H@H: Ep 7 – host Paulina Lee interviews Lindsey Hoell (EW MBA ‘21). Lindsey spent over 10 years as a cardiovascular perfusionist, during which time she fell in love with surfing and started a women’s surfwear company, Kinda Fancy. Following her job and passion, she landed in Hawaii for a few years, at which point she saw the horrific impact of single-use plastics on our oceans. Seeing a need for a system overhaul, Lindsey decided to return to school at Haas, launching her current start-up, Dispatch Goods.
Episode Quotes:
On what she learned from her first start-up – “By the time that we got far enough along, I realized, I needed to listen more. We’d been working for too hard for too long without that breakthrough moment that I was losing my team. And so that was, that was a hard-learned lesson, but a really valuable one.”
On how COVID has impacted Dispatch Goods– “The first couple of weeks were honestly pretty devastating because we were literally getting to the light at the end of the tunnel… Everything was coming together. I heard a quote this morning, (it) said that investors used to want a unicorn and now they want a camel. And so, we have to think about things differently. It’s not growth, growth, growth. It’s can you have a profitable business model that will sustain you through the next 24 months.”
On building her team – “If you ask people to help you push your car, nobody will pull over and help you push your car. But if people see you pushing your car, everyone wants to pull over and help you push your car. And I feel like people just see us pushing this car and like how desperately we want this car pushed.”
On surfing – “Ocean beach is you against the elements in the rawest way that I’ve ever experienced. I feel like you have to focus so hard on fighting the difficult paddle out and all of the elements in the cold that there’s no way that you can worry about anything else in your life.”
Show Links:
- LinkedIn: Lindsey Hoell
- Dispatch Goods
- Instagram: Dispatch Goods
- UPDATE: Since our interview, Dispatch Goods has launched new partnerships with local eateries and cafes around SF – order today!
- Surfrider Foundation
- How I Built This
- Pod Save America
Looking for other stories of Haasies? Visit our website OneHaas.org or check out the OneHaas Alumni podcast. Please subscribe and leave us a rating & review. Don’t forget to share your favorite episodes with a fellow bear!
Transcript:
[00:00:00 ] Paulina: I’m Paulina Lee, and this is here@haas, the podcast that shares the stories of all MBA Haasies and the faculty that changed our lives. This week, we are joined by Lindsey Hoell, class of 2021 from the EDW MBA program and CEO of Dispatched Goods. Welcome, Lindsey. Thanks for coming on the show.
[00:00:25] Lindsey: Thank you so much, Paulina. It’s really exciting to be here.
[00:00:28] Paulina: How’s your week been going?
[00:00:29] Lindsey: You know, the days kind of blend together, so forget that you’re getting close to the weekend, but this week is, I think, better than we felt like we were three weeks ago, so that’s good.
[00:00:40] Paulina: Great. Well, you have a super interesting background. You’re originally from Ohio. You earned an undergraduate degree in biology from Ohio State, and you’re now at Haas and a CEO. I would love for you to share a little bit more about your background and your journey.
[00:00:56] Lindsey: Yeah. I started out actually like pre-med healthcare at Ohio State and always wanted to move to California and become a surfer. I only applied to jobs in California after I graduated and started surfing pretty immediately while working in the cardiac or as a perfusionist, which is a very small career path that’s little known outside the clinical world. Basically, it means that I ran the heart lung machine during open heart surgery and so I did that for 10 years while traveling and surfing a lot. And during that time, I found that there wasn’t a very good bikini for women who surfed.
[00:01:38] Because there were like one-pieces, and then there were bikinis that fell off. My sister was a fashion designer by trade, so I pitched the idea to her and I was like, we got to create a better bikini. The whole idea was that it was a bikini that would stay on when you’re surfing and also had a pocket because when I traveled, I never had a place for, it was usually beer money.
[00:01:58] Lindsey: Boys always had like a pocket in their board shorts. And I’m like, we need bikinis with pockets. So that’s what we designed. We designed surf bikinis with pockets. And that was my first company.
[00:02:09] It took me to Hawaii. And, I still was working as a perfusionist, but we ran, Kind of Fancy was the name of the surf bikini company for about four years. My sister had her first kid, and our revenue is like, I don’t know, 30 to 50 grand a year. So, it was nothing to really get us to a place where we could quit our jobs.
