Towels that are better for you and the planet While transitioning from a career as a sustainability expert for large corporations, Brianna Kilcullen identified a need for a better towel. Realizing that hemp fiber is more durable, more absorbent and more odor resistant than cotton she founded Anact to create a hemp towel. She joins Ross O'Brien and Maggie Kelly from Bonaventure Equity. to talk about why it is important to design products to be reused and why we should stop purchasing products that are designed to be discarded. Produced by PodConX Cannabis Capital - https://podconx.com/podcasts/cannabis-capital Ross O'Brien - https://podconx.com/guests/ross-obrien Maggie Kelly - https://podconx.com/guests/maggie-kelly Bonaventure Equity - https://www.bvequity.com/ Anact - https://www.anact.com/ Brianna Kilcullen - https://podconx.com/guests/brinana-kilcullen
Towels that are better for you and the planet
While transitioning from a career as a sustainability expert for large corporations, Brianna Kilcullen identified a need for a better towel. Realizing that hemp fiber is more durable, more absorbent and more odor resistant than cotton she founded Anact to create a hemp towel. She joins Ross O'Brien and Maggie Kelly from Bonaventure Equity. to talk about why it is important to design products to be reused and why we should stop purchasing products that are designed to be discarded.
Cannabis Capital - https://podconx.com/podcasts/cannabis-capital
Ross O'Brien - https://podconx.com/guests/ross-obrien
Maggie Kelly - https://podconx.com/guests/maggie-kelly
Bonaventure Equity - https://www.bvequity.com/
Anact - https://www.anact.com/
Brianna Kilcullen - https://podconx.com/guests/brinana-kilcullen
Maggie Kelly: [00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Welcome to cannabis Capitol the podcast. I'm your co-host Maggie Kelly here with my co-host with the most Raso Bryan venture capital investor and author of the book, cannabis capital rods. It's great to see you.
Ross O'Brien: Maggie is great to see you too. This is kind of becoming routine for us every week. We get to talk to somebody new and exciting and have a lot of fun doing it. So, I guess we're going to keep doing it until somebody tells us we can't anymore.
Maggie Kelly: Yep. Until Dan doesn't show up on this show. We love to feature subject matter experts. And today we are doing. That our guest is Brianna Kilcullen founder of enact a textile company who also happens to have extensive experience in sustainability. But before we get started, it's time for the cannabis economy challenge that time, we all know and love our weekly challenged to see if listeners can identify an industry or sector that is not impacted by cannabis legalization.
Unfortunately, Ross still sits undefeated and we need someone to put his ego in check. And I think this is the week [00:01:00] Ross.
Ross O'Brien: I'm always ready, but let's not underestimate the power of my ego.
Maggie Kelly: A truer statement, never been spoken. Okay. Nigel from London may have stemmed you. So this week, his let's see his submission, his engineering. So what do you have to say to that?
Ross O'Brien: Well, it's a word and it's a concept, but if Nigel is referring to engineering as a discipline I think this one's pretty straightforward. So what comes to mind immediately is that there are different disciplines within engineering. And if you look at. Material engineering for example and somebody who we're going to talk to you today, there's a whole new world of materials opening up with the access to legalization.
We've talked about things like hemp, bricks being used for building houses, et cetera, and hemp as an alternative to textiles and turn con, when you start to look at the material science side of engineering, I think that's really straight forward as we have a new resource that we're only just starting to figure out.
And then when you get into electrical engineering and [00:02:00] manufacturing, and you look at processes and systems, et cetera. So now we have new materials. Now we need new ways in which to process those materials.
. So, you don't need to look any further than all of the innovative systems and equipment that's being developed from extraction equipment. That's being calibrated and put in place and all the different ways in which the plant can be processed are gonna require a lot of smart engineering minds.
Some of them might even be from London, Nigel.
Maggie Kelly: Okay. So I guess today was not the day. It comes out on top yet again, if you can think of an industry or sector that is not impacted by cannabis legalization, please visit cannabis capital podcasts.com to submit your challenge. And it could wind up on a future episode now onto the show featuring Brianna Kilcullen founder of an act. .
