Katie Sturino on bringing Megababe to the masses

Megababe is best known for its first product: Thigh Rescue, an anti-chafe stick of which over 1 million units have sold. In addition to being sold at Target, Ulta, Goop, Anthropologie and Nordstrom, among other retailers, the brand launched at Walmart in early March.

“Megababe is still self-funded; we have never taken $1 of fundraising,” Sturino said on this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. “It’s a different type of approach than other brands that launched at the same time. Most people will take funding and grow really big.”

Also on the podcast, Sturino discusses her start in content creation, Megababe’s expansion to Walmart and new categories, the brand’s first big marketing investments, and her response to the current heightened fixation on weight.

The excerpts below have been slightly edited and condensed for clarity. 

On the origins of Megababe and its hero product Thigh Rescue

“Megababe came out of a need that I had and that so many women who were following me had: March hits, it’s chafe season, what are we using? And I was like, I don’t want to use these weird products with these embarrassing names that don’t really feel like they’re made for me.’ I talked to my sister and I talked to my best friend. And I was like, ‘I’m gonna start a chafe stick company.’ And they were like, ‘We’re in!’ I didn’t expect anyone to believe in that idea, except for me, but they gave me the confidence to keep pushing forward in the face of a lot of nos. … In my wildest dreams, I did not imagine that we would have this many products, this many customers or this much retail presence. … We actually launched with the Fire Rescue and the Bust Dust in June of 2017. We had it all in my parents’ garage. It was filled to the back with all these pallets, and I thought, ‘Oh, my God. What are we going to do in two years when this expires? We’re gonna have to find someplace to put it. This is a huge risk.’ And we sold out of every product we made in that first month, which was 10,000 units of each. So that was 20,000 people saying, ‘Yeah, we need this product.’ And for me, that was like, ‘My gut was right.’ And we doubled down and decided to get into other markets we thought needed help, like deodorant, and then eventually [moved on to] a lot of other body parts.”

Going into Walmart

“We [launched in] Walmart, and that is major for many reasons. When I started Megababe, I felt like this product was so essential that I wanted women to be within five or 10 minutes of a stick — because when you need it, you need it that day. It’s a product that can make or break what you’re doing or wearing. And with Walmart, we have definitely achieved that, because most Americans live near either a [Walmart or a Target]. And I’m over the moon. … It’s exciting to be introduced to a new customer who hasn’t yet discovered that there’s a solution out there for them. We’re always introducing ourselves to new people, but it feels like we’ve just met so many more people.”

On dealing with society’s heightened fixation on weight loss

“The media, in general, cannot be relied upon to help with our self-image. For the past 10 years, … there have been some changes, but I don’t think we can rely on the media as a whole to help us out in that space. I think it’s about filtering what you’re seeing and filtering who you’re following. Currently, every news headline is about weight and bodies. And I find that to be just mind-blowing, for so many reasons — especially at a time when there are so many other things we need to be talking about. I don’t care how someone lost 50 pounds, you know what I mean? I just curate what I’m looking at. And I make sure that I’m doing my own mental work to accept my body. Because most people don’t understand that your body is going to change; whether you have a baby or whether you get older, your body is just going to keep changing. So if you’re going to be in a place where you’re at war with it all the time. So, the faster and harder you can work on accepting yourself and accepting changes that you see, the better you’ll feel. And that’s what I strive for every day.”