From Side Hustle to Millions: How This Founder Left Her 9-5 & Landed a Deal on Shark Tank with Sarah Moret, Founder of Curie

Yasmin Nori

Hey everyone, I'm Yasmin Nori and you're listening to the behind her Empire podcast. I'm on a mission to showcase successful, self made women who share honest stories and lessons of what it really takes to create the life you want and build your own empire. If you've been listening to the show, you know, just like you, I've been on my own personal journey to build my empire. I started my business BIA to help women tackle their period problems and hormonal imbalances using a natural whole food approach. If you're suffering from bad cramps, irregular periods, fatigue, bloating, stay tuned because a little bit later in the podcast, I'll share a bit more about my company BIA.

But for now, let's jump into today's episode. I want to welcome this week's guest, Sarah Murray to our show today. Sarah is the founder and CEO of Curie, a clean deodorant and body care brand on a mission to change a stigma around clean beauty. Sarah has been an athlete all of her life and was a very active person and one thing she could never come across was a clean, aluminum free deodorant that actually worked and fit her lifestyle. From her own frustration, Sarah decided to start Curie as a side hustle in 2019 to solve her own problem.

Sarah then bootstrapped the company and financed it with $20,000 in her savings and very early on was hitting six figures with content, word of mouth and pr. Fast forward to today. The company has scaled to be a $20 million success story and is sold in thousands of stores nationwide, including Walmart, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's and they've sold out dozens of times through live selling on QVC. Sarah has also appeared on season 13 of Shark Tank and landed a deal with Barbara Corcoran and Mark Cuban. In this weeks episode, Sarah talks about her transition from accounting to becoming an entrepreneur, the steps she took to turn her side hustle to a full time business, and how she had incredible growth with very little money.

Early on. We also talk about the many rejections she faced when it came to finding manufacturers, getting into retailers and participating in shark Tank. She shares stories we can't make up and how she turned all those nos into yeses. Sarah also shares her crazy experience on Shark Tank and what really happens behind the scenes that we don't typically see and so much more. Welcome to the show, Sarah.

Sarah Moret

Thank you. I'm so excited. It was a long time coming. It was. And I know we first met years ago and I feel like we both had very different lives back then.

Yasmin Nori

Like, before entrepreneurship. You were in VC, I was in tech. So we have a lot to talk about today to catch up on. All those years, like, truly a lifetime ago. Yeah.

Who was that? We've gone, like, totally different direction, but it's fun to. I'm so excited to be here, Morgan. Well, I thought it'd be fun to start with the topic of rejection. You've mentioned it in a few other interviews, and I know you said for the longest time, rejection of Curie felt like rejection of Sarah.

And you used to be so scared of failure, rejection, and being told no. And I think so many people listening can 100% resonate with that. I know I can, but I'm sure we'll talk a lot about your rejections. So much of business is dealing with that. So tell me, how did you overcome your own fears and manage the rejection that you face on a constant basis?

Sarah Moret

Yeah, I love this question. I love talking about this because I think that starting a business is such a vulnerable thing, as is, you know, starting a podcast, like putting yourself out there, putting your art, your work out there for judgment, is really, really scary. And I worked in venture capital before I started Curie. My job was, I was an associate when we met, my job was to find entrepreneurs and for the fund that I worked for to invest in. So I met with hundreds of entrepreneurs.

That was my job, was to meet with entrepreneurs every single day. And I think before I got into venture capital, I would look at Forbes magazine, at these entrepreneurs on the COVID like Sarah Blakely, and be like, wow, she must have something super special that I don't or that nobody has. And I kind of put these entrepreneurs on a pedestal. And what was a really, I think, important part of this job for working in venture capital is I got to meet with entrepreneurs every day. And after meeting with hundreds of them, I realized, like, there isn't actually anything different or like, these aren't some types of superhumans.

Really, all it takes to be an entrepreneur is to have an idea and the guts to go out there and do it. And that's what stops a lot of people from going out and doing it is the second part, which is the vulnerability and the fears that come with starting something and putting your work out there to the world for scrutiny. And it was a huge aha moment for me where I was like, these people aren't any smarter or more special. It's, they just have the guts to do it. And that's really all it takes.

And that really motivated me. I had always wanted to start something of my own. And I was like, I'm gonna go, you know what? If all these people can do it, so can I. I'm gonna go out there and do it.

And as soon as I had an idea that I thought was good enough, I just went out there and did it. And I faced so much fear. I wrote a ton about this back when I was first starting fury about just the fears and fear of failure and fear of being like a laughing stock. You know, I was starting a deodorant company and I'd be like, you know, sometimes I'd wake up in the middle of the night and be like, who am I to do this? Like, why would I, why would I be successful at this?

And really, really pushing through and conquering those fears has been so, so, so key to my success and to where I am today. And also acknowledging that, that rejection and fear of failure is never going to stop. Yeah. And by just pushing, powering through, you get stronger and stronger and stronger. And I was just saying, I think I said this on Shark Tank.

I was like, every great thing that has happened in my business has started with a no. QVC said no to me, shark Tank said no to me. Every retailer we're in has said no to me at some point. And just powering through and not letting those no's and that rejection get you down is, I think, the most important quality for an entrepreneur. I love that.

Yasmin Nori

And there's so many things that you said that definitely hit, you know, one of them being so many people have ideas and it's really taking the guts to make that leap. And I had a similar situation. So when we had met, I think I was working at this tech startup here in LA, and this guy, the founder, was like his third time entrepreneur, sold his businesses, raised money before we had product market fit. And I remember that was my first firsthand experience. And I was sitting there in a room.

It was only like five of us at the time, and no one knew what they were doing. And I'm like, wow, this guy who has started businesses like he doesn't even know the right next step. And it was just a good aha. Moment of, you just take one step in front of the other and we're all figuring it out no matter what stage you're in and how big your business is and similar to you. I was like, oh, so you don't have to be this magical person that starts a company and put them on.

