Under The Hood with Courtney Toll, Co-Founder and CEO Nori

Hey all — welcome back to 1-800-D2C, the ultimate resource for D2C operators to build the best tech stacks in the world.

This week we have an incredible interview with Courtney Toll to share. Courtney is the co-founder and CEO of Nori, an 8-figure, innovative clothing care D2C brand.

Courtney is a killer founder and is building a really special brand in Nori.

Their hero SKU, the Nori Press, is a breakthrough, unique product they brought into a previously stagnant category. Their D2C distribution is also unique to the category and they’ve been able to maintain incredibly lean operations with their explosive growth.

When you consider all of the pieces that make up a truly disruptive direct-to-consumer brand (product, distribution mechanism, lean operations, etc), Nori has them all.

In our interview, Courtney shares their founding story, how they got to their first million in revenue, how she thinks about building brand and much more.

And, of course, we talk through the tech stack powering Nori.

Here’s a quick preview:

Under The Hood: Courtney From Nori

How’d you think about building the Nori brand early on in the journey?

“We always operated under the assumption that the Nori Press was going to be the first product of a larger brand. This was really important, because as much as one product can be your hero, it can also be what you're known for…not only from an investor perspective and a fundraising perspective, but also from a brand building perspective.”

What were some of the key breakthroughs in getting to your first million in revenue?

“I’d say our focus was product innovation across our press, earned media arm of our marketing stack, and paid acquisition. All of those then started to lean on one another. We were telling editors and outlets about how we were recreating this type of product, let alone as two women in the hardware industry. Nori was one of Oprah's favorite household items. We were in Forbes and Vogue and Town and Country, and many others.”

What has been your most efficacious acquisition channel to date?

“Paid acquisition has been our most successful channel to date. At times I wish it wasn’t but it’s a huge part of our success. There’s a lot of founders that were shaking their heads at the iOS 14 update and the platform changes. But Nori is onto something really unique that’s incredibly demonstrative. You’re ironing with your Press and watching wrinkles disappear — that type of content does really conversion-wise.”

Read The Full Under The Hood Here

Tool of the Week: Factored Quality

Meet Factored Quality, the compliance and QC tool powering Nori and many other D2C brands to scale quality control operations with confidence and ease.

Factored Quality’s platform helps D2C brands book inspectors, upload and edit checklists, receive documented inspection results and analyze their QC data in real-time. It’s a first-of-its-kind tool that enables brands to simplify their complex and distributed supply chains.

The QC platform at Factored Quality provides decades-worth of expert support in quality control, supply chain and product compliance. They also provide around the clock support to D2C brands — their internal team is made up of 2,000+ vetted and trained quality inspectors.

Factored Quality is leveraged by lots of top D2C brands in the 1-800-D2C directory like Nori, Flaus, Atoms, Brooklinen and more!

Check Out Factored Quality Here

Brand of the Week: Nori

Makers of the innovative Press, Nori is on a mission to become one of the most important and impactful clothing care brands in the world.

As you’ll learn in our Under The Hood with Courtney, Nori is bringing a fresh take on clothing irons with their Nori Press — think of it like a hair straightener, but for your clothes. It’s a genius invention and product.

Plus, did you realize iron spelled backwards is Nori? I didn’t (at first).

Nori Tech Stack Highlights:

💪 Factored Quality - Compliance & QC

🕵️ Black Crow - User Identification

🔁 Recharge - Subscriptions

🤩 Okendo - Reviews

📱 Brij - QR Codes

Check Out Nori’s Full Tech Stack 👗

More New 1-800-D2C Brands

🎁 FabFitFun - full-size products across beauty, fashion, wellness and home delivered seasonally.

💪 Armra - the first smart superfood that builds back your immune barrier.

More New 1-800-D2C Tools

📧 Sendlane - unified email marketing, SMS and reviews for D2C brands.

📊 Lifetimely - Project LTVs, analyze KPIs and more.

That’s all for this week! See you all next week.

-RC @ 1-800-D2C

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