A Conversation with Deepa Gandhi of Dagne Dover

Burton Goldfield: Have you heard of Dagne Dover?

I'm Burton Goldfield, president and CEO of TriNet.

I am here in Soho, New York, at the fabulous retail location of Dagne Dover. And I have the opportunity to interview Deepa Gandhi, the COO and co-founder of this amazing company.

Good afternoon. It's absolutely wonderful to be here with you today.

Deepa Gandi: It's great to see you. We're happy to have you here.

Burton: Absolutely. So, I'm here to talk to you about what the last two years have been about for small business that's gone through so many twists and turns.

Deepa: The last few years have been unprecedented. A roller coaster. So many things. But I think in the Dagne Dover world, I view it as a tale of two different experiences. One was the tough. Right? It was it was hard. We had to figure out how do we ensure business continuity in March, April of 2020. That's something that… those are words I was saying continuously because we didn't know what was ahead and you had to apply for your PPP loans and then to apply for forgiveness.

And then there's global supply chain issues, which as a handbag company, they hit us really hard. They put, you know, working capital has been so much of a conversation because the global supply chain issues and the delays impact that. So there's this side where it's been really tough, but our team has come together and that kind of dovetails really nicely into the second part, which is our team has come together.

We have really found our voice with our customer. And the great thing is the customer shopping with their heart and based on values more than ever before. And so for us, the past two years gave us the opportunity to tell our customers what do we as founders, what do we as a business, what do we as a team believe in.

And what we found was, in especially the toughest times of the pandemic, our customers doubled down on us because they said, “If I'm going to shop, let me shop with somebody I believe in.” And it's great because the business was able to grow during a time when people were not on the go. And we sell products for people on the go, but they found other products for us rather than carrying that perfect work tote.

They found the perfect fanny pack that they could use if they were just like running around to the grocery store and needed to carry a phone, their credit card, a mask and a sanitizer. Right. And so it's been great, but it's been tough. But I think we've actually found that we've come together in a way not just as a team, but with our customers.

That has made us stronger.

Burton: So let's talk more about the customers. Have you changed the way you communicate with them? How did you understand where they were going from buying with their hearts versus maybe a different model in the past?

Deepa: So we took a risk, right? You know, in addition to being in a pandemic, a lot has happened in the past two years. And when it comes to social issues and a lot in the world, we were deeply passionate about that. And we care. We consider ourselves to be a pretty progressive, progressively minded company.

And we started to talk about it more. We actually added in and created a coalition at the beginning of COVID called Brands for Better, along with a lot of other direct to consumer brands where that focus was to give back to those that were the most impacted by COVID. Whether it was feeding families that needed meals because they didn't have jobs anymore or supporting health care workers, right? And we found a way to really do that.

But on the Dagne end, even once our coalition kind of dispersed, we continue to say it's really great to be able to give back to the communities and to the groups that we believe need the support. And so, we went from Brands for Better and now, any time you go to check out at Dagne, you can actually select your organization.

And we support everything from Black Lives Matter to Baby2Baby to Stop AAPI Hate. Right? There's a lot of stuff going on in the world. And we decided that for what we believe in and we think we need to stand up for, let's do that and let's put the money behind it as well. And let's ask our customers to join us in that process.

And we found the response has been really positive. People like to know what we stand for.

Burton: And is this a discussion you have regularly as far as what organizations to support or how we support or any of these other aspects? How do you make those decisions?

Deepa: It's an ongoing conversation. Because it's now become part… We've always given back, right? Even prior to COVID, we would do a lot of especially product donations to women's shelters or to Baby2Baby, for example, or to high school graduations or college graduations for underrepresented communities and things like that. What we found is now we're more putting structure around it.

And to this day, whether something comes up in the world or it's something that we believe needs to be addressed, we have a very open conversation. We do everything from the founders talking about it to our marketing team to polling and surveying our entire team and saying, “What organizations matter to you?” And is there a way that maybe we can support them?

