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talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs,

1:00

and really some of the

1:02

most interesting people of our

1:04

time. Can't wait to

1:07

get started. Let's

1:09

go. Let's go. Hi

1:12

everyone. It's Kara Golden from the

1:14

Kara Golden show. I am so

1:16

excited to have our next guest

1:18

here. We have Sarah Schiller, who

1:20

is the co-founder and co-CEO of

1:22

Slumu. If you don't know what

1:24

Slumu is, you are going

1:26

to find out and you are

1:29

going to be so excited and

1:31

definitely want to go to one

1:33

of their incredible centers that they

1:35

have. But Slumu is a creative

1:38

and immersive brand known for its

1:40

innovative and delightful, get ready

1:42

for it, slime experience. So

1:46

Sarah co-founded Slumu to provide a

1:48

unique and tactile way for individuals

1:50

of all ages, not just for

1:52

kids, to explore their creativity. And

1:55

in the last 18 months,

1:58

Slumu has expanded into four. cities

2:00

and has become a leading name

2:02

in the world of sensory entertainment.

2:05

I had never heard of sensory

2:07

entertainment and I'm super excited about

2:10

this. We're going to get more

2:12

from Sarah directly and really

2:15

about her journey

2:17

and co-founding this

2:19

company, but also just

2:22

overall why she decided to do this

2:24

and all of the things

2:26

around the brand that you're going to be so excited to

2:29

hear about. Welcome Sarah.

2:31

Thank you. Excited to be here. Very,

2:34

very excited to have you. So can

2:36

you share the inspiration behind starting

2:39

Sloamoo? What led you to create

2:41

a brand centered

2:43

around sensory experience with

2:46

slime? Yeah, so

2:48

there's multiple factors that go into this and

2:50

I think as an entrepreneur, it's

2:53

so hard that you need a lot

2:55

of motivating things to get you through

2:57

getting started. Karen,

2:59

my co-founder and I have been friends now for 16

3:02

years and she

3:04

was with me during two really rough

3:07

moments of my life. The

3:09

first was when my oldest daughter, I

3:11

have two, one now 16 and

3:13

12, was diagnosed with

3:16

a rare genetic syndrome called Angelman

3:18

syndrome that severely

3:20

limited her ability to

3:23

use her hands, to use language,

3:26

to do any activities of daily living. And

3:29

then about nine

3:31

years ago, my husband of 17 years

3:34

had massive bilateral strokes and

3:37

he became severely disabled and very

3:39

limited in activities that he could do.

3:42

So Karen was with me on

3:44

that journey and she herself went through

3:47

some really rough times. She

3:49

lost her husband to mental

3:51

health issues and she lost

3:53

her cousin in the Parkland

3:55

school shooting. And she

3:57

went into a major, major depression.

4:00

and had a friend come over with her 10-year-old

4:02

who brought slime. And

4:04

Karen said, I want to find

4:06

out what slime of today is. Ended

4:09

up diving in and four

4:11

hours later she realized

4:13

she felt better and

4:15

had been playing and felt joy. And she called

4:18

me up and she's like, Sarah, you've got

4:20

to get some of this. And

4:23

what happened to Karen and

4:25

I, we both became adults, was known as an

4:27

adult climber. But we also realized,

4:29

we were in our late 40s, that

4:32

we needed and wanted to bring this

4:34

to the world. Like everyone needed

4:36

to get a little bit of this. And

4:39

little did we know, of course, that we

4:41

were heading into a pandemic as we started in 2019.

4:45

But that people are now

4:47

faced with really, there's an epidemic of loneliness.

