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Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome back to the Travis Makes Money podcast where it's our mission to help you all make more money. Today on the show I'm talking to my new friend, Bryn McLennan. She has been an entrepreneur since she co founded a bounce house company with her siblings at the age of 13. With a BFA in Product Design from Brigham Young University, she gained experience in at product design at Johnson and Johnson, which I don't know if you've heard of them, but they're a pretty decently sized company from what I understand today. Bryn and her co founder, a dentist, have innovated a sustainable, effective and easy to use electric flosser that is disrupt, disrupting the industry. Bryn, what's up? Welcome to the show.
D
Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to teach people. I love business and I love dentistry and I love flossing.
B
Usually those things don't go together. Bryn, I, I have to say I've not heard that as an opening line before on the podcast.
D
Well, I do like to be different
B
so there's a first time for everything. Although I will say on my other show, Travis Makes Friends, we did have a dentist on, on that show one time. So we have, we've, we've gone down this route.
D
Oh, that was so nice of you to not hate on the dentists, but did you. 80% of people have dental anxiety and that's actually one of the reasons we invented our product.
B
80% of people.
D
Yeah.
B
Well I say that surprise. But then it's also like I'm probably one of those people.
D
So it's like so funny because I didn't know people didn't like the dentist. As a little kid I went and I loved it. It was like going to the spa for me. I didn't get to go to the.
B
Did you get like the treasure chest, like prizes or something? Like what was it that made you like it?
D
Well, I didn't have a cavity until I was 25, so I never had a negative experience at the dentist and my dentist was my parents friend so it Was always, like, fun to see him. And I always got a pack of gum at the end, so I was, like, so excited.
B
A pack of gum and a pat on the back for taking care of your teeth and not having any cavities. You know, it's really.
D
My mom. She made sure I flossed from a young age.
B
Really? Flossing is. I. I still struggle to floss every day. So maybe. Maybe this is a perfectly timed episode.
D
Travis, I can't wait to get you a flosser. You send me your address, I'll send one to you.
B
Perfect. Anything to make it an easier habit to form. You know what I mean? So is that kind of where it came from?
D
Yeah. So there were two reasons. One is, is we saw people were anxious at the dentist. We're like, what if we made them not anxious? Why do I love going to the dentist? I never had a cavity. So the two reasons people hate the dentist is cavities and gum disease. So guess how you get rid of those?
B
Yeah. Doing flossing.
D
But guess what? We were like, if we made flossing easy and effective, because floss picks are easy, but they're not effective. So we were like, how do we put floss?
B
You're talking about all these things. The little, like, plastic flossers. You're saying they're not effective. How so?
D
Okay, so they're good at getting between the teeth, but most users who use them just go in and out.
B
Gotcha.
D
And you actually have to stimulate your gums underneath the gum line to get rid of bacteria. So that's what we have patented on our product, is there's, like, little gum brushes that go where your teeth touch.
B
How did you discover all of this?
D
So I bought a dental practice in 2017, and my product design. And. And as a product designer, I was like, every. I thought everyone loved the dentist, and I learned all these people hate it. And I was like, what if I made flossing easy? But, like, people would use floss picks, and we literally couldn't tell at the dental office.
B
Wow, that's pretty crazy. That's. That's crazy insight, actually, that you. That you couldn't actually tell that they, like. So some people would come in, they'd be like, I floss all the time, and I use these things. And you're like, well, your gums look the same as somebody who doesn't floss at all, basically.
D
Yeah. So if you don't go underneath the gum line and do what's called the C shape. So you're supposed to like, wrap it up and wrap it down. You, you would be getting rid of the cavity part, but you wouldn't. Your gums could still be inflamed and red.
B
Wow. Okay. And then talk to me real quick about your product design experience. So this is, I love talking to people with physical products on the show because it's one of the more fascinating things to, to, to think about something that does not currently exist and then go through enough rigor, like rigorous product testing and ideation to be able to actually come up with something and then get it manufactured and then get it shipped and then do it for. That's some sort of, some version of cost effective to get into the hands of somebody where you can actually make it affordable for them, but also make a good profit in the business. There's a lot of moving parts here. So tell me about your experience working at Johnson and Johnson.