Sarah Moret

A, or even like an expert in like you said, like, you don't even have to. I didn't know anything about cosmetics or personal care. But you know what? Now I'm an expert. And, like, it just took doing it and learning and being curious and asking questions and networking, and you can become an expert in anything.

So I think that's also a limitation people set on themselves is like, I can't do this. Like, what business do I have starting a tech company or a personal care company? And I think, especially women, whenever I talk to aspiring entrepreneurs, it's. That's a lot of times what I hear is, you know, I'm not qualified enough. Oh, I didn't get a degree in business.

Like, therefore, oh, I didn't get an MBA. Therefore, I can't be a CEO. It's like, yeah, you can. Most of the CEO's out there just did it and figured it out, including myself. So I think that's a really great message.

It's like, you don't. You don't need to know everything. Nobody knows everything. Most people are kind of just figuring out as they go. And that's, like, the whole reason I want to do this podcast.

Yasmin Nori

I'm like, I have friends. I'm having these conversations I'm building in my own business, but it's not as glamorous. Like, let's have these real conversations, how we're all figuring it out. And also one thing, and this stood out. I was talking to a woman yesterday who was really trying to grow her business.

She's like, I have these ideas, but so many people have done it before, and I'm like, but no one is. You. You are unique. Like, even Sarah, I'm sure you've thought that, like, everyone's like, oh, there's natural deodorants out there. Deodorants out there.

Sarah Moret

Exactly. So how did you kind of work through that for yourself? Because it's a narrative that so many people have. Yeah, I mean, that's. That's another thing I hear a lot is like, oh, you.

I have to. I don't have an invention. Like, I don't have anything that I've invented. But like you said, it's. I think it's about one.

And this is what I did, which was, like, I identified a problem. I wanted a problem that was a problem I had. I didn't want to build a company, and I know a lot of people do, but I didn't want to build a company where I was, like, solving problems I didn't myself had. Like, I wanted to be my first customer. And so I was just like, what problems do I have?

Like, what do I wish was better? And you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You just have to find something that needs to be improved and find creative and clever ways to improve it. And a lot of inventions are not completely novel. Like, most great companies are just born out of finding that opportunity to fix something that's broken or improve something that could be better and putting, like you said, putting your spin on it.

And it's really about the person I talked to. I did a lot of mentorship, and one of the girls that I mentor was like, you know, protecting her idea, and, like, didn't want to tell anyone her idea because she was afraid they were going to steal it. And I was like, girl, you have to go talk to people and network and share your idea, because the idea is, like, 20% the easiest part. Yeah. That idea is the easiest thing.

The execution and the people like, that is what you've got that nobody else has. That's the other 80%. So that's, you know, I think that just goes to show it's not about completely reinventing the wheel. It's. It's that other 80%.

It's. It's your spin on things. It's view and the execution that really can create a, you know, a huge business, even in a crowded space. Yeah. And I love that you said finding a problem that you identify with, because finding those tweaks and enhancements, it makes a little bit easier, I think, at least from my perspective.

Yasmin Nori

But before, you know, you were in the world of entrepreneurship from VC and then ultimately starting Curie, you actually had, like, a, quote, unquote safe job. Right. You went to bu, by the way. I went to Bu two. I don't know if we ever talked about that.

I studied finance. I think you were accounting. I'm like, we were in the same building, so I'm sure we. That's crazy. Yeah, that's wild world.

But I know, you know, similar to you, I also went down that safe route. So tell me more about what did you envision your life to look like out of college? Because clearly you made a hard left turn and left all the comfort. So where did that kind of come from? And what did you envision your life to be at that time?

Sarah Moret

Yeah. So that's so interesting that you went to bu, because you'll get this, like, boss university and especially the school of management. The business school was really. It's on the east coast, so it's very east coast focus. It's investment banking.

It's accounting. It's like, banking, like all the, like, traditional industries and finance, like, it was a very finance heavy school, especially when it came to, like, recruiting. And so that was really all I felt exposed to. And I was also in college during the recession, so graduating, it was really, I've always been really independent. And the idea of not having a job out of college was like, oh, my God, like, I would die if I don't have a job out of college.

But now, in hindsight, I'm, like, ridiculous. But I really, really important to me to get a great job out of college and so I could, like, financially support myself. And so I was really good at finance and accounting. And still I'm pretty, you know, pretty good at, with numbers, analytical, like, financial modeling, all of that, and was really great at accounting specifically. I just found it really interesting.

And so got my CPA license, went, worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and did the whole auditing thing. It was so not the career for me, but it gave me a really great foundation in finance and accounting. And I still use a lot of that, you know, knowledge today. But in terms of leaving that safety, it was, it was really, really difficult. But I knew that there was more out there.

Like, I talk a lot about the concept of, like, climbing the wrong mountain. And, like, I love this visual. You know, you're here on this mountain, and here over here is this mountain, and climbing the mountain you're higher on the mountain you're on is not going to get closer you closer to the mountain you want to be on. It's just going to get you further. And that visual was, like, exactly how I felt during my accounting career, where I would look at my boss and my boss's boss, and I was like, I don't want that job.

Like, I don't want that job. Or I'd even look at people where, you know, accounting jobs that people would get outside of PwC. And I was like, I don't want any of those jobs. And so I was climbing the wrong mountain and I had to take the risk and jump off and go find the right one. And, you know, luckily, I did that in my twenties when not a lot was at stake, but it was still scary and I still had, you know, my family who was, you know, my mom who was like, what?

You're winning this stable career. There's benefits and a good salary, but I think it's, it's, I would, I would be miserable if I was still doing that. And I'm really happy with where things turned out, but it was definitely a challenge at the time. Hey, everyone, it's Yasmin here in 2020. I was struggling with some debilitating health stuff.

