Aubrey Hubbell is the co-founder and Chief Design Officer at Hazel, a luxe, innovative femme care brand for the ever-evolving woman. Hazel empowers women with thoughtful, groundbreaking products—starting with the High & Dry Brief, a disposable brief for leaks.

Similar to our journey here at kozēkozē, Aubrey had a two-year product development journey with Hazel's first product, which she takes us through today.

From securing investment to navigating company changes during pregnancy and becoming a mother, get inspired by Aubrey Hubbell as she holds nothing back.

_____

Q: Who are you before labels, titles, or what someone could Google about you?

A: So, I live in New York and I'm a founder in the startup space, which in itself is kind of a bubble. But I think what a lot of people don't know unless they've gotten to know me, is that my step dad is retired Air Force, so I was an Air Force kid growing up. I lived all over the country. My dad was a high school coach, so I would spend summers with him. He lived in New Jersey, Florida, and California. He kind of lived everywhere, too.

So, I think both of those influences really impacted me and just kind of shaped me. I lived all over the country and every corner of the US. So, when someone asks you “Where are you from?” I never know how to answer that question.

I started flying when I was ten by myself and that, I think, really created an independence that I think I'd always had, but just kind of encouraged it.

I always loved fashion. When I was eleven and I came to New York to visit—I think I came when I was little, but that's one of the main trips I remember— I was sure I was going to move here when I grew up, and I was going to be a fashion designer. That's what was going to happen. So, I think there's so many things in that that have definitely kind of fed into who I am today.

Q: What would your ten-year-old self say to you about where you are right now?

A: Oh my goodness. Well—especially in the category I'm in—I think she'd probably laugh. But thinking back about fashion design, I ended up studying digital design only because they didn't have a fashion design program. I'm so glad I went into digital design because the skill sets are very similar. I still use my sense of style and love of fashion, but I think she'd be so proud that I chose basically a practical design degree. I use it every day. I use the hard skills every day and the creativity every day.

But I think she'd be proud that I'm also using it to build something that's empowering women. When I was ten, I didn't even know women could be leaders. That wasn't something I was exposed to. I have an amazing mom who stayed at home with me—and she was a great example—but that wasn't something that I even knew was possible. So, ten-year-old me would have no clue to have even dreamed up where I'm at today.

Q: Before Hazel, what were you doing? Did you have the instinct or intuition or desire to build your own brand someday? Was that always on the vision board or on the goal list, or was it something that kind of came out of nowhere?

A: I would go back to college. That's when I really started to discover the startup space. I was listening to a lot of podcasts, and I was listening to some of these founder stories of all these different women that were starting companies.

There were a couple of instances I remember specifically in my junior or senior year where I was in this group and we had to choose who was going to lead the group, and the entire group chose me. I was like, “Wait, me? I'm not a leader.” But then I realized my skill set of making friends—I made friends really easily moving around a lot—that's helpful. I love to plan a party and just all the organization and logistics are really great skills for business and leadership. So, that was kind of one of those defining moments where I never saw myself as a leader and my entire group did. So that kind of planted a seed.

Then, listening to all these podcasts of women—that really just kind of got my brain working. My senior thesis was in a digital program and I argued why a print publication needed to exist. It was all about the journey of women pivoting, starting their careers, and being creative. It was such a fun opportunity to network and build these relationships with so many different women across the country. There were some in Europe. That was like my first foray into building a brand.

Then I just knew I wanted to move to New York after school and start working in startups. I interviewed at a bunch of different companies that were large, and then I got this opportunity to work for a company that was quite small. It was a six-person team, and it was a company called Cricut Circle. It was a baby registry with an editorial component. I joined as their digital designer and was doing all kinds of different things—both digital and illustration. I was even dabbling into HTML and CSS, custom building things, designing, packaging, and just all different kinds of things and working really closely with the editorial director. It was just an amazing experience.

