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Ep 513: From Handmade to Nationwide: How Char Charms Scaled Hydration Accessories with Founder Charlotte Trecartin
00:37:17
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- [00:00]
Charlotte
With Drinkwear, I think we're still discovering what's the best accessory. Anytime someone buys a Stanley, I want them to come to chargearms. That's the goal. Collabs are like the future of hydration and accessories. Huge proponent of mentors in general. When I started Charms, I found a mentor from the sbdc. I shop when a website or a store is bringing in newness. Every time I get an email of like, new collection, new releases, you know, new stuff in store, like, I am going to the store to see what's new. I'm going online to see what's new. That's how I shop. The best way to put it is launch, learn, and then relaunch. So with our first launch that we did at Target.
- [00:52]
Eric
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- [02:06]
Charlotte
Thank you. I'm excited to be here. I am a huge fan of Jibbitz. I'm a huge fan of what they've done for Crocs. And yeah, I think Charters has like a very similar vibe to it. So we're kind of following along those footsteps.
- [02:18]
Eric
It's super smart because drinkwear is even more like personalized in a way. And it's like the what. What drinkwear has become in culture kind of since. Since the Pandemic. It just, it really makes sense that people are going to be look, looking for ways to further personalize and put themselves into their drinkware.
- [02:34]
Charlotte
Yeah, I think it's interesting though because like Crocs provides that canvas. Like you have one option of like how to accessorize your Crocs and it's these little things that pop into it. With drinkware, I think we're still discovering like what's the best accessory that can be for all different water bottles or do we hone in on one so there is not that like one perfect accessory yet where then we go in and we create a bazillion for every different personality. Like there is for Jibbitz. But yeah, I think it's, it's a very, very fun space to be in.
- [03:03]
Eric
Okay, well then walk me through your hero's journey. Why did you create. How did it, how did it come to you that you wanted to create Char Charms?
- [03:10]
Charlotte
Yeah, honestly, not a crazy story at all. I was so. I was a student at the University of Illinois studying kinesiology with minors in chemistry and business. Wasn't sure what I wanted to do. And then Covid hit in the middle of my sophomore year and so everyone was sent home. I was sitting at home looking at my Starbucks Tumblr just like the generic tumbler with a straw to the top and wished that I could like hang my hair tie on it. And so then the idea of a hook on a water bottle came to be and I kind of became obsessed with it in like a really weird way. Like texting all my friends, like making all these prototypes and sketches for this really weird product and like thinking about patenting and like finding lawyers and just like was really into it. And then my junior year happened. I was so busy. I mean like OR O chem 2, the hard business classes, the hard exercise science classes. Like I feel like junior year was the hardest year, but I was a good student. Like that was my main focus. Charms kind of fell to the wayside, but it was definitely still in the back of my brain the whole time. And so as I graduated or as I finished my junior year, I decided, okay, I'm going to go all in on charge arms this summer. So that was where I got a door to door sales job so I can make some money. And I started investing into how do I bring this to life? What is this going to look like? And we were able to start like hand making the products. We found like a couple little like stick on hooks that we were going to do. We Were like buying pom poms and chapstick holders and beads from like Amazon Bulk and then turning them into like little charm bundles. And we launched charcharms.com September of my senior year. So September of 2021. And that's kind of how it started.
- [04:55]
Eric
So it's a really great. I see this meme on TikTok all the time that like you can literally just do things and I feel like that's. This is a really great example of like you saw the need and you just started doing them. Did you start with like local sales? Did you start with sales to friends or did you go jump right into D2C and where did your first sales come from?
- [05:14]
Charlotte
Yeah, that's a really good question. And I actually love what you say about like you can just go do things. I think there is a lot to say about someone who like goes and DIY is their first prototype. No matter what you're selling, like go and buy cardboard, buy some silicone sheets, like hot glue that shit together and like make your first prototype and like figure it out for the first couple of months to see if you can actually make it before you try to go to China and manufacture it. So I love that and I tell so many founders that exact same thing. Like make it yourself first. I went to our local gym to do a couple of little booth tables and that was like my first step into trying to sell this. And it actually went really well. Like we had sales, people were interested in it. Obviously nothing that was like going to change us or like blow us up, but I think I needed that like that early traction to be like, to feel confident in the product.
