eCommerce, Shopify, Building a Tea Brand, Dragon’s Den & More with Sheena Brady

11/18/22 • 53 min

Sheena Brady is the founder of Teasewellness.com, a wellness brand that creates all natural, tea and botanical based products that support you to live and lead consciously. As a B-Corp and through its’ Founder Fund, Tease also helps support under-represented women entrepreneurs with mentorship, strategic resources and funding.
Sheena is a tea Sommelier with a wealth of knowledge. As an owner and co-founder of a tea company myself (mositea.com), we geek out on the different ways teas can support you throughout your day. Sheena also blows my mind with some genius tea and booze infused cocktail ideas. She really knows her stuff.
Having worked at Shopify for almost 8 years on the merchant success team, Sheena shares her insights into eCommerce, changes in omni-channel marketing and how to succeed as a D2C brand in the post-Facebook era. As two eCommerce vets, we also share our secrets on how to prepare for this holiday shopping season.
Finally, Sheena tells her story of appearing on TV’s Dragons’ Den (Canada’s version of Shark Tank) and how she managed to out-smart one of the Dragon with the ultimate chess move which you will not want to miss.

Discussion Topics:
(1:30) Ice breaker ... wine pairings.
(5:07) Becoming a Sommelier and discussing tea culture.
(12:55) Tease Wellness origin story.
(24:03) Working at Shopify while running a side-hustle.
(30:34) Influencers and TikTok marketing.
(35:35) Q4 2022 Holiday Shopping predictions & secret sauce.
(40:30) Was appearing on Dragons’ Den worth it?
(48:36) Rapid fire questions.

Previous Episode

POWDR CEO, Building an Adventure Lifestyle Company & Managing Adversity with Justin Sibley

Justin Sibley is the CEO of POWDR, an adventure lifestyle company that owns some of the best resorts on earth, including Copper Mountain, Killington, Silver Star and more. Justin is a fellow Fuqua MBA graduate who was the Vice President of Finance at Backcountry.com before becoming CFO and then co-President of POWDR. POWDR also owns Woodward. If you know anything about board sports, you know that Woodward is the leading name in action sports progression and innovation with facilities across North America. Justin and I talk about how he has been able to help leverage the Woodward brand and assets across POWDR’s portfolio of resorts.

As an international company with properties in different states and provinces, we talk about the challenges of running a hospitality business during the pandemic. Justin and the team at POWDR put on a master class on adjusting to adversity. He shares a lot of great insights and wisdom for managing a massive organization through COVID-19.

This episode was a lot of fun for me. As a life-long shredder with a failed pro-snowboard career, I got to geek out on both business and the snowboard industry. If you love the outdoors, action sport or just want to learn more about scaling a large complex organization, this podcast is for you.

Discussion Topics:

(3:11) New offerings at POWDR.

(4:54) The business strategy of expanding into more year-round offerings.

(12:51) Woodward ... perhaps one of the greatest strategic acquisitions ever?

(21:53) Woodward Park City build and opening.

(24:02) Managing through COVID-19 with 8,000 employees.

(30:29) Playing forever and focusing on environmental protections.

(34:25) Advice for people looking to build a career in outdoor adventure lifestyles.

(37:47) Rapid fire.

Next Episode

Harvard Business School, ETA & Advice for Veterans with Juan Ruiz & Doug Walsh

Harvard Business School Students Juan Ruiz and Doug Walsh run communEtA -- an MBA student-run fund which invests in search entrepreneurs. The first of its kind; it is a community of LPs, students, and searchers. The group looks to provide exposure and training on Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition and source high-quality investment opportunities for LPs and finally highlight ETA as a viable career option.

We discuss why communEtA was launched and Juan and Doug provide their insights on how best to source and close deals. As a West Point graduate, a platoon leader, and a team leader for the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade for the US Army, Doug also gives advice for veterans who are both looking at business school and ETA as a career choice.

This episode focuses heavily on ETA, the process of searching for a business to buy, closing on it and ultimately running it. Even if ETA has never crossed your mind, I think there’s value for you in in this episode ... particularly if you are like me and want to constantly find ways to increase your personal net worth. For the search fund entrepreneurs listening, we try to add value, particularly on ways to better source deals and increase the odds of going from LOI to close ... something that I have struggled a fair amount personally.

Discussion Topics:

(1:29) Icebreakers.

(7:14) communEtA’s origin story & screening criteria for investments.

(14:34) The economics of search. Is it worth it?

(19:02) The deal sourcing process.

(25:55) Advice for self-funded searchers.

(29:33) Advice for Veteran searchers.

(35:28) communEtA’s portfolio.

(38:56) Increasing the odds of getting from LOI to close.

(48:24) Rapid fire questions.