www.Pixii.com.au
Entrepreneurial journey told by two students
Story written by Leroy Yin
‘The opportunity surfaced at a conference where my wife and other 3000 women were invited. They were asked that whether had been caught out by period at work, and surprisingly, every woman raised their hands. Pixii was born on that day.
My parents started their business and became entrepreneurs even before I was born. I saw them working every day when I was growing up, and it has inspired me a lot. Also, before I started Pixii, I worked in many other industries including IT, financial services, but for now I am in the consumer goods. I am not an expert in anything, but those experiences from different places really helped me a lot. In 2019, when my wife and I recognize the opportunity, we founded Pixii, just for a simple reason, that we wanted to solve the problems for women at workplace, or at schools. No one should be disadvantaged because of their sex, religion, race or sexuality and everyone should have their natural hygiene needs met, regardless of their gender. This is why our target customer groups are all companies and schools. For another thing, Pixii exists to help create the way things should be, so we partnered with charity One Girl and donate 50% of our profits to empowering women. It has been in the Pixii DNA from day 0 to create positive change and to give back. In Australia, we bring equality to workplace by making sure supplies are available wherever they are needed. In Sierra Leone and Uganda, out partner, One Girl, is combatting the unique barriers that girls face, and eliminating these barriers to open opportunities for compounding good throughout the girls. On the other hand, we want to do something about the environment. Sustainable development should be the responsibility of every human. With everything we do at Pixii, the way things should be also applies to our eco footprint. Our products are all made from 100% organic cottons and will biodegrade in anywhere from 6 months to 5 years. We also make the products plastic-free including packages and wrappers. Even for factory and transportation, we use 100% renewable energy.
The pandemic of Covid has brought many problems to our business, and we were forced to suspended for a long duration. But we believe ‘the way things should be’, everything will be better in the future.’
Story written by Shengwen Zhang
The start
It was a normal day in 2019, my wife came back from a business conference and talked with me about her willingness to start a business that sell tampons or pads dispensers to office buildings or schools. To be honest, I feel so confused and unconfident about her business idea because I think most women will bring their own period products. I just don’t want to waste the money that we have been saved for years. That was a long night, we had a discussion about her ideas after we finished the pizza that I ordered from my favorite store. My attitude towards this period products dispenser started to shift after my wife told me what happened during the conference. There was a quick poll: How many of you have been caught out by your period at work? Every woman raised their hand. I suddenly realized the potential size of this untouched market. We started to do some research online. At the same time, I made my decision to start this hopeful business.
The pandemic
We made enough market research and finished a perfect business plan. I even figured out a way to make us a socially responsible company. Then, something unfortunate happened. Just 8 days after we officially lunched our business, the COVID-19 came. The whole city, even the whole country was under lockdown. It was absolutely a big punch to us, because everyone was working at home, nobody went to office. What should I do with the inventory? I need to figure out some ways to change my inventory to cash as soon as possible. Nobody knows how long will it take. Moreover, I made a huge mistake with the packaging of my products and it costs me couple of weeks to replace them around 18 different shops. I was planning to break even in about 2 months. In fact, it took me about 13 months.
The future
There is also some good news. We funded Pixii by our savings, which means I have no liabilities. Our Plan B (online selling) is working gradually. Also, everyone is getting vaccinated. Hopefully, people will get back to office and schools in the near future. With no other competitors in this brand-new market, I believe there will be a rainbow after hurricane. I still feel confident and full of hope.