And we're in the process of even further processing and formalizing that. But to us, it's interyesting, we started the brand to sell handbags, but we also started the brand Mel, Jess and I, just because we had common values. And almost 10 years later, it's really exciting that we're able to spend more time sometimes on that part of it in terms of who are we and how do we create an impact in the world that we live in than just, you know, designing and selling bags to customers.

Burton: That is amazing. Fantastic. So, talk a little bit more about the employees. I know they came together. They rose to this challenge. But there was a lot of uncertainty over the last two years. How did you address that uncertainty?

Deepa: So, past few years have been quite the experience as an employer. And at Dagne Dover, what we did was we prioritized security, transparency and communication from the beginning, right? When COVID hit, nobody knew what was going to happen. And so, we as founders, all three of us, we sat down virtually with every employee and we explained, this is what's happening.

This is what we're doing. We don't know what's going to come down the pike but these are our priorities. We are adjusting all of our budgets. Right? We had to go back to like zero cost, budgeting because of that. But we said the things that we were going to prioritize are everybody's jobs. We want to make sure that we are going to not have to furlough or lay anybody off in the process.

And we were able to be successful with that, which is great. But we also said we're going to have to change the plans. Right? So there was definitely a give and take in the conversation. We wanted to provide that security and the sense of community to our employees. But we also said, it's probably going to be tougher than anything we've experienced before.

And the past few years have definitely been tough because everything from having to change our voice and our marketing campaigns and initiatives to address what was happening in the world, to dealing with supply chain issues to then the financial ramifications of that, to wanting to grow as a brand, but then say, is the world going to shut down again?

There's just so many unknowns and macro factors that were affecting us and continue to affect us that we have to manage, but being able to say, “We're here and we're going to be smart about this and we're going to be transparent.” At the end of the day, I think as a founder, I have learned, my co-founders learned transparency is paramount and honesty.

So somebody asked me a question, I give them the real answer. I don't say, “Oh, everything's going to be fine.” I'm like, “No, this is the reality of what's happening and this is what we're doing to manage through it and solve for what we are working with.” And from a remote work-hybrid work perspective, we prior to COVID, were really flexible. We had a very flexible work from home policy. So it worked in our favor.

Beginning of March, as we started to hear murmurs of COVID and what's going on in our factory, partners in Asia were telling us what was happening there. We were like, “Hey, guys, just go to work from home. Only come in if it's mission critical.” And then, you know, think it was like on March 12th or something. Everything shut down. We were able to very seamlessly kind of say, “Okay, great. We know what the policies are.” We already had some remote employees, right? We built up, built that out. So it was very seamless for us, which was really nice. And where we land it now is people like the flexibility.

So we were going to be a company that's always going to believe in like a hybrid work situation. And it's dependent. If you're on our product team, you do need to sometimes meet in person to physically touch and feel product. But if you're on the finance team, you can work remotely and be just as impactful as ever before.

And we really found that the ability to work from home has had our team be more efficient and produce more. And they like that. They like the ability to be flexible. People do miss seeing each other because we're also all friends and we really like each other in the Dagne Dover world. So we miss that. So we're trying to solve for that this year. But it's an interesting process and it's been challenging, but I think we're coming out stronger.

Burton: That is amazing. So trying to decide the honor of being a partner to you guys for many years. We appreciate you. Can you give me some idea of how we have helped with you building that trust with having the flexibility and potentially anything else?

Deepa: So yeah, we worked with TriNet from when we had our first W2 employee hired and we came to TriNet because at that time we were a really small company. We also have taken a little bit of a different funding path, so a lot of direct-to-consumer brands like ours, they go and they raise large venture capital rounds.

We did a little more angel high-net-worth patient capital raises in the early years and that's how we continue to fund our business. But what that meant is we had a really small team. It was like three founders and we were hiring two employees and those five people ran the company for another year and then we expanded to maybe two or three more for another year.

And so having a partner on the HR side, on the payroll side, on the benefit side, that everything happened and you knew you were in legal compliance and your employees had a platform that they could go into and have access to what they needed. And we were able to provide benefits that were comparable to a larger company without having to take on an extreme financial hit for that reason.

