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B2B Breakthrough Podcast
Trailblazing Female Founders: Inventing OME Gear with Jules and Stace
00:28:13
In this episode of the B2B Breakthrough podcast, Jules Weldon and Stace Pierce, founders of O.M.E. Gear, join host Sharon Gai. Together, they delve into the inspiring journey from living the van life to creating a successful business that designs and manufactures versatile outdoor gear. They discuss their challenges and triumphs, including the evolution of their product ideas, the importance of perseverance, and their commitment to innovation. They further discuss the unique challenges women face in entrepreneurship and their efforts to support other female inventors through their non-profit, BoldSKY Foundation.
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- [00:02]
Jules Weldon
It's hard for anybody being an inventor. It's one of the hardest roads that you can choose. A lot of people say it's amazing being your own boss. And that part is. But everything else about it is very challenging as an entrepreneur, especially in the product space. But as a woman, the hurdles are just bigger.
- [00:19]
Sharon Guy
Welcome to the B2B Breakthrough Podcast. We're here to bring you all the best knowledge, insights and strategies from e commerce experts, successful business owners and the team@alibaba.com that you'll need to grow your business and achieve your next big breakthrough. I'm your host, Sharon Guy.
- [00:36]
Stacy Pierce
Stacy Pierce, co president and founder of OME Gear, is a trailblazer in outdoor products, transforming how we experience nature with our innovative designs. Her career includes key roles in operations at farmright Corporation and creating tech solutions for aging populations at Live at Home Technologies. And Stacy also co founded the Bold sky foundation, empowering female entrepreneurs through financial, investment and strategic coaching. Joining Stacey is Jules Weldon, co founder and CEO of Omu Gear. Jules, with a background in consulting at PwC and leadership coaching, co created their award winning outdoor products brand and also advocates for women's entrepreneurship through the Bold Sky Foundation. Welcome to our show.
- [01:17]
Interviewer
So I watched your TedX prior to this. I did a TedX myself a year ago, so I guess we probably did it around the same time. So I can totally empathize what you have gone through. And it was a beautiful story. I'm going to not do it justice, but the little summary that I sort of wrote down is you were in a situation where you both ran out of money, your manufacturer disappeared, and I think one of you were also suffering from health crises and going to the hospital to get rid of the house. And on top of that you're going to your 50s. It just seemed like such a buildup. And yet despite all of that and moving into a van or an rv, but that's when you kicked off your whole business. So please introduce yourselves in that whole story and how you got to where you are today.
- [02:16]
Jules Weldon
Thank you so much for this opportunity. There's a million places to start, but I'll just say the initial concept for the idea of the product that we invented was my mom and dad's. It was just a 2 in 1 transformer. We've since evolved it into a 6 or 7 in 1 transformer. But they were watching a single mom come off the beach and she was miserable trying to carry all their stuff. And so they neither one of them would call themselves inventors, but they went up and they napkin sketched out this lounger that if you flipped it up on its other end, it became like a dolly to carry, you know, all that stuff. And so my dad ended up getting it patented but couldn't figure out how to take it to market. So it just sat on the shelf. And so then many years later I picked it up, partnered with the manufacturer, turned out our values did not align. So a couple of years in, I walked away from that just as we were starting to write some really big orders. They're fine people. They just were the wrong people for me. And so walked away from that. And in 2014 and then in 2017, Stacey and I just said, gosh, nobody has taken this idea. What if we pick it up a third time and take market the right way? Which in our minds the right ways. We don't give up control of the decision making in our company. And so that's what we did. So in 2018 we incorporated as ome gear. So that stands for oceans, mountains, earth gear. And it has been one mountain climb after another. So we climb the mountain, we celebrate and then come back down. We're in.
- [03:49]
Stacy Pierce
Or we fall back down.
- [03:50]
Jules Weldon
Or we fall back down, do a little tumble.
