From marketing mistakes to taking omn the fashion giants: The Cult Mia Story by Nina Briance

Strategy & Tragedy: CEO Stories with Steph Melodia is the best business podcast for curious entrepreneurs featured in the UK's Top 20 charts for business shows.

Hosted by Stephanie Melodia, Strategy & Tragedy features candid interviews with entrepreneurs who have scaled - and failed - their businesses - sharing their lessons in entrepreneurship along the way. From Simon Squibb of "what's your dream?" internet fame to Maya Raichoora, the visualisation guru; from Matt Lerner, the GOAT of Growth, to Nina Mohanty of Bloom Money.

This is one of the best podcasts to listen to if you're looking for educational and inspirational content on Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon, YouTube or watch the clips on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts

In this episode, Stephanie Melodia interviews Nina Briance, the Founder & CEO of CULT MIA, the values-driven luxury fashion platform that retails conversation-starting, standout pieces with sustainability and minority-empowerment at its core.

Nina started CULT MIA in 2019, following a career at Moda Operandi, UBS and the United Nations. Since then, Cult Mia's triple-digit growth has led to over $5M fundraised, they have been featured in the likes of Business of Fashion, Drapers, Vogue Business, and Sifted, and named as the only fashion company in the 100 fastest growing startups.

In this interview, Steph and Nina discuss:

- The marketing mistake that taught Nina an unforgettable lesson

- "Your network is your net worth" - the value of connections

- How Nina took on the fashion giants - and won

- The power of branding (and defending it to investors)

- A specific use case where Cult Mia empowered one of their female designers

- And so much more.

Watch on YouTube via the link below or keep reading for the transcript:

SM: Nina, what's one tragedy that's taught you an unforgettable lesson?

NB: Not putting all your eggs in one basket all at once. So maybe about a year in, we had started to see some traction on Cult Mia - first customers, all looking promising, pitched by a really interesting paid marketing agency, decided to sign them on looking for really promising results, had very high expectations. We were told that we weren't really doing anything right. We had a lot to learn.

Our whole strategy was scrapped, and we started from scratch, and that completely derailed our marketing efficiency and performance for a significant period.

The biggest learning is pivot gently, especially when it comes to reallocating resources or capital, and not being, I would say, susceptible to thinking someone's a deeper expert in a certain area where there will always be historical lessons learned, good or bad, that can be applied that, like, nothing has worked before. It's just not in my dictionary anymore.

SM: What was the cost of this mistake?

NB: Oh, quantifiably, I don't know off the top of my head, but for it took us over six months to recover that level of marketing.

SM: Very early in your journey, I imagine.

NB: About a year in.

SM: Okay.

NB: So early enough where it hasn't kind of dented us in the long term, but definitely a setback that we would never want to repeat.

SM: Right. I feel like there have been other stories that have been shared where that echoes a lot of that putting a lot of trust in other people, too much delegating, trusting the experts, trusting the outsiders when you know your business better than anyone else, but also you've got that experimental approach to take with it.

Given that you've opened on the marketing kind of theme as an ex marketer, I'm gonna go there with you. What works for you now? (I'm fast forwarding a little bit in your journey because you have had explosive growth. You've got tripled revenue profits. I can't remember the exact detail, but it's been an incredible you've surpassed the likes of luxury fashion giants, Net A Porter, Farfetch. We're gonna get into all of that as well). What have been the main marketing activities that have worked for you now that you've learned from that lesson?

NB: Yeah. It's a good question. We're an online marketplace, which means, operationally, we're a very light business. So the marketing is the beating heart and it's the growth engine, and I think a lot of investors in particular, but people just want to hear that you've built this business not really relying on paid. That kind of seems to be the golden standard, but in our case, there was definitely a place for paid marketing to get us going. How would people discover, what, our brand they'd never heard of, and two, hundreds of new designers we were working with just online randomly. Right? If it wasn't, like, your mom or your best friend who was going to be coming naturally to cultmia.com at the beginning.

So I would say we had a good leg up and foundation on paid, and that was very much supported by scaling key organic channels, and then slowly and gradually, year on year reducing the allocation of spend on paid and shifting it more into brand, PR, and organic.

