Two Female-Founded Tampon Companies Use Collaboration Over Competition to Scale Their Brands
When Nadya Okamoto started her career as a menstrual care advocate, she never intended to run a consumer packaged goods company one day. “I started when I was 16 and was very vocally anti-capitalistic,” says Okamoto, who at the time was running a nonprofit called Period., a youth organization fighting period poverty, and years later, earned a spot on the 2020 30 Under 30 Law & Policy list. But six years into her work, she was burnt out. “I [was] running a nonprofit, but my whole job as executive director [was to gather] millions of dollars from private foundations, private donors, wealthy individuals, to keep the lights on.”
The lack of funding, limitations, and regulations preventing her from making the change she desired pushed her to pivot to the for-profit side. In 2020, she co-founded August, a tampon and pad company that targets a Gen Z consumer base through educational marketing to inform customers about menstrual care and period equity. Despite functioning in a consumer market, she says the competition she faces from other menstrual care companies—many of which August would seemingly battle for customers—is less than that on the philanthropic side, where it was “so cutthroat” to obtain what she needed from the already very limited resources.
As a consumer goods founder, she actually finds solace in many of the other brand leaders in the space, she says.
Take Amanda Calabrese, for instance. Calabrese is a 2023 30 Under 30 Manufacturing & Industry lister and the co-founder of Sequel, a tampon manufacturing company that received FDA approval last year and plans to release their first product this year. While some might think of the two as competitors, Calabrese says the relationship is more harmonious.
The two have turned to each other to share insights on everything from raising investment dollars, landing spots in retail stores, starting public conversations about the importance of the industry, and finding new distribution channels like TikTok, Calabrese says.
Plus, they both truly believe the industry is big enough for all of them.
“We’ve all bitten off a piece of what we need to go against the big guys,” Calabrese says.
While Okamoto is using education to break through, Sequel is taking a different approach: It has re-manufactured the tampon into a spiral design, some of the first innovation on the tampon in decades. Plus, they note, other independent tampon company founders are doing their respective parts, too, like Beatrice Dixon, the founder of Honey Pot, who markets to her Black community who’s formerly been left out of feminine health conversations.
But Calabrese and Okamoto both agree that the competition is pushing them, and the industry, to be better.
“One thing that I’m really excited about is that being climate neutral is not enough of a differentiator anymore because we’re all climate neutral,” says Okamoto. “Maybe that becomes a new standard.”
See you next week,
P.S. We’re short of three weeks away from the 30/50 Summit in Abu Dhabi, where we’ll be joined by Under 30 listers like actor Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and creator Drea Okeke. Snag your tickets here today!
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Celebrating Black History Month
February is Black History Month—a month designated to highlighting the many achievements and contributions by the Black community. This year, ForbesBLK members are putting on events and spotlighting key opportunities all month long.
Happening soon: An evening surrounding conversation and mentorship on “The Future of Black Entrepreneurship” will be taking place on February 22 at Soho Warehouse in New York City. Speakers include entrepreneurs like 2019 Under 30 Food & Drink lister and founder of Mad Projects Maya French; Dami Kujembola, CEO of Amplify Africa; and Angela Gibson Shaw, CEO of the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce. RSVP here.
Lister Lowdown
-CurlMix, a haircare company founded by 2020 Under 30 Retail & Ecommerce listers Kimberly and Timothy Lewis, raised its goal of $800,000 in a crowdfunding campaign. The husband-and-wife duo previously raised $5 million from over 7,000 customers in 2021, which helped CurlMix launch into 460 Ulta Beauty stores.
