Episode 55: Rosie Mangiarotti

Written By lori kranczer

Episode 55: An Interview with Rosie Mangiarotti, Founder and CEO of Perkies

Join Lori and her guest, Rosie Mangiarotti, as they talk about the impact it makes when passion meets purpose. Rosie is the founder and CEO of Perkies, a company that encourages sustainability and reusability in its products. How was she able to empower women through these products? How does she incorporate philanthropy into her business? Stay tuned!

 
 

Connect with Lori Kranczer!

Website: https://www.linkphilanthropic.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorikranczer/

 

 

Episode Transcript

You're listening to the Positive Impact Philanthropy podcast where we share the journeys of everyday philanthropists as they incorporate philanthropy into their lives. Philanthropy is a personal journey and through the stories we will share here. We hope that it sparks something in you, and how you can make your own philanthropic impact in the world. I'm your host, Lori Kranczer, attorney, philanthropic advisor and legacy human strategist. Today we're going to look at what it looks like to be an everyday philanthropist and make a positive impact in the world through our personal lives and our business. Before we get started, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode posted on Wednesdays. Now today, I'm really excited because this is something a little different. We haven't had anyone like this before on our podcast and I'm so excited to share her story. So please welcome Rosie Mangiarotti. She is the founder and CEO of Perkies. Welcome Rosie.

Thank you for having me, Lori.

So I am so glad to have you here and I really am so excited to share your story. So why don't you tell us more about what you do?  

Yes, Absolutely. So I am an entrepreneur. And I started this company called Perkies out of a college entrepreneurship course I took at Brown my junior year. And as part of that course, we had to come up with an idea that solves a customer pain point and then create a business plan off of that idea. And based off my own bad experiences with stick on bras. For those listening who are unfamiliar with what a sticky bra is. It's a backless and strapless bra and it sticks on and it's meant for backless and strapless outfits. However, a huge problem with these is that they lose adhesion, after just a few short wears, you know when you're dancing and you're sweating, they tend to fall off. It's a very unsustainable option. As you can imagine you have to throw them out every few wears. But the only real issue is with the adhesive so my idea was to create stick on bras with replaceable adhesives. So after that course wrapped up all of my friends told me it was a great idea and that I should pursue it. So after I graduated from Brown in 2018 I moved home with my parents in Long Island and decided to work on this full time and I created this company. It took a bit of time to launch the actual, sticky bra product because it was an intense research and development process. But we finally launched it in May of 2021. So we're almost at the one year mark. And yeah, it's been an incredible journey. And over time I've obviously tried to give back and incorporate sustainability and our business practices and yeah, that's what I'm here to talk more about.

Great, yeah so this is what I really want to share with everyone that it doesn't necessarily have to look like an established 20 year old business that's doing these types of sustainability, purpose driven, value based businesses where it's so important to start at the beginning. And this is exactly what you're doing. So tell us how you decided to create or why you decided to create a purpose driven business and how to incorporate giving back in it because I know you also have a bit of a background with that as well.

Yes, so when I was in college, I kind of really thought I was gonna go the philanthropic route, whether it was working for a nonprofit, or I feel like you kind of have two approaches. Either you like graduate work for a nonprofit, or you build a big company and later on become a philanthropist. That's kind of how I saw it. And I remember speaking with a Brown alumni who started this incredible company called or organization called Pencils of Promise, and that's kind of how he framed it. And I thought, you know, like I could start like a philanthropic company, but this idea of creating sticky bras with replaceable adhesives really, I felt like that was needed in the market and I feel like there was kind of this empowerment aspect to that. So after I graduated and decided to do that, I decided to really focus on that empowered woman to feel competent in what they wear and how they feel when they wear backless and strapless outfits and then you know, obviously that's like the bigger goal. But I thought, how could I tangibly give back and I spoke with one of my mentors and she said, No, no, we could do it later. Like, you know, every dollar counts. And I thought, no, like I'd rather you know, give a percentage of my proceeds away right off the bat. I think that would make me feel better about what I'm doing. And obviously it's, you know, supporting a bigger cause. So, I recently partnered with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and this year, we're donating 5% of all website sales across Perkies.com. And we agree to a minimum donation of $1,000 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and their mission is to advance the world's most promising research to eradicate breast cancer. If you're interested in learning more, you can go to BCRF.org. But as you can imagine, there's a natural tie in with bras and breast cancer and obviously, it's a disease that needs to be eradicated and it almost touches pretty much everyone's lives in some way or another. So I am so excited to be a partner with them. And that's kind of nice to establish that right off the bat and, you know, 5% this year will hopefully be less than 5% You know, in 10 years and or hopefully in 10 years 5% will mean that much more to the BCRF organization. So I think having you know that right off the bat has always been super important to me, especially given kind of what I wanted to do right after I graduated. And then yeah, in general, just like lifting people up in multiple ways, double entendre. Yeah, Exactly. But yeah, empowering women to feel confident but also as a young female entrepreneur, I want to inspire other young female entrepreneurs to know that they are capable of doing this too and that nothing should hold them back. Especially when you're young. You don't have kids or even a mortgage to pay off. You're kind of in this sweet spot of if you fail, you don't all that hard. So I always try to give back to different communities and, you know, speak and be mentors to anyone who asks. And yeah, and try to inspire them to create their own world changing company, whether it's sticky bras or you know, even things that are way bigger and more important than that. But you just never know the ripple effect that you can have as an entrepreneur.

