459: Her Plant-Based Soaps Landed Her On Shark Tank And On The Path To $1.2M In Sales
Side Hustle Pro
Nicaila Matthews Okome | Side Hustle Pro Media
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week in the guest chair we have Kristen Dunning, founder and CEO of Gently Soap - a bathing brand built on her self-developed herbal infusions.
An MBA grad, Kristen hails from a rare five generations of Black Alabama farmers, and she’s continuing the legacy by bringing joy back to bathing experiences for people with sensitive skin, using the medicinal properties of plants.
In this episode she shares:
- Her vigorous passion and research that landed her on Shark Tank
- Her secret sauce to having a rate of 78% repeat customers
- How she won over 300K in investment capital and has a trajectory of $1.2M in sales
Highlights Include:
00:00 Intro
03:24 Generations of Black farmers
06:38 Struggle with eczema
08:45 Studying horticulture and agriculture
14:10 Staring Gently Soaps
18:03 Transitioning to selling at markets
21:31 Importance of formulating for sensitive skin
28:56 Sales growth and Shark Tank impact
32:55 High margins and sales
39:49 Marketing strategies
44:03 Tips for entrepreneurs
Check out episode 459 of Side Hustle Pro podcast out now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
Links mentioned in this episode
- Gently Soap Website: https://gentlysoap.com/
- Gently Soap Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gentlysoap/
- Kristen’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/professionalplantgirl/
- Kristen’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristendunning/
- Shark Tank episode: https://gentlysoap.com/pages/shark-tank
- Aveeno start-up pitch competition: https://www.aveeno.com/startup-collective
- Thirteen Lune: https://thirteenlune.com/
- Tech Stars: https://www.techstars.com/
Click here to subscribe via RSS feed (non-iTunes feed): http://sidehustlepro.libsyn.com/rss
Announcements
Join our Facebook Community
If you’re looking for a community of supportive side hustlers who are all working to take our businesses to the next level, join us here: http://sidehustlepro.co/facebook
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | There's so much loneliness in battling a skin disease or condition by yourself. |
| 0:06.5 | And I was like, how can I make that experience more of like this joyful confidence revolution? |
| 0:12.5 | You're listening to Side Hustle Pro, the podcast that teaches you to build and grow your side hustle |
| 0:18.5 | from passion project to profitable business. And I'm your host, |
| 0:22.5 | Nikaela Matthews Okome. So let's get started. |
| 0:28.2 | Hey, hey friends. Welcome, welcome back to the show. Today in the guest here, I have Kristen Dunning, |
| 0:33.0 | who is the founder of Gently Soap. So today's episode is near and dear to my heart as someone with |
| 0:39.2 | quote unquote irritable skin, aka eczema. My kids have eczema and you'll hear in this episode |
| 0:43.4 | us talk about this and Kristen's own journey to founding this company. So let me give you a little |
| 0:49.0 | bit of her background. So Kristen actually comes from five generations of Black Alabama farmers. |
| 0:56.2 | And the passion from that fueled the foundation of Gently Soap, which is a bathing brand, |
| 1:02.0 | built on herself developed herbal infusions that cater to the growing millions of people |
| 1:06.8 | struggling with irritable skin. |
| 1:08.9 | During her time at UGA, a top agricultural institution, |
| 1:12.6 | Kristen pursued two agricultural science degrees, embarked on an honors horticultural research project, |
| 1:18.6 | and secured a graduate research fellowship in crop, soil, and plant science. These experiences |
| 1:25.4 | allowed her to spend years in greenhouses, refining her overarching mission, |
| 1:30.1 | to show every American how to embrace plant-derived botanical products without compromising |
| 1:35.8 | skin health and overall bodily wellness. She anchors her brand gently soap in not just providing |
| 1:42.7 | cutting-edge skin-safe botanical products, |
| 1:45.3 | but also in voicing the underrepresented, like the mere 1% of black farmers in the U.S. |
| 1:51.8 | today. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 22 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nicaila Matthews Okome | Side Hustle Pro Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Nicaila Matthews Okome | Side Hustle Pro Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.