From 0→1 to Done: The Big Takeaways from Closing My Skincare Startup
Part 4: Lessons learned while launching then closing my skincare company.
This little series of posts I’ve been writing over the past couple of weeks recounting the missteps of Wildland has been rather cathartic.
Although, if I’m honest, the recount has left me a bit crispy as I analyze certain aspects of the experience, I’m absolutely grateful for the insights my postmortem has provided my future self. If your curious about some of the more granular lessons from this venture, be sure to check them out, starting here.
Coming to Grips With Reality
After running the final numbers for Wildland, my outdoor-focused skincare company, I caught myself wondering if I should just keep it alive as a hobby. I loved what we built. The product worked, people loved it, and I believed it made the world a little better.
But after six years of work, investment, and hope, the math told a different story. The truth was simple, even if it took me a while to admit it: I was done.
Closing Wildland wasn’t just about money or market fit. It was about learning where I actually thrive, and where I don’t.
Wheelhouses & Whatnot: The Big Takeaway
Over the last twenty years, I’ve founded a dozen companies, launched twenty brands, and sold three. A 25% success rate isn’t bad, but what’s more important is what those ventures taught me: I’m wired for the 0→1 phase of a business, the part where a scrappy idea becomes real.
Even in my current design and consulting venture where I work with both enterprise-level clients and new startups, I notice myself gravitating towards this phase of a company or campaign.
To me, it’s the most magical season for startups. The time when creatives and builders work their collective asses off to make a dream tangible. It’s the most anti-corporate kind of work you can do. Stakeholders are as hands-on as possible, living, breathing, and sacrificing to make their idea real. Things move as fast as possible, having to make massive decision after massive decision, attempting to successfully launch a previously non-existent brand and product to the right, first customer.
It’s focused chaos, and I’m built for it.
In contrast, the post-launch slump is very real. After all the initial research is complete, the brand is created and dialed in, and the MVP is built and launched, my excitement typically drops from a 10 to about a 3.
I used to be frustrated by the slump, feeling like if I just worked harder, I would learn to love the next phase of a start-up. The “2→10” phase is when you dial in your marketing plan, sales team, analyze customer feedback, iterate, potentially pivot, etc. The childhood to puberty of a company.
But let’s be honest, no amount of hard work would have ever made me love the hellscape of junior high. Unfortunately, the same is true for the 2→10 of a company. I’m just not built for it.
Launching a company requires you to account for this post-launch phase. The successes I’ve found were the ventures that accounted for this phase of the company. Previous wins came from having a dynamic co-founder, having deep knowledge of the market, and/or executing a marketing and sales plan that immediately found return and funded growth. I had none of these with Wildland.
My greatest personal takeaway from my experience with Wildland has been that I am built to create. That I am a generalist with a passion to build brands, design products, and launch them into markets. I love to live in the 0→1 of a company, and need to outsource the hell outta the 2→10.
Last, Smaller, Wildland-centric Takeaways
If I move past my introspective “journal entry” of a lesson, there have been some other, more practical takeaways that lead me to why I’ll never start another skincare company again in my life. Hopefully, some of these takeaways might help lead you to ask the right questions if you are considering building a similar company.
Higher ticket items > small-ticket grind. Selling a $20 product that costs around $3.50 to produce, nets on average about $6 on a good day after all is said and done. If I were to build another DTC product, I would find one that is much higher priced, ideally finding higher and quicker profits.
Digital > physical for flexibility and margins. Shipping, receiving, floating inventory, storage, returns, and pick fees are very real costs unique to physical products. Digital products have none of those, along with the ability to pivot quickly without massive potential losses.
Seasonal products can starve you for 9 months. Be careful to understand the buying cycles of your product. For Wildland, we sold most of our product over a 3-4 month period, but our product still had expiration dates and needed storage for the remaining 8-9 months. Whether relying on Christmas or the weather, products with a window for sales are expensive.
Waiting/hoping ≠ a strategy. Without a distinct plan for sales (whether retail connections or a solid DTC marketing plan), simply waiting for a deal to strike is not enough. Before building, know and vet your sales plan.
I recognize these “bigger takeaways” are a bit tactical, and not necessarily applicable to most startups. My hope is that for those that are broadly in this niche, these (along with my manufacturing and sales lessons) will help in your new journey.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, any start-up is a risk.
You take a swing, sometimes you hit and other times you miss. Although I ended up shutting the company down, I don’t regret Wildland. It taught me that I do my best work at the beginning, when I help ideas take shape with care and clarity. So that’s where I’ll stay.
For those entrepreneurs out there, remember to align your ventures with your personal skills, temperaments, and passions. We all have our blind spots, but knowing and accepting them will lead you to build the best team along with a well-rounded strategy necessary to take your start-up from 0→1, 2→10, and then 11→1000.
I am lucky enough now to spend most of my time helping founders and teams navigate that 0→1 phase. Sometimes it’s an enterprise company trying to connect their brand, product, and marketing in a more cohesive way. Other times it’s a startup looking for clarity and a solid launch plan. Either way, that’s the work I love most. If that sounds like you, let’s connect and see what we can build.