4:51

And the numbers of depression

4:53

that all ages are

4:55

going up, and we really

4:57

found that slime is a way

4:59

for people to tap into that

5:01

joy, to play again, to get

5:04

off their device and use their hands and

5:07

tap into all fours of your

5:09

senses, four of the five. So

5:11

what started out as really a

5:14

personal level

5:16

of fun, we were able to say, let's bring

5:18

this to the world. So

5:21

you're based in New York City. Was

5:24

that your first, like how did you

5:26

go about actually creating

5:28

your first environment? Well,

5:31

one of the amazing things, and this is so

5:33

important when you have a co-founder, is

5:36

that we have a Venn diagram of a skill set. So

5:38

I focused on business

5:41

management, hospitality, the guest

5:43

experience, Karen on marketing

5:46

and talent, focusing

5:48

on Instagram talent. And the

5:51

two of us really met in the middle of building a

5:53

brand. So we always knew in the beginning that, and that's

5:55

why we're called Flumu

5:57

Institute, not a slime institute, because we're building

5:59

a brand. And once

6:01

we set up that that brand was

6:03

focused on joy, play,

6:06

sensory play, we were

6:08

able very, very quickly to

6:11

raise the money, identify the

6:14

space, build out the experience.

6:16

It's all immersive hands-on that

6:18

from concept to opening our doors

6:20

was less than a year. Wow.

6:24

That's amazing. That's super,

6:26

super amazing. So did you actually build,

6:29

what, where was your first center then?

6:32

So it was in Soho and originally

6:34

it was intended to just be a six month

6:36

pop-up. And I think

6:39

the day that we opened our doors, we

6:41

realized that this was a real

6:43

business and there was more there than we thought.

6:46

We had to really skinny down during

6:48

the pandemic, but we had

6:50

grossed $5 million of revenue in

6:53

the first four months. We had welcomed over 100,000 visitors.

6:57

So the numbers were there.

6:59

We just had to make it through who

7:01

knew it's going to be a year long,

7:04

really tough time. And

7:06

we're used that time

7:08

to really do some of the strategy work for

7:10

how to make this not just a

7:12

pop-up, but a real full-time

7:15

business and how do we grow it. And

7:18

what were you doing before this? Yeah.

7:22

So I have my

7:24

MBA in finance and I was

7:26

a management consultant. I also worked

7:28

for Starwood Hotels, focused

7:30

on branding and the guest experience.

