Lauren Gregor:  

Hi, I’m Lauren Gregor. I’m the founder of Rent-a-Romper. 

Tony Loyd:  

And as I look where you’re sitting there, you’re in your home. 

Lauren Gregor:  

I’m in a friend’s home. We’re about to move. So, I’m temporarily in a friend’s home. 

Tony Loyd:  

What was the problem that was bothering you that you go, “The world needs Rent-a-Romer”? 

Lauren Gregor:  

A year ago, little over a year ago I started to get very annoyed in our home and I’m a mom. I have two boys right now. There are seven and five. 

And I would just look around and see everything that we were accumulating, whether it be toys and all the apparatus you need as a baby grows and highchairs and all those things and clothes. 

I would get frustrated by the amount of waste that we’re generating, but also how often I felt like I was turning around and getting back to the stores to buy them new things and especially with clothes. My boys are tall, they grow fast, they grow very fast at those young ages and I just felt like I was constantly having to do things on my to-do list. 

And so that problem, one from a perspective of a working mom trying to just do the 100 things on your to-do list. There are solutions out there that are convenient, but I was frustrated with the number of cardboard boxes showing up at your doorstep. 

I felt like there had to be a better way to make it easier for parents, but also do something that was sustainable at the same time. 

Tony Loyd:  

So, you’re concerned about your level of consumption, there’s stuff coming to the door every day. You have two boys just a few years apart, and so there is some hand-me-down that happens there, but that’s not always perfect, is it? 

Lauren Gregor:  

They are just under two years apart. I saved hand-me-downs from my older son. The kids are different. They grow at different rates. I would pull the box down off the shelf I have. Here’s all the three-year stuff and realize that there were no pants in that box and so you have a bunch of T Shirts.  

Now I have to go back to the store to get pants. It’s an imperfect thing. My boys wear everything multiple times, but it doesn’t stop you needing to go out and get something for your kids. 

Tony Loyd:  

You know, it’s one thing to be frustrated. But it’s another thing to be so frustrated that you want to launch a company. So, why do you think this was just burning in you so much that you said, “I’ve got to go start a company to make this thing happen”? 

Lauren Gregor:  

I never thought that I was going to be an entrepreneur. I come from a family where my mom always said, “Have a job that gives you health care benefits.” So, I’ve always been in stable salary roles. But I have a lot of operations experience and I have strategy experience. 

I started thinking about this idea and telling people, and they said, “You have to do it.” It was the validation. When I started to share the idea of other moms or other friends saying, “This is a great idea, you need to do it.” I think the more that I asked people, the more that I realized I had the capability to do it. 

Tony Loyd:  

Tell me what the idea is. You’re pitching your friends. What are you sharing with them? 

Lauren Gregor:  

I wanted to create a company where especially babies and toddlers, when they are in the very earliest years and growing fast, could share clothing. 

It’s a community closet where the clothes just come in and out and. 

That, a parent all they have to do is subscribe to it. And whenever they need a new size, they could get their new size. 

Tony Loyd:  

And so how does it work? I mean, if I get a capsule, let’s say I’ve got somebody who’s now in three T am I buying it and my do I return it? You know, if I get things that I go, that’s not really for me. Do I send it back? I mean, how does that work? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Yeah, so first we call it a capsule because like a capsule wardrobe in fashion is like your everyday clothing. Your essential items that you can mix and match. So, we’re really in that space. You know you’re not getting like fancy dresses or anything. It’s this stuff that kids are going to wear and play in every day. We allow our customers to give us style preferences for their box before we send it out. They can say things like, back to the hand me down thing, “I don’t need any pajamas. Please don’t send me pajamas.” Or, “My daughter doesn’t like anything that has flowers on it.” Whatever it might be. So, we do try to do some curation beforehand, so the box is really matched to the customer. 