A few weeks in, I met with the founder, Rachel Blumenthal, and she shared that we were going to be merging and that I needed to work on a deck to share with the team that we were going to be merging and working with this other company to build an entirely new brand. So I kept Cricut Circle going with the editorial director for a year while we worked on, what is today, Rockets of Awesome, a kids fashion and tech company.

There, I got to do everything you could see, touch, or feel. It was just stereotypical and the best startup experience. I used my skill set on every single team. I was building decks for the executive team to pitch with. I was pushing code on the tech team. I was designing graphics for the kids t-shirts and hang tags for the clothing. I was doing photoshoots and user research to develop the digital product. It was just so many different things, and I learned so much and met incredible people.

So there, I was working on more of the product side and the user research side. I loved brand, but I felt that product design was more challenging because you have all these assumptions of what you think is going to work, but then you test it and it doesn't necessarily work. I loved that feeling of just, I don't know, it's very humbling, but it's challenging. I wanted to lean into that more.

So, I went to a company called Zilla, and they're a wedding tech company. I joined when they just had a wedding registry, and I was hired as their first product designer full time. So, I worked with the co-founder, Nobunaga. He's a mentor of mine still today. He was doing all the design up until that point with an occasional freelancer. It was an incredible experience to get to work with him for a good year before we built off the team. So, during my time there, we got to launch all the wedding planning tools that they have today, and it was just another incredible experience and I learned so much.

I met my co-founder, Steven Cruz, who comes from finance and strategy, and we started Hazel together. I think a lot of people would see Hazel as, “Why are you working in the incontinence category as a younger woman? You're not the audience.” But I think through all those experiences—both personal and work—I wasn't afraid of a taboo category and, if anything, it was more challenging from a brand standpoint and a design standpoint.

Q: So you meet your co-founder. What was your relationship like when you first met? Was it through work or friendship?

A: So, funny enough, we actually met because my husband and him are both in finance and they were in a networking finance Slack channel. Steven was exploring this idea. He'd seen a white space in the personal care category as a whole. He was working for a company that was essentially like a membership house focused on people over fifty. They had a lot of women members. So, he was researching brand partnerships and he just saw that there was such a lack of brands that resonated with this audience. So that's when he was starting to dig deeper. He hit a wall looking at design, and he needed a designer to explore the idea. So, he posted on a Slack channel.

My husband messaged him and didn't tell me. I did a lot of freelance, so it wasn't uncommon that I would connect with people. But it was really funny. I just got an email from Steven explaining where he was at, what he was doing, what he was looking for. We connected in person and we ended up chatting for like three hours non-stop about all these different ideas, and we started just exploring it on the side. It was just like a project. Eventually, we really uncovered that there was an opportunity here and started talking to women and just hearing their experiences. Research was my approach to design always. So, led with her and we really saw that there was an opportunity here to do something better for her. We quit our full-time jobs and did it.

Q: So, I always ask people who are married—what was that like in your marriage? Because it's such a cliff to jump off. I'm so curious what his reaction was because I’m assuming it was a big shift. And how did you fundraise? Were you going to be paid right away? Did you still need to fundraise? What was that like?

A: So, my husband knows me well. We communicate very well. So, he knew that one day I wanted to start a company. That was something he knew for a long time. So, each of these experiences I'd had were eventually kind of getting me to that point. I knew I was ready when, if I had a question, I knew someone who would have the answer. It wasn't that I would have the answer, but I had a big enough network and I knew enough people that were much smarter than me. That's when I knew I was ready to take the leap.

But, in terms of actually taking the leap, we weren't necessarily in a position where I could just not be paid for a year or longer. So, my co-founder and I had those upfront discussions and agreed that, once we raised, I would take a salary much lower than I was at a full-time. I did take a salary once we raised our first round.

Q: On the product design front, were you doing that while raising, or did you raise and then have that?

A: So, when we met, he had basically built some ads that he was testing on Facebook to see what did well. He had some landing pages and was fulfilling just like white labeled product. So, it was like very just to prove the concept. Basically early, early days. So, when I came on, I started building different landing pages to test different messaging, different visuals, building essentially brands. Then, we basically proved that there was demand.