Within those different channels, I'd say we've had a lot of success in building a community. So we have over 300,000 engaged shoppers at this point. We work with lots of different types of industry partners, whether they're stylists, PR agencies, but fashion influencers have been a big win. We probably work with over 200 each month, all inbound. We don't pay anyone, so it's all finding kind of ambassadors and advocates who naturally love our products, and want to work with us because in the fashion segment, working with some of the influencers with over 1M is £20-50 k for a tiny post. That wasn't gonna get us very far.

So it's been very much building that organic community. Not just in shoppers, but as a whole industry that I think has really enabled rapid scaling and, like you mentioned, tripling the business revenue wise each year.

SM: So I wanna connect the core values. I know that you are a very values-driven business that has led you to have that success with the community. Just to put a pin in that for a second, sticking with the marketing piece, is exploring these other channels.

Great that you don't have to pay these influencers. That's amazing. A great win off straight off the bat there. But I would imagine if you're engaging press, if you're engaging a PR agency, how are you able to justify costs wherever there are other costs beyond your performance marketing, especially as a VC-backed company when you can't always guarantee those results? You don't always get a % attribution, but you know you still need to do those other activities.

NB: This is such a good question, and something that we have been working on in particular this year, where we want to invest in the brand long term.

A big part of the recipe for success to become the global fashion authority for independent fashion is to have a brand.

So you need to invest in the brands.

SM: Do your investors get that? I mean, I assume they do as they've invested in you.

NB: Yes. But then when it comes to reviewing our annual plan and our forecast and trying to understand, okay, ROI, efficiencies, where are we going to get to? Right. It is a harder sell to be patient, but I would say the good thing is we have industry investors who know the segment really well. From H&M Group to David Wertheimer, who's part of the Chanel family, who really understand the value of investing and building in a brand. That helps. And I think those industry investors investors tend to be more patient in terms of because they get it.

SM: For the ones who don't, who need a little bit more because I love how you point that out - that was exactly my point with, like, "cool we get it conceptually, but then when it does come down to the brass tacks, we're here doing our annual performance review, actually, what was the return on this?"

What are some go to party lines, research reports? What do you go to to help justify the importance of brand to the ones who don't get it as much as those industry insiders? Like, to help justify.

NB: Yeah. I think I think how we've always pitched it is it's a gradual process.

So maybe going back to my tragedy learning, it's not going from one day to other paid all into non paid. It's kind of a tipping scale. And also learning within the brand area what's working for you also takes a little bit of time before you want to really invest in in some of those areas. But I think what we've found is we added specific metrics that would enable us to try and measure brand performance a little bit more.

SM: Nice.

NB: Or basically the impact non paid is having on the business. And for the first time this year, GMV, which for us is gross sales, is a North Star metric, GMV from non paid. So that's literally putting, like, laser focus on how are we gonna generate business from anything that isn't Meta or Google.

SM: Love that. Anything that takes away from the power of the broligarchy sounds great to me.

What are some of those input metrics on the brand side of things? I am gonna move on as in this don't worry but I'm a brand marketing pro, so I'm like, I wanna stick with this, especially fashion and brand. So what are those metrics that ladder up to GMV that point to the brand performance?

NB: So I would say they're less commercial metrics, but it's things that measure kind of brand awareness and brand health. So things like search volumes for our brands, organic traffic to the websites, community size and engagements, everything that touches on our ambassador program. But also metrics like retention, we see as being quite connected to everything that ties back to brand. Also markers like inbound requests from potential designers, and that has shot up over time in the last year. At the moment, it's about 250 designers apply to join Cult Mia each month. When I started it was about one. You're out there hustling it was, like, my cousin's friend's brand.

SM: Right. Right, makes sense. Music to my ears beyond just being such a brand advocate, and, of course, it makes sense in the fashion world and specifically what you're doing.

I mean, Nina, the dresses, just the garments on your platform are I wish I had these amazing events to be able to justify some of these, like, fantasy garments. They are beautiful. These, like, fantastical dresses, almost like some of these are ball gowns. So, of course, to me at least, it makes complete sense that brand is a huge factor in that.

But I think what you talk about here as well, just to give this some airtime, is moving away from that reliance on paid. You said that earlier, but we become so beholden to this mass media manipulation machine that's run by very questionable people. So there's a very deeper kinda thing with that as well, so I love to see that you're reclaiming your power in that in you goes beyond brand versus performance for me, you know? So I love to hear that.