Like the rates that we pay for benefits through TriNet are very different than the rates we would have paid in the open market. And so, kind of all of that was really helpful in the early years. And as we've continued, we've stuck with TriNet because it means that we've not had to build out a full team.

You know, a lot of the benefits we need are there. And when things come up, there's a whole team there to help us work through it. Right? And we were able been able to layer on additional benefits 401K plans, right? All the things that you want to provide. But if we had to do it on our own, it would be really challenging. But simple things like not having to worry about your workers’ comp policy, it's helpful to us, but our employees know that they're protected, right?

So it provides us with what we need, but in a very efficient way.

Burton: Excellent. Well, what is your advice to other founders? And are you optimistic about the future? It feels like the world is getting more complex, not simpler. But it seems like you are an incredibly positive person. You built a team of trust. And frankly, you've an advantage over many companies because you had the trust when the pandemic hit. It's hard to build the trust once the pandemic hit. But I feel like you are unique and wonderful in the way your building your business.

Deepa: Thank you. Really appreciate that. We work hard. Actually, Mel, Jesse and I, we have weekly founders meetings, for example, and I think we spend most the time talking about the team. It's less about our waiting revenue plans. There's other meetings for that. Right? But it's when the three of us come together, it really is about the company we're building and our team and our employees.

So, we put a lot of thought into that. I am happy to hear that, you know, you see that. But in terms of the future, I am optimistic. I do agree everything is going to be harder and more challenging. What we need to do to get to the next level as a company is going to require an entirely different set of resources than maybe what's gotten us to this point.

But what's great is we do have this amazing team that will help us get there and we've built a strong foundation. But the world is starting to open up. I think, you know, for us, we have also spent the past two years really focused on product innovation. And so I believe that the product pipeline that we have for the company is very forward looking. It's very eco-friendly ESG-forward for the past almost two years. Any new product we've launched has been an eco-friendly product, right?

And we are working to improve the eco-friendly nature of our legacy products that we launched eight, nine years ago. And so I think what's important for any company and brand specifically is are you ahead of the curve on where the conversation is going or are you just playing catch up and for us, at Dagne Dover, I think we've been there for a while and we built a foundation.

Burton: So, Deepa. You talked about design innovation. What do you mean by that?

Deepa: By design innovation, it really is… and this is much more Jesse, my co-founder's world, but what we really mean is how do we take real life problems? How do we think about the life that our customers are living, that we're living and try to address it? And innovation comes in so many different forms. It comes in the actual design of the product.

For us were known for not just our beautiful design, but also the functionality that comes with it. You have a place for everything. So there's innovation there, but then also there's innovation with materials. Right? When we started working with neoprene, it was one of the first times bags were made out of neoprene. Normally it's like scuba suit material, right?

And Jessy just had this amazing idea where she said, “I think like the world is going more casual. Let's create bags for that person.” Right? All the athleisure brands were doing really well. What were they carrying if you're wearing your, you know, your yoga pants and your sweatshirt and things like that and your Nikes… and so that was interesting.

But then, it's also it's about material innovation for us even more. Today, for example, in the store, so many actually parts of our store are made out of recycled materials. So, all of these shelves are made out of recycled metals and plastics. The floors are made out of recycled plastics. So it's saying, how do we take the waste that has been created in the world and how do we transform into that. So many of our new products and all of the linings of all of our products that are made out of nylon, they're made out of recycled water bottles. And there's a process we have to go through with that and we're continuing that.

So design and innovation is not just about the exterior of the product. It's about every piece of it.

Burton: I was going to ask you about sustainability, but you covered that design innovation, which is fantastic. It seems like you're thinking of everything.

Deepa: We really are. To us, it's so important to A, do our piece in helping make the world a more eco-friendly place. And it's about not just us taking the time and making sure it's the product we believe in, but something that our customers are going to want to come back for and shop for over and over with us.

Burton: Well, I believe that everybody should own a Dagne bag.

Deepa: Well, I agree with that. A little biased, but I definitely agree with that. Thank you.