In this episode of #TBNE Rob talks with former consultant turned unlikely fashion entrepreneur Maeve Wang, Founder and CEO of IAMBIC. Maeve shares how a personal development story and the need to stand for successes and failures lead her down the path of entrepreneurship. What started as a National Science Foundation-backed B2B data company quickly became a fashion brand that will change the way we look at shoes. Maeve also shares some very tough challenges the team had to overcome to launch the brand and soon-to-be Model T Shoe. Check out the full episode now! Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.
In this episode of #TBNE Rob talks with former consultant turned unlikely fashion entrepreneur Maeve Wang, Founder and CEO of IAMBIC.
Maeve shares how a personal development story and the need to stand for successes and failures lead her down the path of entrepreneurship. What started as a National Science Foundation-backed B2B data company quickly became a fashion brand that will change the way we look at shoes.
Maeve also shares some very tough challenges the team had to overcome to launch the brand and soon-to-be Model T Shoe.
Check out the full episode now!
Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.
Connect with Maeve Wang:
IAMBIC
Connect with Rob:
Show Produced by: Niranjan Deshpande (Nick), Broken Frames Studio, www.brokenframesstudio.com
Creative Director: Maxim Sokolov, www.maximsokolov.com
Selling is evolving, are you? Humantic AI is a Buyer Intelligence platform for revenue teams. If you are interested in learning more about Humantic AI use Rob’s referral link https://app.humantic.ai/login/?referral_code=robnapoli
Special offer for #BearNation listeners interested in trying Brilliantly Warm (https://www.brilliantly.co/), use this 10% off discount code WELCOME10.
The 8 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Choosing a Coach (and how to avoid them!) use this link to get your FREE download: https://www.thaxa.com/p/the-bear-necessities-of-entrepreneurship
We have teamed up with Phin, a social impact company, to give back for each episode to the communities that we serve. To learn more or get involved with Phin for your company, visit:
EP 102_Maeve Wang_Transcript
00:00:00:01 - 00:00:17:12
Maeve Wang
I think in my first PD chat or professional development chat, one of the pieces of feedback that I received me this was like a few weeks or months into the job was that I was far too expressive. They're like, Maeve your face communicates far too much. And I was like, okay, all right. Well, you know, we're talking about development here.
00:00:17:12 - 00:00:24:12
Maeve Wang
Do you have any tools or tricks and nothing. They no one could give me any advice. It's like, is this a character flaw? What is this?
00:00:25:17 - 00:00:48:16
Rob Napoli
How are we doing? Better Nation. It’s your host Rob Napoli back again. This is our 101st episode. If you had asked me if I ever think we'd get to 100, probably not so excited to be sharing with you. Episode 101 And I have a really amazing founder on with me today and it's this is probably what, Maeve a year, year plus in.
00:00:49:14 - 00:00:50:05
Maeve Wang
Like year and half
00:00:50:08 - 00:01:06:09
Rob Napoli
Happening. I want to ask you to be on the pod to finally getting our schedules to align. And to be fair, the business is still align with a lot of stuff a year ago and gone through so Maeve have as the founder of IAMBiC and I can't wait to talk about your story, but may I say hello to bear nation for us?
00:01:07:11 - 00:01:16:20
Maeve Wang
Thanks for having me, Rob. Just excited to be here. I love your podcast, by the way. They're really helpful, actually. I don't know if this is going to be as helpful as your other ones, but I hope so.
00:01:17:09 - 00:01:49:11
Rob Napoli
So I think so. I think there's a lot of really amazing things that we're going to cover today. You know, our pre our pre-show talk went on for a lot longer than we expected, but it's always fun to kind of chop it up. It's been a while. So but to give the listeners a little bit of background. So after returning over 300 pairs of shoes and like three years did, of course shoe fit, you had this idea to become can a Unlikely fashion founder, right?
00:01:51:01 - 00:02:22:21
Rob Napoli
It's the software originally was a software now turned shoe brand, creating the world's first precision fit size list sneaker by combining science, AI, advanced manufacturing and backing from the U.S. National Science Foundation, IAMBIC has effectively scaled 200 year old craft of bespoke shoemaking with ground baker ground breaking sneaker to make shoe sizes shoe inclusive. And, if I'm not mistaken in the background, there are some of the early, early versions of what I have it looks like.
00:02:22:21 - 00:02:48:02
Rob Napoli
So, you know, I love that you say the kind of unlikely fashion founder right? So talk me through this. You know, before before, before the days of being an entrepreneur, What what were you doing before? Like, you know, you say I'm like a fashion founder. So what was the unlikely part? I mean, where where does the whole journey start for you?
00:02:48:20 - 00:03:15:18
Maeve Wang
Okay, well, if you were to talk to any of my friends who knew me when I first moved to New York, and you were to tell any of them back then that I would be at the helm of a fashion brand, I think they would laugh really hard in your face, because I was definitely not the most fashion conscious.
00:03:15:18 - 00:03:39:11
Maeve Wang
Girl in New York. Started off my career as a band consultant, and there are far more fashionable women in the office than I. And I was just someone who said, You know what? I don't want to focus too much on how I look. I'd rather have people focus on the substance of my conversation and my character. And I had a roommate who worked at Condé Nast.
00:03:39:11 - 00:04:08:01
Maeve Wang
We literally had like a whole debate our first night moving in about why I didn't think that fashion was worth focusing on just as a woman. So, you know, like 10 - 12 years later or very different place now. But that that was just my starting point so that I just want to kind of level set there. Definitely, if you know me back then, just a very different person now talking to you.