And then our customers pay a monthly membership fee. We have two sizes. They pay $24.00 a month for seven items or $39.00 a month for 15 items. Once they receive it, it’s up to them. They can keep them items as long as they want. Or they can exchange them as often as they want. We send a prepaid shipping bag with our box, and whenever the customers are ready, they just put the clothes back in and send it back to us. 

Tony Loyd:  

OK, so it’s a monthly fee. If some parent gets the stuff and they don’t send it back to you, it’s still the same monthly fee. They have a choice. They can either just keep it, give it to a neighbor. Or, it becomes stained and they have to discard it or whatever. Or they can just send it back and you can figure it out.  

Do you ever get things that you go, “We didn’t send you that”?  

Lauren Gregor:  

Yes, which we encourage. 

We have a donation campaign that you can fill out on our website. 

For our customers, they can send us back other clothing items that their kids have grown out of and we will reuse that clothing as well as we can in our capsules. For customers that give us donations, we give them a credit on their next month subscription We also pay for shipping. So, if anybody else is just trying to do a closet clean out and has lots of kids’ clothes laying around, we will send you shipping labels and you can send it on to us also for a credit. 

Tony Loyd:  

Were you interested in like the fashion industry at all or clothing? Were you interested in that or is this more the mom thing? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Not interested in fashion at all. My career has been in education and in transportation, so public sector, but I care about the environment. I think that’s where it came from. 

 I saw this as being a solution that you could solve for parents, which is what my experience is now. You know that’s what I’m in. 

Tony Loyd:  

And when you think about the environmental impact, how are you tracking that? Are you thinking about how many pieces of clothing don’t have to be manufactured now or how? How do you think about your environmental impact? 

Lauren Gregor:  

That’s an interesting question because there are so many different points where you could attack this problem in fashion. There are companies out there today that are coming from the source, trying to solve the source consumption, responsible manufacturing, organic cotton, organic brands. I think that’s important, but we’re trying to solve the problem more at the other end of the landfill problem. So, one thing is we want to reuse clothing as long as we can and extend the life of clothing  

One way we can do that is by reusing. A lot of our clothing now has gone through four families. It’s purely because the kids grow out of it. You can’t reuse it within your own household, but other people can. So that’s one way we’ve been trying to do it: just divert from landfill. We are working right now on partnerships where we either then donate the clothing so we’re getting a further extension of the life. Or we’re working with companies to help recycle and upcycle the material back into new clothing or other product. 

So, we’re at the tail end trying to help with that problem. I think as we grow, we can then start to influence that problem from the source as well. 

Tony Loyd:  

Approximately when did you first say, “I’m going to launch his business and do this thing”? When did you get your first capsules together and do that? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Well, I first started in August of 2019, so a year ago. 

And that was buying the domain. Printing a business card and going around and talking as if the business existed. And seeing what the reaction was. And then we started sending the very first capsules in October of last year. It took me a little bit of time. October through January was just run as fast as we can and learn as fast as we can.  

It was like how much is packaging going to cost? How much is shipping going to cost? Where do we get the clothes? What do people want in their box? So, it was a lot of learning really fast. Then we did a wider launch in March of 2020. 

Tony Loyd:  

Where did the first clothes come from that you sent? 

Lauren Gregor:  

The very first clothes came from anywhere that I could find, like clearance marked down 80% off. So, we had some clothes from Old Navy, from Gap, from Target. Like everywhere that I could physically get to a store and get clothes that were drastically marked down. 

There wasn’t really any brand preference at that point, it was just let me find how inexpensively I can get clothes. 

Tony Loyd:  

So, you get those first packages out. How did that evolve from there then? 

Lauren Gregor:  

At first, we only launched with one size of capsule. We had one that was 15 items. Some of our customers came back and said “That’s way too many clothes. I already have an older daughter who’s handing some stuff down.”  

From that we evolved and then added the second capsule size, which we call just the essentials. That’s only seven items. That was really based on feedback from our customers.  