[00:02:27] But I fell in love with entrepreneurship. While I was living in Hawaii, I saw the impact of microplastics on the beaches in places where it was so evident that it wasn’t from basically beachgoers. It was actually what’s turning up in our oceans. And it terrified me. I started to get involved with the Surfrider Foundation.
[00:02:48] They were starting up a program called Ocean Friendly Restaurants, which helped restaurants transition to more sustainable practices. I asked, Hey, I’m closing my company. I need a new project. And they let me run this new program. And in Hawaii was a pilot location for the Surfrider program.
[00:03:06] And so I kind of fell in love with the environmental movement and specifically how the restaurant industry can contribute to solutions or inhibit solutions in a lot of ways. With that, I decided that I wanted to go back to school to help solve this problem in some way. I only applied to Haas because I figured if there’s going to be a sustainability company, it needed to start in Berkeley.
[00:03:32] We were the first community to start curbside recycling. Yeah, came back to school to assemble a team and try to figure this out. I wasn’t sure if I was going to go the entrepreneurial route or if I would just work for another company that could help solve this problem.
[00:03:48] That’s how I landed at a Haas.
[00:03:51] Paulina: That’s amazing. And I love that idea of bikinis with pockets.
[00:03:55] Paulina: Tell me a little bit more about Kind of Fancy. You said it was the company that really gave you your entrepreneur bug. What was the biggest thing that you learned from starting that company?
[00:04:06] Lindsey: Yeah, so it was really fun because my sister was a fashion designer. She was working at Converse and then she moved to San Francisco. My brother is a digital designer. He now works at Facebook and I found the culture of the company was 100% like our family humor.
[00:04:22] My brother was our model and he’s like a really burly, bearded dude, but he kept saying, whenever I put on a bikini, we have the highest click through rates.
[00:04:34] Paulina: That’s great.
[00:04:36] Lindsey: People loved him. Like, Oh, my gosh, it was so much fun. I learned how fun this startup can be because if the culture is fun, it makes it not feel like work. The other thing I learned the hard way in that is assessing a market size. Our market was girls with urban style who surf. We targeted San Francisco and New York, and the female surf community in those two cities, which is so small. We felt like we nailed that market. And I think we did. We sold all the surf shops in San Francisco and then someone you work in Southern California and then in Hawaii.
[00:05:16] And I think that we really appeal to that customer, but the market size was too small and we kept hearing the greater need of surf women in those communities, which was, we want to know where to surf. We want inside knowledge on how to learn to surf. And I ignored it because I wanted to solve this problem for me, and I didn’t care about whether it was a real business. By the time that we got far enough along that, I realized I needed to listen more. We’d been working for too hard for too long without that breakthrough moment that I was losing my team. And so that was a hard-learned lesson, but a really valuable one.
[00:05:55] Paulina: And you moved to Hawaii while still working on Kind of Fancy?
[00:05:59] Lindsey: So, I still was working as a perfusionist. I got a job offer. My husband and I met in Nicaragua. He was running a surf resort and I was down there. I was volunteering at a clinic for three months. He had just moved to San Francisco and it was a little tough for him. But I, soon after, got recruited by this job in Hawaii and I was like, this seems perfect. So, we ended up there for two and a half years.
[00:06:24] Paulina: That’s great. Tell me a little bit more how you got involved with Surf Riders.
[00:06:28] Lindsey: Basically, we were hiking; we were on a vacation in Hawaii. We were visiting like one of the sister islands, and my husband’s mom was there. She works for Oceana and they’ve been involved with Surfrider forever. We were hiking to this really remote beach on coy. We got down to pass the cliff as we’re hiking down. And the sand looked like it was rainbow colored. And I was like, this is crazy. And when we got close, his mom was like, no, that’s not sand. That’s microplastics. And so, you pick up the sand and it was super colorful because it was plastic and not sand. And I was like, Oh my God.
[00:07:09] And so after that, my husband got me a Surfrider membership for Christmas. And then after I started going to meetings, I was hooked and I was like, we have to solve these problems. This plastic waste is huge. And another thing is coming from the Bay area, I feel like we rely so heavily on our government to solve our problems for us.
