Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Val Emanuel. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My journey to entrepreneurship has been my entire life. It started when I was a kid, just selling candy and chips and things like that at school. I went to college after high school for art history and thought that I would work in a museum or in a library but I actually ended up becoming an art dealer at 20 and working for a very cool gallery in my neighborhood of Venice California. Before that I had worked for the few start ups that my friends did, mostly in fashion and I realized that I was a great operator.

I ended up working with artist again as a talent agent when I started my first business, Role Models management. I wanted to disrupt the fashion industry by disrupting a major part of it, which is talent and Models. It grew into being an influencer and talent agency that works with sustainable brands. During that journey I also saw that there was a lot of room for disruption in other industries, and in 2017 when I had a major life change that caused me to go on a more natural and holistic lifestyle, I realized period care was antiquated and had not innovated. In 2021 I really started thinking about how I would do a more sustainable idea and told the idea to an Angel investor who ended up giving me some money to start! I got the pro prototype for my current company, Rif Care, with menstrual pads two months later. We also had a kick starter going and then we launched with that money 6 months after it ended.

It’s really been a whirlwind since then! We have only been around for eight months but we recently got into Techstars and now we are expanding our retail presence in Southern California, with a few more really fun retail launches happening later this year. I am of the belief that you don’t need much to start, all you really need is an idea and a plan on how you can do it whether anybody supports you, or anybody gives you money. I’ve always had to think that way because as you know for women, especially black nad latinx women (I am both) getting business loans or angel investors or venture capital has not been easy. I really do rely on my knowledge of marketing and supply chain for a lot of the projects that I’ve been involved in. I also learn as I go, as we all should! I’ve heard a quote before that if you’ve launched your product and it’s perfect it’s too late, and I truly believe that. With my period care company I’m building something that is constantly evolving and changing whether it’s packaging, product adoration, building my team, etc. and I would not have it any other way. We are truly a fast growing, constantly iterating start up!

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

People tend to get really scared when founders mention the word cofounder. I have only had really positive experiences with cofounders but I understand why it could be scary! People break up all the time in relationships and especially in business relationships. My cofounder and I actually met when we were teenagers at a picnic in the park. She went on to go to school to be a scientist and I honestly had no idea that she would ever be my cofounder but she truly jumped into Rif Care in a way that I’ve never seen anybody jump into a business besides myself.

I am a workaholic and I have no shame about that. I am extremely self motivated and I love to do projects that no one asked me to do and take initiative. She is exactly the same. If you look up the opposite of lazy you would see a picture of me and Rebecca Caputo. Plus I feel like for founders you have to have a lot of shared experience. Both of us being children of immigrants and growing up in the same neighborhood, that really wasn’t the best but then making some thing of our lives really does have an effect on the way that we see the world. We truly believe anything is possible and we are constantly jumping over hoops together. Besides just being a really good hard worker she has skills that I don’t have. Rebecca is extremely organized, and she can pick up the slack when I can’t be there. Even in other cofounder relationships that have gone well I have not had the same level of all in support like I do with Rebecca. And of course we have both legally protected ourselves if one day this relationship did not work out. We are friends after all so we have been through everything together, we have been through more together than most people would even ever go through in their lifetime which is why I also knew having a business with her as possible because she knows me better than anyone! I would never just meet a stranger in a class and make them my cofounder. It is truly a marriage.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Our first order cost $100,000. We actually did not have $100,000 to start though. When I met my angel investor I got about $20,000. I had two Hermès bags which I sold… another $8,000 but I needed some of that to live since I knew I was going to be jumping off a little financial cliff. We did the Kickstarter with a goal of $50,000 which means that we had to make all of the money in order to keep it. We ended up actually only getting 40,000 and I had to have two family members put in the rest and they needed to be refunded so that we can keep the rest of the money, I know that that’s not how you’re supposed to do it but I was not about to lose the rest of the money! lol So in the end we ended up really getting like $38,000 from Kickstarter.

We thought that we could raise money pre-launch from venture but that proved to be more difficult. Some people can have an idea and raise money on that but it seemed like most people were very scared to get into business with us because honestly, they just did not believe in us. We had a lot of phone calls with people who were interested in the idea because it was new and innovative but I felt like a lot of the phone calls were just feeding investors information that they did not know about femtech and womens health.

I was eligible for a loan because my credit was so good when the started the business and that’s pretty much what kept us afloat until we launched and until now, when we started to make some money since every cent coming in was direct expenses and paying back loans. We are just starting to get to the point where I can see us breaking even very soon. There were so many months where my credit cards were maxed out. I don’t think we’ll ever be in that situation again! But we are definitely running lean. Our first order almost didn’t happen and I’m hoping after we finish Techstars we can raise some cash to be able to run the business with a bit more wiggle room, financial confidence and cash flow.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rifcare.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rifcare
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rifcares/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/76203829/admin/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rifcare4616/featured
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@rifcare

Image Credits
Katy Prichett Randy Tizon