Nicole Staple — Founder and CEO of Brideside on Investor Bias, Cancer Battles, and Rap Lyrics

Nicole Staple is the co-founder and CEO of Brideside. Nicole and her team reinvented the bridal shopping experience, and have raised more venture capital than any other female-led business out of Chicago. We discuss investor bias towards women, managing through rapid growth during her husband's cancer battle, and what rap lyrics have to do with ending meetings. Full episode transcript is below.

Subscribe to our newsletter. We explore the intersection of media, technology, and commerce: sign-up link

Learn more about our market research and executive advisory: RockWater website

Follow The Come Up on Twitter: @TCUpod

Email us: tcupod@wearerockwater.com

--

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Chris Erwin:

Hi. I'm Chris Erwin. Welcome to The Come Up, a podcast that interviews entrepreneurs and leaders.

Nicole Staple:

I don't think they knew Sonali was pregnant and we never mention it. She was eight months pregnant. She was big. He came, he left and they told us they were passing because we were located in Chicago. You have to ask yourself is that really why they passed on the deal?

Chris Erwin:

This week's episode features my dear friend, Nicole Staple, the co-founder and CEO of Brideside. Brideside reinvented the bridal shopping experience, creating what they describe as an all-channel concierge service. And they've raised more venture capital than any other female-led business out of Chicago. That's super impressive. Yet Nicole, who I've known for nearly a decade, remains humble and is still very cautiously optimistic about her business. And just like when I knew her in business school, Nicole continues to work tirelessly to build Brideside.

Chris Erwin:

In our interview, you'll hear how Nicole always finds a way to overcome pretty big challenges like how she had to deal with investor bias towards women when first raising funding or leading Brideside through rapid growth during her husband's cancer battle. Despite all this, Nicole also knows how to add some fun into the mix like how her and her co-founder end meetings with rap lyrics. So I'm thrilled to bring you Nicole's story. It's such a good one. You'll hear wild stories and all along the way Nichole just exhibits such incredible courage and resolve. I have learned so much from her and she's a major inspiration for me. So this interview was an absolute delight. All right let's get into it.

Chris Erwin:

Quick heads up that my interview with Nicole was recorded back in February and prior to COVID. Yet her points about direct-to-consumer in 2020 are quite prescient, and Nicole's come-up story definitely stands the test of time. 

So Nicole, why don't we start out where'd you grow up, by the way. Remind me.

Nicole Staple:

That's a good question.

Chris Erwin:

I know you've told me, but I forget.

Nicole Staple:

A lot of different places. I was born in London. So my dad is British. My mom had moved to London and my dad followed her to get her PhD in economics from the London School of Economics. I was born there and my parents were also married there. Then my family moved to North Carolina to a small farm town outside of Durham and I lived there for the first 12 years of my life and then we moved to Princeton, New Jersey, which you know-

Chris Erwin:

Garden State.

Nicole Staple:

... because you're also from New Jersey.

Chris Erwin:

Much pride.

Nicole Staple:

And I went to middle school and high school in New Jersey and then my parents moved back to North Carolina. So now I'm sort of from nowhere. No one really lives in North Carolina anymore. My parents split. My family lives sort of all over. So I call Jackson Hole home now where my parents have a ski house and a place that I love.

Chris Erwin:

You have a pretty awesome geographical footprint in my opinion between Jackson Hole and Victor, Idaho and then Palm Springs where we went hiking a couple months ago. And then you also have an HQ in Chicago, and now you're based in New York City. You're all over and then I think you also-

Nicole Staple:

I'm a nomad.

Chris Erwin:

... spend time in North Carolina as well. So that's awesome.

Nicole Staple:

It's always feels a little freeing to be from nowhere, but it also can feel a little detached. I seriously don't know really where I would even call home now. So it's always been interesting to me.

Chris Erwin:

So I'm curious. Right now you are the co-founder and CEO of Brideside and we're going to help tell your story of how you got to where you are today. I'm curious, growing up, being born in London and then growing up in jersey and then you went to Lawrenceville and then to Wellesley College. What was your focus when you were at Wellesley. Why did you choose that school and what you focused on there?

Nicole Staple:

Wellesley was not a popular choice. It's an all-women's college outside of Boston. And no one in my class wanted to go there because it was all women. However, I had a lot of friends and school whose mothers had gone to Wellesley because it was maybe a bit more popular for that generation and I was particularly inspired by that actually and my mom and my grandmother are like amazing women and I really looked up to them and I thought like this was an opportunity to actually do something a little bit different. I actually think wanting to be different is something that's been a theme for me.

Chris Erwin:

Wanting to be different?

Nicole Staple:

Yes.

Chris Erwin:

Okay.

Nicole Staple:

I have this like fear of just living an ordinary life and blending in with everyone else and so I felt that it would be a unique experience, but I wasn't so sure I wanted to do it. Then I played lacrosse in college and so I was looking at schools where I could play sports and I knew I wanted to play division three. I got into some better lacrosse schools and then my dad told me he wouldn't pay for anywhere else that had a lower caliber of academics in Wellesley, and so the decision was sort of made.

Chris Erwin:

You said you have a fear of living an ordinary life. Where does that come from?

Nicole Staple:

So I think it's part of my DNA. I think it's like wanting things to feel exciting is very much a part of I think things I can't control and that's something I've learned over the years. But I grew up and my mom worked in public health internationally a lot and I had the great privilege of traveling with her to a lot of really interesting places. And my dad is a total adventure junkie and took us very rugged sort of backpacking and ski experiences growing up and I just think that really stuck with me. I actually believe it builds a lot of confidence to do that sort of stuff when you're younger and I think I've always sort of wanted to hold on to that because I think it was part of what like gave me confidence that I could do some of those things that other kids my age hadn't done or couldn't do.

Chris Erwin:

It's definitely a unique upbringing that you had between the adventures with your father and your mother in public health. So as you probably compared and contrasted your stories relative to peers of school, by just feeling of like, "Oh, mine's a bit different. Let's go with this. We got some momentum, and this feels right." Okay. So then you go to Wellesley where I think as you describe there's a lot of powerful women who had entrepreneurial ambitions or creating unique careers for themselves that, that really excited you and felt like that was part of this path and this vision that you had for your life. So while you're there, were there any entrepreneurial itches that you were scratching or was it, "Hey, I'm focused on a life on Wall Street," which we'll get into a little bit. What were you thinking there?

Nicole Staple:

No. I didn't really know. I was an economics major. I think part of that was again like what my parents did, but I think part of it was that, that made the world make sense to me I felt like when I was in my Econ 101 class, there was like an aha moment like, "Oh, okay. Got it. This is how the world worked and that just became my orientation." But certainly, there were things that were entrepreneurial in ways, but mostly like social justice oriented.

Nicole Staple:

Even when I was younger, I was really focused on the environment and conservation. So I would start little stupid organizations like sell baked goods at the farmers market to raise money for some conservation organization. Just little things.

Chris Erwin:

Yeah. Do what you can. Start local.

Nicole Staple:

Right, exactly. I was involved in some global health stuff in college in the same vein and worked with women in developing countries who were trying to get out of poverty. So that was sort of like where I was mostly focused and then investment banking became my path because that seemed to be what most econ majors did and it felt like a way to get training out of school and to make money, stand on my own two feet