Tired of funky old steamers and lack of space for an ironing board in her crammed New York City apartment, 2023 Under 30 Manufacturing & Industry lister Courtney Toll set out to create her own high-performance, portable steamer iron. She chatted with Under 30 reporter Zoya Hasan to discuss how the Nori Press quickly took off and led her to $10 million in projected revenue this year, despite the lack of funding as a woman founder in the hardware industry.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hi everyone, I'm Zoya Hassan.
00:04 I'm here today with Courtney Toll,
00:06 an under 30 lister and the co-founder of Nori.
00:09 Courtney, so excited to have you here.
00:11 - Thank you so much for having me.
00:13 It's so cool to be in this office.
00:15 It's honestly like a dream come true.
00:16 So thanks for hosting.
00:17 - Of course.
00:18 So Courtney, you've built this incredible
00:20 clothing care company that hit profitability last year.
00:24 And it all kind of started with your hero product,
00:27 the Nori Press.
00:28 And I would describe Nori Press almost like
00:30 this high tech steamer iron
00:32 that looks kind of like a straightener.
00:34 And you've sold like a hundred thousand of these,
00:38 over a hundred thousand of these already.
00:40 So tell me, how did you get the idea for the Nori Press?
00:43 And what prompted you to start your own business?
00:46 - Yeah, well, honestly, this is something
00:49 that very much stemmed from a personal pain point.
00:51 I had just started my career in New York City.
00:54 I was living in a very cramped New York apartment.
00:57 And I'd wake up in the morning
00:58 wanting to make a strong first impression,
01:00 put on a good outfit.
01:02 And I didn't have the space for an ironing board.
01:04 I didn't have the time to deal with this inefficient steamer
01:07 I had from Bed Bath and Beyond.
01:09 And I definitely couldn't afford dry cleaning.
01:11 So I would wake up in the morning
01:12 and try like every DIY hack.
01:15 So shower steam and the hair straightener hack,
01:18 which I'll bring up again later.
01:21 But basically this put a spotlight on a really big market
01:24 that is ironing and steaming,
01:26 that had failed to see any real meaningful innovation
01:28 since the introduction of the steamer in the 1980s.
01:31 And so that was sort of enough of a catalyst
01:35 to send us on this two plus year product development
01:38 and customer discovery journey
01:40 to create a better, more modernized way
01:42 to remove wrinkles from your clothing.
01:45 That eventually ended up our hero product, the Nori Press.
01:48 - And how old were you when you first started the company?
01:50 - So I left my job when I was, I believe, 24.
01:55 I worked for about a year on the side.
01:57 I had raised some money before I ever left my job.
02:00 And I believe I was 25 when the company actually launched.
02:03 - And you know, at the heart of it,
02:04 this is a hardware company.
02:06 You were recognized on our manufacturing industry list.
02:09 And I think manufacturing is an industry
02:12 that's even more so male dominated than others.
02:15 So being a 25 year old woman, even your co-founder,
02:19 she's a young woman, you both are under 30,
02:21 both are kind of trying to break into this industry.
02:26 What was that journey like,
02:27 especially in terms of fundraising?
02:30 What was it like trying to fundraise
02:31 for a hardware company?
02:34 - Incredibly difficult.
02:35 I remember a founder sent me this meme
02:38 of someone trying to throw a football
02:41 and the receiver was running in the opposite direction.
02:44 And I think that that is sort of a metaphor
02:47 for what it's like fundraising for hardware.
02:49 And then when you look at an industry
02:50 that is primarily dominated by men,
02:53 I think over 70% of hardware founders are male,
02:56 that only becomes more difficult
02:58 when you're fundraising as a woman.
02:59 But I think that we really took this one step at a time.
03:05 It's one thing to try and fundraise
03:08 with the promise that you're going right to market
03:10 with that capital.
03:12 It's another thing to fundraise to say,
03:14 I have this idea, this is why I think it's going to work.
03:17 And this is what I think is required
03:19 to get to the next tangible stage.
03:22 In our case, that was a prototype of the product.