Once I started doing user research, we got the wish list from her of what could be better. When we went to manufacturers, the products they showed us were essentially white, oversized baby diapers for adults. Naively, we went into this knowing that there needed to be a better brand out there. But, when it came to the product, the product they were showing us, a better brand was not going to fix that.

So, when we raised, we were going through that process. So, in the first few months, we figured out, oh, this is all we can do. That was after we had raised a small round. So, we raised basically on the story that we were going to create a better direct consumer subscription brand for incontinence, adult diapers, and maybe some additional products like pads and liners.

We had this personal care story in the earliest days but, as we learned, we discovered that the manufacturing and supply chain for this category is all tied around baby diapers and there's no innovation. It's very difficult to get into this category because everything's so tightly wound. So, that's when we had to go into product development in a proper way, where we ended up hiring a material scientist that came from Johnson and Johnson formerly. I brought in a fashion design team that I'd worked with previously, and we kind of married both the fashion and the tech to develop the product. Then, we also developed our own materials and technology for that absorbent core.

So over that, we kicked off a raise. We officially started our first small round of funding in the fall of 2019. Then, we went through an accelerator to help us, support us, and build our network in the beginning of 2020. So, we were the COVID class that went virtual halfway through. Then, we kicked off fundraising in May 2020. We closed around December 2020. By January 2020, we discovered what the material would be. But, we were still developing the technology, the absorbent core, by the end of 2020. We were closing around the time we had that concept and the absorbent kind of design, but it took a lot of trial and error to get it to a good place because we were teaching a manufacturer how to make it and we were designing the entire thing from scratch.

So, over the course of 2021, we were fine tuning. We were testing it with women. We were getting feedback. We were fine tuning the fit of the brief—all of that. So, it really took two years of product development before we officially launched in January 2022, direct to consumer.

Q: What do you think were the couple biggest things you guys did well to attract the investors that rooted for you early on?

A: I think there's a few things but, at the end of the day, you just have to keep talking to people until you find the right person. Just because you have a good idea doesn't mean everyone's going to invest in it.

So, in those early days especially, I think a couple of things I would recommend is having a really tight story because fundraising is sales, it's storytelling. Have a great deck. Obviously, I'm biased, but a well-designed deck I don't think hurts anything. Remember you're an expert at your category. So, go in with confidence. I've learned if you misspeak, you can always correct it later. No one knows what the actual answer is, typically. So, I think just making sure that you have a really strong story, that your answers are tight. If they have more questions, that's a good thing.

As a founder, we have a tendency to just share everything, but I think that can also give a sense of overcompensation and lack of confidence. Then, go make sure everyone that you're talking to, there's a reason. Make sure you do your research. Make sure they invest at that stage. If you can find other companies they're actively raising, that the companies they've invested in are parallel to yours, so they're passionate about, in my case, women's health or innovation or, in our case, also the diaper category.

If there's innovation, a lot of times the technical aspects of it can be overwhelming to your average CPG investor. So, if you can have a story of explaining that in a way that's very digestible, that's important. Also, just know who your audience is.

But we talked to so many people. They say get 100 no's before you get a yes. I'd say that was accurate to our experience. We just filled our calendars for months on end to get to the people that we got to and then, ultimately, our investors and our strategic investors.

Our lead is Elizabeth Edwards from H ventures. Her LPs are all former Proctor and Gamble executives. So, they understand and they've heard the consumer insights that we're bringing in. It's nothing new to them, but they know the constraints within the category and why it's so difficult to get in. So, having them as advocates is huge.

Then, we have Brian Lee from B&M Ventures. Amazing team there. He's the co-founder of The Honest Company with Jessica Alba. So, he's in the baby diaper category, totally understands the constraints there. So, having strategic investors like that is super important. The accelerator that we were in, they have a fund and they've invested out of their fund and have been huge supporters as well. Making sure we get introductions.

