TRANSCRIPTION 🔗
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Hello and welcome to the Bee Formless Flow Driven CEO Conversations, where we are shaping and shifting leadership, strategy, business, and brand. And that is all encompassing with life, right? And today I'm welcoming to the show Shanya. Welcome to the show, Shanya. Super Suppasiritad I think I got your surname right. I just went had to
Shanya: Yes.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: read it because I was like, I had it on the tip of my tongue, and then I was like, my goodness.
Shanya: Perfect, that was perfect. Thank you so much for having me.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: No, thank you, Shanya. And I should say, you know, when this is gonna Bee a a fabulous conversation with you and it is when I talk about, you know, leadership strategy, business and brand, it is all encompassing and you know, life then gets thrown into it all. And it's like so how do we interconnect all those lenses together? And I feel like the conversation we're about to have today is exactly that, you know, we were just talking pre show about you know, you as the founder and CEO of of your bus own business and then, you know, str strategically, how do you continue to grow the business in the way you want it to grow? Your brand, we were talking about your personal brand and brand. And so you you know, you can see how it all it all does come together. Did you have a nice week weekend in Sydney, Shanya? So Shanya, how was your weekend? Did you have a good weekend?
Shanya: Weekend was great. Weekend was amazing. I yeah, I didn't have to work so that was quite nice. Now and then you get a weekend. But yeah, it was lovely. Got to catch up with a friend, seeing their kid and you know, just kinda like nice to Bee able to do something else aside from work.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, totally. And do you f do you always feel refreshed when you don't work? Like have you when you notice that, my goodness, I haven't had to work this weekend, do you feel better for it? Or do you come into Mondays a bit stressed thinking, I should have done more as a founder?
Shanya: there's always it is a is a weird one 'cause there's always that guilt when you're not working. It's it's on the back of your mind constantly. I I love to Bee able to get better at that but I think it's just it's it's a natural thing that you then you kinda know that your to do list doesn't end so you just you can't
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: constantly battling that's like, okay, well look, it's it doesn't end, so you're just gonna have to make peace with that and then like try to contain it within the work hours 'cause otherwise you'll you'll run out of juice essentially. I I don't know. I think it's like I I I haven't been fresh for sixty years, I guess. Even if I even if I have the weekend. I don't know how real we want to get in this podcast, but yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, well let's get into it. Let's let's introduce you first and foremost. So I'm gonna say big fest and big hello
Load full transcript
to all the listeners out there. I hope you've had a fabulous weekend or are still having a fabulous weekend wherever you are in the world. Shanya, you are the founder and CEO of Revibe. It's a secular fashion technology platform, and we'll explain what secular means shortly, where you help brands rethink how they grow their rent through rental, resale, repair, and extending the life of the products they create. You had an important inflection point and it emerged through your journey building businesses across fashion and secular commerce. And as you began exploring how sustainability could move beyond individual consumer choices and become part of the commercial model itself. And so today you're building Revibe to help fashion brands integrate secular services directly into their businesses, creating new opportunities for customer relationships, revenue, and more sustainable growth. And at the heart and soul of your work is a belief that fashion can create value without continually relying on producing and selling more. By reimagining how products are owned, used and kept in circulation, Shanya is helping reshape what growth could look like for the industry. You also, as you were growing up, you used fashion as an armor, like if you think about armour, and it was giving you the confidence. And you know, we all get that, right? And then you started questioning from what I understand that, you know, the relationship with fashion and what it means for the planet. Tell us a bit about your journey, because to have that kind of questioning at such a young age and using fashion as armour to to give you confidence and then leading into building the business you've built now or and continuing to build. Tell us a bit about that.
Shanya: Yeah. it's an interesting one. Like to Bee honest, growing up I've never
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Okay.
