This episode features Steph Moore, founder of Hey Sister Scrub Club, who built a successful ecommerce brand from scratch with no prior experience. It highlights her journey navigating direct manufacturing challenges, building a strong community with a lean tech stack, and her commitment to authentic brand storytelling and customer connection. Ecommerce operators can learn invaluable lessons on bootstrapping, resilience, and scaling a niche business with personal touches.
Key takeaways
Cold-contact manufacturers directly and persistently; be prepared for multiple rejections before finding a partner willing to work with custom designs and smaller initial orders.
Prioritize building a strong, engaged email list and community, even if it means manual communication in the early stages, as this can drive significant sales without complex automation.
Embrace direct-to-consumer operations and carefully consider the trade-offs of manual processes (like self-fulfilment) versus automated solutions (like 3PLs) based on your brand's values and growth stage.
Leverage personal experiences and social causes to create unique, emotionally resonant products and brand narratives that differentiate you from competitors.
Be transparent about entrepreneurial challenges like supply chain mishaps and stockouts; this builds authenticity and trust with your customer base.
Nineteen months ago Steph Moore was a nurse with no fashion background, no ecommerce experience and a copy of Adobe Illustrator she'd taught herself after night shifts. Today Hey Sister Scrub Club sells out drops, has a 6,000-strong email list and was runner-up for Rookie of the Year at the SHE-com awards.In this episode Steph walks Ryan through the whole build: cold-contacting manufacturers until one agreed to work from her own prints and measurements, the sample sets that came back with head holes too small to get into, and the decision to order 360 units across six prints on nothing more than gut feel and a few colleagues' opinions.She's unusually open about the parts most founders leave out. August was her biggest month ever. July was her worst — not because demand dropped, but because she sold out of core sizes and had no stock to sell. Her tech stack is Shopify and almost nothing else: no automated flows, no abandoned cart emails, every one of those 6,000 emails written and sent by hand. She bought Klaviyo ages ago and still hasn't set it up.There's also the shipment that arrived soaking wet after a flooded hangar, the drop where half the orders went out with one print on the front and a different one on the back, and the Pink October collection covered in boobs — designed specifically so a patient would ask "have you checked yours?"Plus: why she won't use a 3PL, what she wants her future warehouse to feel like, and the line that explains why the copycats flooding the fun scrubs market don't worry her much.CHAPTERS(00:40) Meet Steph Moore, founder of Hey Sister Scrub Club(01:00) From nursing shifts to Adobe Illustrator all-nighters(02:16) Cold-contacting manufacturers until one said yes(03:00) Sample problems, and the set that finally worked(04:32) The first drop: 360 units and six prints o
Cold-contact manufacturers directly and persistently; be prepared for multiple rejections before finding a partner willing to work with custom designs and smaller initial orders.
What does this episode say about brand & content?
Prioritize building a strong, engaged email list and community, even if it means manual communication in the early stages, as this can drive significant sales without complex automation.
What does this episode say about supply chain & operations?
Embrace direct-to-consumer operations and carefully consider the trade-offs of manual processes (like self-fulfilment) versus automated solutions (like 3PLs) based on your brand's values and growth stage.
What does this episode say about founder & leadership?
Leverage personal experiences and social causes to create unique, emotionally resonant products and brand narratives that differentiate you from competitors.
What does this episode say about dtc strategy?
Be transparent about entrepreneurial challenges like supply chain mishaps and stockouts; this builds authenticity and trust with your customer base.
