Lanning Ardent is the founder and CEO of Sorette, a platform where moms shop with peace of mind. She spent hours googling what she thought she “should” and “shouldn’t” consume as a new mom, only to end up frustrated and not knowing who she could trust for the right information. She knew there had to be a better (and less anxiety-inducing) way for women to navigate products during this pivotal time in their lives, so she created it.
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Q: Who are you before labels, titles, or what someone could Google about you?
A: It's a heavy one. It is, because I feel like so much of the story is my personal journey, so it's probably a lot you can find online. But, at my core, I am a curious person who is really driven to find a solution for authentic problems. I think that's kind of what I've done through Sorette. But, I'm also a wife and a mother and a daughter and a friend and, hopefully, a good neighbor.
I'm from Connecticut. I live in Boston now. So, I've lived here for about ten years all over the city of Boston. But, we love living here. It's definitely a major city, but it doesn't necessarily feel like an urban jungle.
We have two young kids and a dog, so we really love the access that living in a city provides—being able to throw your kids in the stroller and go to parks and restaurants and not have to get into a car and deal with the buckling of seat belts and car seats. Every single time I try to put my daughter in the car, it's a massive drama and meltdown situation. So, I feel lucky in that sense.
Q: Did you ever have an inkling that you were entrepreneurial? Was that something that you grew up with? Is that something you went to college thinking about? When did you realize that you have an entrepreneurial spirit?
A: I think I've always had that fire burning within me. I mean, ever since I could start making money, I was working. So, whether that was babysitting or working in a store after school, I really just loved making my own money and having that kind of independence and freedom. I carried that with me through my early career. I got a job right away out of college working for a company called Vineyard Vines, which is in the apparel space, and kind of fell in love with the consumer space and buying behavior of consumers and trends and creating tangible products for people.
Throughout my career working in the consumer space, I really understood why I was attracted to that category. I think it's a very entrepreneurial industry. A lot of people start companies in the consumer product goods space. While I was at my last company, a company called Rodeo CPG, we worked alongside founders bringing their concepts to life. That's really where I started thinking about what I would try to bring to market to start my own company. While I was there, I became pregnant. That's really when I went down this rabbit hole of pregnancy and motherhood and identified the white space that I was going to go after.
Q: Was motherhood something that you wanted your whole life as well, or is that something that you discovered later in life?
A: I definitely always knew I wanted to be a mom. I just love working with kids, being around children. I thought I might want to do something in the educational space before my tenure in consumer goods. I just love kids. I knew I would always want my own children. So, that was never a question for me.
I think my relationship with my career as I started to have children really made me reevaluate what I was doing and what was taking me away from spending time with my kids. I think it was also tricky, because I had my daughter during COVID. I was working from home, which I honestly think was the best of both worlds in a way. I was working for this company called Vertigo CPGs, which I loved. I loved what I was doing. But, I was also able to take fifteen minutes to breastfeed her if I needed to, or get some one-on-one time and decompress and have that quality time throughout the business day, which I think was a really unique relationship.
I never had the experience of totally going into an office and separating from my kids from nine to five. I think if I did have that experience, I might feel very differently about working, and definitely different about starting my own company. But, I think because I was in a flexible work environment where I was able to have the best of both worlds, it allowed me to feel excited about having a career.
As I was trying to think about finding a solution for the problem that I was experiencing while working, I knew that if I was to start something, I would want it to be really authentic and true to my core and something that I would be excited about for a long time. So, I first experienced this problem that we're solving for during my first pregnancy. I sat on it for the next four years, experienced it again through my second pregnancy, and then I really decided to take the jump and do something to solve it. I think because it's very authentic to who I am and to my personal mission, it doesn't necessarily feel like I'm stealing time away from my kids. It's like I'm doing this for them.
Q: Describe for us your problem, and what was the first step?
