. We thought this is going to help tap into a new market. What we’ve seen is, is it needs to be a doctor, a dentist, a health provider Someone who has some type of educational base.

Otherwise people don’t trust it.

Kunle Campbell: Do you collaborate with influencers from your, does your internal team do the influencer collaborations or do you have an agency?

Brynn Snyder: No, we do it internally.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. Okay. Okay.

Brynn Snyder: I think that maybe it, it might be easier to use the agency, but we wanted, we wanted to be able to really, no, we, most of them know me, we want them to feel part of the brand at this point. We’re still small enough to do that.

Kunle Campbell: Absolutely. Absolutely. What we found was we’ve sold Millions through like influencers. And what we found with one of our brands was that’s teachers. [00:46:00] So we, we had a very strict no. So we didn’t do celebrities. We didn’t do. Like reality tv, because reality tv what’s it called influencers, quote unquote they would have like really good numbers.

We didn’t do them, but when we laid on teachers, because a lot of the time if you’re teaching. Your audience already has trust, in you. So when you say, look, I vouch for this product, I used it. And these are the main results, even if there is not too much of an affinity in like the sector.

So I could be sending a beauty product, but I could sell it to an interior design designer, who’s teaching an audience how to design a house. And it works, across the key thing for us was like teachers. And then obviously if their stats are real then we had a chance. We at least had a bit of chance but yeah it’s really good trial and error with influencers.

Brynn Snyder: That if it was someone who like buys products, and recommends products, people also would buy from them. So, you know, that was interesting. Those are kind of the two groups that have worked for us so [00:47:00] far. But we always, we’re willing to try new ones. But we’ve seen like our UGC only, it usually performs way better if it’s a dentist, if it’s UGC that I would have thought like people would want to hear from the average user, but people want to hear from a

Kunle Campbell: So you’re speaking to using influencers for your ads.

Brynn Snyder: Yeah.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. Okay. Because there’s a whole new world of Using like performance based influencers where you pay the influencer and they actually post to the IgE stories or IgE reels and generate sales directly for you.

Brynn Snyder: Okay. So we do that as well.

Kunle Campbell: okay. Okay.

Okay.

Brynn Snyder: And so that is with, is still our dentist. But when we’re asking for UGC to do for ads, our ads that convert are usually dental ones and not. We’ve, we’ve seen like a few, [00:48:00] like there’s this lady called grownup dish. She, she just talks about products that help her as a grownup and she’s like 50 years old and she, and hers convert.

So it’s like interesting. You’re like, why, why hers? We have older, other older people who do it and we don’t see the same conversion.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. Okay. So wrapping up, what about TikTok shop? Have you, do you sell through TikTok shop?

Brynn Snyder: Yes, we, it’s like, doesn’t do well for us yet. So we either need to figure out how to do it, or it’s just not our demographic. We we’ve been trying it for a whole year. We’d last last black Friday’s cyber Monday. We put ad a lot of ad dollars behind that to see if it would convert. And we just didn’t really see it.

So we haven’t put very much energy into it, but we are on Tik TOK, but we’ve, we’ve had a two viral videos, but not something that [00:49:00] converts.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. Makes sense. Makes sense. Makes sense. Okay.

Reflections and Advice for Entrepreneurs

Kunle Campbell: Let’s wrap up, but I want to ask you a question because you’ve done this before. So for listeners who are. Have just hit seven figures, so 1 million in revenue and are looking to replicate, replicates what you did in in 2024, which is four, maybe even 5 million.

Aiming for that as a goal in 2025, how would you guide them to to hit in that goal?

Brynn Snyder: Make sure you have great ad creation. You’re willing to try things and mess up. And that you have some type of, if you’re on DTC, you need to have some type of inner influencer or affiliate program

Kunle Campbell: Okay. And how have like affiliates, worked for you for Slate

Brynn Snyder: well for like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, they [00:50:00] generated 60, 000 in sales. So for us, that was good. Could we have done better? Of course, but that was exciting to see. Cause we really started harnessing them better in September. And so we’re excited.

Kunle Campbell: And because it’s paper for performance, as in they know what’s working and they’ll continue to do more of what’s working. And if that relationship is nurtured and grown as an, it could be massive for your top line and bottom line.

Brynn Snyder: Yeah, definitely.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. I think we’re, we’ve wrapped up before I let you go.

We, we have a lightning round. I’m going to ask you about five or six rapid fire questions. And if you could use a, just a sentence to answer them, appreciate it.

Brynn Snyder: Okay. I’ll try,

Kunle Campbell: Okay. Okay. What advice would you give yourself like five years ago?

Brynn Snyder: Be okay with burning, making mistakes [00:51:00] and burning money.

Kunle Campbell: Okay. Who has been your most meaningful business contact in the last five years?

Brynn Snyder: We did raise money and I have an investor named Tom Simpson and he helps. He’s a good mentor.

Kunle Campbell: Are you a morning person?

Brynn Snyder: I am. I love the morning. I wake up at 5. 30, I exercise, I eat a smoothie, and then I get my five kids out of bed.

Kunle Campbell: What two things can’t you live without?

Brynn Snyder: My kids and the lake.

Kunle Campbell: What has been the, what has been your best mistake to date? But that’s, a setback that’s giving you the biggest feedback.

Brynn Snyder: I think I learned a lot about supply chain during COVID. I, I think the best mistake, I guess, I had an error in my product and I had to fix it. And it made [00:52:00] me think about supply chain and how to do that so much better. So now I watch it really in detail. Now

Kunle Campbell: Amazing. Final question. If you could choose a single book or resource that has made the highest impact on how you view building a business and growth, which would it be?

Brynn Snyder: there’s so many, I just read who, not how, and I feel like right now that’s impacting me a lot.

Kunle Campbell: AmazingBrynnyn, it’s been an absolute pleasure learning about the Slate, about Slate’s journey and your story, your backstory. And yeah this episode has been a very special one to kickstart 2025.

Brynn Snyder: Thank you so much for having me on your podcast. I’m, So excited that you had me and I love that you care about wellness and making products more like sustainable. So thank you for all of your efforts.

Kunle Campbell: My [00:53:00] pleasure.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Thank you for listening to this episode of the 2X eCommerce podcast. Wasn’t Brynnn’s story inspiring. I loved hearing how a simple idea combined with a real passion to helping people can grow into a thriving business. From creating a pattern, Ted productor scaling to $4 million. In revenue, Brynn shared so much actionable insights from how to connect with customers, to find in the right team and handling growth challenges. I hope you’re leaving this episode as inspired and motivated as I am to taking action in your own business. So if you love this episode, please share it with a friend. Leave a review and make sure you’re subscribed.

So you never miss out on these incredible stories and insights. Thank you again for tuning in and I’ll see you on the next episode.