7:33

But I left Starwood in 2008 and

7:36

opened up my own company called

7:38

Meat Hospitality, where I

7:40

revolutionized how people gather for meetings. So

7:42

we had five locations in

7:44

New York City that were soft seating,

7:46

contemporary art, great food, great

7:49

technology. And that business

7:52

really fueled and ignited my passion

7:54

as an entrepreneur. I

7:56

love building things and I love the idea

7:59

that you. can have

8:02

other people experience or enjoy what

8:05

your vision is? I

8:08

love that experience though because typically

8:11

people would think something like slime

8:13

is just for

8:15

kids. But obviously you're bringing

8:17

together adults, probably during the

8:20

pandemic you were even seeing

8:22

this where teams

8:24

were coming together and wanting

8:26

to create with

8:29

your slime and lots of people

8:31

were doing Zoom team meetings over

8:33

the time. So I love

8:35

that you saw that there

8:38

was something beyond the

8:40

demographic of kids and this

8:43

idea of sensory experiences using

8:46

slime is just, it's kind

8:48

of brilliant. I've definitely seen

8:50

your location in Soho in

8:53

New York and as we

8:55

discussed, I guess you're in

8:58

four cities, you're going into a bunch of other

9:00

cities as well. Yeah,

9:02

and we realized

9:04

that adults would

9:06

be into it, but

9:09

we didn't really realize

9:11

the amount of corporate

9:14

business team, team building

9:16

off-site that we would attract also. Now,

9:19

of course, we're huge proponents of it,

9:21

but this idea that when your

9:23

hands are busy and

9:25

you're not being distracted by your phone or

9:27

a device, it actually makes

9:30

people pay more attention in meetings

9:33

and more attention to the person

9:35

that they're speaking with. We

9:38

started having meetings and bringing slime and people were

9:40

saying, this is the best meeting I've gone to

9:42

all year. So

9:45

it's really tapping into that,

9:49

allowing people, we say, to connect

9:51

with themselves, to

9:54

really kind of all that garbage in your brain

9:56

goes away and then connect with others because you're

9:58

looking at them in the eye. and you're not

10:00

being drawn towards your phone. Yeah,

10:03

definitely. Well, I think you've touched

10:05

on this, that there's this need

10:08

too for tactile experiences and

10:10

definitely it's a lot of fun

10:13

for sure. What is one

10:15

of the stories that you've maybe heard from

10:17

some of your customers, how this has

10:19

just sort of been

10:22

one of the most fun afternoons that

10:24

they've had. I'd love to

10:26

hear anything that you've heard from consumers. Yeah,

10:29

we have some great stories. One of our

10:31

favorites is a grandmother

10:33

who came and sometimes

10:35

we get pushed back, like I don't wanna buy

10:37

a ticket because I'm not gonna touch the slime,

10:39

I'm just here with my grandchildren and I'm

10:41

not gonna do anything. And

10:44

this one grandmother at the

10:47

end wrote us a note and said, I

10:50

realized that I needed this even more

10:52

than my grandchildren. I had more fun

10:55

than they did. And

10:57

I'm coming back with my girlfriend for

10:59

our girls' night out for

11:02

us to play and have fun and

11:04

have joy. And we

11:06

hear that over and over again and

11:08

you can almost change in the person,

11:10

whether it's the dad who

11:12

walks in with her arms crossed, saying like,

11:15

oh, I'm not gonna touch this. 10

11:18

minutes later, their elbow deep in slime. We

11:22

also have had, and this has been a

11:25

really interesting, eye product

11:27

of what we created is

11:30

really diverse families coming in with

11:32

people who might have children on the

11:35

autism spectrum, adults on the

11:37

autism spectrum or really any

11:39

sort of disability.

11:43

Coming in and seeing our workforce because

11:47

we have an inclusive workforce,

11:49

but also finding out

11:51

how accessible the space is. And

11:54

that anyone

11:57

can play when it comes down to

11:59

it. But the

12:01

families feel so welcome in

12:04

our space. We had a school where

12:06

all the children were in wheelchairs,

12:08

and the director was literally

12:11

crying when she was leaving, saying, this

12:13

is the first time we've had a class.

12:16

Really be able to engage in

12:18

an experience. That's

12:21

awesome. So you're in New

12:23

York, Los Angeles, or you're opening in

12:25

Los Angeles. Where in Los Angeles are

12:27

you going into? We're

12:30

going into South Fairfax right

12:32

across from the Grove. That

12:34

will be later on in the summer. We

12:37

just opened in Houston at the

12:39

Markey Entertainment Center, and that's a

12:42

really fun, gorgeous spot. And

12:44

then we're in North Chicago

12:46

and Buckhead in Atlanta. So

12:49

we're spread out across the US. That's

12:52

awesome. Do you foresee plans in

12:55

the future where you're going to be

12:57

going international? So

12:59

right now, we own

13:01

all of our locations in North America.

13:04

We are going to look strategically

13:06

to license internationally. The

13:10

cultural implications and

13:12

just construction and everything would be really

13:14

difficult for us to do it ourselves.

13:16

So we're looking for partners who

13:19

would license the brand. So

13:21

strategically, that's a big initiative

13:23

for us. There's a

13:25

lot of regions across the

13:28

world that we think or we know

13:30

would be perfect for slumu. In

13:32

particular, Korea, Japan, Singapore,

13:36

there's slime crazy countries.

13:39

And then a lot of the countries in

13:41

the Middle East that have large,

13:43

large number of families as a

13:45

percentage of the population and

13:49

are looking for endurance things to do. Yeah,

13:52

no, I think it's going

13:54

to be huge for sure. So when

13:56

I think about this, Even

14:00

though you had the experience working

14:03

on meetings and companies. I

14:05

mean, this is such a different chapter

14:08

in your life and it sounds like

14:10

a very different chapter for your co-founder

14:12

to how did you get

14:14

the courage to go and do something

14:16

that is so audacious as You

14:19

know working on slime. How

14:21

did you think about it? It's it's

14:24

interesting because We've

14:26

done something that's never been done before and that's

14:29

such a rarity on the planet to be able

14:31

to do We don't know

14:33

one had ever created a slime kitchen. That's

14:35

making 600 gallons of slime a

14:37

day No

14:39

one had created some of the experiences we

14:41

have where like you can fling shot

14:43

slime You can walk on time. You know,

14:46

we have a custom DIY bar. So we

14:51

Probably have what I think is

14:53

a good dose of fearlessness That

14:56

I think all entrepreneurs have and

14:59

you have to have Which

15:02

is enough fearlessness, but

15:04

that you're not reckless so

15:07

having the ability to Run

15:10

financial models look at the bottom line Focusing

15:13

on building a brand what's critical?