A: So, the experience that I faced, which really exposed this massive opportunity was, when I became pregnant, I was breaking out in hormonal acne and I was reaching for a cleanser that I would normally use to combat a breakout. I googled the cleanser and stumbled upon this laundry list of chemicals that you should avoid during pregnancy that I had no idea about.
When I first told my OBGYN that I was pregnant, she recommended that I stop drinking alcohol and avoid deli meats and sushi and soft cheeses, but made no mention of any sort of the chemicals that are found in personal care products that I should avoid. So, things like retinol, chemical sunscreen, high concentrations of salicylic acid, hydroquinone.I felt so blindsided and riddled with anxiety, because I had been using a tretinoin every other night while six weeks pregnant and had no idea that I should stop using it.
So, I was frantically messaging my doctor asking if I had done something wrong to this baby that was growing inside of me. It felt really confusing to me. On the food and beverage side of the CPG space, it's really easy to identify products that suit a specific dietary restriction. Gluten-free or nut-free facility. A religious affiliation—kosher, halal. Specific dietary need—keto, vegan.
But, when you're growing a human inside of you, you really don't know what you can use and what you can't use. Then, you're directed to your OBGYN and they also don’t have that education in environmental toxins. So, it felt like a very confusing, clunky customer journey.
I realized this white space with my first pregnancy and sat on this concept to try to iterate on the solution and the right way to bring the solution to market. Through my second pregnancy, I realized that nothing had changed. I was still facing the same confusion and opaqueness within this customer journey. After my son was born, I started to put pen to paper and think through how to build the business that we currently have today.
Q: How long did you stay with Rodeo CPG? Were you like, “I'm going to burn the boats and I'm going to quit and then start it?” Or did you get the company to a certain state? Did you never come back after maternity leave? What was that like?
A: I was there for about four years and, while I was there, I loved my job, but I was constantly thinking about how I would build this. How would I bring this to market? What would it look like? How much funding would I need? Who would I need to bring on?
I was reading and talking to a lot of people who had started businesses. For me, it was really getting over the fear of failure. I think a lot of women really struggle with this hurdle when starting businesses. You have to take the leap and jump. I was sitting on this concept for years, and it was burning a hole inside of me. That's when I was like, “I will be more upset at myself if I don't try it. Like,I have to just try to see if I can build something to solve this problem.”
That's when I started to make that jump. So, I was on maternity leave with my son. Then, I went part time. Then I left and went full-time on Sorette. So, I feel lucky that I was able to slowly segue into full-time entrepreneurship. But, I think sometimes you have to just fully commit.
Q: What was one of the first challenges of building it? What was one of the moments where you're like, “Okay, this is real. This is happening?” What was that first moment of validation, big or small?
A: I think the first validation that I had in the general vision and mission and pitch was when I started to talk to the folks who are on our scientific advisory board. I just basically called cold outreach to these amazing women in all different verticals of women's health who are thought leaders in the non-toxic living space. I think that because they believed in this opportunity, I was able to run with it. For me, it was not just the credibility that they provide, but being a sounding board and helping to shape our value proposition as we've grown and expanded and started to scale and bring the product to market.
Every day presents some sort of challenge or hurdle or pivot. It's just kind of part of the journey. Something I really love about working in the startup space is the constant evolution. It's a constantly moving target where you're just wearing a lot of hats and trying to either put out fires or think big or think really small and tactical. It's exciting.
Q: How did you choose the name? Where did it come from?
A: So, the name comes from the words in French, which is just a different spelling of our current name. It means little sister. So, the idea is that Sorette is the community. Sorette is an older sister actually guiding this little sister through her motherhood journey, someone who is that figure who maybe is a few years ahead of you, who has recently done this, who knows all the product recommendations, who knows how to connect you with trusted products and educational sources, someone who is likely not your mom who is maybe a generation ahead and is not really familiar with the current consumer landscape, but someone who can be a non-judgmental support system for you and help be that guiding light.
Q: Talk to us about the current landscape. Prior to it being in existence, is there anything or anyone out there or any brands that you think have been forerunners? Where do you see this space going and in the future for Sorette?