Brianna Kilcullen: Hi, my name is Brannon Kilcullen I'm the founder of enact and my blunt truth from the cannabis economy is that cyber is the future.[00:03:00]
Maggie Kelly: Hi, Rihanna. We are thrilled to have you on the show today, before we get started, would you mind giving our listeners a little background on yourself and also your current.
Brianna Kilcullen: Sure. Super, super excited to be here today and to get started. So my background is a little different than I think most people in the cannabis space. I come from textiles Come from cannabis. But I worked at under Armour and ran their sustainability program and their supply chain right out of college.
And then from there, I went and worked for Pronto, which is owned by Columbia sportswear and ran their sustainability program. And that was where. I first learned about him. So my background really is textiles and understanding just the textile industry and how clothes are made. And through that, I was able to see just how negative of an impact the industry had.
And I felt very responsible for that because we are all wearing clothes. So we're all connected in that sense. And then when I learned about him, I was just [00:04:00] really intrigued by the lack of infrastructure globally, but I'll put by the power of the. And so I felt like there was a disconnect between the opportunity it provided from a sustainability perspective and a performance perspective and what was actually available.
And so when I learned about that disconnect, I started really researching have products and. I saw that there was a gap in the marketplace. And for me, I was living in California. I didn't have a washer or dryer, and I was really looking for the most sustainable best performing towels at the time. And I didn't see anyone doing him towels.
The towels that I was purchasing, weren't doing what I needed. Be doing a they were picking up this mildewy smell. They couldn't keep going to the laundry mat. They were all really plush. And so I had this idea to solve my own problem. Choose him because it's, biostatic meaning it's, molecular structure is hollow.
So it resists the growth of bacteria because bacteria can't stick and [00:05:00] design a towel that used him and had a thinner we've constructions that have these like thick plush we've kind of grown accustomed to, to looking for and, and designing that pro product for myself. I just saw this huge opportunity with the re legislation.
Of the legalization of hemp in the us to have a conversation about why we're not manufacturing here what's going on with our us farmers and not having cash crops and be able to create this product that would solve people's problems, but also carve out this market space to be able to move forward.
And so I got really, really excited about it and I. Was like, do I tell someone else to do this? What do we do? And I was like, I think I just do it, solve my own problem. Assume other people have the same problem and then talk about all the issues about why we can't do certain things as we go along.
And that's really what we've been doing ever since. So, we're based out of Jacksonville, Florida, which is where I'm originally from. We were funded on Kickstarter. [00:06:00] We launched during COVID March, 2020. So we do D to C. And also wholesale and we've just been growing organically. We hold the number one spot for him, towels on Google right now.
So we get a lot of great traffic that way, and we just believe that. the opportunity in hemp and cannabis, I think is solving people's problems and less about it being just like a new trendy thing. That's was taboo. That's not, but really how do we talk about what this plant can do.
And how do we not make the same mistakes we've done in the cotton industry and other industries and really evolve
Ross O'Brien: well, Brianna, it's super exciting to have a fellow entrepreneur here. The story. And as a lot of our listeners are entrepreneurs out there looking to start their own ventures. So one of the things I'd love to unpackage and that there's a few things I want to come back to in the, in the story of how you got things launched.
But one of the things that we see a lot is, is there's this sort of gap between [00:07:00] ideation and execution and for you to go identify an issue and sort of check all the boxes. There's a piece there that I'd love for you to expand on for our listeners, which is when you saw the opportunity to market, this is not something where you could otherwise go and start a towel business and have a manufacturer in China.
And you've already got your own, like the infrastructure isn't there. So how did you go tackle that? , and what sorts of things did you have to actually pioneer along the way?
Brianna Kilcullen: Yeah, that's such a great, great, great, great question. Because the energy that I have now versus the energy that I had back then two separate energies. And so I think that's like something that I've realized I'm like, I don't know how I had that energy, that, that innocence and looking at this space and just going for it.
I, had background in supply chain, so I knew how manufacturing happened. I knew factory partners. I knew how to start that conversation, but I also. Building a brand new product. So for me, one of [00:08:00] the, one of the, the kind of inspirations I had was that the 2016 election, when that occurred,
my takeaway, like politics aside, it was just like, I can basically do whatever I want. Like, , no, one's driving the bus. I'm going to go drive my own bus. I'm just going to do it. Like, that was just my takeaway. And I, and I thought everyone else had that takeaway too, because I was like, as a kid, you see someone on the apprentice and then you go see them.