Yasmin Nori

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The challenge is that seed cycling can be a little complicated to do and kind of time consuming. So I decided to make an organic seed cycling product that is so easy to use. We make it effortless for anyone to get started today. It's called BIA, and it's a super easy way to add something powerful to your diet, to support your hormones, regulate your cycle, and bring back balance. To learn more about Bea and join our community with thousands of incredible women all over the world, go to beawellness.com.

And that's spelled Beeya wellness.com and check out the show notes for our promo code to get $10 off your first purchase. Thanks so much for listening. And now let's get back to today's episode. And sometimes it's like being in those jobs that you don't like. That is actually like, a beautiful thing.

You're like, oh, this is not it for me. And, like, you jump around like, I did the whole investment banking thing because again, like you said on the east coast, that was, God forbid you don't do one of these tracks. It's like, who are you? What are you doing? So I was following everyone.

Props to you to leave earlier. I did it for like, six, seven years. But, you know, there's so many gifts of working with different people, understanding what I don't like, what I do like. So I love the just people having different experiences before starting a business because there's so much that you can bring to the table. And what I actually love about what you mentioned, you know, for you being independent, being in a position to financially support yourself, people might look at you and be like, well, then how does you risk it all to start your company?

But you are very methodical about it. You didn't just, like, quit and start. So let's talk about that, because I think there's a lot of myths when it comes to starting a business, and I don't know if that's always financially the right thing. Of course, everyone is so unique in their situation. But, yes, tell me more about how it started and how you manage that risk.

Sarah Moret

Yeah. And I think, first of all, it's like, it's never too late to change your mind. I started my company at 30 like it was. I think there's. There's so much more time than you think.

And I remember being 27, 28, and feeling this pressure to have everything figured out. And I had so much time, and I wish I could go back and tell that version of Sarah, you know, you relax. Like, things are gonna. Things are gonna work out. You've got time to figure.

Figure things out. And it's okay to zig and zag, but in terms of making that big leap financially, I mean, I started my company. I was. I think I was 29, almost 30. I was single at the time and, you know, living in San Francisco, and I knew that I couldn't quit my job and just start this little deodorant business because I just didn't, I wasn't there yet financially.

So I put most of my savings, $12,000 of my savings, into our inventory and starting the business. So I knew that I was not going to be able to support myself financially and afford rent and, you know, to live. I also just didn't want to put that pressure on the business. You know, I didn't want to raise money, and that's a whole other story. Didn't want to raise money, and I didn't want to put pressure on the business where I was desperate and making maybe not the right choices for our customers because I just needed to make payroll or whatever.

So I think in hindsight, the way I ran the company for the first year and a half, even though it was hard and frustrating and really challenging, it really set the foundation for Curie. It was just me and my sister for that first year and a half. I still had a full time job the whole time. So Curie was a total side hustle. Nights, weekend, my sister joined when she was on maternity leave with her first, her first baby and took over all the fulfillment and customer support because before that, I was trying to juggle it all, and I was traveling for work, and I would have to shut down our store when I would travel because I couldn't.

You know, it was, it was so my sister jumped in, and I think I had to go to, like, I had to go to Tel Aviv for work for ten days. And I was like, how am I going to do this? And my sister, that was when she stepped in, started doing, took over all of our fulfillment all of our customer support. She still works with me today. Yeah, it's been really fun.

And so the risk of starting something is one of the biggest challenges. And so I always tell people, if in whatever ways you can mitigate that risk for yourself, do it. It's worth it. Even if you can't invest 100% of your time, you know, you have to work a job to be able to support yourself. It's worth it so that you're not making choices out of desperation because your livelihood depends on it.

Curie could grow as slow as it wanted to because I wasn't dependent on that revenue. So that's always something I recommend, unless you're going and raising, you know, VC funding, if you want to bootstrap, plan to have a job while you're figuring things out, and plan to do everything on your own. And I think that was a blessing. You know, doing everything on my own means now I really know my business. So silver lining of having to work insane hours in those early days.

Yasmin Nori

Yeah, no, I love that. I think that what you mentioned about it, we're also self funded. And people always ask me like, are you going to raise money? And I'm thinking to myself, that pressure already, like you said, we don't talk enough about. It's like, already starting a business with investors or not is already high pressure.

So for you to, like, leave your job and just double down and listen, so many people do it. Everyone's circumstance is so different. I kind of working in that space. I didn't want that for myself. But, yeah, it's like this unnecessary pressure.

So if you can keep your job or whatever that is, to have that cushion for a little bit, you make the right choices for the customers business. So I love that you said that. Yeah. And I will acknowledge, like, it was also a function of where I was at in my life, where I could work, you know, all day and all night. Because I was single, I didn't have kids yet I was really able to work two jobs.

Sarah Moret

Like, I worked full time, and then Curie was another full time job. And I know, though, that that's not always the case. And, you know, if you have kids or a family to support might be a different circumstance, but for, for me, where I was at in my life, it was the best decision to really slowly let the business grow organically before I went all in. Yeah, I know. I love that.

Yasmin Nori

And I love that your sister jumped in. I remember when I was once traveling. Well, we weren't traveling. And my husband's like, can we go away for the weekend? I'm like, but then how do I ship stuff?

Like, I don't have anyone shipping the boxes. And my mom, actually, so similar to you, I was like, mom, can you, like, send out these orders? Like, very early on, you know, but these are the things you think about. I used to, before my sister started helping, I used to take, I would bring suitcases of deodorant with me on trips with my little label printer and some, like, shipping envelopes. And I would, you know, I remember going on a business trip to New York and in my hotel in the morning before the conference, I would pack up all the orders, run them to USP's, and then run to the conference and then, you know, do it again the next day.