[00:07:30] We take it for granted that most of we’re not getting that much plastic. Styrofoam is gone. It’s a lot of compostable. We feel as though they have our backs in a way. And in Hawaii, the policy really had lagged. There was still a ton of styrofoam and a ton of plastic bags. I was at least trying to get them up to the standard of the Bay area.
[00:07:52] But then after I started uncovering the truth about some compostable and how they’re actually ending up in landfills, I realized even what we were doing in the Bay area wasn’t enough.
[00:08:03] Paulina: No, that’s really shocking too. I feel like seeing it firsthand is so different than all these news articles about that plastic island somewhere out there that we hear about, but we don’t necessarily see every day. So even just seeing it, I can see why that would be just like super impactful. And so that was kind of your Aha! moment that you were like, I want to go back to school and I want to help solve this problem.
[00:08:30] Lindsey: Yeah, pretty much. I think that living in Hawaii and getting involved with Surfrider ignited my activist spirit and my entrepreneurial spirit. I think it had already been ignited and I was like, all right, let’s put these together. It helped kind of me have a direction. I didn’t know how it was all going to come together, but I started basically studying for the GMAT and getting ready for what was going to be my next steps.
[00:08:55] Paulina: You only applied to Haas, you got in obviously. Was there anything when you arrived on campus and that first semester or in that first year that surprised you about Haas?
[00:09:06] Lindsey: I remember on the, what is it, WE Launch? They gave us all reusable water bottles that had a QR code on them, and you could count how many water bottles you saved. And then we, then there’s no trash bins at Chou Hall. And I was like, I couldn’t be anywhere else in the world.
[00:09:22] This is the only place for me. Yeah. I mean that that was the biggest impact for me. I mean, there’s still room for growth, like in a lot of things at Berkeley when it comes to waste, but it helped me feel really stoked that they were heading in the right direction.
[00:09:43] Paulina: Totally. I think that was a big shock to me. Just that, no waste out of Chou Hall. It’s amazing.
[00:09:50] Lindsey: Yeah.
[00:09:51] My co-founder, Jessica, she was the student lead on designing that. I found her after the fact. But I’m like, Jessica, you’re making an impact on so many people. It’s amazing.
[00:10:03] Paulina: I love that. So, let’s talk about Dispatch Goods. How did it get started? How did you meet Jessica? How has it really come together for you?
[00:10:12] Lindsey: Jessica was working on her master’s, not at Haas. And, one of my classmates told me about the StEP program and he’s like, you got to apply. For the last few years, I guess there was a period in between, like when I was applying to schools, I started working in medical device sales rather than as a perfusionist because there’s no way you can go back to school as a perfusionist because you take call so there’s no predetermined schedules. I started selling stuff I used to use and I was away on a work trip with my medical device job. And at the same time, my classmate was sending me this thing about StEP. My husband had built a website that represented this idea I’d been talking about for a year, which was a reusable coffee cup system.
[00:10:58] And I came home from my work trip and it had come to life because once it’s a website, it feels like a thing that exists in the world, even though we had no idea what this could be or how this would work. So, after that, Henry, my classmate, pushed me to go to one of the StEP info sessions and then I pitched Dispatch in that and we ended up getting into that program.
[00:11:19] So that was really how it got kickstarted. And so, it was me and my husband at that point. And then we are looking for a team and trying to recruit engineers and nobody cares. The whole idea of StEP is to pair MBA students with the engineers and that nobody wanted to be on our team I guess. We did get this lawyer.
[00:11:39] He’s awesome. He’s back in Germany now, but he helped us at the beginning. Through the StEP program, I just started poking my head around Berkeley and Jessica’s name kept coming up. Everyone was like, you got to talk to Jessica. And so, I got connected with Jessica and at the same time that I was meeting with her, I’d been doing a bunch of interviews with restaurants and cafes about their needs and this coffee cup idea I had.
[00:12:00] And they all said the same thing, which was the landscape is changing. You need to tackle food delivery. Everything is moving to take out and delivery. And so, when I met Jessica, Jessica was launching a pilot at Cafe Think with reasonable takeout containers and basically having an expanded dining area.
