How Kristy Chong grew ModiBodi into a global brand
“You’ve got to deal with the failures and take all those little opportunities and back yourself.”
At the Atto 2021 Accelerator Demo Day, Kristy Chong kicked of the event by summarising her 10+ year business journey building Modibodi into a much-loved global brand.
Kristy Chong is the CEO and creator of Modibodi. She’s a mum on a mission, a fash-tech entrepreneur and a social advocate for women’s health issues and rights.
During the 25-minute conversation, Kristy summarises the last decade of her business journey showcasing her empathetic leadership style and the clear focus needed to succeed in business.
Kicking off the discussion, Atto’s founder Kate Kendall shares a little of Kristy’s background and the business journey for ModiBodi dispelling the myth of being an overnight success. The steady growth of ModiBodi is akin to the Atto philosophy of achieving great things at scale while focusing on making consistent improvements with small steps.
Watch Kristy share the ModiBodi journey:
The early years of building a fashion business
While being a stay-at-home mum in 2011 in Seattle, Kristy came up with the idea after having her second child and experiencing light incontinence. Kristy’s experience with “unmentionable” bladder leaks made her determined to start her own brand. One that would change our mindsets – and the planet – by changing underwear for the better.
This ambition saw her design, develop and scientifically prove her patented Modifier Technology leak-proof undies and transform this into the Modibodi collection: a reusable, sustainable range of tops, singlets, period and sweat-proof undies as well as swimwear, created to liberate us all from endless amounts of landfill.
In the first year of business in 2013, Kristy had her third child, ModiBodi made $50,000, and they focused on listening to customers.
And women are apparently very vocal about their underwear choices. Joking that if she could start all over again, Kristy would make the mission easier by starting with menswear - another category ModiBodi has recently expanded to along with swimwear, maternity, and teens brands.
Emphasising the importance of slow and steady growth while focusing on creating fantastic products, ModiBodi is now dedicated to creating apparel that protects your body in a more sustainable way. Kristy explained that ModiBodi’s purpose is to make everybody more comfortable in the most environmentally friendly way which has helped them to think bigger. And while that’s the mission now, Kristy had to start small so she also emphasised that you’ve always got to have that sense of purpose at the back of your mind even if you start with just one idea at the start.
Kristy proved how ModiBodi wasn’t an overnight success through the 10-year journey and shared some hard-learned lessons. Like how early on, Kristy said she learned the value of money and the importance of revenue and profits when she ended up taking a web developer to a local tribunal over undelivered work.
“We must demand value as women, and honesty in business interactions and hold people accountable to deliver for us.”
By 2015, Kristy was reassured that the product was going to work as the brand had become well-loved and had finally reached product-market fit.
“I quickly realised that women are really picky about their underwear, and five stars is not enough.” So after shifting their focus from creating smaller orders and selling out the styles to happy customers, ModiBodi then quickly increased their styles to accommodate the range of styles of underwear that women want.
But it was hard to keep the business as a small business with big stock requirements. In 2016, revenue grew sales to half a million, the company took on angel investment to focus on scaling
Reaching product-market fit and having hypergrowth
The years from 2017 to 2020 were hypergrowth years for ModiBodi. In 2017, the team of five helped to grow the brand to a few million in revenue, and in 2020 they almost hit $50 million with 25 people. And it wasn’t until 2018 when the team moved into their own office and in 2019 ModiBodi took on Quadrant Private Equity.
“It’s hectic. It’s everything. It’s exhausting. It’s challenging. It’s single-minded focus.”
Kristy acknowledged there were external factors that showed they were in the right space at the right time to build the brand and support important causes. The tampon tax and #MeToo movements allowed ModiBodi and Kristy to contribute to these larger conversations.
Since launching Modibodi, Kristy’s been involved in petitioning governments to remove the tax on period products and has committed to donating 100,000 pairs of leak-proof underwear to people in need in 2021.
Building a business is a long journey so you’ve got to have supporters along the way
After experiencing lots of self-doubt in the early years, Kristy sought help to get over the confidence issues by joining networking and accelerator programs to build her confidence and knowledge to keep talking to people and keep learning.
“You need strength of character. Lean on people around you, speak about it, and when we do talk more openly about things that go beyond building a business.”
Kristy also spoke about the importance of leaning on multiple advisors with a range of perspectives so you know who to call on at different types of your journey.
Kristy’s final advice for early-stage founders?
“What you need is true conviction, single minded focus. A solutions mindset always, and you need to believe in yourself and your purpose. And that’s what will drive great success.”
“Focus on making the first product viable, then launch, and go hard on the marketing. You’ve got to make sure you’ve got the product market fit. And if you focus on the development or operations side, you’re not going to figure out what is wrong with the product.”
“In the beginning, the more you can do yourself, the better as it all costs money.”
The brand continues to go from strength-to-strength thanks to its innovative product development, strategic business planning, marketing and public relations, hi-tech manufacturing processes and global expansion into markets including the UK, USA, New Zealand, France, Germany, Africa, South Korea, Japan, Scandinavia and beyond.
We’re so grateful that Kristy joined the Atto Accelerator 2021 Demo Day and shared her story with us so as to inspire the next generation of female founders. Enjoy watching Kristy share the ModiBodi story here.