Our startup story: Linda and Tomas, Co-Founders of SNUGGS

Hey how are you, it's great to have you here! :) So tell us, what's new with SNUGGS?

Linda: Sure, thank you for having us. A lot of exciting things are happening! In the first 4 months we sold over 5500 peaces of our period-proof underwear which gave us 3.5 million CZK revenue. Most importantly, we have returning customers which shows they are satisfied with the product. We did a satisfaction survey and got great results. We have over 85% happy customers (which is a great number given this was our first product launched!). 95% of our customer said they will continue using our product and 40% of our current customer base actually comes from referrals. This is positive feedback, but a lot of work is still ahead of us.

Tomas: Yes, one of our customer just send us feedback that his wife said Snuggs were the best gift he ever gave her. (laughs)

That is awesome! Are you only focusing on the Czech market?

Tomas: European market is the major goal. However, the domestic market is a good place to kick things off. In 2020, we plan to expand abroad 

You said your sales came from your first product. Are you making any changes to it now?

Linda: Definitely! We received a lot of feedback and have worked to incorporate it all. That is why are created version number two and we are already selling it. The feedback was mostly about the shape, cutting, colour and packaging. Our customers wanted to buy whole pack of panties, so we created them and they are already live in the store. 

Tomas: And we are working on more. The next product that is tested and will be launching soon is super absorbent underwear and new line in beige colour.

Sounds like you are on a roll! Are you selling only via your website?

Linda: Our website was until now the main source of sales but we definitely want to hit the online retail world with resellers like Pilulka.cz and strategic partnerships. I think it's a great move for a startup to find the right partner with the same mission as they have. We are partnering with a company that sells period cups. You might think they would be our competitors, but we believe that our products can work greatly side by side and benefit from each other.

What is the next big thing for you?

Tomas: We are planning a big campaign in November. It will be something along the lines “A month without one-time use period products”.‍

Linda: Yes! Our aim is to collect the numbers on how much plastics is spared and that being mindful of your environment can be quite easy, and cool! It will be exciting as this will be our first official marketing campaign. All the exposure we had so far was from articles like the ones in Forbes, CzechCrunch or our interview for DV TV.

And tell me, how are you managing the costs. Are you still working full-time in another company? 

Linda: Actually I'm leaving BudgetBakers at the end of August. Tomas has been with Snuggs full-time since October 2018. It's crazy if I think about it that I've been doing two jobs for almost a year.

Tomas: Yes, we were able to make this change thanks to all the revenue we pulled it. This not only helped us verify the product, market opportunity but also to hire Linda full-time, haha.

Great! Is it just the two of you or have you started growing your team?

Linda: Yes, we had an external colleague helping us with support who is going full-time from September as well. You can't imagine what's it like opening the inbox and having 250 emails from customers. And then when you refresh the page it jumps to 300. It was a great decision to hire somebody to help us take that pressure off, so that we can focus more on growing the company. We also have another friend helping us the executive things like searching for new office space etc. 

Tomas: Until now, we did things pretty much the good old startup-garage way. So not only that we are getting an office but we are looking for key hires that will help us automate some of the processes. We are hiring for is a Marketing Manager and a what we call Production Manager, who'll take care of the factory operations, business development and operations. The goals is to hire them in September to have them hop on the train as soon as possible!

I love that, can you tell us a little more about what the good old startup-garage style looks like at SNUGGS?

Linda: Well right now all returns are delivered to my address, I have tons of pantie packages in my apartment, haha. Since is packaged by us we still have quite some error rate we want to bring down. That is why we are also now looking for a warehouse obviously.

Tomas: There is tuns of manual work we need to automate. We have package everything by hand so far. Actually you can come by tomorrow and help us pack the next 300 orders!

Definitely! Last question that comes to mind is what about investors? Are you planning to raise capital?

Linda: Yes! We are in the later stage with one already.

Klara: Best of luck!