Ethique founder and entrepreneur Brianne West has stepped down as CEO from the company she founded to launch a new initiative to help reduce the failure of New Zealand startups.
Almost 11 years after starting the $100 million business in her kitchen as a 24-year-old biochemistry student, Brianne has seen the company expand to where it exports its range of sustainable shampoo bars and soaps to over 8,000 retailers in 22 countries and, in the process, has prevented 25 million plastic bottles from entering landfill.
Brianne says while she will remain with the company to support across product, sustainability and brand, her focus will be on supporting hundreds of entrepreneurs who want to start and scale up a social or environmental business venture that has the potential to change the world for the better.
According to latest Government data, less than half (45%) of New Zealand startups, including those with a social mission, will survive past their first five years. It was for this reason that Brianne created the Business, but Better initiative.
Research shows women are more likely to start a mission-led business however they often face a number of barriers including poor access to information, funding and gender-specific networks and support. And whilst there is a significant amount of entrepreneurial talent in New Zealand, who are willing to offer their time and guidance, there is a shortage of female mentors in NZ and research shows women prefer to be guided by other women.
Brianne has developed the Business, but Better initiative to help entrepreneurs learn from the “many” mistakes made while Ethique was in its startup phase and says they have had international interest from a wide range of environmentally and socially focused ventures.
The programme provides entrepreneurs with an extensive video resource covering a wide range of topics including branding, funding and exporting – as well as regular group mentoring and individual one-on-one mentoring sessions.
Just three weeks after launching, the programme’s first marketing course intake is full and the platform has already attracted interest from social enterprise founders in the USA, UK and Australia, as well as New Zealand.
“The level of demand has caught us by surprise; however we believe it is a reflection of the unmet need for greater support for social startups both locally and abroad.
“While more mature businesses can readily apply for R&D funding to explore new markets, there is little in the way of customised support for mission-led startups – and it is a significant contributor to their high failure rate,” she says.
Brianne says one of her early mistakes as a female entrepreneur included a self-taught foray into the registration of their global trademarks.
“The first time I registered a trademark I could not afford an IP lawyer and so I applied under an international trademark protocol known as the Madrid System to register the brand across multiple off-shore markets.
“This immediately triggered the arrival of a series of letters each demanding a payment of 2,000 Euros to various ‘IP officers’ around the world.
“They looked extremely legitimate, and I panicked thinking they were real and it was only by sheer luck I found out it was a well-known scam.
“I also didn’t bother to register a trademark in Australia – and later had to change the original business name.
“Learning from these experiences and many others, I wanted to create a resource and sounding board for other entrepreneurs to learn from the misadventures I experienced during the startup phase.”
Brianne says the platform was developed following the realisation that she could help significantly more entrepreneurs through the creation of a video library resource, which can be used in conjunction with customised mentoring sessions.
“Trial and error is a great way to learn in some respects, but it can incur more cost and stress than a startup entrepreneur can manage.
“The objective of the programme is to remove some of the common pitfalls associated with launching a business and help these fledging ventures make it to maturity,” says Brianne.
Brianne says she can be scathing of some of the traditional business advice that is commonly disseminated, which is not well aligned with the social enterprise model.
“What we know is that business models have changed significantly in recent years.
“The old-school concept of staying on-shore until you are profitable or the prerequisite of having a 50-page business plan is no longer relevant – as international markets have become much more accessible, even to early-stage SMEs,” she said.