Shanya: thought of fashion as a career choice. I've always have a a deep personal relationship with it because I was relying on it to help me, you know, feel confident and and I I I guess it's like I grew up in Thailand where I technically didn't really fit the beauty standard there. So I was constantly being told to get a plastic surgery or my skin needs to Bee lighter or there was constant it constant like criticized about my appearance. And but I I didn't really have a problem with who I am. So I was trying to find a way to avoid those conversations. That's when I decided to turn into fa turn turn to fashion to actually like help me dress really well, dress really loud. Bee really interesting and Bee really quirky. And then the conversation shift from my actual phys physical, like how I look, into how I dress. People change conversation about like, you know, y you sh your skin should Bee lighter. They comment about my clothes in st instead. And in that sense, I guess, then I started to learn that okay, well you can use fashion to actually sort a bit of like protect you from I don't know, the there's there's a layer,
it's like your second skin in a sense. So th that's how I kinda use it growing up. And then so I so I understand people that wanna so for me to essentially bias or like not able to express myself true fashion isn't really an option. So then when I came across the the documentary True Cause in two thousand and fifteen. I then realized that like the fashion industry is actually like, you know, one of the most damaging to the environment and then to the people that actually
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: work in the industry. So then I start questioning whether that second skin of mine this is still making me feel good and feel protected. So then you kind of feel like, okay, well it helped you feel good, but then while you feel good about yourself, you're using it in this way. you're actually exploiting people on the other side of the world. Also, it's kinda like yeah, suddenly you're not feeling comfortable in your second skin anymore and then you realise that like, well, you either Bee you know, wait for someone else to fix this problem or you're gonna have to start becoming part of the solution. And that's just kinda how it gets to where it is today. It's very quite convoluted. But yeah, it it's just
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: It's interesting though, isn't it? Because here you are being told you meant to look like this and it's fascinating that you were getting told you should Bee having plastic surgery and the colour in in Thailand. It's like wow, like that's just like and then y you find fashion, you know, almost like an expression. I find fashion is like an expression of who I am. And you know, some days when I'm not feeling necessarily as bright as I want to feel, I'll throw something on that's bright, for example. Or if I'm feeling like just I just can't Bee bothered today, I'll just put on black because black always like makes you look do you know what I mean? And so it's interesting because I I think about identity in this way and and then you all of a sudden start to think about the environment and what this impact is having. So then what happens to you and your confidence if you you go through this period of lacking confidence, you get your confidence back. Everyone's talking to you about I love your shirt or I love whatever you're wearing. And then you start to go, okay, well hang on a second, I'm gonna strip myself of this armour. Is that when the real Shanya came out? Like is that when you went like
Shanya: Look, to Bee honest, I think it was because I mean, I grew up in Thailand and then when I finished uni, I moved to Australia and then suddenly there's that beauty standards shift. I came to Australia and no one was telling me that I wasn't good enough. Like physical wise. It's like turn out that like, you know, my skin is perfect. It's like everyone wants to have this colour. so I think it was just like For me, that was like shifting the like move from one country to the next, different culture, have different expectations.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Mm.
Shanya: But I think for me, knowing that I can rely on fashion growing up before I had a chance to leave the country, I was kinda known that like, okay, if I were to live in Thailand, this is this is probably always going to Bee my armor. Like I go
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: back on holiday and I'm still being told to lose weight or get a nurse job. Like it's it's just insane. And I'm like, you know
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: I can't even imagine it. Like
Shanya: And you can't and you can't it's is and it's not offensive in Thailand for someone to tell you that because essentially it's coming from a good place that they want you to look your best and and you know, the best version that they're thinking it was it would Bee like a celebrity looking. Even though they don't really like I'm not a celebrity. I don't have to rely on my face or my body to do my job. And I know that I have a lot more like I have a lot of other value that I can add to society. So like this is good enough for me. I'm like look in the mirror and think like I'm kinda cute. Yeah. So then
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: I love it.
Shanya: yeah, so then I think you have you kinda know that like you gotta truly believe that that that that you believe that about yourself. So then the noise is outside of that like it's just less and less important. But Move to a different country when you don't have to hear that regularly help a lot. Yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. Tell me a little bit about secular fa secular fashion and then so and how you came in to revive. Like you've realized there's a problem. There's a problem with like I guess fashion confidence and you know, I fast fashion comes to mind for me in a way, and then here you are moving into this secular fashion. What
Shanya: Mm.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: is secular fashion for all the listeners out there?
Shanya: The circular fashion, there's there's a few different way how you do it. how you call circular fashion. I think there's like starting from the production. There's like a production phase and then hello. Hi. Yes. Yes,
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Got a visitor.
