02x02 - Mind Your Business

[bunniefuu]

♪

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. ♪