Side Hustlers (2024) s02e02 Episode Script

1
♪
All right, so let's just think
about next steps
as it relates to our partnership together.
You can just tell me about
the products you want to see.
-(laughs)
-No, we're not gonna say that.
You have secrets up your sleeve
-that you're not telling me.
-Yes, I do. I-I do.
How fun.
We have to have an honest conversation.
Working with you two would be amazing,
because there's such
an incredible thing here.
But to do that,
you guys will have to trust me.
So, if you guys think that
this special something up your sleeve
is the game changer, those are the things
that I really want to talk about.
At some point or another,
you're gonna have to give me
some information
so I know what I'm working with,
because I want to be able
to be honest with you, right?
I might look at that and be like,
"Guys, you're crazy."
If you're open to it,
and you want to do that, then I'm here.
♪
I am, like, all in, and I'm so happy
we are gonna get to do this.
Here we go.
Fire starters, ghetto blasters ♪
Yeah, we're shaking up the room
and breaking the plaster ♪
Yeah, we're smarter, faster,
we're fire starters ♪
Whoa ♪
I still can't believe that we saw
so many amazing female founders
at yesterday's pitch.
However, only a select few
will be actually chosen
for mentorship and receive
that $15,000 start-up fund.
I'm looking for a side hustler
who has such a unique idea
that actually solves a problem.
I want to love the product
just as much as they do,
and I need to feel passionate
that the world needs it.
But I also need to see the chance
to make a lot of money.
I'm an investor, after all.
(tape crunching)
(knocking on door)
(rapid knocking continues)
-Oh, my God! Oh!
-(laughs)
Oh, my goodness.
-Ashley.
-Hi, Gloria.
(both laugh)
My name is Gloria Allorbi.
I was born in Ghana,
grew up in Glasgow, Scotland.
My mother passed away
when I was four years old.
I was abandoned by my biological father,
so my aunt and her husband adopted me.
They raised me as their own,
and they really sacrificed so much for me.
I want to make sure
that it was not in vain.
I love being a cosmetic chemist,
but my side hustle is Gloria's Shito.
Shito is a Ghanaian chili oil.
It's something that most Ghanaians love.
Gloria's Shito
is my homage to Ghana to show
my pride and share my culture.
Between my full-time job
and my side hustle, my days are full.
There's just not enough time in the day
to do everything by myself.
I have just been trying
to shift my mindset
that it can be more than a side hustle.
-This is fantastic.
-Ashley, what are you doing here?
-Let's eat some shito,
let's talk some numbers.
-Let's eat. Let's eat.
-Yes. Let me move all of this.
-Is this where you make it?
Um, so, no, I don't make it here anymore.
I have a manufacturing facility,
and they make it for me.
I am actually going
to the facility next Monday
-Oh, great.
-to oversee the third production batch.
This is going to be the batch
where I will let go and just
Taste test, make sure that,
like, the labels look correct
-Yes.
-yada yada. Okay.
So, where can we sit?
Where can we hang out?
I want to talk business,
I want to eat some shito while we talk.
I'm gonna make a couple of things
that you can quickly, like,
just enjoy shito with.
If you walk into a Ghanaian home
-You will find it. Yeah.
-then, like, you know
-that you're gonna have chili oil.
-Yep, it's there.
And are there brands in Ghana,
or is it something
that you just whip up at home?
-Mainly, you whip it up at home.
-Okay.
GLORIA:
So I just made, um, shito cream cheese.
Mmm. On a bagel? Yes.
Mmm. What's the next product
after this one SKU that you have?
Um, so, currently,
there is this one heat level,
which I describe it
as the high side of medium.
-This is a high side of medium? 100
-Absolutely.
I was like, "Ooh! Medium."
-It was suh-spicy. Like
-GLORIA: Spicy.
come on, American lady.
-Right.
-Can't handle it.
-Well, it is African medium.
-Yeah.
But for American,
it's on the high side of medium.
I think that you've done a great job,
because from here you can go to, like
-Mild. Yes. Right.
-mild, and then you can go
a little bit stronger.
And your bottles are $18.
And then, to make it is $5.50?
-Yes.
-I'm really curious
about the margins here.
What is your overhead expenses?
I pack it, so I'm not paying anyone.
-You're making these boxes?
-I'm making these boxes.
-And you're shipping these boxes?
-And I'm shipping these boxes.
And you're doing B to C.
-I'm doing all of it. Yeah.
-Who's helping you
-with your social media and everything?
-Um, so
-Me.
-You're doing everything.
-I'm doing
-So, who's the person filming
-when you're at the food market?
-Me.
Holy smokes-a-rolla.
I think what would be really great
on your social media is if, like,
you just started cooking,
and you were cooking
and you were showing people
how to make it,
-you put up recipes.
-Mm-hmm.
-Yeah.