00:04:09:06 - 00:04:33:03
Rob Napoli
And it's funny because, you know, you know, early days, Harvard grad went into a consulting, the sort of cool things that you could do with consulting and getting to work, But coming out of Harvard, having consulting degree, probably doing very well. Then you decide to like 360 to be an entrepreneur and like bootstrap a company and get into this whole journey that we're about to talk about.
00:04:33:03 - 00:04:51:24
Rob Napoli
Like what was it that made you say, You know what, this isn't enough for me? Like what? What what was there an events, a movement, a feeling, like what happened that just made you, like, give up being a consultant living in New York to start a company?
00:04:53:03 - 00:05:19:14
Maeve Wang
So I think it actually happened in two stages. There was like the one 180 and then there was the full 360 sort of. And so when I was at me and I was just so grateful to have had the opportunity to start at such like such an incredibly well-run company with incredible culture. And I just recall distinctly realizing quite early that my disposition wasn't really well-suited to it.
00:05:20:01 - 00:05:39:21
Maeve Wang
I think in my first PD chat or professional development chat, one of the pieces of feedback that I received me this was like a few weeks or months in into the job was that I was far too expressive. They were like, Maeve your face communicates far too much. And I was like, okay, all right. Well, you know, we're talking about development here.
00:05:39:21 - 00:06:00:03
Maeve Wang
Do you have any tools or tricks and nothing. They no one could give me any advice. It's like, is this a character flaw? What is this? And I actually really loved a lot of the work, but my problem was that I could never tell anyone about it. You can't talk about your work as a consultant. You can't share it with the world.
00:06:00:03 - 00:06:19:07
Maeve Wang
Like I'm working with this incredibly massive company that's making these cool changes. And I'm so excited about what I'm doing, but I can't tell you any details. So that kind of killed me a little bit. And then after about a year and a half, then I started getting this hearing. This refrain Maeve you know, I think he'd be a really good entrepreneur.
00:06:19:07 - 00:06:46:05
Maeve Wang
And I actually had no idea what they were talking about because I was like, I don't know, I just want to get stuff done. And sometimes if we need to get time on the client's calendar, I just kind of run into their office, ask for 5 minutes, really mean to get 30 and get 35. But I just kind of felt comfortable just trying to get things done in a scrappier way without as many emails and calendar invitations.
00:06:46:16 - 00:07:16:24
Maeve Wang
So that was my life at vein and I found this incredible opportunity to to join Delos and lead their ventures team, which was a combination of corporate developments. And I really started moving that team more towards homegrown product development. And we invested and collaborated on products in data analytics, wearables, technologies, digital content and really kind of built my love around digital health fair.
00:07:17:13 - 00:07:46:19
Maeve Wang
And so that was when I this was like as early to mid-stage startup at the time. And I just loved the vibe. Like, I was like I could see myself here forever. It's just incredible what, what impact you can have, what could be done. But I think the issue for me was that I wanted more skin in the game and I was like, If it's a win, I want a real stake in that win.
00:07:46:19 - 00:08:18:03
Maeve Wang
And if it's a loss or a failure, like I'm okay with bearing that. But I just wanted more of a stake in the things that I was building, which I was so excited about. Like I would go into the office Saturdays, Sundays, Then people would walk on the on the top floor and they'd see it's like beautiful mind where you have like all of the this like dry erase marker around like every single, like, you know, window, clear glass covering every single conference room.
00:08:18:03 - 00:08:26:11
Maeve Wang
And they're like, that was Maeve. She was here this weekend. And I loved it. But I was like, you know, I think it might be time to try something on my own.
00:08:27:11 - 00:08:44:19
Rob Napoli
I love it. You know, it's funny because, you know, having worked as a consultant for the last two years, you know, I can talk more about some of the projects I'm working on. But like, you know, people don't really understand it or you can't talk about it in a way where it's like it's your work, right? Like that company did this and I was on that.
00:08:45:06 - 00:09:07:05
Rob Napoli
But people don't see like, Oh, well, you did that. And it's like, you know, you there is the tangibility of building something. And that's actually one of the hardest things for me as a consultant is that is that I build cool shit, but it's narrative back to my name and I never get to see it launch. I never get to see it flourish.
00:09:07:05 - 00:09:42:15
Rob Napoli
I never get to see it grow or help it grow. It's like, Yeah, I did that and they took it and made their own and it's just like, okay, what's next? And like, there's something to that. So I totally get it. As somebody who's in that stage of my career, I love how, you know, the ability to go to it to and, you know, to Delos Ventures right from Bain to Delos Ventures to to see other startups also kind of give you a firsthand view of of learning as learning by doing and a little bit less risk environment even though you looking at the investment side before you finally jumped all out and it was
00:09:42:15 - 00:10:09:10
Rob Napoli
like, screw it, let's go, let's let's build something cool. I also just want to point out and laugh at that, you know, somebody who teaches this and coaches this and does workshops, You know, 95% of communication is nonverbal. So I totally get it. But it tells you the importance of this in in their face in such a way and not have any sort of like tools and tips and tricks is quite hilarious, but also tells me why.