D
Yeah, so I, I interned at Johnson and Johnson. I didn't end up working there, but I learned so much as an intern. I, when I worked there. That's actually where I fell in love with medical design. So I worked at.
B
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B
What time has it been? It's clobber time.
D
Essicon. And we were focusing on Trocars, which is a device that dentists, that, I mean that a doctor would put instruments through so they could have less open wounds. So they'd put a tiny little hole in you and then they put this instrument in and it just like blew my mind. And I learned something so much. And that's when I became passionate. Like before I wanted to be a shoe designer. And I thought, I love sports. That'll be so fun. And then I was like, wait, I can make a product that changes people's lives. And so I learned like so many things. What does working with the FDA look like? They would come up with these amazing products and they didn't even get to market until 20 years later. And I was like 20 years later? Well, sometimes I, I would say the minimum window is like 20 is, is seven years. So.
B
Wow, that's remarkable. And so, but our product is a
D
Class 1 device, not a Class 2 device. So ours doesn't take as long.
B
Okay. Yeah, yeah, got it. Now, on. On your internship here was this like, first ever working experience type of a thing, like right out of high school, college, or like, where in the timeline did this pop up?
D
Yeah, so when I went to college, I actually did four internships. Cause I just thought it was fun. And this was my third internship. And it was. I learned, I think, the most from this job. If I could go back in time and tell, you know, like, you think, oh, I want to start a company. If people after college go to a really big company, they are going to learn so much. They're going to learn processes and systems and how you do things. And I think it's a very, very valuable thing to do after college to go to a big. A big company.
B
Yeah. Because you clearly had that entrepreneurial spirit, having started, you know, your bounce house company at 13. So you clearly had this form of entrepreneurship. And sometimes that personality type tends to clash with the American corporation.
C
Right.
B
Like just being like a cog in a massive wheel where, like, you don't really feel like you're contributing that much, or there's just corporate hierarchies and red tape and bullshit managers doing dumb jobs that shouldn't exist. And there's so much stuff that can frustrate you in that world. When you were finishing up on internships, did you immediately go into starting a company? Or did you go. Or did you, like, stay kind of corporate structure for some period of time before you launched something?
D
Well, so originally I actually really wanted to go work at a bigger company. But unlike most people, I got married at the age of 21. And so I. I was like, okay, I have to stay here because my husband isn't finished school yet. So I ended up working for a company called Wadsworth Design, and they did all the Paul Mitchell hair schools. And so I helped design and draft all of the design schools.
B
Oh, wow. Okay. And how long did you go for?
D
I did that for a year, and then I started my own company. Okay.
B
So it didn't last very long, Bryn. Yeah, Ultimately. Ultimately, you can't fight off that entrepreneurial spirit. What was the first company?
D
I was. I did wedding invitations. I became a designer, and I just. I bought a C and P press and I started doing letterpress invitations. And that's where I went.
B
What was the. What's the story? Like, bridge the gap between that first company and this flossing company?
D
Yeah. So I also chose to have a plethora of children. So I did, I worked at Wadsworth Design and then I got pregnant. So I had my first baby at 24 and that's when I started my own company because I love working, but I wanted to be a mom. Then we, we moved to Louisville, Kentucky and Danny went to dental school there. And so while he was in dental school, I kept my design company and I was making wedding invitations. Cool thing about Louisville is people like to spend a lot of money on weddings there. So I did a wedding invitation that cost $36 a piece. It was like, wow, okay.
B
That's a margin, huh? Yeah.
D
So that was fun. And then we moved to Houston and I still did graphic design on the side. But when we moved to Spokane, where we currently lived, we bought a dental practice so he could work as a dentist. And I took my first year off of working. So.
B
So real quick, tell me about the process of buying the dental practice. Like, why buy one instead of start one? Did you have any coaching or mentorship to say that, like, this is a good opportunity versus this is just a struggling dental practice. You probably shouldn't buy that. Burning, you know, sinking ship was there. Like, how much, I guess thought it went into the decision to buy something versus the decision to start something.
