About Laura Rudoe
Harvard Business School alumna (class of 2005)
Multipreneur - Founder and CEO of Evolve Beauty and Adaptology Skincare, under the umbrella of Good Ventures, which is a cosmetic development company focusing on designing and manufacturing natural and organic products for skin body and hair.
Ex-strategic marketer and operations director for Consumer Products and Retail companies
Key takeaways that made us go ‘a-ha’
Don’t overinvest in market research - trial and error teaches you more
“There’s no amount of market research that can fully replace trying your product in the market…it was so valuable to make small batches of products so that we can rapidly prototype and change as we get feedback. It’s the same approach that people do with software development with a minimum viable product”
Businesses that sell physical products take time to grow, it is not the same journey as a tech / digital product
“It took 10 years for the next McDonalds busienss to open…with physical products, there is a maximum limit to how fast these businesses can grow. It is normal for that to happen”
Start small when you start hiring for your business - start with people you know and the part-time model is a helpful one to test before hiring full time
“I recruited a colleague that I had worked with in Nude…she had worked in product development and marketing. What was really helpful was that she wanted to work part-time so it was not as scary a decision”
Employees are unique - some people can actually grow with you, and their roles evolve over time
“My nanny was my 2nd hire…she was learning Biochemistry at the time wiht Open University, and she was a self-taught individual who was also a great cook! Over time, I have asked her to go to university to get a degree in team leadership and now an MBA”
Your first few customers teach you the most about refining not just your product but also your presentation
“I had these credentials of working with NUDE, so I launched in all the great retailers from Day 1…but I had not done much work in marketing. No one knew our brand and we were out of John Lewis in 6 months. That was a real setback…we needed to work on getting the packaging right. Once we sorted packaging out”
There are multiple ways of raising money to fund your business, beyond just Venture Capital
“If we had raised money early, I would had a lot of pressure. Doing it on your own terms might mean doing things differently with funding (e.g. enterprise finance guarantee loans, export finance loans). There are options available, alongside grants from local business accelerators!”
Laura’s advice to women who want to build businesses on their own terms
“Make sure that you are adequately resourced in other aspects of your time….put really good frameworks in to give yourself the bandwidth to do it…setting up a business takes a lot of energy & time, and you need to make sure that you don’t get too stretched”
Share this post