The Female Founder Show

Ep. 12: Disrupting the Piercing Industry: Louisa Schneider, Founder of Rowan

• Bridget Fitzpatrick, Louisa Schneider • Episode 12

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What if you could turn a simple ear-piercing into a lifelong memory? Join us as we welcome Louisa Schneider, the visionary founder and CEO of Rowan, who is reshaping the piercing industry. Discover how a personal quest for a safer ear-piercing option for her daughter blossomed into an innovative business now boasting 30 retail studios nationwide. Louisa's passion for sterility, safety, and celebratory experiences has transformed a routine procedure into a meaningful milestone for families. 

Ever wonder how to navigate the rocky waters of fundraising and business growth? Louisa offers a treasure trove of strategies that helped her secure capital and forge a significant partnership with Target. Learn about the power of believing in your vision, even when faced with initial rejections, and the key lessons in adaptability and staying true to your core values. We also dive into Rowan's inclusive company culture, which not only encourages diversity but also empowers women through a customer-centric approach.

Balance is the name of the game when managing both a thriving business and a beautiful family. Louisa shares her personal strategies for maintaining a positive outlook and clear mind amidst a hectic schedule. From the importance of close friendships and the rejuvenating power of laughter to the benefits of yoga and a morning workout routine, she offers a candid look at her life outside the boardroom. Tune in for a blend of inspiration and practical advice that will resonate with any aspiring female entrepreneur or professional looking to strike a better work-life balance.

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Voice Over:

This is the Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Hello everyone and welcome to the Female Founder Show. I'm Bridget Fitzpatrick. The Female Founder Show is dedicated to empowering female entrepreneurs across North America with inspiring stories from some of the most incredible female founders of successful companies. Through these stories, we aim to inspire, motivate and educate aspiring entrepreneurs. Just like you, we believe in the power of sharing knowledge, creating a supportive community and breaking down barriers that have held women back for quite some time. Today's guest is a proven disruptor in an industry that has been well pretty boring. She's taken the piercing industry by storm with her company, rowan, and made piercing safe, fun and celebratory. Louisa Serene Schneider is the founder and CEO of Rowan. Louisa, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, we'll just jump right in here, and can you share with us the inspiration behind starting Rowan and what motivated you to become an entrepreneur?

Louisa Schneider:

Yes, I'd love to. My daughter is eight and a half and when she was born, I was working in a hedge fund. At the time, we were studying malls and we were studying all the stores that are in malls and looking at them, and I was amazed that the store that I had gotten pierced at when I was 12 was still really the only place to go, and it looked very similar to how it looked a very long time ago. I won't tell you how long I got my ears pierced and, unfortunately, after I got my ears pierced, I had to have them surgically sewn back up and had a had a couple of things happen that weren't ideal and I think, if you know, if the experience had been a little different, I would have had a better outcome. So I was looking for something safe for Fiona and our pediatrician doesn't pierce ears, and there weren't any doctors locally that did, and most of them said, yeah, you might just need to go to a mall or a jewelry store or a tattoo parlor, and I'd heard some good things about tattoo parlors, but the one near us was really rough and I just wasn't comfortable taking my little girl in there, and so I started doing research on it and my whole family are doctors and nurses and a lot of my aunts said that in fact they had pierced ears for pediatricians offices or at urgent care clinics when they worked there as nurses and that they were very comfortable with needles, with sterility, with how to handle the anxiety that can come with it in an ear piercing, because there's oftentimes a lot of excitement and then you get there and oh no, I can't do it right, I'm not going to do it and that's hard.

Louisa Schneider:

And so I just really spent several years researching it and started to bootstrap the business out of my attic. So I had two friends that were nurses and they wanted to learn how to get trained to pierce ears. So we did that. We did a lot of research, they got trained to pierce ears, I bought all of the supplies and we set up a concierge style business really out of my attic where I would let people book appointments with our nurses. We would come and we would bring our materials. Everything was very clean and set up, but you'd have to get your kitchen really sterile for us or wherever it was.

Louisa Schneider:

We were going to do the piercing at your home, but what we discovered is that people really wanted a nurse or a medical professional to do the piercing. And then they also wanted to call afterwards and say, hey, it's a little red or itchy, or when can I swim, or when can I change these out. Because even if we'd told them at the appointment, there was so much going on, they would oftentimes forget. And I think that's one thing that Rowan really does well is that we're there for you. So we're trying to be full circle, trying to reach out to you as you're doing the research. Most parents want to do some research. They want to know is this place safe, is it clean, is it going to be fun and nice and celebratory? And so we really try to check all of those boxes with equal importance and we have found a great, a great product market fit where people are loving Rowan and our nurses are loving doing the piercing and being a part of the community.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah. So now fast forward to today and you have retail studios set up across the country, and how many of those do you have now?

