Pooneh Mohajer: Fashion Powerhouse tokidoki

Welcome to Microsoft Launch the program. I'm Alan Taylor from Inc. Radio. We're celebrating National Entrepreneurship Week presented by Microsoft. My partner in crime is Scott Duffy. He is the author of the book Launch. And our next guest up today on the show is Poona Mahajer. And she is. Well, she's a very interesting woman. By the way, I must say, amazing hard candy. I love candy, by the way.

Thank you.

You can tell by my size that I love candy. But really, the company that you had was fingernail polish. And you did a tremendous job on this company and have sold it.

Yes.

And are on to another company, Tokidoki.

Tokidoki. Tokidoki's in the house now.

So, Scott, I want you to tee it up a little bit.

Well, I'm curious. You've had so much success, how did you get started?

So my first company was Hard Candy. And I started that with my sister in 1995, and we revolutionized the nail enamel industry and started out with nail polish, funky nail polish colors, and quickly morphed into a full color line. Sold it in 99 to Louis Vuitton. So that was pretty exciting. And it was just happenstance how we started. And I think a lot of times people start companies inadvertently by either solving a problem or creating something that they like. And for my sister and I myself, my sister created the color, these cool, funky colors. She's always been into fashion and very creative, and she came up with these beautiful pastel blue color. And it was by design, but it wasn't by design in terms of we didn't know the colors.

It was more like by accident, right?

Yes, exactly. And we recognized the opportunity. She was pre med at usc and I was pursuing career as an entertainment attorney. So we both completely changed course.

Pre med, entertainment attorney, nail polish. I know, I know, right? That's awesome.

That's awesome. And Louis Vuitton.

When starting a business, or let's say you have a business that you're growing, how much does your instinct play a role in your success?

I think that the number one bit of advice that I give consistently is trust your instincts.

Are your instincts up here or in here?

Both. Well, your instincts are in your gut, but you have to intellectualize that in order to execute on it. And you have to pay attention to it. And then you have to analyze, why am I feeling uncomfortable with this particular situation? Figure out why you are. Because there is a reason. And every single time that I have not trusted my gut, I've regretted it.

I'm gonna second that. And the other one is to be pressured against your gut. If somebody says you gotta make a decision. Now, what I've learned is that I just need to wait. And even if it's only overnight, sleep on it. At least request that, because then you'll get some clarity in that. Quiet.

Absolutely. I mean, you're not performing surgery. Right. You need to take the time and figure it out.

Yeah.

Where does that courage come from? Because I know that sometimes as an entrepreneur, we have a gut feel, but we get pressure from investors or advisors or employees and we're the ones that have to make that final decision. How do we do that?

You know, I could just add something to this because I've been in this position, as I'm sure you have, and I remember getting pressure from people and I remember thinking to myself, you know what? The sun is going to come up tomorrow. It's going to come up tomorrow. There'll be a tomorrow. And I remember thinking to myself, life and death. It's like you said, it's not surgery. The sun will come up tomorrow. We'll deal with it tomorrow. I need to wait. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

And that's another thing. That's another bit of advice that I like to give when you're exhausted and you're in the throes of making significant business decisions and you feel like, oh, I just can't do this any longer. The stress is too much. What? Not take a break, take a deep breath, rest and then get back on the horse and you'll be fine.

So you've gotten back on the horse and now Tokidoki.

Tokidoki is a pop culture lifestyle brand based on my business partner's artwork. He's a fine artist as well as a world renowned graphic illustrator. We just celebrated our 10 year anniversary just this last year.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much. That's awesome. We've just recently launched a ready to wear collection that we're calling Tokidoki Atelier in Shanghai. We have a large installation. Just by happenstance, we have a large installation in Shanghai, Times Square, which we're pretty proud of. So we have. It's a very interesting brand in that there's something for everybody in the line. We take the artwork and the different characters that Simone designs, and there's different backstories for some of the characters that are very compelling and adorable and resonate with a lot of people of different gender and different age groups. So there is something in there for everybody. And we apply the artwork to multiple categories of Consumer products from handbags to apparel to cosmetics to tech accessories. Shameless plugging right now.

Well, it's nice to see, though, that you're crossing over different areas of business, because apparel is one. Beauty supplies are one. Consumer electronics are another one.

That's exciting. And the other thing that is awesome about Tokidoki and the character families that we have is that we. We're also delving into animation. So if you go to YouTube and you look up Tokidoki, you'll see some beautiful animation that we've produced in house with some of our launch partners like Karl Lagerfeld, Lisborsac. So we do a lot of collaborations with other fashion brands and entertainment. Evergreen iconic entertainment properties that we're proud of.

Was there ever a time when where things just seemed to get so tough that you wanted to give up? And if so, how did you overcome it?

Yes, there have been times where I felt that way. I've relied on my friends and my family and my business partner, and those are the. And my team. Our team. I mean, I work for our employees just as much as they work for me. So in times of strife and business stress, we really pull together and rely on each other. And that's when we really come together in those times where we need to push through. And that's how I get through it. And I know that other people are relying on me, and I can't let them down. And that's the most important thing. I think you have people that are relying on you, and you need to step up and perform.

Give us maybe. Can you encapsulate into maybe three tips for entrepreneurs, people that want to own their own businesses, that hear the struggle that we go through as entrepreneurs, which, believe me, it's a wonderful struggle, because I wouldn't change anything about the struggle I've been through. You know, it's just while you're right in the middle of them, it's, you know. But I would love to hear maybe just three kind of pieces of advice.

Three pieces of advice that I have for entrepreneurs or anybody that wants to start their own business is trust your instincts first and foremost. I think that's really important.

Check.

Never give up. Never give up. Stay the course. Keep doing what you're doing. And the third thing that I would say is ignore the naysayers. Ignore the naysayers, because you will come across that. I'll illustrate an example. When I started Tokidoki with my partners, there was a lot of people that were looking at me like. And business colleagues Seasoned business individuals that thought I was insane, and they were just like, what are you doing? Are you crazy? And I'm like, no, this is going to be huge. This is going to be a global brand. You don't understand how amazing this is. And 10 years later, we're a global brand, and we're continuing to execute on our vision and our passion. And I'm glad that I ignored the naysayers.

Boy, so true.

You have to be so careful who you surround yourself with when you're an entrepreneur. I love the expression that people that have limited visions of themselves can never have a larger vision for you. You have to be so careful. So there's three things that I learned from that. Number one was you got to trust your instincts. Number two is, no matter how tough it gets, never give up and stay the course. And number three, and just as important, ignore the naysayers.

Right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Because we all have them, whether they're family members or other business people. You're going to have naysayers. You got to trust that gut.

Trust your gut.

Yeah.

Give yourself time to trust it.

Well, Poona Mahajer, you are an inspiring person. Thank you. And I wish you the best of luck. I can't wait to see what you do with this brand. Tokidoki. How about a website?

Tokidoki.it My business partner's Italian.

Ah, there you go.

Well, we're celebrating National Entrepreneurship Week, presented by Microsoft.