By
Dean Tavener
Co-founder and CEO, Pixii
Pixii has been a member of My Business since October 2020
But this is not how it works. Toilet paper is a natural and widespread product for a natural hygiene process. It makes sense to have toilet paper in all bathrooms, rather than have everyone carry around their own roll. So, why is it totally reversed for period products?
In 2019, my partner, Nina, and I started Pixii – an environmentally focused social enterprise making period products freely available in schools and workplaces.
We did this because there’s a fundamental and pervasive lack of equality in access to basic hygiene supplies. Women are expected to bring their own period products with them and are left to their own devices if they should ever forget or get “caught out” when they need them.
How did we start?
We researched the market, competitors, similar markets and comparable businesses to try to validate our idea early on. Researching all these areas only served to strengthen our resolve, and so we invested our own money on building a website and refining our messaging.
Showing this to some friends, family and trusted advisers to get a sense of how well people would react to this new concept was the next green light we needed. We continued this staged approach, stepping one foot forward at a time and looking for the validation and proof of viability before pressing on to the next step.
Our funding approach
Pixii has been self-funded from revenue and director’s investments every step of the way, for two reasons.
The first reason we are self-funded is that my co-founder and I agreed from the beginning that we wanted to create a company that really makes a difference to women. We knew we wanted to be a social enterprise.
For Pixii, this meant committing to donating 50% of profits to a charity partner in addition to creating systemic change in the expected provision of period products. Because of this stance, we didn’t feel comfortable asking for investment, even from friends and family. Their investment would come with all the risks of any small business or startup investment, but only half of the potential upside because of our social enterprise pledge.
The second reason is that we’re confident in our vision, and staged in our approach. We know this venture will work, and so we’re prepared to invest our own money to get off the ground.
Cashflow and growth
As a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business with a long lead time on inventory, cashflow doesn’t always line up with inventory requirements. So Pixii will occasionally need short term capital to ensure adequate on-hand inventory.
We remain as careful as possible not to seek out growth for growth’s sake, instead of limiting growth to what the company can reasonably sustain with current cashflow and likely short-term future cashflow.
We simply track every movement of stock and use this information to predict expected sales and stock-flow over the next few months, to try to maintain a two to three-month buffer of stock-on-hand.
What the future holds
Pixii’s most recent step forward has been to bring gender equality to schools. Our own survey of more than 800 schoolgirls in Sydney, in September 2020, found that more than 83% are at schools that do not offer any free period products. Pixii is working with schools and businesses in multiple states to get freely available and eco-friendly period products in every bathroom.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of My Business.
Dean Tavener
Co-founder and CEO, Pixii
Dean is the co-founder of period company Pixii. He previously worked in operations management in the finance and IT industries. He is passionate about sustainability and improving the world.