03:26 So we started with a small family and friends round
03:29 and that got us through
03:30 some significant product development work.
03:34 And then we went through that
03:35 and sort of got an idea that this was a product
03:37 people were excited about
03:39 and that we wanted to take to market.
03:40 And it was time to raise this additional million dollars
03:44 to take us to launch.
03:46 And it just so happens that I was fundraising during COVID.
03:49 And so we're zooming, we're sitting in our sweatpants
03:52 and I'm talking about the necessity
03:54 of this iron of the future.
03:56 And so it was a real uphill climb,
03:59 but all in we have raised just under $5 million to date.
04:04 It's been sort of staggered through a few different rounds.
04:07 It was primarily angels for quite some time.
04:09 Now some VC players involved as well.
04:11 But I think that one of the best things
04:14 about sometimes having difficulty fundraising
04:17 is that it forces you to take a really long
04:20 and hard look at your finances
04:22 and start to prioritize profitability from day one.
04:25 So even if we weren't on there from day one,
04:29 we got there fairly quickly.
04:30 - Yeah, and is 5 million what you wanted to raise
04:34 or would you have raised more?
04:36 Last year, women in venture capital took home
04:39 just about 2% of all capital.
04:41 So it's hard out there.
04:44 So did you wanna raise more,
04:46 but kind of knew the limitations set on women
04:48 in this industry,
04:50 or was that exactly what you were gunning for?
04:52 - We definitely would have raised more.
04:55 Just this most recent round,
04:56 we ended our first full year of business,
04:59 2022 at $5 million in sales.
05:01 We had a killer year.
05:03 And I went out with what I thought
05:04 was a super compelling story
05:06 and it was really, really difficult.
05:09 Obviously there's a conversation
05:11 that's shifting rapidly in consumer VC.
05:14 But anyways, we were able to close
05:17 kind of what was necessary
05:19 to move forward with the business.
05:20 I think we set out for three to 5 million
05:23 ended up closing around two and a half.
05:26 And again, prioritizing profitability
05:28 has allowed us to grow without that
05:30 big infusion of capital.
05:31 - Yeah, and you know what's most interesting to me
05:33 about Nori is how the team is so small.
05:37 And it's just you and your co-founder,
05:39 you hired your first full-time employee just last month.
05:42 - Exactly. - So it's just
05:44 three of you now.
05:45 And for the first two years,
05:47 it was just two of you. - Yeah.
05:48 - And you reached profitability,
05:49 you're projecting 10 million in revenue
05:51 by the end of this year.
05:52 That's all very impressive.
05:54 But was it, you know, from the get-go,
05:56 you decided that I'm not gonna hire a team
05:59 or was that something that just kind of happened with time?
06:02 - Again, I think it's somewhat happened with time,
06:05 but it has worked to our advantage yet again.
06:08 There's a lot of luck in here as well.
06:10 But really, we just started moving so quickly.
06:14 I think that we launched with this one hero product
06:17 that is the NoriPress, the handheld steam iron.
06:19 And it started to do really, really well
06:21 from a paid acquisition standpoint.
06:23 And so we were able to scale it pretty quickly
06:25 just as a direct-to-consumer brand.
06:28 But we were running so quickly
06:30 that I don't think we necessarily took the time
06:32 to take a breath and say,
06:34 "Whoa, we could use some additional support."
06:36 We started to outsource pretty early on.
06:39 So we do have a number of agency partners.
06:42 But that's also allowed us to be fairly agile
06:44 with our talent, where we make sure
06:47 we're staffing the right agencies.
06:49 If something isn't working,
06:50 I think it's often easier to pivot
06:52 when you're outsourced versus internal.
06:54 But as we sort of crossed the finish line of 2022,
06:59 we started to realize that in 2023,
07:02 we wanted to expand the team.
07:03 And when we audited all of the different practices
07:06 within our business,
07:07 organic acquisition is something
07:09 that I think we'd really, really like to invest in
07:11 on an ongoing basis.