Since then we’ve evolved in terms of like just how we package. We had a lot of customers that were coming back with concerns about, “I don’t know which items are yours and which items are ours.” 

So, we started adding barcode labels to every single item that indicates…One, it’s good for us for inventory, but to the customer, they can physically see on the item of clothing that it’s a Rent-a-Romper item. We started adding, and ship with every package, photos of every item that they have in their box. 

So, they can pin that on the fridge or put it wherever. And know, this is what I need to send back.  

Tony Loyd:  

You said you initially went down to Target or wherever and found the least expensive items you could get. You started feeding this machine. Is that still how you’re getting your clothes? 

Lauren Gregor:  

No. So now we have several wholesale partnerships. We have partnerships with Gerber childrenswear. We have partnership with Oliver and Rain, Baby Sprouts. We’re starting to get a lot of clothing now at larger scale, which is very helpful and helping us to reach into that higher quality product and keep the cost down. 

We’re trying to build out that wholesale list as much as we possibly can. But there are days where I’m trying to pull it together. I’m trying to scrape things together. We carry sizes all the way from newborn to 4T. 

But I can’t tell you today, if a customer signs up and they’re going to order 3T girls and ask for something specific, I might go to the inventory shelves and think we only have 3T boys right now. So, there are days because we’re still growing and we’re still so scrappy. But then I have to run out to the store, find some places to, you know, get the items that I might need to put a capsule together.  

But when I do that, there’s a part of me that still thinks, “I’m starting a business. This is what happens.”  But it also feels like, at least I’m going to the store and making this happen for this person and they don’t have to do that. 

Tony Loyd:  

You mentioned “I go to the shelf.” So where are those shelves? You don’t have a warehouse somewhere, do you? 

Lauren Gregor:  

No. I mentioned that my family is in the middle of moving. We’re now in our third place since I’ve started this business. We’re staying temporarily at a friend’s home, so now, it’s in plastic containers spread out all over the dining room. Hopefully in a few weeks when we move, the garage will be transformed to the new Rent-a-Romper warehouse. 

Tony Loyd:  

You have good friends that not only allow you to come and stay with them temporarily in the middle of a pandemic, but they also let you take over their dining room for your business. That’s a good friend. You need to hang on to that friend.  

You’re describing how you first got started you. How did you find the first sets of moms that were going to take part in the in Rent-a-Romper? 

Lauren Gregor:  

At first, we had about 10 customers. They were either friends of mine, or friends of friends.  

At the beginning we also got a few customers through Instagram. I started a profile right away and started showing some pictures. I asked people if they would message me if they were interested. So, we did get a couple of customers that messaged me directly through Instagram. 

Tony Loyd:  

You get this, you know 10 moms. This is like the fall of 2019. You start to get a few other people and then, March of 2020. It’s not the same thing as March of 2019. Talk about that that time. 

Lauren Gregor:  

October to December was just learning, sending things out, getting feedback from our customers. Figuring out what the true costs were going to be. And in the December of 2019, I applied for a grant and won a grant through the cocokind impact foundation. That really helped me to get our website really set up to go wider and have a real launch. 

In January and February, I continued working with those same moms and friends or other people who were interested. We added people. We were invoicing through QuickBooks, doing everything very, very manually, and all through Instagram. Our only communication was through Instagram.  

Then in March getting the website ready. We were making sure that the subscriptions and renewal and all those processes were working online. We were able to launch an introduce our new size of capsule. We were talking about the business, knowing that we had a place for people to go buy it. We launched in March, two weeks before the pandemic. 

You just can’t make this kind of stuff up, right? 

Tony Loyd:  

You’re just taking your own money and putting into it, right?  

Lauren Gregor:  

Yes.  

Tony Loyd:  

You’re in the middle of shifting houses. You’re in your third housing situation. You’re trying to figure out how to pay for housing, and move and, take care of a family, and fund this thing.  

Did you go out and pitch for investment with anybody? 

Lauren Gregor:  

At that time, no. I’m trying to do so now.  