Become precedent, no one ever connected those dots. That that was possible. Like, I always thought it was like, you go to Harvard and you have this like, specific like trajectory. And then all of a sudden, so I just had this assumption that people were smarter and more money knew more than I, and then when I felt like I saw behind the curtain.
I just, it gave me this energy, this boost to just go do whatever I wanted. And so, in that energy boost I had then to scope out how do you bring this product to life? And for me, , I, what I realized is the [00:09:00] partners I had been working with at under Armour chrono, they're, multi-million billion dollar, not billing.
Multimillion dollar factories. So to work with a small brand that has no order volume, they are like, I don't know what to do with you. Or like we're used to so much more. So I actually used Alibaba. That was how I started geographically. I started in the U S to say like, is there any U S manufacturing just through Googling?
And no one would talk to me. They still won't talk to us today because they only went wholesale. They don't work with DTC. So then, because there are 10 manufacturers in the south. And then from there I had heard Portugal had worked with lower minimums. Cause that's really what you want to start with is who's going to have the lowest minimum because you're going to have so many different product iterations that happen.
You don't want to be stuck with that inventory. Like we have in the past where you're like, oh, it didn't work out. Now we have to go sell through that in some facet before we can like fix the next one. So that is the best advice I'd give is like go for [00:10:00] lowest minimums all the time. So that was Portugal, but then Portugal just really couldn't execute from a quality perspective and pricing.
And so then I just kind of kept working my way until finally. We got to China and we found a factory that did a prodo. They fit costing, they set lead time and they could execute and they fit our minimums. And so that's where we started, but that would be the advice that I would give and always get your prototypes, before going into production.
Ross O'Brien: I hope our listeners are tracking to you're speaking a different language, Brianna, in the sense of you come from an incumbent industry, that you can take that muscle memory and that knowledge of supply chain and manufacturing, et cetera. So that when people are listening that, one of the things we really like to focus on is that gap between there's an idea and an opportunity.
And what does it take to actually bring these companies to life, bring these products to market. And without that sort of experience so many projects that just never even get off the ground because people get enamored with the opportunity as opposed to the execution. So execution, as we know [00:11:00] is about people and teams.
So why don't you tell us a little bit about how you've recruited your team, how you manage , your business, how you look at that?
Brianna Kilcullen: Yeah, people, that's the part I think I'm going through right now, Israel. Isn't like, you don't grow without people and people you trust and people who have the similar vision and have the same values. I've worked with so many people today and I it's really, I think the blessing in that is it, it really pure.
Like you as an entrepreneur and what you can handle and what you can't and what for me, it makes me really strong. And what my expectations are with people I work with I always start out freelancing. Like I just think. Less is more and everything when you're starting to build something new because you can't go back once you take off a lot, but you can always build.
And so that's why like Upwork Fiverr are great tools to find people to fill gaps as you're starting. But like, I was doing everything, [00:12:00] customer service, like our finance, Sales website coding, like the whole enchilada. And I still find myself wanting to do that because I'm like, oh, like I know how this all fits and works, but you won't grow.
what I've learned is like, It's fine when things are good, but when things are bad, do you want to get on the phone with that person? And if you do, then that's someone you want to keep working with because when it's inevitable that things are going to be bad and not bad, but will go wrong, and so who's going to like, Keep their cool and realize this is what's going on and just work to problem solve and not blame one another. But the way that I felt enact as we now have our first employees. So there's two full-time people. And then what I've done is for us, an e-commerce is we're on Pinterest.
We're on Facebook, we're on Google we're. Now on Amazon is that we have subject matter experts that we freelance and we build skin in the game. For them to say, like, here's the flat rate to run these channels, but then also like we want to hit these sales goals, then you'll [00:13:00] get a cut as well. And so we've really, I've, kind of, I'm missing the word that I want to say, but like have made each person an owner of that channel and then we own the content as a brand.
Ross O'Brien: So you have stakeholders.
