A match(a) made in heaven: How Clearco is helping women in e-commerce build thriving businesses

When Hannah Habes first ventured into entrepreneurship, she worried she didn’t have the confidence to start a business, let alone secure funding. Fast forward to 2022—Hannah’s business, Matchaful, has grown by 37% in e-commerce revenue in the last year alone. Not only that, but Matchaful has opened multiple new cafe locations, with more on the horizon. 

Hannah may have been worried about having the confidence back when she started her business, but she certainly isn’t today. Clearco sat down with the Founder to chat about her journey as a business owner, and how getting the capital needed to focus on e-commerce was a game changer. 

happy female founder of Matchaful

When Hannah Habes first ventured into entrepreneurship, she worried she didn’t have the confidence to start a business, let alone secure funding. Fast forward to 2022—Hannah’s business, Matchaful, has grown by 37% in e-commerce revenue in the last year alone. Not only that, but Matchaful has opened multiple new cafe locations, with more on the horizon. 

Hannah may have been worried about having the confidence back when she started her business, but she certainly isn’t today. Clearco sat down with the Founder to chat about her journey as a business owner, and how getting the capital needed to focus on e-commerce was a game changer. 

First off, what is Matchaful? 

HH: We offer sustainable Japanese matcha and active botanical nutrition. I created Matchaful with the goal of bringing more health and wellness into our lives—it really comes down to helping people live more mindfully. 

Japanese Matcha from Matchaful

What’s your favourite part about being a founder?

HH: I love to innovate by creating products that are both functional and taste amazing. That's what we do at Matchaful: we make products that taste incredible, but also have a functional benefit to them. One of the biggest challenges starting off as a founder was having the confidence to do something I hadn’t done before. I remember when I was first starting, lots of people assumed I wouldn’t have the confidence or what it takes to build a company—to the point where I started to think it was true. But now, it’s one of my favourite parts of being a founder: trying things I hadn’t done before. Innovating. 

Do you like being referred to as a female Founder? 

HH: I don't necessarily mind it. I'm proud to be a female and I'm proud to be a Founder; I'm not opposed to the two words themselves. That being said, I do think it’s important not to bucket female Founders in one group. 

I remember a couple of years ago when I was pregnant, a man in my industry said to me, “Oh, you must be winding down your business now that you're having a baby.” And I remember thinking to myself how you would never have said that to a man who was starting a family. It's kind of astonishing to me that people are still  making these kinds of assumptions. Overall, I do think things are changing for the better—I just wish it could have been like this five years ago. 

What advice would you give to your fellow women in e-commerce?

HH: Be confident. There's no right way to launch a business. Just get started and things will fall into place. There's no perfect recipe for starting a business, and you really do learn as you go. Business ownership is definitely an exercise in forgiving yourself when things don't always go exactly as planned. 

I've been told so many things over the years: that I don't have a scalable business, that I won’t succeed, you name it. What I've learned is that everything an investor says is just a data point and that you don't need to take it personally. Sometimes you don't even have to listen to the advice!

Did you know female Founders raise just 2% of venture capital?

HH: It's surprising, but it's also not surprising. I've heard that statistic before. There's still a lot of bias out there in the market, especially for women in e-commerce. Women need to continue to push for funding because our ideas deserve funding. I remember when I started I wasn't always confident that my idea warranted funding. 

I also had no idea how to get funded. That was definitely a challenge of mine early on—I couldn't get funding so I ended up bootstrapping my company. Every dollar we made was invested back into the business. I even had to move back home for a bit while I got Matchaful off the ground. In the end, though, it was worth it because I was pursuing my dream and you don't get to do that very often. When you really believe in something and you have this incredible passion, it may not be easy to see in the moment, but it is worth it in the end. 

To what extent do you think Clearco has impacted your revenue growth?

HH: Clearco has given us a platform to really expand our online revenue. We are now in a position to grow our e-commerce channel, something we haven't been able to focus on in the past. And it’s been easy working with Clearco. The process was simple and straightforward. We got lots of support to help scale Matchaful to the business it is today. 

Finally, what do you think are three traits that every founder needs in order to be successful?

You need to have a little bit of patience because things don't always go as planned. You need to be resourceful, and you need to have confidence in your vision. Things won’t always go as expected, but as long as you have the confidence in what you're building, you’ll find your way out of the weeds. 

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