[00:12:19] And so I met her and had one meeting with her. And then I think I emailed her later that week and said, hey, I want you to be a cofounder. And she’s way more rational than me and wanted to think about it and learn more. But she, I don’t know, within the next week did come on board, which was awesome.
[00:12:40] She and I pitched at demo day at the STeP program together and we ended up winning the STeP competition.
[00:12:48] Paulina: That’s awesome. I’m not as familiar with the StEP program, so can you give me a little bit more background on how it works and what the StEP competition is like.
[00:12:57] Lindsey: Yeah. So basically, I can’t remember how many people by the StEP, it was like maybe 180 and then we got consolidated down to like, I forget, 20 or 30 teams. They call it the StEP before launch. So, with the launch program that might be more well known. StEP kind of helped you with the early stages and the team formation because they found that the different schools weren’t communicating with each other. It’s kind of creating an ecosystem to make the teams that you need. And so that was the idea. But it was really helpful. Like every Friday they had, I think it’s work credits if you’re a full-time student, but evening weekend it wasn’t. I think that’s since been changed. But essentially, week by week, they let us through the full kind of startup processes and it really helped me form the business as it was. We changed from coffee cups to food delivery containers. And then that’s what we pitched.
[00:13:50] The demo day was, I think we all competed and the top 10 teams got to pitch in front of the larger audience, which was 150 people and investors. And, you know, Skydeck was there. And I think some of the other Berkeley VC funds were there. And then, yeah, so we won that.
[00:14:07] Because of that, we got to meet with other investors and other things grew from it. But it was also a validation of our idea, because honestly, I just wanted to make it to the top 10 so that I could tell the world about reusables.
[00:14:22] Paulina: When was the demo day?
[00:14:25] Lindsey: I think it was May of last year.
[00:14:29] Paulina: And then how has Dispatched Goods evolved since then?
[00:14:33] Lindsey: So, after demo day or right about that same time, we got in touch with Door Dash and started talking to them about like, Hey, we should do this. I mean, we didn’t have anything. We had some containers we bought off the internet and then we put a sticker on and then this idea and no tech, we’re just a website and we’re like, we should do the system.
[00:14:57] We’re like, what is something that’s a little simpler but could help us learn a lot?
[00:15:02] And so we pitched to Yelp, their green team, that they’re our test audience where they tell us what restaurants they eat at, and we put our containers in those restaurants. And then Yelp employees could order through Door Dash or however else and request our containers when they’re getting their lunch to go, because there’s not a cafeteria at the Yelp headquarters and the Yelp was all about it.
[00:15:26] They’re stoked. And so, Door Dash was supposed to come on as a partner and all of that, but the issue was that nobody at Yelp uses Door Dash. They either order in person or they order through meal pallor ritual. So, what happened in the pilot, which ended up launching in October because we had to get go through the health department and do a bunch of other things, like try to figure out what containers we’re using and get restaurants on board.
[00:15:52] It basically ended up that most people were just ordering in person and requesting a dispatch container. After StEP, we went through the Sustainable Ocean Alliance Accelerator, and we got a little bit of funding from them. And then launched right after that demo day, we launched with the Yelp headquarters with their employees and four restaurants in downtown. That was really as a bridge to figuring out the food delivery space of all of this, like how this was going to work, how our dish washing process would work, which containers work.
[00:16:24] We tested a few different containers, but at our restaurant partners, we had little signs that said, Hey, if you’re a Yelp employee, ask for a reusable. And what happened was a bunch of other companies downtown started contacting us to see if they could offer the service for their employees.
[00:16:39] And we’re like, oh man, I think we accidentally fell into product market fit. And so, we spent the next few months trying to figure out what this service would cost, how much it would cost for us to cover it had, and how we could expand. And then we were set to launch with some big partners in March. They’re paid contracts and then the world exploded.
[00:17:05] So, yeah, I mean, we’re hopeful that those will come back, but obviously we’ve had some challenges since then. We are pretty excited about; I think a pivot that we are going to take pretty quickly. Because this takes us back to our original goal, which was to tackle food delivery.