My husband and I had already been thinking about moving. But you know this is pre-pandemic. We figured that we would put our house on the market. So, we did, and we sold our house in February. Part of that conversation there was conversation about, from the sale of our home, we can invest some money into the company. So, we’ve been doing that.  

And then of course, we thought, oh we will rent for a little while. We’ll keep the kids here, in the school. And then the pandemic happened, so things have shifted a little bit.  

I’m grateful to have the partner that I have in him. He’s been willing to put our financial earnings and things on the line for the company. 

Tony Loyd:  

You were getting these first customers, not just online, but you were also attending like some mom group things, right? 

Lauren Gregor:  

In March, before the pandemic, we had been planning to go to all these tradeshows like Mom Expo, all of which were canceled. Yeah so at that time, I just had this sort of pivot and try to figure out a way to reach out to people. There have been some of those type of expos that have gone virtually since then.  

We’ve done Facebook Live talking about our product to moms. The other ways we’ve just been doing it are trying locally with daycare centers. Or local mom groups, trying to talk about the product and really give people discounts and let them try it out before they really commit. 

Tony Loyd:  

Are you part of the Grid110 accelerator?  

Lauren Gregor:  

I took part in Grid110 this spring. We just finished up the spring cohort. That was an amazing program, especially as a solo founder. You’re on your own trying to do this, and in a pandemic where you don’t have a lot of community around you. That was an amazing program to help me really get plans put together and get a lot of feedback quickly on how we were running the business. 

Tony Loyd:  

What do you think’s been most rewarding on your journey so far? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Two things. I think personally for me, I love a challenge. This has been the most challenging things I’ve tried to do in my career. As frustrating as it can be, and all the ups and downs that come with it, I really love it. Trying to solve the next problem. Trying to make things work. 

But I think, from like the wider business perspective, to see the response and the interest that people have in sustainability and in influencing a new way of consuming. It’s been really promising, especially in a place where the last few years hasn’t been exactly the way you think it’s going to happen. Then it’ll take too long, or you’ll never do it. So, I think just starting small and trying things out as fast as you can is important and just learn, change, and adapt. So just go for it. 

Tony Loyd:  

Just go for it. You should trademark that. 

People are going to hear this conversation, and they’re going to say “I love, love, love this idea. I’ve got to tell somebody about it.” So, what can people do to help spread the word about Rent-a-Romper? 

Lauren Gregor:  

I think sharing it as much as you possibly as you can with friends and family and anybody you know that has young children. Our website is rentromper.com We are on Instagram at @rentaromper.  

Just share as much as you can with people that have families or with people that are interested in a new way of consuming. 

Tony Loyd:  

There are no hyphens in there in the URL, right, so? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Not in the URL, just rentaromper.com. 

Tony Loyd:  

So, a call to action. What would you call on us to go and do as a result of this conversation? 

Lauren Gregor:  

With the “just go for it” theme, there are a lot of things that I get frustrated with. When you think about our earth and our climate circumstances now, and my feeling is that, as an individual or as a family, or as a city, we’re not going to become like the best, most sustainable people overnight.  

It takes just one step. That’s what I’m trying to do. Just one step. Just reuse you clothing longer. How we consume in our household. It takes one small action. Those actions snowball into bigger ones. But, do something.  

Hi, I’m Lauren Gregor. I’m the founder of Rent-a Romper. 

Tony Loyd:  

And as I look where you’re sitting there, you’re in your home. 

Lauren Gregor:  

I’m in a friend’s home. We’re about to move so I’m temporarily in a friend’s home. 

Tony Loyd:  

What was the problem that was bothering you that you go, “The world needs Rent-A-Romer”? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Probably a year ago, little over a year ago I started to get very annoyed in our home and I’m a mom. I have two boys right now. There are seven and five. 

And I would just look around and see everything that we were accumulating, whether it be toys and all the apparatus you need as a baby grows and highchairs and all those things and clothes. 

