Not Another Baby Wipe

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in baby care but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Lucas Nanini, co-founder and COO of NOLEO, located in San Diego, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Let's set the scene by telling you that we want to build a clean P&G. Our first brand, NOLEO, which was launched by my business partner Nico, and I is reinventing diaper care in North America by offering a safe and environmentally friendly alternative to baby wipes while removing the need for diaper rash creams. Some parents, looking for safer and more natural products for their family, have called it the magic lotion. Our strategy is pretty straightforward: identify a personal care product that could be simplified and made safer, and go after them, no matter how big and established they are :)

Tell us about yourself

I'm Lucas, born and raised in France, but I worked abroad for 15 years, between the UK and Asia, in the Beauty industry (Fine Fragrances and Skincare) for P&G and COTY. My expertise is in Innovation Processes, Consumer Insights, and Packaging Development. The same mission drove me: offer better products and services to demanding customers. After all those years, though, something didn't feel right: it seemed like we were trying to get more money out of consumers with more products they didn't need, as opposed to delivering more value. The industry was broken. So when Nico, a friend from engineering school and successful banker in the US, was expecting his first daughter and told him he couldn't find anything suitable in the US and wanted to launch a product line for his family, it clicked, and I joined him.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I guess there are three things I could highlight:

A fearless ambition to go after the big boys and dream big.
Having pushed through a horrendous COVID year in 2021 and continued growing the business.
Getting the confirmation from our families and their heartwarming reviews that what we thought was needed is actually something that is literally changing many lives.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

The frustration of having to make choices on our roadmap of activities to execute. It was very different at P&G or COTY: I had a budget, was pretty healthy, and could spend it whenever and however I wanted. As business owners, we need to be careful with cash flow. Therefore, we have to delay potentially urgent and important things due to a lack of cash. Linked to that is also the massive frustration of being a small fish for many (importers, suppliers, agencies) and not having the leverage I used to have when at P&G (spoiler alert: this has led to people abusing our kindness, but they are on our blacklist and won't forget them when we are ten times bigger.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Don't start alone: there are more lows than highs in entrepreneurship. And you'll need this sounding board and emotional booster with co-founders carefully selected. This comes with two additional advantages: first, you'll have extra firepower if you have a busy week and need to parallelize activities, and second, you can rely on someone with a complementary skillset (don't partner with someone who is identical in skills). In case you don't have a co-founder, then make sure your partner is patient, supportive, and understanding, or alternatively, join a Mastermind :)
Build a community: whether you are starting a B2C or B2B brand, build a community of prospects and potential customers, potential partners whom you can exchange services with, and mentors/aspirational personalities you can connect with. The model of Dream 100 is something that everyone should be doing. There are very clear books about this approach.
Make sure this is the right project... for you: getting onto the right project is great, and I often coach entrepreneurs to help them identify their PMF (Product Market Fit), but this is only 1 part of the equation. The second part is driven by the passion of the founder: do you see yourself, as a founder, ready to go through 3 to 5 years of hard work and frustration, and are you sure, therefore, that the project you are launching is right for you.

Never forget that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. I will leave it at that :)

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.noleocare.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noleocare/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noleocare/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/noleocare
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/noleocare/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.