In the Room with Faye Keegan, Co-founder and CEO of Dipsea, where storytelling meets sexual wellness.
Welcome to another episode of The Room Podcast with co-hosts Madison and Claudia! In this week’s episode, we sit down with Faye Keegan, Co-Founder and CEO of Dipsea, the first audio platform for women’s sexual wellness. Dipsea has created a new form of sensorial audio storytelling, helping women to tap into their inner sexual powers and awaken their most confident and invigorated selves. The team at Dipsea consists of writers, editors, directors, and engineers who create audio stories in-house and aim to provide an outlet for all perspectives and preferences.
This week’s episode discusses the key themes of pivoting throughout your early career to learn and find your passion, advice for first time founders who are fundraising in non-traditional sectors, and finding a product market fit for a new user experience and form factor. Let’s open the door.
Use code THEROOM for one month free of Dipsea. Dipsea is also hiring! They are looking for engineers, data analysts, and a writer-in-residence. Apply today on AngelList and join the team!
…
Key Theme 1: Pivoting throughout your early career to learn and find your passion
After graduating from Dartmouth in 2012, Faye joined Bridgewater Associates and its investment team where she also began coding in her job, initiating a full transition into tech when she joined Neighborly as a Product Manager. While at this fintech startup, Faye started planting the seeds that would eventually become Dipsea. At that time, Dipsea’s Co-Founder and Faye’s roommate in San Francisco, Gina Gutierrez, was very inspired by apps like Headspace and Calm that were able to create audio content that was effective at making listeners shift their mood and their moments. Both Faye and Gina were interested in the women’s sexual wellness space and intrugied by the fact that no one had yet taken a product-first approach to this field. After doing product and market research, the moving parts came together for both Faye and Gina to agree to quit their jobs and pursue audio sexual health head on. Rewinding through Faye’s early career moves, each step and new position taught her the core lessons, whether leadership skills, investment strategy, coding experience, and research techniques, that enabled her to ultimately have the ability and confidence to start her own business.
Key Theme 2: Advice for first time founders who are fundraising in non-traditional sectors
Faye’s fundraising journey for Dipsea, a startup in a non-traditional sector in the venture world, was met with doubt at first.
“A lot of people were like, you’ll never raise venture capital. I literally emailed someone who was a seed investor who I knew and they were like, it’s never going to happen, wouldn’t advise you to try. And I was like thank you for that feedback, but I’m going to go for it.”
The first check came in from Eric Stromberg at Bedrock who had a background in audiobooks and understand the power and popularity of romance genres. Throughout her fundraising journey, Faye recognizes the importance of relying on your team and to have people around you who you love, as the fundraising journey is often lonely and frustrating. While neither Faye or Gina had a background in the romance category, they used their respective skills and strengths to convert their idea into a startup that people would believe in and back. After a year in business, Dipsea had 325,000 app downloads in 2019.
Key Theme 3: Finding a product market fit for a new user experience and form factor
Dipsea’s success story is one of going for it, adapting, and listening to what its consumers were saying. When Dipsea first launched, Faye knew the product was not yet perfect, but she recognized the importance of learning more and developing the product based on what people wanted in response.
“We had so much to learn about what to make, like what kind of content really resonated with people? What voices? What storylines? What length of story? How to describe them and those kinds of things. We couldn’t just sit in a room and guess. So we started with 60 total stories and we launched with an app.”
It took time for the Dipsea team to hit stride but by staying core to their mission and being open to feedback and the research they collected from first users, Dipsea was able to grow into their unique market.
Audio startups are creating buzz! Read more on why investors are looking to audio.
…
Thanks for joining us in The Room!
Stream this episode to go behind the scenes with Dipsea on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
We will be back next week with a brand new episode on Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 7AM PST/10 AM EST.