- [06:07]
Eric
You mentioned your door to door sales background. I imagine we're going to talk about Shark Tank, we're going to talk about getting into retail, but I imagine kind of what you, I bet you were good at that. Having done our pre interview and you're, you know, you're very personable, you're very bubbly. Like what did you learn from your door? First of all, what were you selling? And then what did you learn from your door to door sales job that you've been able to apply throughout your career so far?
- [06:29]
Charlotte
I wasn't the annoying salesperson that like shows up and is selling you like pest control. Like that was not me. I was selling coupon books.
- [06:39]
Eric
Win, win.
- [06:40]
Charlotte
Yeah, exactly. And part of the proceeds went to the American Cancer Society. So it was like genuinely I felt good doing it. Like I knew I wasn't bugging anyone. Like this is a Coupon book to your culver's down the street. I learned so much, truly. And like, I think it taught me how to stay internally motivated even when stuff is rough. It taught me to like, put in the work when I really did not want to because we would have to go out on like Saturdays and Sundays and like that was, that was the schedule. You'd stay out until you sold your books. It was like a gritty job, truly. Like, I was working with all dudes. I was like one of two girls on the team. So. Yeah. And of course, like, you learn rejection and blah, blah, blah. But I think it's like, really, you learn how to like, put your mind to something and be like, I have to sell all 20 of these things and otherwise I'm not going home. So it taught me a lot.
- [07:30]
Eric
So at this point, when you have your website, are you still fulfilling and creating yourself with like 3D printing or when did you decide you, you have to go to get these manufactured china?
- [07:40]
Charlotte
Yeah, you'll be surprised. I did not mass manufacture in China until we got our first big retail orders. We were hand making our products for the first year and a half of char charms. So I would get high schoolers from like down the street to like start making these. And we were hand pouring resin into molds. So we were like mixing little things of resin, adding in glitter, pouring it into molds, turning it into a hook, putting adhesive strips on it. So we were hand making everything and then the beads, we were hand beading pop bombs. We would have to like re chain them to add chains that made, made sense for the, for the hook for the water bottles. So I just had like my troop of high school kids and like kids down the street coming and working and kind of making their money and like helping me pack orders. And then I started to hire people that were like my age to do some more, like come help me make tiktoks or like help me pack orders. But I was very scrappy until we absolutely. I remember actually, uh, the day that I met my boyfriend, I had to tell him I like, I have to go make 400 hooks after this. And like I said, I was, I was still hand making hooks until we got our first retail order. Well, Urban Outfitters was still handmade. Palmetto Moon was still handmade. And then once we got to Dick's Sporting Goods, that's when I was like, I can't hand make these anymore. I need to go and outsource this.
- [09:00]
Eric
Talk about getting those. How did you go about getting These, because it's a, it's a new category. Right? It's a category that probably didn't exist until you showed up. So how you go about getting these, this, this retail track record in place?
- [09:12]
Charlotte
Yeah, I mean, I think it's a blessing in disguise that it was a new category. And when, when you think about brands that build categories, they usually retain 70% of the market share, which is really nice. When you think about that, you're like, okay, I can create this and then I can hold on to that market share as the category grows. So I just had that in the back of my mind. I heard that a really long time ago. So I kind of like clenched onto it. And Urban Outfitters found us from a viral TikTok. And then they reached out. A customer told me about Palmetto Moon and Palmetto Moon is like a southern based retailer. I had never heard of them before. I messaged every single buyer on LinkedIn and I was like, one of our customers wants us in your stores. Let me know what I can do to send you samples or a line sheet or whatever. So then we got into Palmetto Moon and then after that, Dick's Sporting Goods reached out to us and this is all like LinkedIn. So very LinkedIn heavy. I'm like a huge proponent of that. Founders need to be on LinkedIn to be connecting with buyers and retailers and all of that. So Dick Sporting Goods reached out. Actually, they viewed my profile and I was like, that's big. And then they reached out. And after that they did a test in holiday for 2023 and then we launched nationwide spring of 2024.