-Because I know that if we knew you,
it would make this sell so much faster
because you're the special sauce
in your hot sauce.
♪
So, here's the deal.
Emma and I actually were
fighting over you.
To the point where it was like,
we were about to take our hoops off, girl.
We were like, "No, she's mine."
So we are going to both mentor you.
-What? What?
-(laughs)
So, you'll be hearing from Emma
in a couple of days.
I'm gonna give you $15,000,
and you have to put it into the business.
I want to set you up with Jack Howard,
who's the head of money wellness at Ally.
Because I think it's so important
for all the side hustlers
to be able to understand their finances
and any kind of trauma around anything
that's happened within their business.
GLORIA:
It'll be amazing.
Two incredible women
want to mentor me,
and this is insane.
You need to think about your marketing.
How do you want to tell your origin story?
I need you to start looking in the mirror
and telling your story to yourself.
Simplify it. Get to the point.
-Yeah.
-These are benchmarks
that I need you to nail
next time I see you,
and Emma's gonna have a few for you, too.
-Okay?
-Because it's double time, baby.
(exhales):
Oh, man.
Let's do it.
(laughs)
All right, bye, honey. Mwah.
I was hoping for at least a mentorship,
and now I get two mentors.
I can't wait to tell my parents.
They will feel
no regret for taking that chance on me.
I tell myself every day
I'm the luckiest girl in the world.
My life could have been different.
I'm very fortunate.
Yeah.
♪
We are wonderful ♪
Emma!
I'm excited to update Emma
about my home visit with Gloria.
Hi, gorgina.
Since we're both
going to be mentoring her,
I'm gonna focus on marketing while Emma
prioritizes the product development.
I just left Gloria Shito's.
I am so glad
that we're going in on this together,
because I don't want you
to lose on this one.
I want us to both win.
We've got to both win on this one.
It's so, so good.
Some of the benchmarks
I wanted her to have is that
she needs to come up with some better,
like, marketing ideas.
And, like, just talking to camera.
-I love that.
-Gloria,
God bless her, she's just quiet,
and she's got this shell around her
that we're just (tongue clicks)
we're gonna shatter it
and we're gonna boost her confidence,
and we're gonna let her know that she
is worthy to make a successful business.
Well, I told her you were reaching out.
We have to divide and conquer.
I know you're running all the things.
(laughs)
Kiss the babies.
Mwah, mwah, mwah. Bye, honey.
♪
I'm pretty excited for this one.
Me, too.
People have been wanting this for so long.
TANIA:
We are recipe-testing
a new flavor, actually.
JAHAN:
Tania has come up with a clean recipe
for birthday cake.
Birthday cake cookies.
But this is a good representation
of our very sophisticated R and D process.
(both laugh)
I was, like, really proud of you
at the pitch.
I think that we did our best.
I'm so nervous now, just waiting
to see what they think, like
(knocking on door)
(screaming)
♪
-Oh, hello. (laughs)
-(screaming)
It's me! Hey, Brune Kitchen.
-Oh, my God!
-Oh, my goodness.
How are you guys?
-Hi.
Oh, I'm so happy to see you.
What impresses me so much
about these two as founders
is that they are lawyers
first and foremost,
and they've gone out and created a cookie
that tastes absolutely delicious
without any of the nasty stuff.
I want to sit down with them
and really flash through the finances,
because I know that this business
is one that's gonna take off.
These are the type of people
I would really want to work with.
-Are you actually baking right now?
-Yeah.
JAHAN:
Yes.
Recipe-testing a birthday cake flavor.
No way. I love that.
I'm so scared. I barely tried it.
-It might not be good yet.
-(Jahan laughs)
It's very sweet.
BOTH:
It's too sweet.
-Okay.
-EMMA: So right now,
how many SKUs are there in total?
We have three SKUs.
-Three SKUs.
-Mm-hmm.
Is that just what you can control
at the moment?
What do you really want it to be?
Because we're in the process of scaling
our retail presence,
we're trying to keep the SKUs tight.
-Mm-hmm.
-We want to make sure we're able
to figure out the operations,
the logistics.
JAHAN:
We had interest from these retailers
on the East Coast a while ago,
but we don't want to scale too quickly.
Yeah. I think it's one of the biggest
mistakes that small businesses make,
is biting off more than they can chew
-in the early days.
-Yeah.
Are you meeting demand
in the retailers you're in right now?
We are sometimes out of stock.
-We usually sell out every week.
-EMMA: You're selling out.
Let's just put finances
to the side and say,
"All right, we're gonna be fully stocked
in the retailers that we're in today,"
what do you need to do?
Right now, is our co-packer.
-Right.
-So we are geared up to do
a run in their facility
in the next two weeks.
They're not running as efficiently
as we want them to
-Right.