[00:17:23] We’d found our way into a profitable business model quickly. And the food delivery space in people’s homes, it’s a little bit trickier to figure out how to create the density needed for this model to work. But we think we’re getting close.
[00:17:39] Paulina: Got it. So, pre-Covid kind of the focus was in-restaurant pickup, kind of almost working with a lot of bigger companies in downtown San Francisco. And now with the current conditions, you’re refocused again on more food delivery, individual consumers in their homes.
[00:17:57] Lindsey: Exactly. So, yeah, we basically, at the Yelp headquarters, we’d put like our bright pink bins on every floor and we call it fourth bin. So, you have your trash, compost, and recycling, and then you have your dispatch reasonable bin. And so, we’re trying to create the fourth bin concept at home.
[00:18:11] One of our large company partners, they were going to be paying us for the service this month. And when this all happened, they said, you know, we’ll continue to pay you because we have a contract with you.
[00:18:21] And I said, that doesn’t further our mission. Our mission is to reduce single use containers. So, let me figure out a product we can offer you and then I’ll let you pay us. And so, we are now offering like a pizza day for their employees. So, we have a pizza partner and we’re going to be providing reasonable containers for pizza delivery once a week for their employees.
[00:18:44] So, it’s pretty exciting.
[00:18:45] Paulina: That’s amazing. How else has the coven current economic conditions affected the way you look at your business model and the way that your team has operated?
[00:18:56] Lindsey: Yeah, the first couple of weeks were honestly pretty devastating because we were literally getting to the light at the end of the tunnel, a year of hard work and no revenue. Everything was coming together. I heard a quote this morning and the chief innovation officer said that investors used to want a unicorn and now they want a camel.
[00:19:14] And so, we have to think about things differently. It’s not growth, growth, growth. It’s, can you have a profitable business model that will sustain you through the next 24 months. So, that’s completely changed. We did a smaller raise that’s continence to where we are.
[00:19:29] And then we had a larger, raise plan for in six months, and we’ll see if that’s possible. But we are trying to lower our burn rate as you know, to be as small as possible. And then when we think about new projects and new pilots, we have to think about, is this going to be a profitable business model quickly.
[00:19:53] We cannot wait until we have density and scale and how much will this cost us to pull off because even if we can show traction and profitability, there’s still no guarantee that we’re going to have funding. So, it’s completely changed the way our strategy is. The bonus that we have working in the sustainability space is other startups might struggle to keep people focused on this. But all of us on the team are so determined about this mission that this is our life even if all of us had to take part time jobs for the next year, we’re not going to leave this mission and what the actual business will look like might change.
[00:20:34] And we have some, I think, pretty fun new products that we’re testing. This batch is going to be working to eliminate single use waste for a long time.
[00:20:45] Paulina: And I think that’s just such an inspiring message too. I think when we think about the current economic conditions, there’s a lot of negative, but it’s encouraging to hear even with the challenges that you’ve faced, you’re still able to push forward and still able to find partners and kind of keep pushing this mission and this inspiring business forward.
[00:21:06] Lindsey: I feel so lucky sometimes because I mean we’ve had a lot of people that have been helping out and not as like paid employees. We had a call with an investor last week and they’re like, how do you guys get these partners? And part of me, I’m like, I don’t really know that. The only thing I can think of is this, like old Chris rock stand up.
[00:21:28] And he talks about how if you ask people to help you push your car, nobody will pull over and help you push your car. But if people see you pushing your car, everyone wants to pull over and help you push your car. And I feel like people just see us pushing this car and how desperately we want this car pushed.
[00:21:45] And so people are like, all right, like we’ll help them push the car. And I think, yeah, I think that’s been the essence of Dispatch Goods.
[00:21:55] Paulina: That’s a great analogy. And speaking of which, you do have an impressive team at Dispatch Goods that have been helping you through the process. How did you go about building that team and building that tribe to surround you in your business?
[00:22:08] Lindsey: Yeah, I mean Jessica, I kind of pitched it to and a lot of the follow on, like Maya, who’s come from Caviar. She heard me pitch at the battery. We had like a shark tank and she was like, how can I help you? And she actually came on as a pitch coach first, and then, after Caviar was acquired by Door Dash, she just wanted more purpose.
