How I Launched My Own Company After a Major Career Shift

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Jun 14

Written By Jay Van Dyke - Top Rated Squarespace Web Designer in New Jersey

By Sweta Doshi and Lizzie Goodman

Bubbsi founder Sweta Doshi shares the steps she took to get from career pause to product launch with her popular children’s skincare line

After a decade-long career in the beauty industry working for big brands like Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret, Sweta Doshi found herself itching for a change. At the time, her oldest child was just one year old, and Sweta was eager for the chance to slow down and savor his childhood–but her anxieties kept her from taking the leap.

“I was worried that if I [paused] my career and stopped making money for a while, I’d be directionless and not be a contributor to our family anymore,” Sweta says. In response, she threw herself into research, harnessing her network and talking to women who were blending career and motherhood in a way she admired. With the knowledge she gained from their experiences and her husband’s steadfast support, Sweta embarked on a three-month long career break to delight in a summer at home with her son.

For the first time in years, I had the bandwidth to be truly curious about my career.

“Beyond just the personal aspect, that summer was one of the most fulfilling for me professionally,” she notes. “For the first time in years, I had the bandwidth to be truly curious about my career.” During this time, Sweta set up countless coffee dates simply to expand her network and learn about other people’s work. These conversations, she’s convinced, helped her land clients later on when she took on a part-time role as an independent strategy and marketing consultant.

But these coffee dates also did something more. In meeting with so many people to swap stories about their careers, Sweta realized just how much she had gained from her own work experience. The conversations ignited her self confidence–and helped lead her to her next chapter as the founder of her own children’s skincare line, Bubbsi.

From idea to launch

We asked Sweta for the secrets to her product-launching success. Below—in her own words—this mom of two shares the steps she took to start one of the most playful and gentle babycare lines around.

Concept

First, I put my idea for a clean and fun skincare line for babies on paper and started showing it to a few people who I was close to. I think this phase was incredibly helpful—forcing myself to articulate an ambiguous idea, brainstorming copy, finding imagery to support it, treating it like a pitch (even though I wasn’t looking for money), and refining the idea based on feedback and market research.

Diligence

Once the idea felt somewhat solid, I needed to understand how much investment was required to get it off the ground. We built a basic financial model and I started to meet with suppliers to understand things like product development costs, safety testing requirements, packaging needs, minimum order quantities, etc.

This is where the networking skills came in. I spent months leveraging my beauty industry connections and cold-calling to eventually find suppliers that would work with me. I had to pitch my idea over and over again to prove that it was worthwhile to them. These conversations helped me evolve the product idea and refine the financial model. By the end of this four to five months, I had a list of potential suppliers and a good sense of what the investment would look like.

I learned that if you’ve gone through a thorough diligence phase, you should feel fairly confident moving into your execution phase.

Execution/Product Development

For me, this was an eight month period of formula and package development and safety testing. I didn’t realize how tough executing my vision would be. You’re faced with tradeoffs and decisions at every step of product development. They all feel like life-or-death decisions, but it forces you to prioritize and stick to your values. Here’s my advice for anyone navigating this moment: Don’t fight every battle. Find the most optimal solution on most things, and fight to make sure you protect your vision on the things that are most important.

It’s also necessary to just keep moving, even when it feels like everything is against you. Time is money and you will be the only person who has a sense of urgency around your idea. I’ve definitely been (and continue to be) a stalker with some of my vendors to get things moving faster and better, but I don’t regret making people uncomfortable sometimes to get things done.

Launch

My toughest learning in this phase was accepting that something will go wrong. But it’s important to be patient and not sacrifice the quality of your vision. I had to throw out a full batch of Shampoo + Wash (our highest demand product) during my initial production due to slight imperfections, but I absolutely could not let product go out that didn’t meet my high standards—even if it meant delaying the launch by four months.

Entrepreneurship comes with (literally) a never-ending to-do list, so for me, the biggest “tool” is to keep reminding myself that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. There will never be enough hours in the day for me to feel like I’ve gotten everything done. I need to maintain my health and happiness (and that of my family) and I’m doing the best I can.

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