Your One Big Break with Clevr Blends’ Hannah Mendoza
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Who is Meghan and what is her connection to female entrepreneurship?
I'm Megan. This is Confessions of a Female Founder, a show where I chat with female entrepreneurs and friends about the sleepless nights, the lessons learned, and the laser focus that got them to where they are today. Business doesn't work unless people believe in you. Your team, your investors, your customers. So much of entrepreneurship is convincing people that your vision is worth their time and their money. And when I think about big milestones for my own business with As Ever, I mean, Netflix coming on as my business partner, huge. Just having a global powerhouse that believed in me and the site selling out in the first 45 minutes of launch, everything, every single piece that we had been working on, that told me that customers, people believed in me and this vision. That's all you really want as a founder. That becomes your proof point that those late nights and the midnight musings are worth it.
And that's how I felt when I met today's guest, Hannah Mendoza. I saw her vision and I fully believed in it. And more importantly...
I saw through the fact that I came to our first meeting practically barefoot and still believed that I could run a successful company.
Hannah Mendoza started on her founder journey young and ambitious and knowing exactly who she was. She co-founded the instant latte business Clever Blends with Roger Coppola when she was just 28 years old. And shortly after that, well, that's when I met her and I asked if I could invest in her company. In fact, Hannah was the first person I ever invested in, and I was her very first investor.
How did Hannah Mendoza start her journey with Clevr Blends?
I am so excited for you to hear how our stories intertwine and what we've learned from each other along the way. Let's get into it. Hi. Hello. So as opposed to starting with just where it all began for you, I want to start with where we first met. Do you remember?
Of course. Of course I remember. I mean, it was probably the biggest thing I'd done at that point, coming to a house and meeting with you. I remember being... Kind of in a disbelief at the situation I was in. It felt like only yesterday that I was working on our website during the day and working at a pizza restaurant in Oakland at nighttime and doing events on the weekend. Honestly, we were still actually very much in that very early phase when we met. And I'm really grateful that you were actually able to... you know, see the potential in something that, frankly, at the time was, it was still very much in its infancy.
The funniest thing about it is I had never invested in something before. So I had received a gift basket from my friend Drew. Had I just had my baby or I was pregnant? I think you were still pregnant. I don't think you'd had Lily yet. Yes. So it would have been at the beginning of that year. And then months later is when I, yeah. So you saw me when I was very pregnant and my friend sent over this gift basket filled with an assortment of products that he thought I would like. No skin in the game. He just said, you know, I know that you are attuned to and like Ayurvedic things. I know that, oh yeah, that would make sense. I know that you're pregnant and these things might be helpful during this stage of pregnancy.
And one of the things within this big basket was this product. And I said, a turmeric latte? You just add water? Okay. And I tried it, and I looked at the back. I said, who is this person? And then I started trying to dig into, like, what is this company? But it's so bizarre because I had never – I didn't have a portfolio at the time. I didn't have a roster of female founders that I invested in.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Who is Meghan and what is her connection to female entrepreneurship?
1:37–3:45
2
How did Hannah Mendoza start her journey with Clevr Blends?
3:45–7:29
3
What was Meghan's first impression of Hannah and her product?
7:29–8:13
4
Why did Hannah Mendoza move to California and how did it influence her?
8:13–12:58
5
How did Hannah transition from a non-commercial lifestyle to entrepreneurship?
12:58–18:43
6
How did Clevr Blends gain significant traction?
18:43–46:22
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Confessions of a Female Founder with Meghan
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Attaining the Unattainable with IT Cosmetics’ Jamie Kern Lima
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