Reusable, Remarkable, Path to Eco-Innovation – Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there, entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant, and welcome to Treptalks. This is the show where I interview successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders, and ask them questions about their business stories, and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses.

And today I’m really excited to welcome Emma Rose Cohen to the show. Emma is the CEO and founder of Final. Final is a pioneering, reusable, and collapsible straw and other cutlery products designed to combat single use plastic waste. Uh, final launched on Kickstarter in April of 2018 with the goal of raising $12,500, and the product really struck a chord in a matter of weeks.

The campaign raised 1.8. And I definitely want to learn more about that story. Uh, now before we dive, and today I’m going to ask Emma a few questions about her business journey and some of the strategies and tactic that she has used to grow her business. Now, before we dive into this interview, if you enjoy this content, please make sure to hit the like and subscribe button.

And for more interviews like this, please visit treptalks.com and with that, Emma, welcome and thank you so much for joining me today. in Treptalks

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yes. Thank you Sushant. Nice to meet you.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So, uh, a very interesting business and I also saw, saw, saw your Shark Tank, uh, episode. Um, can you share a little bit about, so you started this business in 2018, this was before COVID.

Uh, can you share a little bit about your story? What were you doing before 2018? How did you get the idea and what kind of really motivated you to start? Uh. Reusable straw business.

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Okay. Yes. Um, well, I guess, um, what was I doing before? Um, I, I was being a ski bum. I was living up in Whistler, British Columbia and eating ramen and trying to ski as much as possible.

And I had just quit working at Los Alamos National Laboratory. I was working in their waste minimization department and. Corporate life just is definitely not for me. So I was like, okay, I’m gonna go take some time and ski and be in the mountains and uh, eat poutine and hang out. And, um, just started working on this concept of a collapsible straw.

There was nothing out there that like it, that existed. And, you know, the timing was really amazing because all of the legislation around single use plastic straws was starting to come into effect. And so. We just kind of nailed it on the timing and happened to launch a reusable collapsible straw as all of the legislation was coming out and there was nothing like it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And I believe now, recently, since in the Trump administration, I think this is one of these regulations that he has kind of overturned, right?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yeah, he is. Um, he really likes sucking on plastic. Um, so. He, uh, he overturned some legislation around the paper straws in like federal buildings. But, you know, ultimately I think that, that we have the momentum of the movement and people aren’t going backwards.

You know, people want progress, they wanna move forwards. And sure, some people will go back to plastic straws, but I think the majority of people, um. See why they’re a problem. And you know, at the beginning of the movement, people were like, why are we focusing on something so small? And it’s like, well, as my grandma likes to say, how do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time. So we have to focus on these small things that are really easy to change. You know, if someone was like, I’ll give you $10 million to eliminate straws from your life, you’d be like, easy done. If someone was like, I’ll give you $10 million to eliminate all plastic from your life, that would be really, really hard.

I mean, honestly, even, you know, with the way I live, I think it would be almost impossible because plastic is everywhere. You know, I’m drinking this like kombucha that has a plastic lid and it’s, it’s just unavoidable, especially around packaging and, and food. So unless you’re growing all your food and, and doing everything from scratch, um.

You’re probably interacting with plastic on a regular basis. So that’s why I really like the straw as the, the kind of, uh, foot in the door on this movement. You know, let’s start with something easy. Let’s something, something to start with, something accessible and something that like every person can relate with.

’cause anyone who’s ever been, you know, out to eat or gotten to go food, you get a plastic straw whether you want it or not. So I call it non-consensual plastic. When. You know, you get given these things that are destined for landfill or worse, you know, ending up in the oceans or you know, out, out in nature somewhere.

And, um, you, you didn’t really ask for it. You were just given it. And, and there’s no viable pathway for, you know, decomposition or dealing with this waste in a, in a sustainable manner.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, yeah. No, everything you said is, is, uh, you know, I is correct and single use plastics. You know, I, now, there’s so many that it’s, it’s in the body, everybody’s bodies and things like this.

Um, now, but the challenge here is, is I guess in the. The fact that this is a single use, you know, uh, you need it for a certain purpose, and, and then after that you don’t want to hold it. So can you talk a little bit about your product and how it is solving some of those challenges? You know, the design and how it kind of replaces this, uh, plastic straw?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Totally. So what’s the number one reason people use single use plastic? Convenience.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Convenience.