I would get frustrated by the amount of waste that we’re generating, but also how often I felt like I was turning around and getting back to the stores to buy them new things and especially with clothes. My boys are tall, they grow fast, they grow very fast at those young ages and I just felt like I was constantly having to do things on my To-do list. 

And so that problem, one from a perspective of a working mom trying to just do the 100 things on your To-do list. There are solutions out there that are convenient, but I was frustrated with the number of cardboard boxes showing up at your doorstep. 

I felt like there had to be a better way to make it easier for parents, but also do something that was sustainable at the same time. 

Tony Loyd:  

So, you’re concerned about your level of consumption, there’s stuff coming to the door every day. You have two boys just a few years apart, and so there is some hand-me-down that happens there, but that’s not always perfect, is it? 

Lauren Gregor:  

They are just under two years apart. I saved hand-me-downs from my older son. The kids are different. They grow at different rates. I would pull the box down off the shelf I have. Here’s all the three-year stuff and realize that there were no pants in that box and so you have a bunch of T Shirts.  

Now I have to go back to the store to get pants. It’s an imperfect thing. My boys wear everything multiple times, but it doesn’t stop you needing to go out and get something for your kids. 

Tony Loyd:  

You know, it’s one thing to be frustrated. But it’s another thing to be so frustrated that you want to launch a company. So, why do you think this was just burning in you so much that you said “I’ve got to go start a company to make this thing happen”? 

Lauren Gregor:  

I never thought that I was going to be an entrepreneur. I come from a family where my mom always said “Have a job that gives you health care benefits.” So, I’ve always been in stable salary roles. But I have a lot of operations experience and I have strategy experience. 

I started thinking about this idea and telling people, and they said, “You have to do it.” It was the validation. When I started to share the idea of other moms or other friends saying “This is a great idea, you need to do it.” I think the more that I asked people, the more that I realized I actually had the capability to do it. 

Tony Loyd:  

Tell me what the idea is. You’re pitching your friends.  What are you sharing with them? 

Lauren Gregor:  

I wanted to create a company where especially babies and toddlers when they’re in the very earliest years and growing very fast, could share clothing essentially. 

Basically, a community closet where the clothes just come in and out and. 

That, a parent all they have to do is subscribe to it. And whenever they need a new size, they could get their new size. 

Tony Loyd:  

And so how does it work? I mean, if I get a capsule, let’s say I’ve got somebody who’s now in three T am I buying it and my do I return it? You know, if I get things that I go, that’s not really for me. Do I send it back? I mean, how does that work? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Yeah, so first we call it a capsule because like a capsule wardrobe in fashion is like your everyday clothing. Your essential items that you can mix and match. So, we’re really in that space. You know you’re not getting like fancy dresses or anything. It’s this stuff that kids are going to wear and play in every day. We allow our customers to give us style preferences for their box before we send it out. They can say things like, back to the hand me down thing, “I don’t need any pajamas. Please don’t send me pajamas.” Or, “My daughter doesn’t like anything that has flowers on it.” Whatever it might be. So we do try to do some curation beforehand, so the box is really matched to the customer. 

And then our customers pay a monthly membership fee. We have two sizes. They pay $24.00 a month for seven items or $39.00 a month for 15 items. Once they receive it, it’s up to them. They can keep them items as long as they want. Or they can exchange them as often as they want. We send a prepaid shipping bag with our box, and whenever the customers are ready, they just put the clothes back in and send it back to us. 

Tony Loyd:  

OK, so it’s a monthly fee. If some parent gets the stuff and they don’t send it back to you, it’s still the same monthly fee. They have a choice. They can either just keep it, maybe give it to a neighbor. Or, maybe it becomes stained and they have to discard it or whatever. Or they can just send it back and you can figure it out.  

Do you ever get things that you go, “We didn’t send you that”?  

Lauren Gregor:  

Yes we which we encourage. 