[00:22:27] And so she pitched herself and I was like, duh, like we definitely want you on the team. And so, we’ve had really an awesome group of people who are like, how can we help? And so, recruiting has been easy. And that is, I think, one competitive edge impact startups have over other startups is, people want to feel like their life’s work is going towards something.
[00:22:52] And we measure that impact. And we’re super focused on that mission. And plastic is a pain point for people. And so, we welcome the help. And, you know, I always say better lucky than good. So as far as recruiting goes, I feel like we’ve just been really lucky.
[00:23:11] Paulina: And what does success look like to you and your team and call it 6 to 12 months, and then in the long-term?
[00:23:17] Lindsey: In 6 to 12 months, I think where we’re at right now is we have defined a new profitable business model in the new economic climate. And if we can be there in 6 to 12 months, and then hopefully if nothing, we can stay neutral and just build slowly based on that model.
[00:23:37] That’ll be beautiful. And, just chip away at this problem and keep the world stoked on the circular economy rather than people. Panicking, going back to single use products, that’ll be a huge success for us. And in the long-term, we want to compete head to head with single use products and show that Dispatch is a better option.
[00:23:56] And I think that on top of this sustainability aspect of reuse and on top of the health aspect of reuse, we use stainless steel. We think that there is a third value proposition, which is, it’s a better experience in single use products. Like it’s not nice to eat out of they don’t feel as good as the food that you’re getting. And you know, if we’re not drinking our nice wine out of red solo cups. Why are we eating out of garbage? So, I think we’re going to compete against them and hopefully make them a thing of the past.
[00:24:34] Paulina: That’s so true. No one wants to drink their nice Napa wine out of solo cups.
[00:24:39] Lindsey: No. Suck! It really doesn’t taste the same.
[00:24:42] Paulina: No, you can’t tell if it’s a $100 bottle or a $10 bottle.
[00:24:48] Lindsey: Right. It’s terrible. Yeah. So, once we start eating out of real food containers again, I think people are going to be like, Oh, wow, what have we been doing? Nandini is another MBA student and she works at frog and they’re working to create a program for startups and we’re their Guinea pigs.
[00:25:08] So they’re helping us with this entire brand design sprint on like how to make this experience epic for people. So, this is another just success story about the Berkeley network. We just got a taste of how they’re thinking about it. And I mean, our soak level is through the roof. It is unreal.
[00:25:27] That’s why I’m just like, once people start using reasonable, it’s going to be really hard to go back to single use cause it’s not the same.
[00:25:35] Paulina: What other resources have you found most helpful at Berkeley? So, you’ve been through the StEP program, you’re involved with Skydeck. What else have you’ve leveraged to help launch Dispatch Goods?
[00:25:46] Lindsey: So yeah, we’re in Skydeck now. That’s been really helpful from a funding perspective. And Carolyn, president of Skydeck, she was at the original demo day at StEP and we were Skydesk company first. And I felt, and I don’t know if this is true, but it’s been my perception is that she keep sticking her neck out for us in a way that maybe when we weren’t taking this seriously in the earlier days, the way that she was able to kind of throw her weight around us to push us forward in certain places. It felt really powerful. At least that was my perception of what was happening behind the scenes.
[00:26:18] So that’s been really, really powerful for us. I think for me, the best thing that came out of it was recruiting the team. Adam Boostgram, who’s another one of my classmates, he’s a CFO. He worked in finance for 10 years. And, you know, when I think that what’s commonly said at Haas is that your biggest asset are your classmates.
[00:26:40] I found that to be incredibly true. And the classes are helpful in the way that I think about business and the design thinking is really important. Took a growth hacking class. That’s awesome. Now I’m pretty much started taking classes that are only relevant. Like now that I’m into electives for the business. But by and large, the support from the classmates. One of our first paying customers was one of my classmates. She works at it like a body product and they did a catering order with our reusables. And so, yeah, your classmates. It’s so incredible. And they all work at the tech companies that we’re selling to.
[00:27:16] Paulina: Leveraging your network right. Love it. So, we’re about a month out from closing out this academic year. But you only have about a year left in your MBA experience. What are your big plans for your last year at Haas?