A: So, there are regulatory systems in place across the globe, whether it's the EU standards, whether it's Health Canada, Japan, California, Prop 65, Washington, Vermont state. There are regulatory systems in place for specific regions or countries. In relation to personal care products, the EU is just much more advanced in terms of what they allow in formulations. So, the US bans around 30 chemicals and the EU is upwards of 2,000. So, if you're abiding by the EU standards, you're already in a really good place compared to products manufactured in the US who are not looking into that regulation.
So, the way we are built is we aggregate these regulatory lists from across the globe and are specifically looking into human health and, more specifically, into reproductive and developmental health. So, as a consumer prior to Sorette, I was a non-toxic consumer and would try to shop at vetted retailers because I felt like they were already doing a lot of the legwork for me. As much as I wanted to buy the best products, I also just did not have the brain space to be doing a ton of research into the weeds on all of these chemicals and all the synonyms for the chemicals. It just felt very overwhelming to me. So, shopping at these varied retailers was just a total weight off my shoulders.
But, that changed when I became pregnant because I realized that they weren't catching the pregnancy consumer and the reproductive, environmental piece of human health. So, things like retinol are sold by beauty retailers and I didn't know that you should be avoiding that when pregnant.
With Sorette, we really are creating this vetted platform for personal care products where you don't have to do all that research. You can just shop with peace of mind finding trusted products. As we expand into fertility and postpartum products, health, home and household, baby and kids, the plan is to connect women to trusted products that are not just vetted, but help support them on their motherhood journey.
I think that is missing from the current landscape—a one-stop-shop where we can shop across all of these categories. So, whether you're pregnant and you're trying to find the best personal care products that are suited for you in this life stage, or you're approaching your due date and want to figure out what postpartum products you need and which ones are the best for each part of postpartum—whether it's storing your breast milk or having the best diapers and incontinence pads. Then, you're looking for the best baby soap and mealtime accessories for your baby and your toddler.
We want to be that partner for you so that you can just shop all these product stores in one place with one single cart checkout. You don't have to shop on multiple direct-to-consumer sites. We already have so many tabs open in our brains. We're trying to make that process easier and cleaner.
Q: What are the top three things that you as a consumer look for? Maybe pick a certain category, maybe it's just skincare. What are the things you look for top-of-mind first, or standards you guys are always checking first and foremost?
A: So, the first thing that we look at is if they are currently utilizing some third-party vetting verification or certification partner. I think someone who is already taking that initiative and supporting customers to be able to easily identify that their products have been checked is kind of a great first step. We hope to get to that point where you'll see this seal of approval on products that you can easily shop, knowing that a product has been vetted for this specific consumer and life stage.
So, looking for that sort of seal or product label, whether it's EWG verified or USDA or organic. There are a few out there, but I think that would be the first thing I would be looking for. Are they really taking their formulation process seriously and supporting the customer choice by leaning on one of these really great partners?
The second would be looking at the ingredient label. I think it's really difficult for the average consumer to understand what these ingredients are. One big thing I think is easy to read on an ingredient label is fragrance perfume. This is something we have a unique process for vetting products with fragrance and perfume accurately. I think a lot of people just totally ixnay from consuming any products that have fragrance or perfume.
It is because it's a black box ingredient, meaning that the brand does not have to disclose what is inside that fragrance ingredient. So, it could contain 200 different ingredients in that one fragrance ingredient. A lot of times that's where these hazardous chemicals hide out. The phthalates and the parabens are rolled up into that fragrance ingredient name. I think for a lot of people, they just don't buy products that have fragrance or perfume.
So, on Sorette, we actually mandate that brands disclose what's in that fragrance and perfume so that we have total absolute transparency on fragrance. I think that's really what sets us apart. We are looking at that from a really detailed perspective. I think there would be brands who are calling out on their packaging that they're not using parabens or phthalates or pegs, things that you would be easy to identify that would be suspected to be hazardous.