We have a donation campaign that you can fill out on our website. 

For our customers, they can send us back other clothing items that their kids have grown out of and we will reuse that clothing as well as we can in our capsules. For customers that give us donations, we give them a credit on their next month subscription We also pay for shipping. So if anybody else is just trying to do a closet clean out and has lots of kids’ clothes laying around, we will send you shipping labels and you can send it on to us also for a credit. 

Tony Loyd:  

Were you interested in like the fashion industry at all or clothing? Were you interested in that or is this more the mom thing? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Not interested in fashion at all. My career has been in education and in transportation, so public sector, but I care about the environment. I think that’s where it came from. 

 I saw this as being a solution that you could solve for parents, which is what my experience is now. You know that’s what I’m in. 

Tony Loyd:  

And when you think about the environmental impact, how are you tracking that? Are you thinking about how many pieces of clothing don’t have to be manufactured now or how? How do you think about your environmental impact?? 

Lauren Gregor:  

That’s a really interesting question because there’s so many different points you could attack this problem really in fashion, and I think there’s companies out there today that are coming like from the source trying to solve the source consumption, responsible manufacturing, organic cotton. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Organic brand and I think that’s very important, but we’re trying to solve the problem more at the other end of the landfill problem. So one thing is we want to reuse clothing. As long as we possibly can and really extend the life of clothing an one way we can do that is. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Just by reusing so a lot of our clothing now has gone through for families. It’s pure because the kids grow out of it. You can’t reuse it within your own household, but other people can. So that’s one way we’ve been trying to do it, and also just divert from landfill. So we are working right now on partnerships where we either then donate the clothing. 

Lauren Gregor:  

So we’re getting a further extension of the life, or we’re working with companies to help recycle and upcycle that material back into new clothing or other product. 

Lauren Gregor:  

So we’re at the tail end trying to help with that problem, and I think as we grow we can then start to influence that problem from the source as well. 

Tony Loyd:  

Approximately when did you first say I’m going to launch his business and do this thing when when did you get your first capsules together and do that? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Well, I first started in August of 2019, so a year ago. 

Lauren Gregor:  

And that was buying the domain. Printing a business card and going around and talking as if the business existed and and seeing what the reaction was. And then we started sending the very first capsules in October of last year and it took me a little bit of time and I think October through December January was really. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Just run as fast as we can and learn as fast as we can. So it was like how much is packaging gonna cost? How much is shipping gonna cost? Where do we get the clothes? What do people want in their box? So it was a lot of learning really fast to then we did a wider launch in March of 2020. 

Tony Loyd:  

Where did the first clothes come from that you sent? 

Tony Loyd:  

People. 

Lauren Gregor:  

So the very first clothes came from anywhere that I could find, like clearance markdown 80% ouf. So we had some clothes from Old Navy from gap from Target. Like everywhere that I could physically get to a store and get clothes that were drastically markdown. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Right, so there wasn’t really any brand preference at that point, it was just let me find how inexpensively I can get close. 

Tony Loyd:  

So you get those first packages out. How did that evolve from there then? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Yeah, so at first we only launched with one size of capsule, so we had one that was 15 items. Some of our customers came back and said that’s way too much clothes. 

Lauren Gregor:  

You know I already have an older daughter who’s having some stuff down, so from that we evolved and then added this. The second capsule size, which we call just the essentials, and that’s only 7. So that was really based on feedback from her customers. Since then we’ve evolved in terms of like just how we package. We had a lot of customers that were coming back with concerns about. 

Lauren Gregor:  

I don’t know which items are yours and which items are ours. 

Lauren Gregor:  

So we started adding barcode labels to every single item that indicates one. It’s good for us for inventory, but to the customer and they can physically see on the item of clothing that it’s a rent, a wrapper item, and we started adding in a shape with every package that shows photos of every item that they have in their box. 

Lauren Gregor:  

So they can, you know, pin that on the fridge or put it wherever. And no, this is what I need to send. 