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: We do it because it’s easy and it’s convenient. So the concept was how can we make a convenient alternative that’s fun to use and easy to take with you wherever you go, and you’re not gonna forget it because it’s on your key chain and boom, that’s how we made final.

So it’s a reusable, collapsible straw that fits in a little case that goes on your key chain. It comes with a cleaning brush so you can clean it on the go. And yeah, if you take your keys with you, you’ll never forget your straw.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And, uh, I mean, I think that’s, that’s an educational, uh. Uh, instance for any entrepreneur, I mean, uh, is to really kind of define the vision of what you’re, the product that you’re trying to create, right?

And, and I think you de defined it very clearly on what, what was the output you are looking for? Um, how do you go from having that vision to actually having some sort of a.

Do you design it yourself somehow? Do you hire product designers? Like what did you do to kind of get your first prototype?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yeah, so the first prototype was a combination of kind of, you know, duct taping things together, and also working with an industrial designer who was able to mock up a small box in CAD and then 3D print it.

We’re living in such a cool time where, you know, it’s, it’s pretty low cost to work with someone to make a CAD design and then 3D print it, you know, where that was cost prohibitive 10 years ago you, you, you had to work with a manufacturer and, and, you know, make an injection mold and that was just a really high, um, entry bar.

So yeah, the, the case for the straw was mocked up by a designer. Then, and this is the case that was on the, the Kickstarter. So if you look at our Kickstarter campaign, it’s a very different product than what you would buy today. Um, you know, it was a concept. It was a, Hey, let’s see if this works. You know, as you said in the intro, our, our goal was 12,500.

Like, we were not, we did not think that this was gonna go viral, that, you know, we were gonna really strike the chord that we did.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So you created this prototype and then your next step was, was somebody advising you or were like, you know, you were doing research on how to launch a a a a business. I mean, well, what did you do to The internet

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: was advising me and, and luck.

You know, I’m a big fan of Tim Ferris and so I was reading all of his blog posts and, and um, you know, just doing research on how to throw a successful Kickstarter. It’s. What’s, what’s so beautiful about starting a business today is that all of the information you need is out there. Every single question you have is on the internet and, you know, in a book or on a podcast.

And so I was just consuming information from everywhere trying to figure out how do you, you know, do a, a Kickstarter? Because before this I’d heard of Kickstarter, but I’d never supported a campaign and I, I didn’t know a lot about it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And, and what do you think you did that made your campaign so successful?

Was it, do you think that it was just the idea of, uh, having a more sustainable option to, uh, a plastic straw that kind of just caught on fire? Or was there more seeding that you had to do? Like, was there a lot of effort in the backend that we don’t know about?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: I think it’s, it’s a combination of a few things.

So, first of all, a ton of seating. So the, the articles that I was reading were around creating, you know, a, a loop campaign so that we were collecting emails and then people were referring their friends to our emails to get discounts. So we used a, a service called Viral Loops where, you know, if someone sends.

Our campaign to 10 people and they sign up, then they get, you know, say 30% off on the product. So that was a big part of collecting email addresses because you, one, you launch a Kickstarter, you wanna launch to an interested audience. You know, if I, if I launch to say 20,000 people that don’t care at all about straws, that’s no use.

I need to be launching to 4,000 people that are like, this is cool. I like this product. So there was a lot of that on the, on the forefront. And then also a big part of what I was working on was building the social media. So I was able to get like 10,000 followers on Instagram. And, you know, this is without bots and all of the, you know, fake stuff out there.

And just by creating memes and, and, you know, I, I really like speaking through memes as a format, so, Hmm. Um, yeah. And then so that was kind of all the, you know, or some of the work that I did ahead of time. And then the timing. I mean, that is pure luck. You know, we just happened to launch right as this stuff was happening.

And then the other kicker was that I was able to get in touch with someone at Buzzfeed, and this is all cold emailing. I had no connections. It was like, you know, I was just. Throwing pasta against the wall. But I was able to get in touch with someone in the environmental department at Buzzfeed who made a video on, on the product.

And that video went viral, um, after we launched. So yeah, it was, it was all the things. It was, it was, it know, just the perfect storm.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So when you, uh, put your pro or uh, your campaign on Kickstarter. Basically you were doing all this effort on social media. You were also creating this loop, uh, wider loops to, uh, motivate people to share this.