- [03:54]
Stacy Pierce
We keep surviving. And so we had partnered with a manufacturer over in Cheyenne. We had a rep out of Nashville that we broker rep that we went through and partnered with the manufacturer, went over there in December. I saw some product problems with the product. It wasn't the thing, it wasn't the same thing we had seen two weeks prior. And then all of a sudden they call us and said, well, we're not going to ship out everything. We're just going to ship out a few and we're only going to ship out two of the five colors. Now we had done a Kickstarter and funded and so we needed those that product to ship out to our Kickstarter backers.
- [04:33]
Interviewer
That's right.
- [04:34]
Stacy Pierce
And so we were like, what are we going to do? But we knew what they were saying never wasn't right. And then Covid hit and they went silent almost. We ended up meeting another manufacturer. Crazy story, amazing story. We love him. He's one of our favorite people on earth. His name is Oliver and he's a Chinese Mormon. He actually went to byu, speaks English and which was very helpful because we decided to go directly to Broker and his family actually lives in South Carolina and we didn't not know that until about six months in working with him. They own a restaurant that I used to go to every Sunday and It was just one thing led to another. We met him just through being on webinars and just trying to connect with new manufacturers and connect with Oliver. So he has been really good for us. But because we were not able to get over to China during COVID and he had to keep shifting stuff back and forth until we got our prototype and we got it ready enough where we knew we can get a viable product and we knew it wasn't perfect, was, you know, it was about 95% of the way there. But we needed to get our product to market. But he shipped it over. In the meantime, we had run out of money. We had cashed out all of our 401ks and maxed out our credit cards and we had done pitches. And that was during, you know, obviously that year of uncertainty. And I think we're still in those years of uncertainty behind it. And so Jules looked at me on I remember, I'll never forget it. And she looked at me, she said, how much do you believe in this?
- [06:13]
Interviewer
Going back to the Kickstarter order, what date did that order had to be fulfilled or did it need to be fulfilled?
- [06:21]
Stacy Pierce
Well, we funded on Kickstarter in right.
- [06:24]
Jules Weldon
Around that time of December 19th.
- [06:27]
Stacy Pierce
We were going to do it differently. 19 we were going to fund and we were going to get those orders out to our backers, you know, as we promised. And they did get a product, but they didn't get the actual.
- [06:41]
Interviewer
They didn't get the original.
- [06:42]
Stacy Pierce
Yeah, they didn't get the right product. It was not right at that point.
- [06:47]
Interviewer
Also, the year 2020 was an odd year for E commerce as a whole. I mean some products just soared through the roof. Right. Like a lot of the home goods stuff, like a lot Bose like took off with like sound systems and whatnot.
- [07:04]
Stacy Pierce
Our plan now, we didn't know Covid was going to happen, but our plan was to have our first shipment of our first order, January of 2020. And we would have had them all through Covid and would have been able to use that for people to get outdoors and. But we weren't able to get our product until January of 2021.
- [07:25]
Jules Weldon
But basically when, you know, we didn't have the money to pay for the inventory, we had to sell our house. And it's. That was during COVID And so we just said, I mean it sold before we even listed it. So we were like, oh gosh, what do we do now? We didn't have a plan B at where we were going to live and rent was really expensive. So that was One of the industries that did incredible was RV industry. And so we were like, well, why don't we get an rv, wrap it in our branding, and travel all over the US Building our brand? And so that's exactly what we did. And so we traveled for two and a half years in a wrapped RV with QR codes on the sides and the back. And each time we were out on the road in traffic, our website traffic spiked by 2 or 300%. Yeah.
- [08:08]
Interviewer
So it turned out to be blessing in disguise.
- [08:11]
Stacy Pierce
Yeah, absolutely.
- [08:13]
Jules Weldon
A pretty incredible opportunity. And we got to see the countryside of the US and meet some really amazing new friends. So it was awesome.
