This month marks 9 years of building Aunt Flow for me.
At this time 9 years ago, all of my classmates at The Ohio State University were returning to their dorms after winter break. Meanwhile, I was scrambling to find an apartment in Columbus.
I wasn’t returning to college. I had made the decision to drop out and pursue a wild idea. That wild idea became Aunt Flow.
I got a 3-bedroom apartment (I rented out the 2 other bedrooms to pay for rent) and worked two jobs—at a café and a random marketing agency—just to make enough money for food and to start saving for my first inventory purchase.
When I started Aunt Flow at 18, I didn’t really ever imagine a team, fancy headlines and awards, legislation changing, or venture capital. I just thought it would be really quite fun if I was able to create something that I wanted in the universe. I wanted to have access to tampons and pads, and I thought that others should get that access too. This idea (which is now a real business?!) is more than my little 18-year-old brain could ever fathom.
Founder timelines are a funny thing… The journey of “overnight success”:
1️⃣ year of COVID, resulting in a hard pivot.
2️⃣ years of waitressing and odd jobs to keep the lights on.
3️⃣ years in market with our proprietary dispensers.
5️⃣ years of being venture-backed.
8️⃣ years of advocacy and policy initiatives to pass legislation in now 27 states requiring or funding schools to offer products.
9️⃣ years of working on this vision and mission.
Thanks to each of you for being a part of this wild journey, for betting on me, and for betting on this mission. Perhaps this is the journey to “overnight success.”
💕 Claire