Louisa Schneider:

So we have about 30 studios across the country. We are getting ready to open in the Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue, which is like a dream come true to me Growing up. I just wanted to go to the American Girl store in Michigan Avenue in Chicago. We are in New York City on the Upper East Side, we're in Atlanta, we're at Krog Market and at Avalon and Alpharetta and we're growing. There's a lot of demand for what we do, and so anywhere that we can find a high density of families with children college areas interestingly lots of moms and grandmothers are getting pierced again for a second or third time with their daughter or son when they're getting pierced for the first time. That's something that we really love is seeing that multigenerational.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Definitely Now. It's such a milestone. I think that if you talk to anyone, they can probably remember when and where they got their ears pierced. I was five years old. I remember it very vividly. I have a twin sister. She went with me and she was screaming and crying and it wasn't a great experience. So now, like today with Rowan, I have two granddaughters that went to a Rowan studio. They had the best time. They came out of there like they just had a party and went for ice cream and it was so fun and the experience was so much different than it was so many years ago. So kudos to you for making this milestone for so many an enjoyable experience.

Louisa Schneider:

Well, that makes me really happy. Thank you for doing that. Yeah, that's the goal. Is that, whether it's a birthday party or you graduated from sixth grade or whatever, the milestone might be, that you're able to do it and have a positive memory? Yeah, exactly Now, as a female founder, what were some of the unique?

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

challenges, that you're able to do it and have a positive memory. Yeah, exactly Now. As a female founder, what were some of the unique challenges that you faced while building your company and how did you overcome them?

Louisa Schneider:

I can't even count how many challenges.

Louisa Schneider:

It is you know I really what I love about women is that we really love to help each other. But you know, it is hard. It is hard for us oftentimes to find the courage to go and do this. You might have an idea, but then you think who am I to build it? What do I know about this? How am I going to get the money to do it? Are people going to believe in me enough to do this? So all of those questions certainly were a part of it.

Louisa Schneider:

I think I just could not stop thinking about the idea and I was pretty mad, actually, at the fact that there was nowhere for me to take my daughter. I was frustrated. I thought, wow, you know if I really did feel I have two older sons and I felt like, wow, if this were something that the boys were going to do, I think there would already be a better option for them. And so it's really my husband that pushed me a little and he said you have got to stop talking about this and do something. And so challenges were definitely. Once I knew that there was a product market fit, meaning. Once I knew people wanted nurses to pierce ears, they wanted a medical professional, then it was all right. Well, how do I, how do I scale this? How do I raise money? And that part was so different than building the business, because you have to build a presentation and then go and speak to investors and take a lot of rejection. So you know, when there's a great opportunity, you just have to believe in it, right? Because people are going to tell you know, and actually what you have to realize is that's a good thing. That's why the opportunity is there for you, because if everyone saw it as such a great idea, someone else would have already done it.

Louisa Schneider:

And I think the general consensus initially was that it wasn't a big enough area to build a business in that you only get pierced once. So why would I invest in you if you're just going to pierce people and never see them again? What we find is that we see our customers very often, very frequently. They come back in to get checked out. They come back in to buy our latest new styles that we've just dropped. They come back in to get their ears styled, maybe get another piercing. So we actually have a lot of repeat purchase. But that's something we had to prove out. So the fundraising piece ultimately, our largest investor was a woman, and I think that is a challenge because there are so few women in venture capital and in finance. But they're strong and the numbers are growing, and so I would just encourage anyone who's thinking about this to start talking to people.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

OK, yeah, great advice is my next question was going to be so, those women that are looking to raise capital, what would be the advice that you would give to them? And so just, start.

Louisa Schneider:

So there are so many. I mean, even if you go into Instagram and look up female founders or any of these, you know you can search. There are so many organizations now there's chief tons of them that have been created to, to build women up, and you can start there. There are grants that are available for female owned and minority owned businesses. These are things that you shouldn't hesitate to apply for and to to research and and.

Louisa Schneider:

But it's really getting in front of people talking to research and and um, but it's really getting in front of people, um, talking to them and asking them. You know, okay, understood that this might not be an idea that you're able to back or that you're able to invest, but is there a name of anyone else that you can give me or a contact of anyone else that you know who might be interested, right? So you kind of want to take any conversation that you have and lead to something else, and it's about not hearing the word no, but hearing what's the opportunity that this conversation is going to provide? Right, because I learned a lot as soon as I could get over the ego of they didn't want to invest right away. Then it was wow, what are they telling me how can I change the way I'm approaching this to make it more interesting or to answer any of their concerns?