-so something might come out perfectly
the first couple of thousand,
and then there's a texture change,
and there's a quality control problem
when you get too far down the line.
EMMA:
Finding the right co-packer
can make or break you.
The last thing you want
is to not be able to satisfy
retail relationships
that you've gone out there and built
and then potentially go out of stock.
That is an absolute disaster
for any new business.
Where are you guys at
from a financial perspective?
So, our margins are in a range.
We started being profitable
back in January 2022.
But we needed to scale,
and that takes so much money for,
you know, co-packer test runs
and finding new packaging
-and doing shelf-life testing.
-EMMA: Do you think
that you guys have a good grip
on exactly what those costs are,
or are some of those things
you're still fleshing out?
JAHAN:
We've done some research on it,
and we think we know
-TANIA: (laughs) Yeah.
-but I'm sure
that there is a lot of things
we're not factoring in right now.
Well, also, there's a lot of options
in those choices, right?
And that's the kind of thing
that I can probably help you with.
If we know that the projected sales
are roughly here,
then we can figure out
where you need to spend
-and where you should hold back.
-Yeah.
You've just got to do
the adequate planning to-to get there.
I really, really think that it's amazing
that you've got these careers
that you've worked so hard for
and you're doing this on the side,
and I think you have a great chance
of building something really wonderful,
but it's not a given.
What I really want to do is mentor you
over the next couple of weeks,
and hopefully,
I'll invest in you at the end of it.
Right? That's the, that's the grand hope.
I have $15,000 for you guys
to allocate towards your business
over the next few weeks
that we work together.
We have challenges
with scaling production.
So I want to figure out, like,
how do we scale?
How quickly can that happen?
And then, I want to get into
the good stuff, the product development,
because I know that in order for you guys
to really get into
some of these big player grocery stores,
we're gonna need to take this
to probably double.
So, that's where my head's at right now.
-That sounds
-That sounds incredible.
-Exactly, yeah.
-We're so excited.
-BOTH: We're ready.
-We should do this together.
EMMA:
Let's do it, girls. Come on.
-JAHAN: Let's do it.
-We're in.
Brune Kitchen, here we go.
-(both whoop)
-You're gonna remember my name ♪
Look at me now ♪
Yeah ♪
Uh ♪
RHEA:
I think the pitch went really well.
Along with funding,
I really need some mentorship,
because I want to help give a better life
to the artisans in India.
The production house
that we're actually working with,
the people who make the garments
are deaf and mute.
It gives them a purpose,
because otherwise in their villages,
they're kind of looked at
as heavy baggage.
So if I can make a difference
in one person's life,
then I'm doing something right.
My name is Rhea Khattoi,
I am 25 years old.
I am an influencer manager
for brand marketing,
but I've been running
my own side hustle called Khattoi.
We are a South Asian bridal wear
and contemporary wear brand,
spreading a message of sustainability.
Growing up, there was no easy
shopping journey to find
sustainable South Asian clothing
for Indians.
I wanted to fix that.
I have a little sister,
so she's actually one of the reasons
that I wanted to start Khattoi.
I had a job where I was home during COVID
and she would hear me crying
between meetings.
And I wanted to show her
that you can leave a negative situation
and do whatever you want.
My parents really allowed and pushed us
into following our dreams,
so I want to make everything come true
so that I can give it back to them.
That looks beautiful.
-Hi. Oh, my God.
-Hi. (laughs)
(laughs):
I didn't expect that.
-Hi, Rhea.
-Hi.
(both laugh)
-How are you?
-I'm good. How are you?
I'm doing good.
Your pitch was really intriguing,
and I wanted to come
so that I could decide
-if I want to mentor and invest in you.
-Okay.
-ASHLEY: I got all my questions.
-Okay. Ask away.
-I still can't believe
you're 25 years old.
-(chuckles)
How do you know how to make decisions?
Where is all of this coming from?
I am very good at being analytical
and thinking through things.
And my background is in fashion itself,
so I understand the industry,
but there are so many areas
that I want to focus on, or
but it's really difficult knowing, like,
what is actually the right step
-in this specific time.
-Mm-hmm.
Okay, so, we've got made-to-wear,
then we've got the bridal.
-Mm-hmm.
-And do you know how much money
you're making
in both of them separately?
It's been very half-and-half.
This year, right now,
bridal will be a little bit higher
because we just did
our first full wedding,
like, every single outfit in the wedding.
-Whoa. Cha-ching, honey.
-Yeah.
Yeah, so an average wedding order
is at least 10K, from what we've observed.
I think that weddings
are incredibly profitable.
Incredibly.
But how are we gonna scale it?
So, that is, I think, one thing.
Right now, when it comes to scaling,
I think it's more about
just getting the customers,
and now the production house
we're working with can expand.
And so, on that end,
it's set up to go bigger.
We just need to focus on getting
those sales and those numbers
and then putting it over there.
