Jen Fuller, Founder of Etta Loves
Name: Jen Fuller
Company: Etta Loves
In less than three sentences tell us about your company and what you do.
Etta Loves uses the science of baby vision to design baby essentials that support visual and cognitive development. Our patterns are designed alongside visual experts to provide an optimum visual experience.
Babies are mesmerised, and parents benefit from a moment of calm.
How do you support other female founders and women in business?
I am a member of numerous online groups and real life meet ups which we've set up to encourage, help and support each other. Being a Founder can be very lonely, so having a group of cheerleaders who understand each other and offer a friendly face and some useful advice is invaluable.
At what point did you make your company a full time gig? How did you know the time was right?
After my second daughter was born, when the business had been going around 3 years, I was determined to not go back to my old job. So I used the maternity leave to make some plans and start behaving like a grown up company, not just a hobby that had taken off.
What lesson or skill did you take with you from a prior job to help you succeed in your role today?
My background is media and marketing, where I was lucky enough to work with some leading global brands and agencies. So whilst I don't have the same heady marketing budgets to spend, I have a good knowledge of what makes a brand a brand and many of the fundamentals of marketing.
Let’s talk social media—who handles it for your company (you, an internal team member, an outsourced solution?) and what is the secret to making it successful? What is the biggest challenge?
Until very recently I still handled all our social media, as it felt like the easiest way to retain the tone of the brand and say all the things I thought we needed to say. However as we've grown in both our home market of the UK & our more recent US expansion, it became clear that it wasn't an efficient use of my time. So now we have a brilliant marketing manager who schedules all the social posts, emails and social ads, which delivers a consistent tone and delivery across our comms, plus it's far more structured and well managed than my 'wake up and post to social' approach! The biggest challenge we're facing is the lack of organic reach, it's heart wrenching when you know your content is interesting and unique, but is being shown to far fewer people than ever before.
What is something you do differently from the industry standard?
Our whole model is about doing things differently. No one, that we have come across, uses visual experts and the science of infant vision to design age appropriate patterns for sensory stimulation. There are so many myths being punted as fact and so many products are quite frankly invisible to babies. Whereas we are committed to remain at the forefront of the research, through our PhD student at The University of Sussex Baby Lab and our consultant orthoptist Laura's input, to continue to deliver the most visually appropriate baby essentials for babies.
What does being a FoundHer mean to you?
It means striving to build a truly unique business and products. It means learning from my mistakes and turning any fear into positive action. It means accepting that I don't know everything but being prepared to learn as I go. It means building a positive and supportive environment for my wonderful team and all my businesses' partners.
Is there anything else that you would like for us to know about you and your business to share with our community?
That we are totally unique in the world and really driving innovation in the baby category.
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