Brianna Kilcullen: I like stakeholders and everyone has some skin in the game and there has to be incentives and people have to be driven by whatever they're working on and have it feed into an act. But what I like my strategy has always been with an act like when I've gone to hemp conferences, I think everyone gets a little.
Let's talk about, let's talk about like this and it's like, no, we just need to tell the customer how we're solving their problems. We need to inspire them with what we're doing and hems, just a component of that. So like we don't market hemp forward lead, like in that way, we're just like, we're the best talent in the market.
Here's why we're doing this. Here's why. And then like, let the customer draw that. So that's the way the strategy from like, Perspective of [00:14:00] people I look for who are going to be able to connect those dots and help us make those sales and get that brand awareness so that we can continue to build and, and grow the business.
So we're like a team of 10 now. But globally that work on the business.
Maggie Kelly: Before we take a turn and , get into financing. It comes across very clearly that you value both your personal wellbeing and that of the, the team members that you hire and the people that you choose to work with. Going beyond just the here's your hourly rate to making your team members, actual stakeholders in the company, I think speaks a lot to your character as a founder.
There's just so much more to building a team than paying a wage. That seems attractive. So can you talk to us a little bit, like maybe about your company's core tenants or your values and how you developed them? Because it seemed, it really comes across that you have very clear ideals [00:15:00] and you're incorporating them into all facets of your company.
Brianna Kilcullen: Yeah, thank you for saying that. I so I guess, for me, my, my parents both come from immigrant families. They. Got to the U S and then have my brother and I. And so everything my parents have is what they dealt. And so what they instilled in us is everything you're going to have is what you've built.
And they're not entrepreneurs in the traditional sense. They're entrepreneurial in the sense of what they. For themselves. So I don't really have like where I'm at is not ever where I thought I would be. I think for , my parents going through so much strife, they thought you just get a corporate job, get a 401k, get a stock options and she's safe and she's secure.
And so to be where I'm at now is like such a gift. Right? All of these things are such, these are, I have to look at this as, this is an opportunity. There's so many people who wouldn't get this. And so how, especially with what we've been going through the past several years globally as a community with the pandemic and [00:16:00] with just all of the racial injustice that's finally coming to light is saying.
This is a business. This is what we believe in. This is how we want to do it, but we also need to be aware that we're living in a human experience here and that like, shit's going to suck every once in a while. And how do we like meet each other there with what we have and say. And that's why I like working with people who care about sustainability, who care about making a difference, who care and see like, Hey, there's a huge market gap in the home goods space.
Close that, and that we know all of this is going to get us there. But also being aware that like we're humans, we're dealing with personal stuff, we're dealing with our own emotions. And so I think that's the core value that I look for is being grateful that we just are here. That like it's beautiful.
It's outside. It's the sun is shining or breathing. That we're kind to one another, and we're aware that like everyone's struggling through different things. They might not speak up, but that we show up and we do our best. And that's the part that I think is the hardest to find is, I don't care what anyone else is doing.
I care [00:17:00] that someone does their very best. And when I don't see that, that's when I get frustrated, because I think that that's the only way to set yourself free from really kicking yourself down the line. So if you did your best, then, Whatever happens. It just is. It's supposed to be what it's supposed to be.
You're not worried about the results because your thoughts where your concern is. And so that's, I think those are the core values I'm realizing as we're growing that I require, but we get on a call and someone just has excuses or. Just isn't prepared. I'm like this isn't going to work because if we're hustling here, if we're going out and capturing this market and doing stuff that no one said we could do, I need you to do the same and match this energy because then we're just always going to be disappointed when we meet.
So I think. Definitely during that, that energies I'm like, what are we all, what are we all here for? If not to like do things we're scared of, if not to like hustle, if not to make stuff happen, our dreams happen. What's the point. So yeah, , I think there's the culture evolves within the [00:18:00] company, the values that I look for and having fun, right.
, my uncle's like, it's the journey, not the destination. It's how you show up in every moment. That's really gonna matter. So I just try to really take that and just constantly apply that in our setting that we're working in.
Ross O'Brien: So Brianna, this is so fun to hear you talk about it. We are kindred spirits in the DNA of our firm and the way you look at. But you said something earlier that I just wanted to unpack a little further, which was about keeping your cool when things go sideways, when the shit hits the fan, I think is that the first time I swore on our podcast, Maggie, this is great.