D
Yeah. So there's so many things people, and I can tell people a lot about this process. But we moved to Houston originally and worked for a dentist. We were an associate and they had 16 dental chairs in their office and three dentists. So it was like really fast paced and intense. I think I maybe could have thrived in an office like that. But Danny, the co founder of Slate, he was my husband, I'm now divorced, but he was like, that's too much chaos for his personality. So he was like, if I owned my own dental practice, I could determine how many patients I saw when I saw them, what I did. So I was like, great, you're a dentist. We can live anywhere in the world. Where do you want to live? We picked Spokane, Washington, and we sent out little flyers to every single dentist in Spokane and said like, are you selling your practice? Let us know. And we met a bunch of different dentists and we learned, wow, everyone runs their practice very different. We wanted the practice to be sufficient, but also see that we could improve it. So we wouldn't be paying top dollar for it, but we pay good amount of money. So our clients were good, but that we could grow the practice.
B
Yeah, you basically you bought a customer base and turned it into a business?
D
Essentially, yeah.
B
What, How, what about the buying piece of this. So did you use debt? Did you pay cash? Was it a seller finance deal? Talk to me like deal terms and deal structure. As much as you can give me.
D
Yeah. So we at the time went and got a loan. So the really great thing about banks is they love dentists, so usually they'll give boring businesses. Yeah. So they are like, this isn't a risk. Like, some businesses are a risk. They're like. So we. We reached out to three different banks.
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D
Thanks. Two of them were willing to lend us money, and we did it. 100% financed, actually, so 100% finance.
B
Wow. Wow.
D
At the time, we had just left dental school and one year of work, so we didn't have extra money. And we had four children, so we didn't have extra money floating around. Yeah.
B
Four children tells me enough, right? Yeah. So. So jump into. You purchase the dental practice. What do you do? Like, day one, right? You get the keys, so to speak. Quote, unquote, you get the keys. What are you, like, what are you doing day one? Is the owner staying on board to help transition through the process? Like, are. Like, what. What are you. What are your initial. Like, step one, step two, step three. How do we turn this into a thriving business?
D
We chose to keep the doctor on. I have a lot of friends who would never do that. I think if you could, it's better to just literally, like, hand keys off. We were lucky. And our dentist was amazing, and his clients loved him, so doing the transition was great for us. And we actually threw him, like, a retirement party. And I think, like, 90% of the patients came. So it was great because all of them got to know us. They got to see our family. I don't think we could have bought it from a better dentist. But staffing we experienced. Most of the staff was awesome. But if you could, you should. Technically, we technically fire everyone so it's a clean book. And then rehire them and tell them they have 90 days. Because after 30 days, we realized, like, two of the people just were not gonna jive.
B
Yeah.
D
And something I've learned as owning this other company now is that 50% of hires are bad. That is a very high number, especially
B
in a specialized industry like that. You can't, like, you can't just hire anybody. You know what I mean? Like, you have to hire people.
D
We were super lucky. Our hygienists were like, top notch, amazing hygienists.
B
That's good. Yeah. But that's also another good reason to buy an existing business that has some good infrastructure in there. So I think it's really.
D
No, we sold it in 2021 when we decided we needed more cash for this company. So.
B
Okay. Okay. So now let's get into. Let's get into the flossing business. So product design. Did you do sort of initial stages while you were still in the dental practice and then basically got so actually on it.
D
We invented it in like, started working on it in 2019, and we sold the dental practice in 2021. And Dr. Snider worked as a dentist the whole time. Originally it was. This was like his baby. And I was like, I don't want anything to do with Slate. I want to just have five kids and enjoy my children. And then In October of 2021, he was like, you know what? I'm not good at running a business. Know what? You are good at running a business.
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm a dentist, you're an entrepreneur. Let's do this together. Yeah.
D
So then we swapped roles and I took over the company.
B
Okay, got it. So then again, this E Commerce, like, what.