Thank you for breaking down those key metrics. What that nicely links into will take the pin out of the community piece because community and brand very much go hand in hand. Such a values driven organization, as I mentioned. Talk us through that. You're so mission driven. What is the mission that you're on with Cult Mia? Why is this unlike any other fashion marketplace, and how has that helped capture the imagination of the 300,000 community members you have?

NB: So I would say one of my main light bulb moments behind starting Cult Mia was a role I had at the UN.

I worked in a team called Women in Trade as part of the International Trade Center, and I was helping women owned micro enterprises in the consumer space, and I got to play a little bit more around with fashion as well, helping them scale essentially. And I saw how many talented artisans and creators, and how many independent brands there are out there, which is 30,000,000 at the very least that we know about.

And within that, the UN at the time had launched the Ethical Fashion Institute. This was way back in 2014, pre the big sustainability movement we've seen hit the industry in the last, let's say, five years. And that kind of seed stayed with me, which was kind of supporting brands who were on their learning journeys when it came to sustainability and ethics, but really needed a platform to that was dedicated to spotlighting them. Because the few of these brands that did make it onto the NetA-porter's or Farfetch's never really got the visibility because obviously you'd always put the Gucci's forward because that's what you know os gonna sell. That's what their customer's looking for essentially.

And I think when you launch a business with your values deeply rooted at the core, it makes it very easy to scale with your values at the forefront of your strategy.

So every brand that comes onto CultMia is vetted not just what you'd expect from a fashion perspective, product, price, quality, and so on, but on the ESG front. And we partner with Positive Luxury. We built an amazing sustainable sourcing strategy and framework that we run all the potential brands through. It doesn't mean we're saying they're all doing everything right. No one is, and that's not a fair expectation to have, especially at their stage in their business development. But there's a baseline to join.

There's some hard no's that we really don't stand for as a company. But also, we give them a lot of resources and education to make improvements along their sustainable journeys with us, and the idea is really seeing the retailer, Cult Mia, as having a shared responsibility to bring those values and education and resources towards a broader community that maybe has less access to it.

SM: Amazing. And combining the powerful mission that you have, I think I read somewhere, it's like, the bigger the team, the bigger the mission you need. Right? And, like, getting everyone aligned around that goal that you're working towards, which is so I love the values.

I love how you break them all down on your website as well. All that, as you said, you're just simply beyond the fashion.

So you've got your strong mission. We talked around kind of brand and performance. Is there anything else that you can share with our listeners as it relates to growth and overtaking some of those other luxury giants that I mentioned before? Because your growth has been explosive, and that is not an exaggeration.

NB: I would say the the incumbent platforms set up at a time where discovering luxury online in itself was a novelty back in the early 2000s, and when we launched Cult Mia and I looked around, you could find the same designers and same products on all of these websites, including on the brands themselves. You could find Gucci on Gucci.com, Harrods Com, Farfetch.com. There was no differentiation.

And what happened was they ended up competing on price. Discounting went through the roof. They were trying to bid for the same customers with the same value prop. The customers weren't loyal to them. Only Google and Meta, going back to paid marketing, were the winners in that kind of raise.

And we've spent a lot of time thinking about how to grow in a different way and what what can we learn from these businesses who have done a lot of things right.

It's always easier in hindsight to pull out these learnings, and we don't rely on discounts. Discounts are about 6% of our sales, so minimal, minimal, and We have about a 40%-42% exclusivity count, which means close to half of what you see on Cult Mia can only be found on our platform.

We decided to not buy any inventory, so a pure marketplace model, and I think keeping the business operationally light has been a big win. Operational expenses are less than 15% of our turnover. We've really been able to scale in a very efficient way.

SM: And just on that, sorry, to jump in on the operations, how lean is your team at the moment? Like, who have you got, and how did you manage to prioritize given you wanna maintain that leanness?

NB: So we're 12 full time team members, all women, interestingly enough, which is a lot of fun. And we divide the company across three core business units. Marketing, which she spoke a lot about. Partnerships, which has everything to do with sourcing, vetting, onboarding, and looking after the designers that we have on board. We've onboarded more than 400 brands at this point. And there's three people working in that team. So pretty incredible, the roster that they manage. And then we have e commerce. So everything that has to do with what you see on the website, bringing the designers and products on live, customer service online, customer service, but also marketplace e commerce operations. So really overseeing and making sure the designers are fulfilling orders on time and appropriately. Those are our three business segments.