Shanya: of course. Join the conversation. So yeah, the circular fashion has different phase. You can do like from production, which means that you create something that you know that there's no waste going to Bee coming from this particular item from like material choice is the trim. Every single thing can Bee recycled essentially. And then you've got the circular in the used phase, which is what we're tackling and what we focus on, which is essentially we want to move it beyond just one ownership, whether that's through rental or resale or constant repair. So that's kind of so so for me, I think they all kind of work together. Someone else is tackling that, you know, production That makes sure that every single thing that you choose to use in this production can Bee recycled. And
then someone else is managing the end of life, which is every single thing that get produced, get recycled. And I'm focusing on the middle bit, which is before it's get to end of life, it should have the longest use as much as it possibly can. Because that's when you actually offset all of the impact. that it has been created in the beginning of the live before it get to end of live and then, you know, get like move around again. So essentially mm.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: So you sit in the middle of it, Shanya. Revibe sits in the middle of it. So it gets made, for example, and then you basically allow it to Bee worn, used as like as many times as possible before it's at a point where it's like looking like or it's falling apart and then it's recycled. Is that
Shanya: Yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: right?
Shanya: Yeah, exactly. So for us, our job is to make sure that every single garment has like the life expand that it's supposed to have essentially before it gets to end of life. Because end of life is a solution but it's not the silver bullet. It's like everyone just go, Yeah, but everything can Bee recycled. But if something hasn't been used and goes straight to recycle, it's require just as much energy, if not if not more, to actually recycle something that has never been used at all.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, too many.
Shanya: So I think yeah, so we sit in the middle, which is a really, really interesting part. And the reason why we came to sit in that middle was when I moved to Australia at one point I became I worked in the fashion industry, I became a stylist and I've started to notice the consumer I was a personal stylist, so my job is to like take people shopping day in, day out.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah. I'd love that.
Shanya: I loved that for me too at the time. I was like, whoa, spending other people's money.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, have fun. Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah.
Shanya: And then get to actually see someone transform within the two to four hours and they're like loving themselves, feeling good, feeling confident. and I remember when I was a stylist, that was when I think Sarah and H also hit Australian market. And
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: at the time I also was like, This is the best thing for me because I can fit more for my client's budget and we can like go look really cool and stuff and this is obviously like Pyro I'm watching the docum like s I've seen the documentary. So I was kinda like, this is all good. It's like, you know, like everyone can like really express themselves, affordable, all of this thing. And then as soon as I watch a documentary, I was like a bottom wine gone, two hours in. I was in tears and I was just like, my God, what am I doing with my life? And essentially like, I do all days tell people to buy more and buy more and buy more without actually realizing what is the impact that it's actually doing. Yeah. And
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: On the environment. Yeah.
Shanya: the maker, people that actually making all these clothes. It's often like, you know, I'll take women now and they feel really good about themselves on this side of the world. At the same time, women on the other side of the world who make these clothes can't send their kid to school or can't feed their kid. And then you just like there's so much disconnection. And I think that's when I realized that like, okay, the I think the system is broken. The the model
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: doesn't work anymore. So then I started to think, well, how do I get women on this side of the world to feel really good about themselves without buying into, you know, the same model and same system? And that's when I realized that that isn't really an option. This is also like back in two thousand and fifteen. You can kinda like the only thing you can do you can buy buy new or buy something really expensive. Or
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah. So what is what's the middle like? Like I I think about the middle, right? The messy middle. Messy middle is a CEO founder. Messy middle in terms of I've I I'm thinking that there's You must have had a bit of resistance or like it's a new category, right? And so there's still I mean it's it feels like it's growing though. There's also then this c this piece around I don't want to wear someone else's clothes or I like someone else has worn that. I want brand new, for example. There's a fair bit of education that goes into into that. So you're
Shanya: Yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: you're educating people, you're educating brands, like around sustainability, all of it. It's it's kinda messy in the middle, isn't it? Really, like when you think think about it with everything that goes with it.
Shanya: Yeah. So definitely it's like any new category, new economy. If you have to educate the industry, you have to educate the consumer, 'cause it's such a new thing that people don't fully understand. I mean, fortunately we have the platform that's been around forever, like eBay, or
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: this thing that like getting consumer to Bee more familiar with the secondhand item. But I think For me, I'm looking at it as it's like the consumer is a lot more ready than the industry. Like, you know, like when I first started this journey, sixty percent of Gen Z and Millennial was already,
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, the Yanka, yeah.