07:12 And that is so heavily social media and community-based,
07:16 how we engage our existing customers,
07:18 how we engage new customers,
07:20 but all through sort of an earned conversation
07:24 rather than paying for it in the more traditional way.
07:27 - So would you say that kind of the secret
07:29 behind Nori's success is in the marketing,
07:32 in the social media?
07:34 - Yes, I think that product market fit
07:37 cannot be undervalued.
07:40 There was probably a craze where for a while,
07:42 I think people thought you could take a category
07:45 or a product and let's put it online and rebrand it,
07:47 and that will work.
07:49 And honestly, I think it did work sometimes,
07:51 but there's so much content out there now.
07:54 There's so many brands out there now
07:56 that I think innovation is so valuable.
08:00 And so I think the fact that Nori introduced
08:03 true patented technology into, like I said,
08:06 a space that hadn't really seen much innovation,
08:08 that worked to our benefit almost out of the gate
08:10 from a marketing perspective.
08:13 So it got a lot of press attention.
08:15 It was one of Oprah's favorite things.
08:16 It was in Forbes, and as well,
08:20 started to do really well from a Facebook
08:22 and Instagram marketing standpoint
08:24 because there was all these new features
08:26 and value ads that we could talk about
08:28 'cause there was new technology,
08:30 that we started to be profitable on first sale
08:33 from day one, and then eventually,
08:35 that profitability led us to bottom line.
08:38 - Amazing, and on social media,
08:40 what is your strategy when it comes to creating content?
08:44 - I think it's really showing the product.
08:47 One thing that works to our advantage
08:48 is that we have this really demonstrative product.
08:50 So when you use the NoriPress,
08:52 you're watching wrinkles disappear, which is so satisfying.
08:56 And that seems to do quite well
08:59 from a conversion standpoint,
09:01 but I think it's also communicating
09:02 not only what's great about this product,
09:04 but what you're going to gain from it.
09:06 So I went back to the pain point that I started with.
09:10 I'm saving time, I'm saving money, I'm saving space,
09:13 and I feel better about myself
09:15 because I'm confident that I'm wearing
09:17 a wrinkle-free garment.
09:19 And so communicating, I think, those value ads
09:21 is just as important as the true innovation.
09:24 - Yeah, and I can totally relate.
09:25 I have that same struggle with my old steamer.
09:29 - Oh my gosh.
09:30 - Yeah, and have you taken advantage
09:32 of the new features on social media
09:35 where you can buy as you're scrolling
09:38 through Instagram or TikTok?
09:40 - We have.
09:41 I mean, there's an unbelievable amount
09:43 of new opportunities popping up for brands.
09:46 I think TikTok is definitely a huge one,
09:49 but specific to Facebook and Instagram,
09:52 we've even seen a huge uptick in conversions
09:55 on Facebook and Instagram Shop.
09:58 I think that that's where a lot of decisions
10:00 are being made in terms of purchases.
10:02 So if you're already advertising there,
10:04 allowing the purchase to happen there as well
10:06 is super advantageous.
10:08 - Amazing, and I think it's almost rare
10:09 to see Facebook being a source
10:12 for a Gen Z kind of company now,
10:15 but that's very exciting to know.
10:17 I wanna talk a little bit about your partners
10:20 and the people that sell Nori.
10:22 So you do Drop Ship with Nord Storm and Bloomingdale's,
10:26 and those are kind of, I would say,
10:28 luxury stores, retail stores.
10:31 Was that your intention to kind of have your product
10:34 be seen as this more luxury item
10:37 as opposed to putting it on shelves in Walmart or Target?
10:41 - Absolutely.
10:42 So at our core, our mission is really based
10:45 in this idea of increasing the longevity of your wardrobe,
10:49 and in turn, building a wardrobe
10:51 that can last you a lifetime,
10:54 investing in nicer pieces,
10:55 and then caring for them on an ongoing basis.
10:57 And I think that all of that involves an investment
11:00 in your wardrobe and in the tools
11:02 that you're using to take care of them.