15:16

What isn't what do you include

15:18

using that brand lens to make

15:20

all decisions? having

15:22

someone like Karen who An

15:25

expert and influencer marketing and allowed us

15:27

to get off the ground using her

15:29

her natural skill set It

15:32

all came together or dropped in this

15:34

package of fearlessness and one

15:36

of the things I say to our team all the time is Now

15:40

that we're bigger and we know better

15:42

like we can't operate from a position of

15:44

fear We can be

15:46

smart and we can use data and

15:49

make great decisions But we can't operate

15:51

from a position of fear because you

15:53

won't really continue to grow or innovate

15:56

Yeah, no, it's such great

15:58

advice and you've obviously been

16:01

a successful entrepreneur and grown another

16:04

company in the past. So you

16:06

know that firsthand and I totally

16:08

agree. So you're

16:10

not just in the business of

16:12

creating experiences, which is

16:15

kind of a service business, but

16:19

you're also in the physical product

16:21

business. You talked about creating these

16:24

vats of slime. How fun would

16:26

that be on many

16:28

levels? What

16:31

is probably the most challenging thing

16:34

that you have to deal with with

16:36

this company? I mean, you've got a

16:38

lot of different components that probably, you

16:41

know, the consumer just sees this

16:43

bright, fun experience. You've got to

16:46

get that right, but there's a

16:48

lot of pieces here. There's direct

16:50

to consumer. There's

16:52

the employees. There's

16:54

making sure that the environments are safe. What

16:57

is something that you think, like, I had

16:59

no idea how hard it was going to

17:01

be? Yeah, well, the,

17:04

I think many people in this

17:06

immersive experience business would say this,

17:09

I always say the slime

17:12

is the star. That's

17:14

like what everyone comes for. But

17:17

the people are who make the memories,

17:19

our staff. And

17:21

having, hiring the right staff, training

17:24

them, retaining them in an

17:27

environment that has been just

17:29

so rocky for many years

17:32

now is probably one of

17:34

our biggest challenges. And

17:37

you know, we're a seasonal business, so

17:39

we have fluctuations in our workforce. So

17:41

I think as a team, that's one

17:44

of our things that we're constantly focused

17:46

on is how do we

17:48

hire better? How do we train better? How

17:50

do we hire for not

17:52

only what we want the guest experience to be,

17:55

but also so that they stay with us for

17:57

a long time and we don't have to retrain

17:59

again. So

18:02

that's a big piece.

18:04

I think the other piece

18:06

that we had no idea was going

18:09

to be so complicated was this

18:11

procurement piece. Like just getting

18:13

the tens of thousands of gallons of glue,

18:15

we partner with Elmer's. They're such a great

18:18

partner and we've been so lucky

18:20

to have them. Getting

18:22

that glue, getting it into the space and

18:24

then all the different add-ins. There's four

18:27

million different combinations. You can imagine

18:29

with each

18:31

one there's different scents,

18:33

there's different textures. It

18:36

all adds up to playing

18:38

with your senses and the

18:40

procurement piece in particular coming out of the

18:43

pandemic was a beast. I

18:45

bet. No, I can only imagine. I mean,

18:48

it must have been crazy. So

18:50

when do you think about developing

18:52

new products though and inside of

18:55

Flumu? We think about

18:57

it all the time. Yeah.

19:00

So there's really two kinds of

19:02

products. There's our actual slime that

19:04

we're selling both in our retail

19:06

stores on location and online and

19:09

that slime we're

19:11

constantly creating new cute

19:13

creatures and scents and

19:16

combinations and doing drops

19:18

and creating a reason for people to come

19:20

back to Flumu and buy more slime. But

19:22

then there's also the experience piece because you

19:24

don't want people to buy to get once

19:26

and never come back. We want reasons

19:29

for people to come back and repeat

19:31

business. We're looking to

19:34

activate the space in simple ways.