00:10:09:10 - 00:10:32:22
Rob Napoli
You know, I think it's why it makes you a great founder. I was we were talking beforehand about authenticity, right. Being authentically you, bringing you every day is showing up every day. Entrepreneurship isn't for everybody, right. And you have to be able to show up wins and losses. You made that comment and own it. And I think a lot of people love to stand up for the wins.
00:10:33:07 - 00:10:49:23
Rob Napoli
Very few people want to stand up for the losses. And when you work at a bigger company or bigger environment, you can kind of weather that storm. There's always another reason or something. But when you're an entrepreneur, when you're a small business owner, you ain't got shit to stand on, but you're on your feet. And I think that's very impactful that you brought that up.
00:10:50:06 - 00:11:12:04
Rob Napoli
And I just wanted to highlight that because that kind of sets the stage, right? You know? Yeah, we met about 18 months ago, 16 months ago at a friend of the show. In fact, I've had Alex Batdorf on not once but twice on the show, get shit down accelerator. You got to go through that experience. Through that experience.
00:11:12:04 - 00:11:34:08
Rob Napoli
Learned a lot about what you're building. So let's talk about that. Why, you know, why did you join the accelerator? You had an idea to large company. You knew that digital health was something exciting and you wanted to build software for shoes and you started you saw it as well as that. Walk me through kind of like frame of reference or why software shoes and all this kind of tied up in that time and space.
00:11:34:23 - 00:11:58:12
Maeve Wang
Yeah, I think we have to go back to the earliest days and I think you already mentioned that for me, I was just someone who really struggled with shoe fit and my breaking point was the 300 returns in three years, which every time I hear that mentioned that it's such a core part of our story. But I cringe because I know the economics of it.
00:11:58:12 - 00:12:28:02
Maeve Wang
Like I know what the environmental impact of those returns and exchanges were. I know the cost to these incredible retailers and brands I'm so grateful for who had such amazing customer service when they put a shout out. Nordstrom Thank you so much, Zappos, please don’t black list me. I purchase other products off your platforms, but I think for me, really looking at it through the lens of where I came from, which was kind of the data analytics, wearables, digital health lens.
00:12:28:02 - 00:12:58:00
Maeve Wang
And my original hypothesis was that footwear fit was a data matching issue. And the reason for that was because I went to every single specialty shoe store. I traveled like deep Jersey, like upstate Connecticut for one of the locations. They had the most, like expensive high end foot scanners, gait analysis out there. And all I want to do is just find shoes that fit me that didn't look like clown shoes.
00:12:58:00 - 00:13:24:05
Maeve Wang
It was not like a tall order, honestly, you know? But they what they didn't have was they didn't have product data to actually match with me once they had all of this high resolution data on me. And so I was like, okay, if we could create a data matching tool that could pull high resolution data from a consumer grade device like everyone's smartphone, they wouldn't have to go to places like deep Jersey.
00:13:24:05 - 00:13:51:12
Maeve Wang
You're upstate right? And if we could get high resolution product data by working directly with those retailers and brands, then we could utilize a combination of 3D modeling and material science to match the two. And I felt really comfortable with the 3D modeling piece because growing up, my dad was actually a software developer and aerospace engineer, so he developed his own CAD software in the nineties for like aerospace parts, and it was just so cool seeing it.
00:13:51:12 - 00:14:17:11
Maeve Wang
I was like, This stuff is possible. I know this technology exists. Okay? So was like, It can't be that hard. And I got some incredible people on board. So I, I submitted this pitch to the National Science Foundation because you have to be invited to actually submit a full proposal for the grant. The pitch was accepted. They invited us to submit a proposal.
00:14:17:13 - 00:14:47:13
Maeve Wang
We had 12 months from that date. And so we were invited, I think like January 2020. My CTO and co-founder Raza, he joined the day Governor Cuomo shut down New York State. I met him total like one time in person before working for years without seeing me again in person. We recruited the number one foot in footwear researcher in the world who was based in Melbourne, Australia, and when I first connected with him in January, he was like, How am I going to help you from Melbourne?
00:14:47:20 - 00:15:09:10
Maeve Wang
And then come March he was like, I can help you from Melbourne because everyone else is doing this from wherever. And then we just brought on board this incredible team, folks from data science backgrounds, materials science backgrounds, computational biomechanics, remodeling like you name it. And we got together, we got this NSF grant, we built this foot scanner by mid 2021.
00:15:09:10 - 00:15:53:13
Maeve Wang
We are so excited. We are testing this out on shoes in sneakers, hiking shoes, dress shoes. And low and behold, we discover it is not a data matching issue. It is a lot deeper than that. We found some major quality control issues and there could be discrepancies between 3 to 20 millimeters between the product design files that we were being given and the final physical products that we received because we were government, because we are government funded, we had to actually test the accuracy of our fit predictions down to the millimeter.
00:15:54:05 - 00:16:09:17
Maeve Wang
And that was why some of these brands were really excited to work with us. There's like no other fit prediction tool has ever offered to test the exact millimeter level precision and accuracy of their tools. Like, that's shocking, but that makes a lot of sense because none of it's right.
00:16:09:17 - 00:16:42:22
Rob Napoli
And when you're mass producing at scale, you know that can also cause some issues, right? So it's interesting what's interesting when you've gone this long without doing this, granted, technology hasn't always existed, but it has, right? I've worked with a couple fashion companies out of one of them out of Taiwan, has a really cool scanner for being able to scan and like clothes, and you can build an avatar of your body type and see how it fits so you don't have to go in a changing room with all the lights, which are all meant to like, make it look better than at home.