I think you're a little bit spread
-Yeah.
-and it's affecting
-what your future could look like.
-Yeah.
And because we both know
how profitable weddings are,
-that's where-where you really should go.
-Yeah. Yeah.
So, just off the bat,
my first advice would be:
cut the made-to-wear
-and then, pour everything
into the weddings.
-Okay.
'Cause I would rather Khattoi
look like the wedding site.
Then, when you are starting to actually
not just generating a revenue
but you're making a profit
-then you can go
into your specialty stuff
-Into the other stuff. Yeah.
because then you've created
this clientele who
-Yeah.
-they already had a wedding
-Yeah. Yep.
-they like your style,
they know your fabrics are
(kisses) bar none,
but now they want the clothes.
But let's see what the numbers say.
What I need from you
is to do an audit of Khattoi.
I want to know where
your revenue streams are coming from,
and then we can talk about
what direction to take the company.
I feel like you've given me
a lot of information,
and I'm so glad that I was able
to, like, dive into
the weeds of everything that you're doing.
It's a lot to take in,
so I'm gonna circle back
and let you know
what my final decision is,
-if I plan to mentor you or not.
-Mm-hmm.
-Okay, I need a blazer.
-Thank you.
-I'm gonna send you (laughs)
-Of course. Tell me whatever you want.
-I'm gonna send you
my measurements. Okay.
-Yes.
All right. Bye, honey. Good luck.
RHEA:
Bye.
There's a lot at stake.
Right now, we are going from
a small business to a start-up.
So, not only do we need the funding,
but more importantly than that,
I need the mentorship to even make sure
that I'm using the funding
in the right way.
I really hope that this turns
into a longer mentorship.
Fingers crossed. (laughs softly)
FAY:
I am a really early-morning riser.
And then, from, like, 8:00 to 11:00 p.m.,
it's a juggle
between my day job and Bonbuz.
ASHLEY:
It is way harder than people think to turn
your side hustle into your main hustle.
RHEA:
Working on my freelance jobs
and Khattoi,
it is a constant back-and-forth.
I might be running
from a client call
straight into a freelance meeting,
straight into a call with my India team.
My current job doesn't fulfill me.
I do it for the bills,
but my side hustle does fulfill me.
You have got to have grit, determination,
and an incredible will
to push through the hard times.
I work a day job
for a small brand
and candles.
Then, at home, I pack orders
-that need to go out.
-EMMA: Women have to juggle
so many things.
Some of them are looking after children,
participating in their main jobs,
all while trying to build
their side hustles into realities.
So sorry, we are a few minutes late.
We were reviewing the agreement
you sent over last night.
We purposely wear black tops
that work with our blazers
in case we have to take calls
in the middle of the day.
And all of a sudden, we go from
cookie manufacturers
to corporate attorneys. (laughs)
It's hard, but it's not impossible.
We're on the upswing,
building our vision back up.
And it all feels really good.
Now we're gonna go home
to juggle personal
(moans)
and business,
and we're just gonna do the things.
Bye.
Who am I to fight with this sensation? ♪
Finally found the perfect situation ♪
Oh, yeah ♪
I just arrived at the facility.
I'm in Arizona.
I had to take a day off from my day job
to oversee third production batch
for Shito
because I couldn't continue
making small, tiny batches.
I like you more and more and more
the more I get ♪
My manufacturer is not Ghanaian.
He's never produced shito before.
So it's very critical that I'm present
to get things done right.
I'm hoping Ashley and Emma
will see my progress, because I'm serious
about this business.
-Ay, ay, ay ♪
-I'm kind of obsessed. ♪
♪
(computer chimes)
-How's it going?
-RHEA: Good.
So, I have a few things
that I wanted to chat through today.
Himani is my merchandising manager.
We've been the two that are
really discussing what pivot to take
when it comes to weddings
or private label.
I had my meeting with Ashley
-Mm-hmm.
-and she basically affirmed
wedding is the place
to focus on a little bit more.
It's still kind of hard
to make that decision.
We've been having this debate
(chuckles)
for a-a while.
Khattoi has now become a name
for made-to-wear
almost more than weddings.
So, it's a little scary thinking about,
is this the right decision,
to drop our made-to-wear line?
I do understand the point about wanting
to just sell out from the private label.
-Yeah.
-That's also so much labor
and, like, resources and financials
that it just doesn't make sense
to just let it go.
Yeah, I'm, like, diving in and making sure
-that we have all of our finances intact.
-Yeah.
I'm gonna go redo our P&L sheets,
'cause if she asks me
-more numbers, then I would
have everything 100%. Yeah.
-Right.
Yeah. And then make a decision next week.
-Cool.
-Okay.
All right, I love you.
I'll talk to you soon.
-I love you. Bye.
-Bye.