So this is so important so you raise a lot of really interesting and important points. So number one, it's never too early to start and to bake it into your value based messaging for your business so people get who you are and what you represent. I think that's so important and that's exactly what you're doing and how it aligns. Also like the obviously like your philanthropy aligns with your purpose driven business. It's, you know, it's very clear. And I think that is, you know, it may have been intentional on your part, but it's certainly an important thing to see because sometimes businesses don't do that and you wind up looking at why are they supporting this cause in their, through their business, it doesn't, there doesn't seem to be an alignment. There's a definite alignment with what you're doing. I, there's so much really good stuff that you talked about, I want to go back because I don't want to forget about asking about why did you even decide to go the philanthropy route? Why were you even interested when you were in college to do that, like, what were your What was your inspiration growing up?

I feel like I've always had role models who give back, my parents, my grandparents. My grandparents are two of the most philanthropic not in the sense of like writing checks, but in like giving their time and energy they do meals on wheels and they bring food to the homeless guys down the street. They serve communion at the local hospital for people who can't make it to mass and they, you know, they kind of give their time and energy into supporting others. So I've always had them as role models and my parents. And I just thought it was just a natural thing to do after college and I think, you know, dedicating a part of your life to service is super important. And that's kind of the crossroads that I was at when I graduated. My senior year, my senior capstone project was helping with the Special Olympics Rhode Island's 50th anniversary, and I ended up raising I think, over $50,000 for that, and that wasn't even part of like the senior capstone project. But that kind of just got me super excited about like, giving back and raising money and, you know, serving something bigger than yourself. And, you know, the year before that, I had an internship in finance in private equity in New York City. And I thought that I thought for a moment that that's something I could do. And I remember our internship leader came over to us one day and he was like, What's our goal here, everyone and the answer was to make more money for the company. And it was just in that moment, I was like, Okay, this is not the route for me. So, you know, after that, I the next summer I had an internship with the American Friends of Jamaica and it was a nonprofit organization that, you know, raises money from the United States to give money to Jamaica and raise money for, you know, the people of Jamaica and help build schools and whatnot. And that aligns so much more and that kind of set right into my senior year capstone project. With the Special Olympics, and I was kind of like on this route of going that nonprofit way. And then obviously, Perkies kind of came out of that class. And that's kind of when I was like, let me see if I could merge the two in some capacity. And yeah, that's kind of how I, you know, that was kind of my thinking behind this. And you know, it comes from like values, but also from experiencing, not doing it and like how wrong that felt. 

Well, I think that you were very self aware of understanding where you're connecting professionally and knowing that private equity was not the right fit for you and understanding and being able to understand that you need something more I mean, people everyone knows my story that I did litigation for many years and also did not feel the connection in what I was doing and left to go work for nonprofits, and that's been over 20 years and I've never looked back. It's, it's, you know, it's a certain type of individual, but everyone can make some sort of philanthropic impact, you don't have to have your career or your business around it, but you can incorporate something in it. So for those that are thinking about wanting to do something philanthropic or add something to their business, and maybe they're you know, they're just starting out, they’re in their new idea phase, what type of resources do you think or advice you can give for them to take action or to help them along?

 Yeah, so I think finding an organization that you align with is super important. I think, you know, passion drives purpose. I think that's the saying but I think if you know, are super passionate about something, then you're more likely to work harder for it. So I think definitely finding something that you align with is important. And then, I mean, there's different ways to give back like I said, you could mentor people and give back in that way, you could inspire others by speaking at different events. But then there's obviously the tangible giving, which is also important depending on what you're, how you want to give back. And Shopify is, you know, the platform where direct consumer or E-commerce brands are built on. It's the website that you build, or it's the platform that you build websites through and over the last few years. It's obviously blown up through COVID And just this whole rise in E-commerce, and they actually have several different app integrations that make it really easy for the people at checkout to donate an extra dollar or round up their checkout to give that money to an organization, you could also have that integrated to give 5% or 10% to a specific cause. So I think that's something to look into. Right now. I use ShoppingGives, it's an app through Shopify that gives 5% to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. And then there is Daily Karma, which is you know, you can donate $1 or around your order up by however much to the dollar amount, and that could also be donated. So there's like two tangible ways to do it in terms of like actually giving dollar amounts to organizations. And I know there are several like hundreds of organizations and you could even have the customer choose which one they want to donate, which could, you know, at least make them feel like further aligned with the mission. But those are my tangible ways and then my intangible ways are, you know, inspiring others and you know, being a good person, giving back when you can. Yeah, that's kind of what I would say.