But, what I've realized is that looking at the ingredient statement is very confusing because these ingredients actually have synonyms for them and they can be used in a bunch of different ways. So, you might be used to seeing a paraben written out in this form, but they might be using a synonym for that. So you might not be picking up on that synonym as being a paraben or hazardous chemical. So, unfortunately, it's utterly confusing.
Q: What has been your strategy to get the word out about Sorette? What have you looked to? Who have you leaned on to really spread the word?
A: So, we launched mid-May. We have really just been trying to grow organically at this point, meaning that we haven't been spending any money on advertisements or marketing. We’re really trying to prove out this market validation and product market fit in the sense that we have been acquiring customers for $0, which is really exciting.
As we are approaching this new kind of phase of growth and raising capital, I think it was important for me to really understand the core business model.Is this something that people are excited about and are paying for with this current structure? What we've been seeing and what's been really exciting for me is that people could be shopping for these products on many different platforms.
We're working with some really great big brands and they could be shopping them on Amazon or Sephora or wherever they might be shopping normally. They're choosing to shop on Sorette, which I think really validates this brand that we're building, the community aspect, and just the sense of ease where you can shop across product categories and brands that are both big and small serving as a discovery platform.
As we continue to grow in other categories, I think it'll be really interesting to see how people start spending across categories in this cart checkout experience where they can buy the laundry detergent as well as their daily oil or face cleanser all in one spot that's really curated for them in this specific life stage.
Q: Any tips for other founders starting? Talk to us about your entrepreneurial journey, where you are, and any tips you have for anyone listening.
A: I'm definitely still learning as I go, but I think building in a nice buffer of time between when you need the capital and when you start talking to people is probably the best advice that I received. Creating those relationships and continuing to have those touchpoints when you hit milestones or have exciting press or something meaningful to continue the conversation or keep the conversation warm. I think building your network is really helpful. To have those warm introductions to potential investors has been crucial for me.
It's also a full-time job to fundraise. Understanding priorities and where to continue pushing for the growth piece of the business, but also realizing that fundraising is probably the top priority at this point. Being able to bring in the support you need to keep pressing on certain business initiatives while the founder and CEO is focusing on the fundraising.
Q: Talk to us about the five- to ten-year vision. What's the ultimate goal? What are you dreaming about when you can't fall asleep?
A: The ultimate goal for us at Sorette is to build this brand that is able to connect to consumers wherever they're shopping—whether someone is walking into a Whole Foods, Sephora, Ulta Saks, Target—to easily identify which products they can use during this motherhood journey.
Continue to build out Sorette into this marketplace, but also an education-first platform. So. having a lot of long-form editorial content, rolling out a podcast and other media. Trying to build this thought leader and cornerstone brand for the pregnancy and motherhood space.
Q: Share the best motherhood advice you've ever received or something that you personally want to share to any moms or moms-to-be listening.
A: I keep seeing this online, and I think I'll say two quick ones. One that I've really tried to implement as a working mom is when I come back from the office, I put my phone in my bag before I even get into the house so that when my kids see me, they see me being so excited to see them and not being distracted by my phone or anything at work. I really try to stay offline and be fully present with them, so they feel really connected and loved before they go to sleep.
But I keep seeing this thing online where there's nine minutes of each day that really matter to your kids, and they're the most important nine minutes. If you're doing this right, then your kids feel really connected to you. It's the three minutes when they wake up. So using those three minutes and being really excited to see them and having the smile on and having that warm and cozy moment. Then, the three minutes when they come home from school or you pick them up from school. So for me, that's when I get home from work. I try to be really centered and focused with them. Then, the three minutes before bed. Having that connection time and making sure they're fully settled before they get in their bed ready for sleep.
That's what I'm taking and running with, because it seems like a much more manageable thing for me to control than being a perfect mom, which no one is.
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This blog post was written based on kozēkozē Podcast Episode 382: Safer Products for Pregnancy with Sorette.
If you’d like to listen to the conversation first-hand, tune in here.