- [10:24]
Eric
And how's that going?
- [10:25]
Charlotte
It was great. It was so great. We launched so many SKUs with them. Like, there was a point where I think we probably had over 30 SKUs on an end cap, which was a lot. But they have an amazing buying team. They have a huge hydration category. I mean, if you walk into a Dick's like that is the epitome of water bottles at Dick's Sporty Goods. So they do a phenomenal job merchandising and just know their customer. So it was a lot of fun. And then after that, you know, we kind of knew, okay, Target is probably going to see us from this. And so the Target team reached out to us and they were like, I think the mindset of all these buyers is like, new category. People are coming in to buy their Stanley or a Walla. What can we also sell to that same customer in that same category? And the beautiful part about the whole thing was that because hydration was growing, buyers had more open to buy budget. So what that means is like they have a budget for basically like they can take risks of, like this is our risk taking budget and if your category is doing really well, like you have more kind of free flowing opportunity for like you have more money to spend. So it was kind of that perfect match of Stanley's had just hit. Every retailer was crushing on Stanley's. Drinkware buyers were like, what else can we buy into this category? And so Target then brought us in and initially it was supposed to be like an online test and then it was going to be like a small in store test but they ended up skipping both of those and we went full nationwide, 1700 stores with 17 SKUs, which was a lot. That's a massive first order that I was not ready for. But I learned so much and like that's the best part of being a business owner is when you're thrown into a situation that you have no idea how you're going to manage and then you make it through.
- [12:18]
Eric
I've, I, I've never launched a product into Redel, but I've, I've heard launching nationwide, launching really big can be tricky. There can be ways you end up having to buy inventory back if it doesn't work. Have there been any big snags along the way with your retail expansion?
- [12:32]
Charlotte
I think the best way to put it is launch, learn and then relaunch. So with our first launch that we did at Target, I mean we launched 17 SKUs. So like you are swinging the bat like hoping that you're gonna have some really good hitters. So I think we did a really good job of making sure that our assortment was diversified between colors and different types of products. So we were very easily able to see like, okay, this was a killer. We have to bring this back. This one not as hot. Like why did it not sell as well? Was it just not merchandise properly? Like what can we kind of revisit? So it's funny because when I, before I got into retail, people would always tell me they're like retail so hard. You get so many chargebacks. Like there's all these issues with it. I think you kind of just like build that into your profit margins and like you kind of just plan for like, okay, well you know, let's just make sure we have enough. If we do have 100 or $200,000 worth of chargebacks, let's kind of try to make products better so that the next time around they're not buying as many. Like you can just kind of fix things before you relaunch and adjust projections. I think that's the most important thing. So that's all that I've kind of dealt with is like, okay, well if you have products left over at the end of the cycle, like they're going to clearance them out and then you have to fund part of the clearances, which is normal.
- [13:54]
Eric
Yeah. How many SKUs do you have active with these big retailers at this point?
- [13:58]
Charlotte
At Dick's we have just over a dozen. At Target, we're sold out. So we're going to be Bringing back another 17 SKUs in Target, we're launching a spring collection which we're super excited about. We had a Valentine's Day collection that sold out, which we were very lucky and thankful that it was like killing timing with the Stanley Valentine's Day launch. And then we're going to be launching in a couple other retailers this year that we're very excited about. But I can't share yet.
- [14:25]
Eric
We talk a lot about ads, we talk a lot about an organic content. You mentioned TikTok and getting, you know, help with, with people on your TikTok. Before your retail contracts was organic social the main growth engine for your website?