19:38

We might have on our slime and

19:40

repeat wall where you put slime up

19:42

on the wall and add to the

19:44

history of our spaces the opportunity to

19:46

write what you're grateful for if we're

19:48

around Thanksgiving and stick it up on

19:50

the wall and people take photos. So

19:53

there's simple things but really

19:56

meaningful for people that

19:58

we can activate in the space. And

20:00

then we're constantly looking at new

20:03

mini experiences along the way. So

20:06

a great

20:08

example of what we've launched in

20:10

Houston was Frou-Frou

20:13

Fields, that's the name, and

20:15

you go up to this

20:17

huge wall and you put on a blindfold.

20:20

Everyone can do it or one or

20:23

two members of your friends

20:26

or family can do it. And you

20:28

go along the wall and you

20:30

feel different pieces and you can try

20:33

to guess what they are. And

20:35

what's so interesting, right, whenever you shut

20:37

off one fence another

20:39

fence becomes more highly activated. And

20:42

I think especially with sight,

20:45

people forget what it's like not

20:47

to see how much fun it is to

20:49

discover things. We have simple things

20:52

like a basketball or a squishy, but

20:54

we also have grass. And,

20:57

you know, different beads. So

21:00

it's pretty cool that we've created another way

21:02

for people to tap into

21:05

their senses and play

21:07

and discover. So

21:10

one of the things that you mentioned was

21:13

social media and influencers

21:15

and how you all have

21:18

really deployed

21:20

to build this brand. Can you

21:22

share a little bit like what's worked for

21:25

you? I know that you've had some very

21:27

notable celebrities that

21:29

have stepped up and said

21:32

how great the experience. I

21:34

would guess it's kind of

21:36

perfect for Instagram, right? For

21:39

people, I think

21:42

just to experience it, people want

21:44

to show pictures of slime,

21:46

right, with their friends. I mean, who

21:48

wouldn't or their family or

21:50

their co-workers, whatever. I bet,

21:53

you know, that's been huge for

21:55

you guys. Yeah, and

21:58

we're really lucky in this sense. that

22:01

we've had a

22:03

lot of celebrities and influencers come

22:06

to us. So

22:08

people have, major,

22:11

major A-list celebrities just gone online and

22:13

bought tickets and have shown up and

22:16

have posted. And that for us is

22:19

obviously the most rewarding because

22:21

we know that we're in the zeitgeist

22:23

of culture and

22:26

conversation. But

22:28

we're also working at all

22:30

levels. It's not just the

22:33

A-listers, right? Like we wanna

22:35

tap into the mommy blogger

22:39

who is in Atlanta or

22:42

the LGBTQ influencer who's

22:46

in Chicago. We're working all

22:49

the time to get our message of

22:52

joy, play and inclusion

22:54

out there so that

22:56

when we're reaching out and saying,

22:58

hey, you should come visit us, people really

23:01

understand that it's not just

23:03

a kid's toy that it's actually

23:05

something much, much broader. So

23:09

your brand really emphasizes

23:11

mindfulness and creativity. You touched on

23:14

this a bit, but how

23:16

can anyone kind of incorporate

23:18

sensory play into their lives?