Um, and, but, but I’m assuming that there was some sort of a storytelling aspect there as well where, um. People kind of saw this product and they were motivated to take action. Um, what do you think people like struck the chord with the, with people? Was the, was it really the sustainability aspect of it or,

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: yeah.

I think that, I think every single person wants to do good in this world. I really do. I, I believe that given, you know, the opportunity, people will make the right choice. It’s just that. We have limited opportunities, and I think that what Final Straw does is allows people to, to champion sustainability as a cause that they really care about.

You know, the same thing with water bottles. Everyone’s got their water bottles with their stickers all over them, and it’s like, it’s a statement. It’s like, no, I’m choosing to bring this with me and not using single use plastic water bottles because. This is something I care about. And I think the straw was kind of the first time besides, you know, reusable bags or, or water bottles that we were like, here’s another way you can, you know, like virtue signal that this is something you care about.

And yeah, I think people are constantly looking for ways to align with causes that they care about. Um, and the barrier to entry is convenient. Ultimately, we’re all living pretty rapid pace lives in a, you know, consumerist world. And so how can we create that balance of wanting to do good and, and being able to do good?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: How much of the initial success of you bringing the product to market and, and, you know, having a successful. Crowdfunding campaign, do you attribute, attribute to yourself versus, um, versus luck or timing or versus, you know, um, just having this, uh, zeitgeist of sustainability because I’m thinking that, you know, people who make things happen or, you know, successful campaigns like this.

Even if you have all the components, if you don’t have the person who, or the, the person who executes, right. Um, it’ll not become successful. Do you think that you can, you could have taken any other idea or product and just executed like you executed for this one and made it successful? Like, can you take a, can you create a new product and make it successful today?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Wow. That is a good question that I hope to answer in a couple years. I am working on some new, new products, but yeah, that’s actually like one of my favorite questions that Guy Ross asks on how I built this, which is like one of my favorite podcasts. He goes, what, how much of your success do you attribute to luck and how much do you attribute to hard work?

And I’m so glad you asked because I’ve always, like I I, one day I wanna go on that podcast and tell him that I think it’s like. Playing poker, you know, you can be the best poker player in the whole world, but not get the cards. And so the luck aspect is getting the cards. And for us, that was the timing.

But the, you know, the, the strategy, the execution, all of that is attributed to the hard work. Now, granted, I had zero business experience going into this. You know, I had. I’d always had little side hustles and, and done different, you know, fun little things on my own. But like, I’d never run a business, I’d never, you know, filled out, um, you know, like a, any, any, a balance sheet or anything.

And, and so it was like really hardcore, intense. Business school and I made just about every mistake possible. So I’d like to think that now I have, you know, a pretty supreme education and won’t make those same mistakes, at least to the same scale, um, that I did. And, and yeah, that I could take a, my next product concept, which I’m working on now, and, and make it really successful.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. I do, I do think I, I, I completely agree. I, I do think there’s always a luck aspect to things and, but you cannot make something happen without, you know, I think there are some special attributes to person as well that, uh, you know, uh, being, uh, not giving up, uh, you know, continue pushing, uh, forward and all those things that contribute to success.

Now you had all these orders, you had a prototype. What did you do next? Did you have a manufacturer creating these items already or did you find a manufacturer after you raised the funds?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yeah, so within 48 hours launching the Kickstarter, we’d raised $200,000. And it went from elation and excitement to absolute dread because I’m like, wait, I have no.

Clue how to make these straws. I have no clue. So I, yeah, we, we, you know, just tapped our resources and tried to find anyone with any sort of, um, manufacturing experiences. I ended up getting indu in, introduced to a design firm in Seattle that helped us with the V one. Um, they also made the introduction to a manufacturer, so that’s kind of how we were able to, I.

Find the manufacturer was through this design firm and

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: yeah. Um, are you, um, are you still with that manufacturer? Are you manufacturing in the, um, in North America? Is it elsewhere? Can you talk a little bit about that? No, we’re

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: manufacturing in Shenzhen, China.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. And does, uh, are the new tariffs impacting any, any of your products now?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Oh yeah, big time.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. And, uh, have you seen, um, the impacts of it and, and sales and things like this, or No? Not yet.

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Luckily we have, um, we have some inventory, so we will, we will, you know, cross that bridge when, when we have to make another order.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um. Given that your Kickstarter was so successful, I’m assuming you didn’t have to spend or, or invest any of your personal, um, money in this.