SM: Makes sense. Okay. So I interrupted you before, sorry, with kinda keeping it very lean. Was there anything else you wanted to touch on in terms of your growth?

NB: We've talked about the importance of brand, but maybe we haven't spoken about how important it is when it comes to long term sustainable growth.

And I think a big learning from these platforms was when I looked at Farfetch, Net A Porter, Ferg, and Matches, I wasn't really sure what they stood for, what their brand purpose was. I knew what their business purpose was, but brand purpose is a little bit differently, and why should I care as a shopper, and why should I want to shop here instead of there? And I've really taken that on board, and I really think the fact that we're so focused on investing and building up our brand will be a big point of difference over time.

SM: Love that. Music to my ears. On the partnership side of things, you said, was it 400 designers that you've got on your platform? I'd love for you to spotlight one of them in particular. I know there's lots to choose from, but could you share with us a particular story of how you've helped one particular, I guess, female designer lift herself up, achieve that economic empowerment with Cult Mia?

NB: Probably one of my favourite examples is pretty much the first brand I onboarded, which is still with us today, Sarah's Bag, Lebanese designer. They're a nonprofit, based out of Beirut. They employ around 200 women who a lot of times are coming out of prison and would typically be kind of marginalized and really struggle to find work opportunities.

They handcraft these incredible bags, all hand-beaded - it could take up to 25 hours to make one bag, so the intricacy is just stunning.

They're all made to order, which means there's no overproduction and no waste. So quite a sustainable led brand in that sense.

And when Sarah's Bag joined Cult Mia, they had never really expanded outside of key European countries and Lebanon.

We really opened up their access to the global shopper. We connect them to customers in over 45 different countries at this point.

SM: And what does that business look like today versus when you first met them?

NB: Oh, I mean, I don't know the figures for Sarah's Bag off the top of my head, but for the more recent case studies that we've done, we can be up to 50% of a designer's business each year, so we're essentially doubling their business.

SM: That's amazing.

NB: That's pretty tremendous and really exciting.

SM: Yeah. I love that. Wow. What a cool story. I would never have guessed, like, reforming, people coming out of prison. That's amazing.

NB: Full nonprofit. Beautiful story. Beautiful product. I mean, it's it's pretty incredible. And given the intricacy of the products as well, what just brings to mind is it sounds like they also have a bit of a competitive advantage as it relates to the manufacturing.

It sounds like if it's something so intricate, you know, made with their hands Yeah. It's, it's not something you can just kind of like, okay. Let's pop it into a factory line. No. I think it's quite a bespoke and special beading technique Right.

That would be hard to replicate. Incredible. Still affordable in the £200-400 pound luxury affordability angle.

SM: Nice little plug for Sarah's Bag. Check it out on the website.

What made you go into such a dream business?

For women in particular, fashion lovers, people growing up with the allure of the fashion industry, the glamour of it, having had a career - you mentioned UN, you also worked in corporate financial services.

What made you, like, not only entertain the idea, but be like, "I'm going for it. I'm taking the leap"?

NB: I always loved fashion.

I was that typical child putting on all of my mom's stuff way before I was able to wear it. But I never really knew how to make it my career. As I was growing up, I think I had a more traditional outlook where I must have thought I had to become some kind of serious banker, or consultant, or lawyer, coming out of universities. So fashion never really came up as a potential career path for me. Until the first light bulb moment I mentioned was working with these amazing artisans at the UN.

But the second, I was doing my MBA here in London, and I was working part time for a company called Moda at at the time, which is a competitor to Net-A-Porter based out of New York. And I thought, you know what? I'm in business school. I have a summer between the two years. I might as well get an internship in something that I really like and that's fun. Because I'm sure when I graduate, I'll go back to banking or do something of the sort. So I was like, this is my summer of fun.

And it ended up being the best thing I ever did.

Everything's there just kind of the rest is history.

SM: I'm so happy I asked you that question because it's just looking at people like you from the outside. I know firsthand. I deal with so many early stage entrepreneurs, a lot of people that are loosely entertaining, they're flirting with the idea of going off and setting up their own business, but it feels scary. It feels overwhelming. It feels very risky. And so let alone - this is why I'm using you as an example because it's such a gorgeous glamorous brand led fashion business. It sounds like a dream business to me to be like, wow, not even entertaining that idea, but like going full basically, you know, like full throttle, like with your dream, like making your dream come true.