Sarah Moret

That has this, like, giant deodorant bag that I schlepped with me across the country. Oh, my gosh, I love that. The realities of the behind the scenes, it's so fun. And what I appreciate about you, also when you started Curie, is that you were super, super scrappy. Like, I think a lot of people spend thousands of dollars on finding a brand agency and, like, a beautiful website.

Yasmin Nori

Like, tell me more about how you approached it being so nimble early on. Yeah, I mean, especially now, there are so many resources out there. You can find anything on YouTube, udemy. Like, you can figure anything out. There's tutorials, there's courses, there's blogs.

Sarah Moret

So with all that, all those resources out there, it is easier than ever, I think, to bootstrap if you want to do that. Again, no judgment for anyone that goes out and raises vc funding. But that was just not the way I wanted to start my business. And I love building and figuring things out. And that was exciting to me to, like, figure all this stuff out on my own.

I didn't want to go out and hire some big, fancy branding agency. Like, I kind of enjoyed that, like, scrappiness in the early days. And so I just taught myself well, I didn't have the cash to, but if I. Even if I did, but I just taught myself everything. I built a Shopify website in a weekend, like, drinking a glass of wine at my kitchen table and built a website.

It's so easy. Anyone can do it. There's tons of templates. I had a friend who had the nice new iPhone at the time that had a good camera, had her come over, took some product photography against, like, a white wall in my bathroom. Boom, there's my product photography, the packaging.

I did a Adobe illustrator course and learned how to use Adobe illustrator, designed my packaging myself. I read a bunch of books on marketing and branding and put together taglines and all of that and figure out who my customer was and our social media strategy. So it was fun for me. Like, I personally, I just loved doing it and figuring it all out. That was, I look back and as you grow, your, your problems change and things just get more complicated.

And I look back on that, those like six months so fondly because it was just like, it was so fun and getting to figuring it all out on my own and, you know, of course we've changed everything, you know, changed our branding. We haven't normal. Yeah, yeah. But it was, it was enough to get us going and that was the goal. It was like, I'm probably gonna change a lot of this stuff.

I'm so glad we didn't hire a branding agency at the beginning because, you know, we didn't know it was, we didn't know who our customer was yet. And we did a big rebrand about a year in and I'm really glad that we waited exactly. Yeah, I remember when we launched, people are like, are you going to throw like, do this big splash? And I'm like, I'm just trying to learn along the way. Like, I, even though we were live, I'm like, I kind of think of us still in beta.

Yasmin Nori

Like, is this resonating? Are shipments going through? What do customers feel? But you're right. You changed so much of it, even a year in business.

So I love the approach you took. So tell me more about the moment you decided to go all in. Like, how are you creating awareness early on? And what made you feel comfortable to put all your eggs into this basket? So it's, it's actually funny.

Sarah Moret

So I actually decided to quit my job and go all in on Curie in like January of 2020, aka two months before COVID started. And it was terrible, terrible timing. But I'm not sure anyone follows the deodorant news. But COVID was not kind to the deodorant industry. When the lockdown started, people just stopped buying deodorant and our sales just fell off a cliff.

When, when the lockdown started, it was really difficult. I quickly pivoted. We launched a hand sanitizer with our, like, amazing fragrances and made it all natural and, like super moisturizing and we ended up selling like hundreds of thousands of bottles within a few months. And it totally saved the business. But it was terrifying.

Terrifying. I was like, woohoo, I'm quitting my job all in on my startup, and boom, all of our customers disappear. It was. It was a dark time, but, you know, taking. Making that decision to go all in for me was harshly inspired.

Have you ever read Phil Knight's book, the founder of Nike? No, but many people have brought it up. Shoot off. It's great. It was.

I was, at the time, commuting for my day job. I was commuting to Palo Alto, and so I was listening to it on audiobook during my commute, and there was this part where he talks about his fear was not failure. It was. His fear was wasting time and spending years and years of his time on something that was never gonna work out. So he's like, if I was gonna.

I wasn't scared of failing, but, like, if I was gonna fail, I just wanted to fail fast and, like, move on, take those learnings and start something new as quickly as possible. And I remember listening to that and being like, wow. Like, that's exactly how I feel. And by not going all in on Curie, my. I would.

I would make excuses. I'd be like, oh, we didn't hit our forecast because, you know, I don't have any employees. It's just me, and I have a full time job. So, you know, imagine if I worked full time on Curie. We probably would, like.

I would use it as an excuse. And I realized, I think that moment, hearing that was. I was, like, giving myself an excuse not to succeed. And by not being all in, I was protecting myself if it didn't work out. Fear of failure was such a thing for me, that going all in was too scary.

Like, being. Having Curie just be this side hustle was a lot safer because I could always fall back on the excuse that I. That's true. Enough time. So I decided that it was time to go all in.

You know, we were making enough money at that point where I could support a mediocre salary, and so I decided to quit my job. I mean, this is pre pandemic, but how are you guys creating awareness and selling? Was it, like, influencers were like, what was your mode at that time? Because I know you didn't have a lot of money to, like, spend on ads, so it was just organic. Yeah.

And, I mean, it was a different time, so things change so quickly. This might not be as easy these days, but at the time, it was really easy to. Instagram was kind of like, how TikTok is now, where if you have good content, like, it's pretty easy to go viral. You used to be able to go viral on Instagram, and that's not really the case anymore. So Instagram was like a different place.

I was constantly on our stories, going on trail runs and doing sniff tests, and be like, oh, I still smell good. And I would do, like, fun little content series. I would do coffee with customers where customers that lived in San Francisco, I grabbed coffee with them and I would do Instagram live and all that. So I was just doing a lot of social media, a lot of organic social. We grew a following on social pretty quickly, and we started to, you know, get outreach from influencers.