Shanya: yeah, participated in the channeling economy. They were like, We're there, we we know what's up, we know like these are all good things and but what is lacking is is like I don't think the journey for someone to get to to rent something or to buy something secondhand or to sell something secondhand is as easy as buying something new. So how do I fix that? How do I
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: make it as easy and as streamlined as buying something new? So that's when I realized that like, you know, there's an opportunity that also another
thing is when you're talking about like high end brand, they do everything to control their brand equity from you know, like i every single touchpoint of their customer and then they completely forget that people also interacting with their brand in a secondary market where they have zero control. So they're literally, you know, like Camilla and Mark dress will Bee shipped to someone house in a really shitty plastic bag. And then that person would never understand why it was seven hundred dollars. Because they weren't part of your journey that you've designed. So then I look at it as like now there's an opportunity, the market is there. Why don't brand just take control or step into the secondary market and take control of your own brand? It's it's it's already there with or without you. So if I can create a software or a technology
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, I love that.
Shanya: for them to Bee able to merge into the secondary market as easy as possible without adding to workload essentially, then we have a chance to actually educate the consumer even more. People that feel like and and a lot of the consumer that buy directly from the brand or like interact directly with the brand through rental or resales, some of them might actually have never done it in like on ebay or Depop or second like, you know, in the marketplace because they feel like they're cheating on their like that that loyalty of like, Yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, 100%. I love this. I love this brand conversation because it's around primary and secondary brand, right? And we get so focused on the primary brand. I was I was saying to you like pre-show, like you're you're so focused on revibe. You're not focusing on Shine Shinea's brand. And it's like that's your secondary brand, but it's just as important as your first as your primary brand, if that makes sense, right? And that's exactly
Shanya: Yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: what you're talking about. There's always two parts to a brand.
Shanya: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: You know, y there's there's the the business brand and the the founder brand. And then when you're
Shanya: Yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: what you're talking about here with secular fashion is that there's primary brand, like which is direct new, and then the secondary brand is resale, rehire, like all of that sort of thing. And so why not create
Shanya: Yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: that relationship with within the secondary brand, which is really interesting, isn't it?
Shanya: Yeah. Yeah. And it's capturing completely different audience than like your actual brand new because it's you know, usually it's capturing aspiring customer who can never really afford you at this point in time, but you're able to bring them on to your journey like so much early on because now you have a channel and you have like yeah, you can you can actually start interact with them now and then when they reach the price point, like when they reach the level of life where they can actually afford full price. They are already your customer. So just kinda yeah, acquire
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: So
Shanya: new customer that way.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, I love it. This would Bee so tell me, you said consumers are a lot more I guess th they're understanding it more Fashion is fashion. The industry is very, you know, fickle with the greatest respect. It's like, you know, everywhere it's very in a way it's very traditional, right? Like in terms of we've always done it this way, we're not changing it, sort of thing.
Shanya: Yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: there's a lot of creativity, there's a lot of preciousness, no doubt. You know, and I could Bee wrong here. I feel like though that's what it feels like. What is it then that is the biggest challenge that you face with building a business in this emerging new category, if you like? where you are talking around the secondary brand and it makes sense to me. What is it that is the biggest challenge for why some of these brands won't or aren't aren't what's the word, engaging as quickly or as that
Shanya: Yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: as you'd like them to?
