Episode 108
May 31, 2022

One Bite at a Time

with Lindsay McCormick, Founder and CEO of Bite

About this episode

Today, Lee is joined by Lindsay McCormick, the Founder and CEO of Bite, which stands for because it's the earth. Bite believes in doing better: better ingredients, better for our bodies, and better for our planet. Bite’s plastic-free products are zero waste, vegan, cruelty-free, and they're on a mission to become the most sustainable personal care company in the world. Lindsay shares her story from growing up in Northern Virginia and choosing to become a vegetarian at eight years old, to moving to LA and working as a TV producer, and launching Bite in 2016. She shares what keeps her motivated, how she stays engaged with her customers every week, and how Bite has become one of the fastest-growing brands in America.

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In This Episode You’ll Hear About:

  • What it was like growing up in Northern Virginia, choosing to be a vegetarian at eight years old, and having the urge to move away as soon as she graduated 
  • How she always had a passion for making the world a better place
  • How her time backpacking for a year has taught her a lot and how she uses that information for Bite 
  • How she was traveling for work all the time and realized the amount of plastic from the toothpaste tubes and it sparked a need for change 
  • How this need to make a different kind of toothpaste led her to take chemistry classes, research, and question dentists about the chemicals in toothpaste to eventually make toothpaste tablets
  • The reasoning for the expansion of Bite, to mouthwash, whitening gel, deodorant, and body balm, that it all stems from products Linday sees a need for
  • How one of their videos went viral on social media and really helped launch Bite, eventually leading to an offer to go on Shark Tank, and turning both offers down
  • How despite being a completely bootstrap business, Bite has become one of the fastest-growing brands in America, snagging the number six spot on Inc. Magazines, Regional Fastest-Growing Companies List for 2022.
  • Why she set’s aside time every Friday to talk with customers and gain feedback and understand what her consumers are thinking and saying
  • How she faced the challenges during crazy growth when all of it was happening at once and the most important thing was to sustain the growth and keep pushing through
  • What’s next for Bite, including continuing to expand into body care, and continuing to help change people's daily routines into something more sustainable

To Find Out More:

https://bitetoothpastebits.com/ 

Quotes:

“I used to think that businesses weren't there to actually help people, they were there to make money. And I really didn't like that.”

“I wanted to really know how to do storytelling and how to puta tv show together.” 

“You can read all the stats all day, but they won't actually impact you on a visceral level unless you can actually see them in your head.”

“It's not eco friendly,  it's plastic ending up in our waste stream, and then gunk ending up in my body. So that was kind of the beginning of me wanting to make something different.”

“If we started from scratch, how would we make it? And so that's how we ended up with dry toothpaste tablets.”

“Our toothpaste tablets, you get the glass jar once, then you keep refilling it with our compostable refill pouches, and same with our deodorant.”

“I block out an hour every Friday and I talk to our customers, I set up calls and I get on the phone with them."

“The most important superpower you can have, especially as a small brand, is talking to and understanding your customers.”

“Sometimes the right move is to see it play out and be patient.”

“You have to constantly be trying to get better”

“It's not about going from point A to point B, it's about just moving forward. So if point A to point B has a thousand steps in between, it takes you longer, but you're still on the right path. So I would say, in the beginning, especially just not getting discouraged and figuring out what you can do to keep you motivated.”

“There's never been a better time and there are so many resources at your disposal, whether it's podcasts like this, talking to people, getting on Facebook groups and your network. There's never been a more important time for real solutions, there are so many things that we can be innovating on.”

Read the transcript

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