- [14:39]
Charlotte
Yeah, absolutely. So like if we kind of talk about e Commerce and D2C in general and like what that was looking like and what it looks like now for us. So pre retail we were 100% D2C through Shopify and everything was driven by me making TikToks every single day. So I talked to so many other founders that were doing like religious TikTok lives, just making TikToks so that they could continue to have business. And retail was a way for me to see like this is a great way for me to build a business without needing to make daily TikToks. But now that we are in retail there's this big not question mark but there's this big like challenge of diversifying your chat, your channels and okay, how do we make Target different from Dick's? How do we make both of those different than our website? What do we bring to our website that is a different price point or for a different customer. And so that's what we're like working on now for this year and thinking about TikTok hiring two full time content creators to be able to make 10 plus videos per day and just like be a content engine. Like that's the goal is if you can have, you know, crazy content going out and let's say, you know, one in 10 videos or one in 20 videos goes viral. Like that's how you can really get attention on TikTok or Instagram or Shorts or Facebook.
- [16:00]
Eric
How did we had, we did a mastermind this past fall and we had someone come out who was just wowing the audience. We ended up picking their brain really deeply on TikTok lives and how effective they were for them as part of their strategy. Has that become a big part of your strategy or are you still trying to crack that?
- [16:18]
Charlotte
No, it was, I did it like three times and it crushed every time. Like every time I'd go on thousand people on there, like I'd make like a couple thousand dollars. Like it crushed when I was on it. But it's so much energy and I'm like, do I want to be the one doing this every single time just to make money? But there's this cool. Have you seen the content house that's like, I think it's in California where they have like these pods for creators and they have like the setup for every brand. I'll just send it to you. It is so cool. And they have creators in house that they'll, you know, bring in for your brand and like they will be on live for eight hours. So I'm a hundred percent a proponent of like that is the new wave. So if I can find someone who, you know of the content creators that we'll be hiring that like is someone that can be on live for two or three hours at a time, like I will put them into that role.
- [17:10]
Eric
You've taught you talked about in our pre interview, this concept of getting away from being the dancing bear, which I thought was a great, a great expression yourself, but it's still. The dancing bears still work. You just need to find a way to decentralize the dancing bear. So it's not just all on you.
- [17:24]
Charlotte
Yeah, I mean I'm the founder. Like I don't think that my time is best spent on TikTok live for several hours a day. I think it's probably best spent like trying to build a business and then hire someone to be on TikTok live for several hours a day.
- [17:38]
Eric
Makes sense. And there's more and there's a lot of people out there who, you know, who are, who are pros at that and want to, I, I like to go, I go live a couple times a week on my hydration channel where I just drink a liter of bio steel and we talk about hydration. It's not going super well, so far I'm not making any sales.
- [17:54]
Charlotte
That's okay.
- [17:55]
Eric
But it's fine.
- [17:56]
Charlotte
I mean, I can give you some suggestions. Maybe you need some charge arms. Yep, that would help your water bottle.
- [18:02]
Eric
We need a dtc. Do you have letter based ones? I feel like they might be big sellers.
- [18:06]
Charlotte
Oh, I used to. I used to. They were hits. So we're trying to, you know, we're revamping the whole DTC channel and all the products that we have. I think when I. How I shop as a customer is I shop when a website or a store is bringing in newness. So every time I get an email of like, new collection, new releases, you know, new stuff in store, like I am going to the store to see what's new. I'm going online to see what's new. That's how I shop. So I'm like, that's how I need to get the Char Charm site to be so that we are just constantly launching new collections.
- [18:39]
Eric
I love that. That was actually one of the most powerful talks I've referenced on the pod a bunch of times. But it's Brandon from Montana Knife code who you should connect with.
- [18:47]
Charlotte
Interesting.
- [18:48]
Eric
He showed his launch schedule that his whole team is oriented around. They do, I think they do two launches a week. One on their merch, one on their knives, and then they might even have a third one that they've built in. But they're. And he basically has this schedule that he's built out for the next two years. So they know every single week what they're launching and when, what they're relaunching, what they're restocking on. And their whole team is oriented around this cadence of just like launching new to their audience in this really high production value way that it's like that it's, it's super smart because it like reduces the, the stress on your team when you know what you're doing well into the future. You know the game plan for every single launch is the same. And every new launch, like you say, gives you that opportunity to, to actually have a real reason to reach out to your customer base.