Shanya: I think because it's like, first of all, it's a new category, as we mentioned a few times, new economy, new new category. So people don't have almost like a blueprint on how to do it successfully.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: It's really hard for people to fully understand. Wait, I always look at it as a competitor, but now if I were to incorporate it into my actual business, is it going to cannibalize my new sales? What what does it actually do to the bottom line or what does it actually do to the customer segment. I think there's a lot of yeah brands that hesitate because it's kinda like is is it a wait, w like when do we d when do we hit go? I think it's a sense like right now, like if we were talking about is five years ago, there's a lot of brands it's like, we would never do it. But now the conversation shift is not about whether you will do it or not. It's literally about when would you do it? It's Yeah, it's like it's not an it's really not an option anymore to not own your own secondary market because your consumer is going to Bee expected just like you know, when now consumer expect you to have an online store as well as your brick and mortar. So it's kinda I think we're we're evolving in that way. And then the challenge is for the brand and the the unit C suite and i everybody mindset to shift that way that like it's Wait, actually this is this should Bee part of our business.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just like two or it's like two target two target audiences, right, isn't it? Yeah, it's really, really
Shanya: Yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: interesting. Tell me, woman in business founder, you know, like what's what's that like for you, you know? They say that the percentage is really low in terms of the amount of female founders
and especially when it comes to seeking funding, investing. What's that been
Shanya: Mm.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: like for you? And especially given that you're like you're you're not from you you're from Thailand and you're here in in Australia. Have you have you come up against that as a bit of a challenge also? Like, yeah.
Shanya: It's brutal. It's it's brutal. Being a a founder is like in every way my god. I I I think, you know, when I first moved to Australia, I was barely making any money. I worked seven days a week. I work like seven seven days, six tonight, I barely make a living, and I was like during those four years, I was like, that's the hardest time of my life. And now that I own the business and run this, I'm like This is harder. It's c it's it's different. Obviously it's different, but like it's it's brutal and I mean running a business itself is already hard, right? stepping into the startup world as a female, I didn't really notice it in the beginning, but as I progressed in it more and more, I I think you're starting to see that like you get asked very different question than male founder. You pe people look at male founder and often was understand the opportunity, like they will see the opportunity first, rather than when you look at the female founder, you see challenge first. And for me, because I don't have kid, I'm not choosing to have kids. Yay. I don't
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: No, this is my baby. He's just slack it keeps interrupting me.
Shanya: I don't even have a pet. It's like I I just I and I yeah, I'm literally I have nothing else. Because it's and and I just don't know, like I I feel like it's like a I just can't I just can't do anything else but this. It's like it's it's consume everything. So, you know, kudos to everyone that has like kid as well to like pet and like anything,
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: family, someone. It's just it's it's really hard running a business. Especially if you're running a business that it's it's breaking a new growl because again, like there's no blueprint, you don't really know what to do. So I think We have a way a long way to go in the startup world to support the female founder better. Not to say
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yes.
Shanya: that not to say that being a male founder is easy. I would never say that. I think is is also hard, but it's just a hard in a very, very different way. And also
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: I find that often the female business that that we're creating is solving problems that closer to us that actually like
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Agree. Lived
Shanya: we can relate yeah,
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: experience.
Shanya: live experience and closer to us, which means that like when you go pitch it to male audience, it's harder for them to understand the potential
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: of it. Even though we're like, you know, fifty percent of the population. so yeah, I think that's a there's a lot of disconnection. And also Bee
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Have you sorry, you keep going, yeah.
Shanya: I was just gonna say that like also this is my live experience as well. I don't think I'm equipped to actually fully understand commercial as well as like as I should Bee like in the beginning, now yes. But in the beginning, like it was hard for me to fully understand, like to talk commercial, to talk financial, to talk return, to talk how the investor wanna hear it.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: And I d I the I don't know if there's like maybe there is now, but like when I was growing up there was no real like I don't think because you don't see a lot of example of women in business, then you don't really see it as it's like, okay, well that's something I strive to Bee. And yeah, so yeah, so all of those things that like you equip with the different skill set make it even more challenged because you don't talk the same language.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, totally. Totally. It's really interesting you talk about all of this because I think you're right in terms of women in business and it comes right back to confidence also, doesn't it? Because, you know, here you are with a lived experience. Have you had moments where you felt like or someone said to you me you you're kidding yourself, this is not going to work? Like have you had anyone give you that sort of feedback or tell you s cut all the bullshit out of it and just make it sound like this? And the reason I ask this is because I've had those moments myself. And yet bel have this deep belief that this is intuitively right, and then yet I've gone and changed certain things and then come back to okay. Do you know what I mean? Like if you had that happen to you.
