Dental Dreams and Endless Flossibilities with Samantha Coxe, Founder and CEO of Flaus

Stairway to CEO

Description:

Samantha Coxe is the Founder and CEO of Flaus, a dental hygiene product revolutionizing floss as we know it. She joins us to share her story, from growing up as an Irish Twin in Orange County to creating such an innovative product, and the challenges she faced along the way, with manufacturing, investment, product development, and more. Join us for a candid look at Samantha’s entrepreneurial journey.

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In This Episode You’ll Hear About:

• [01:20] Samantha Coxe’s journey, from growing up as an Irish Twin in Southern California to starting her electric floss brand, Flaus.

• [07:02] Her entrepreneurial tendencies, creative side, and golfing experiences as a child.

• [10:47] What prompted Samantha to study law and her experience working in Mergers and Acquisitions.

• [18:00] Coming up with the idea for ‘Flaus’ after a dentist’s appointment and running with it.

• [21:41] How an Indiegogo Campaign forced her to leave the law firm where she worked.

• [25:33] Choosing to run a crowdfunding campaign despite her doubts.

• [32:16] The role of angel investors in fuelling the manufacturing process.

• [37:35] Manufacturing glitches during the first product run.

• [43:23] Pivoting to a hard launch of the product.

• [44:30] Pros and cons of breaking up the manufacturing process.

• [46:30] Words of wisdom for other entrepreneurs.

• [48:36] What’s next for Flaus; including rolling out the second edition.

To Find Out More:

Flaus

Samantha Coxe on LinkedIn

Samantha Coxe on Instagram

Rainfactory

Indiegogo

FOUNDERMADE

Finding Peace

SurveyMonkey

Doris Dev

Lee Greene on LinkedIn

Stairway to CEO

Stairway to CEO on Instagram

Awesome CX

Quotes:

“I discovered [that] flossing is a massive pain point for most people. It dropped right into my lap. I never thought I was going to work in oral care!” [0:19:25]

“Before I wanted to invest a single dollar into Flaus, I [wanted] to get some external validation into this idea other than my friends and family. So I actually sent out a SurveyMonkey.” [0:20:02]

“Customers on Indiegogo understand that they’re buying the first generation of a product. They understand that they are backing something innovative that’s being created.” [0:26:32]

“Hardware is very much an iterative process so I knew that the first product was not going to be perfect.” [0:26:55]

“Working with a crowdfunding agency is really critical to having a successful campaign.” [0:28:43]

“Crowdfunding is all about the FOMO, you want to start off really strong.” [0:30:48]

“A lot of people get really focused on all [the] features you can add to things, but when you’re coming out with your Beta product, for us, we were so focused on the MVP.” [0:35:57]

“Luckily, because we were so small we could be so nimble. It was such a blessing in disguise.” [0:36:59]

“There’s no better investment than an investment in yourself.” [0:46:30]

“It’s so much more valuable to [build] with customer feedback than to build in secrecy.” [0:47:16]

“Finding mentors is so important.” [0:47:35]

“You can learn from other people’s successes and failures. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.” [0:47:53]