Taboos Transformed: Miki Agrawal’s Delightful and Disruptive Product Empire
Miki Agrawal has built a $250 million empire by tackling taboos with innovative products and delightful advertising campaigns that transform cultural norms.
This article will be helpful for business leaders, aspiring entrepreneurs, and innovators looking to understand how to challenge entrenched systems, embrace disruptive strategies, and leverage unconventional approaches to create impactful products and profitable businesses.
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Disruption is difficult, risky, and it often makes people uneasy.
Leaders generally shy away from trying to change longstanding systems with deeply rooted cultural norms, especially at the start of their tenures. They often wait to initiate change until after they've announced an official strategy and roadmap, an approach that offers the security of a time cushion and is more likely to be perceived as strategic, rather than radical.
Miki Agrawal, on the other hand, has made disruption her founding business principle, setting out to change a system before she even formulates the business that’ll enable that change.
Miki is the creative force behind acclaimed social enterprises TUSHY (the modern bidet brand), Thinx (period-proof underwear), and WILD (NYC’s first gluten-free pizza concept), collectively valued at over $250 million. She's also the author of the #1 best-selling books ‘Do Cool Sh*t’ and ‘Disrupt-Her.’
I first learned of Miki many years ago when I bought ‘DISRUPT-HER’ as a graduation gift for my niece. Since then, I've followed her illustrious journey and marveled at how she gets people to talk openly about things that are innately human but considered taboo, like periods and poop. (Yep, we're going there.) In doing so, Miki challenges our perspectives while also providing us with product solutions - effectively changing cultural norms in the process.
Now Miki is doing it again with her 4th venture, Hiro Technologies, aimed at disrupting the plastic industry and dismantling its environmental harms.
Explaining Outdated Systems
Miki's approach to systemic change first involves understanding, and then illustrating, how that system came to be.
This 'painting the full picture' method is one of my favorite tactics for initiating long term impact because it gets people to pause and think back on all the ways humans have changed across our history. It challenges us to look beyond our current time frame, first examining our past and then following what led us to where we are now.
For instance, we no longer use horse-drawn carriages or take three-month boat trips to Europe. Instead, we utilize cars and airplanes, which will soon be replaced by self-driving cars and supersonic planes.
Change may take long, but it is inevitable, and it's often for the better.
Nevertheless, we often continue to do things the same way simply because they've always been done that way, or due to unchallenged beliefs. Miki recognizes this tendency and calls it out.
During our conversation, Miki explained to me that during World War II, American soldiers saw bidets in French brothels, associated them with sexuality, and therefore never advocated for them in puritanical America. Miki also told me that toilet paper hasn’t been innovated since it was brought to America in the late 1800s, and neither has our method of using it to clean ourselves.
You might find yourself thinking, 'I've never considered that,' or perhaps 'I didn't expect to be reading about brothels and toilet paper in a business article.' That's exactly what Miki is going for, and it’s the market opportunity she cleverly recognized and capitalized on.
Miki's ability to illustrate how a system came to be shows us how ingrained behaviors can persist not because they are the best options, but simply because they go unquestioned.
So how do you change human behavior? Miki turns to art, language, and relatability.
Beautiful, Effective Campaigns
"People are terrified of change. So how do we enroll, entice, and almost seduce them to change? How do we inspire change without demeaning them or saying they're doing something wrong?"
Miki both posed these thought-provoking questions to me and graciously shared her winning approach. Her strategy is to simply get people to look closer...to her company advertisements.
"Oh look at this artful design, wait, oh my god they're talking about periods!" she illustrated with a playful tone.
"Oh look how gorgeous that campaign is, wait, oh my god they're talking about poop!" she added with the same enthusiasm.
Miki explained that she chooses beautiful artwork and language that is familiar yet intriguing, with the goal of sparking curiosity in the viewer. Once they are already engaged and taking a closer look, they are more likely to reconsider their perspectives and have a change of heart.
For example, Thinx marketing campaigns are visually striking and cleverly communicate the benefits of the product, while Tushy advertisements make the topic of bathroom hygiene approachable and even humorous.
"People want truth, they want real, and they want to be talked to with authenticity, not with BS," Miki asserted.
Vetting A New Business Venture
As the founder of three wildly successful companies, and now in her fourth venture, Miki has no issue coming up with new business ideas. The challenge for her is to filter the ideas down to the one she can fully dedicate herself to.
In her first book, ‘Do Cool Sh*t,’ she outlined the 3 questions she asks herself before starting any business:
What sucks in my world? - Is it a major pain point for me?
Does it suck for a lot of people? - If it does there's an opportunity for it!
