This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.

 

Jose Alvarez, Co-founder of Abbott NYC, started the brand because he believes nature is healing. The company makes clean fragrances inspired by beautiful destinations.

 

"Urban life is very stressful, and nature provides an escape for us to reconnect with ourselves," Jose says. "I also believe in the power of fragrances to transport you to a particular place, a memory, and I think we've all experienced that. When you do experience it, it's something very visceral, something very emotional. So I wanted to start a line of fragrances that transports you to the natural world."

 

Jose grew up in Nicaragua, surrounded by what he calls "very virgin nature." He fell in love with beaches and surfing in his home country. When he moved to New York City, he found that he came to miss nature, so he began traveling across the country and fell in love with the natural destinations around the U.S.

 

"All these destinations that I fell in love with ended up being the inspiration behind each one of our fragrances," he says. "I also wanted to ensure that we were protecting it - leaving Mother Earth in a better place than without it. So the first thing we did was ensure that all of our ingredients are sustainable."

 

For example, for the brand's sandalwood scent, a green synthetic ingredient is used instead of actual sandalwood, a tree that takes a long time to grow. Likewise, recyclable parts of grapefruit are used for the brand's Montecito scent. Even the products' glass containers and boxes are recyclable.

 

Another Abbott commitment is to avoid any ingredient that could adversely affect consumers.

 

"This means no parabens, no phthalates, no hormone disruptors, no carcinogens," he says. "If you look at most perfume ingredient lists, they'll just put all the perfume in alcohol. We list our full list of ingredients. We believe consumers should know what they're putting on their skins."

 

The idea for the fragrance line began with his travels. Jose and his co-founder Michael Pass used trips to escape their high-pressure careers. A shared passion for fragrances led them to connect the dots.

 

In Part 1, Jose talks about:

 

* Gratitude to his first boss out of college, which gave him a shot working on Wall Street even though he lacked the traditional Ivy League credentials.
* Our emotional connection to nature.
* His childhood in Nicaragua and how moving to New York changed his perspective.
* How he fell in love with natural destinations around the United States.
* The need to make products with sustainable ingredients.
* The brand's work with charities.
* The need to make scents unisex.
* How he and his co-founder turned travel into a brand.
* How their career success to date helped them gain an advantage with potential investors.
* How he re-engaged the creative side of his energy.

 

Join Ramon Vela and Jose Alvarez as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.

 

For more on Abbott NYC, visit: https://abbottnyc.com/ 

 

Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.

 

*

 

This episode is also brought to you by Sendlane.

 

If all DTC companies were forced to turn off Facebook ads, they'd be dead on arrival. Why is that?

 

They over-invest in paid acquisition and under-invest in retention.

 

Luckily, Sendlane makes it easy to solve this problem. Sendlane is an E-Commerce Customer Experience Platform helping hundreds of DTC brands to tighten their existing customer relationships.

 

Sendlane automates personalized customer experiences through Welcome and Abandoned Cart workflows, SMS, Deep Data Integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce, multi-store functionality, and much more.

 

Plus, they don't stand for lazy customer support. Their San-Diego-based team has an average 1-minute response time from a live human, making sure you never get stuck in a chat queue ever again.

 

Curious about how Sendlane can help your DTC brand grow? Schedule a demo with a Specialist. Visit https://www.sendlane.com/story