459: Her Plant-Based Soaps Landed Her On Shark Tank And On The Path To $1.2M In Sales

This week in the guest chair we have Kristen Dunning, founder and CEO of Gently Soap - a bathing brand built on her self-developed herbal infusions.  An MBA grad, Kristen hails from a rare five generations of Black Alabama farmers, and she’s continuing the legacy by bringing joy back to bathing experiences for people with sensitive skin, using the medicinal properties of plants. In this episode she shares:Her vigorous passion and research that landed her on Shark TankHer secret sauce to having a rate of 78% repeat customersHow she won over 300K in investment capital and has a trajectory of $1.2M in sales Highlights Include: 00:00 Intro 03:24 Generations of Black farmers 06:38 Struggle with eczema 08:45 Studying horticulture and agriculture 14:10 Staring Gently Soaps 18:03 Transitioning to selling at markets 21:31 Importance of formulating for sensitive skin 28:56 Sales growth and Shark Tank impact 32:55 High margins and sales  39:49 Marketing strategies 44:03 Tips for entrepreneurs  Check out episode 459 of Side Hustle Pro podcast out now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Links mentioned in this episodeGently Soap Website: https://gentlysoap.com/ Gently Soap Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gentlysoap/Kristen’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/professionalplantgirl/ Kristen’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristendunning/  Shark Tank episode: https://gentlysoap.com/pages/shark-tank Aveeno start-up pitch competition: https://www.aveeno.com/startup-collective Thirteen Lune: https://thirteenlune.com/ Tech Stars: https://www.techstars.com/  Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed): http://sidehustlepro.libsyn.com/rss Announcements Join our Facebook Community If you’re looking for a community of supportive side hustlers who are all working to take our businesses to the next level, join us here: http://sidehustlepro.co/facebook Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.