Tony Loyd:  

Back you said you initially went down to target wherever an you found the least expensive items you can get, and you started sort of feeding this machine. Is that still how you’re getting your clothes? 

Lauren Gregor:  

No. So now we have several wholesale partnerships. 

Lauren Gregor:  

So we have partnerships with Gerber childrenswear. We have partnership with Oliver and rain baby sprouts, so we’re starting to get a lot of clothing now at larger scale, which is very helpful and definitely helping us to sort of reach into that higher quality product and keep the cost down. 

Lauren Gregor:  

So we’re trying to build out that wholesale list as much as we possibly can, but there are days where I’m trying to pull it together. I’m trying to scrap things together so we carry sizes all the way from newborn to 40. 

Lauren Gregor:  

But I I can’t tell you today. Like if a customer signs up and they’re going to order 3T girls and ask for something really specific. And I might go to the inventory shelves and things. Actually, we only have 3 feet boys right now. So there are days because we’re still growing and we’re still so scrappy still. 

Lauren Gregor:  

But then I have to run out to the store, find some places to, you know, get the items that I might need to put a capsule together. But when I do that, there’s a part of me that still thinks. 

Lauren Gregor:  

You know one where I’m starting a business like this is what happens, but it also feel like at least I’m going to the store and making this happen an for this person and they don’t have to do that. 

Tony Loyd:  

You mentioned I go to the shelf. So where are those shelves? So you don’t have a warehouse somewhere, do you? 

Lauren Gregor:  

No, so I mean I mentioned we’re in the middle of moving my families in the middle of moving. We’re now in our third place since I’ve started this business and we’re staying temporarily at a friends home, so it’s actually at the moment in plastic containers. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Spread out all over the dining room and hopefully in a few weeks when we move in, it will. The garage will be transformed to the new rent romper warehouse. 

Tony Loyd:  

So you first of all you have good friends. 

Tony Loyd:  

If you if you have friends that not only allow you to come and stay with them temporarily in the middle of a pandemic, but they also let you take over their dining room for your for your business, that’s a good friend. You you need to hang up that friend, so you’re describing how you first got started you. 

Tony Loyd:  

How did you find the first sets of moms that were going to participate in the in the Rent-a-Romper? 

Lauren Gregor:  

The first side we had about 10 customers an they were either friends of mine or or friends of friends. For the most part. 

Lauren Gregor:  

At the beginning we also got a few customers through Instagram. I started a profile pretty much right away and started showing some pictures and asking people if they message me if they were interested. So we did get a couple of customers that message me directly through Instagram. 

Tony Loyd:  

You get this, you know 10 moms. This is like the fall of 2019. 

Tony Loyd:  

You start to get a few other people and then March of 2020. It’s not the same thing as as March of 2019, so so talk about that that time, right? 

Lauren Gregor:  

There so October to December was really just learning sending things out, getting feedback from our customers. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Figuring out what the true costs were actually gonna be, and in the December of 2019 I applied for a grant and one a grant through the Cocokind Foundation that really helped. Then in January for me to get our website really set up to go wider and have a real launch. 

Lauren Gregor:  

So in January and February I continued working with those same moms and if friends or other people were interested, we added people. You know, invoicing through QuickBooks, doing everything very, very manually an all through Instagram. Only communication was through Instagram. Then in March getting the website ready. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Getting, you know, making sure that the subscriptions and renewal and all those processes were working on line. We were able to launch an introduce our new size of capsule an and sort of go wider and begin. You know, really talking about the business, knowing that we had a place for people to go buy it. We launched in March 2 weeks before the. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Pandemic. 

Tony Loyd:  

I’m sorry to laugh. I I get this I. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Think you just can’t make it up? This kind of stuff, right? 

Tony Loyd:  

No, no no. So you you you got this grant, you’re also. You’re probably just taking your own money and putting into it, right? Yes, you’re in the middle of shifting houses. You’re you’re in your third housing situation. You’re trying to figure out how to. 