00:16:43:06 - 00:17:03:24
Rob Napoli
Right? And I remember when they were bringing that here to New York and we were talking and I was doing some work with them, how difficult it was, because even though you knew what you're putting in and the things you were getting, so many things were like not there are so many small, subtle differences that you wouldn't know until you, like, put all this in mesh that you realize.
00:17:03:24 - 00:17:26:10
Rob Napoli
And is it because of a mass production line? And I don't know, like, I guess I'm asking you, is it because of mass production? Is it because there are just issues in mass? Because they're doing it? They're like, oh, it's good enough Or or why would there be so many kind of issues in that? MM. Like in those kind of small specific details that make a difference.
00:17:26:10 - 00:17:49:05
Maeve Wang
So that was a question that we posed. I was like, what is actually driving this discrepancy? And we were being put in touch with the materials suppliers. The last makers last are actually the shoe molds, those molds that shoes are designed and built on. We are being put in touch with the factories and no one would take accountability for these discrepancies.
00:17:49:23 - 00:18:22:07
Maeve Wang
No one would be able to explain them. And for us, putting a lot of these pieces together, we realized that it was because of just how fragmented, antiquated, this incredibly large, complex global supply chain is. And when it comes to clothing, the way that a cloak like fabric drapes is really nuanced. And so simulating that, especially on different people's contours, right, can be really challenging for shoes.
00:18:22:07 - 00:18:50:12
Maeve Wang
It's very different because it's about the interior cavity of a shoe. And it's also about not just a 3D shape, but also how it moves with you. That's what determines true fit. So with this complex global supply chain, you need complete alignment down to like millimeters. Well, technically under four millimeters because that's like a half size in order for fit prediction tool to work.
00:18:50:12 - 00:19:11:01
Maeve Wang
And so we calculated it. If we were to say a foot scanner and data analytics platform, just focus on the software, it could take us up to ten years to have the necessary integrations with all of the different stakeholders along these supply chains in order to finally impact the physical shoes that you rob or I may have would put on our feet.
00:19:11:20 - 00:19:40:04
Maeve Wang
So it was a it was a it was well, it's like, do we really do we have ten years? technically yes. Do we want to spend it doing this? Maybe not. And so it's like, okay, well, if we really want to get people's shoes that are their best fit, especially the people who want this the most, then we might have to do it ourselves and we might have to start at that individual level because shoes are actually optimized to fit.
00:19:40:04 - 00:20:10:20
Maeve Wang
Only 33% of people, and they really exclude about 27% of people who really deviate from standard sizing and they leave this fat 30 40% in between. And we were like, it's that 27%. I call it the silent major minority. And it's people who don't always feel comfortable talking about shoe fit issues, but really struggled like myself.
00:20:11:19 - 00:20:29:11
Rob Napoli
And that's really interesting too. So my next question was going to be like, how niche is this or how at scale? And 27% of the market market's quite fucking large, right? Yeah. I mean, think about like depending on the shoe, I could wear it ten, ten and a half or 11. But as you know what, shoes fit me really, really good.
00:20:29:11 - 00:20:49:04
Rob Napoli
And I'll buy like five of those and which ones I like. I, I'd never buy an that pair again. Right. Like I think just as humans there's a lot of things that we just accept, especially with footwear because we're on our feet all day. And I don't think and I think a lot of people if you talk I to just for full transparency that my listeners have probably heard me say this, but I used to sell shoes.
00:20:49:13 - 00:21:10:17
Rob Napoli
I worked at finish line for two and half years in college soled shoes. And I remember the day when I actually put on a pair of shoes that fit perfectly and was like, Holy fucking shit, what have I been doing my whole life? Like the difference it made? And I said, Well, I was a kid because I had like what would come, I think of all those kind of things right?
00:21:10:17 - 00:21:27:22
Rob Napoli
It's crazy if you haven't ever if you're out there thinking like, why is this important when you actually buy a pair of shoes and that fit right and you walk around and it's like you're walking on air all day, That's why you should feel like right with this. Except I think that, like, it's not always going to be comfortable and our dogs are barking and we just like, let it go.
00:21:27:22 - 00:21:50:18
Rob Napoli
And I feel like it's amazing that we're at a place in time where that can change, right? Yeah. So I really want to kind of get into there is this moment right here of we got to make it ourselves, right? So this is kind of that pivotal point of we are kind of moving away from being a software data company to now a fashion company.
00:21:51:18 - 00:22:09:00
Rob Napoli
Yeah. What was that like? What was the conversation? Take us a little bit behind the scenes. You kind of doing that right at the end. What was the inside you know, inside Maeve in the team's mind of all right, doing this as this where they were going to go? I was scared. What's that like?
00:22:09:00 - 00:22:39:10
Maeve Wang
We were really terrified because we knew that going from B to B software towards consumer brand with a physical good where the supply chain can be really complex, especially if it requires innovation to deliver what we want to deliver. It's a whole host of different skills and mindsets. None of us had ever really built a brand from scratch before, and I'm like, I'm a I'm a nerd who's a workaholic.
00:22:39:10 - 00:23:07:20
Maeve Wang
I live under a rock, you know, like and I was like, I don't know if this is something that I am really well-equipped to do, but it was actually very much the support of a close friend and mentor. His name was Tyson Park, who was a champion of mine, whom I met at my days at Delos, and he was one of the people who was like, Maeve, you can go bigger.
