#44 An effective go-to-market strategy with "Die Höhle der Löwen"
This episode was recorded in German.
In this strategy interview, I talk with Jackie Leuer-Hingsen, co-founder of newma care, the first provider of hygiene and care products for modern moms after giving birth.
Jackie founded Cali Eats in 2017, the first healthy food and bowl restaurant concept in Düsseldorf. After three very successful years, she took the leap into her next venture together with Cornelia Dingendorf, and newma care was born. The idea for the company came out of Jackie's own experience after childbirth: the market offers almost no solutions for "midwife" products. Yet it's exactly in the weeks after birth that mothers need to recover from the strain and the injuries. With an all-in-one strategy, newma care offers solutions for the problems that come with it, problems that are the same all over the world. In the early phase, appearing on Die Höhle der Löwen was part of the go-to-market strategy. No deal came of it, but the TV appearance proved to be a highly effective marketing instrument for newma care. Today the products are available not only in the company's own web shop, but also at Müller drugstores, in pharmacies and partly on Amazon.
As a working mother, Jackie finds the balance between day-to-day operations, strategy work and family life by learning to focus with maximum discipline. She uses bursts of energy and creative moments, and dividing the work with Cornelia makes the business easy to steer, especially since e-commerce brings a lot of flexibility. Conversations with investors are currently under way, because the demand is there and customer feedback is very good. The next steps are managing retail inquiries well, increasing the marketing budget, expanding the DACH region, adding more products to the range and building the team. Everything points to scaling. Looking back, Jackie says she acted largely on experience and gut feeling. The products were tested in the market through soft launches, and decisions were made quickly. The motto at newma care: just do it, test with small solutions what actually helps customers, and go with the flow. Jackie's advice for founders: just get started! Maybe on a small scale at first. It will quickly become clear whether it works or not.