And I love that answer you just gave because it's about embracing the stuff that, like, maybe doesn't make as much sense. It doesn't sound that sensible. It's not that logical, but just kinda like, oh, I've got this gap. I feel like what I take away from your answer there is, like, I've given myself permission to, like, do something fun.

You know, be playful, like and actually, that's what we really wanna do deep down inside. Right? I think there's only so long that we can stand a corporate career if that's not for you. It's like there's a ticking time bomb. Right?

NB: I think it's gonna be the cheesiest answer ever, but I think it all clicked when I found going to work fun, and I wanted to keep doing my work at Moda while I was in my lectures at business school, and I became obsessed with the space. It felt really natural. It felt really easy. I was like, oh, god. I have to go to work there. It's a great sign. It just feels like you found your energy.

SM: You know what? Those kind of cheesy cliches I don't think that's cheesy at all, but, you know, cliches are cliches for a reason. It's like these truisms, and I think we talk a lot in business, especially in the world of tech around product market fit, but what you touch on there is is person work fit and it's like, I'm very intuitive, and I'm very much a believer that, like, even in business, once you've achieved product market fit, you can feel it.

There's that sense of ease. It's flowing. You get all the inbound. You clearly have that with both your designers and your customers, everything.

But going back to this point, that internship, that summer, it's that same sense of ease that I'm picking up on there.

NB: And you know what, Steph? I think that applies to all the founders when you're thinking about what business to build. Cult Mia isn't the first business I tried to build.

I tried to set up a company when I was 19. I was a student at Stanford, and I wanted to basically build Deliveroo and connect Palo Alto restaurants with hungrier Stanford students. I wasn't excited enough about food delivery.

That's one of the reasons that business didn't really go anywhere beyond the summer.

I had another idea at business school before Cult Mia. Again, like, I kept avoiding working on the idea because I was like, oh, I have schoolwork. I have this. I have that. And it's just like another thing on the to do list. Right? It's another thing.

And then you all of a sudden, like you said, individual founder fit in business, it clicks. And you have to love the business you're building because you'll be in it for potentially ever, and that would be a great thing.

SM: Right. And there are high highs and there are are low lows along the way. So if you don't love what you're doing, how on earth are you gonna keep going?

NB: And it could be a good idea, but you just might not be the right person to build it. And that's okay.

SM: Absolutely. I'm kind of obsessed with the headwinds and tailwinds that help people achieve their success. What can you speak to, I guess, in a nutshell, and then we will talk about the fundraising.

What have been the privileges that have helped you get to where you are today and the disadvantages that you've had to overcome?

NB: So I would say we've been talking about how finance probably wasn't the right fit for me. But actually kicking off my career in banking, and investment banking in particular, was a real privilege. I got a job that was very hard to get and that a lot of people wanted. It taught me to work incredibly hard. It gave me a really sound commercial and financial backbone.

And in every fundraising conversation I've had, I can tell you investors are like, oh my goodness, how refreshing to meet a fashion founder who really knows her numbers. That gives me a lot of confidence. So I do feel like that was such an important building block that I think has helped me get to where we are, and I think has been a big part for some of kind of the commercial success we've unlocked in the last couple of years.

SM: And just beyond all of the lessons learned, the expertise that you gained from that part in the career, I hope it's not too crass but for the sake of value to the listeners, I imagine pretty cushy salaries at this time as well. So was that another aspect that helped you build up a bit of a buffer going into your business?

NB: Not really because I went from finance to business school, where you don't earn money for two years. But then I did you use I guess that buffer for that. That does help you. I do think, finance is one of the top paying industries by far, so I do feel like I had a really good cushion to go into business school and and then from there on out.

Getting into accelerators, like London Business School's accelerator was another big tailwind for Cult Mia.

In the sense that we had the equivalent of 200,000 of non dilutive funding in a huge number of different ways. Like, we got an office space free, legal support, accounting support. So I think being part of that LBS ecosystem was a huge, huge win.

Tapping into really smart people who were kind of bored with the amount of free time they had with students just to con consult, do projects with me, become advisors, eventually hire. So I would say those kind of ecosystems and communities can make a huge huge impact.