I didn't really even know what influencer marketing was at the time. So your influencers started just reaching out. And I'd be like, cool, yeah, here's some deodorant. And then they would post about us, and I remember skinny confidential posted about us, and we did, like, our biggest sales day ever. And so influencers, but it was mostly unpaid.

It was like, hey, you want to try this? And maybe post about us? And so influencers. And then I also would reach out to press. I would read articles, find the contact, and then reach out.

And we got some really good press in that, in those early years, and press is free, so it was a good use of time. I would once a week reach out to ten journalists, and we got some really good hits. I think we got in glamour magazine, self magazine, so I would say organic social. Some influencers and press were big in the early days. And when you're reaching out to press, were you just giving kind of a blurb of the business and, like, the angle that they would take or how would you kind of foster those relationships?

Yeah, I had a friend, a good friend that worked in PR, so she helped me put together, like, a great email where we would just talk about, you know, the, the sizzle reel, the highlights, the business, what we're doing, and then help me think about, you know, a catchy subject line to catch their attention. And it was pretty successful. I. Awesome. Yeah, it was a lot of, a lot of organic outreach.

And then also because we were a deodorant and I am super into fitness, we would, I would reach out to fitness studios and be like, hey, we have this aluminum pre deodorant. Do you want to offer it for sale? And so we got, we had a bunch of probably, like a hundred little fitness studios that were carrying Curie, and we would, you know, send them minis for gift bags for events. And so fitness studios were another part of that early strategy. You're just getting the word out, you know?

Yasmin Nori

Yeah. Like, super grassroots. I love that. But, you know, that to build that momentum is amazing. So then COVID hits, obviously, you know, like you told us, no one's buying deodorant.

How did you guys pivot a hand sanitizer so soon? Because, I mean, I remember those times, like, no one was shipping. I was just, like, hustling to get our product done. So how did you pivot so quickly? Because that truly, like, yeah, it was so lucky.

Sarah Moret

Like, so, so lucky that we had already, because at that point, fitness studios were a big part of our strategy. I think early COVID, we had just signed a deal with Soulcycle to have our spray deodorant be in all their locker rooms. And so, you know, fitness studios were this, like, we're growing in importance to us. And I started to think about, okay, product pipeline. What else?

What else do we, you know, our customers love our aluminum free deodorant, but they are always raving about our scents and the fragrance, because that's really, I think what's unique and to the. To our products was this amazing fragrance that you literally want to wear on your whole body. And we'd have customers that were like, I want this as my perfume. Like, love these scents. So I was like, where else can we create magic with our fragrances?

And so I. I remember going into Soulcycle and being like, oh, they have, like, purell. And so we were going to make a nice, fancy hand sanitizer for these fitness studios. Every fitness studio has hand sanitizer and have it be in our signature sense. And so we had just started to work on a formula with a manufacturer.

It was such crazy timing. Like, I think I connected with this manufacturer in, like, January of 2020. And so we had worked. We were working on a formula, and we were planning to launch this in October. And so we weren't totally done.

We didn't have any artwork. We didn't have bottles. We didn't. It was. I think we had just made, you know, our second pass at the formula, and then COVID started, and this, the founder of this lab.

It was amazing and so scrappy and so awesome and loved me. And so I called her, and I was like, Linda, like, can we make hand sanitizer now? Like, can we just, you know, how quickly, if we place a purchase order, can we make our hand sanitizer? And she was able to turn it around. I placed the purchase order third week of March, and we were able to launch it in May, which is a crazy turnaround insane.

And the hardest part was getting the bottles. That was the biggest struggle. So I was staying up until, like, four in the morning calling manufacturers in China, like, trying to find bottle manufacturers that had extra stock of, like, any bottle, of any bottle. I was like, as long as it's under, like, 4oz, we'll take it. And we.

After 15 phone calls, I was able to find a manufacturer that had a customer that didn't pick up, like, 20,000 bottles. We took them, we air freighted them, we filled them, we launched our hand sanitizer, and like I said, that saved the business. We ended up reordering 15 times that quarter. And it was crazy. Hand sanitizer, like, really at that time saved us.

We got into Nordstrom because they say it was crazy. I'm going back a little bit, but we get a lot of questions on, like, how do you find manufacturers? So this woman that you found seems amazing. I love that she's also a woman, and you guys really connected. So, like, how did you find her at that time?

Yeah, people, this is the. One of the most common questions I get asked is, like, how do you find manufacturers? It is. First of all, it's a small, small network. Like, there's not that many cosmetic and personal care manufacturers.

And we manufacture everything in the US, so especially just in the US, it's not like there's thousands of them. It's more like hundreds of them. So the first ones I found by just googling, like, I just googled all natural deodorant manufacturers and found all the, you know, on the first five pages of Google, put them all on a spreadsheet and called them all or emailed them all. And that's how I've connected with my first, you know, batch. Most of them were too big.

And really, hey, we can't do, you know, a small batch. But, hey, I know this person in Texas that can do that, or I've got a buddy who's starting up or whatever. So it became like a networking, that's really how we've met. All the manufacturers we work with now is through networking. And you just get there.

It's a very, very helpful, nice network of people. There's lots of conferences and stuff. So I'll go to, I'll go to Cosmoprof every year, which is in Vegas. They do it in Vegas, in New York every year. All the manufacturers go to that, so you can meet new ones through that and referrals.

You know, sometimes I'll ask other companies or other brands. So I think networking has been the biggest unlock for finding great manufacturers. There's also this company called Pietra for anyone that's, like, starting out that we've used Pietra, they have this platform that you can search and put rfps out for whether you want to make deodorant or whether you want to make sweatshirts or hats or candles. Like, they have a network of tons of manufacturers, and you can put out an rfp to all of the manufacturers on their platform. So we've used them, too for some products.

