Episode Details

After the birth of her daughter, the creator of cult brand Frank and Eileen saw the world a little differently. Women are superheroes and Audrey McLoghlin wanted to create a shirt just for them. Grayson is the result of her 5 year consideration on building a new brand from the ground up. In this episode, we talk about how to create a sustainable business with a B2B component in the new DTC era, how to play the long game, and how to join the “hundred club” — owning 100% of the business. Listen now!

Show Notes

Main Takeaways:

• Brian and Phillip are joined by Audrey McLoghlin, Founder & CEO of both Frank & Eileen and Grayson. 
• Audrey has created a new business model entitled the Sustainably Hybrid Vertical Brand.
• How do you navigate today's fast-paced direct-to-consumer marketplace with a wholesale brand?
• As a wholesale brand, your partnerships are critical to your success and can turn your distribution channels into customer acquisition channels.

Who Is Audrey McLoghlin?: A Serial Founder in the World of Consumer Brands: 

• An engineer by training, Audrey admits that she has now become a serial entrepreneur. 
• Frank & Eileen was founded ten years ago when Audrey fell in love with Italian menswear fabrics and wanted the same fabric available for women. 
• Over the years, Audrey learned that in business, it is almost more important regarding what you say no to than what you say yes to. 
• Frank & Eileen has been very diligent in focusing on a single product and has become famous for making an amazing button-up shirt. 

A New Venture: The Grayson Story: 

• Over the past five years, the entire retail landscape has changed, and Audrey wanted a brand that captures what is going on today and speaks to the customer that they wanted to talk to.
• Grayson is named after Audrey's four-year-old daughter, Grayson. 
• Audrey hopes that the quality and reputation of Frank & Eileen's product will assist in reaching a customer base that fits Grayson. 
• She was inspired by all of the powerful women working around her that thought it ways that are totally different from previous generations. 

How Times Have Changed: A Shift in the Retail Landscape: 

• Ten years ago, social media and eCommerce didn't exist as they do today, so brands launched wholesale as opposed to direct to consumer.  
• Everything was about having the best product and getting that product to be sold in the right places. 
• Today, you still need incredible products, but you also have to consider why you are making the product. 
• In starting Grayson, Audrey spent a lot of time looking at the business landscape and noticed that the path to profitability has become elusive due to the significant costs of being successful in the DVNB space. 

The Sustainably Hybrid Vertical Brand: A Whole New Model:

• In creating Grayson, Audrey hopes to create a whole new type of go-to-market strategy called the Sustainably Hybrid Vertical Brand.
• This model has all of the good qualities of a direct-to-consumer brand but also balances the direct-to-consumer component with the wholesale component of a brand. 
• In the new retail landscape, you can have strategic wholesale partnerships that can become your customer acquisition strategy.
• This is the first example of your customer acquisition strategy, also being a lucrative money center. 

Shifting Channels: From Wholesale to Direct: 

• A healthy ecosystem in which a brand supports its wholesale partner but also supports its customers with an experience that only the brand can bring is key to being successful in this new mod