But you said something earlier about keeping your cool, when things go sideways. That's something that is both learned, but also instilled in people as they grow. And it's something that you can, and can't teach at the same time. Could you maybe contrast how that fits in the corporate world that you came from and then how it fits in the entrepreneurial world that you're building now?
Brianna Kilcullen: Yeah. So I apologize , if I was the first to, and then I just set [00:19:00] off like a ripple.
Ross O'Brien: Oh no. Oh no.
Brianna Kilcullen: , working in corporate, one of the things I noticed is that it was, how do I say this? There was a lack of ownership. So like one of the things that I would get really frustrated with is. , we would do some initiative, but then like so many other people were connected.
And then if that part didn't happen, then like we weren't really allowed to kind of make that connection over why something didn't work. And so I would be frustrated cause I'm like, oh, we're all in the same shift. Like we should all be working here. We should all understand how this is all coming to be.
And it just felt like. Especially in the situation I was at with chrono, we just need to make the money back that took Columbia to sell the company, to purchase the company. And like these executives that had a buyout period they had to stay three years before they could get whatever it was like, we just need to.
To get to that point. And that was what I personally picked up as like a [00:20:00] younger employee. And so it just felt like there wasn't this fire and this drive, it was, just do the status quo and that's just not me. And so, moving into like the entrepreneurship side and when things don't go right, or the way you expect is I'm a huge fan of Ryan holiday.
, but he has a couple of books. Ego is the enemy, and
. He has a new one called courage is calling, and he has a point where . He talks about Ulysses S grant. And he says that, during one of the battles and he was sitting there and he an explosion went off and the insulin killed his favorite horse and all this stuff was going on.
And I said he didn't even flinch. He ran like straight towards what was going on. And he was like, we just need to figure this out. And that's like, the approach I've kind of taken with an act is like, I just don't even let things attached to me when things go wrong. Like we just dealt with the supply chain issue of getting our inventory in and having customers freaking out emailing us like every two hours about like wholesale orders.[00:21:00]
And it's like a two using, I can go like into customs and be like, knock, knock. Like, we've got a special order we have to deliver. And like, get that like container going, get that like your whole entire port. Prioritize towards us. Like, no, but I'm going to do my best. And so I think that realizing like how you're going to, you have so many things coming at you, how do you prioritize?
What's actually what you can control and what you need to be doing. And versus like, what's just noise. And then you just execute. And then what I'm learning is I'm just going to have to do this all the time. Like it's not just I get through it. And then it's over. It's going to be a constant influx of energy and people.
And I know that this. Going to sound like somebody should say therapy, probably not on the podcast. Here we go. It's like I find, and I don't know if this is like a us culture thing is like a lot of people don't know how to read the group. They're so focused on their specific piece of their pie and, Let's look at the bigger [00:22:00] picture.
And so I feel like I'm constantly having to remind people of like what we're doing and where we're going instead of just like fixating on this, like one component that they're concerned that, and you realize. People's emails and their responses are to check off their to-do lists. They're not actually there to support what you're doing.
And so I think as an entrepreneur, you have to get, learn how to say, no, I say no 99% of the time, and you have to learn how to draw boundaries and that's uncomfortable. And you're going to get people who feel disappointed and like start getting clingy when you tell them no. But then you realize those are people who aren't on the wavelength that you are, and then they were, they wouldn't take offense to that.
And so those are the things I think, from an emotional experience of being an entrepreneur, you have to learn, otherwise you'll get stuck and you won't grow and you won't get to where you need to go. So you just have to be super, super conscientious of who's Pauline from the team and who's giving to the team and then being willing [00:23:00] to make really difficult moves and decisions to continue to protect what you're building.
Ross O'Brien: Well, part of Maggie's job description is to be my therapist. So we do a lot of these therapy sessions on the podcast, Briana. So we're welcome to have this conversation. Brilliant. I hope everybody's taking notes and heard about accountability and adaptability and perseverance and focus.
And I loved what you said about. People just checking off their, to do lists by answering emails, as opposed to having a broader aperture to the greater. Good. I'm super exciting to hear you say that.
