The Need for Breast Milk Management with Amberlee Venti
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Episode Summary
Join us in this heart-to-heart episode as Amberlee Venti, founder of Pippy Sips, dives deep into the complexities of being a female entrepreneur and motherhood's unique challenges and rewards. Amberlee shares her inspiring journey, detailing the hurdles and triumphs of bringing her innovative product to market and how the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship often mirrors the unpredictable path of motherhood.
Motherhood, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and breastfeeding might seem like a unique combination, but Amberlee seamlessly weaves these topics together, shedding light on the interconnectedness of her life's journey. In this enlightening episode, you will walk away with newfound wisdom, respect, and inspiration for the challenges and victories of being a mother and an entrepreneur.
Topics Discussed:
Amberlee’s transformative pivot from healthcare to entrepreneurship
Tackling challenges as a female founder in a male-centric arena
The beautiful web of support Amberlee found in fellow women entrepreneurs
Decoding the world of venture capital, pitch competitions, and the intricate dance of the femtech universe
Amberlee’s unwavering dedication amidst doubts and curveballs
The delicate art of balancing motherhood with the start-up buzz in our social media age
About Amberlee:
Amberlee Venti, CEO and founder of Pippy Sips. She is a mental health clinician in the opioid epidemic who realized how hard it was to pump breast milk when she went back to work, and decided there was a better way to cool and store milk. So she invented the Maia product and her company Pippy Sips.
Episode Resources:
Connect with Amberlee:
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Emily Gorrie:
Welcome to today's episode of the Project Mom podcast. Today I'm chatting with Amber Lee Venti. She's the CEO and founder of Pippi Sips, a company that has created a compact and discreet all-in-one solution for pumping on the go. The Maya allows you to pump, cool, and store your breast milk in one convenient product. Amber Lee is a mental health clinician working within the opioid epidemic who realized just how hard it was to pump breast milk when she went back to work and decided that there had to be a better way. So she invented the Maya and her company, Pippi Sips. So Amberlee, welcome. Thank you for being here.
Amberlee Venti:
Thank you, Emily. I'm very excited to be here.
Emily Gorrie:
I'm really, really excited to learn more about this product that you've created because I think there is such a need for it in the market. So I'm excited to dive into this and learn about it. But before we do that, I wanna start off by diving into your story and your journey as a mom, in your career, and eventually how you became an entrepreneur. So perhaps let's start there. Let's start with, in your working journey, When did you add motherhood into that? And how did that ultimately influence your experience in the workforce?
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, I think that actually is a big part of the story. Just the way things happen, how they converged. So I got pregnant, I guess. Yep, it's 2011. I'm so bad at birth. Mom brain right there.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah, yeah, it never goes away.
Amberlee Venti:
2011, cause by, yep. All right, 2011, I'm like, I can't remember when I was pregnant. I can remember when my baby was born, but.
Emily Gorrie:
For sure.
Amberlee Venti:
So, but I did get pregnant about three-ish, three, four years after grad school. And so I was like well into my career. I had kind of had like my first job out of graduate school where I was a therapist in a residential facility. I learned a lot there. And it's really interesting. So I kind of... at the end of my first job after graduate school is when I got pregnant. And I got my first promotion when I was pregnant. I did not tell my employer that I was pregnant, but because I was too early on, I hadn't hit the 12th of the week mark, but I had a good feeling because I work in mental health. So most people are women in their childbearing age. Um, so that's very common for you to be surrounded by pregnant women or women who just had babies. Um, and my boss who gave me the promotion was pregnant when she gave me the promotion. So in my brain, I was like, I think this will go over.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah, yep
Amberlee Venti:
Okay. But I tell her, sure, she'll be surprised that I accepted this position newly pregnant, but I also think she'll be very supportive, which was always my experience with her.
Emily Gorrie:
Yep.
Amberlee Venti:
And I know not everybody's experience with an employer.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, so I told her what I could tell her that I was pregnant. I told her and she was very supportive. Yeah, so the convergence of motherhood in my career and moving up in my career really happened kind of right at the same time. And the same thing happened actually when I was pregnant with my second baby. I was literally on maternity leave and the same boss who was very supportive. She offered me a promotion while I was on maternity leave with my second kid four years
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah, amazing.
Amberlee Venti:
later. So, yeah, yeah. I wish all employers could be so understanding and know that, you know, mom's sure there's a lot of things we have to go through when we have babies, but we
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
also can contribute to the workforce just as much as others. And she always had that faith in me, which was really great. And I think it actually in turn gave me faith in myself. Like,
Emily Gorrie:
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
she's not gonna offer me this job if she doesn't think I can do it. And when
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
you're having a baby, I think you have a lot going on. There's a lot, you're juggling a lot of falls and sometimes it doesn't quite feel like you can do it. So that was helpful. So that's one part of the story. The second part of the story is that when I had my second baby, I went back to work and I was in a much. more high powered position where my time, I had a lot less time. I had
Emily Gorrie:
Mmm.
Amberlee Venti:
a lot less privacy because I was running an outpatient mental health clinic during the height of the opiate epidemic. Although I think we've kind of stayed in that height for a while now. But it was kind of like as it was creeping up and I was
Emily Gorrie:
sure.
Amberlee Venti:
in some ways I was in ground zero with the opiate epidemic. I worked in Kensington, Philadelphia, which has been, I don't know if you've seen in the news, but it was a there was a lot of opiate use, a lot of opiate dealing happening right in the neighborhood I was working in. So I was running this clinic and I was already used to dealing with severe psychiatric issues, symptoms, problems, but then we kind of had this added layer of the opiate epidemic and we kind of were seeing new things that we weren't quite experienced in. So people coming in, withdrawing from opiates, people coming in. like nearly overdosing on opiates, all sorts of stuff, coming in asking for help saying they wanted
Emily Gorrie:
Mm-hmm.
