As we continue our interview series on women founders in the Harvard Innovation Labs ecosystem and across Harvard’s 13 schools, we take a look at the winding, sometimes unpredictable paths of entrepreneurship. With all of the challenges of a global pandemic, how have these founders pushed forward? What enabled their ventures to grow? What didn’t they expect to happen that opened up new doors and opportunities? What makes each founder’s leadership story unique?
The founders you meet below represent a wide variety of industries, areas of expertise, and different lived experiences. For more on gender equity in entrepreneurship, check out Glass Half Broken: Shattering the Barriers that Still Hold Women Back at Work by Colleen Ammerman and HBS Professor Boris Groysberg as well as the Protagonist of Color Collection from The Harvard Business School Gender Initiative, in partnership with Harvard Business Publishing as well as faculty and staff at HBS. We will continue to update this edition with new founder interviews in the coming weeks.
Read more Women-Led Wednesday interviews here.
Alicia Tulsee: Moxie Scrubs
Alicia Tulsee (Harvard Division of Continuing Education, Class of 2015) is Founder and CEO of Moxie Scrubs, a medical apparel company that is the first direct-to-consumer brand for nurses. The Moxie team prides itself in maintaining an authentic connection to their customer, from involving nurses in how they approach designing products and in every aspect of their brand to making sure that values like empathy and care (hallmarks of the nursing profession) come through in their company culture. In effect, Tulsee says, most people are surprised to learn that Moxie is still a startup in a 12 billion dollar medical apparel industry.
Among Moxie’s successes since their official launch in February 2021, they recently gained the confidence of the American Nurses Association. “This partnership gives us access to over two million nurses across the U.S., almost half of the nursing population,” Tulsee says. “It’s a huge validation… We want to support the people who come through for us in times of great need: our nurses.” After participating in the Harvard Innovation Labs Launch Lab X GEO program for alumni entrepreneurs in 2020-2021, Tulsee is excited to be closing Moxie’s pre-seed round at the end of July 2021 with $1.2M funding and three offers to be acquired already.
How has your venture grown in unexpected ways?
“During the pandemic, our business unexpectedly catapulted forward. The pandemic highlighted the importance and need for the movement and mission behind a brand like ours: supporting nurses and frontline healthcare workers through community first and wellness initiatives. We’ve been overwhelmed by the amazing feedback and support we’ve received from nurses. As a completely new brand, over 13,000 nurses have joined our movement since March.
Our venture has also grown surprisingly quickly since we launched with over 3,000 transactions and only a 1% return rate. This is unprecedented for an e-commerce apparel startup. Typically, you will see a 20-30% return rate for established brands. We also found that 20% of our customers repurchase within the first three weeks of receiving their initial order. As a founder, seeing how well our product is being received has been an extremely rewarding experience.”
How would you describe your leadership path as a (woman) entrepreneur?
“As a woman founder and person of color, navigating the pandemic and recent political climate has accelerated my leadership path by several years. Undoubtedly, what we’ve built in less than a year could take several years. From raising money, establishing a mature supply chain, setting up distribution, and designing an innovative patent-pending product, to marketing, branding, and building a strong team, along with several significant partnerships, we made it happen. From the strong partnerships that we’ve made in manufacturing through our lead investor, all have been a source of both inspiration and good business!
I feel fortunate to have the support of my immediate team and so many who have put their confidence in me. I especially appreciate it given that my lived experience as a woman founder follows the template where it is more of a challenge to raise money. If I could summarize the journey into one word it would be grit, or Moxie.”
Listen to Alicia speak about her venture on Instagram and Twitter.
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