11:04 So the ironing and steaming market
11:06 was a really interesting one
11:07 'cause it was super fragmented in terms of price.
11:10 There was the kind of budget buys,
11:13 the 20 to $40 that were all over
11:16 Amazon and big box retailers.
11:18 And then there was the really, really expensive
11:21 industrial grade steamers and presses
11:23 that could be upwards of $1,000.
11:25 So we wanted to land at a space
11:27 where we were conveying a certain amount of value
11:30 and true innovation and improvement to technology,
11:34 but also make it accessible for someone to purchase
11:37 anywhere from 23 year olds and up.
11:41 And so that said, I think that that was our price strategy,
11:45 and then our distribution strategy sort of fell in tow.
11:49 Direct to consumer, we were the first ever digitally native.
11:51 This just wasn't a product or category
11:55 that lived online, so Nori was really
11:57 the first to live there.
11:58 And then when we started to think about wholesale,
12:00 you're exactly right.
12:01 We wanted to find wholesalers that were aligned
12:03 with where our consumers were shopping
12:06 and where they were investing in a certain wardrobe
12:09 that they wanted to care for.
12:11 And so now we're partnered, like you said,
12:13 with Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, Crate & Barrel,
12:17 The Container Store, Williams-Sonoma,
12:19 and hopefully that list is growing.
12:21 - And you're on shelves at The Container Store, right?
12:23 - We're on shelves at The Container Store,
12:25 which was a huge thing for us.
12:27 I think The Container Store is a really fun one
12:30 because it's so naturally aligned with our category.
12:33 But The Container Store is one too that's great
12:34 because they're not as seasonal.
12:37 A lot of these rely so heavily on Q4.
12:40 The Container Store is one that does these sort of
12:43 big sell-through opportunities all year long.
12:46 New year, new you initiatives, back-to-school initiatives,
12:49 spring cleaning initiatives, and that allows
12:52 for this more consistent revenue
12:54 that I think can counteract
12:55 a more D-to-C brand seasonality curve.
12:58 - And as of right now, is most of your revenue
13:01 coming in from that direct-to-consumer?
13:03 - It is.
13:04 Between direct-to-consumer and Amazon,
13:06 we're still over 90% online.
13:08 - Amazing.
13:09 And I wanna talk a bit about being a young founder
13:13 and a first-time founder and kind of launching
13:17 into the business space.
13:19 How did you know what to do?
13:21 (laughs)
13:23 - It's such a good question,
13:24 and I sometimes take a step back
13:26 and am questioning how we got to where we are.
13:30 But so much of it, I think, boils down to people.
13:34 I started my career at a job where I was doing
13:37 a lot of cold calling, and I think that I got
13:40 really comfortable with reaching out to people blindly.
13:45 So I would say that we were able to recruit
13:48 experts and advisors that spent a lot of time with us
13:52 and sort of guided us through the most important
13:55 parts of starting a business.
13:57 If there's a piece of advice that I could pass on,
14:01 I would say don't be hesitant to reach out
14:04 to other founders or experts in a field to ask for advice.
14:08 If they have seen entrepreneurial success,
14:10 my guess is someone has helped them along the way.
14:13 But do so thoughtfully.
14:15 I would spend hours crafting these cold call,
14:18 or rather, these cold emails.
14:20 I would listen to podcasts on a founder,
14:23 research their favorite foods or where they live
14:25 so I could make small little notes
14:27 within that cold outreach email.
14:29 And I had a really great success rate with that,
14:32 and I recruited experts and advisors
14:34 like Dave Heath from Bombuz.
14:36 I remember I was able to talk with
14:38 Emily Weiss from Glossier.
14:40 You just can't discount mentorship,
14:43 and I think paired with ambition, but also a young age,
14:48 having that expertise on your side is really helpful.
14:51 - And who was that first person who responded
14:53 to your cold emails or cold calls?
14:55 Do you remember?
14:56 - Such a good question.
14:57 Emily Weiss was one of my earlier ones,
14:59 and my guess is she wouldn't remember it,
15:02 but I thought it was the coolest thing in the world
15:04 that someone that had seen so much success
15:06 was willing to hear my idea.
