When I suggested creating a New Zealand-made menstrual cup, it was our lightbulb moment because it worked for us on so many levels. Menstrual cups have been around for a while (they were actually invented in the 1930s) but have never been marketed particularly well.
Mary is a registered nurse so her extensive medical knowledge combined with my background in journalism, PR and marketing has allowed us to develop a business which we are very proud of by making them accessible to a more mainstream market.
We have a lot of fun with our marketing and women have really responded to that. It's a bit of a cliche I know but despite the fact I'm working 16-hour days at the moment it doesn't feel like work.
The Hello Cup is an amazing product and the response we've had from women has been so overwhelmingly positive. We've received ''thank you'' emails that have made me cry.
We say it's a game changer because it really is. Each year Kiwi women spend $250 on sanitary products. A single Hello Cup costs $49 and lasts five years.
More than 7 billion tampons and pads go into landfills globally each year and take at least 500 year to break down. It's shocking. Menstrual cups hold three times more than tampons and are reusable for years. We think they are a no-brainer.
What help/advise have you be able to receive from start-up incubators?
None. I'm more of a follow-your-heart person and so is Mary.
We have friends who own and are involved in other amazing Kiwi businesses such as Good Nature and Coffee Supreme so we tap into them when we need to - but I think it's really important to follow your gut instinct.
No one knows your product like you do. We are lucky enough to have found an talented local designer to help with our branding and also an amazing woman who help us with events such as university orientations. So the team we have built around us already feel like family and we respect the knowledge everyone we work with brings to the table.
How are you overcoming challenges of production/ manufacturing costs for your products?
Yes, there is an outlay to get started but, again, because we really believed in what we were producing, we were confident it would succeed and the risk was minimal.
We've already proven that to ourselves just two months into business. The challenge for us now is growing to keep up with demand and how we get into the international market.
I love that we can manufacture Hello Cups in Napier. I can pop out to the factory and see them being made and talk directly to the team there about any issues. The team is based in Onekawa and they are so great to work with.
We knew they were good sorts when we pitched the idea to the manager who was a good Kiwi bloke. He hadn't heard of menstrual cups before but he didn't raise an eyebrow. In fact he sent us an email afterwards saying he thought they sounded great. Each Hello Cup is made by a guy called Charlie - he takes it very seriously which we are grateful for.
Your product range is selling solely online, was this a calculated gamble?
We did set out to be just an online business but we have since been approached by retailers wanting to stock our product. For us the most important thing is for women to discover Hello Cups so in Hawke's Bay you can now purchase our cups from Homebase Collections in Napier and Gilmours Pharmacy in Havelock as well as the cool new pop-up Kiwi / Italian store Effetto Brama on Joll Rd.
As long as our retailers are as passionate about Hello Cups and are comfortable talking to their customers about the benefits cups offer, then we are happy.
What measures of success are you hoping to achieve, and by when?
For us one of the key measures of success has been the feedback from women. It's very humbling to be able to help women who have experienced medical issues and are unsure whether they can even use a menstrual cup.
As a nurse Mary can talk to them from an informed perspective and our customers respond with such kindness and gratitude. That for us is success.
Of course we want world domination too - but that is driven by our belief in the Hello Cup and the benefits it offers rather than by money.
We only launched two months ago. Last week we brought out a new range - the Hello Cup FIT - which is slightly firmer than the original and next month we plan to launch a Hello Cup Teen - a smaller ''starter'' cup to encourage younger women to use a Hello Cup from the get go.
If a girl starts using a menstrual cup early, she can potentially save herself close to $20,000 in period-related costs over the duration of her menstrual years.