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

So, yeah, that's great advice. And also get the feedback as to why the no. What can you do to improve the next time you go in front of somebody, or maybe you're in front of the wrong type of funder or you know that kind of thing. So great advice. Thank you for sharing that. Now, rowan has achieved significant success under your leadership. What strategies or approaches do you believe have been pivotal to your company's growth?

Louisa Schneider:

I think remaining open and willing to change is probably the most important thing that you can do as a founder. You really have to just keep going and you need one core piece of the business that is true, or that is your North Star, because a lot of what you think the business is or what it will be is not actually. Is not actually what it will turn into and may not actually be what's profitable or what resonates with the consumer. So for us, we had a very large partnership with Target, so we were in hundreds of Target locations and for so many entrepreneurs myself included hearing that Target wanted us for me was the panacea we had made it. Hearing that Target wanted us for me was the panacea we had made it.

Louisa Schneider:

And ultimately, the partnership at the size that we were and at the size that Target is proved to be challenging and we were not in a place to be able to really support that business without a lot more support from them at the time, and so we ended up having to pull out of that partnership and we had to pivot the whole business and what we realized is that building a service in someone else's store is a hard thing to do.

Louisa Schneider:

It's much easier to do it in your own store, right, and so we started building our own stores and they worked and our employees were happier and our customers appreciated our periods in a relationship, especially with another party to make sure that you maintain positivity and just talk about not necessarily the emotions at stake, but the business part of that conversation and so I think they really understood. They loved having piercing, we loved being there, but ultimately, if the bottom line wasn't what we needed it to be, then we would table it and come back later, and so the door is open. The conversation is still one that exists, but I think being able to navigate through change that you aren't anticipating and still have that North Star and the North Star for me has always been my daughter, so it's always. How would I want her piercing experience to be? Is this environment the way that I would imagine it for her? Would I be proud for her to have this experience? And if that is a yes, then I feel great about what we're doing.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

That's great. I love that. So I've heard you speak on company culture before. How have you built a supportive and inclusive company culture at Rowan that encourages diversity and empowers women in the workplace?

Louisa Schneider:

It's a really great question. This is something where I think, just organically, a lot of women have gravitated towards our concept because they have a piercing memory. So we're fortunate in that way that diversity of an employment base has sought us as a concept. So that has been something where it's been very easy to find a wonderful team that is diverse, who's come to us and who's wanted to support and build the concept into the business that it is. I think that you know, while I had the idea for the business and have done a lot of the initial you know blood, sweat and tears of getting the business started, ultimately my view is that it's very much a team effort.

Louisa Schneider:

My view is that it's very much a team effort and there have been critical people along the way who have helped us get from one juncture to the next juncture, and then maybe they've decided to go on and pursue another role somewhere else, but I'm always extremely grateful to them because you can't get from A to B without the journey and then you are at the next phase of the business and that's a big part of building a business, because you're literally forging something out of nothing. It's really hard to do. We're at a place now where we know what we do and we do it really really well. I think we do it better than anyone in the world and we have an incredible team who knows how to hire and train. Training is a huge part of what we do. We have built a medical board. No other piercing company has a medical board of including the leading ear surgeon in the world.

Louisa Schneider:

So, these are things that take years to do, and so I think you know, one of the things that is critical is to have a great leadership team around people, and so that's something that in the past year, we've spent a lot of work on and very recently have brought on a new EVP of people, and she is a rock star and her vision really aligns with the vision of the company, and so, you know, very much a strong communicator and encouraging upstream and downstream feedback so that you can get better right.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

So important, so important Now. We talked about funding a little bit earlier. Many aspiring female entrepreneurs face obstacles such as limited access to capital or lack of representation. What advice would you give to women who are looking to start their own business to help them overcome these challenges?

Louisa Schneider:

Folks that are looking to invest are eagerly seeking out great ideas and great founders, but they don't necessarily have a way of finding you, and so, again it is how do I get in front of them? And then, when I do get five minutes of their time, how do I very quickly get to what's most important, which is I have a very important idea, I have a big idea that can scale to be a very meaningful business, and I can do it in a way that's profitable. And I can do it in a way that's profitable so I can take the dollars that you give me and I can turn them into a business that will continue to make money for you for a long time and for all the other shareholders, right. And so it's really understanding, or finding a partner that can help you understand, the unit economics of the business so that you can talk about the financials of it. That's really empowering and I think sometimes that's intimidating.

