Ep 022: Bringing Class and Style to Post-Flush Perfumes with No. 2!

Today on The Heart-led Brand Podcast, we’re chatting with Jess Ruhfus of No. 2!

Jess started her career in marketing with a passion for bringing brands together for strategic partnerships and collabs. In 2014, she built a tech platform called Collabosaurus, which she describes as the “tinder for brand partnerships”, where she worked with brands like Asos, Pinterest, Microsoft, Estee Lauder and Walmart. But it wasn’t until 2020 that she had the idea to create something new.

During the pandemic, Jess found herself sharing an apartment with two boys and let’s just say that the bathroom didn’t smell… great. She tried everything from sprays to candles to diffusers to drops to eliminate the unwanted smells, but was disappointed with all of the chemical synthetic fragrances and ugly packaging. So she saw an opportunity to create something better, cleaner and much more chic.

Since launching, No.2 has been featured in Apartment Therapy, Broadsheet, The Daily Mail & Women's Health.

In the episode, we talk about:

The scrappy beginnings of creating a product + the challenges of selling out
Using nano-influencers to build hype around your product and attract new customers
The power of brand partnerships
No.2’s approach to marketing with engaging video content that sparks conversations

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Episode Highlights:

Scrappy Beginnings:

“You know, this business was going gangbusters and it really needed our time. And we had sort of an office warehouse situation for my software business.

We were doing too much volume to warrant that, but I was prioritizing speed over getting our processes and efficiencies. So it was just like, Oh, we can weave it together really quickly, but our really quickly, if you factored in labor costs, which thankfully my friends and family, Did it all for free legends.

But if they didn't, we wouldn't be making any money on those products at all. Cause it was just so time consuming. So I suppose that's a little bit of a hurdle too, but I think a lot of it comes down to planning and forecasting and it's, that's something that is so hugely important in product business, because you need to know when you'll have the cashflow to afford the next round of ordering.

Importance also depends on how quickly your manufacturers can deliver the supply of goods. So for me, it's like at least three months it's ages. So that's a really tough gap to fill from a cashflow perspective. It all comes down to planning numbers and planning.”

Going from D2C to retail:

“We are very scrappy and we did start D2C. That was our best channel for a very long time. We moved onto Amazon, which quickly became one of our best channels. And then we started going into independent retailers and getting on shelf. And it’s hard! Because you don’t just get on the shelf and you’ve won. You get on the shelf and then you need to fight for those reorders, and you need to do demos, and you need to make sure that you’re getting stocked in the right place, make sure you’re priced correctly, and make sure that you have a good reputation in that store, that you have a relationship with that buyer. The list goes on and on.”

I hope that you enjoy this conversation and make sure to check out and support all that No. 2 is doing! You can follow them on IG @no.2_co or go shop their products on no-2.co!