Amberlee Venti:
to get sober. Could we help them? So there was all these kind of things going on and I was a new mom trying to pump and store breast milk amidst all of that chaos.
Emily Gorrie:
Yep.
Amberlee Venti:
And there was the added layer of that it was my responsibility to make sure that the unit ran effectively and people were getting the treatment and help they needed. made it all much more stressful to me. And so the idea for the product really came about because the room where we had our work refrigerator, which is often the status quo for pumping parents is you usually store your milk in the work fridge, which I don't know, our work fridge, I see your face, like, I don't know what the work fridges you've experienced have been like, but this one wasn't great.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah, well, I feel like that's one of the biggest unforeseen challenges. I feel like when you're going back to work as a new mom, one of the last things you're probably thinking about is, now where am I going to store it? It comes
Amberlee Venti:
Exactly.
Emily Gorrie:
in real time as you're facing this challenge of, OK, I'm trying to feed my baby. Now I'm pumped. I found a safe place to do that. Where
Amberlee Venti:
Right.
Emily Gorrie:
do I put it? And you're faced
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
with these options. Yeah,
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah,
Emily Gorrie:
I can
Amberlee Venti:
exactly.
Emily Gorrie:
only imagine.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, and nobody really thinks about it, right? Like even as we have policy change and supporting pumping parents, you don't see anything in the policy about must provide a safe, clean space to store the milk after pumping. It's about the pumping itself that everybody thinks about.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah. So in this facility, the fridge was not great. And it was also in the room where we did group therapy. So it was not appropriate for me to knock on the door to either put my milk in the fridge or to retrieve my milk.
Emily Gorrie:
Mm-hmm.
Amberlee Venti:
So there was that I didn't like another thing I really didn't like was just like kind of walking the halls with these see through breast milk bottles and like the few men that I worked with kind of being like, I have to talk to you about something, but I'll wait till you're done with that. I'd be like, you know, it's not
Emily Gorrie:
Yep.
Amberlee Venti:
gonna, I'm not gonna spill it onto you or like,
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
you're
Emily Gorrie:
It's
Amberlee Venti:
not
Emily Gorrie:
not
Amberlee Venti:
sexual,
Emily Gorrie:
radioactive. We'll be OK.
Amberlee Venti:
it's not radioactive. You're not sexually harassing me by just talking to me while I hold breast milk bottles.
Emily Gorrie:
Oh
Amberlee Venti:
So
Emily Gorrie:
my
Amberlee Venti:
kind
Emily Gorrie:
gosh.
Amberlee Venti:
of just like the no, there was no option to be discreet, like everybody kind of knew what I was doing, where I was storing it, when I was doing it, all that stuff. I didn't like that either. So and then the last thing was that like, sure, you can bring a cooler, but you have to bring a cooler, you have to bring ice packs, the cooler has really not Not the ones so like a Yeti cooler has been reimagined and re innovated but like the coolers we use to store breast milk have not been
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
innovated. I mean they're based off of the cooler that was invented in like the 50s or the 60s so not much has changed. There's not much guarantee that they keep your breast milk a safe temperature. They
Emily Gorrie:
or
Amberlee Venti:
leak.
Emily Gorrie:
for a long enough period of time
Amberlee Venti:
Yes.
Emily Gorrie:
also,
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
right? Because I can imagine the hours you were working running this clinic were not always 9 to 5. You didn't always know exactly when you were going to get out of there or be able to get it into a refrigerator. So just having that peace of mind as well in terms of longevity of
Amberlee Venti:
Exactly.
Emily Gorrie:
how long your breast milk will be safely stored is also another key component of that.
Amberlee Venti:
Exactly. Yep. And I definitely had those days where like I would get home and the ice packs would feel like they had melted and the breast milk wouldn't be quite the right temperature. And I definitely had nights. I mean, one of my most like memorable nights at the facility was like, I had to stay till like nine o'clock because somebody was having suicidal thoughts and I had to stay with them to make sure they're safe. And like, I think we had to get a support, like a family member to come like pick them up and make sure everything was okay. But I I couldn't pump because I had to stay with the person the whole time.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
And I remember once again, my really supportive boss, I like, I think I like texted her and was like, my boobs are about to explode, but I think I'm going to get through this. Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
And I think even my like husband was like texting me and was like, I hope you get home soon. Like the baby's hungry. Like, I like he didn't have a bottle ready or something. I forget what the circumstance was, but it was stressful.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah, I bet.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah. one of those level
Emily Gorrie:
I-
Amberlee Venti:
working mom experiences.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah, and I mean, maybe you can talk to us a little bit about the mental strain that
Amberlee Venti:
Thank
Emily Gorrie:
puts
Amberlee Venti:
you very much.
Emily Gorrie:
on you as well as a mom, right? Trying to provide financially, and you're trying to provide physically nourishment for your baby. And you have kind of these unforeseen experiences or days in a job that really doesn't afford you much. routine, right? I'm sure
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, yes.
Emily Gorrie:
the execution is the same, but you're not really sure what you're going to see on a day to day. So what was the state of your mental health at that point? And knowing that you're the professional in this arena, were you able to recognize some of that strain? And how did you support yourself through that?
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, that's a great question. I would say I think I'm open about cherry about this. I was a little bit of an adrenaline junkie.
