Life's too short to use toxic shave cream

We signed up a strong adviser yesterday so we hit American Flatbread in Burlington to unwind and celebrate a bit, two easy things to do at "Flatbread" as locals call it.

We arrived at opening time (4.30pm) and within 15 minutes the place was seething with locals eager to get in on an event billed as "Enter the Smutty: An Evening With Smuttynose Brewery".

Beer was flowing, left and right. This fellow's shirt caught our attention... This is exactly how we feel about men's personal care, so we started kicking around some ideas for Ursa Major:

"Life's too short to use toxic shave cream."
"Life's too short to to put crap on your face."

You get the idea... We have some others too (good ones!), but we gotta keep those under wraps until we're a little further along with 'the biz'!

75% of "natural" personal care not so natural

Some telling snippets from CGI's recent article, Naturals Market Maintains Strong Global Growth:

... Nearly 75% of so-called natural personal care products are not so natural after all. The overwhelming majority are considered “natural-inspired,” comprised mostly of synthetics with just enough natural ingredients thrown in to take advantage of low consumer differentiation.

Unfortunately, the lack of explicit standards that define the degree of naturalness in most markets makes it possible for manufacturers in some countries to call their products “natural” just by adding a flowery label to the package.

... In the United States, consumer demand for naturals is growing, but so is the skepticism that should incite marketers to develop truly natural products that deliver more than marketing hype.

This is one of the reasons why we're adhering to - and plan to use - the relatively stringent Natural Product Association's Natural Product Standard seal.

What's your reverse elevator pitch?

We've been "pitching" quite a bit lately so this video clip re: the "reverse elevator" pitch is interesting... worth 30 seconds. She's talking about the insurance industry but I think it works for any sector:

 
Maria Umbach - The Reverse Elevator Speech from Maddock Douglas, Inc. on Vimeo.

So, what's your reverse elevator pitch? What do folks say about you/your brand when you walk out the door?

It seems to us the goal is to close the gap between the elevator pitch (the desired outcome) and the reverse elevator pitch, between what you want your brand to be and what it actually is.

Right now, our elevator pitch is: the spirited natural alternative to toxic men's personal care
Our reverse elevator pitch, if we get things right, might be: effective natural skin care for men

Time will tell...

Thanks for the encouragement

Good morning everyone! We've had some encouraging comments on the blog in recent weeks, so we thought we should recycle that positive energy here for our collective benefit:

“I truly believe in the need for your product and would venture to say you'll be very successful.”

“This is fantastic. Thank you for chronicling your brand journey so beautifully.”

“I love the Big Bear!”

“I feel an immediate attraction to Ursa Major and think the rugged VT-esque tie in is perfect…”

Not every day is jolly around here, so it really helps to get this kind of encouragement to help power through the darker days. Thank you! Muchas gracias! Danke schön! Siyabonga!

(Photo above taken at the Open Arms Cafe, a truly bright spot up here in the Vermont food scene... and one of our favorite places for breakfast meetings.)

Spring is in the air

On days like yesterday, there's no excuse NOT to get outside. Ranch Valley cruise.

Pretty soon the bears will be coming out of hibernation...

It's only you

In case you're wondering what we're working on:

1. Finalizing our launch products (base formulas, fragrances, packaging, costing, etc)
2. Finalizing our brand / packaging (good things take time!)
3. Raising our second round of financing (always fun ;)
4. Getting ready to talk to customers (as soon as #1 and #2 above are complete)

We're getting lots of help from various talented collaborators (thank God!)...

But, as Smokey reminded us a few days back, when out on trail, it's "only you".

Not much wiggle room for 'fair trade'

Ben and Jerry's announced this week that all their products will be "fair trade" by 2013. Co-Founder Jerry Greenfield said,

“Fair Trade is about making sure people get their fair share of the pie. The whole concept of Fair Trade goes to the heart of our values and sense of right and wrong. Nobody wants to buy something that was made by exploiting somebody else.” (See full article).

Sourcing certified "fair trade" ingredients is something we believe in strongly and we're pushing our suppliers to incorporate fair trade (and organic) as much as possible.

The rub for us is that we're trying to keep our retail prices reasonable AND we don't yet have any economies of scale to make purchasing a high % of fair trade/organic ingredients viable, so we have to compromise.

For now, to get in the game, we plan to incorporate as much fair trade and organic as we can afford to (e.g. maintain a sensible margin), and as we grow and gain purchasing economies, we'll increase the % of fair trade/organic in our products.

Hopefully, as more p.c. brands seek out these ingredients, reliable supply chains will emerge and prices will start coming down, helping "green" the personal care supply chain, and mirroring what's happening in the food arena.

Either way, it's great to see Ben and Jerrys, now a global player, take the lead on being a responsible business, again.

Signs of vitality in naturals

Just picked this up in the Natural Foods Merchandiser:

Jay Jacobowitz, president and founder of Retail Insights, a professional consulting service for natural products retailers in Brattleboro, Vt., said independent retailers in the natural products industry as a whole have not suffered as much as conventional retailers, averaging about 7 percent growth over last year. Naturals and organics continue to be a lifestyle choice, not a fad, he said.

We haven't met Jay yet but he sounds like someone we should get to know as we start taking the Big Bear to market this spring/summer.