So, which is I think is the best, probably the best way to go forward.

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yeah. Well, you know, we, we needed money to do the Kickstarter. It cost about $30,000 to get everything for the Kickstarter together. So that was a friends and family loan that we just paid back like that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Wow. $30,000. What was the biggest component of that?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: I mean, there was just so many things. We were buying ads, we were, you know, had to pay for, we made a hundred prototypes, um, that we handed out to influencers. We, um, I, I mean, if you watch the video, it was a pretty beautiful production that was not cheap. Um. So, yeah, it’s just, it just adds up.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Um, in terms of your target market, what have you learned about your customers?

Um, I’m assuming given like e even though as you said, everybody has the instinct to do good and, you know, people want to be sustainable and so. Not everybody still is going to go out and buy this. Uh, have you learned anything about your customers? Uh, is there like a specific demographic that, that you are targeting?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yeah, I mean, I think we’re, in general, women want to use straws more than men, but I think our, our sport speaks to both genders, um, and or to all genders. And our target demographic is someone who, you know, wants to minimize their single use plastic waste and is willing to shell out some money to, to invest in a product that they will have with them to, you know, make that shift.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Now when somebody buys this product, uh, is it supposed to last them for a lifetime? Is there like a, a life of this product? Uh, do you offer like any kind of foodies or anything like this?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yep. We have a lifetime guarantee.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Wow, okay. That’s awesome. Um, I’m actually on your Instagram page and I see, um, now I see that, you know, when you mentioned that you have a.

Um, meme based marketing approach. Um, are you kind of the chief marketing officer and storyteller here? Like do you come up with these concepts or someone else is, uh, creating these ideas? I mean, they’re quite, quite, uh, creative, I would say.

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Um, yeah, I, I’ve always been deeply involved in the marketing.

That’s kind of been the area of the business I’ve been most involved in. Um, and yeah, over the years we’ve, we’ve brought on people, but at, in this current moment, I am, I’m focusing on that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Can you, can you share your approach of how you come up with these creative ideas? Like, are you, um, are you scrolling through social media?

Uh, are you looking at current, uh, news and, you know, just trying to figure out how to use that story or meme towards your business?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yeah, that’s, uh, it’s honestly pretty simple. Yeah. Either scrolling through social media. I also get Google news alerts for plastic pollution, single use plastic, like, you know, a host of kind of different things within our, um, in our, um, market.

And yeah, I just like making memes that are educational, that are telling people about what’s going on. And then also, um, funny and, and relevant.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. How has your marketing evolved over time since 2018? Um, what, what was working before? What is working now? How, you know, what is your best customer acquisition channel in terms of like marketing?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: I mean, I think what’s evolved is like how I talk about the issues. I think I used to be a little bit scarier when I would talk to people about single use plastic and be like, you know, more, um, on the lines of like, you’re an ass if you don’t care about this. And now I, you know, I think I have a more mature approach to it and understanding that people have a lot that they care about and just because they don’t care about, you know, one specific.

Facet of the, of it all. That doesn’t mean they don’t care. Um, so, and I think I’m just trying to appeal to people in a different way. Before it was like, you know, a little more, uh, maybe punitive and I’m just kind of in your face and now I’m like, Hey, here’s what’s going on. Here are the facts and here are some alternatives.

Make your own choice.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um. Is your marketing, are you using paid advertisement? Are you, is it completely organic? Are you doing partnerships? How, like what’s your customer acquisition, uh, strategy or channels?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yeah, all of the above. Um, we’re definitely trying to lean more into TikTok these days. It’s a great channel for people to promote products that they really believe in.

Um, and. It’s a, it’s a channel that I personally really like.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Do you actually see, uh, people clicking on the link on TikTok and coming to your site? Uh, I mean, sometimes when I speak with entrepreneurs, they say even though you can get engagement on TikTok, but usually it’s not really a great, um, traffic driving channel.

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: I think it’s, you know, currently we’re driving more traffic to our Amazon. Um, and, and we’re, we’re pretty in the early phases of, of testing TikTok and so I don’t know that I can fully answer that question right now because we’re pretty new to it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. Um. Shark Shark Tank. What, uh, when did you go on Shark Tank?