So, whoever you're talking to, think about the big picture too. You don't want to have that kind of scarcity mindset. So, making sure they're strategic and you'll get the right people. You know they'll say yes eventually if they're the right fit.

Q: As a mom, what has it been like for you?

A: I got married young, so I’ve been married for 14 years this year. I think it was around the beginning of 2022 when I started thinking maybe this is a good time to have a baby. We had launched Hazel and we were published in Vogue. There was so much personal growth and things that I'd accomplished. It felt like this was something that I kind of always pushed away as I didn't even know if I wanted kids. I have my husband. I have such a great life, and we were totally happy with where we were.

So, why would we have a baby? And, can we have a baby? Because that was a thought, too. I've had so many friends go through those experiences. So, it was like, well, if we can, then what? Why would we do that? Like, our life is so great.

So, I had thought it through in so many different ways. I had a few side conversations, and then I finally brought it up to my husband. Apparently I was way too subtle. He didn't even realize that's what I was talking about because, a week later, he said, “Hey, we haven't talked about it. What do you think?” So, that was kind of a funny start to the conversation. But, it just kind of started with that.

I have such incredible founder friends that have had kids and I have amazing examples to look at. So, I think that wasn't something that was so daunting. I think even post-pandemic, work life is so blurred. I meet my team in person, but we also work from home and are very hybrid. So, I knew there would be some flexibility there.

You can't time anything but, if you could, there was some potential things that would work out for timing. I think if startups have taught me anything, you can only plan so much. You kind of just have to work with what you know until you know something differently. So, it was really just making sure that it was the right decision for Matt and I. We decided we would just kind of play it by ear. I'm a planner, so it was very weird, but motherhood is such a surrender. If I'm going to do it, maybe I can't plan as much as I would like to.

I have always loved the pregnancy and moms space as a category. So, I also knew so much about pregnancy and delivery and everything that could happen. So, I expected kind of the worst in terms of the experience. I'm going to be so nauseous. Oh, man, I have to go on this flight. What am I going to do if I get pregnant around this time? You get in the weeds of the early days. I ended up having an amazing pregnancy and I miss it still. It'll be a year next month. My baby will be a year next month. It was such an incredible experience and I'm so grateful. I'm that annoying person that had a good experience.

So, it was definitely thinking through all of the different factors. But, at the end of the day, there was a huge part of being surrendered. Even because this is a part of my story, I did get pregnant the first month I got off birth control, but then I had a miscarriage.That was really tough, but it also taught me so much and I'm so weirdly grateful for the experience because I just grew so much from it. Managing a company and going through that—it was a challenging time for the company during that time—so there was a lot happening and I had to really learn how to manage my stress and also be present with work, but not let work define me. So, I can manage my own mental health and go through that. So, that was a process, I had a cycle the next month and then I ended up getting pregnant the following month.

I think a lot of people haven't heard of preconception coaches. We had one, and it was amazing. So, we actually started it several months before we even started trying to get pregnant, and that was such an incredible experience to open up communication and just talk about all of the reasons why or why not and what this would look like for us. I will say that was a huge part of the process before even trying to get pregnant.

Q: What has motherhood shifted in your day-to-day that either you did or didn't expect?

A: I was surprised that I love it so much. I have so much fun with him. He's just fun to hang out with. Matt would be like, “Oh, do you want to go do something on your own?” No, let's all go. I prefer if I have support, so if he's there, that's helpful, and yes, I go do things, but I if I have the choice of who to hang out with, I want to hang out with him and Matt My son's name is Red Radford and he's just fun to hang out with. I think that was really surprising to me was how much time I wanted to spend with him, and how much I missed him when I go to work. He's almost a year old, and I still get so excited when I get home and I get to hug him and spend time with them. And, if I am going to miss that time, I'm cuddling him extra.

I'm so privileged to have a supportive partner and an incredible nanny Without that, it would be so much more challenging. So, I think it’s super important. Matt and I do the night shift. So I will, put him to bed at night. We do our routine together. Matt gets him kind of ready for bed in his pajamas and everything, and we read together every night as a family. That's one of my most favorite traditions. So, we'll read a book and then he'll drink a bottle and go to bed. For the last few months, he's sleeping like 12 hours, so that's been amazing.