Yasmin Nori

Yeah, I love that. And going back to even the initial thing you were saying when we started the interview about sharing your idea and your product, that's exactly when we found our first manufacturer. Exactly what you did. I did. I would call.

They're like, you're too big. I'm like, is there anyone else that you know, right. That we could talk to? Just, like, dialing, calling everyone on Google, like you said, and sharing your idea. So it just goes back to, like, when you put it out there, you will eventually find someone who's willing to help you, and it always works out at the end of the day, even though you might not see it starting out, but just putting your idea out there.

But I love that. So tell me more. I don't know. What. What year were you on shark Tank?

So, like, 2020, you launched this hand sanitizer. You guys are doing, you know, pretty well because of that. Tell me more about your shark tank story, because when I heard the behind the scenes of how it happened, I was like, what? This is wild. So tell me everything.

Sarah Moret

I filmed in 2021. We aired in 2022, and that was, I would say, you know, our first big inflection point at Curie was QVC. I thought, for Shark Tank. Yeah, I got onto QVC in 2021, and that was huge for us. And, you know, I'm still on QVC.

I go on every. At least twice a month. And how did you get in front of. Was this, like, an outreach that you did for QVC? Like, how did that partnership kind of come about?

Yeah, I actually auditioned. Like, QVC has this, like, what you call it, game show or program. It's called the big find. And small brands can come and pitch a panel of QVC hosts, and they will pick, you know, five brands that get to go on QVC or HSN. And I did that, and I didn't get picked.

So there's the rejection. I was so upset. I flew all the way there and was crushed and, like, bawled the entire way, the entire Uber back to the airport and was really, really disappointed. But through that, I made some relationships with, you know, QVC buyers and hosts. And so I just would follow up with them, like every three months.

I would send them an update on the business. Hey, we launched this product. Hey, we launched in anthropology. Hey, this is what we're doing. You know, keeping them updated, keeping top of their inbox.

And then it was just a timing thing. Like, they were aluminum free. Deodorant was not at all on their radar, and all of a sudden it was. And they chose us to go on. So that was, I think it was just being persistent and reminding them that we're here.

Yeah. So QVC was the first big inflection point. And then next, next thing that really put us on the map was shark Tank. So Shark Tank I filmed in 2021 and part of the story, if anyone hasn't seen the episode, you can watch it on YouTube. But spoiler alert, I.

I was a stand in for the season, meaning I had to prepare as though I was going on. I can't imagine. I know it was crazy, but I didn't actually have a time slot, so it was a long story. I actually had one, and then I got canceled the night before. But again, rejection happens.

Happens to the best of us. Got a power through, got canceled the night before, and then they're like, you're just going to be on standby for the rest of the season. We'll call you if there's a time slot available for you to come film. And on, like, literally the last day of the filming window, I was on a hike, hungover on a Sunday. And they, the producer calls me and is like, can you be at the studio at 04:00?

Meanwhile, it's 01:00 and we're on the opposite side of LA. And I was like, sure. And so my husband and I just, like, floored it to our house. Like, I quickly got ready. I didn't even shower.

I literally put dry shampoo in my hair, did my makeup in the passenger seat of his car, got dropped at the studio, and boom, like, got picked up in a golf cart and taken directly to the shark tank. It was crazy. And ended up getting a deal with Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran, which was so exciting and just shocking. And it has really, like, fundamentally changed my business. Shark tank has been the biggest, the biggest needle mover for us by far.

Yasmin Nori

Oh, my gosh. I have a million questions. That is amazing. I mean, you're such a ridiculous story. Like, people don't believe it.

Sarah Moret

And I tell the story on, on the show. I'm like, I was hiking 3 hours ago, and the producers called me, and there's all these comments on the YouTube video where people are like, she's lying. There's no way she. Why would she be hiking before she goes on shark Tank? I'm like, I know this sounds made up, but it's 100% true.

I've, I have receipts, I have photos from that hike. Morgan, oh, my God. I'm glad you brought that up because it shows just like, your ability to, like, show up, perform, get shit done like that. Not, not a lot of people can do that. And that's pretty amazing because, wow, that's wild.

Yasmin Nori

Cause I know I've had a few women on the podcast who have been on shark Tank, and they're like, listen, it took me, like, weeks of prep, right? It's not. I don't know how much time you put, but I know it's like, no joke. So to be on standby, like, it. Was a lot, lot of work.

Sarah Moret

Hours and hours. Like, preparing for shark tank was like a part time job. Like, they really don't make you do a lot of working with you. Yes. Yeah.

The producers work with you. You have a weekly call, and they, you have to write your own pitch. You have to prepare all your q and a. You have to design your set. You have to buy your set, you have to get it delivered.

Like, it's a lot of work. They don't, they. They're not helping with that much of it. So it was a lot of work with no guarantee. It was, it was scary, but I knew how big the opportunity was, so I did it, and luckily it paid off.

I joke that, like, I prepared for shark tank, like, I was an athlete going to the Olympics. I put so much time and energy into it. It was a lot. But I will say in hindsight, the way that it worked out where, because most people I know that went on shark Tank, you go show up at 06:00 a.m. And you have to sit in a trailer for, like, up to 10 hours waiting to get called.

And that was going to be me. When I had a scheduled filming time, I was going to, my call time was 630, and I was going to have to just sit in the trailer until they decided it was my turn. And the way that it happened was actually so much better for me because I would have gotten so nervous. So in my head, and by the time I went out there, I would have been, like, shaky and nervous out of my mind. But the way it happened, I was.

I didn't have time to be nervous. I was like, my adrenaline was through the roof. I was like, I could have run through walls. Like, I was on one when I went on to that set, because I was just like, oh, my God. Like, what had just happened was so crazy, and I.