- [08:23]
Interviewer
So then what happened after that? So the. I guess when you go into the RV and then the travel spikes, there's conversions, things are on the up again and things are working again.
- [08:36]
Jules Weldon
Yeah, I mean, yes, kind of. So during sort of the end of COVID Well, we didn't know how long Covid was going to last, but we ended up switching to a US Manufacturer because we thought, okay, we in our heart of hearts, wanted to be manufactured in the US Anyway. And so we're like, well, this is a perfect time because we can't go over to China, even though we love Oliver, we can't go over to inspect the products, so let's bring it back to the US and so that's what we did.
- [09:03]
Stacy Pierce
And Oliver was going to create still to be a part of it, doing the components for us and helping, you know, parts of. Because he had the molds over there and so he could do the plastic molds for us. And I mean, the plastic parts that we were using. So we were still going to utilize Oliver in the process.
- [09:19]
Jules Weldon
Yeah. So we shifted to US Manufacturer, and it seemed like it was a marriage made in heaven. I mean, it really did. And we always say give somebody six months to show you what their crazy is or to show you they're crazy. It doesn't mean that they're super crazy and you're not. I mean, there's. You know, we all have some crazy to us, but it's. Does your crazy match up with money? Right. And so about six or nine months in, we realized that this was a struggled relationship with his manufacturer and that what he was we were asking for, he may not be able to deliver. But that was a very challenging relationship that we finally got out of.
- [10:01]
Interviewer
Did you find your new supplier with Alibaba.com?
- [10:04]
Stacy Pierce
We'Re still with Oliver, but I have used. I'm over new product development and manufacturing. So I that Alibaba is one of my go to places. Jules and I have, we have other products. We have a children's book that I had printed over in China and we have other products that we've had created over in China. But that's where I found our manufacturers is on Alibaba.
- [10:28]
Interviewer
What has been the hardest part of running this business?
- [10:32]
Jules Weldon
There's three things that have been the hardest part is manufacturing that we've talked about. Finding the right partners who you can trust who are going to do quality products and not, you know, rip you off on the cost. But the second is funding. So it's, I mean, it's a very known statistic that 1.6% of all funding goes to women. Only 1.6%. And so for us in the product space, it's been a huge challenge because our product is not cheap and are not inexpensive. And so we've, you know, to date we've raised a couple million dollars in funding and we're waiting on another large, very large investment to close. And that will be a game changer for us. But we're in the very small minority and statistics of A, women who have patents, B, women who who have raised capital, and C, women who are in the manufacturing space, in the outdoor gear space. And so I think the hardest part has been just being women in a very male dominated. In very male dominated spaces. All of them.
- [11:40]
Interviewer
Yeah. And so that's what led you to the creation of Bold Sky Foundation.
- [11:45]
Jules Weldon
So Bold sky is actually sky is the initials of a really dear friend of ours who got diagnosed with ovarian cancer. And unfortunately, four years almost to the day, she passed two years ago. And we knew at that point that we were going to do something in her honor. We just weren't sure what. But over the last two years, that vision has gotten really, really clear because of the challenges that we've walked through taking our product to market with ome gear. And so Bold sky is a nonprofit, a 501C3. We got awarded our 501C3 a few weeks ago. And our whole mission is to invest money, but also invest resources and the incredible network that we've built into female inventors. And so since there are plenty of organizations that invest in female entrepreneurs, and that's great, but we have not found one that specifically niches down on female inventors and it's underserved population. And so through Bold sky, for example, we're going to invest money into these inventors and we're going to ask no, no debt in return, no equity in return because we know what that feels like to have to give away, you know, 10, 25, 40% of your company for some cash. So we're not going to ask for any equity. We're not even going to make them pay it back. The only thing we're going to ask is that they reinvest once they're profitable, reinvest money back into bold sky. So essentially, we're creating an engine of women inventors investing in each other.
