In this post, we take a look at one of our customers that ships products and helps women & girls around the world.
Cora (corawomen.com) is a subscription box providing organic feminine hygiene products to women, while helping girls in developing countries.
For every monthly box shipped to a woman in the USA, Cora provides a month’s supply of sustainable sanitary pads to a girl in a developing country who would otherwise miss days of school each month during her period.
Cora gives women a convenient way to receive safer, healthier alternatives to conventional feminine hygiene products, which are contaminated by pesticide residues and toxic chemicals from the manufacturing process (which have been linked to serious health problems).
Choosing the Recurring Revenue Model
Cora’s Founder and CEO, Molly Hayward (@Molly_Hayward), is a social impact entrepreneur, world traveler, and women’s rights advocate. She spent the last 8 years traveling to countries around the world, studying and working for women’s rights and socio-economic empowerment in various capacities.
When Molly saw women in her own country using products that are hazardous to their health, and girls in developing countries being at a disadvantage because they had no way to manage their periods, she wanted to find a way to solve the problem on both sides.
“I planned first to create a new line of organic products with a buy-one-give-one model, but the barriers to entry are extremely high in the industry, so I pivoted to to a subscription model, allowing women to create a custom product selection from an existing organic brand. This model made sense given the schedule of need for the products, but the path to setting up the company was less clear.”
Finding the Best System to Manage the Business
Molly recalls how she approached setting up the business, “I wanted to begin shipping and testing Cora’s product and service quickly - bringing on beta users and iterating right away, even before we had an outward-facing online presence. But I didn’t want the UI to be sloppy or disjointed - I wanted a recurring billing service that could stand alone, but then be integrated into a robust platform when we were ready to build out our web presence. I also wanted something that I could administer myself until I could bring on a technical team member.”
As a first time founder of a subscription shipment company, Molly searched for the right billing platform and was introduced to Chargify.
Recalling her early days, she goes on to say, “The subscription box space was blowing up, but it was still relatively early, so there weren’t a ton of layman’s “how-to’s” for setting up the technical side of things. I met the CTO of a successful weekly food delivery service and he told me unequivocally, Chargify.
It was more of an investment than some of the other services, but it was well worth it for the ease of use, customization options, and personal service. When I needed technical help, my emails were answered in a matter of minutes, instead of the usual day or two. And the Chargify team is always beyond helpful, making backend tweaks that have made our service, and our customers’ experiences, more seamless.”
Looking to the Future
Molly says Cora has spent the last year refining its product and service through beta testing, and traveling the world building partnerships in Kenya and India. The company is launching to the public with an inspiring video and crowdfunding campaign this month, raising capital for its new interactive platform and building its subscriber base.
“What started as a simple belief that gender equality in education is paramount to poverty eradication has evolved into a women’s health company and a movement to support girls’ education and empower women everywhere,” says Molly. “We’re grateful to have a partner like Chargify that couples an incredible product with genuine connection to its customers. We couldn’t ask for more.”
More Info
Cora Crowdfunding Campaign
corawomen.com
@corawomen