15:09 As I got further into it, I think I started
15:12 to have a little bit more reputability to what I was saying,
15:15 and people were more willing to truly get involved
15:18 and eventually, in many cases, invest.
15:21 So all in, it ended up working out,
15:24 but there was definitely a lot of no's along the way.
15:26 - And did you always imagine
15:28 that you'd become an entrepreneur?
15:30 - No, I didn't at all, which is funny.
15:33 I'm actually fairly risk-averse.
15:35 I am more comfortable on the beaten path,
15:39 but I think that we just happened to stumble upon an idea
15:42 that I was really, really passionate about,
15:46 and I am so grateful that we saw it through
15:49 because I truly believe there's no learning curve
15:52 or experience like that that is offered by entrepreneurship.
15:57 - And what's in store for Nori in this upcoming year?
16:00 What are you most excited about?
16:01 - So quite a bit.
16:03 We have a bunch of new product launches coming up
16:05 within the clothing care space that we're so excited about.
16:08 Co-branded partnerships are huge for us
16:10 where we partner with other brands and talent
16:12 to introduce Nori to a new audience,
16:14 so a few of those planned.
16:16 And then of course, the new retail launches.
16:18 So hopefully all good things.
16:20 - And you know, when you say clothing care company,
16:22 which is also how I described you,
16:24 but I would like to know,
16:25 do you feel like you fall more into retail
16:28 or do you feel like you fall more into manufacturing?
16:31 Like what's the, what do you think personally?
16:34 - That's a good question.
16:35 I don't know that we perfectly fall into any category,
16:39 but I think that that is the beauty of this.
16:43 One of the things that we realized about our market
16:45 and our product specifically
16:47 when we were trying to innovate
16:48 was that people didn't have really any attachment
16:51 to an iron or steamer or to a fabric shaver
16:54 or some of the other products that we're innovating within.
16:57 Whereas they did to things like their suitcase
17:00 or their toothbrush,
17:02 other products that had an innovative player.
17:04 And so I think that we're trying to ensure
17:07 that even though we're innovating within hardware,
17:10 probably not the most glamorous space,
17:12 that this is something that is really beautiful
17:14 and really branded
17:15 and something that people are proud to own and show off.
17:19 And so it's funny enough,
17:21 like I think I talk about us
17:23 almost like we're a beauty product more than anything,
17:26 but traditionally I would say
17:29 that we're more of an e-com retailer.
17:31 - And I have to ask, what does Nori stand for?
17:34 - I'm glad you asked.
17:34 It is iron spelled backwards.
17:36 - Oh, I should have put that down.
17:38 - No, honestly, most people don't.
17:41 So it's fun to tell people when they figure it out.
17:43 - Yeah, no, I'm so excited to have you here,
17:46 but my last question for you,
17:48 I know you gave us a piece of advice,
17:50 but specifically to the women, young women
17:54 who are trying to break into an industry like this,
17:57 hardware maybe,
17:58 what is your best piece of advice for them?
18:01 - I think it is to get started.
18:06 So many people have great ideas,
18:09 but it's terrifying to get started.
18:11 And I'm risk averse.
18:12 I was terrified to get started,
18:14 but think about activities and de-risking.
18:17 What is the next tangible step I can take
18:20 to get this one step further
18:21 and one step closer to market?
18:24 And I think that that is the best way
18:27 that you can see through an idea
18:29 and potentially stop yourself
18:31 before too much has been put into it.
18:33 But if you have an idea
18:35 and you feel passionate about it for X, Y, and Z reasons,
18:39 especially when you're young,
18:41 you don't have the commitments that you have later in life.
18:43 And at the very, very worst,
18:45 you will have learned more than you could possibly imagine.
18:49 And reach out to me, cold call me, I'll answer.
18:52 - I love that, that's great advice.
18:54 Thank you so much, Courtney.
18:55 - Thank you for having me.
18:57 (upbeat music)
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