Inside Aunt Flow: 10 Years, $17M+ Raised, 60,000+ Bathrooms
Claire Coder started Aunt Flow at 18 with no branding agency, no business degree, and a mission to make sure no one ever has to worry about getting their period in public. A decade later, more than 4 million students rely on Aunt Flow products in their school bathrooms. Aunt Flow was also Harlem Capital’s first investment.In this episode, Claire explains how she sells a necessity that most organizations have never budgeted for, often to buyers who will never use the product. She talks about why she chose a loud brand and patented hardware while competitors went DTC, and about the 86 meetings it took to land her first yes. She also walks through the COVID decision to wire all of the company’s cash into masks, which produced $11M in revenue and almost $3M in profit in 12 months. The conversation closes with why Aunt Flow is getting more physical in the age of AI.This episode is powered by Gunderson Dettmer. #PoweredByGundersonSubscribe for more conversations with founders, operators, and investors building what’s next.Timestamps:0:00 Intro1:50 From Lemonade Stand to Dropout Founder3:36 Selling to Buyers Who Aren't the End User5:25 Closing Deals at the Lunch Table7:08 Donating 7 Million Period Products8:13 Why Aunt Flow Chose to Be Loud10:42 Betting on Hardware Before VCs Cared12:35 Where the Real Pushback Comes From15:24 The 18-Year-Old Vision, 10 Years Later16:48 Selling Into a Category With No Budget19:00 Schools, Stadiums, and Why Healthcare Is Hardest21:37 The All-In COVID Bet24:58 Where AI Fits in a Physical Business28:02 Rapid FireMore on Claire: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairecoder/ More on Henri: https://harlem.capital/team/henri-pierre-jacques https://www.linkedin.com/in/hpierrejacques/ https://x.com/hpierrejacques The Winners Welcome Podcast, by Harlem Capital, brings elite founders and top investors into thoughtful conversations on pushing past possible, sharing the conviction, standards, and lessons behind building generational companies.Harlem Capital is a venture capital firm that backs the next generation of winners. The firm partners with exceptional founders with the irrational motivation to build generational companies. All Winners Welcome.We’d love to hear from you. Share your feedback at info@harlem.capital or DM us @HarlemCapital, and if you’re enjoying the podcast, please subscribe, rate, and review.