D
How.
B
How did you decide to structure this one? Like, direct to consumer. Are you trying to get in on retail? Retail shelves? You know, how are you making people aware of the product or even aware, like, you know, the. Even. Even. Just the thing that you just told me about the. How the other philosophers don't even actually do the job. How. How did you try to structure awareness around this new company that you were involved in?
D
Yeah, so we've seen lots of companies, right? We have Sonicare toothbrush, we have oral B toothbrushes. And we are like, why do dentists back some products and not others? So to us, it was extremely important to be backed by dentists like Quip Amazing design. No dentist would have recommended their original floss, their original toothbrush. And so we wanted to be backed by Dennis. But also our goal from day one, I was like, I'm not having five kids and investing all this time in this company if I can't make it big. So it was actually really overwhelming for me at first because I was like, I want this to be a multi, multi, multi million dollar company, like 100 million or more. That seems a lot harder. I like, I know how to do a million dollar company, a $3 million company, but how do I do a big one? And so I've read lots of books and I did lots of iterations, but we started with a Kickstarter campaign. Would I do a Kickstarter campaign? Again? No, I wouldn't.
B
Okay.
D
Why? They take a really big cut. The Kickstarter people are really difficult. Like out of your 3, 500 people bought our product. We actually had a very successful campaign. We did $200,000. We like the first day we were funded, so it was cool.
B
Wow.
D
And it did get us out there, but we weren't priced right, so the margins weren't good enough. On, on Kickstarter, we chose to do it internationally. That was a bad choice. If you're going to do it, just do it in the US So we just like made choices because we didn't know what we didn't know.
B
Sure, yeah, yeah.
D
But we did get $200,000, so I guess that was good.
B
It's a W. And the awareness, like you said, to have a bunch of people who are actually voting with their wallets rather than just being like, yeah, sounds like a good idea. And then you launch and it's crickets. You know what I mean?
D
Yeah.
B
So talk to me now. It's been, you know, that was I guess, five years ago now. So what, at what point along the journey have you felt the most confident about building this massive company that you set out to build?
D
I. I think it entrepreneurship is like ups and downs. Like three months ago I was like, I'm in the best place I've ever been. And then I'm like, tariffs happen. These things happen. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. We just launched into, we just launched into Target in February. So I'm like, really excited about that.
B
Congrats.
D
But also now I'm like, okay, the numbers are coming in. We are either selling like a lot at one store or not really many at all. And so I'm like, why? Why are we selling ten at one store and zero or one at another store? You know, and so I'm excited to work on commercial strategy. Now I have a new thing to learn.
B
Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. The retail world, I hear, is just a whole. I was gonna use the word nightmare, but I guess a whole new set of obstacles to try to overcome. Even if even as it relate, like I sort of look at it like, like raising money for a tech startup. You know, it's like, people think, we got into Target, we win. You know what I mean? It's like, well, no, no, that's step one. Like, we raised this big round of funding, we win. Like, no, no, that's step one. You know, like, getting into the store is one thing, but then you gotta sell out of inventory so they make another product order. Then you don't realize that they're like, net 180 terms. It's like, maybe at some distant date in the future, we'll actually pay you for the product that you ship to us. Then you have to deal with like, cash flow problems, inventory problems, and all these other, you know, new set of things to work through.
D
Right, Yeah. I think Amazon is also its own little wild, wild west too. So we're on D2C, Amazon and in Target now. And I think we haven't gotten our first payment from Target yet. So, you know, I might change my mind, but I'm like, I think Target and Amazon both have interesting things that you have to learn. So I do think D2C is nice because you kind of just get to own it and be in charge of it. So that is nice.
B
So your only DTC channel is Amazon. Like, or do you have like, Shopify set up?
D
We have a Shopify site, slate flosser.com.
B
so, okay, where do you sell the most out of all the. Out of all the channels that you have open right now?
D
Well, Target just launched, so right now it's very neck and neck with Amazon and our website. We used to be 60, 40, and now we're getting closer to being equal.
