From Mommy Bloggers to Target Shelves: Tubby Todd's Story

Andrea Faulkner Williams is the head mama and co-founder of Tubby Todd Bath Co., which she launched with her husband, Brian Todd, as a solution to her own family’s sensitive skin in 2014. For years her family struggled with dryness and eczema, and smooth skin always seemed impossibly out of reach. It was frustrating spending money on one product after another that wasn’t helpful, clean, or safe for their little ones. 

Out of those discouragements came a drive and passion to create clean bath and skincare staples and they spent years developing products and testing them in their own home. Since then, Tubby Todd has grown into an entire line of body care basics. She lives in San Diego with her husband and four little ones.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:58 The entrepreneurial dream that started it all
• 04:06 Launching with zero money and no retail shelf
• 04:39 How her husband got the idea from his job
• 06:42 Skipping retail to build direct on Shopify
• 08:30 Sponsor: IntelliGems
• 10:22 What "community-based brands" really means
• 12:22 Why small goals matter more than big ones
• 12:53 Landing as the #1 baby skincare brand
• 14:49 Sponsor: Klaviyo
• 17:24 Balancing family while building a business
• 18:57 Biggest hiring mistakes and lessons learned
• 19:41 Why you should fire people faster
• 20:55 Sponsor: eFulfillment Service
• 21:45 The hardest part of entrepreneurship: building a team
• 23:26 Staying humble and not letting ego run the team
• 24:34 Callouts
• 24:44 Why employment tenure makes you a better founder
• 27:21 Not needing a radical idea, just a better one
• 28:05 Selling 70% of the company to private equity
• 30:01 Starting something new always feels uncomfortable
• 32:35 Breaking down the best-selling three-step bundle
• 33:17 How to connect and where to find Tubby Todd

Resources:

• Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
• Gentle Baby Skincare for Sensitive Skin tubbytodd.com/
• Follow Andrea Faulkner linkedin.com/in/andreafaulknerwilliams  
• Book a demo today at intelligems.io/
• Get your free demoklaviyo.com/honest
• Lower scale costs today eFulfillmentService.com/honest  

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