And I know, I, I thought the, the episode, um, I believe you did not, uh, get a deal. What was your, um, rationale for going on Shark Tank? Was it mostly to get, uh, more, uh, brand recognition eyeballs, or did you really want to, uh, get partnership with, uh.

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: So two weeks into the Kickstarter, we received an email from Shark Tank asking us to submit, you know, kind of all of the information so that we could be on the show.

So one thing people don’t know is that they reach out to entrepreneurs. Some yes. Some people apply for sure. And I don’t know what the percentages of each, but they reached out to us. Um, I had never seen the show I had. I’d heard of it. Um, but, so I went and just binged as many episodes as I could, but you know, this is, we, we filmed our episodes six weeks after launching the Kickstarter.

So I had $2 million in the bank and, you know, we didn’t need money. That, quite the opposite actually. All the advice I was getting from people was like, don’t take on more money because you, you don’t even, you’re gonna waste. So much money when you first start a business trying to figure things out that like if you take on more, you’re just diluting your equity and you know, what are you, what are you gonna do with all this money?

You don’t need it. Um, so I was open to potentially working with Mark. I think, you know, I, I wanted a mentor. I wanted someone that was like, knew what they were doing. ’cause I had no clue. Um, but ultimately, like the terms that he offered, I did not like and was not wanting to give away that much of the business for, you know, the valuation that he gave.

And yeah, it was, it was a whirlwind. I mean, we went on to Shark Tank with a prototype and you know, we’re not prepared and did not have, you know, they wanna see, they don’t wanna just see a product. They wanna see a business. And we didn’t even have a product. We didn’t have any customer reviews because no one had seen the product.

Um, so I think, you know, it was, it was a tricky situation to go into and, and we did our best. And, you know, I do a lot differently next time,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: but now I do see that you have added other products on your, on your website. Um

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: mm-hmm.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Can you talk, uh, a little bit about your other products and, um, what’s the strategy behind it?

Uh, um, I mean, do you launch it to your existing customers? Are you seeing a lot of traction with other products or is straw still your, um, hero product?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yeah, the straws still our hero product. Um, but we did launch our products to existing customers. Everything got completely messed up because of COVID and you know, we, we are a travel, you know, cutlery and straw business and people just weren’t traveling.

So we saw a pretty big decline in sales and um, yeah, I think we’re still. We’re still, you know, working on giving the other products their, their big moments. And I think they will have them. It’s just a matter of time and, and timing. You know, like people are only going to adopt these products in a big way when they’re ready.

And there’s so much going on right now. It’s such a hard time for so many people that, um, making sustainability the focus in this moment is, is challenging.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: You know, with, with a product like this, or sustainability as a business, I think the challenge is that when economy is not doing great, when people are not, uh, feeling like they have enough, um, uh, in the pocket for, uh, you know. Uh, to support like extra things, not, not just the, the basic needs.

Um, that makes it difficult for business also. I mean, are have you been feeling that for the last few years or more recently?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yes. Yeah, definitely. You know, with COVID have felt a pretty big decline in business and, um, you know, ultimately like, I think, um. In terms of like my morals, this is, this product is so what I believe in, I believe making a product that lasts forever.

I freaking hate when my, when I buy something and it’s expensive and it’s nice and it breaks, and then I email the company and they’re like, that’s not covered under warranty. And I’m like, why not? I spent $50 on a water bottle that lasted me three months. That is baloney. And so ultimately, like. You know, so I created a company where we make a product that lasts forever and we back it forever because that’s what we believe in.

Is that a great business model? No, it’s terrible. You know, like, like I’m, my business model is, is horrendous. So, um, I’m deeply aware of that and I also think that I. You know, like there is a place in the market for this. There is a need for this. And also my next business that I am, I’m working on, um, has a little bit of a more sustainable business model in terms of, um, reoccurring revenue.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. Um, do you keep in touch with the. With sustainability materials, like is there anything out there in research or coming up in the market that’s, you know, which is not plastic, which is more usable, uh, as a consumer product item and degradable? Are there other materials that are, um, that are promising?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Oh yeah. I mean, people are spending a of time working on plastic alternatives. There’s a company called Sway. And they’re working on an algae based plastic. Um, there’s some companies out of Japan that are doing some really cool work with biodegradable plastics. Um, you know, I mean there’s, there’s a lot of people working on, on the materials aspect of it.