When he wakes up, Matt will cover the morning shift, but my favorite thing to do is to go in there and just see him standing up in his crib and he'll just smile so big. That's one of my favorite moments. Even after a nap, when he wakes up, I love to go in there and see his face. It's all the the best parts of the mundane.

I guess the juggling with work and baby, the afternoons we just kind of make it work and there's a lot of multitasking. He's eating dinner at 5:00 and I'm not done with work yet. So, I've got my laptop and I'm giving him his fork. He likes to feed himself right now, but he can't necessarily do it completely on his own, so I've got my laptop open, I'm working, and I'm giving him his food. There's a lot of that multitasking. Multitasking is so real and I feel like it's so underrated. I thought I was good at multitasking before I had kids, but now I'm like, oh, it's like unlocked. There's a whole new level, and it's good to have the skill set.

I don't ever try to wish it away because that's just how it's going to be. If I want to do this and be a mom, then we're going to be doing both. It's been sometimes hard to reconcile, but that's really been the work is that both of these things are going to exist. It's not either or. How do we make it work today? And then, a new today and a new today.

Q: What's made you fall in love with the category and what do you really appreciate about it?

A: What was interesting when we first started was we assumed the audience would be older—and there is truth in that. But, I think what's been really fun is that we've discovered we're serving so many different women in so many different stages. So, our average age is 40 years old—and that's much younger than the legacy brands and, especially, that stereotype of who you would assume needs a product like ours. So, I think it's been really fun to think through.

When we launched, we repositioned ourselves and we describe ourselves as a femme care brand. That was very intentional because we wanted to make sure that we were serving women across life stages, but that actually became true. So, we have women that are postpartum those first few weeks after having their baby. Then, we have moms with young kids—five, ten years old—and they're wanting to jump on the trampoline with their kids or do jumping jacks or go on a run. So, those are the moments that we're surveying. Then, obviously, like perimenopause through post-menopause. That's very much an experience that we're supporting her through too.

I have always been super passionate about connecting with people that were older than me. We can be in our bubbles, but I think it's something that just has always added so much value to my life. So, when it came to supporting an audience primarily in this, call it over 50 age, that was something that was really energizing for me.

I mean, some of the coolest women I know are in their 60s and 70s. So, it was also something that I already had an incredible group of women surrounding me that I could ask about their experiences and start user research that way. So, it really started with those women in my life and it was also an opportunity to not just talk about the high level, but dig deeper and understand what their pain points are and learn how to ask the right questions to get to these very taboo topics that I needed to learn more about. So, I think that was what I learned along the way.

It's so taboo that it’s actually something that's very energizing and fun for me. The approach that I've taken from a brand standpoint is much more elevated and inspired by the products that she couldn't stop talking about. So, her beauty, her skincare, the fashion designers that she loves. That's where I took inspiration because she couldn't stop talking about them. I wanted to argue that she has this shelf on the wall with all of her beauty and skincare that anyone can see, but then she's hiding these products—adult diapers or absorbent products—behind the cleaning supplies in a cabinet. So, I wanted to really just challenge that and bring it out in a way and treat the packaging like her beauty, her skincare brand. So if it's out on the shelf, it's subtle. She knows what's in there.

For retail, you have to communicate specific information, but why not make it a much more elevated packaging design? So, that was kind of our approach. From a product standpoint, why can't we just treat it like regular underwear? Why does it have to be this bulky baby diaper? Why do we have to dehumanize women and make them change the way they dress and the way they live? They're not confident when they're wearing those products. So, what can we do to build up their confidence again? This has to be something she can wear under her leggings so she can go work out. That's the purpose.

So, that was our guiding light. It was just taking the stories that she was telling me of how she had changed her life, whether she was wearing the products or not, and then making it a product that was a really great pair of underwear that didn't make her feel old, that if her partner saw her wearing them, they just look like underwear, and they'll fit under her leggings. So, it was those core things that I was hearing from her that it seemed obvious to me like this should exist.