Tony Loyd:  

Pay for housing and an move and and take care of a family and fund this thing. Did you? Did you go out and pitch for investment with anybody? 

Lauren Gregor:  

At that time I have it I I’m trying to do so now. My husband and I had really already been thinking about moving. But you know this is pre pandemic so we figured out we will put our house on the market so we did and we sold our house in February in part of that conversation there was conversation about from our. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Sale of our home. We can invest some of this into the company, so we’ve been doing that. And then of course, you know we thought oh will run for a little while. Will keep the kids here and the school pandemic then happened so things have shifted a little bit, but I think I’m really grateful. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Have the partner that I have in him and he’s been really willing to put our own financial earnings and things on the line for the company so. 

Tony Loyd:  

You were getting these first customers, not just online, but you were also attending like some mom group things, right? 

Lauren Gregor:  

In March, because of the pandemic we had been. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Planning to go to all of these tradeshows like Mom Expo various things, all which were canceled. Yeah so at that time I just had this sort of pivot and try to figure out a way to reach out to people. There have been some of those type of expose that have gone virtually since then so we have attended. 

Lauren Gregor:  

An you know done like the Facebook live talking about a product to moms then trying to get customers that way as well and then the other ways we’ve just been doing it are trying like Locali with daycare centers. Or you know local mom groups trying to talk about the product and really give people discounts and. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Let them try it out before they really commit. 

Tony Loyd:  

Are you part of the grid 110 accelerator? Is that right? 

Lauren Gregor:  

I’ve participated in grid one time this spring, so we just finished up the spring cohort and that was an amazing program, and especially as a solo founder, you know out on your own trying to do this, and in a pandemic where you don’t have a lot of. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Community around you. That was an amazing program to help me really get plans put together and get a lot of feedback really quickly on how we were running the business. 

Tony Loyd:  

What do you think’s been most rewarding on your journey so far? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Two things I think personally for me. 

Lauren Gregor:  

I love a challenge and this has been the most challenging thing. Probably I’ve tried to do in Mycareer so as frustrating as it can be and it’s like all the ups and downs that come with it. I just really love it trying to solve the next problem. Trying to make things work. 

Lauren Gregor:  

But I think from like the wider business perspective, to see the response and the interest that people have in sustainability and in influencing a new way of consuming is been really promising. And I think in a place where you know the last few years we’ve been. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Exactly the way you think it’s gonna happen, then it’ll take too long or you’ll never do it. So I think just starting small and trying things out as fast as you can is really important and just learn and change and adapt. So just go for it. 

Tony Loyd:  

Just go for it. You should. You should trademark that. 

Tony Loyd:  

Just go for it so you know people are gonna hear this conversation an they’re gonna say you know what I love. Love, love this idea and whether they have kids or they don’t have kids, you know they’re going to say I love this idea. I gotta tell somebody about it. So what can people do to help spread the word about this? 

Lauren Gregor:  

I think sharing it as much as you possibly can with friends and family and anybody you know that. 

Lauren Gregor:  

You know is have has young children. Our website isrentromper.com anwer on Instagram at rent romper. Just share as much as you possibly can with people that have families or you know people that are just interested in a new way of consuming. 

Tony Loyd:  

And renter upper. There’s no hyphens in there in the URL, right, so? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Not in the URL, just yes. 

Lauren Gregor:  

Great altogether. 

Tony Loyd:  

Right, and so they could find you online at rentaromper.com, or Rent-a-Romper on Instagram or other social media. So a call to action. What would you call on us to go and do as a result of this conversation? 

Lauren Gregor:  

Sort of with the Just go for it. There’s a lot of things that. 

Lauren Gregor:  

I get frustrated with when you think about our earth and our climate circumstances at the moment, and my feeling is that as an individual or as a family or as a city, whatever it might be, we’re not going to become like the best, most sustainable people overnight.