You're stuck inside my head ♪
And that's where I belong ♪
How long of a break
do you think we can take?
I think we could stay
for at least 30 minutes.
We have a lot of work to do today.
(chuckles)
I think I got the least sleep last night
that I've gotten in weeks.
Yeah, I was trying to finish up, um,
our legal assignment so that we can
-work on this stuff today
-I know.
and it took forever.
I think I got a decent amount done
-last night on our financials for Emma.
-Okay.
I was looking at our costs,
like the cost of actually
making the cookie,
and we have been including stuff
that is an expense
and is not, like, a "cost of goods sold."
-Oh, my gosh. That's amazing.
-So I know.
So, for the purposes of determining,
like, margins and stuff like that,
the cookie cost is actually lower.
It's about 30% less.
-Wow. Okay.
-Yeah.
That's amazing.
That helps us with our goal of
getting the price down on our cookies,
-and getting our margins higher.
-Yeah.
That's very exciting.
Okay, I think Emma's going to love that.
-I know.
-We're going to be getting in
that 15K soon.
-Yeah.
-I think we should allocate some
of that to getting
our organic certification.
BOTH:
Gluten-free
Before we get ahead of ourselves,
we need to be able to make
enough cookies to meet demand.
-That is a good point.
-Uh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Um, we have the copacker on our schedule
in the next couple of weeks, so
that's going to be the most
high-stakes run we've ever done.
Yeah.
We have never manufactured cookies
before in a big commercial kitchen.
When you are making that jump
and getting on those shelves at big
retailers, you have one shot.
And if we get it wrong,
they will take us off the shelf
faster than we made it on there.
This literally dictates
the success or failure of Brune.
I am scared.
I'm excited, but I'm really nervous.
(both sigh heavily)
♪
-Hey, there.
-Hello. Good to meet you.
STACY:
Today, we're meeting with Jack Howard
to talk about the relationship to money.
This is so uncomfortable for us.
MERAV:
I'm just not used to being
front and center of anything,
and especially talking about money.
That feels not good.
Ladies, it is such an honor to be here
with all of you today.
I'm Jack Howard. I serve as
head of money wellness at Ally.
And we're going to get into
something called your money story.
Your money story
is everything that's happened
in your life as it relates to money.
And then we'll reflect on it a little bit.
Let's start with you, Gloria.
Our family back in Ghana depends on us,
so it's very traumatic when
you're constantly being
asked to send money to someone.
So my vision with my hustle is to create
stability for myself and my family.
When I was going to college,
I had two programs in front of me,
but the price difference between
the two schools was literally double.
And my dad actually said, no,
you should go to the second school.
So I felt almost a responsibility.
I want to pay them back.
Like, they made an investment in me.
Now, how do I give it back to them?
The culture that I'm from,
the Middle Eastern culture, like,
the men have the money,
the women don't typically work.
And I wanted to do something
the exact opposite, and then, like,
build something for myself
where I was never going to be
put in that situation again.
Thank you for sharing that.
FAY: So if there's one thing that I've
learned is that sometimes you have to be
unconventional in order to create
a different life for yourself.
And Bonbuz is a vehicle
for us to kind of represent that.
My dream is to be
an example for other women,
to show them that
we can write our own rulebooks
being slightly provocative,
rebellious, bold, not too polished.
And I'm hoping
that I'm living proof of that.
Tania.
I knew I wanted to be an attorney
from when I was maybe 15 or 16.
And I got into this position
where I was working
at this law firm, the one, you know,
that I had been dreaming of working at
and making the salary.
And after a couple of years,
I started reflecting on it, and I thought,
okay, I got these things
that I wanted for so long,
but what does it actually mean to me?
Is this the life that I want?
For a long time, I didn't take any risks
because I was afraid that
if I didn't have this very stable life,
everything would fall apart.
But now, to build the life
that I actually want,
I'm willing to take those risks.
It's been
a reevaluation of what's important.
That is beautiful. And I think it's
a reflection of all of you in this journey
of coming into
this new version of yourself.
Thank you for sharing that.
Jahan?
My father came from
a really poor family in Afghanistan,
and he left his entire family
to come here and try to make something
and to support them.
When I was 17, my father passed away,
and I think I put way
too much pressure on myself.
I went to law school.
Then the goalpost became,
you know, working at a great law firm.
And it was like
these never-ending milestones.
But with starting Brune
and with working with Tania,
I've been able to kind of
refocus on myself and what I really want.
Oftentimes in life,
we'll continue to push the goalpost.
"Okay, I'll have it. Everything
will be perfect once I get to this."
Then you get it
and you're like, "All right, now
it'll be perfect once I get to this."
You keep pushing it back and back
to where you get to that point of
is this even the life that I want anymore?
-Which brought you to cookies.
-Yeah.