So tell us a little bit about the business and how it's growing like, where do you see I want to talk about your personal legacy in just a moment, but where do you see the business going?

Yes. So right now we have three products. We have the sticky bra, we have Perkies petals, which are reusable nipple covers for you know backless and strapless dresses. And then we have Perkies underwear, which are seamless thongs and cheekies. And they're all great and they're all you know, I've been hearing great feedback. Obviously, it's a seasonal product or seasonal brand. As you can imagine. Backless and strapless outfits are a little more popular in the warmer months. So anyway, that's the base of it right now but I feel like I've created such a strong brand identity and presence that I want to kind of leverage that and not just make undergarments but also outer garments. So I'm currently working on a product right now, I’m being sent samples today. But it's a type of workout top. It's like a midi top hits above the belly button and has a fun feature to it. And fits into the whole like reusability sustainability piece that the sticky bra does, fits into. So anyway, so that's, that'll be exciting. To have our first piece of outerwear and I'm excited to see how that does. And then depending on that, perhaps we could like leverage that into like, more of athleisure or workout brand line for Perkies and you know, people always say what about creating products for men? Maybe that'll be down the road but it is fun to kind of think about the opportunities available once you have this incredible brand created and you know I think the name is really catchy. The logo is fun, the branding around it's great. Obviously the philanthropic mission is important. So we have kind of this strong foundation. And now it's a matter of building out products, getting good feedback. Iterating, raising money, always huge. But yeah, it's kind of it's been an incredible journey and people are always like, what does 2022 have in store? And I'm like, I have no idea, we'll see. So it's exciting to kind of see what's around the corner.

Well it's great because you definitely have set up your foundations certainly with your values with sustainability and your philanthropic mission. It just reads really clearly when you're looking at your brand. So I think that's a very important thing that you've done. So that's great. So what about you? What do you consider your legacy today?

You know who Sara Blakely is, of course. She's the founder Spanx for those listening Sara Blakely created this empire off of shapewear and she started it with $5,000, she started it in like a small apartment and she, I just feel like very aligned with her and I feel like she's the perfect role model for someone like me, I feel like we have similar values, a fun personality, an outgoing personality. We both started companies in this like undergarment category, and from the beginning she has always inspired women to feel confident and what they wear. But as she's grown her company into a literal empire, it just sold to Blackstone at like a $1.6 billion or $1.2 billion valuation. You can fact check me on that and she is just incredibly like just my dream role model and she has been incredibly philanthropic throughout her process of building this empire. I think she's pledged to donate like half her wealth to different organizations. And she is just philanthropic in everything she does, through not just in terms of giving back but in terms of giving her time and energy to inspire others to do great things. And I'm one of those people inspired by her.

So you want your legacy to be very similar, empowering women, being philanthropic and inspiring others?

Yes.

Love it.

In my own way, obviously. Exactly. But I do think she is a great role model for someone like me. 

Certainly, for many people. She's a wonderful role model, absolutely. So, Rosie, thank you so much for joining us. Where can people find out more about you and about Perkies and anything else you’re working on?

Yes. So Perkies.com is where I'd have you go. We also have one of our products right now on Amazon. The Perkies Petals are on Amazon. And then the Instagram handle is @myperkies

M Y P E R K I E S

Great and we're gonna post all the links in the show notes so no one has to write anything down. We'll have everything available for everyone. And we'll also post all the organizations that you mentioned as well. So if anyone wants to check them out as well, because they're all wonderful, worthy organizations to donate to. So thank you again for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

You're welcome. And this is so inspirational for anyone that is starting their business in those first few years. It is so important to lay that foundation of sustainability, of your values, of diversity, of empowerment, depending on what your purpose driven business is about. But I think you've done a wonderful job and I think you are an inspiration to others. So thanks for joining us. So for everyone listening, thank you for joining us and we hope that we provided some insights and inspiration that you can use for your own philanthropic journey. We'll see you on Wednesdays, Take care. Thank you for joining us. I hope we provided some insights and inspiration that you can use for your own philanthropic journey. You can tune in every week on Wednesdays when new episodes are dropped. We'd love to hear your feedback. So leave a comment and a rating about what you liked and what you'd like to hear more about. And if you liked the episode today, make sure to share it to raise awareness about the story to inspire other women to take action. I'm Lori Kranczer And until next time, you can make a positive impact through philanthropy every day. Thanks for listening.

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