Men: be aware of what's in your personal care

Here's a sobering snippet re: the potential harmful effects of certain ingredients on men's health from the January 2009 edition of Not Just a Pretty Face - The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry by Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics:

"Harvard School of Public Health researchers Dr. Russ Hauser and Susan Duty studied men in an infertility clinic and found that men who had higher levels of DBP [a pthalate used in the manufacture of cosmetics] in their bodies had lower sperm quality and lower sperm motility. In a separate study of 379 men from an infertility clinic, the Harvard researchers correlated diethyl phthalate (DEP) with DNA damage in the men's sperm, a condition that can lead to infertility and miscarriage. DEP is the pthalate used most widely in cosmetics. The chemical appears to be getting into people's bodies from the products... Men who used cologne or aftershave within 48 hours before urine collection had more than twice the levels of DEP in their bodies as men who did not use cologne or aftershave... For each additional type of personal care product used, the DEP metabolite in their bodies increased by 33%."

It's important to point out that pthalates are not listed on the ingredient lists of personal care products; if they're there they're usually buried in the term "fragrance". Fragrance is considered a "trade secret" so manufacturers are not required to disclose the ingredients that make up "fragrance".

A 2007 study conducted by Consumer Reports "found phthalates in 72% of personal care products, including fragrance-containing shampoos, deodorants and hair gels. None of the products listed pthalates on the label."

This is a good example of how opaque and toxic the incumbent personal care industry has become over the years... But the tide is turning, with concerned consumers gaining the upper hand, thanks in large part to greater transparency ushered in by the web.

We're doing our best to understand these issues without sensationalizing them, and we'll share key learnings here as we go... Please let us know if you come across any insightful articles or news on the matter.

The day after: Peak Pitch report

We would be remiss not to post the results of 'Peak Pitch' after Tuesday's bluster:

Fortunately, our prep paid off early in the day with Emily picking up 5 investor votes (2nd place in a field of about 20-25 entrepreneurs) and Oliver sneaking through with 4 votes (tied for 3rd).

This respectable performance was sufficient to win URSA MAJOR pole position for the 'finals', a grueling pitch-off between the morning's top 3 qualifiers to the event's 50+ attendees, over lunch.

Peak Pitch being a professional and scientific venture fair hosted in Vermont, scoring of the three finalists was to be determined by nothing less than the volume of the crowd's response.

Emily kicked off the proceedings, stepping up to the podium in her ski boots and delivering a fine pitch indeed, even with her right thigh shaking uncontrollably, no doubt from the morning's vigorous skiing. 

The two other eager entrepreneurs then did their best to out-pitch Emily, with #2 doing a decent job IMO and #3 demonstrating rampant abuse of the format by waffling on for 10+ minutes.

The event's mediator then stepped up to podium to poll the audience on who the winner might be, with vocal cheering and cat-calling following after each entrepreneur's name was read out aloud.

Surprisingly - at least to those of us favoring Emily's pitch - the crowd's applause appeared to be pretty much even for all three contestants, leaving the arbiter in a quandary: was this to be a three-way tie?

Apparently not. At that moment, an iPod-toting member of the crowd volunteered his "decibel counter" iPhone app to help determine who the swag-bound winner might be.

So the the three finalist's names were called out again, in succession, and the crowd cheered (or jeered!) for each one, while the scientific reading was taken.

Measured this way, the Big Bear took bronze!

Overall, an excellent day. We had a chance to 'pitch' URSA MAJOR to over a dozen potential investors, gaining valuable feedback and enjoying some laughs along the way.

Thank you again to the event's organizers and sponsors.

Heading to Peak Pitch tomorrow

We're heading to Peak Pitch early tomorrow morning to strut our stuff and pitch the Big Bear to a group of unsuspecting local angel investors!

For the uninitiated, Peak Pitch is a decidedly Vermont take on a "venture fair" (so we're told - we'll find out more tomorrow), meaning it's less formal and takes place on a chair lift and skis.

Entrepreneurs are paired with investors and then get onto a chair lift together, at which point the entrep. has four minutes to make his/her "elevator pitch", leaving a few minutes for Q&A or embarrassing silence!

If the pitch goes OK, we presume the pair elect to ski down together, at which point this snow-bound match-making cycle repeats itself. If not, we presume they part ways on top. Awkward!

Wait, it gets even crazier! Investors are given three votes/chits for the day, which they parsimoniously hand out to the entreps. who they feel make the best pitches.

Then, later in the day, the three entreps. with the most chits face off in a pitch-off over lunch, in front of the whole early-stage Vermont business community (all of about 30 people, it seems!).

Can you imagine? I'm not sure what's worse: not getting a chit on the tail-end of the chair lift ride or winning a chance to pitch off over lunch in public!

Anyway, casting aside all fear of public speaking, we've been honing our pitch, which has been substantially dusted off and improved since we last had to trot out in front of local angels in Fall '09.

And for extra ammo, we had our supplier ship us 20 samples of our Outdoor Skin Protector with SPF 13 (yup, 13!), which we're naively hoping will make an unforgettable impression on a big sugar daddy/mama!

Actually, the Skin Protector's really good... we shouldn't knock it. Really good. Maybe it'll help bring home the bacon.

Btw, there's some upside in this Peak Pitch we haven't mentioned: thanks to all the sponsors, entrepreneurs get a free lift pass! This means we'll get to pull out the downhill boards for the first time this year - now that could be embarrassing.

Snoopy needs Ursa Major!

Every time I crack open a new Moleskine notebook I dig around for a sticker to put on the cover so I can tell one from the other. This time, Snoopy and Woodstock got the call.

We can tell from the big foam Snoopy's working up in this scene that he's using a wash laced with chemical surfactants/sodium laurel sulphate (SLS). No doubt he's got some 1,4 dioxane in there too!

We've gotta get Snoopy some Ursa Major samples asap!