She Lost $75,000 on a Startup—Then Built Mrs. Meyer’s Into a Category-Defining Brand

Monica Nassif reflects on her brand’s enduring appeal and her most hard-earned entrepreneurial lessons.

BY ALI DONALDSON, STAFF REPORTER @ALICDONALDSON

Before Monica Nassif built her cleaning products company Mrs. Meyer’s into a household name, she built up an eclectic résumé. She trained as a nurse, worked in retail, lost $75,000 launching a watch company, and eventually started her own marketing and design firm, Kilter. Finally, Nassif decided to channel her marketing prowess into her own brand. So she founded Caldrea, a high-end cleaning company that uses plant-derived formulas, in 1999. Two years into scaling, a conversation with her mother, Thelma, sparked the idea to develop a second cleaning brand with more mass-market appeal. Enter Mrs. Meyer’s.

Just five years after launch, Nassif saw her dream realized in a Whole Foods endcap filled entirely with her new brand’s soaps, sprays, and detergents. “You kind of drop to your knees,” recalls Nassif, who raised only $1.6 million for the Caldrea Company, her parent company for both brands. “All the hard work, all the sleepless nights, all the fretting, it pays off. All that perseverance, it pays off.”

Not long after, in 2008, Nassif scored an exit to SC Johnson. Here are the lessons she learned along the way. -As told to Ali Donaldson

1. Follow the trends.

The consumer was moving toward organic foods and natural skin care. It was just a matter of time before they would say, “I don’t want harsh chemicals in my home.” I had this eureka moment with the cleaning products in a big-box store. The whole category was pathetic. Everything about it was garish and military-grade. I kept thinking, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if it was like Aveda?” I realized there was an opening.

How Anthropic's Claude AI Became a Co-Founder

2. Knock yourself off.

When we first started Caldrea, we got into ABC Carpet & Home. That’s where Williams Sonoma discovered us. They loved what we were doing and asked us to do private label. We started and quickly realized that someone was going to knock us off—so we decided, let’s just knock off ourselves. Caldrea would never work at the mass level. Nobody would buy $8 dish soap at Target. My mom said, “You’d better build something I can afford.” That was the genesis of Mrs. Meyer’s.

3. Remember the power of packaging.

When you have limited dollars to spend for marketing, your packaging has to do all the heavy lifting. We wanted something distinct. I can’t think of another brand that has tried to encroach upon what Mrs. Meyer’s looks like, because it’s so authentic, kind of Midwestern. The saying we had was “jewelry for the counter.” To this day, whenever I see photo shoots and Mrs. Meyer’s is on the counter, I smile.

4. Know your next step.

People are going to tell you no. Before they do, think it through: “If they say no, I’m going to do this.” This happens all the time: You sit down. You think you’re meeting with one buyer. A different buyer shows up. Then the dynamics change. You negotiate a deal. Then the big boss comes in and rips up the deal. You have to be prepared for any sort of situation, so you’re not scrambling at the table trying to figure it out. Frankly, that’s amateur hour. I wanted [my reps] to be alert, on top of their game, and ready for anything, because that’s life.

© Inc.com