00:23:07:20 - 00:23:32:12
Maeve Wang
And he really instilled so much confidence in just me as an entrepreneur is he was one of the people who encouraged me to take that risk and that leap and do something on my own. So he was always kind of back there as a supporter of mine. And when I was at the stage he was like, Maeve, I think there's something definitely here.
00:23:33:18 - 00:23:54:04
Maeve Wang
And he put us in touch with some incredible people. This industrial designer who's who's career, Colin Horn, his career literally inspired a Cameron Crowe film where he was played by Orlando Bloom back in the day when Orlando was a hot commodity. So I'm sure he still is if you don't know what work he's doing these days. But I just.
00:23:54:04 - 00:23:57:11
Rob Napoli
Did. Carnival Row had two seasons on Amazon, so.
00:23:57:24 - 00:23:59:11
Maeve Wang
I live under a rock. Yeah.
00:23:59:18 - 00:24:06:23
Rob Napoli
Well, and Katy Perry mentioned him in the news recently on a Twitch livestream. I won't get into that topic, but. Oh, yes, he's still very relevant.
00:24:07:06 - 00:24:35:07
Maeve Wang
Oh, excellent. Okay. I'm very happy about that. And, and a lot of these introductions that he made really allowed us to find the right designers, find the right partners in our supply chain to really get this off the ground. And without those introductions, without really kind of like boosting our team and and really instilling confidence and just us as a team and then our vision, I don't think we would have been able to have the guts to do it.
00:24:35:13 - 00:25:04:18
Maeve Wang
We were really scared. And going back to NSF and saying, Hey, thank you so much for this grant, but we now want to pivot from personalized recommendations to personalized product. And the technology here is very different in terms of what we need to make it happen. We had to effectively reapply to just keep the funds that we'd been given and make a really strong case for it because it's this taxpayer dollars.
00:25:05:02 - 00:25:24:20
Maeve Wang
You know, there's a huge social benefit here. Social impacts really big when it comes to these grants, as well as the opportunity, right? Market opportunity. So going out there, having to convince the U.S. government to build your own brand, it's just really different than, you know, a B2B software company.
00:25:25:10 - 00:25:44:01
Rob Napoli
Well, I think that, you know, there's a couple of things there. I think one between our software is more scalable. So of course, you know, they're more excited about that too. Yeah. You know, I think that what you're doing has huge implications if you get it right on your own product, like the scalability of that. You now have a bunch of testing data that you can leverage, right?
00:25:44:13 - 00:26:13:21
Rob Napoli
Yeah, but it is scary because you're going into a time and place where we're looking at 2023. Capital is not as easy to access right now, especially if you are a product company with a global supply chain. I was helping a company fundraise that was a wearable device and hardware software combo pack, and I was like, well, the hardware, the supply chain where you're getting out of here in here, like China, now Turkey, Georgia, blah, blah.
00:26:14:04 - 00:26:35:08
Rob Napoli
Like now we're not going to touch it. We just we don't trust hardware and products right now. And it's like, so that's a really big leap. So it's it's amazing that you had somebody like Tyson in your corner to to do that. I think so. Guys that listen to this podcast for entrepreneurs out there, every one of you, every almost every entrepreneur I talk to has that internal drive, right?
00:26:35:10 - 00:26:55:22
Rob Napoli
But there's always somebody in their corner, right? And I think it's it's important that, you know, as entrepreneurs, they say, like, got to be crazy. Amazon call you crazy, don't listen to him. But everyone who had a crazy idea has that one motherfucker in their corner that helps push him off the ledge, so to speak, to take that leap and go.
00:26:55:22 - 00:27:17:10
Rob Napoli
And it's really cool that Tyson was able to do that and that just give you that support. But the introductions and leveraging the power of his network and really opening those doors, that kind of puts you where you are today in a way that you probably didn't expect. Right. And I appreciate you sharing that. If it wasn't for him, probably whatever happened.
00:27:17:16 - 00:27:32:00
Rob Napoli
And that's a that's scary to say, but it's also awesome because that means all these things that are happening are just new doors being open, that are going to open, that are going to just great turn into great things.
00:27:32:00 - 00:28:04:23
Maeve Wang
Yeah, I think with Tyson, it's it's bittersweet. So we we started this pivot for 2021 and we really went all in setting up our supply chain early 2022. And we are ready to finally start our branding and really think a little bit more deeply about our marketing strategy and a few other things that had kind of fallen to the wayside as we were just under the hood trying to get something that could work.
00:28:05:23 - 00:28:31:21
Maeve Wang
And he was like, Knave, I got you. I've got this. I am I am in touch with just culture and I know people and I am hip and I'm cool and I'm a tastemaker. He didn't say those things, but he was very much there. We all knew it. He didn't have to say it, and I've got this. But he passed away quite suddenly last August.
00:28:31:21 - 00:29:08:19
Maeve Wang
Thank you. It was really hard because he was a friend and a mentor who was just someone who was always in my corner. And it was really hard losing someone who was such a strong champion of this new vision that many of us were just really nervous and terrified. But finally getting comfortable, embracing. And when someone tells you, Maeve, I've got this and this is the type of person he would fly from L.A. to New York, drop of a dime.
00:29:08:19 - 00:29:38:16
Maeve Wang
If I said, Tyson, I need you here tomorrow for this meeting, he would do it. He was that type of person. So when he said it, it meant something. And not everyone says, I got you and really mean it. Talk is cheap. And he was not one of those people. So when he passed away, it was the day after I'd flown back from Portugal, which is where we are setting up our supply chain, which is where we're manufacturing.