Brianna Kilcullen: Yeah, it's exciting, but it's also kind of sad, cause, cause they're thinking like, well, as things escalate and we notice just how much we as a global community are connected. It's like we need more people. To be able to read a room and to be able to think outside of that. And I disagree when people say, oh, well, that's why these people have this attitude.
And these people have this. And I'm like, [00:24:00] no, I disagree. Like I think we should be more mindful as a whole, like, I think everyone does specific skillsets and guests, but I think that we need to wake up a little bit more because I think that will help kind of like level up this ability to understand.
What's really going on. That is a problems in society and what our energy needs to be going towards instead of just, really thinking about your individual piece of the pie.
Ross O'Brien: One of the things that we see anecdotally and the entrepreneurs that we get excited about and obviously, invest in is the difference between trying to, have some kind of moonshot. I love how people talk about moonshots and all this kind of stuff. When the reality is, is that. It's all the little things, the incremental things along the way.
There's no silver bullet. I mean, we have this conversation every week with really dynamic founders and investors and key people in the, in the sector. And there's no one answer to everything, but I think it all comes down to certain elements of being able to have [00:25:00] these little incremental ways in which to do that little bit more to do that little bit extra because there is no.
Secret playbook. It's just being willing to do the hard work. And that, unfortunately, to your point, that becomes an outlier perspective, not the base case.
Brianna Kilcullen: the hard work component. It really is. And I think that that's the part where people do want this instant gratification and unfortunately things like social media have created. And so then people want to apply that to every other facet of their life and they don't know, want to sacrifice and what that looks like because it is really difficult.
It is tough to put yourself out there to build something. To have to disassociate your ego and say, does the market like this? Do they want it? We didn't go hard in the paint the first year, because I wanted to really get reviews, customer reviews. I wanted to make sure the product was performing the way that I enjoyed it and not the mark and not the customer enjoyed it.
And then once we got that approval, then I felt confident in [00:26:00] taking on angel investors, because I knew that we had a scalable. Product instead of just trying to like go get some, like whatever, 10 million in VC money and just like hustle and do it and know that there's, I'm a huge reader. And listen, I read Michael singer who's based in Florida, very spiritual And how he built his business and it was like a billion dollar business. And he just talks about like, what you do is you have your set of cards, you play your cards every day. What do you have? You do your best with what you have, and then you have the vision of where you want to go. And then you do it the next day.
And it is going to require a lot of sacrifices. But I think that's the model that makes the most sense. And then just remembering, this is a gift. Be grateful for it. . No one asked me to be here, but I chose to be here. So that helps reduce.
I think the frustration when things are really difficult and like, for me, if I go hang out with friends who worked for someone else, their paycheck is consistent. They know what's happening. They [00:27:00] check out at 5:00 PM and they're done. And then, they're hanging out with me and like, they're not actually hanging out with me.
They're wondering why they're not hanging out with me. Because I don't have that. I have to do this. This is where I've put my investment in. And especially I'm 32 and a lot of my friends are having kids and this is my baby. This is what I focus in on at this time. It really, , it makes you question like, what are we doing here, if not hard things.
But then at the same time so that you can see your dreams come true. That's the part we have to remember.
Maggie Kelly: So I like well, like a lot of what you said, but basically what you highlight with your product and taking your time as you sought validation from the market before you went to ask for money from outside. And I think it's a really great segue into talking about using Kickstarter to get launched and your company's approach to financing.
So if you could share with us what your experience with Kickstarter was, maybe unwrap that for our listeners who are possibly [00:28:00] considering that as a way to get started. And then maybe we can take a turn Ross into some other financing topics for our listeners.
Brianna Kilcullen: Of course. So again, my approach is don't lead with hemp lead with why your product is better, and then what your, valid, unique value propositions are. And so with Kickstarter, I think they do have a ban on hemp in some form. I think it may be in, in the edible. So I just wanted to give that disclaimer out there because at the time.
W we just focus on this as a sustainable towel. And so we did that because here in Florida, traditional financing, we have to be really careful because they wouldn't finance anything with hemp. It's still an issue. So using like it's a natural plant fiber is usually where we go. But if they look up our website, that's when we would start getting pushed back.