And business school and maybe education more broadly is a huge privilege, not just because of what you learn in the classroom, but the network that you built. And that sounds like another cheesy sound bite but it's true - that network privilege. I ended up knowing a lot of people in VC by the time I graduated from people who were my friends in my classes, who went off and got good kind of VC roles.

And that's just a little example of kind of how my world opened up

I would say for sure challenges. The main one that comes to mind, and maybe it sounds we're using the word cliche a lot in this conversation, but, you know, there's certain moments as a female founder that only happen to female founders.

SM: Oh, I don't know if I can- you gotta give us one example. I can't take more than one. Just share one with the audience.

NB: I would say, for me, personally, the biggest challenge was having a baby, two and a half years into building this business, I got pregnant. I didn't have the team that I had now. We were six people at the time, and I ended up receiving a term sheet for a seed round a week before my daughter was born. And I think and that's one of those things that you just can't delegate. Like, I could not delegate negotiating the valuation, of the company to anyone else in my business. And I'm a solo founder. So going through that process and going through, you know, three months of due diligence after with a newborn baby was really tough. Not something I'd like to do again, but we powered through. And I just think, there are trade-offs to everything, but probably just kind of build it trying to build my personal life at the same time has been one of those more challenging, rewarding, but challenging pieces to the puzzle.

SM: How did you power through?

NB: I think you realise that you're not going to do it alone. And your support system and network plays a huge role, whether it's family, your partner, your team, other business leaders, other female founders. Just leaning on each other.

SM: Oh, Nina, I can't even imagine. What advice would you give to maybe another woman who's listening now, and maybe she's pregnant, maybe she's thinking about it, she has her own business, or I guess kind of your any advice you'd go back and tell yourself two and a half years ago now that you know?

NB: This is gonna be contradictory but I would say there's never the perfect time, so don't wait for it because it might it might not come and you'll figure it out as you go.

But there will be better times. And I'm pregnant now with our second baby, and it feels like a much better time. My business is more established. I have a bigger team. Mhmm. We're not gonna be fundraising when this baby's born. So of course you can't plan all of this perfectly but having two experiences to look back on there will be better moments in your business journey to take deeper leaps into your personal life.

SM: Someone who's in a very similar situation to you, actually, and I'm gonna shamelessly self plug another interview which was with Lottie White, who's the founder of Myo Master, which is a wellness recovery platform. They made history on Dragon's Den. When I interviewed her, she was actually now come to think of it, very similar stage to you now, and it was second time around. The business was a bit more mature, wasn't kind of the early days, so lots of parallels there. Check out that episode after this one if you wanna listen in.

How much did that experience help you to prioritise? And, like, any practical any practical tips that you can share?

Because something like that, like, your business negotiating with investors, as you mentioned, that's a great example of something that's not as easy to delegate. You're also first time mom. Like, there's gonna be some things you can delegate on that side, but that is a perfect high pressure situation where, like, something's got to give. Like, there is only one of you. There's only so many hours in the day. There's only so much energy. How did that force you to be much more stringent with how you prioritize and practical tips off the back of that?

NB: I think the biggest change in becoming a mom is you just have hard stops that you didn't have before, you know? Either you have, like, nursery pickups or bedtimes or whatever it is. So my husband used to shut my laptop because I had no nothing stopping me from working, and now I have a very good reason to stop.

So I would say you do have to prioritise a lot more. And I think you ask yourself well, I try and ask myself the five whys, and I keep asking myself, like, why is this gonna make an impact, and why does that matter? And then you realise you can really narrow down what's going to move the needle a lot more than you think. And there will be certain elements of your work that will be very time draining, but not impactful.

And you'll really question if it's the right moment to do it, if you're the right person to do it. And I think the biggest prioritisation lesson which indirectly answers your question. For me, it was the best forcing mechanism to delegate more.

I said I couldn't delegate the fundraise process necessarily, but I was really kind of owning so much of the managerial responsibilities in the company across the board. And I was in so deep, I had done every job in the company at some point or another as I was building the business. And it forced me to take multiple setbacks and to really trust the people that I had hired who were real experts in those areas to do their jobs which they've done phenomenally.

But that was something that was harder for me to do naturally.