- [19:35]
Charlotte
Exactly. Wow. I'm gonna have to listen to that. That sounds phenomenal.
- [19:39]
Eric
Yeah. I'll share that with you after the fact and introduce you to him if you want. He's. He's a great guy. And you never know. Knife charms. You might want a charm on your hunting knife too. You never know.
- [19:48]
Charlotte
I feel like that might be a distraction if you're like, if you have this like little thing Jingling around as you're like stabbing an animal, as you're skinning a deer.
- [19:56]
Eric
I don't know. Yeah, who knows?
- [19:58]
Charlotte
For the right customer, I'm sure that person is out there.
- [20:01]
Eric
The Venn diagram exists. I know you mentioned in our pre interview the way I liked your sort of goal driven approach to maybe life. It was and you, you talked about having a huge goal of getting on Shark Tank. You talked about big goal of getting I think was 30 under 30 of the Forbes, the Forbes list. Talk a little bit about your sort of goal driven mentality when it comes to living your life.
- [20:25]
Charlotte
Totally. So when I started Charms, everyone would always tell me like, oh, are you going to be on Shark Tank? Like this would be a great Shark Tank product. And when it comes to like the goals of a founder, I think there are a lot of these like very, these things that like I feel like most founders are reaching for. Maybe it's just myself that I look at and I'm like, wow, that'd be really cool. So like Forbes 30 under 30, Shark Tank, the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award, like that's the next one that I really want and then obviously the COVID of Forbes. So like there's it's this nice kind of step wise of like the next step and then the next step and the next step. And I think like I looked at those four and I'm like, these are phenomenal goals to kind of push for. So with Shark Tank it was really a matter of like I just really wanted to be on Shark Tank. So when I, I kind of shared my story on LinkedIn about this. But like I applied online multiple times at the end of 2022, early 2023, I was applying online and then never got a call back. I just, I think like I was and trying and trying. And then I went to the open casting call in Indianapolis and I was like so confident. I'm like, charge Farms will absolutely be on. Like this is going to be it. And then I never got a call back. But I was never discouraged because I had this mentality of like, I'm literally going to keep trying until I get on Shark Tank. Like even if I didn't make it on this most recent season, like you bet I would absolutely be going to the next open fasting call 100% without any shame in my heart of like, I didn't get to make it. So I went to Indianapolis, I didn't make it on. And then I went to Las Vegas in January of 2024 and that was another Open casting call that they had. And I was like, the first one in line. I showed up at 2am which is only because my flight got in that early. Like, that I probably would not have unless it was the flight got in. And I'm like, I'll just go straight there. So I was the first one in line. I was the first one to give my pitch, and I had changed my pitch. So my first pitch in Indianapolis, I was very much so, like, product pitch. Like, this is Charge Arms. These are all the products. This is why it's so cute and fun. And, like, this is our audience the second time around. I'm like, that is not what they want. They want customer or they want someone on there who has, like, an interesting story of, like, why they launched it and the emotional aspect behind it. I didn't get a call back after the second Shark Tank pitch, and I was like, okay, well, I guess that's that. And then a month after you were supposed to get a call back, I got an email from my casting producer, and they're like, I was on vacation. We actually want you. I'm like, are you serious? So then the whole process continued, and we filmed and then we finally aired January 31st of this past year. So just a couple weeks ago. And I think it truly is a testament of, like, you just need to push for whatever your goal is. So even Forbes 30 under 30, I had said that goal in 2022, that I want to be on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. And I told my mentor, I want to be on Forbes 30 under 30. And he's like, you need to start looking at what are the Forbes 30 under 30 people doing? Like, reach out to them, connect with them on LinkedIn. And so I was. I was literally doing that. And then I would kind of just see, like, oh, this guy, he got on Shark Tank, or this guy launched in Target Nationwide, or like, this guy did this. And so I really just saw the formula of, like, what did I need to achieve to finally be able to get on Forbes 30 under 30. It will be the same thing with the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Like, once I start growing charms, probably, like, then it wouldn't be this year, and it might not be 2026, but once I get 2027 and we get to that point where I'm like, I feel like I could probably get submitted for this, then I will be looking at who was previously on the list and, like, who was like, what's it called when it's like, the not Person who wins but like an honoree, honorable mention or. Yeah, honorable mention. Like I'll probably just start to do a lot of research of like what did they do to achieve that? And then I will just aim for the exact same or similar things that make sense for char charms. So it's really just reverse engineering your goals.
