Founder: Alicia Tulsee
Founding: November 2019
Mission: ‘Moxie’ defines the ‘force of character, determination, and resourcefulness,’ of the nurses across our country on the frontlines today
Employees: 15 & 25% Local
Workplace: Hybrid (Flexible)
Stage & Capital Raised: Pre-Seed & $2.4M raised
Investors: Angels in the Boston area including HBS Alumni Angel Association, TiE Boston Angels, and Armory Square Ventures
Key Customers: Nurses and healthcare professionals
Glassdoor Rating: N/A
Valuation (estimated): <$25M
^ this is a useless number. There is no tangible valuation until the business is sold or goes public. Don’t forget it!
Moxie Apparel DBA Moxie Scrubs is “Innovative Medical Apparel designed for nurses by nurses.” “Everything this brand does is for nurses,” Founder Alicia Tulsee tells me. Born out of Harvard’s Innovation Lab, Moxie Apparel is a lifestyle apparel brand built by an entrepreneur who saw the hard work nurses put in daily over the course of years taking care of her chronically ill Dad & Aunt, two family members who each had extended hospital stays throughout her childhood.
Alicia had the idea to create a brand dedicated to nurses in late 2019 because she was shocked she couldn’t find one. She had a passion for entrepreneurship and, after some due diligence, set out to create a brand dedicated to nurses who are the largest & fastest growing segment of the healthcare workforce. Alicia says, “nurses deserve a brand dedicated to nurses caring for them the way they serve and care for us.” Nurses are key buyers in American households and repeatedly voted the most respected profession for the last 21 years in a row. But even with all their clout and significant buying power, they’re an underserved market segment as part of the $94B global medical apparel market.
On the eve of Covid-19, Alicia began building Moxie Scrubs. The company launched as an official partner to the American Nurses Association supporting nurses and receiving acclaim in noteworthy publications such as Forbes, Fast Company, Nasdaq, Entrepreneur Magazine, and others launching the brand into the spotlight on its way to becoming an iconic nurse lifestyle brand.
A graduate of Tie Boston’s accelerator, MassChallenge’s accelerator, and the Harvard Innovation Lab Launch Lab X accelerator, Moxie has raised $2.4M in pre-seed funding and will look to their Seed round next. Everything the company does is around nurse wellness & self care.
Being in the market for under 2 years, Moxie Scrubs has some impressive momentum. The brand’s revenue is in the seven figures having grown mostly organically. They plan to continue scaling revenue while targeting profitability by the end of 2023 or early 2024. Paul Blum, former CEO of Kenneth Cole & Kate Spade’s former Head of PR and Communications, Johanna Almstead, are part of their impressive team helping take the brand to the next level. It’s obviously a unique time to be raising capital so Alicia and the Moxie team are carefully weighing the amount and structure of the round they’ll need to close in order to reach their next set of milestones.
As a DTC (direct to consumer) business, Alicia & team are focused on building new systems, partnerships, and growth levers that will deliver earnings. Because of the brand equity, physical nature and operational complexity that consumer startups demand, they’re often valued on multiples of their EBITDA or profit instead of a pure revenue figure. Recent medical apparel company Wonderwink was acquired by Superior Uniform Group and FIGS, another giant in the space, had a successful 2021 IPO. Medical apparel is a growing D2C vertical and shows no sign of slowing down. The global medical apparel market is expected to grow to $140B by 2027.
Moxie has already dealt with supply chain challenges through the pandemic that many consumer startups have faced. Their early stage investors want to know that they can manage costs as they scale revenue this year now that supply chain issues have subsided. Alicia tells me that she is focusing on “inventory & product expansion with healthy margins, increasing average order value, and of course revenue growth acquiring new customers.” They’ll be leaning on maintaining their strong LTV and managing customer acquisition costs as they scale. They’ve also recently partnered with Show Me Your Stethoscope, the largest online nursing community in the world.
For all of you operators reading this, the most important aspect of Seed stage startups is bringing the right people in to lay the groundwork and build a culture primed for rocketship growth. In the months ahead Moxie will be looking to hire foundational roles like a Chief of Staff, a Head of Partnerships, and a Chief Operating Officer to name just a few of the personnel needed for their next stage of growth.
Moxie offers an impressive selection of scrubs in different colors and sizes that feel like athletic gear. The brand launched as the most inclusive D2C brand in the D2C market. The everyday healthcare worker wears plus sizes so they offer a wide variety of fits at an affordable price point ranging from XXS to 5X with tall and petite sizes. Moxie is 30% more affordable than some of their major competitors, serving the everyday healthcare profession more inclusively. Their team is hybrid working remotely and out of the Harvard Innovation Lab. They plan on continuing to invest in Boston as their hub as the team continues to grow.
Operators to Know:
- Moxie is just starting to build out the leadership team locally!
Key Roles To Be Hired (in the coming months):
- Chief of Staff
- Chief Operating Officer
- Head of Partnerships
- Staff Accountant
If I were interviewing here are some questions I’d ask:
- What are the biggest operational challenges to scaling Moxie? For a Seed stage startup they’re building out a lot of new operational functionality
- How does Moxie plan to expand beyond its flagship scrubs products? What’s the strategy for product expansion?
- What does Moxie view as its competitive advantages? These are cornerstones to build around at the earliest stages
- What are the most important roles Moxie needs to fill in order to scale? Each member of the team added is a critical hire at this stage!
We’re optimizing for readability here so to learn more about Moxie Apparel you’ll have to D.Y.O.R. I’m excited to watch this team bring wellness to our most treasured healthcare workers. All nurses applaud your efforts. If interested in learning more, please contact Alicia directly at alicia@moxiescrubs.com. See you around Cambridge, Moxie team!