00:29:38:16 - 00:29:57:12
Maeve Wang
He couldn't get his passport renewed on time to to join me on that trip, but he was like, Maeve, you've got this. And I was like, okay, I got this right. And we were going to chat the day after I got back. Just kind of recap next steps, that sort of thing. He was going to come. He's going to meet my partner in New York City.
00:29:57:12 - 00:30:26:10
Maeve Wang
Like it was just so exciting. And I get a call from his sister telling me that he just passed away. And that was why he didn't respond to any of my text calls over the weekend. And it was a really big shock. He was someone who really set the whole strategy up for us. And at that point, I think I was just like the show must go on.
00:30:26:10 - 00:30:48:21
Maeve Wang
So I found this incredible branding agency had already been in touch with who really understood me. I am the acquisition, the working assembly there just premiere terrific. So grateful. But when we were going through that whole branding work that we started in September, it felt like I was just grieving because you have to define your visual and verbal identity.
00:30:49:04 - 00:31:16:05
Maeve Wang
And I was literally going through sorry, I was literally going through hundreds of pages of notes of my conversations with Tyson about the vision and a lot of his vision for the company and trying to bring that to the work. And it was really hard. But I, I think what came out of it, what came out of it was something I'm pretty excited about.
00:31:16:19 - 00:31:30:12
Maeve Wang
But it was really sad trying to bring to life something that I really wish he'd been there to like help with, but also to just realize his vision. He was such a big part of creating.
00:31:31:14 - 00:31:58:23
Rob Napoli
Especially since he was such a big part of that vision. But the decision to move forward without him and I do think is and for me it out there, we have our own ways to grieve and everyone agrees differently. I think it's really important that you take the time to grieve and and take the time to also put his his his flair, his assets, his you know, he seems like he has a big personality.
00:31:59:24 - 00:32:31:17
Rob Napoli
You know, the way you tell stories of him and putting that into the brand, that's pretty it's pretty awesome. And it's I think the way to remember him and to leave his lasting legacy is an impression on on the company is to infuse the brand with with a bit of him in it. Yeah but I also think you know that there is something that was able to come out of you and the fact that when you passed off and he was like, I got you, I'll take on the branding stuff and then you have to come back into that.
00:32:31:17 - 00:32:55:19
Rob Napoli
I think it really also helped you to take what he had, but also infusing a bit of you into that brand to kind of create something that you can honor him by, but also you can lead, right? Yes. And you can own. And I think that's really hard because, you know, we coach entrepreneurs to, you know, not be in control of everything all the time.
00:32:55:19 - 00:33:11:18
Rob Napoli
And for you to give something up and then bring it back and then infuse it and now pass it off again as a lesson, I think that's going to help skill set you up for scalability and things that you're going to run into down the road. And those are the hard fucking lessons that people don't talk about, right?
00:33:11:19 - 00:33:32:20
Rob Napoli
Not only did you lose one of your biggest champions and the head of brand you lost a friend, a mentor, a colleague, a confidant, and then you had to turn around and launch a big branding campaign to launch the company because you had goals and things that had to happen and the show must go on. And all those things are the things that happen.
00:33:32:21 - 00:33:50:22
Rob Napoli
You know, life happens and we forget that life happens sometimes in this entrepreneurial world we live in where we talk about all this. My challenge was this and I overcame it and now I'm successful, right? Versus like now it's hard and we're still not over it. Like, there's things are going to that are going to hurt us for a long time.
00:33:51:18 - 00:34:23:08
Rob Napoli
Yeah, but it's how we leverage that and it's how we, you know, we started the show off talking about you wanted skin in the game. Take responsibility for the successes and failures. And this isn't either a success or failure yet, Right. I think it's going to be huge success when it comes out. But I think in between successes and challenges and the fact that you can you can get hit with a challenge, get knocked down and get back up and keep moving forward towards the vision of the company, the impact, the global impact that you saw, what, 2019, 2020 when when you launched this company.
00:34:23:13 - 00:34:41:03
Rob Napoli
So yeah, I think it's amazing and I just wax poetic there for a minute, but I appreciate you sharing that story and sharing it. And, you know, sorry for your loss. And I know you've talked about it a couple of times and it's doesn't get any easier, especially as you're seeing all the work that he put in come to fruition.
00:34:41:14 - 00:35:09:06
Rob Napoli
And I think, you know, put for the listeners who will see it soon. I've had a little bit of a background, you know, that'll kind of curb. I haven't seen everything, but just from what I've seen, I'm pretty sure it's going to be absolutely amazing and a great way to honor him and honor the vision of Ambac and everybody that's been involved from day one to going from something really scary and having a grant master science foundation to like, Holy shit, we're not a data company more a fashion brand.
00:35:09:12 - 00:35:10:16
Rob Napoli
What the fuck are we doing?
00:35:11:04 - 00:35:42:07
Maeve Wang
Yeah, yeah. We're also going to be dedicating our first brand video to Tyson, which will most likely be out by the time this reaches the world. And we're naming our first style the Model T because he was someone who was a big car enthusiast, so he educated me a lot more about cars. And I needed to know, as someone who hates driving and deliberately gave up her driver's license like 15 years ago.