Emily Gorrie:
Okay.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, so like when you work in high intensity environments like this, and it's not completely comparable, but I do think like, you know, people who work in law enforcement or military personnel, like when they're in battle, stuff like that, like there is a process that happens in your mind and body where like you are getting these adrenaline surges when more intense, more chaotic, more dangerous things are happening. And each time you kind of find your way through one of those, you feel a little bit higher and you're like, well, what could I figure out now? Like,
Emily Gorrie:
Okay.
Amberlee Venti:
you know, some man walked in the building telling us he was all gonna hurt us all and I somehow talked him down and then got the police there in time. blah, blah. And like, I feel so powerful. I feel like I can handle all these situations. So I, yeah, I, I don't think I was like quite aware that was going on while it was going on. But as
Emily Gorrie:
Hmm
Amberlee Venti:
I, I got more burned out from that job, and was starting to think about exploring other careers within mental health, but ones with more balance and less intensity, I started to kind of examine that and like, why that wasn't healthy for me, wasn't healthy for my children, wasn't healthy for my marriage. And luckily, I'm in like a very supportive marriage. And throughout the careers that we've had together as a couple, we've always been very honest with each other when we do think that the job is affecting our mental health or affecting
Emily Gorrie:
Mmm.
Amberlee Venti:
the relationship. and hearing the other ones say that and recognizing that and making a change when it's reached that level. Yeah, yeah, I think something about that, though, helped me dodge a little bit of the postpartum blues, I think.
Emily Gorrie:
Sure.
Amberlee Venti:
I think because I was like kind of in this other trajectory of like, rather than feeling down, you're gonna feel like you know,
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
that's fine, but like, you're gonna feel excited every day because something new, something different, something unpredictable is gonna happen. But
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
I think it was just a different way of dealing and maybe avoiding the changes that you have to process when you do become a mom.
Emily Gorrie:
That's so interesting that you share that because I think there's a couple of different ways that it can be experienced, right? So I did not go back to work after I had my daughter. And I really felt in it. And it was probably a whole year that I was just really in now what could probably be diagnosed as some sort of postpartum depression, which went undiagnosed for me. And I can imagine that. So part of that for me was not. feeling like I had something for myself anymore. So I can imagine going back to work in general, and then you add this extra layer of unpredictability or. power, for lack of a better word, to your day, right, of being able to navigate and just feeling really confident in your abilities and in another arena allows you to kind of ebb and flow with some of the other challenges in this new part of your life of being a new mom and then a new mom to two and kind of navigating all that. So I can imagine that there's a level of comfort in knowing that you haven't lost or, you know, misplaced all of these other capabilities that you had that helped you kind of through all of that.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's funny. I feel like I keep talking about this boss that I had. Her name is Lisa. She's lovely. But she, I think we both connected a lot on like the skill it took to do the job that not
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
everybody had the skill and that it wasn't necessarily a skill that could be taught. I don't mean to say that in a narcissistic way, but a lot of it was like Can you navigate chaos, which is not exactly a learned behavior? Well, in some ways it's a learned behavior, but
Emily Gorrie:
Sure.
Amberlee Venti:
yeah. But yeah, I think there was just kind of this like instinctual skill set that both of us had. She was really great at that too and navigating kind of intense situations. So that did, I definitely felt like a confidence. I was definitely really tired though. You know, probably suffering more than I was aware.
Emily Gorrie:
Sure.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
How did you, this is just like my own personal curiosity, which is what a lot of these episodes are too, like how did you come down from that when you got home at the end of the night and you had experienced whatever it was that you had experienced? I imagine it's like probably similar to people who work, right, like you said, law enforcement or military, but also like emergency rooms, you
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
know, they see like crazy, you know, unforeseen things throughout the day that require like really fast acting. responses. How do you support yourself in coming down from that at the end of the day so that you can, you are able to nourish yourself at, you know, come home to your kids, rest, recharge yourself for the next day? Like, how did you support yourself through that?
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, yeah. I think it helped, now that I do work from home predominantly, I know the drive home was always helpful. I had about a 30 minute drive home. And sometimes
Emily Gorrie:
Mmm.
Amberlee Venti:
I think I would even listen to like, Inya or something, or some like, you know, nature music, just something to
Emily Gorrie:
For
Amberlee Venti:
like really
Emily Gorrie:
sure.
Amberlee Venti:
keep me down, or get me down. I think sometimes it was definitely, and that's still always hard that like. everybody coming home from school or daycare and parents from work and that kind of like fluster and chaos that happens
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
right up first where it's like hard for everybody to kind of get into a new rhythm. I would say something that I also do which is like I think it's a form of nourishment but like when the kids went down, like I went down in a way, like I would
Emily Gorrie:
Hmm
Amberlee Venti:
just turn on kind of silly TV and just like that jowled quite a bit. Yeah,
Emily Gorrie:
Totally.
Amberlee Venti:
yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
I think there's something to be said for that. There's, I think, always room for more permission for that. There's everything and anything that's on the to-do list, most likely, can wait. Tomorrow is always another day. And I always say that to myself, too. My daughter goes to daycare three days a week. And so on the days that I have her all day, I'm also pregnant. I'm like, oh. I give myself permission to take a nap. When she
Amberlee Venti:
Yes.
Emily Gorrie:
takes a nap, I take a nap, or I throw on something totally mindless on TV and I zone out. And I think there's something to giving yourself permission just to do that and let the to-do list wait
Amberlee Venti:
Yes,
Emily Gorrie:
until
Amberlee Venti:
exactly.
Emily Gorrie:
another day.
Amberlee Venti:
And I don't know how useful or productive you're going to be at like 8, 8.30
Emily Gorrie:
Mmm.