So I think that's amazing. (laughs)
Very early on, not just in our business,
but in our friendship,
we talked about the parallels in our lives
and how us both being from
families with a big entrepreneurial
presence, and you have to make sacrifices.
And I think it's motivated us
in really similar ways, and it's a big
part of why I think
we work so well together.
You know, I'm just really grateful
that we have this bond.
Merav.
I literally grew up on a farm
in the desert of Israel.
But I do remember when
we moved to the States, I was eight.
We were able to come because
my mom got a job as a teacher,
and my dad was not able to work
because he didn't have papers to work,
which meant there was no money, really.
When I got my first job, I think I was 11.
The idea that I could create something
and then make a living on it,
it's just not something
that I was raised to think about.
Working from such a young age
is what helps me manage time,
makes me more comfortable taking risks,
because I've already been without money
and that there is definitely,
like, shame around not having it.
Our parents did the best they could
with the tools they had,
and it wasn't enough.
And that's
We are in the same boat.
(sniffles)
It's a lot to carry around.
(sniffles)
-All the things, all the time.
-All the things.
No, it's the remnants of the upbringing.
(sniffles)
I heard, um, "independence."
-Yes.
-Yeah.
-And you probably kick butt at everything.
-I'm real tired.
Independent but tired, because you've
been doing it since you were 11.
-Yeah.
-Okay. That's fair. Stacy?
I grew up here in Los Angeles,
and there was
a really big earthquake
that destroyed, like, 70% of our home.
And we never totally recovered from that.
My parents separated,
then the divorce led to loss of money,
and then I left for college.
And, like, I was the only one,
financially, that was going to
really provide, which was emotionally
really, really challenging.
So when I think about
how money shows up in my life
and my business, there's fear.
Fear of being able
to provide to my family,
because the stress that it puts
on my domestic partner
and my business partner,
like, that's-that's scary.
I am used to taking care of things
and that's some of the stuff
that I have to unpack.
JACK:
For me, I had my son
when I was 28, and that's when
the superwoman complex came in.
So in my head, it was, I can work.
I can be married, I can have the kid.
I can do it all.
But when I was 30,
I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
That allowed me
to completely abandon my checklist,
really shifting my focus
from wanting more
to what brings me joy, what is enough.
So we all have a money story
that helped us
to get to where we are now.
Good or bad,
it's created the drive and the fuel
that you have to pursue your dreams.
Honor yourselves
for getting to this place,
because not everybody can do it.
I feel like y'all are my sisters.
I just have to say that because I'm just
so overwhelmed by the power of this group.
And I want you guys
just to sit in that a little bit,
because all of you are balancing
family and business,
and all of you want
to make your family proud,
and I just want
to support you in the journey.
So me and the team at Ally
set up the ally fund,
which will make
up to $10,000 available to you
to use in case of an emergency.
Emergencies can be childcare.
The car breaks down.
You can use that money to help you.
-Good.
-I can't wait to see where things land.
And good luck
on your journey as a side hustler.
-(laughter)
-ALL: Thank you.
I'm grateful for the process,
because it's a reminder
that this is a continual process,
and it's hard to be in
an uncomfortable conversation or place,
but we all have our own journey
that informs us every step of the way.
MERAV:
Then it's a great reminder to us
about all the things
that we've been through.
And all the more reason to think,
why not us? Why not now?
STACY: Do we feel ready for everything
that we need for the Emma meeting?
I think so.
Do you want to send
the data room to Emma?
-Can you do that?
-Yeah.
Let me open it
and just tell you what's in there.
I put the market research, the deck,
legal documents,
how much we owe for the manufacturing,
how much we owe outstanding in general,
how much
the potential patch order would be.
MERAV:
Emma asked for our projections,
but the thing about financial projections
is that they are quite literally made up.
I feel nervous because
we don't have financial projections yet,
because we don't have cost of goods
on these products yet.
MERAV:
I'm worried that it still won't be enough.
I don't want her to be mad at me.
All right, here we go. Send.
No turning back.
I want it all ♪
I'll give you everything and more. ♪
I'm super excited
to meet with Ashley today,
I went through and calculated
all the finances to see if we should
drop our made-to-wear line
to lean more into the wedding space.
-Hi.
-Rhea. Hi, honey.
-Hi. You look beautiful.
-Thank you.
RHEA:
I really want this mentorship
with Ashley because
I want to give a better life
to my parents,
but I also want to give a better life
to the artisans in India.
Having people rely on you is very scary,
so I'm anxious to see what
her advice is for us at this stage.
How are you feeling?
Good. Um
I think a little stressful
but in the best way possible.
Did you get a chance to look at
your current numbers to figure out
where you're generating more revenue?
I did. We actually did, like,
a full financial audit.
Our split between, like,
our custom weddings
and our private label is 66% to 33%.
Oh, interesting.
So wedding is definitely more profitable.
