Growth: Challenges of Scaling Jrink & [solidcore]
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Show Overview:
Shizu Okusa, founder of Jrink, and Anne Mahlum, founder of [solidcore], discuss how to scale and maintain the right level of intimacy with customers, audiences and the business team while navigating growth challenges along the way.
About GFGF:
The Get Found Get Funded podcast is at the intersection of entrepreneurship and social justice where we focus on entrepreneurship as a possible path to wealth creation — specifically for Black and Latinx communities.
Featured Guest(s): Shizu Okusa & Anne Mahlum
About Shizu Okusa
- Founder of Jrink, Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2021 Finalist and Forbes #Next1000 Class
- Shizu Okusa is the Founder of JRINK and Apothékary. She worked at Goldman Sachs from 2010 to 2012 in the firm’s FICC Division in New York.
About Anne Mahlum
- Founder and CEO of [solidcore]
- Anne Mahlum is an entrepreneur, innovator, and inspiring public speaker. She founded [solidcore], a boutique fitness company in 2013, and expanded the business to 70 fully corporately owned locations in less than 10 years. Among its more than 100,000 customers, the exercise and wellness brand has seen notable clients including former First Lady Michelle Obama.
- Founder and former CEO of Back On My Feet
Key Takeaways:
- The market for wellness businesses and products is growing quickly
- There is a balance between serving more customers and maintaining loyalty
- Finding success after struggle
Key Timestamps:
- 00:59 Intro
- 03:43 Jrink’s Evolution
- 9:28 Raising Money
- 11:21 Jrink’s Vision
- 15:13 The Important Players
- 16:34 Back On My Feet and Leaving
- 24:15 Managing People
- 34:35 Securing the Right Funders
- 39:06 PR and Marketing
- 46:36 The Next Chapter
- 51:09 Health And Wellness
- 56:56 Outro
Items Mentioned in the Show:
Quotes from the Show:
- “I have a platform and this is my business and I will not sit back and be complicit. I will stand up for what is right for my principles and my clients and our customers” (Anne)
- “One of the smartest things I learned about marketing and branding is to stay in your lane, own your space, and do it better than anybody else.” (Anne)
- “Like I'm going into partnership with these people. So it's really important to have a good lawyer who's actually done this before.” (Anne)
- “First thing is knowing what you're good at and knowing what you're not good at.” (Anne)
- “There was something that was like you've done your part here, it's now time for you to figure out what's next and your responsibility in this world is to create community.” (Anne)
- “The generation now below us needs active feedback and no longer these six month or annual reviews, they want it now.” (Shizu)
- “The wellthy is the new wealthy” (Shizu)
- “We believe there's a huge market for people that are busy working professionals that are life pressed and need to be fresh pressed with up to five pounds of produce.” (Shizu)