- [24:36]
Eric
So when it comes to, you know, you're plotting a few years out with, with growth, what. What do you think is going to be the biggest growth engine that takes you to the where you want to be when, when you're on the COVID of Forbes?
- [24:47]
Charlotte
I mean to be on the COVID of Forbes, I have to be worth a billion dollars or like a top CEO. So that's a lot. It's a very loaded.
- [24:56]
Eric
Okay, the ey then when you, when you're talking about achieving these other goals, what's going to be. Is it just going to be continuing to like double down on retail?
- [25:04]
Charlotte
No, no, totally not. I mean I also think that I 1 year ago I was like still in my parents basement. So the business changes so much so fast for us. We're like, like maybe in a year I'll be like, wow, DTC has crushed. I'm gonna go all in on D2C now. Or like wow. Retail. We've expanded into seven more categories. Let's see where we can start. Private labeling. Like, let's see what we can expand into to like really turn this into something in retail. So I think it's gonna be I really go with the flow with the business and like let everything kind of take me as is. I'm very flexible as a business owner. So I'm like, I see opportunity here and it's aligned with the overall goal of like learning but also moving Charms forward. I will go after that. So I'm not sure what it's going to be when I get to the EY award.
- [25:56]
Eric
I like that though because you just set your pole in, you know where you want to be and then you're open to how you get there. You just act like it's already occurred, like you're already an eye entrepreneur of the year and then the universe provides.
- [26:11]
Charlotte
Exactly. I think that that's the best way to think about it. I do my vision boards. I had like three this year for personal and then for my home life and then business life and then charge arm. So I'm very like vision board.
- [26:24]
Eric
I did that. I went to a mastermind for the and I did that five like a five year vision process and I found it extremely valuable. But it's about keeping on it. I kind of, like, put it away, but you kind of need to, like, re. You need to look at those things, like, every day in a way.
- [26:40]
Charlotte
Yeah, yeah, I have. So I could do mine on Canva and so I do like a poster size on Canva and I Photoshop my face into, like, I literally have a picture of my face on the COVID of Forbes. Like, I have photoshopped my face into everything I want. And then it is. So I have a peloton and I have all my vision boards in front of my peloton. So every morning when I peloton, I'm like, staring at my vision board, I'm like, wow, like, like, I gotta work on that. Like, if something is like that, like, it's a goal for the year. Yeah.
- [27:08]
Eric
You mentioned your mentor too. Can you. Can you talk a little bit about the role that, like, mentorship has played in your entrepreneurial journey?
- [27:14]
Charlotte
Totally huge proponent of mentors in general. When I started Charms, I found a mentor from the SBDC in Chicago, which is the Small Business Development Center. There's a bunch of them. So you could pretty much access this sbdc like, wherever you are. And they're government funded, so when you find a mentor through that, like, it's free for you. And their goal is to help small business owners. So, like, you'll be paired with someone, they will do weekly calls with you. So I met with someone called, and his name was Andrew Fogetti. And he helped me basically take Charge Arms from, like, prototype to launching chargearms.com and I met with him like every other week. And he would connect me to people, he would give me ideas, he would ask me questions. And that was just so helpful to have someone that, like, wasn't my family to kind of push me forward a little bit and not criticize at all. And then after that, I was connected to another mentor through an incubator. His name was Bob. He's awesome. And he had invested in a lot of startups and again, same thing. I actually met with him on a weekly basis all of 2022, for an entire year. And he was pretty much like my sounding board. So when I would talk to him, I came to him with issues. He would just, like, ask me a question that I would have to like, then solve that issue on my own. He'd connect me to people, I would tell him my progress, like, tell him my wins. But just having someone to talk to on a weekly basis was so impactful for me because Charge Arms wasn't really, like a thing. Like we were still doing maybe a couple thousand a month. Like, that was it. And then after that, I meant met another mentor from the sbdc, but this time it was like a different sector of it. And his name was Cheddar and Cheddar was someone who used to be in like the retail side of things. And I met him at an event and he told me, like, he can help me with retail. This was pre Urban Outfitters. Like at this point I was like pitching to Claire's, hoping that I could get into Claire's. So he helped me with like my line sheets and like, what are they gonna expect from me and how should I answer these emails? So he was there when like I got the first Dick's order. He was there when we were shipping out, you know, Dick Spring. And he's been one of my mentors ever since. So I have found so much value in mentors just because they are someone that like a. They don't. Like, they won't question you in like a negative way. Like, they are your cheerleaders and they want you to win and they're going to ask you really good questions hopefully. And ideally they'll connect you to people too.