Shanya: Yeah, I mean look multiple time, like literally before we k like it's been sixty years, right? I can count that like there's more people telling us this is not gonna work than people telling us this is going to work. and some of them you can you can understand why they would think that. And I think some of them you just kinda like, Okay, well that's fall flat because you didn't pitch it well, you didn't pitch it tailored to them or some of them it's just kinda don't really understand the industry. But I think this is the thing. It's just like, you know, like i if you if you listen back to Airbnb founder early on when they have hundred investor the same as Canva, you know, hundreds of investors to say no, no and no. 'Cause a lot of time a lot of the time if they haven't seen it being successful already and they're not a visionary, they don't
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, great.
Shanya: they they don't know how it could Bee. And they might Bee right and they might Bee wrong. It's all about execution as well, right? So I think what I learned is essentially they're not the one going to dictate whether your business is going to work or not. You have to Bee realistic and validate your business and understand what you're
validating. And then and then and then understand if they don't meet those validations, then maybe you don't have a business. But I think Just listening to other people telling you that it might not work because of this and this and this is like well, they don't know any better than you either. But there are
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: No, yeah.
Shanya: some some s some advice that I took on and basically say that like if you frame it this way, if you were to pitch it this way, if you were to give information this way, it will make people understand better and that's just help with like pitching essentially. Yeah, but yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, I agree. I agree. How many how many how many times founder, female founder, have you said to yourself, I'm gonna get a job? Like how like and then what at what point did you go because what do they say? They say it can take zero to three years or four years or longer before you start to see like a return or even hitting profit. Like you go you go ages sometimes without paying yourself, right? Like if we
Shanya: Yep.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: if we bring this right back to confidence, there's something really interesting in identity. And what you're talking about here, even from a fashion sense, because it it talks about a consumer need in a way for me, also in terms of As a founder, your whole lifestyle changes. You can't just Bee buying like brand new, like, you know, $200 shirts that you loved you that you bought previously. Like mum said to me before, I love this shirt. And I'm like, thanks. I got it from a second's like shop in New York on sale. And she's you don't need to tell people that. And I'm like, No, I know, but still I'm I'm proud of it because like, do you know what I mean? Like, and so where I'm going with this is like it's really interesting. 'Cause it's all it's all interconnected in a way in terms of everything changes and so we have to also think about we still like things, but we we also have to think about, well, I can't I can't afford that. So that changes and then there's obviously I don't know, it's the value of money, it's the value of Yeah, environment, all of it, right? Like so I guess I so
Shanya: Yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: I threw a lot at you then. I guess there's two questions there is how many times did you go onto seek or go, I'm gonna get a j I'm looking for a job? And then at what point was there ever a moment where you were like, I think I just need to close shop? And then what was it
Shanya: My God.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: that what was it that and what year what year did you start to go, right, this is actually gonna take off now?
Shanya: mean look to Bee honest like first and foremost we all need to know that all founders are slightly delusional. So they always
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Ha ha ha.
Shanya: think that it's gonna turn the corner next month. It's always that's that's always
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Why not?
Shanya: it's always gonna Bee that. how many times I think about giving up? my god. I can't I can't count it. There's so many times that where I go I I can't do this anymore. I have multiple break point, like multiple mental breakdown. I was there's I think the longest I had the worst one was I was in bed for about a week that like literally I just couldn't I couldn't get out and I couldn't like this nothing I can do. I've got nothing left. I was crying. But when I was saying this to another founder, it's just like one thing that we do have I think we're kinda high functioning depression people just because you just can't wallow in it 'cause it's just fire to Bee put out. You
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: No, you shake yourself out of it, yeah.
Shanya: just can't they're just like, Well, there's this email you need to reply. So you kinda like you get up and reply one email and then you reply the second email and then you you get a follow up on this public and then the more that you do thing, essentially things just happen and then eventually kinda get you out that stage. I don't think you ever like I said that, you know, like you might Bee dipped back into your depression, anxiety or whatever, and then you kinda get yourself out of it. It's like it's a brutal journey. I have thought about closing it down multiple time, but I think I have to say that getting a job, I always thought about this like, you know, like I can always get a job. I can add value to any organisation. I mean it's gonna Bee hard for me to actually pinpoint exactly what role because you know when you've been a founder for so long
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: going into a company you'll Bee like, Well I I don't know, I don't I don't have a role. I am a generalist,
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: What totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Shanya: but like just tell me what's the challenge and then I'll help you get out of that.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: So essentially, yes, I think I can always get a job. So then that's kinda in the back of my mind. I'm not too s I'm not and I'm also I'm I'm not I'm not worried about hard working. Like I I work hard. Like, I mean, being a founder, you probably work harder than you've ever been. I was really I'm really, really fortunate. I have really, really supportive partner. So my
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, that's good.