It’s incredibly challenging because. Uh, plastics and, and oil in general is, is a heavily subsidized industry. And so in order to make a material that is gonna be as low cost is, is nearly impossible. But I think that, you know, the, the people that are working on these things are just, you know, hopeful that.

That the, the, the subsidies are gonna shift and that, you know, we’re gonna get to a breaking point where people are like, okay, we like really need to change the type of materials that we’re using because this is not sustainable. And, you know, it’s, it’s, um, it can’t go on like this forever.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. I mean, it’s not sustainable. It’s not healthy. Um, so yeah, definitely need to. Find alternatives. Um, what, what are your biggest, biggest markets? Are you just selling in the us Are you selling other places as well? And maybe if you can talk a little bit about your warehousing, fulfillment, uh, strategy also.

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yeah. We, our biggest market is in the US It always has been, but we do have a global market.

Um, we, you know, sell a lot in Canada and the UK and kind of all over Europe. Um. Our, we had a three PL in California third party logistics company that was selling or sending everything out for us. I recently moved that in-house because it was so expensive and, you know, the volumes shifted. We were, you know, doing an insane amount of volume in 2018 and 2019, and we couldn’t have done it ourselves.

But now, um, it’s, it’s a little more doable to keep it in house.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: What are your thoughts on China market? I mean, I’m, I’m assuming that if you, given that now China is kind of portraying this image of, you know, being a developed nation, being kind of the, the leader in the world and so forth. I mean, I’m assuming that if you take your product there, they’ll just.

I don’t know, maybe it’s already copied. Maybe they’ll just copy it. So if, I mean, can you sell this product in a market like China?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: No. I mean, you can, of course you can sell anything anywhere. But is it gonna do well and is it worth the effort? Um, I mean, within launching a final straw on Kickstarter, we, within two weeks of launching, we had about.

5,000. We, we took down 5,000 copycat websites. Um, to date, we have, I mean, it’s in it’s pro tens of thousands of, of copycat websites. It’s, it’s absurd. So the problem with a product like this in China is that there’s so many copycats and, you know, en enforcing intellectual property, there is incredibly challenging.

So, and, and people in general, you know, the, the, the sentiment towards the environment and sustainability is, is not as popular as it is here.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. I mean, it’s a bit of a, I think, um, I don’t know what the right word is, but you know, they are now portraying themselves to be that.

an advance nation and everything , but, its like

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: The, the thought process and, um, ha has have not evolved like in terms of, but I guess, you know, they can also make the case that, you know, they have to do, do that. Like they, they can’t do it because they had to come up, uh, you know, the, the, there were the, um, lead bloomers, so to speak. So they have to, uh, but yeah, I think, I think it’s.

Yeah, it’s surprising that a big, big market like China, that they’re still not so sustainability conscious. Um, what does your team look like right now?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Um, we currently have two employees and myself, and then hire contractors where needed.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. Um. What is your, your future vision for the business? I know you said that you’re working on another project.

Uh, do you want to continue having this business and, um, start another one or do you have any other plans for, uh, this business?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Yeah, I have, um, I’d love to move into a little more of the educational aspect around single use plastics. So. I think, I’m not positive, but I think our next product is gonna be a children’s book and yeah, I just, I just had a kid, um, she’s one and a half and it’s like changed everything.

It’s brought, like, the word sustainability has such a different meaning now that I have a child because it’s not about me, it’s about her, and it’s about the world for her and, and it’s, it’s easy to. To try and conceptualize that before having a kid, but then once you do it, it, it really holds a different meaning.

So yeah, I have a lot of other product ideas, um, around, you know, reducing single use plastic. And I also am not really sure the world is ready for that right now. And I think that. Um, a children’s book would be really fun, and I have got a great concept and it’s, uh, yeah, I think that’s kind of the, the next step.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Um, in every entrepreneur’s journey, there’s always mistakes made, lessons learned, failures. Um, I’m sure you know there were many lessons learned for you as well. What, what, what, what is a big thing that comes to your mind that was a big learning moment? What did you learn and what can other entrepreneurs learn from your mistake?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Huh? I mean, I hope to write a book one day ’cause I really think I’ve made just about every mistake. Um, but the biggest one and the one, you know, if you’re gonna make, if you’re gonna do one thing right. Starting a business is hire the right people and hire people that are smarter than you. Hire people that can do a better job than you and hire people that will speak their truth when it disagrees with you, because it’s really challenging to run a business where everyone just agrees with you all the time.

