Yomassage founders Katherine Parker and Tiffany Ryan discuss pitching to global audiences.
Interview Transcript. Edited for clarity.
Dave Underhill: The COVID pandemic has all of us looking for ways to manage our stress and stay healthy. Today we're going to talk with a fast-growing Portland startup, Yomassage, and learn how they're offering a unique wellness program that combines yoga, massage, and other relaxation techniques to people across the globe.
I met the two founders, Katherine Parker, and Tiffany Ryan as they were preparing for a pitch to international investors. I was impressed by their story and by their passion. Katherine, Tiffany, it’s great to see you again, and welcome.
Tiffany Ryan/Katherine Parker: Thank you.
DU: So tell us a bit about Yomassage. What is it that you do, and I think more importantly, what inspired you to start the company?
KP: So Yomassage is a massage modality. But we combine three different things. We combine restorative yoga, massage therapy and mindfulness into one session. And this allows us to do several things. It allows us to provide three-in-one so we can do more at once for our clients. And then it also allows us the possibility to work with people in a group setting. So it brings the price down because we can work with five people at once instead of one person at a time. So we're providing a lot more value than you would be getting by just going to a yoga class or just going to a massage or just doing a meditation.
We started this out of my yoga studio. I used to own a yoga studio here in Portland and we created it as a class just to have it in my yoga studio. The demand was so high and people loved it so much that we decided to turn it into a training. Now we run a full on company around it.
DU: That's great. So you started, from my reading and research, you started in September of 2018. Where's the company at, at this point?
TR: The fall of 2018, we had a couple of very small trainings. We bootstrapped everything. It was just kind of let's see if there's some interest out there around this. Then that following spring, we were actually picked up by an industry magazine and put on their cover. They had a big spread on us and we just kind of took off from there. All of 2019 we did in-person trainings. We trained over 350 people that year. And then we launched our virtual training at the end of 2019. That was amazing because we were set before COVID with our virtual trainings. We've trained now a total of roughly 750 therapists around the world. We're now focused not only on individuals, but on also having Yomassage in places like hospitals and senior centers and gyms and resorts.
DU: You recently had a chance to fly to Dubai, and pitch to a group of international investors. Tell us about that experience. And how did that come about?
KP: So we yes, we do have therapists all over the world. We we mostly focus on training therapists in the United States. But through our virtual training, we've had some traction in the UK, Canada - Australia is really big for Yomassage. They're really loving it there. But through an organization here in Portland called TiE - we have been involved with them for probably over a year just practicing our pitching. And they've been really great mentors to us. We were at a pitch competition at the end of 2020 - their women's pitch competition. We won first place in the pitch competition, so they sent us to Dubai to pitch in the global pitch competition. And we got to meet women running amazing, incredible companies all over the world. So yeah, that that was our experience in Dubai.
DU: So and that sounds like it was really exciting to be able to fly there, meet all those people. What was your takeaway from that experience about pitching in a high stakes competitive situation like that?
TR: It was really interesting. It was a unique experience because it was global, so you weren't just pitching against people from the United States. There are different styles of pitching from the different cultures and countries. And we had judges that were global as well. We had only pitched virtually up until then because we had just been pitching during COVID. So this was our first in-person pitching experience. The big takeaway is the preparation piece, which you helped us with quite a bit. Just being able to feel really confident and being able to deliver your message succinctly. And with as much impact as possible.
DU: Okay. And some of your advice to other entrepreneurs about pitching is being concise, get to the point. Anything else that you think would be important for entrepreneurs to understand about pitching?
TR: We had our pitch all set to go. We were ready. We refined it. We were good. Then we had a rooftop party, the night before the pitches with a bunch of investors. So we're basically doing our quick pitching, just in conversation. I think one of the things I realized that I wish we had done slightly differently is just bringing the passion and just be really genuine. “Why are you doing this and why is it important?” Because when you have conversation, it's easy to convey that. And I think sometimes in the pitching structure, when it's like this slide, and that slide, and all the things you have to have, some of that (passion) can be slightly taken away. And I think that's something we saw in a lot of the other pitches as well. The people who were like, very passionate about what they were doing, everybody felt it and it makes for a stronger pitch.
KP: Yeah, I think just being really prepared, obviously, is going to help you. If there are judges or you're in front of investors, everyone's going to interpret something different or ask a different question. Or maybe this person really hates that you did one thing and this person really loves it. So just be open- minded and don't take things too personally. It really just depends who you're pitching to. And you just have to move forward and don't get too down on yourself.
DU: That's great. You just learned by doing. You mentioned earlier that almost all your pitches, because of COVID, before this had been virtual ones. We're all living in this Zoom world of virtual communication. Prior to Dubai, and continuing after that, what have you done to adapt your pitches to that virtual environment?
TR: That's really all we knew in terms of our pitching. So I think that's how we started out and we were able to I think of things much more scripted, virtually. It’s a different type of preparation to deliver something virtually then than in person.
KP: In Dubai, there were virtual pitches. There were some people that weren't able to come in person. I would say it didn't really matter, like the virtual pitches were still amazing. One or two of the virtual pitches made it to the finals and one of them won second place in the competition. So it didn't really matter, the virtual pitches still did really well.
DU: That's good to know. And I think, as you're experiencing, we all know that virtual is going to be with us for a long time. It's going to be a combination of in-person and virtual pitches as you grow your business. So that makes a lot of sense.
KP: I think that with COVID - we talked about this a lot, but it's like we don't just do phone calls anymore. Like no one just does a phone call. It's always Zoom now. So it kind of brings us together because we're not talking. We're never meeting people in person with our business. We're not really a Portland only business. We work with people all over the country and all over the world. And now it's like we never get on a phone call. It's always Zoom.
DU: That does change things, right? It's almost like the if you really want to get someone's attention you actually call them on the phone because they're so used to doing Zoom calls.
TR: Catch them off guard.
DU: It's kind of funny that way. So it sounds like you've had some great success to date. What's next for the company, for Yomassage? What are your plans for the next 12 to 18 months?
TR: Originally, we had wanted to focus on gyms and spas and we're realizing that with the state of COVID that's probably not the best place to start right now. So we've shifted more towards hospitals, and assisted living senior centers, places like that, where there has been this renewed awareness of the need for touch among the communities. So that's what we're focused on in terms of our enterprise. We're still working on increasing our brand awareness among individual practitioners. We have several things in the works to be able to do that with some key players in the massage industry, some strategic partnerships. And increasing our bandwidth for marketing and SEO and all that good stuff. We do have one new initiative that we're launching this year and new training as well.
DU: That's great. Anything else?