23:21

Maybe they're not working, maybe

23:23

they're part of different

23:25

groups that they see that this is

23:27

an opportunity. How else can they really

23:30

partner with you guys in some way or work

23:34

with you in some way to

23:37

really get increased creativity,

23:39

I guess. Yeah, so

23:42

I'll highlight a couple of things. Two

23:44

things is our, like

23:46

we have a corporate initiatives. One is

23:49

with Goldie Hahn's Mind Up Foundation. And

23:52

she's focused on bringing

23:54

mindfulness in particular to

23:56

school children in underserved communities. around

24:00

the US and that's a

24:02

really important partnership for us because mental

24:05

health and mental well-being is at the core of

24:08

playing with slime and tapping into your

24:11

inner sense of joy. We also

24:13

have, as I mentioned, our neurodiverse

24:16

workforce and that's really critical to

24:18

us to let

24:20

people know that their child

24:22

will have an opportunity to get

24:25

meaningful employment and we

24:28

work with local agencies

24:30

to hire, train, provide

24:33

people with the supports they need

24:35

from an inclusivity standpoint. But

24:37

then there's just the, what I would say,

24:39

the really simple level of if

24:43

you visit Slumoo Institute, you leave with

24:45

a slime. So every ticket you leave

24:47

with a slime. So you have something that you can

24:49

go home and play with and

24:52

we found that this is

24:54

most meaningful to the

24:58

16 or 17 year old who's a little

25:00

bit jaded but is forced to go with

25:02

their sister or brother and ends up

25:04

using it as a study tool

25:06

or something to keep them

25:09

engaged while they're studying all

25:12

through students through college.

25:14

So just the act of playing

25:16

with slime itself provides

25:20

deep stressing and

25:24

relaxation. We

25:26

also have really, really

25:28

fun products that allow you to

25:31

custom make your own different

25:34

types of slimes. So we have slime building

25:36

kits, bead kits and other ways

25:38

that you can start to experiment and learn how to make

25:40

slime if you want to go down that route. And

25:43

they are so much fun for sure. It's

25:47

really awesome. So what's the best advice

25:50

For any potential founder out there,

25:52

someone thinking about starting their own

25:54

company, knowing what you know today?

25:56

Now You've got a couple under

25:58

your belt. And very

26:01

different experiences. but you're a

26:03

seasoned entrepreneur founder. Ah, now

26:05

what what would you say?

26:07

is sort of like the.

26:09

Best. Advice that you would give

26:11

to somebody. Yeah. But my

26:13

that uses. Get. It

26:15

eighty percent right. A. The

26:19

last twenty percent will cost you either so

26:21

much time or so much money that you

26:24

may not even get the product project or

26:26

products off the ground. Ah,

26:28

you'll get it out there. Start

26:30

listening to your your. Customers

26:33

or you're gonna get the match

26:35

and keep. Being. Flexible and

26:37

and I'll in order to

26:39

adapt and change as it

26:41

is. That.

26:44

If. Is. Be in

26:46

being fearless right? Because was

26:48

way creates that. Over.

26:51

An hour is the fear that we don't have

26:53

it right. Or maybe it's or maybe it's that.

26:56

Are ya Karen and I see if we'd had

26:58

as he did for a minute we would have

27:00

we would have never Is it's on the business

27:02

who kuwait who would use as a crazy thing

27:04

as degree the classics. The

27:07

with Better life of the financial model

27:09

which I mean. Very. High

27:11

level. And list.on the

27:13

two years later, security on. Live

27:16

so far off. With. A

27:18

game down to it like that. The extra.

27:21

Ten. Pages of external would not have

27:23

made the filters any. Better.

27:25

Or more profitable. Origin wiser it was of

27:27

getting out there doing it. While.

27:30

I'm so happy you did! so!

27:32

Sarah Schiller cofounder and Co Ceo

27:35

of Blue Moon. Definitely check out

27:37

their locations but also check out their website.

27:39

will have all the info in the show

27:41

notes that thank you Sarah for sharing all

27:43

about your brand and your wisdom and your

27:46

journey. Really appreciate it and good luck with

27:48

everything! Thank you so much they to be

27:50

here. Thanks. Again for listening to

27:52

the care of holes and so. If you would,

27:54

please give us to review and feel free

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to share this podcast with. Others who

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would benefit. And of course, feel

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free to subscribe so you don't miss a

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single episode of our podcast. Just

28:05

a reminder that I can be found

28:07

on all platforms at Cara Golden. I

28:10

would love to hear from you too, so feel

28:12

free to DM me. And if you

28:14

want to hear more about my journey,

28:17

I hope you will have a listen or

28:19

pick up a copy of my Wall Street

28:21

Journal best-selling book, Undaunted,

28:24

where I share more

28:26

about my journey, including founding

28:28

and building Hint. We

28:31

are here every Monday, Wednesday, and

28:33

Friday. Thanks for listening, and

28:35

goodbye for now.