Amberlee Venti:
after a full day of work, caring for kids, like, you
Emily Gorrie:
Totally.
Amberlee Venti:
know, yeah. I agree.
Emily Gorrie:
So I'd love to know, I mean, kind of with that, so what point did you start recognizing this burnout in this job that you had, and identifying this product that you wanted to create? And how did you shift yourself into entrepreneurship? I mean, did you find the time to do that while you were still working? Did you make the break completely? How did you? get yourself from working into an entrepreneur role of building this product in this company.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, great question. It's a little long, a little convoluted, but I actually, so I had the idea at this facility that I was working at, and I had applied for another job that was not direct clinical care. It was working for the Medicaid insurance provider of behavioral health services here in Philly. So a more administrative job. And I can't be honest, I cannot remember if I was still the old job when we kind of started to like, talk to an engineer about like, what this would look like if we were to make the product, you know, I had this idea, like, I want to make a swell water bottle for breast milk. So I can't quite remember if it was at the old job or the new job, but it was like, very the two were close, like, it was like, either right at the end of this one job or right at the beginning of this new job. Yeah, and I'd say the last year at that old job, I just, I knew the end was coming. Like I knew I had done it for five years. Like I think before me, not to toot my own horn again, but before me, the people who had been directors had lasted like less than a year and I think I almost made it five years. So I felt proud that I had done that work and I just couldn't see like, go if I were to stay in clinical care, the extremity would only be increasing, not decreasing. So for me, it was like, let me just try something different. See if I can sit behind a desk and computer all day and if that works for me. And it actually did in many ways because then, I had much more work-life balance at the next job. There was no staying there till nine o'clock when your boobs are exploding. There was
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
like, I worked for the government and it worked technically for the city. So you leave at five, there's no overtime. Nobody's
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah,
Amberlee Venti:
walking
Emily Gorrie:
door's
Amberlee Venti:
in,
Emily Gorrie:
closed.
Amberlee Venti:
door's
Emily Gorrie:
Gotta
Amberlee Venti:
closed.
Emily Gorrie:
go.
Amberlee Venti:
Yep,
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
door's locked, phone is off. So it actually, you know. There was something serendipitous about that because it allowed me to explore this entrepreneurship thing. Um, but I would say it was not an entrepreneur for many years after that, because it took us so long to research and develop the product. Like we started working with engineers. We made a works like prototype. So it
Emily Gorrie:
Hmm.
Amberlee Venti:
functions like the product, but doesn't look like the product. Then we had to find a new engineer to make it beautiful. Then we had to raise money. Like. to manufacture it.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
So like it wasn't until five years later that I really got to feel what it felt to be 100% an entrepreneur.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
And I think I say this a lot, but the entrepreneurship has like a very good parallel to running a mental health clinic during the opiate epidemic. Like I never would have thought that, but the intensity. is less dangerous.
Emily Gorrie:
Sure,
Amberlee Venti:
Yes,
Emily Gorrie:
but resourcefulness.
Amberlee Venti:
but the resourcefulness is there.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
Nobody's walking into the building with a knife or anything like that. But that you're keeping
Emily Gorrie:
Yes.
Amberlee Venti:
up this very fast pace. You kind of have to be aware of all the things going on at one time. You have to be resourceful. You have very limited funds to work with. So there's a very good parallel to entrepreneurship and like, you know. working, managing a mental health clinic, which
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
I am surprised in some ways, but I guess it makes sense in others.
Emily Gorrie:
Absolutely. I think there's also something to be said for the timeline that you went on to get to this point. There is this trust in that the pivot that you made to this desk job may or may not be the right one, but you're going to try it out and see if it affords you what it is that you're looking for, work-life balance, the ability to think other things through. And I think it's remarkable and just worth noting the timeline, right? From what you described, I would guess, what, seven, eight years, maybe longer, from conception of this is a problem to having an actual marketable product that you've engineered and developed and can put actually out to market to customers is not a small amount of time.
Amberlee Venti:
No, no, we were five, we were like five and a half years from, I think, five and a half, almost six years from conception to hitting the market.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, yeah. And I think the timeline also worked because I did try that work-life balance thing. And apparently that doesn't agree with me. Because I was like, I'm bored. Like. What do
Emily Gorrie:
Sure.
Amberlee Venti:
you mean? We've got to leave now or what do you mean? My lunch is an hour long and nobody's gonna run into the room and say Somebody just injected themselves with heroin in the bathroom and you have to go help
Emily Gorrie:
Right.
Amberlee Venti:
them
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, so there was
Emily Gorrie:
Looks
Amberlee Venti:
a little
Emily Gorrie:
a little
Amberlee Venti:
bit
Emily Gorrie:
different.
Amberlee Venti:
of like
Emily Gorrie:
Mm-hmm.
Amberlee Venti:
yeah, it felt very different I remember at first I Got used to it eventually, but I remember first being like I don't know I don't know if I can handle this like I feel a little bored Yeah, but it was interesting that job started out real, like, kind of level, like I was on a really well resourced team, we had sufficient staff, and then something started to happen there where like we lost team members, and we had this huge project. And like the intensity started to increase. And it was right, as we were getting ready to go to market. And, you know, I, my co founder, who's also my husband. We were like, well, I think it might be time to leave the full-time job, launch this product and actually like fully jump into Pippi Sips, you know?
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah, amazing.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
Talk to me a little bit about working with your husband.
Amberlee Venti:
Hahaha!
Emily Gorrie:
I feel like there's some really great opportunities there and some other opportunities for growth, I can
Amberlee Venti:
Yes.