B
And where do you attribute the traffic to? Like, is. Is. Has it been mostly organic?
C
Do you do a lot of paid
B
or do you a lot of influencers? How are you getting traffic to the Shopify store?
D
Well, this has been really interesting for us. So in 2024, I applied to be on how I built this with Guy Raz. Oh yeah. For the. The segment for startups advice line. That's what it's called. And I got on it and Guy Raz had tried my product and he said, I got this and I love it. And so we had amazing awareness because of that. And so we grew a lot in 2024.
B
It's almost like podcasts are a good way to get your message out there or something.
D
Maybe. Yeah. So it was cool. And then in 2025, that year was one of the hardest years of my life. I got divorced and then tariffs happened and our product is made overseas. And I was like, okay, how do we look at this? So we did lots of things on our website. We did price testing. We're like, is it okay if we increase our price or will people not buy it? Our product is, is a high end product. It's 129 for our highest, nicest product. Then we have a middle range that's 79 and then we have a $1499 product. But like all of those would be more affordable if tariffs didn't exist. Right.
B
So sure, yeah.
D
I think overall we do all the things. We do podcasts, we do influencers, we do dental professionals. And it's really annoying because one day someone could post and their thing would go big gangbusters and then that same person could post a month later and nothing happened. And so we're really just trying to have. We, we're the number one recommended flosser from dentists. We want to remain that. But we also see that everything's kind of fickle. Like Meta stopped performing well in the last few months. Like almost all of my D2C friends were all like, what is up with Meta? It just costs more now. It's so expensive and so it's obviously easier to afford non Meta ads, but it's really hard to get that organic reach with people. The nice thing is people that try our product usually love it, but it's like rare for someone to show themselves flossing on Instagram.
B
Sure, sure. Yeah. Well, Brent, I appreciate you coming on the show and sharing some things with us. I find all of the, all the journey that you've been working on fascinating. Where can people go to connect with you guys more and learn more about what you got going on?
D
Yeah. So we're on slateflosser.com check us out on Instagram at Slate Flosser. And we're also on TikTok. We're not really big on TikTok because I'm old. That's exactly. I guess I just, I'm older than TikTok. But yeah, that's where you can find me. And LinkedIn you can see I'm Bryn
B
McLennan on LinkedIn, slate flosser.com late flosser over on Instagram, TikTok. Go check out some of the stuff that they're doing and pick yourself up a flosser that actually does what flossing
C
is supposed to do.
B
That's news to me. So Brandon, I appreciate you coming on and sharing and I look forward to continuing to follow the journey. Everybody else that's listening, Remember, money only solves your money problems. But it's easier to solve the rest of your problems with money in the bank. So let's solve that problem first here on the Travis Makes Money podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Catch you next time. Peace.
Podcast Summary: Travis Makes Money – Interview with Brynn MacLennan: “Make Money by Reinventing a Boring Industry”
Host: Travis Chappell
Guest: Brynn MacLennan
Date: March 24, 2026
In this episode, Travis Chappell sits down with serial entrepreneur and product designer Brynn MacLennan to discuss how she reimagined a traditionally “boring” industry—oral hygiene—by co-founding Slate, a company producing a patented electric flosser. The conversation dives deep into Brynn’s entrepreneurial journey from childhood ventures to product innovation in dental care, exploring the unique challenges and lessons of disrupting established markets, experiential learning, funding strategies, and scaling a hardware business.
[00:29 – 04:39]
[11:40 – 18:11]
[01:31 – 04:39]
[18:11 – 21:07]
[21:18 – 23:28]
[23:54 – 26:30]
Final Note:
This episode is both an entrepreneurial primer and a case study in rethinking dull industries for massive opportunity. Brynn’s candid discussion of mistakes, pivots, and resilience offers concrete insights for anyone considering hardware, consumer goods, or “boring businesses” ripe for disruption.
“Money only solves your money problems. But it's easier to solve the rest of your problems with money in the bank. So let's solve that problem first here on the Travis Makes Money podcast.” – Travis Chappell [27:19]