- [13:31]
Sharon Guy
Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Then let me tell you about Co Create. Co create is Alibaba.com's largest annual in person event. And it's returning to Las Vegas on September 5th and 6th at the Paris Hotel. You'll hear from over 100 incredible speakers. We're talking C level leaders, industry experts and eight figure business owners sharing their secrets to success. Head over to alibabaco create.com to learn more and use code ALIPodcast. That's one word. Ali podcast for 10% off general admission and 20% off premium and VIP tickets. See you there.
- [14:10]
Interviewer
Why do you think it's especially challenging for women inventors to navigate and survive in this space?
- [14:18]
Stacy Pierce
Yeah, that's such a great million dollar question.
- [14:21]
Jules Weldon
Yeah, I think that's such a great question. It's hard for anybody being an inventor. It's one of the hardest roads that you can choose. A lot of people say, you know, it's amazing to being your own boss. And that part is. But everything else about it is very challenging as an, as an entrepreneur, especially in the product space. But as a woman, the hurdles are just bigger to jump. So like I said, manufacturing hurdles are a lot bigger. We have to earn our respect at the table as opposed to automatically being afforded respect. Right. Because we have to pitch very differently to investors. Investors ask women inventors different questions than they ask male inventors.
- [15:02]
Interviewer
What are they asking differently?
- [15:04]
Jules Weldon
There's a lot. There's questions about your kids, there's questions about if you have the capabilities to do it. There's questions about your competency, how are.
- [15:12]
Stacy Pierce
You going to spend the money, how.
- [15:14]
Jules Weldon
You'Re going to spend the money? I mean, not questions that are asked. You know, whereas for us, we invested in a company and we saw money being spent in irresponsible ways, you know, and that's hard as an investor to see your money spent that way. What women typically do is we ask for far too little and then we try to squeeze every dime out of the little bit that we've asked for. And so we really want to help women learn to ask for more, ask for what you know, what can really take their company to the next level. So there's a whole bunch of education that needs to happen that we've learned through hard knocks. And so we want to help. We say our tagline is we want to help fill in the potholes with rocks for these women so their road isn't as treacherous as ours has been.
- [16:07]
Interviewer
Do you see this landscape evolving? Like, do you think women entrepreneurship will get easier over the years and in the future?
- [16:14]
Stacy Pierce
Women just, they, you know, they're finally getting this, they're finally demanding a seat at the table. And we're smart and we deserve to be there. And so I feel like that there is a huge awakening in the women investing in other women and seeing and making those numbers go away. Now we have a long way to go. I mean, we went down from 2019 to from 1.9 to now 1.6. So we have a long way to go to get to where we need to go. But I think we're finally standing up and saying no, we're going to invest in each other and we're going to help each other. And it's not about giving the handouts, but it's the hand ups.
- [16:58]
Jules Weldon
But there's a lot of men too said enough is enough. Women need to have a seat at the table. There's so many male allies who we celebrate. We have a dear friend, Catherine Gray, who is the executive producer for a movie called or documentary called show her the Money. And she's traveling the entire US and internationally, globally showing her documentary. And so her efforts alone are creating such awareness. And so there is a, there is a tide that is changing. And yes, I 1000% believe we're on the right path to make a difference. And so Stacy and I want to do our part, you know, and our part is specifically with female inventors. And so we look forward to growing Bold sky into a really significant organization.
- [17:48]
Stacy Pierce
And I want to back on that because we do have a huge male fan base and a lot of our male counterparts are huge advocates for women. And so, you know, it's finding those people into that will get in your corner and get in the trenches with you and they're out there and you know, men and women.
- [18:09]
Interviewer
Absolutely. So you're co founders, but you're also married. And I just wanted to get into some of the partnership part, the aspects of that in terms of, I'm sure not everything you're gonna agree on and what are your tips or Tricks for couples that are also business partners. Because that's like a whole other ball game.