- [29:43]
Eric
Super cool. What else do you have planned? I think when we, when we discussed on our pre interview, we discussed collaborations being an interesting opportunity. Opportunity for you. How are you currently thinking about collabs with Char Charms?
- [29:54]
Charlotte
I think collabs are like the future of hydration and accessories. I think we can kind of circle back to what we talked about with Crocs at the very beginning. If you look at Crocs and where their growth came from, it was all our collaborations. They did Justin bieber, they did McDonald's. Like, they did all these cool collabs. They brought so much hype to the brand. All these like limited edition Jibbit and Crocs. And I think that really made a huge wave for them to kind of establish themselves as like very trendy and like trend forward. So that's how I picture Char Charms as like, we cannot wait to do like the next Billie Eilish Charm set or like whatever it is. I want to do hello Kitty. Like, I want to do all these cool licenses. I think it makes so much sense. It's really truly like a matter of do we need a drinkware brand to kind of partner with on all of these? Where does the drinkware come in? Like, do we launch our own drinkware so we don't have to rely on another drinkware brand? So I Think like we, we are, we accessorize water bottles. So like who's the water bottle that we're gonna accessorize when it comes to the collabs? And maybe there doesn't have to be one. I think that's kind of like a hypothetical question that I put out into the universe and the reason that I like collabs so much is I do think that it's, it makes you that really cool brand. Especially if it makes sense for your brand of like I think if. I don't know, I think there are some brands that are just too in their like corporate sense where like they probably would not do a hello Kitty collab or maybe they would not do a Billie Eilish club because it just like doesn't make sense for their corporate branding. So I think you still have to be like nimble enough and fun enough to like be able to do it. Which I think charms totally can.
- [31:37]
Eric
You mentioned duolingo and it's funny in our pre interview and I, I see duos dead everywhere. If you had a dead du duo char charm a little morbid but it could be quite big.
- [31:47]
Charlotte
I know. Well duo will come back like it will be revived. We know it's reborn. I think there's gonna be duolingo baby maybe. Okay, that's totally guess of mine. I think there has to be a baby and then it's going to grow up. So they have a whole new storyline. But yeah, exactly. Like we should be doing a duolingo thing for all of duolingo's life stages.
- [32:10]
Eric
Have you cracked, have you done any of these big collabs yet or. They're on the roadmap.
- [32:14]
Charlotte
They're coming this year so you will see them in stores this year and then hopefully we'll start to launch the D2C ones in 2026 or potentially late 2025. I mean I think, I think it really is going to be like how can we. I think it's like I want to make the marketing be the engine for D2C so we have to like revive TikTok, like start posting a ton of really get the creator game going on Charms and then once that I feel is like, I feel really confident then I think I'll feel more confident doing like a huge launch of a hello Kitty or like a Duolingo or a Starface collab where I know that we'll have the customer base to buy from.
- [32:54]
Eric
Yeah, my 11 year old daughter's vote would be for hello Kitty. She's just obsessed with those Characters for some reason. It's amazing their longevity. I don't think she ever watches any cartoons of them. There's just something about them that just like appeal to. To girls.