So I. You can see in the episode, my energy was just shooting out of my ears because I. It was. It was. I was just pure adrenaline at that point, and I did not have 1 second to get nervous.

Yasmin Nori

I haven't watched episode in a while, but I don't remember you being, like, so amped. You were still calm. Because sometimes when I'm in that mode, like, I talk fast, like, I'm on, like, another level. Sometimes I'm like, I don't know where I go. I'm, like, in the ether.

But you were still, like, pretty calm, and you looked grounded. But I would say because. Because you're in there for an hour. So I was gonna ask how long. Yeah, I was in there for a full hour, so I calmed down as time went by, but, yeah, I was pretty hyped up at the beginning.

Oh, my gosh. It was funny. I had. She's so sweet. Lindsey McCormick.

She's a founder of bite. Yeah, she was on. Yeah, she's amazing. And she. I think it was her where she was saying, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't making any crazy faces, because I know they take the cuts and put it, like, on something else.

I'm like, oh, my gosh. I never would have even thought about that. That's brilliant. So, see, I was. It was so long.

Sarah Moret

Like, an hour is a long time. And so I kind of moments. I kind of forgot there was cameras. Sure. I would imagine.

Yeah. And so afterwards, I was like, shoot. Did I do anything embarrassing that they're gonna put on there? Like, I had no idea. Well, I could barely even remember.

But an hour is a long time to be, like, on and camera ready. Yes. Like, marathon. Yeah. Obviously, we don't see everything, but, like, the Q and A, was it.

Yasmin Nori

Majority of you speaking, like, how long are pitches typically, and how much is Q and A? I'm always curious about the majority. The pitch is, like, three minutes. You. You write it, you memorize it.

Sarah Moret

It's dialed. They make it a certain amount of time. So I think mine was, like, two and a half or three minutes. So the pitch was, like, you know, 1%. It was mostly the q and a, and the q and a is, like, really overwhelming.

And I had talked to people like Lindsay before I went on the show. I knew a few people. Natalie from Balaji, I had a few friends that had been on the show, and they kind of warned me, but it was really intense. Like, all the sharks are. They're intense people.

They have questions, and they want to ask them, and so they're all asking at the same time and just peppering you and interrupting each other. And so I talked to someone, someone that I talked to that had been on the show before, and they were like, you have to command the room, and they'll respect you for doing that. Like, don't let them control what's happening. Like, it's your job to be the moderator. And so I did that a lot.

Like, I'd be like, lori, great question. I'm going to answer Mark's question first, and then I'll get back to you. Rather than being, like, like, flustered, I just tried to, like, treat them like my, you know, kindergarten classroom. Like, I know you all have questions. Great tip.

One at a time, please. You know, and I would be, like, very controlled and methodical about it. Great question. I'll get back to you on that. Let me finish this, and da da da da, which I think does make them respect you a lot.

Yasmin Nori

That's great advice. I love that. And were there any questions where you were not sure how to approach it in any sense? No. Oh, my God.

Sarah Moret

No. I prepare. I said I prepared like a crazy person. My husband and I spent weeks. Every night, we would sit down.

He would sit down on the couch, and he would pretend to be sharks, and he, you know, we watched enough shark tank where he knew all the personalities and would pretend to be Mister wonderful, being a jerk, or, like, pretend to be Lori asking about QVC. And he would ask me every question you could ever imagine. I made a spreadsheet of all the possible questions. There was no question that caught me off guard. I love that.

Yasmin Nori

And it's so good to talk about the behind the scenes, because I think people kind of look at entrepreneurs, even look at you on shark Tank. They're like, how does she know all that? It's like, oh, there's a lot of work that you put behind the scenes, and that's also business, right? Like, people are like, oh. Like, they just show up and, you know, you're in Soulcycle and QVC.

It's like, there's actually so much prep work that no one sees. Maybe your partner and best friends and family. Like, people think it's very glamorous. I'm like, there's a lot of invisible work that goes on that people don't realize. So I love that you just shared.

Sarah Moret

That and it helped that it's my business and I'm in it every single day. Like, it was, it was maybe impressive on the outside, watching how I responded to questions and quick, quick responses, doing quick math and people, you know, I'll look at the comments on YouTube and I'm like, yeah, it seems impressive, but, like, it's, it is part of me. Like, curie is my baby. I know everything. And there's no question that they could ask that's like, if you did a personal interview, like, there's no question someone could ask you that you don't know about yourself.

Like, it's. So. It's. It is different when you're doing a q and a for your own business than, you know, some, some other subject or something. Yeah, yeah.

Or like, your job or like, another. Some subject that maybe you don't know everything, but, like, this is my business. There's nothing I can't answer. I love that. So tell me more about.

Yasmin Nori

Because, you know, we just, we didn't talk about if you fundraise, but you put twelve k in the beginning before shark take, did you raise any money? Like, how did you think about. Okay, yeah, so bootstrapped the business. $12,000 in my savings at the beginning. And then when I quit my job, I did go out and raise some outside funding.

Sarah Moret

Overall, you know, we've raised around a million. It's not, it's. We haven't gone out and raised institutional capital, mostly angel investors, small family offices, and that really helped hire a team and get us in a good position to scale. Got it. Yeah.

Yasmin Nori

Because I know Shark Tank. I mean, you talk to, like, investors, you know, they take, I mean, they talk about on the show, like a solid amount of equity. Right. But obviously the, like, who they are and everything. So we also have a line of credit, which is huge.

Sarah Moret

I think any business that's, you know, doing over a couple million dollars in revenue should go out and get a line of credit. Especially a product business that has working capital needs like ours. Because that, you know, we got into 4000 Walmart doors last year and, you know, the business grew 600%. Like, I could not have possibly sustained that level of growth and a full chain Walmart launch without that line of credit. Because if you have a product like ours, you have to, you have to manufacture it months before it goes into stores or goes, you know, gets sold to a customer, and you got to float that cash.