- [18:34]
Jules Weldon
Yeah, it is. And it's like the best ball game that we've ever played. And I'm not just saying that. She's sitting here. She would agree with me. We didn't meet till we were later in life. So I was 41 and she was 42. And I think when you meet later in life and you find your person, you. You just want to spend a whole bunch of time with them. And so everything that we do is always more fun together. And. But, you know, but to be really transparent, in the beginning, our lanes weren't clear, and so there was miscommunication and there was frustration because she was getting in my lane and I was getting in her lane.
- [19:12]
Interviewer
How do you divide up that lane? Like, is there one person for biz dev the other ones for operate or.
- [19:17]
Stacy Pierce
Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, because I'm. I have an inventor's mind, and so I don't do well sitting. I am not organized when it comes to spreadsheets and stuff. She is so organized. And she loves to respond to emails. She loves to be on the computer. I'm one that. I am a teamer. I like to be in drawing and building and. And not that she's not an inventor. And we don't. We don't come together on that. We established our lanes and in what are to our strengths. But every now and then she'll ask, she'll invite me in the car with her in her lane and, well, do some collaboration. Or I'll invite her in my tinkering spots and say, hey, what do you think about this? How can you. Do you see any improvements? So it's really playing to those strengths because she can be on the computer 12, 13, 16 hours a day. I don't like being on the computer, but. So I was feeling guilty for not being on the computer, but she wasn't making me feel guilty. I was making myself feel guilty. So we had to really establish that to say, you know, that's where her strength is. She loves being on and doing and. But she's, you know, and working. That's how she works well. And so she's over all of our.
- [20:31]
Jules Weldon
Manufacturing and product development, new product development. She's all at sourcing, and she does all that, interacts with our, you know, manufacturer, and then I'm really over all the rest. So sales and marketing and strategy and. And if there had to be a, like, captain at the helm, it would be me. But I wouldn't do it without her. And so we've just gotten really clear on that where there's not this power struggle anymore of. Of that. We just really respect each other in our lanes. But I mean, a couple of other things is we are. We are huge communicators, and so we keep very short lists. So if we're frustrated with each other, I mean, we're human. Right. It's going to happen, but we talk about it, and then once we're done, we always hug and get back to center, you know, and remember that first and foremost, we are a couple. And then secondly, we are founders. And so we always make sure that our relationship is where it needs to be before, you know, before we move forward in anything. And then I think that the. Maybe a third.
- [21:32]
Interviewer
Do you do like, like a hat switching thing? Like this? Now we're arguing about something related to like a couple things. So, like putting on the business partner hat and then both parties just becomes more objective and, you know, less emotional.
- [21:47]
Jules Weldon
And yes, figuratively. Right. Not physically, but then the other thing is just gratitude. So I think when we live in a space of gratitude, we'll do gratitude walks every night and just talk about the things that we're grateful for, for the day. So it's kind of a way to put a, you know, a cap on the day and just end it with gratitude. And just staying in that headspace as much as we can is really important.
- [22:10]
Stacy Pierce
For Beth and us.
- [22:12]
Interviewer
Yeah. Was there. What was the last conflict that you ran into and how did you go about in solving that?
- [22:19]
Jules Weldon
I'll let you answer that.
- [22:20]
Stacy Pierce
I mean, it typically is. It's the way I. I don't hear my tone. And so usually it's typically if I've said something and.
- [22:29]
Jules Weldon
And I'm really sensitive to tone, and so those, that combination. I think she's saying something a certain way and she, she's explained. No, I. I didn't at all. And so then it's just me reminding myself that I'm more sensitive. And she's. I'm tone down, tone deaf. And so we have to just kind of come to the middle and apologize for each of our part in that. I mean, that just happened this morning, you know, and so that was yesterday or yesterday morning. You know, 11 years in, that still happens, but we just, we resolve it very quickly.
- [23:02]
Interviewer
I guess that's why it works for you guys, because I think there's, you know, there's a. I know a couple of married couples who, you know, they're living Together, but they're also business partners. And the, I think the, the fight or the conflict is always who has the last word.