SM: And this is why I had to ask you that question because for me, at least, hopefully, there are some listeners that resonate with this as well. You know, I spent way, way too long way too long to I might still do it because what does come so naturally to me is the ways of working in the first chunk of your career if similar to our situations where we've had that traditional employment before going into business afterwards, how you are conditioned, how you are trained in those early days of early to mid of your career. What got you here won't get you there. There was so much unlearning to do in terms of the delegating, prioritizing. I'm so good, like, badly good at, like, getting stuck in, getting shit done, keeping things moving. And it was very unnatural for me to take that step back and question and be like, what is moving the needle? What is if I can do one thing today, what is that one thing?

And working I think moms in general are just superhuman supermoms, and you're running your own business as well. I think you're some of the best people that we can take lessons from as it relates to prioritizing.

NB: I think my biggest biggest takeaway is when you build a team, you're building a team that knows more about what they're doing or should know more about what they're doing than you should. And you should be there as a sounding board to validate good decisions rather than trying to do everyone's job. And having the answers for everyone.

And it's okay to have to not have all the answers.

Because then it opens up this amazing space for blue sky thinking that all of a sudden, you're then able to take the business to the next level because you're not bogged down by everything that you were consumed by.

SM: Yeah. And from the team perspective as well, how empowering for them. Be empowering, but also being put in some of those sink or swim moments and and be and letting them also make mistakes. And I can imagine with you not necessarily specifically, but, like, having your own business and having done all of the roles, as you mentioned, as you work your way up, letting go of some of that control as well and and letting them kind of make some mistakes if these things happen and just kind of, like, they need to they need to go through that. They need to learn, and the only way they're gonna do that if they're kind of given that space, so it's kind of part of those almost growing pains in that journey.

Right? Fully agree. Yeah. Amazing. Fully agree.

SM: Nina, we need to talk about fundraising. I feel like I've teased that a little bit, so we will wrap the episode on that subject.

You mentioned you've secured funding from the likes of H & M Group. I think you've raised over 6M today - congratulations - that is incredible, so cool.

Any tips that you can give to fundraising founders that might be listening in now?

NB: I think the biggest thing to think about is fundraising, there's so many headlines around it. It almost feels like it's a vanity metric for founders. The more money, the better, which is not the case. Different businesses will require different amounts of funding at different periods, and that's okay.

And how amazing if you don't need that much money, and you control more of your business, and you just skyrocket, and you're profitable very early on. Like, win, win, win, win, win.

If you are fundraising, I think you then really need to understand what growth trajectory are you after. Because once you embark on a VC led growth trajectory, it's hard to get off it. And your expectations with your investors and yours really do need to align.

And that's a very personal decision. I was really excited by the challenge of building a business and getting to an interesting scale pretty much as quickly as possible within reason. And I do think Venture Capital, because of the size of checks that they write, really unlocks that ability to really to really come to scale.

SM: Can we just unpack that ambition for a sec as well? Like, why did you want to grow so much in in such a short period of time? Where did that come from?

NB: Oh. I don't think I've ever asked myself that question before. I think for me, it felt like I had a huge opportunity to redefine luxury fashion, and the market was consolidating, all these long standing players were really wobbling.

I would look around the streets and feel like everyone looked the same, and kind of the reason I love fashion was starting to fade, and I really wanted to bring excitement and individuality back to fashion, and do it in a way that is working with some of the most interesting creative people around the world and being their platform. So it felt like there was a big opportunity there. A pain point or like a dislike that I was seeing in terms of how the world was evolving around me, but also more of a mission-led kind of approach in terms of the impact that we could have that I was like, I feel like we there's this gap and white space that's formed. And why not dream big?

You may or may not get there. But if you don't dream to get big, there's no way you'll get there.

SM: Amazing. I can feel that fire, that ambition, that sort of go hard, go home with this. And I think that what that also speaks to just connecting that back a little bit to the founder-idea fit we were talking before. It just clicked and everything sort of flowed and got you excited, is also around, the excitement that a BHAG can create for people as well. So BHAG is in big, hairy, audacious goal.

Just to your point of dreaming big, and there's something in that as well with the psychology of, like, if you're dreaming, you wanna be dreaming big enough that it's exciting and you can rally the troops and work towards this mission, but not kind of just so crazy that, like, that's never gonna happen. So I love that.

Let's get back into fundraising stories. So, basically, if you've got those big ideas VC might be the right fit for you. If it is, what what worked for you? What piece of wisdom can you impart on the fundraise?

NB: We've briefly touched on this but leaning on your network. I think people don't give enough weight to warm introductions.