00:35:42:07 - 00:36:12:17
Maeve Wang
So I'm really proud of where the team is. I'm really proud of how we continue to push on. And I'm also just really grateful because even though he was one of my biggest champions, iambic was never built in a vacuum. I notice one of your one of your questions, Rob, earlier as I was thinking about this podcast, was what's one thing that that I don't like that people like?
00:36:12:17 - 00:36:47:23
Maeve Wang
What's one misconception about entrepreneurship? It is that right? Right. I think I remember and I often hear this refrain that entrepreneurship is really lonely, but I actually have never felt that way. I've actually felt more connected to people and the world and friends and family, more so now than ever before. And when friends come in back to New York, those who've moved because many of them moved and they're like, Maeve you just seem more at ease and you just seem more open.
00:36:47:23 - 00:37:09:17
Maeve Wang
I'm like, because I'm doing something that I love, that I can talk to everybody I love about. And it and everyone wears shoes and it's just something that can really touch people's lives in such a deep, meaningful way. And people are excited about what we're doing, which I'm just so grateful for. So I haven't felt lonely in this journey at all, really.
00:37:10:02 - 00:37:22:11
Maeve Wang
And it's a lot of other people who've really stepped in to really help kind of usher. I am big into this new stage with just as much energy as we had when when Tyson was around.
00:37:22:17 - 00:37:44:17
Rob Napoli
So I love that. And, you know, I always hear from my listeners that I said like a questionnaire to prep and it's like, what's that one hot take or misconception or something that's contrary to popular opinion of what your superpower and what advice you would them. The idea behind that is I always like to get your brain thinking about entrepreneurship in a different way, right?
00:37:44:17 - 00:38:09:12
Rob Napoli
Because we hear so much entrepreneurship and I love to share that entrepreneurship is an only cause. I know a lot of that find it lonely, but I think the difference between those that find it lonely, those don't is the fact that you have to like and know that the way that you're even saying this and we've talked about this whole experience is that as a founder, you either isolate yourself or not.
00:38:09:13 - 00:38:25:19
Rob Napoli
Like you have to be the one to draw in to your community. You have to reach out. You have to call on those people. You have to make an effort, like when you're doing your beautiful mindset to still be present. I know you live under a rock, but you don't live on the rocks so much. The fact that you do keep in touch with people, right?
00:38:25:19 - 00:38:43:07
Rob Napoli
Like we've kept in touch throughout this this journey. And I project when I ask people on your list to keep in touch, I thought you always kept me in the loop. You know, I was part of some early testing. I did some survey stuff for your team, right? And like, you made sure to keep those people around you or in your circles.
00:38:43:07 - 00:39:05:23
Rob Napoli
Circles so that you never were isolated. I think that's really hard for many entrepreneurs to do because they go, I'm going to go build this and I'm going to go in a hole and build it versus I'm to go build this and get as much input and but and then how to manage those relationships. I think the hot take there is if you're a founder and you're finding that it is lonely, you need to look in the mirror and start looking at, Well, who are you talking to?
00:39:05:23 - 00:39:34:02
Rob Napoli
Who are you hanging out with? Who do you have as your champions? You need to get champions. You need to go get mentorship. Yes, because without those things, I don't know if I would ever be what it is today. Right. Without having the right mentors and champions in your corner. And that's really amazing. And I'm really excited to see what's going to happen with I have back and how it's going to change, and I know you've got some really cool events, so I would love that to kind of to give you a chance to shout out what you got coming out.
00:39:34:05 - 00:39:50:03
Rob Napoli
What I know, depending on when this episode airs, this might happen. But let's talk about it. You're about to launch a fresh brand video. You've got really cool things coming out. So this is your chance to talk iambic up. What can listeners expect? What should be paying attention to? If we're going to start following your journey in the company's journey?
00:39:50:13 - 00:40:17:17
Maeve Wang
Well, next month, we will be finally launching. Yeah, it's it's pretty big. We're going to finally have a full website. I know it's been a long time coming now, and we're going to be opening up preorders for our executive experience. So this year we are rolling out a program that's almost like I am the Sphere, which is what what you've you've been part of.
00:40:17:17 - 00:40:45:07
Maeve Wang
Rob and thank you so much, by the way, for taking all of the little interviews and surveys because those are really big for us. But we actually see the executive experience as like the VIP paid version of atmosphere where it's people who want to be part of our first roll out and get kind of the white glove service and all of the attention on them, their needs, their perspectives on shoes, what makes them tick, what does it, and if they could design, I am the way that they could.
00:40:45:07 - 00:41:20:11
Maeve Wang
How would they make their I am the X. We're going to be rolling out only about 600 pairs over the next year, and that's because we really want to get to know every single one of our earliest customers. I don't even want to call them customers because I really want I see them as part of the mission and in building I am big still, but people are going to have the option of actually coming to a studio in New York City for the White glove, in-person fitting where you get scanned with the AR tech space by order, which is actually a scanner that NASA uses on the International Space Station.
00:41:20:24 - 00:41:41:16
Maeve Wang
And we've actually it's pretty cool. And we actually get to walk you through how we developed our technology because that was one of the pieces of equipment we used to develop our smartphone scanner, which is part of the virtual consultation. After that, they get what we call the pilot shoe, which is a test pair. So they get to draw on their I am X and show where does it feel super great?
00:41:41:16 - 00:41:58:09
Maeve Wang
And if it's a little bit loose or a little bit tight in these other places, let's you know firm that up a little bit. Right. And so it's one way of making sure that there's a conversation about the shoe because it can be so easy to say, oh, it's good enough because good enough is not what we're going for.