Yeah. Gearing more towards weddings
has been on my brain.
It was just like,
the data kind of backed that up even more,
where I was like, yeah, this made sense.
-So, you're okay
dropping your made-to-wear line?
-Yeah.
I think just even hearing
your thought process through that,
that makes me more confident to say
we should go to where the profit is.
Sometimes you just need, like,
a little bit of confirmation.
Exactly.
It's great because
I see all the possibilities,
but then I'm so scared
'cause I'm trying to understand
how to make this
a full-sustaining business.
-Now it's like you need to flip a switch
in your head and say
-Yeah.
-"I'm not just a clothing line anymore."
-Mm-hmm.
"I am specifically a bridal line."
Tapping into the Indian weddings is
so brilliant and so perfect for her,
but it's just not generating
enough of a profit yet,
so it might be too soon for an investor.
You got to grow it slowly
and really believe in yourself.
-Yeah, and just jump all the way in.
-That's it.
For me to invest in Khattoi,
I would just need to see
that there is a revenue in sales.
She needs to focus on building out
just the bridal side
and prove that
there's a market for it here.
Rhea, I think you're on the right track,
but unfortunately, I don't think
that I'm gonna be able to mentor you.
I don't know how long this is gonna take.
I don't know how long it's gonna take
for me to be able to help you grow,
and I don't want
to take something from you,
because I know you got this,
and I know that you're the one
-that knows this world
better than anybody.
-Mm-hmm.
Khattoi can scale,
and maybe I can help you build it.
We're gonna give you $15,000
to put into your business.
-Okay.
-(laughs)
Thank you so much.
Just even talking to you,
I always feel better walking away.
I really am inspired by everything
that you're doing and your story,
and I'm excited to see
what you do with your business.
And I will be a cheerleader
on the sidelines,
-just rooting you on.
-Yeah.
ASHLEY:
This $15,000, it's going to help her
get the wedding dresses up and running.
And if Rhea grinds
and comes back to me
in a year and says,
"Look, I have made an incredible profit.
Now I'm ready to receive an investment,"
I'm there. Rhea, please call me.
Bye, sweetheart.
I really believe in this business.
Hold on ♪
I'm processing emotions of "this is
ending quicker than I wanted it to,"
but also the emotions of hearing someone
who is doing what you want to do
and where you want to see yourself
tell you "you got this,
you can do it" is a lot.
And now I want to make her proud, too.
I definitely got mentorship.
I think it's just come in such a way
that I wasn't expecting it,
but I feel like it's the journey
that I needed to fill up my gas tank
before I'm about to step on the pedal
and just go for it.
So, is that all you got? ♪
You go bigger, stronger ♪
-You push harder ♪
-Harder ♪
Is that all you got? ♪
GLORIA:
So, Connie, I have a mentor,
and she went through all my social media,
-and
-Oh, wow.
she said what was missing
was my presence.
So, what I want to do today is just really
come through, bring that personality.
-Okay. Well, you got to
-Yeah.
With the $15,000,
I was able to hire a team of experts
to help me with my media.
I'm hoping that I put more Gloria
into Gloria Shito.
TOM:
And action.
Let's reset.
You want to do it all
fast and fluid and quick.
-Okay.
-So let's start over.
I'm a bit stressed.
-TOM: Back up, I'll tell you when.
-Oh.
I'm just letting the pressure get to me.
JESS:
Are you okay?
GLORIA:
I feel awkward.
Like, I don't know how I'm coming across
-on camera.
-JESS: It's okay.
-Here, let's take a breath.
-GLORIA: Mm-hmm.
Anything that's not, like,
confident, fluid motion
doesn't come through well on video.
Right? So we need to have fun.
We're having fun.
-Okay.
-TOM: Over-the-top is exactly right.
You got this.
-Listen to your inner beat.
-All right.
Action.
Yeah.
-CONNIE: Douse that.
-Bad feels, bad vibes, let 'em go ♪
-Get that.
-Don't let them creep in
in the night, hell no ♪
TOM:
Open it like you hate it a bit.
-That's what I need.
-It's true,
we all can get a little low ♪
-Don't have to let 'em take control. ♪
-TOM: Action.
(Connie whoops)
There you go. Confidence.
TOM:
Yeah, that's the one! Bite it! Eat it!
-Perfect.
-CONNIE: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
The more I put myself
in front of the camera,
I will start feeling more comfortable.
-(Jess laughs)
-(others groan)
Great. It was out of focus.
You got to do it again anyway.
It feels good.
-JESS: Yeah. Perfect.
-Oh, that was the look I needed.
Great, we're done. That was perfect.
-And you look so happy with yourself, too.
-Yeah. Very natural.
You knew,
you knew that was a good take internally.
Work ♪
Tell me all your secrets,
all the dirt. ♪
EMMA:
Today I'm meeting with Stacy and Merav,
and getting my head
around the All Better Co.'s numbers
is actually quite frustrating.