Can I be passionate about this issue for a really long time? - Can I actually sit in discomfort for a decade in the ups and downs of entrepreneurship: trying to figure it out, raise money, get people to buy it, trying to market it, figuring everything out.
For instance, both Thinx and TUSHY originated from the desire to feel clean during menstruation or after using the bathroom. This need was validated by the private jokes people shared about their own experiences.
Miki researched traditional menstrual products for women and found they were not only designed by men, but also riddled with chemicals and harmful to the environment. She noticed that while bidets had an 80% market penetration in Japan, they were almost non-existent in America.
With her latest venture, Hiro Technologies, Miki is tackling the significant environmental issue of plastic waste. She's focusing on diapers, which are the third largest contributor to landfill waste.
Unconventional From The Start
When I asked Miki for her 'secret sauce' for building influential relationships - a question I ask every leader I interview - she insisted that relationship building must be a "win/win, co-elevating experience."
To illustrate, she shared how she planned and fundraised for her first business. As a disruptor, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Miki's first business was built in an unconventional way.
"You know, when I had my first business idea, I had never built a business plan before. I didn't know what a business plan was, but I wanted to figure out how to create one." Miki admitted.
What she did know how to do was gather people creatively, and she recognized that she knew enough people from different walks of life to be able to tap into their collective input.
She sent invites to 20 people across wide-ranging industries, including investment bankers, artists, consultants, and entrepreneurs. Miki told them they were handpicked for an exclusive dinner at a beautiful venue, and that they would get to meet interesting people they likely hadn't met before.
All she asked in return was that, in advance of the dinner, they’d consider a few questions about her all-natural, gluten-free pizza business idea. These questions included 'How would you launch it?' and 'What other ideas do you have?'
The method was so effective that she duplicated it across additional events. Miki utilized her networking skills, introducing people to each other and engaging in meaningful conversations. At the right moment, she would say, 'Have you tried the pizza? It’s gluten-free, so is all the food here!' And when it came time to secure funding, Miki had her British friend present her business idea to leverage his pleasant accent.
Miki raised $250,000 that way, and opened NYC's first gluten-free restaurant in 2005 - and as Miki jokingly noted, at a time when Subway was considered the best healthy food option.
"I didn't know how to raise money. I didn't know how to put a business plan together. But I knew how to create community, and I knew how to create experiences where people felt like they got something out of it. That's how I started," Miki recalled.
Power through Empowerment
My research focuses on how successful leaders gain and leverage power, aiming to teach everyone their tactics.
Rather than citing a specific leadership role or a milestone she accomplished, when I asked Miki how she gained her power she excitedly declared, "Inventing things that people need!" This answer seamlessly aligned with another response of hers: that ‘providing a specific value’ — in this case, her disruptive, game-changing products — was the thing most helpful in her ability to build momentum and make an impact in her field. She recounted how customers often approach her to say that using Thinx underwear or their TUSHY bidet has changed their lives.
Miki's infectious energy is not only reserved for those that are lucky enough to experience it one-on-one. She also transfers that excitement to her customers by empowering them to both change the world and feel a high from doing so:
"Yesterday, I was at my friend's birthday party, and we gave her a bunch of our Hiro diapers to test which use plastic eating mushrooms to decompose the diaper, and she was like, 'It's such an amazing product because every time I change the Hiro diaper, I get a dopamine hit of 'I'm helping save the planet with my baby's poop!' and 'Oh I should also take this diaper to this place so that it will get into a landfill there and the mushrooms will help with decomposing there!" Miki shared.
The result? Miki's products have diverted billions of plastic tampon applicators from reaching landfills, she's sold over 2.5 million bidets in America, saving millions of trees in the process, and Hiro Technologies is about to unleash plastic-attacking mushrooms on the world (a good thing)!
Radiating Vision
Focusing on the day-to-day operations of a business is a leader's primary responsibility. Miki Agrawal, however, is constantly looking beyond the business, emphasizing what they're disrupting and changing for the better.
When she did look inward, Miki knew her unique strengths and how to leverage them. When asked about influence and her ability to affect others, she provided three sources. First, she believes that an innovative or creative approach is the biggest factor in her ability to influence other people, but she also touted that it takes clear communication and a touch of charisma to make it all happen.
"When you radiate, it attracts people to your vision. I'm authentic, and I have ideas that solve people's problems," Miki shared. She explained that people feel a connection to her when they have that ‘Wow, I get it’ moment with one of her products.
Miki isn't just a disruptive leader; she's a dynamic personality and a visionary who redefines norms, delights customers, makes beautiful artwork, and ruffles many feathers in the process. It seems likely that her fourth business venture won't be her last.
Want to see Miki in action?
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See all her companies, books, and accolades on her website