How Getting Press Helped This Female Founded Product Startup Explode With Annabel Love, Co-Founder of Nori
Dear FoundHer...Real Founder Stories for Women Small Business OwnersShow Notes
Getting press can feel like a lucky break until you hear how Annabel Love and her co-founder built a repeatable strategy behind it. In this episode of Dear FoundHer, Annabel shares how a dorm room hair-straightener hack became Nori, an eight-figure, profitable brand now sold nationwide at Target. This is a must-listen for women founders who want a clearer playbook for building visibility, earning trust, and turning attention into revenue.
Annabel walks Lindsay through the early, scrappy days of the company, including customer discovery in the real world, focus groups, and building a product with zero hardware background. You’ll hear what it took to go from idea to manufacturing, then into a go-to-market plan that included Meta ads, influencer partnerships, and getting press that actually moved product. Annabel breaks down how they approached press opportunities like Oprah’s Favorite Things and The Today Show, plus how they repurposed those wins across paid ads, their website, and customer acquisition.
This conversation also covers growing an audience before launch, choosing the right agency partners, and why a lean team can be an advantage when managing rapid growth. Annabel shares how Nori expanded from DTC into retailers like Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, and Target, and what changed operationally once mass retail entered the picture. If you are one of the many female entrepreneurs trying to scale without burning cash or building a bloated org chart, you will walk away with concrete lessons you can apply right away.
Episode Breakdown: 00:01 Nori Founder Story: From Dorm Room Idea to Eight-Figure Brand 03:24 Launching a Hardware Startup Without Engineering Experience 07:05 Customer Research and Product Validation Strategy 09:32 Direct-to-Consumer Go-To-Market Plan 11:54 Meta Ads, Influencer Marketing, and Getting Press 13:52 Retail Expansion: Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, and Target 16:10 Fundraising and Profitability in a Consumer Brand 22:18 Scaling to $20 Million With a Lean Team 28:46 The Today Show Impact on Sales Growth 31:14 Advice for Women Starting a Business
Connect with Annabel Love: Follow Annabel Love on Instagram Follow Nori on Instagram
Subscribe to The Foundher Files: http://foundherfiles.substack.com Follow Dear FoundHer... on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/dearfoundher
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Dear FoundHer...Real Founder Stories for Women Small Business Owners
Her mammogram ended with “see you in a year.” She felt nothing. Yet a few months later, Lindsay Pinchuk was diagnosed with stage 0 breast cancer. The cancer wasn't detected by a mammogram or an ultrasound. It was a breast MRI, ordered because of her dense breast tissue, that led to the diagnosis. On this solo episode of Dear FoundHer, Lindsay, an award-winning entrepreneur and host of the show, answers the questions she's received since sharing her diagnosis.
You never think it's going to be you until it is. On September 1st, 2026, award-winning entrepreneur Lindsay Pinchuk got the call that started her own stage 0 breast cancer story. The DCIS diagnosis came five days before her daughter's bat mitzvah, and within a day she had a surgery date before she even had a surgery plan.
Join host, Lindsay Pinchuk, LIVE for our 21-day Partnership Sprint starting October 12th. You'll build the exact partnership strategy she used to grow and sell her first company. No hacks, no algorithms, just the relationships that actually move a business forward.
Join host, Lindsay Pinchuk, LIVE for our 21-day Partnership Sprint starting October 12th. You'll build the exact partnership strategy she used to grow and sell her first company. No hacks, no algorithms, just the relationships that actually move a business forward.
Getting press rarely starts with a pitch. For Irene Chen, co-founder of Parker Thatch, it started years earlier with relationships she built long before she had a bag to sell.