What Victoria's Secret Taught Two Founders About the Outdoor Industry
This outdoor brand is turning heads and creating a massive community, we're excited to share this one...
Starting Line
There’s something to be said for the BPC-to-Podcast Guest pipeline that seems to be forming. Some of our favorite episodes have come from Brand recommendations in previous episodes, and this conversation with SENIQ is exactly that. Mattie Sims recommended SENIQ, and we knew we had to invite them on the podcast. Co-founders Tina and Madi both joined the podcast for an unfiltered discussion about building the brand from scratch - and how they went from filling in a business plan template to filling orders for REI.
What Victoria's Secret Taught Two Founders About the Outdoor Industry
Tina and Madison started SENIQ after nearly a decade building careers at Victoria's Secret and Backcountry — and it turns out the most important lessons they carried into their brand came from a lingerie company, not an outdoor retailer. Growing up in a world where women sat on every leadership team and product innovation was the quarterback of the business shaped how they think about building SENIQ from the ground up.
In this conversation, the co-founders of SENIQ walk through the full story — writing their business plan on a template they found online, moving into their parents' basements in Columbus, Ohio to launch, and trusting their gut to launch a ski collection six months in, despite every mentor telling them not to. They also get into how low-res iPhone content consistently outperformed expensive campaign shoots, why co-founders who disagree on everything make better brands, and how to figure out which voices to ignore when you're building something nobody has built before.
A Word About Our New Partner: Halo
Halo is a hospitality platform built by trail runners specifically for sports and event travel. They work with brands, event organizers and professional leagues to simplify one of the most operationally painful parts of any event: lodging. If you’re a brand thinking about experiential marketing, managing travel for your team or professional athletes, or a league handling lodging for your athletes and fans, Halo’s platform gives your brand a custom hotel booking platform and locks in better rates so you’re not managing hotel logistics from scratch. They’re already working with names like Western States, Aravaipa, Rabbit and New Balance.
And if you’re just heading to a race or event yourself this year, it’s worth checking out, too. Same platform with great rates, community, perks from band partners and less hassle. If any of this sounds like you, reach out to their team and tell them you heard about Halo on Second Nature.
Job Of The Week
🚀 Red Bull is looking for a Director of Sports Marketing in the Southeast Region, based in Miami.
⛰️ REI is hiring a remote-eligible position for Marketing Program Manager - Impact.
☀️ Arizona Sports Enterprises has a Sports Partnerships job open.
Article Of The Week
Co-founder of SENIQ (and featured on the podcast this week), Valentina Thompson, has her own newsletter where she shares her experience as a founder.
Show Notes
Here To Help
The most common refrain we hear from friends working at brands is “we need to find content creators, but we are strapped on time”. This is the exact problem that Popfly has solved. If you’re working at a brand that needs this kind of help, you need to check this out (and tell them we sent you), it’ll be worth it. And…if you’re an athlete or creator, you should definitely get on this platform - there are brands, ready to support you and looking for your talent. We’re using it outside of the podcast and having a lot of success with it - and this is exactly why we wanted to partner with Popfly in the first place. Highly recommended!
BPC - Brand, Product, Content
BPC is our closing segment where we share Brands we’ve discovered, Products we’re using and Content that we love.
🙌 Primally Pure Deodorant: Madi shared this all-natural deodorant brand - and recommended the Vanilla + Citrus option.
🏔️ GorpGirls x Oboz: The GorpGirls hiking collective collaborated with Oboz, and if you look closely at some of the images on the page, you can also see them proudly rocking SENIQ gear.
🥳 Never Slept, Always Dreamed - Nike Knicks Ad: Nike celebrated the Knicks win with this ad.
🏆 Dream Crazier - Nike Ad: A great example of an “anthem” style ad that Nike put together. This is one of their best!
⌚️ Garmin 970: Aaron’s new GPS watch - finally upgraded after too many seasons relying on an Apple watch - picked up from Tina and Madi’s previous employer, Backcountry.
🗺️ Detours With Valentina: If you want to follow along with the SENIQ journey, Tina has a Substack where she shares the behind-the-scenes details of the founders journey. We linked it in our “article of the week” today, too - check it out!
Thank You
What a week! We are grateful to have the support of this community, as well as our partners Halo and Popfly. Next week, we welcome a friend onto the podcast who shares her experience working with creators, launching new categories, and the data that drives all those decisions. Stay tuned!