[00:27:31] Lindsey: I hope we are back in the classroom because I just want to see everyone. But I mean we’re probably going to launch at Berkeley, so we’re going to launch with the hostage dents because it only makes sense. As far as classes and everything else, I think there’s a lot of classes that are so relevant to what I’m doing, so I’m just going to keep going down that route. And then, you know, I’d love to help other students that are looking at starting companies find their way, because I will say that it took a little bit for me to figure out the Berkeley entrepreneurship ecosystem.
[00:28:08] And, I think that the resources are there and they’re vast, but maybe not super consolidated.
[00:28:17] Paulina: And so, what would you say, kind of in a short list for someone who’s looking to get into entrepreneur, where should they start?
[00:28:26] Lindsey: The StEP program is I think the best place to start. They started giving me the list of resources and there you can find your team. Even if the business that you pitch in that program doesn’t work, it gave me a different way of thinking about starting a business that was really helpful.
[00:28:41] So, that’s a great place to start. And then applying to Skydeck even as a hot desk company, there’s a lot of resources there. That’s a good starting place. But yeah, I mean, I had no idea that how many like Berkeley, like small funds that were student led funds, and that’s just something that I’m uncovering even now.
[00:29:01] Paulina: And then I guess my last question would be, you’ve held the title of CEO twice now in your life. What do you think drives you to start your own businesses and what continues to drive you now?
[00:29:13] Lindsey: I feel like I do stuff if I get tired of the fact that nobody else is doing it. And so, yeah, that’s my biggest driving force. I’m like, this has to happen. This status quo can’t be the best we can do. And, you know what? I was starting a second company and I came home and my husband had designed it.
[00:29:32] I had to take a couple of deep breaths and be like, you know, you look to the left and you look to the right and you’re like, oh no, I’m really going to do this. Okay, I guess it’s going to be me. And so that’s been my drive.
[00:29:45] Paulina: And we definitely need it. So, thank you for taking that stand.
[00:29:49] Lindsey: No problem.
[00:29:50] Paulina: Well, I wanted to shift to some fun kind of rapid-fire questions. So obviously we kind of touched on it, but we’re obviously in an unprecedented time and humanity right now, but what are you most enjoying about this shelter in place time period?
[00:30:06] Lindsey: Sweat pants.
[00:30:10] I had to get dressed every day and I don’t have to now. And honestly, also, it’s really nice to slow down a little bit. I feel like my meetings are still pretty stacked nowadays, but it’s crazy how much more efficient you can be when you don’t have to drive from place to place.
[00:30:23] Paulina: It’ll be curious to see after everything opens back up and everything kind of gets back to normal, what amount of things we’ll keep in person and what amount will be like, Hey, we can actually do this more efficiently, by video chatting or over the phone.
[00:30:39] Well, since we’re on a podcast, are you a big podcast listener? And, do you have kind of your top three go-tos?
[00:30:45] Lindsey: Yeah. So, I like How I Built This, it’s probably not a surprise. And I also listened to Pod Save America. Those are probably my top two. Those are the ones that I try to chime into every time they have a new episode.
[00:31:01] Paulina: And as a big surfer, what are your top surf spots that you’re willing to share?
[00:31:06] Lindsey: Yeah. So, I like Ocean Beach because of the fact that it holds a crowd really well cause it’s seven miles of beach break. And you know, the last six months have been tough with the company. But when I was surfing, especially when it gets a little bit bigger, Ocean Beach is you against the elements and like the rawest way that I’ve ever experienced.
[00:31:29] And I feel like it’s a way that you have to focus so hard on. Like fighting the difficult paddle out and all of the elements in the cold that there’s no way that you can worry about anything else in your life. And then, Nicaragua for sure. I like sandy bottoms and Nicaragua’s like just riddled with offshore winds and sand bottom breaks.
[00:31:51] Paulina: Well, thank you, Lindsey so much for joining us on the show today.
[00:31:54] Lindsey: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:31:55] Paulina: Since our interview, Lindsey and Dispatch Goods have announced new partnerships and San Francisco check out their website, dispatchgoodsdelivery.com. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of here@haas. If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. And don’t forget to share this podcast out with your favorite bears. Until next time.
[00:32:20] I’m Paulina Lee. And this is here@haas.