Emily Gorrie:
imagine. Talk to me a little bit about that. I love that. I love that you guys get to do that.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we didn't quite plan it out that way. It was an Amberlee idea and my husband wanting to support me and then, yeah, I think I'm pretty good at convincing him to do things he doesn't necessarily want to do. I would say more positive risk. I don't mean that in a
Emily Gorrie:
I gotcha.
Amberlee Venti:
jumping off a cliff kind of way, but more like. jumping off the emotional cliff. Yeah, so we didn't quite plan it out that way, but then every step of the way, it's like he was working with me and wanted to be a part of it. And it's definitely had its like drawbacks. That can make coming down from the day very, very hard because we still wanna talk about it at 8.30 at night
Emily Gorrie:
Hmm.
Amberlee Venti:
as we're like lying in bed and we should be turning on a show or reading our books and starting to wind down. Um, so we've had to really learn how to define what the boundaries are and when to talk about work for a long time, we didn't silo our work. We were both kind of just like helping however we could, and we didn't
Emily Gorrie:
Mmm.
Amberlee Venti:
have your roles. So we were in an accelerator program where the one gentleman, Aaron Sorosel, give him a shout out. He, he had a ton. He he's a businessman, but he also had a history of being a, I think. I believe a psychologist. So he had kind of this twofold expertise and he worked really hard with us on defining what our boundaries were and defining what our roles were
Emily Gorrie:
Hmm,
Amberlee Venti:
so that we didn't
Emily Gorrie:
yep.
Amberlee Venti:
step on each other's toes. And that was like beyond helpful. Like I think the two most helpful things were when do you stop talking about work? What's the cutoff and what are your roles? Like what does Amber Lee do and what does Joe do? Um, and once we kind of figured that out, that helped a lot. Um, yeah. And then we have, you know, we have fun together. We like, we love the business. We love the product and, um, we like to bounce ideas off each other. I think we're both.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
I am, my role is the more creative side, but Joe is also a very creative individual, so we bounce, you know,
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
ideas off each other a lot, and that can be a really fun thing. Um. And
Emily Gorrie:
amazing.
Amberlee Venti:
it just feels good. It's like we brought our third child to the world. Like,
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah!
Amberlee Venti:
yeah, once we launched Maya, we were like, the third baby has been born. Like, we felt really good.
Emily Gorrie:
As you should. I mean, that is an amazing feat in and of itself. And I would love to know what advice you have for women who are looking to create, whether or not it's a partnership with a partner on a work product, but bring something to life for themselves, whether it's a service business or a product business. What advice do you have for those women who are looking to start this process?
Amberlee Venti:
I mean, I always say just like, go for it. Like you think you have a crazy idea. And that's what, when I first had this idea, it did, I was like, Oh my God, some like, this isn't real. This isn't going to come to fruition. And my brother-in-law who had just graduated business school was like, no, that's like exactly how products and services come to the world is like, somebody has the problem. It happens to them. and they have this wild idea, and then they have the persistence and the grit to make it come to reality. And I've talked to, you know, I love in the female entrepreneur and female identifying entrepreneur community to talk to either other women who are farther along than me, so they can kind of give me that inspiration, but my door is always open to new entrepreneurs too. Like... I've set up meetings with people that I, I set up a meeting, this woman from Holland reached out and was like, I read your story, I'm really inspired. And she already had like a huge bit like her business was farther along than mine, but she there was something about the story and specifically
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
raising investment funds that she was like, I would love to talk to you. And I'll be honest, at first, I
Emily Gorrie:
amazing.
Amberlee Venti:
was like, I don't know, is this like who is this person? What if this is like some scam or something? You know, I'm being like,
Emily Gorrie:
Sure, sure.
Amberlee Venti:
jaded adult about it.
Emily Gorrie:
Little
Amberlee Venti:
But
Emily Gorrie:
skeptical.
Amberlee Venti:
yeah, a little skeptical. But I met with her and she was fabulous. And she was just as inspiring to me as I hope I was to her. I also
Emily Gorrie:
I love
Amberlee Venti:
met
Emily Gorrie:
that.
Amberlee Venti:
recently with like a friend of a friend who had an idea of her product. And she's had the idea for years. And she was like, it's like an itch. I can't scratch. And I was like, scratch it. Start scratching. Like,
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah,
Amberlee Venti:
yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
go for it.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
That's incredible. How did you find, I mean, because I love the concept of women supporting women, right? There's room for everybody at the table. And there should be, right? Women who are further along should be welcoming in women who are starting the process. And I love the openness that you have to others who are just starting out and reaching out to others who are further along than you. And I think there's something to be said for that. just getting each one of us further along in these dreams that we have, there's room for everyone. How did you find those women or that community? Was it through the accelerator? How did you kind of decide that was the path for you?
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, well, Philly has a great eco, like startup ecosystem. And it's pretty small. So I will say this funny thing happens when you're like in Philly, you're a female entrepreneur, which is like, usually, that some business man or investors like, I met this other female entrepreneur, you know, because we're so rare.
Emily Gorrie:
You must know her. Yeah,
Amberlee Venti:
you
Emily Gorrie:
you must
Amberlee Venti:
must
Emily Gorrie:
know
Amberlee Venti:
know her
Emily Gorrie:
her.
Amberlee Venti:
or if you don't know her, I'm going to introduce you and you'll
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
have this like great bosom buddy relationship.
Emily Gorrie:
Sure.