- [33:06]
Charlotte
Yeah. And they're all over. I mean if you walk into a Claire's like it's half hello Kitty. There's have you.
- [33:12]
Eric
Are you in Claire's? Have you. Did you get into Claire's?
- [33:15]
Charlotte
No. They want like really insane margins so they do a lot of own brand. So if you walk into Claire's, it's mostly Claire's branded.
- [33:23]
Eric
Yeah. What have you, what's the competitive landscape? I know you're a category creator which we always love on this podcast, but what have there been people that kind of have fast followed you in this space?
- [33:34]
Charlotte
There's one other brand that I consider our competitors and they're very much so like Etsy esque. But I would say there's one other competitor and then we have. And then everything else is like Etsy, Amazon. So it's like China or it's like one off moms that are making like little bows for your Stanley, things like that. So yeah, I mean like I'm really happy with where the space is at in hydration accessories. I think it gives us a lot still a lot of wiggle room to like become the dominating company. And ideally like we will make that this year as like we are the.
- [34:07]
Eric
Ones Collabs will help with that. Right? Like when you are, when you're partnering with these other big legacy brands or whatever brands that have a lot of brand cachet, these other mom and pop shops or China outsourcers won't be thinking about it like that. So that'll obviously reflect positively on your brand.
- [34:22]
Charlotte
Right. And there's so many brands that like they're not going to go to China like a China brand. Like they want to work with a cool brand here that has the tick tock and the marketing behind it to collab with with. I think that's a huge part of collabs is like well what can you post? Like what's your email list to get this going and market this. So I think that absolutely does help. I also think that just like being in Target nationwide and like the legitimacy of that, anytime someone buys a Stanley, I want them to come to charge arms. Like that's the goal. Or anytime someone wants to accessorize their new Ala or their hydro flask or their brumate or their hydro jug or whatever it is simple, modern, like, like I want charms to be the one I Think it's still just a very niche space, so it'll take some time.
- [35:04]
Eric
If you could go back to 2021 and give yourself one piece of advice before launching Char Charms, what would it be?
- [35:10]
Charlotte
I would say once you start posting on TikTok, stay posting on TikTok and like, and, and I mean that in a matter of like, I. I was posting three times a day every single day for several months. And like that got us from 0 to 50, 000 and it was so worth it. And do I wish I was still posting three times a day every day? Probably. Because I'd probably be at like 500k. I think it would have been like exponential growth. So I think that's what I would tell myself. But overall, I was really happy with my journey. There's nothing I would have changed so far. I think everything has happened for a reason. And again, it just is part of that mentality of like, I have my North Star and whatever it takes to get there, I can do that.
- [35:54]
Eric
If you're listening to this podcast and you're feeling like your water bottle or drinking vessel is just too plain and boring, then you've got to go to charcharms.com and get personalizing your drinking vessel, because that's the future.
- [36:07]
Charlotte
Yes. And if it's after March 20th and you're listening to this, go to Target because Target has the really cute new spring accessories.
- [36:15]
Eric
Very cool. And then obviously maybe reach out on LinkedIn. You're a LinkedIn whiz. I. I think that's how I discovered you actually is my algorithm surfaced one of your. Your posts about your journey. So I think, I think I for my LinkedIn has been absolutely invaluable for the creation of of D2C and Pilot House as well. So don't, don't sleep on LinkedIn out there.
- [36:34]
Charlotte
Seriously. Yeah, shoot me connections. Shoot me a message like, I'm happy to connect chat help whoever is a founder in the space.
- [36:41]
Eric
Nice. Well, we've. I know we've got some drinkware. People who listen to the podcast have been on the podcast. So if you want to collab on the. On the charm side of things, that would be a great opportunity as well. Thanks for coming on the D2C podcast today, Charlotte. It was a lot of fun.
- [36:53]
Charlotte
Yeah. Thank you so much, Eric. Have a good one.
- [37:01]
Eric
Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you're not a subscriber to our newsletter, you can do that right now at directtoconsumeralloneword. Co. I'm Eric, Dick. And this has been the DTC podcast. We'll see you next time.