So for Kickstarter, what made sense to me was it designed this product and then make sure there's market proves that there's a need for it before we go into production. So. [00:29:00] Kickstarter goal was purely based off of the minimum needed to place an order at the factory. And then we met that. We surpassed that and I was like, okay, cool.
There's market traction for this. And so w it was just the 30 day campaign that we did. I did the video of myself with a local videographer. I usually recruit from like the colleges and universities, because they're hungry and they're interested in, they want it. So I was like, here's the vision? We did it over three days.
I went to China and actually got footage from the farm and the factory, which we incorporated in the video to show the entire process. And then I created the pitch kit or the, our press kit which I recommend for anyone to do and put it on your Google dry. We do our photos or videos or logo.
Basically. We make it so easy for people to promote us that like it, they don't have to do a thing. And then we spent like those 30 days pitching to the media Delta or email distro we use Klayvio at the time we use MailChimp, but Klaviyo is like the new email for integration [00:30:00] Shopify, Yeah, we pushed it for 30 days.
We hit our goal and then I was like, all right, we have that. We went into production. And when we went into production, then we had enough inventory left over to then test the market space outside of the market. We cultivated because Kickstarter's really early adopters. It's not necessarily going to be your customer.
It's like someone who's like tried your product and then they're going to go like early adopt someone else like that. Th I, and I don't think it was what it used to be. It used to be very, crowdfunding focused, but now it's much more like you really need to have your own network.
Kickstarter's not going to promote you. You're not going to find people through Kickstarter. You gonna have to find them yourselves and then direct them to Kickstarter. So then once we did that financing that carried us through. And then when we launched during COVID I sold through that inventory and then we had to say, okay, we can't keep doing Kickstarters.
Now we need to look for other financing. And so for me, like, that was when we had the stimulus payouts. There was like other stuff happening. So I was taking that money and using that as ad money to sell her [00:31:00] product and, and make money from that to put back in the business. So I think that's just like, I'm just scrappy in that way.
No one could have forecasted that, right. Be like, oh, pandemics going to happen. And you're going to get this extra money is going to be dispersed through like economic injury, disaster loans, et cetera. But I took that. So that was like what we had during that time. And then I always applied for like Pitchfest and grants and stuff of that nature.
So it was always like, how do we maintain the integrity of the businesses and get as far as possible before we take outside capital. And I put my own money in the business as well. So, once we like hit that threshold, then it was okay. We need to be open to investors, not only, and there's good money and there's bad money, but the good money, what we need is that they're opening their network in their Rolodex for us.
And now we're getting strategic connections and now we're getting things open for us that no one would open before. And so that's the piece. No one really told me, they just said be really careful of investors, but. No, as long as were aligned, like [00:32:00] they want us to win just as much as they want to win.
We're all in. We all want to win. So like, I think those are the experiences, but in the cannabis industry, everyone's just, and I haven't talked to any cannabis investors recently. I mostly talked to investors who want to support female founders who are into e-commerce and who are into sustainability.
Those are usually where I hang out because the cannabis ones are just really CBD, focused, and really difficult to pull into the fiber space. And so I was like, all right, they're just not really understanding the opportunity here. So we're going to move over to people who get the opportunity, right. So that has been the experience in financing, but like, I just look at it as capital's a resource, just like anything else and investors have experiences, but they are not going, you are the responsible for your business and your vision.
And you need to make sure that just like any, like hiring an employee, that is a song you want to get on a call with when things are [00:33:00] sour and if not, then you should not work with that person. And I also am very. With our first semester, we just did a line of credit and we found a cadence and working with each other before we opened an opportunity for equity.
And I will say I'm like, this could be a downfall of mine. Like I've, as I've talked to other founders, I think there is a little bit of a, oh gosh, how do I say this? Like people who like the game of like, okay, what's. What are the best terms are going to get and like, what's your cap table and is this this round and is this raise?
And it's just like good grief. It's a whole nother world, . And the terminology and the conversation and the valuation and the dilution. And for me, I'm just like, we, we had to let the market drive this conversation and I only take the money that we need. When we need it and then have the conversations as we go, as opposed to just trying to like, get a bunch of money and play [00:34:00] that game and then have to kind of sit in that conversation in that language.
It just doesn't vibe with me personally.