Louisa Schneider:

My background is finance, so I had that. But friends of mine who are very successful entrepreneurs that had a really different background. Maybe they were in marketing or maybe they never worked in business at all, but they just had an idea. They've hired people. You really want to show that, in addition to having this business model that can scale to be big enough to matter and can make money, that you have the ability to take it there, or that you know what you don't know and therefore you can hire people to help you with that.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, that's great advice. So many times women don't ask for help because they think they can do it all and or they feel like they should have to do it all. So great advice there Ask for help.

Louisa Schneider:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. More simply said yeah Right.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

So you have a beautiful family and a successful company. How do you find the harmony between the two?

Louisa Schneider:

I laugh a little because it comes in and fits and starts. So there are weeks when I have to lean into the business more than family and that's really, really hard. So you know nothing, nothing like this comes without a lot of sacrifice. So I've had to not be with my kids at times when I want to be right, and I've also had to miss business meetings or decision time at work and trust my team to do that so that I could be there for my kids or my husband, and so a lot of it is getting to a place of understanding that imperfection is okay. I'm not going to be far from perfect, that's all right. I'm going to do my best.

Louisa Schneider:

I will say it's been amazing. My daughter and her friends have drafted out this dog walking business plan and she and her friends have taken a lot of inspiration from the work that I've done, and I love that because, you know, while I wasn't there for the award ceremony this year because I was traveling, I do think that what I'm doing is giving her and her friends the belief that they can do whatever they want, and that's awesome. So but it's, you know, again asking for help, having people lean in and help, even asking your kids for help, right, like they need to start to learn how to do their own laundry and put it away If it's a year or two earlier than they might have otherwise. But these are things that I think every mom and dad work through.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, we often overlook the things that we're teaching our children when we're not there. So that's important that you realize that, and I think so many mothers that are business owners should realize that we might not be there, but we're teaching them something. We're teaching them a life skill that's so important and watching and being that inspiration that they need is huge.

Louisa Schneider:

So many of my friends growing up in the town where we live. I really wanted to live in a town where a lot of moms worked, and so we live very close to New York City. It's a very short commute and you know, it's not an anomaly to be a working mom, and for so many people it's not a choice, and so I think that's really important to keep in mind as well.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

So Rowan has undoubtedly made an impact in its industry. What is your long-term vision for the company and what do you hope to achieve in the next five years?

Louisa Schneider:

The next five years are so exciting for us, so we've already mapped out growth for the next 18 months. Really, we are expanding. There are new urban outdoor centers, similar to Avalon, which we talked about earlier. There are high street areas like Michigan Avenue in Chicago. There are university towns.

Louisa Schneider:

All of these areas are asking for a Rowan to come to them and what we've found is that, you know, the healthcare industry is one that you know I'm very hopeful. I was at a conference this week that JP Morgan hosted and there's so much innovation happening in healthcare and I hope that it's going to improve the experience for many of our healthcare workers. But at the offset of COVID, almost a quarter of nurses have left the hospital setting and what we have found is that we're creating a really positive, happy place for them to work, where they're very well compensated, and the goal for Rowan is to continue to lean into that and continue to make that experience for them excellent so that they really want to work with us, and so it's to build these great work opportunities and to grow our footprint. I see us as having hundreds of locations, if not potentially thousands, both US, domestic and potentially internationally as well.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

That's awesome. I love hearing that. So let's you have a beautiful family, like we said, and a successful company. What do you do for yourself that you feel helps you manage all of this, this craziness good craziness, yeah, it's.

Louisa Schneider:

Friends are huge. You need to invest in your, your whoever. That core group of your friends is people that can make you laugh. A sense of humor is huge, and I really enjoy doing yoga, so that's one of my favorite things to do getting out and moving and working through something on my yoga mat, and then I can come into the office and really feel like I can just be there a hundred percent and I've worked through anything that might be challenging me. Maybe it's you know my son didn't want to go to tutoring, or you know something happened with you know my spouse's work and he's frustrated. You know these things happen, but they're happening alongside work and you really want to try to. I like to work out in the mornings and then show up to work with a clean slate so that everyone who's coming in can kind of have that presence from me. And yeah, I think also it's just trying to get together with friends when I can and that's what I try to do Reading a little bit too, but that happens late at night, you're right.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Love the yoga routine and then getting with friends. Great advice, so much great advice today. Thank you so much for sitting down with us for a little bit and helping our audience understand that they're not alone in this entrepreneurship world. So we really appreciate your time and I'd love to maybe have a follow-up with you at some point to see how things are going.

Louisa Schneider:

I'd love that Anytime. Thank you, thank you.

Voice Over:

This is the Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN. If you're a female founder and would like to help other female founders with your inspiring story, we would love to hear from you.