Amberlee Venti:
So and that actually, you know, as weird as that is for the person saying the man saying that it
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
that has actually resulted in some really good relationships. Yeah, the one the first accelerator that we were in, there was a woman who was like, probably, you know, I don't know. what the increment, like the exact measurement of the steps were, but she's like 10 steps ahead of us. Like her product was already in market. And she was more than willing to be like a mentor and a support and to give me advice. Actually, I was just thinking today, I was like, I have a question for her. I need to text her. And
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
she'll pick up the phone and like talk to you. Like if you text her a question, she'll just call you and be like, okay, let me answer this.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
And then kind of a little bit, you know, Philadelphia ecosystem is small, especially for female entrepreneurs. So I've tried to branch out beyond Philadelphia to kind of get some different experiences. So shout out to Jasmine Garnsworthy of female founder world, which has a Geneva chat,
Emily Gorrie:
Amazing.
Amberlee Venti:
you have to apply to be in it. Um, but even if you like. they don't have room right now, are you applying, you're waiting to hear her podcast is really great and she talks to female entrepreneurs. But the Geneva chat is really helpful because there's other women in there who are in the thick of it right now. So you'll be like, oh, what email marketing system are you using or has this ever happened to you in business? Or
Emily Gorrie:
Hmm
Amberlee Venti:
it's just like a very, very good resource. I'm trying to think. I feel like there was some other place that I started to branch out in, but it's...
Emily Gorrie:
We can always link it
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah,
Emily Gorrie:
if it comes
Amberlee Venti:
we can
Emily Gorrie:
to
Amberlee Venti:
link there.
Emily Gorrie:
you later.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah,
Amberlee Venti:
But
Emily Gorrie:
we
Amberlee Venti:
female
Emily Gorrie:
can always
Amberlee Venti:
founder
Emily Gorrie:
link it.
Amberlee Venti:
world is it I check that Oh, um, this is less female oriented, but it's more parent tech oriented. I'm part of like a parent tech community that this woman Charlotte started. And once again, you kind of you have to apply to be part of the community. But I think
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
they usually accept people and then You're part of like a Slack channel where you can ask questions. You're part of the monthly newsletter and Charlotte's just like a really good resource to reach out to. So.
Emily Gorrie:
Amazing. Yeah,
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
and it sounds like there's just it's ever evolving. It's like as your needs evolve and the business needs evolves, your connections will take you where you ultimately need to go. And I think that's the biggest or one of the biggest lessons of this whole process of starting a business is trust and put yourself out there. Just do it. I can imagine a little bit of. Maybe not for you as an adrenaline junkie, but I imagine there's a little bit of fear, right? Taking this pivot into something completely unknown that you haven't done, right? Producing a product and marketing it and selling it to parents is a little bit different than the health care world that you were in for so long. So I can imagine there's a little bit of fear in that and
Amberlee Venti:
Oh, a lot of fear,
Emily Gorrie:
just
Amberlee Venti:
yeah. Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
doing it and just starting the process and trusting that you. If someone says no at first, someone will say yes, your people are there.
Amberlee Venti:
Yes. And fear is like totally a part of entrepreneurship. I think I experienced fear most days of
Emily Gorrie:
Hahaha!
Amberlee Venti:
the week. Maybe that relates to the adrenaline part, but
Emily Gorrie:
HUEH
Amberlee Venti:
there's still because with entrepreneurship, actually much like there's just unpredictable things that happen and unexpected things that happen and new things you have to learn every week or every day sometimes and you know, you just like you have to be willing to feel the fear, but also to have the courage at the same time.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah, I
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
love that. Did you ever have a moment where you started Pippi Sips and you thought maybe this wasn't it, maybe this wasn't the path, or were you always pretty discerned in the fact that this product needed to come to market and you were the one to do it?
Amberlee Venti:
I always felt that way. I think the only times that I hesitated was like when we would just hit these barriers where you never knew how you were gonna get past it. So like
Emily Gorrie:
Mmm.
Amberlee Venti:
right before we were supposed to manufacture the product, like we could not find the money. Like nobody wanted to give us money. We were a pre-revenue business. So we're not getting a small business loan. We are a female founded fem tech business. So no VCs really wanted to hear us. Like,
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
you know, at that. Like women are raising under 2% of the VC dollars. And
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
we didn't know how to talk to VCs either. Like I still don't know how to talk to investors. It's a whole different world. It's a whole different like way of talking and being. And I say this often, I feel like investors often talk a language that I just don't speak.
Emily Gorrie:
Mmm.
Amberlee Venti:
So. Or like when we did manufacture our product, but they manufactured part of it wrong. And we were literally had emailed our customers saying the product's coming. And then we had to email them and be like, nevermind.
Emily Gorrie:
Ugh.
Amberlee Venti:
So it was those points where it's never that I didn't feel it needed to come to market or that I was the wrong person. It just was how, like, do I really have the hoods, but do I really have the grit to get us there? Um,
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
How did you teach yourself to an extent how to talk to venture capital companies? How did you get to the point where you, I don't know, maybe walked through the door anyway to talk to investors with out real understanding of that language? Because I think that's a big barrier for a lot of women who just. feel under equipped or not ready or not good enough or not educated enough to say, I'm worthy of being in this door.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, I still I don't know if I mean, I think I'm still learning. Like,
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
I think at this point, I've decided that venture like true venture capital, capitalists are not who I'm going to go to when we really want to raise millions
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
of dollars. I rather go to an angel investor that has heart in what we're doing. Um,
Emily Gorrie:
Absolutely.