Q: I would love your perspective on direct to consumer? How and why did you shift to want to go into retailers?

A: So, I would say over the course of even the two years of product development, our business model shifted. We assumed that we would be direct to consumer to start, but then the markets were changing, the trends were changing, and we saw that we needed to be an omnichannel. Just one channel was not the way things are done anymore. Brands that started back in 2014 succeeded, but then you'll see, over time, they went into retail or they went omnichannel. So, that was something we knew was going to be on our radar.

So, while we launched direct to consumer, that was a great way with a brand new product to prove product market fit, get instant consumer feedback, hear from her, and understand if this product was resonating or did we need to make changes? We could test on a smaller group of women in our network and the community that we had built up, but that was a small group. So, launching direct to consumer allowed us to really prove out that there was demand, that this brand resonated, that the product resonated, get that feedback, and then go from there.

Also, knowing that we saw the data, 90% of sales are done in retail. So, we knew we needed to meet her where she was. That was the ultimate goal. So, we launched direct to consumer, we got that feedback, we proved product market fit, and we iterated on our product. I think that's something that's important to include too—that the product that we launched direct to consumer, we continued to iterate it based on her feedback. Then we have our Gen Two that's in retail.

The retail process in itself also takes a lot of time. This is something I don't think enough founders talk about. It's not just like, “Hey, I want to launch into X retailer,”  and then you're there. It's sometimes up to a year-long process. So, it's actually getting a meeting with a buyer. Oftentimes, you have to connect with a broker to get the meeting. It's kind of traditional in that way. Then, they have a schedule and they've got to find room on the shelf if they want you. So, you have to go through that process.

We really took a relationship-building process where it was important for us to connect with the buyers at these various retailers so we could build the relationship and tell our story. What was super fun for our category was that whenever we'd meet a buyer, they were just so excited to hear that there was innovation being offered to them because there just hasn't been any in this category. There really are just a couple of brands on the shelf. So, I think that was really exciting for them. So, it's going through that process and then figuring out who the right partner would be.

But it is a very tough process to get into retail. We were so excited when it worked out with Meijer. They're a great partner. It's an opportunity to really lean into a region—which, from a marketing standpoint, is really fun—and to really build relationships with the community. We're only a couple of months in, but we also have retailers that we’ll be launching with later this year.

Q: What is your favorite founder hack that helps you keep steering the ship?

A: I'm always hacking things all day long. I have tried a lot of different tools and organization. I love a to-do list. I use my Notes app obsessively. It's like the worst app because you can't revert, you can't see history. But, I got into that habit and I've tried to break it so many times and use a Google doc for my notes—but nope, it's always Notes. I just love a to-do list. As soon as they brought out the checkbox feature, I'm all over it.

Q: Is there anything besides the accelerator that you've done from a founder networking standpoint that's really been supportive?

A: When I moved to New York, I knew no one. I actually knew one person. I knew one person, and I got my first job because I emailed this designer that I had followed online. I had followed her portfolio. She had worked for some really cool companies. So, I sent her an email and said, “Hey, can I take you out for coffee? I'd love to learn more about your story.” She responded within two hours and I went out for coffee with her. She asked to see my portfolio. I showed it to her and she sent it to her entire network. That's how I got my first job. So, I take that and apply it to networking. I love to email and request, whether it's another founder I want to learn from, a category I want to learn more about, a potential collaborator, even influencers.

When you're on a timeline, it's often helpful to go through a process, but I love building relationships. I always love to say, “Hey, I would love to hear your story.” Start with that. I love to make introductions because that was something that was done for me. I see that as my power. It doesn't always work out, but as much as I can, I want to utilize my network to be able to connect people. So, that's my networking tip.

_____

This blog post was written based on kozēkozē Podcast Episode 373: Supporting Women at Every Life Stage with Aubrey Hubbell.

If you’d like to listen to the conversation first-hand, tune in here.