And. I, I, I hired amazing people and I also hired some people that really did not have the company’s best interest in mind and were, um, you know, very damaging for the company. And it’s like, you know, I went from never having hired a person in my life to having to hire, you know, 10 employees in the first year.

We had 10 people we brought on. And I think that, you know, what goes into hiring needs to be a very thoughtful vetting process. Um, it should take you a month to hire someone, you know, from when you find that candidate to, when you give them an official offer. Like there should be many interviews and, and, um.

You know, work examples and, and just because once they’re on the team and you’re training them, you’re putting so much energy into them. So it’s like if you keep ’em for three months, it’s, it’s a huge waste. And we did a lot of that. We did a lot of wasting and, um, yeah, just really struggled when it came to, to building the team.

What do you think is the biggest thing

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: that you look for now? Is it something like. Alignment of value, is it, is it the ability to learn quickly? Is it like what, having learned this lesson, like what, what do you look for now in a person?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Well, I think that really depends on what they’re being hired for. So, you know, if I’m hiring an operations person, like I wanna know that they make their bed every morning.

If I’m hiring a, an operations person, I wanna know, I wanna know their morning routine. You know, it’s like, it’s knowing more than just about how they work. It’s about how they live, because that is such a big reflection of how they work. If I’m hiring a social media person, I wanna look at their social media.

How do they, you know, portray themselves? What stories are they telling? How so, yeah, I think it, it really, it, it would vary so much on the position. Um, I think a big one is problem solving. You know, I want an attention to detail. I want to hire people that have a level of perseverance that if they get, you know, a no or they hit a roadblock, that they are going to push through that and they’re not just going to kind of accept defeat and, um, yeah.

I think the perseverance is a big one. Um, I think being able to ex take feedback, you know, these are kind of just overall things that I look for regardless of, of the position. But like, you know, if, if I go to someone and say, Hey, like, can, can we try it this way? If, and if they give me pushback, it’s like, whoa, like.

Uh, we’re experimenting here. Your way, their way might be the better way, but like, let’s try both, you know? Mm-hmm. I’m very much of the mindset of, of, um, you know, whatever way works great, best, let’s do it. Um, but yeah, you have to be able to listen to feedback and integrate it without letting your ego get involved.

Um, and all of these things that I’m describing are things I’m working on in myself. So it’s like. You know, and it’s a constant growing and, and evolution of how I show up as a leader and how I work with my employees. And, and it’s, you know, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve learned a lot. I’d like to think I’ve gotten a lot better.

And, um, yeah, we’ll continue to just evolve and grow in all of those ways.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, I mean, those are, those are, uh, great, great trait. Um, I also think about myself. You know, uh, uh, I did not have some of those traits before and, you know, slowly developed them. So I think everybody goes through some sort of growth process.

Um, I’m going to move on to rapid fire segment. Now, in this segment, I’m going to ask a few quick questions and you have to answer them maybe in a word or a sentence or so. Okay. The first one is one book recommendation for entrepreneurs and why.

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Culture Code helps you build a team,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: an innovative product or idea in the current e-commerce retail or tech landscape that you feel excited about.

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Rag Mini and Chat, GBT.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. A business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Have a self-care morning routine that you do every morning. Um, mine is lemon water meditate journal and, and hold that sacred. Awesome. Another startup or business that you think is currently doing great things? Blueland. Blueland. Okay. What, what product is that? They do, uh, sustainable cleaning supplies.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. A peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Hmm. So many, but I guess, uh, I’d have to say Sarah Blakely.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Final question, best business advice that you have ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs?

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: Not all advice is good advice.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, well, Emma, those were all the questions that I had. Thank you so much again for, uh, sharing your story, sharing your time, uh, sharing some of your lessons learned. Um, if anybody wants to buy your products, what’s the best way to.

Emma Rose Cohen of Final Straw: If anyone wants to check out more about what we’re doing, you can check out final straw.com.

Also, come check out our Instagram at Final Straw. My personal Instagram is at Emma Rena, and yeah, send me a dm, send me a message. I’m always, you know, wanting to help and support other entrepreneurs because I received so much help myself. So yeah, keep it going.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Well, Emma, thank you so much again for your time, for, uh, for sharing your story and wish you all the very best