Amberlee Venti:
if it's a VC firm, I really want it to be a VC firm like who is dedicated to diversity and inclusion and female founders or dedicated to fem tech so that it isn't, not only do I not speak the language that they speak,
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
but that they speak the language I speak, which is, you know, women have bodies and women make breast milk and they need to know what to do with that milk. And that's actually really important, just as important as AI. Like,
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
you know, like, I'm sure a lot of people would probably argue with me about that. But I just like, I need you to have the value system that I have so that we're not in a, and I've gotten into that argument with investors, not true VCs, but in these like pitch competitions I've done where they're like, why is this important? Like women can just use a fridge. My daughter uses a fridge. Like what's the big deal here?
Emily Gorrie:
Well, your daughter has no other option.
Amberlee Venti:
Right? Yes.
Emily Gorrie:
So of course she uses the fridge.
Amberlee Venti:
Exactly. Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
So, that's so funny. I mean, I can imagine, if I just put myself in your shoes in those conversations, like I feel like I would be the wrong person because I could just feel like the heat climbing my back. Like, I would be so mad.
Amberlee Venti:
Yes.
Emily Gorrie:
Like, do you wanna tell your daughter just to stay home and do nothing and never work again because like her role is providing for her baby?
Amberlee Venti:
Right.
Emily Gorrie:
I don't think you would say that to your
Amberlee Venti:
No,
Emily Gorrie:
daughter. I think you
Amberlee Venti:
no.
Emily Gorrie:
would tell her that she is worthy of everything that she could ever want.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
That's so frustrating. I would
Amberlee Venti:
I know
Emily Gorrie:
lose it.
Amberlee Venti:
including
Emily Gorrie:
It wouldn't be
Amberlee Venti:
a
Emily Gorrie:
me.
Amberlee Venti:
beautiful product that tells her the temperature of her breast milk. Yeah. I have, I mean, and I do have a hard time because I'm an emotive person. So like I just, I crumble under the, I've gotten better, but I was recently, I was at a pitch in November, like in November ending this accelerator program and these to women who were pitching, they make a mask for your vagina. It's called like a muff mask. And
Emily Gorrie:
Okay.
Amberlee Venti:
they're a sex positive brand making sexual wellness products. And oh man, I forget what the guy asked but some male investor type asked some kind of question that was a little bit in line with what we're talking about. And the responses that... the responses specifically one of them gave back were just I was like, like she
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
just like, cut through it like so quickly. And just
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
like, and she you can tell she was emotional, but she also just hit the argument in the right point where he looked like a dummy, not her.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
And in this same pitch, I got a question and I didn't do great with it because I think I was feeling angry and a little emotional but The gentleman asked me, and it might have been the same person, asked me, well, a woman's only going to buy one of these. So how are you going to build like a sustainable business model? And when I came out of the pitch, like five people came up to me, men and women, and were like, that was such a stupid question. Like, you know who buys one of something? Caskets. This woman, she was like, People die and you only buy one casket for their body, but
Emily Gorrie:
You
Amberlee Venti:
what
Emily Gorrie:
only
Amberlee Venti:
a great
Emily Gorrie:
need
Amberlee Venti:
business.
Emily Gorrie:
one.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah. Or like somebody else was like, you know, Dre makes the beats headphones. People don't buy eight pairs of those. They're, they buy one pair. It's a very nice pair of headphones. Like.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah, it's supposed to last a long time.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah,
Emily Gorrie:
There's a market for that.
Amberlee Venti:
yeah,
Emily Gorrie:
Oh my gosh.
Amberlee Venti:
more than sustainable business model. Yeah, and I wish I had the data I have now because we're seeing like, you know, 30% of our customers are returning to buy another one, either for themselves or for somebody else. Like,
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah,
Amberlee Venti:
yeah,
Emily Gorrie:
absolutely.
Amberlee Venti:
yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
I can also imagine that there's a need for it in different situations. I imagine a partner could maybe need one. Maybe they need to transport breast milk because they're with the baby that day and they're going on a car ride to grandma and grandpa's and the
Amberlee Venti:
That's
Emily Gorrie:
mom's
Amberlee Venti:
right.
Emily Gorrie:
not coming. And I could imagine that there's a need for that.
Amberlee Venti:
Yep.
Emily Gorrie:
And I think that speaks, those kind of anecdotes speak to just the challenges that female entrepreneurs have in general, but also in this motherhood space, this parenting space, of having to get past some of these preconceived notions and stories that it's just mom stuff, just
Amberlee Venti:
Yep.
Emily Gorrie:
at home.
Amberlee Venti:
Yes.
Emily Gorrie:
It hasn't infiltrated the external world yet. And I think it's just really remarkable We're still having those conversations
Amberlee Venti:
Yes.
Emily Gorrie:
and we haven't made more progress in this space. So I really applaud you for doing that and sticking it out. I'm trying to decide if I ask you another question right now, or if we just give you some time to talk about their product, because I want to make sure we do that. But I.
Amberlee Venti:
People can always go to the website to look at the product too. Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah, I love the product. And I think there's something to be said about taking that mental load off of a mom who is also working. And I want to talk, let's do that. Let's talk a little bit about the kind of experience that you've had. You had the supportive boss. You were able to go through your day to day as best as you could with pursuing your goals. How do you? Like, what advice do you have for women who are, like, going back to work, they're pumping, perhaps their environment is not as conducive to this growth for themselves, nourishing their baby. There is no pumping space. Maybe we're in the argument of if you can still work, you're still owed compensation, that sort of stuff. So what advice do you have for women who are navigating all of that and are just trying to figure out what their. Maybe not rights are, but what they can expect, what they can, as a baseline, expect to have in terms of support in this journey.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, yeah. No, I think it's really important to know, especially as policy changes. So when I had a baby, Obamacare had just been enacted, which did have a clause about providing a safe, clean space for employees to pump. And now, what, for like 11 years later, we have the Pumph Act that more clearly defines what your rights are and what the employer is supposed to do. So I do think actually knowing that stuff is really important. And I think just as you said earlier in the podcast about you figure this stuff out in real time, not that it's wrong to do that, but if you can do some research ahead of time, especially in the world we live in now. So like 11 years ago when I had a baby, Instagram was like newish.