00:41:58:23 - 00:42:24:18
Maeve Wang
And then they get their final pair of lambics. And so we call it the executive experience, not just because there's like a VIP element to it, but also because we want people to feel like they're in control, like there's this element of collaboration, co-creation that's always been part of, I guess, me as an entrepreneur in our team. And I think it's just so important to preserve that for anyone who get who puts our shoes on their feet for the next year.
00:42:25:22 - 00:42:52:05
Maeve Wang
And then we're going to be rolling out a different version of the shoe of the following year. And that's going to be focused on a fully virtual remote experience using our smartphone scanner, which we built with the NSF funds and going to really be incorporating all the insights and feedback from our executive experience customers to that Model T, which is named Tyson.
00:42:52:05 - 00:43:13:24
Rob Napoli
So that's exciting. And this is all happening, you know, April, April into May as we're kicking off here in 2023, which is really exciting. So those that are listening, go on this drops down to look out for what Iambiac is doing the journey. Quick question. The ones there with the red and I love it. Are you going to do custom colorways?
00:43:13:24 - 00:43:26:03
Rob Napoli
And so I need I need like at the bottom of that shoe to like be like a three tone brand colors. Is that possible at some point to get to some custom colorway brand shoes?
00:43:26:12 - 00:43:33:20
Maeve Wang
Because we are taking requests and this is part of the iambic here/executive experience program.
00:43:34:20 - 00:43:53:16
Rob Napoli
So I'm gone be back with my audience at some point. They'll hear it by now. So coming up soon. But I'm going to be working on some really cool stuff coming up and doing a lot of interviews and podcasting and trade shows, and I would be on my feet a lot and I'm going to want a good pair of shoes, but I want a pair of shoes that is going to be on brand with my outfits.
00:43:53:16 - 00:44:08:20
Rob Napoli
And I have like the right colorways and so have you. Frickin a hot take right there and a hot topic that'll be like, What shoes are those? And I like being at these big ass conferences and tech conferences and trade show. So as I said, we should talk about that online and I could be a walking billboard for you this year.
00:44:10:17 - 00:44:26:15
Rob Napoli
And of course, you know, once you get everything which I'm excited to come down, I don't care if I buy the exact experience or not, I'm going to come down on my check out the technology and the showroom. And I so we haven't had a chance to meet in real life like you. You I've been in ships passing that I whenever one of us is in New York at an event, the other one's not.
00:44:26:16 - 00:44:58:22
Rob Napoli
So we'll have to make that happen. But I'm really excited to see what happens for the launch of the Model T for the work that Tyson and your team put in it to get to recognize him and then the champion that he was for for the brand. And as I to see that follow your journey from back then this was like the day at a tech company to now seeing it as a as a an unlikely fashion founder and to see you start to come out of your shell with your own personal development, your own personal brand, your content.
00:44:58:22 - 00:45:16:07
Rob Napoli
I know that's been you and I talked about that when how we met. Was there a personal brand workshop at the get shit done accelerator and it was a struggle for you and we talked a lot about that. So I'm excited to see all these things happen for you and follow your journey. So with that being said, how can Bear Nation follow along?
00:45:16:09 - 00:45:29:01
Rob Napoli
Where should they be? Following website social handles? Where do we follow along so that we can follow yours and the company's journey as you finally launch and take this and make an amazing thing? Our thoughts are so many.
00:45:30:05 - 00:46:04:05
Maeve Wang
Iambic.co which is where you'll be able to sign up for our newsletter for a fun updates, but also preorders for our executive experience. The waitlist for our Model T, we are iambic is our handle across Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, and then my first last name for Instagram and then first name underscore last name on Tok Tok because apparently there's another Maeve Wang who already took the version without the underscore I discovered so.
00:46:04:08 - 00:46:42:12
Rob Napoli
We'll make sure to have all those things linked in the show notes so you can click on them, find them, follow on the socials Maeve I appreciate you for being apart for for being so real and raw and honest with us. I know it's not easy to share some of the things that you did, but we're excited as Bear Nation to to see the Model T and the brand video and all those things kind of come alive and really get to put all the time, energy and effort, not only Tyson, but you yourself as the founder and leading the ship to your co-founder, to your partners, to everyone that has put a lot of
00:46:42:12 - 00:47:04:04
Rob Napoli
time and energy for 2020 to 2023 as we launch. You know, it's the first of many steps in your success. But one that I hope you get to celebrate and take a moment to reflect on how far you've come. Because just as an outsider watching, it's been fucking amazing to watch it, watch you grow and see that.
00:47:04:04 - 00:47:12:13
Rob Napoli
So I just want to say congrats and thank you so much for letting me be part of the journey. By doing this podcast and being a part of bear nation.
00:47:12:13 - 00:47:25:03
Maeve Wang
Oh, thanks, Rob, and thank you for being part of our and continuing to be part of our IAMBIC shpere. And don't worry, the executive experience already actually has a preorders or waitlist, and so I already put you on it. So we're set.
00:47:25:08 - 00:47:39:07
Rob Napoli
Yeah, Well, I appreciate that Maeve and thank you so much. Follow Maeve. Check out IAMBIC. It's an amazing company. Got to be doing a lot of really cool stuff in the future. Bear Nation, as always, thank you so much for tuning in. So next time, stay well and rise up.