Cold outreach. I haven't seen gets you that far. Every investor that has come on board to Cult Mia has been introduced to me in some capacity, or we were at a pitch night and and we connected in person, but it was never through, like, a random email that we were that we at least were successful in in fundraising.

So definitely, definitely, definitely build out your network and start building it sounds weird in, like, an investor founder context, but genuine relationships. Yeah. So I think I found, again, more success when I have a relationship with the investor that predates the actual kicking off the fundraise process.

They've gotten to know me. I've gotten to know them. They know the business. And for founders to do their own reverse due diligence on investors is hugely important, who you bring on board your journey.

And I think that's a way to do it, and see who genuinely wants to help you when there isn't a real need to do so because they're not on the cap table.

SM: Nina, you are hitting every note. I'm so glad that you say that as well because there's such a power imbalance, isn't there, with, like, these are the money people. And I feel like founders during that fundraising process just naturally, subconsciously go into that, we need this money. Can you give us this money? And, like, I'm sure it's unconscious for for pretty much everyone, if not most people, but you're putting you're removing your power from that process. Right? And so that reverse due diligence that you mentioned is is key.

NB: And I've had a few advisers help me with this over time. I didn't feel this way at the beginning of CultMia. But now, and I hope this isn't come across in an obnoxious way because I hope it's it's meant to be helpful. Now I approach investors with the mindset. I don't say this out loud, but I'm like, you should be so lucky to invest in these business.

SM: A-women! Exactly. That's exactly the mindset. That's exactly the mindset every founder should have.

The first person who switched that way of thinking for me was years ago another incredible entrepreneur, also just so happens to be another woman. She was the it was said that. She said, everyone, they've all got money, all these different funds, all these different private equity firms, angels, whatever source of capital you're going after. She's like, it's money. They're dollars, they're pounds is the same as everyone else's. Some of them talk about the value add, how many of them actually mean that, how will they actually go in the extra mile. They have money. What you have, your uniqueness, your idea, your drive, your energy, your IP, your everything around that.

NB: You're the value creator. Right? They're the value enabler. You need both to work, and and you should feel like you're equal parties at the bargaining table

SM: Yeah. Exactly. I'm so, so so happy that you mentioned that, Nina, because, again, so many people go into it on the back foot. They go into it with that different perspective.

NB: It's very natural to feel that way. Yeah. It's weird asking people for money. So at least to me, it wasn't natural. Do you wanna write a big check?

SM: I think it was That Will Never Work, the book about the story of Netflix, where the founder had a stint (with you saying about asking for money) where they had to spend a time basically, like, being homeless and, like, begging and, like, asking for money. And he was like, once you've spent a few days doing that, like, pitching for investment is a walk in the park easy.

I've also had quite a few guests on here who've been on Dragon's Den. And they've also shared what a gruelling experience that is and how, again, comparatively, like, pitching to investors is a walk in the park. So it's it's all relative, isn't it?

NB: I love what you've said in terms of how you show up and your own mental frame for it. I think that level of confidence in your business, which you should have is an even better strategy as well.

SM: Yeah. This is exactly what I was thinking about. These people I feel like everyone's attract everyone wants to be attracted to something and feel like they've had the choice to, like, be pulled into it as opposed to having been chased or having you know, like, no one likes being sold to, but it's like, I have this amazing thing, which I'm working on over here. Like, if you wanna be part of this journey, like, maybe, you know, let's sit down and have a chat.

NB: Do you know what my biggest dating advice to friends are who are looking for a partner? Be busier. The same. Just not so available.

SM: It's the power dynamics. That's the thing no one wants to feel, like, pressured or stressed, and I think especially with investors, I can imagine it being so much more refreshing as well. Right? Because everyone does, like, send out those cold emails and the similar approach and, like, please can I have some you know, the Oliver Twist, like, can I have some money, please?

So, good for you, Nina. Incredible. Congratulations. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

NB: Absolute pleasure.

SM: And thank you so much for listening. Really hope that you've enjoyed this episode as well. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button. Honestly, it really helps me out.

Episodes are weekly, so make sure to tune in next time, and hopefully see you there.

Strategy & Tragedy: CEO Stories with Steph Melodia is the best podcast for curious entrepreneurs and ambitious founders. Learn from those a few steps ahead of you in these candid interviews of the highs and lows of scaling and failing business.

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