Emily Gorrie:
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe
Amberlee Venti:
Like, I feel like a dinosaur saying that, but. I'm right, you know, it felt new. It wasn't, there just wasn't a space hadn't been cultivated the way it is now that I see
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
in the mom sphere, which is there's really great, um, uh, people, brands to follow, um, organizations to follow that will literally like give you daily advice, like you, you could open up Instagram and it will be like, make sure you block out timing your schedule at work. for 10 to 15 minutes of pumping, make sure that's clear in your schedule. Like that advice is actually much more readily available versus
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
I had to do a little bit more work with that stuff and like ask my friends who had babies or ask my family members who had babies for advice. Although I still recommend that. Like I just got an email today from a cousin who was asking about pumps and was like, I hear you're the expert in pumps, which I was like, I kind of am. but I'm also a dinosaur and
Emily Gorrie:
It's been
Amberlee Venti:
you should
Emily Gorrie:
a little
Amberlee Venti:
get a
Emily Gorrie:
while,
Amberlee Venti:
wearable. I
Emily Gorrie:
yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
was like, they didn't have wearables when I was bumping, so you should
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
probably get one of those. Yeah, but rely on your mom community, whether that is like real people you know, or it's, you know, in a social media sphere. I actually find those spaces, you know, there are dangers in social media, sure, but I do find the mom spaces to be very safe, very informative. very like evidence-based. You can find people, you can find midwives who have channels. So they're telling you evidence-based information. You can find gynecologists who have channels that are gonna give you evidence-based information. You can find blogs that will come, or even Substack. I love Emily Oster's parent data, Substack.
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah,
Amberlee Venti:
It's delivered
Emily Gorrie:
love
Amberlee Venti:
almost
Emily Gorrie:
it.
Amberlee Venti:
daily and gives you things to think about that you probably would have not. thought about or even
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
or have the time to do the research that she does.
Emily Gorrie:
Absolutely.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, so I think there's just luckily, I think the world is like more embracing of moms and there's more resources that are more readily available, but
Emily Gorrie:
Yeah.
Amberlee Venti:
also in an age of information, no one to shut it all down. Like, you know,
Emily Gorrie:
Totally,
Amberlee Venti:
yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
totally. I think that there's also this account called the mom attorney. The mama attorney,
Amberlee Venti:
Mm-hmm.
Emily Gorrie:
I'm blanking
Amberlee Venti:
Yep, I
Emily Gorrie:
on
Amberlee Venti:
follow that.
Emily Gorrie:
the name of the woman who runs it,
Amberlee Venti:
Yep.
Emily Gorrie:
super helpful in terms of going back to work and your rights. And I think there is also this confusion and maybe what unwillingness to believe that your employers are not on your side necessarily. HR is not the place to go. And I've learned so much through following her in terms of they're not the most, I don't want to say accurate source. HR is not the most reliable source for you as an individual because they're focused on what that means in terms of resources needed from the company. That's their focus. So I think you're right. Ask who's done something like this before. What do you need to know? How do you navigate this challenge that you're having at the office? And kind of leaning on that is huge.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah,
Emily Gorrie:
Just
Amberlee Venti:
yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
asking the questions and then feeling empowered to speak up for yourself. Because prior to this age of information, You just had a feeling. And
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
those feelings were definitely disregarded. Well, you just feel that way. It's not true.
Amberlee Venti:
Right, exactly.
Emily Gorrie:
We don't have to start that. We don't have enough time on this episode, but
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
yeah. It's so, yeah, information is power, but
Amberlee Venti:
It is.
Emily Gorrie:
also
Amberlee Venti:
It really is.
Emily Gorrie:
can exhaust you. So yes, shut it down. No one to take a break. Shut the mind, put the mindless TV on and just
Amberlee Venti:
Yes,
Emily Gorrie:
relax.
Amberlee Venti:
exactly. Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
Oh, I love it. Well, I want to wrap up here, but I want to give you just a couple of minutes to talk about how our listeners can engage with you and with Pippi Sips and order the product. How
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
can they find it?
Amberlee Venti:
So you can visit our website, which is www.pippysips.com. Please sign up for our newsletter, you'll get a 15% discount on your first purchase. Also, you can follow us on Instagram, TikTok. We just opened a threads account.
Emily Gorrie:
Love it.
Amberlee Venti:
Facebook, still figuring out the threads account as a dine as a I'm just going to call myself the dinosaur today.
Emily Gorrie:
No.
Amberlee Venti:
Yeah, but please engage with us. We love, send us a DM if you have questions about the product, we'll answer them. And yeah, yeah.
Emily Gorrie:
I love it. I love it. And we'll make sure to link all of those in our show notes and on the blog on our website. And I am excited because I plan on getting one, maybe two
Amberlee Venti:
Yes.
Emily Gorrie:
for myself in this journey post-birth. We'll hope that goes, goes well. You never know. You never know. So to have a product that takes the mental load off of where am I going to store it? How am I going to get it home? Is it going to be safe for my baby to to ingest and eat is huge. So thank you so much for sharing your story and powering through these seven years of creating this product or five years and getting it into market because I think it's huge.
Amberlee Venti:
Thank you so much. This was great.