I still don't understand,
what is this business actually making?
-Where are you getting your sales from?
-Hi.
And they're not telling me
how they plan to get to retail
and what that product line looks like
in the future.
We're here to see Emma.
I'm worried they have no idea
what it takes to scale their business.
-Pretty picture perfect ♪
-Okay.
-Okay.
-Do you see what I see? ♪
♪
MERAV: I'm definitely concerned
about this meeting.
Knowing that, like, she's had time
to look at our day-to-day
running the business numbers,
that is a little more stressful
and a little more scary
because it feels a little more personal.
-Hi.
-How's it going?
-All right. How are you?
-I'm really, really good, actually.
So good.
What we were talking about
the first time I met you
was, like, give me
an idea of your numbers,
which you've absolutely done,
and I have a ton of questions.
And then we really went into
what's coming down the pipeline,
to which point
you both looked at each other,
and I was like, "Oh, there's something
between there and there
that they're not saying."
♪
I mean, do you want to
do you want to know the thing?
-I want to know everything. Tell me.
-STACY: Yeah.
-Dun, dun, dun. ♪
-Okay. So, just as a lead-in,
-for many of our products,
we're using the hemp plant.
-Yeah.
And we're stripping the hemp plant
of all of its goodness
-that we can put on our bodies.
-Right.
When it's done,
they either bury or burn the hemp waste.
We want to take hemp waste
the stock, specifically
and turn it into bandages,
gauze and suture.
You're talking about taking the waste
of anything anyone's doing in hemp
-and actually using the waste?
-Yes.
Do you know that you can do that
with hemp waste?
Yes. Yes. There is clearly the ability
to get hemp fabric
in some form,
so we could quickly convert to bandages.
But right now this is just like,
it's in the ether
because you've got to develop it.
-It's not currently in the market.
-We need a couple years to develop this.
EMMA:
Stacy and Merav are
really fixated on the future
and the long term,
instead of really figuring out
where there are problems today.
That's the first place that I see
entrepreneurs fall down every time.
Right now, we need to look at reality.
That's, like, where we are.
And this is fiction.
♪
It's based on a set of hypotheses.
It's based on a set of things that
if, if, if, if, if these things happen,
then we would essentially get here.
At this stage, that is a distraction.
Put that plan away, and let's focus on
what the business issues are today
and how we solve for them.
I have to say, I found it difficult
to look at the finances.
I'm not sure I'm following it
as you've intended.
When I looked at these numbers,
I understand what you say is current
to be your forecast,
what you say is prior to be actuals.
These were made based on us having
the ability to raise a chunk of money.
-Right.
-MERAV: Which we were not able to raise.
-Yeah.
-Got it.
-I understand that you had
budgeted this for marketing
-Yes.
-based on raising a bunch of money.
-Yes.
When I look at your actuals,
it actually tells me
that you've spent that money,
-but you didn't raise the money.
-So, that part is not correct.
-That's incorrect.
-That is incorrect.
-You haven't spent this at all.
-MERAV: No.
And then talk to me about
when we get into this line.
Right? The G&A. So we're talking about
the costs to actually run the company.
-MERAV: Yeah.
-Have you spent this?
-No.
-Okay, so these are not actuals?
No, not that part.
So something like fulfillment
will be a true cost,
but marketing won't be.
Fulfillment, also not a true cost
because we are fulfill
we are fulfilling right now.
So, all the costs that are in here
are probably incorrect.
Um
Yeah.
The facts are the facts.
The brand isn't tracking.
They don't have great sales.
And for somebody like me, an investor,
to come and pour money into something
that already isn't tracking
just doesn't feel like a situation
that me
or, quite frankly, anyone else
is gonna be really up for.
I'm starting to feel like there is
just no point in me continuing
to give them my time.
Believing comes before you see ♪
Got to learn to love the pain ♪
Walking through the desert,
then the storm clouds bring the rain ♪
Hold on to the light ♪
Remember the reason ♪
I will not surrender ♪
Can't break my soul ♪
I will always remember ♪
What I am to the core ♪
Oh ♪
Keep on, keep on ♪
Fighting ♪
Keep on, keep on ♪
Shining ♪
Keep on, gonna keep on ♪
What happens tomorrow I started today ♪
Keep on, keep on ♪
Fighting ♪
Oh, keep on, keep on ♪
Shining ♪
Keep on, gonna keep on ♪
What happens tomorrow I started today ♪
So keep your light shining ♪
(vocalizing)
Keep your light ♪
(vocalizing)
What happens tomorrow I started today ♪
(vocalizing)
Keep your light ♪
(vocalizing)
Keep on fighting ♪
(vocalizing)
What happens tomorrow I started today ♪
So keep your light shining. ♪