Shanya: my husband is like always been the one that's just kinda you're not giving
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Get up.
Shanya: up. Yeah, like you're not giving up, you know. And well, the the only thing he would say, Are you still are you still having fun? Like it's the only
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: time that he would ever ask me to give up is when he's like, I just can't see you being miserable. It's just like if you if if it's no longer serve your purpose, walk away. But
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: I was about to say purpose was gonna come out. Yeah, totally. Yeah.
Shanya: Yeah. If it's if it doesn't give you that anymore, walk
away. But it is hard. And he also did say that like he's like, I'm just gonna constantly remind you that you are a founder. If you walk away from this at this point, in a few months or in a year time you're gonna Bee starting something else. And you potentially will get to this point again. So you either get through this because you come this far, or you're gonna have to you're gonna get to this point again in the future. It's just who you are. And I'm just like you're not wrong. so yeah, that's kinda sort of I don't know whether that's a peptop, a support I don't know what it's Yeah. So
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. No, it's good. It's it's a good response. I've got two final questions for you. Creating a whole new category. What is next for Revibe in terms of you know, it like overseas feels like it's catching on quick guy Australia, you know, we've got our own ev everywhere in the world has their problems right now. So what is what what is Revibe's like next big thing?
Shanya: Yep. So we this quarter we've just signed the operation partnership in the US. So we are expanding into the US. So basic yeah,
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Amazing.
Shanya: so that would Bee we've got a a solid team here that will continuously grow in Australia. Like, you know, close all of our pipeline, get all the brand to Bee able to like get get
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, amazing.
Shanya: this all happening here. While we also will start working with the US brand. So that would Bee something that that'll Bee a lot. Like yeah, exploring completely
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, it's incredible.
Shanya: different it's a lot, but it has to happen, I think. Yeah.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, I love it. I love your drive. I love your I guess just you're so humble about everything as well. Revibe. How where where did that name come from?
Shanya: Well, okay, so originally our company name is Renter R and T R
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah.
Shanya: because we were like launching the very first product was Rental Product. And then I think about maybe two or three years ago, when we roll out resale, I think people would still think of us as renter only. Like so people think of us as like a rental software only without realizing that we can also do resell. And it was really starting to confuse people. So then the team was like, We need to rebrand. And then I was like, Yeah, cool. All right. And then we would just like the thing is, it's like this is the fourth almost like startup well, the name, the startup kind of thing. So for me, it was just like it's the execution that's more important than the actual name. So we just like spend a week, go through What do we want to What is it and and then we were kinda like, you know what, we want an like it it's like it's we're building this for the new generation and we want the vibe to Bee like, you know, less traditional, less it's it's the vibe. Yeah. And we were like, we're just gonna revive this industry and make it yeah, make it cool, make it fresh and make it profitable.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: It's a vibe. Revibe. It's a vibe. I love it. Yeah, yeah, I love it. Yeah, it's very cool. It's yeah. Yeah, I love it. Very cool. I love it cool. And for any okay, so then last question, final question for the day, so I'll get you let you get back to your day. Young budding female founders in the fashion industry in particular. Knowing all that you know with all the challenges and as also as like just as a founder, what would Bee one tip you would give them if they're feeling up against it today, right now? F heading
Shanya: Mm.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: into this week?
Shanya: it's a it's a hard one. I mean f first of all if someone is thinking about starting, my advice would Bee do it as soon as you possibly can. Jump in, do it as quickly as possible because you'll know really quickly whether it's for you or not.
Bee Murray, Bee Formless: Yeah, I agree. I agree. my god, such a good conversation, even though we had a little bit of Wi-Fi issues at the start. All good, here we are, it's Monday morning. Thank you so much for a great conversation. We went we we certainly delved into it and really enjoyed just talking around all aspects of what it is like to Bee a founder and and wishing you utmost success with Revibe. Have a have a wonderful week ahead. Thank you.