Nina Mullen
and Hilary Quartner are both from the HBS MBA Class of 2017. Nina has
deep strategy and consumer products experience, notably at Bain & Company
and Harry’s (where she focused on launching Harry’s at Target). Most recently,
Nina led launch and operations for new business lines at Dia&Co as well as
their private label business. At Hilma, Nina leverages her expertise launching
innovative products in the DTC and retail space, her Harvard MBA, and personal
experiences of being raised by two doctors. Nina collaborates with the
scientific advisory board on leading Hilma’s unique research and development
process, manufacturing and clinical research strategy as well as offline
retail. Hilary has a finance, consumer products and retail background,
notably as brand manager of FIJI Water. Most recently, Hilary led strategy and
finance for Jetblack, a Walmart-incubated start-up that pioneered
conversational commerce. At Hilma, Hilary leverages her personal passion for
consumer products and integrative health with her Harvard MBA, and impressive
professional history of launching new consumer brands, to build and operate
Hilma’s online retail channels, growth marketing and finance. Hilary is focused
on ensuring the customer experience is executed flawlessly – from first click
to product delivery.
Our
entrepreneurial journey in some ways can be mapped back to one of the first
parties during RC year. We met in a friend’s apartment prior to the event and
immediately bonded over a shared love of India (we both lived there at various
times), startups, and the natural foods space. We even realized that we had a
mutual friend who then turned out to be one of our first investors when we
started Hilma!
So today we want
to share how two seemingly risk averse people (Hilary Quartner started her
career in banking at Credit Suisse and Nina Mullen started her career in
consulting at Bain) ended up starting a natural remedies brand, Hilma.
Our process before taking the entrepreneurial leap:
1. Have an idea that you actually care about
As our friendship
continued to develop over our two years at HBS, it became clear that we both
loved the idea of starting a business and had complementary temperaments. We
casually discussed starting something in the food space (which we are both
passionate about) but we never had an idea that either of us thought was worth
the opportunity cost. We did not force it and each went our separate ways after
graduation, accepting roles at other startups in New York.
Of course, the
“aha” moment for Hilma happened at a completely random time with Nina and
Hilma’s third co-founder, Lily Galef. We had a moment of shock when we looked
at the label of a common immune support product, one of those sugar-y Vitamin C
packets, and realized that this trusted product we had always turned to was
loaded with sugar, additives and flavorings. Nina and Lily brought this
realization to Hilary, and together, we all wondered why the natural remedies
we had had personally found success with were absent from pharmacy shelves, and
why we had a different standard for the labels in our medicine cabinets than we
did for products everywhere else. The more we searched, the more we came to
understand that the product category we sought – a scientifically backed,
natural solution to help us feel better – didn’t exist.
2. Diligently research the idea to pressure
test both the concept, but also, your commitment
Once you have an
idea you care about, you start to think about it All. The. Time. This phase is
incredibly important to see if your excitement tires as you answer the very
important questions: Am I willing to think about this problem every day, for
years? What is every single doubt or concern I have? Do I want to tell everyone
I know about this? What am I willing to give up (precious time with friends and
family, other interesting jobs, money!) to make this happen?
Since this phase
is so essential, we tried to put as much structure around it as possible, forcing
ourselves to do customer research (surveys, focus groups, Minimum Viable Product
tests) and competitive research with self-imposed deadlines to help keep us on
track.
3. Build a team you trust before you leave
your job
The success of
any idea relies on the ability of a team to work together and execute. So, as
we worked nights and weekends to conduct our diligence, pull our initial pitch
together, and ensure that the right experts were in place, we were also
learning about our team dynamic. During that time, we got a sense of what it
felt like to work together in a professional capacity beyond friendship, and
discussed all of the challenges we could encounter as a team. In many ways this
time was crucial to preempting difficult moments down the line and to gaining
trust in each other.
4.
Force yourself to pitch to people whose
opinions you care about
We pushed
ourselves to pitch our idea, even when we knew all of the questions weren’t
perfectly answered, to people whose opinions we trusted. Sometimes the feedback
was difficult, and sometimes it was great, but it was always helpful.
Ensure that you
talk to a range of people with objective and valuable perspectives –that means
not just your family and friends. Leverage your network (for us that was from
HBS) of people who work in investing, other relevant businesses, and those who
have founded companies before to make sure your ideas and approach pass muster.
5.
Try to talk yourself out of it 🙂
It is going to be
a long, challenging road. Be honest with yourself –if you’ve confronted the
hardest parts of what could come, and you STILL think it’s worth it, you’re on
your way.