And so the line of credit has been, like, instrumental to our success and, like, ability to. To grow quickly. That's incredible. And I know, you know, you mentioned QVC was big, inflection point. Shark tank was huge.

Yasmin Nori

I know the behind the scenes of that also was tough in terms of, you guys were selling out, going on pre orders, like, yeah, that's amazing. But, like, operationally, I'm sure it was a lot, like, a lot of people reaching out. So did that experience kind of set you up to think a little bit more about scale, which, you know, obviously, now you're in Walmart. So was that a little bit easier of a transition for you? No, different.

Sarah Moret

It's all hard. Every step in the business is hard. I mean, I remember in the early days, I probably even before. No, right after I launched, I reached out to Priscilla from Coco kind. You know that brand?

Oh, yeah, yeah. She lived in San Francisco. I started the business in San Francisco, and I reached out to her on Instagram, and we got coffee, and she was a few years ahead of us. And I remember her being like, this is the fun part. Like, just enjoy it, because as you grow, as you make more, like, more money, more problems, like, as the business grows, your problems are just going to get bigger and scarier and less fun.

And that is so true. Like, you've never made it. Like, even when we hit our blow through our forecasts and things are doing amazing, like, all it does is bring more new problems to solve, and that's, like, never, ever gonna change. I don't think it's ever gonna be easy at any point. Yeah, it's so funny.

Yasmin Nori

I threw, like, this poker event and had women founders come, and all of them were asking like, oh, how's BM, my business doing? And they all said the same thing. I had four separate entrepreneurs who meant, you know, they're having, like, at least 50 million plus businesses. They're like, you are in the best phase. Like, enjoy it.

And really, like, hearing that from so many people, I was like, all right, Yazin. Your problems are really nothing compared to what comes as you grow. So I, like, think back at the problems that, like, would keep me up at night or that I would be like, oh, we're gonna go out of business. And I'm like, I laugh. Like, that is, like, if that happened now, I'd be like, ah, move on.

Sarah Moret

Like, whatever. But at the time, they felt so exit existential. It's just, it's, you get. You definitely grow a thicker skin as you go. Little things don't faze me.

Yasmin Nori

But then you always elevate to a new level where you're growing and figuring it out. So you're always getting challenged in the next phase of the business. But, no, I would love to just maybe end on one thing. You know, you've kind of, like a theme. A lot of what we talked about is the challenges.

And I love talking about this because it's reality of what happens behind the scenes. But how do you kind of manage your mental health, your joy? Because I know sometimes it could be all encompassing where you can easily burn out. Right. So how have you kind of laid the platform for yourself for, like, longevity and enjoying the process?

Because that's also, like, a huge part of it. Right. It's just staying in the game, which is not dying. I know. Not dying.

Sarah Moret

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's just, it's just, like, not in my nature to be a workaholic. I just never been me. I have a really good balance, I think, in my life.

And I. It's, I think it's just has come really naturally to me. I know that I need breaks, and I know how beneficial. Prioritizing my health. I work out every day.

I usually log off at, like, by 05:00 every day. And I'm not, like, burning the midnight oil. My husband and I have dinner together. We watch shows together. Like, I don't, I'm not, I would not classify myself as, like, a workaholic.

I think also I love that the culture is changing around that, too, with the old, like, gary vee hustle mentality is, like, kind of dead people are realizing, like, that's maybe we'll work for a short period of time. And I do work in sprints. Like, if we have something, you know, Walmart launch new product launches. Like, I am buckled down and I'm working my butt off, but I never, I'm, that's not to say for me. And especially being in my thirties, I'm just like, I'm tired.

I don't want to, I don't want to work past 10:00 at night. So I do think I, like, have a pretty good balance. I prioritize my fitness. I eat well, I sleep. I don't let my work cut into my sleeping hours.

I go on vacation. So, you know, sometimes I'll take a Friday off and go hang out with my nieces and nephews. Like, I don't think that that's, like, ever been an issue. And I think that I've built that into the company, really? Since day one.

Yasmin Nori

That's incredible. I'm so inspired. Sarah, that's amazing. I mean, I had to learn the hard way. I feel like being in finance, you, my body has learned to just sit and work.

But when you're starting your own business, like, that doesn't equal success. It's like, no.

Sarah Moret

Like, I went on a vacation. My first, like, vacation since starting the business was in 2020. And we, my husband and I, and it was the first time I've had employees. So I was like, oh, my God, I can go on vacation and you guys can do everything, like, awesome. It was so scary.

But we took, I think, like, a week off, and I, like, fully unplugged and just trusted everything, everyone to get stuff done. And I came back with, like, a million new ideas. Like, so many new ideas. While I was gone, we had gotten a purchase order from Nordstrom, like, our first purchase order from Nordstrom. And I came back just, like, full of energy and ideas.

And I've just made sure to prioritize. I go on a couple vacations a year, and I think also just take time off periodically when I need it, go do a spa day on a Tuesday. And it really helps me, like, recharge and think creatively again. No, I love it. Well, Sarah, I know we went a little, few minutes over, but it was so amazing to see you.

Yasmin Nori

Love the success. I can't wait to continue to see it. But thank you for joining us today. Thank you. This is really fun and great catching up with you.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of behind her empire. If you enjoyed this conversation, it would mean the world to me. If you would consider consider leaving a. Review or even sharing this episode with someone who might be inspired to create their own empire. To stay updated on new episodes or join our private community, visit behindherempire.com to sign up.

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From Side Hustle to Millions: How This Founder Left Her 9-5 & Landed a Deal on Shark Tank with Sarah Moret, Founder of Curie

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1: Introduction to Sarah Moret and Curie

2: Challenges and Growth

3: Experience on Shark Tank

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