Ross O'Brien: So . This is really interesting because we look a lot at the personalities and the people and the team when we make investments. And I love that you've brought up that you're a voracious reader. Did I mention. By the way here. So one of my favorite quotes is not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.
And I think that I hope people are taking away that there's a whole world of. And actually that was part of the incentive of writing. The book was to give these resources to entrepreneurs in cannabis, who haven't had to go down transaction paths before transactional pass. Before I haven't had to think about valuing a private company, haven't had to think about governance and structure, et cetera.
So I'm really excited to hear your perspectives on that. So maybe a place to, to wrap up would be talk to us a little bit about the future. Where do you see things going? Where do you see your company going and what would be [00:35:00] the ultimate. Next phase, or I love that it's a journey, not a destination, but talk to us about a destination that defines success for you and for your business.
Brianna Kilcullen: Yeah. So, for us, and just going back to that if anyone's ever looking for us are, are, are looking for evaluation. We did ours off the breakfast method which is just like a five point or five metrics that you can measure. And I think that. , 200,000 for each metric.
I think that you, that you checked to determine your valuation. And then we went off of the market as well. So like the home goods market in the U S alone is, I think it's like 1.2 billion. So those are the ways in which if anyone's looking for help to really scope out what the market opportunity is for your product, those that's how I did it for us.
So the future, where are we going? We just got a mentor in after dealing with all the supply chain crisis issues. So that was a feat. Now we have inventory ready to roll. We have product that's resonating. We have wholesale contracts that are opening. [00:36:00] We're getting a lot of athletes, musicians, activists, who are really interested in what we're doing.
I think because, female founded in this. Folds has an edge is allowing, is bringing men into this conversation around sustainability. And so those are the things I think that kind of and the, and the in hemp, still people think that's, edgy. So we're like, cool. Yeah. If you find that edgy let's, let's rock and roll with that, but we have some really big wholesale contracts in the works I can't talk about yet that I'm really, really, really excited for.
And then really building the team and investing and getting cadence. And I think for me, my life has been pretty unstable for the past several years and building this, I'm just kind of gotten used to constant. Being on call 24 7 and having to give more like each time I'm like, is there anything left to give?
And I'm like, oh, there's something else there. And I go to bed and I wake up. I'm like, I'm back at it. Like last night. I didn't think I could do it again. And then all of a sudden this morning, here [00:37:00] I am. And so I need to move from out of that mode into a little more stable and having more consistency and saying like, look, we do want to hit these numbers, but if we grow and put all of this, it's going to burn us out if we sprint for it.
And so how do we sprint when we need to, but realize this is a marathon I'm not in it to just sell this brand to a VF or to a PVH. And walk away. I'm really interested in how do we build this market so we can find seeds for our farmers to grow. How do we innovate and supply chain here in the U S manufacturer, our product here?
How do we close the gap where we don't only produce this product and give it out to our customers, but we take back your towels. We take back your product and we make something new. So that we don't put things in the landfill. Those are the things that I'm driven by and I'm interested in because I think they're wired for us at this point in order to progress as a society.
And enjoy our time on this planet is we [00:38:00] can't just be dumping things. We can't just not be mindful of the impact of when we're producing products. And so once. I think enact is really that vehicle for us to do that. And then for us here in Jacksonville, there's not, it's on a startup city.
There's not really much. E-commerce, there's really not a lot of, in the south, I would say that progressive vibe around innovating. And so I think for me, Getting to do that work here and inspiring others and building a community and giving back is really important as well. So yeah, that's the to 2022 and beyond vision.
Maggie Kelly: Well, I think that is the mark of a star founder. If you ask me, because in that one response, you gave us a six month, 12 month, and possibly 10 year vision in one statement. So that's fantastic. No, , that was actually pretty perfect. So many things to Briana Kilcullen founder of an act, a Florida based textile company, producing him [00:39:00] towels to learn more about an act visit act.com.
That's a N a C t.com. Details covered in this episode can be found in the show notes. And remember, if you have a cannabis economy challenge, please visit cannabis capital podcasts.com. And you can find us next week with a new episode of cannabis capital the podcast. Where Ross will shamelessly plug his book, cannabis capital by everyone.