Last week Grown In shared news about the $2 million seed round raised by Chicago-based Equilibria.
Prior to raising institutional financing from Salveo Capital and Hyde Park Angels, Chicago serial entrepreneur and angel investor Genevieve Thiers was the first outside money in the company. We checked in with Thiers to discuss what attracted her to the company.
Grown In: As Equilibria’s first investor, what attributes of the company/team/model/sector attracted you the most?
Genevieve Thiers: I think co-founders Coco Meers and Marcy Capron Vermillion are amazing and one of the best teams in town. I was looking for a chance to invest in them.
I’ve been impressed with Coco ever since I saw her sell her first company to Groupon. She acquired a lot of experience running the beauty division there, which really honed her talent even more.
She’s one of the most investable people I’ve ever met actually!
They make an unbelievable team. As someone who wants to see more women in Chicago tech, I have to tell you it was such a pleasure to invest in this at the level that I did.
Grown In: How do you leverage your deep experience building businesses to help grow and scale this particular company?
Genevieve Thiers: In terms of similarities, Sittercity is a subscription company and so is this one. So a lot of the metrics are the same. Cost per acquisition, lifetime value, average revenue per user, churn – it’s all the same.
I would definitely say that growing consumer companies with subscription-based revenue – particularly those targeting women – is a specialty of mine. This could not fit more squarely into that.
Grown In: Describe your own experience with Equilibria.
Genevieve Thiers: I’m a user and I’ve loved it since the beginning.
In terms of the usefulness of the product, I think it’s unbelievably effective. I think that a lot of women in particular are dealing with pain, and we just accept that as a facet of everyday life.
After I had my twins, for example, things just weren’t the same. Having to lift and bend nonstop, I couldn’t move or think straight for almost two years. It was excruciating. I had to plan to do something as simple as a walk.
Whether it be sleeplessness, anxiety, back pain or arthritis, women and moms don’t have to deal with this pain as a matter of life. We can treat it. Before Equilibria, I was on four Advil per day for just general pain. Now, I simply use CBD on my back or my wrists when they hurt, and I can avoid the Advil component altogether, which can be quite bad for your stomach if you take too much.
I’m a huge proponent of the product both come from an economic perspective, but also because I back up anything that helps women. This helps women.