- [23:19]
Stacy Pierce
I think in the very beginning my ego got in the way. And that's just being completely transparent. Where because I had been a director, I'd been this, I'd started other companies, I had been at the helm and I had to finally. It was something I don't even know. It was kind of a come to Jesus meeting with myself to say, stay, you know, your ego is way too big. Because I had to remember that this was not my product. This was not my dream necessarily. It became my dream. But this was her parents initial concept. And so she was taking her parents initial concept even though, even though now this product is ours and we both invented it together. But it was without that, we wouldn't be here, you know, we wouldn't have this product probably. And so I had to realize that this was a family legacy that Jules was taking to market. And I needed to step out and give her that latitude and longitude to, to do it and do it the way she needed to do it. And I would just come in as an inventor and a voice into the company. Are one of our next business. Now Bold sky is definitely ours, but we have been on the same page from the very beginning with that nothing that we've just learned to work together. And then we have another business we will be starting which will be my dream come into fruition.
- [24:49]
Interviewer
What earlier you were saying, Jules, that it was your dad or your parents that's that you're taking care of in Delaware, Correct?
- [24:57]
Jules Weldon
Yes.
- [24:58]
Interviewer
What does. And the product is also his idea. What does he think of the whole business now? Like now that it's in its reality?
- [25:06]
Jules Weldon
Yeah. I think that if we had to pay a salesperson who talks about us more than anybody, we'd have to put my mom and dad on payroll. They are so proud. And anybody that comes to their house is a captive audience for telling them how proud they are of all of us kids. I've got four brothers and a sister and certainly very proud of the fact that we picked up their concept and turned it into a legitimate company. So they're very, very proud and very excited. And I always say one of the key marks of success to me will be when they see our product being used out in public by a stranger and we get that text that says, hey, honey, look what we just saw. Every, every kid, no matter how, how old you get, want that validation from your parents for sure.
- [25:58]
Interviewer
Any last pieces of advice you have for other women entrepreneurs or just entrepreneurs in general, when they're looking to start off their idea, whether it's an inherited drawing from a parent or something that they're dreaming up, if they're a female.
- [26:16]
Jules Weldon
Inventor, we'd love to connect with you. But second, there's a few things. Number one, it's going to be harder than you ever imagined. It's going to cost more than you ever thought, and it's going to take longer than you could ever dream. But if you're willing to hang in there through those three things, it will be better than anything you've ever done. And so. But the reality of it is that this is the hardest thing that we have ever done, and we've both done really hard things. But hands down, taking ome gear to market has been the hardest. And so the reality check is, you know, it's definitely not all puppy tales and rainbows, but it is 100% worth it if you know what you're getting into.
- [27:01]
Interviewer
Well, it looks like you both are doing it beautifully. And let us know, too, what resources we can provide in terms of help, connections, trade shows. Alibaba does so much of that and myself personally as well. It was really great to have you both come back anytime and maybe see you at Co Create if you're coming over to Vegas in September. You're going.
- [27:27]
Jules Weldon
We're speakers.
- [27:28]
Interviewer
Oh, you're speaking. Okay, great. Yeah, we will see you there then.
- [27:33]
Jules Weldon
Can't wait. That'll.
- [27:34]
Stacy Pierce
It'll be so fun.
- [27:35]
Jules Weldon
We're actually speaking about the power of funding women, and so we'll be on the, I think, the main stage day one. So we're excited.
- [27:42]
Interviewer
Well, thanks so much. Great to meet you both.
- [27:47]
Sharon Guy
B2B Breakthrough is produced by Alibaba.com to find out how Alibaba.com is empowering its customers with the tools, services, and resources they need to grow their businesses. Visit Alibaba.com and then make sure to search for B2B Breakthrough Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your podcasts. Make sure to follow us so you don't miss future episodes. On behalf of the team here@alibaba.com thanks for listening.