1 session inside Boa
Annabel Hay
Founder, Clutch Glue
Annabel Hay is the Sydney founder of Clutch Glue, the world's first globally patented liquid fashion tape, which she developed over four years after a wardrobe malfunction at a nightclub. She bootstrapped the business while working full time as a construction manager, including two years based in Hong Kong during COVID. Clutch is now stocked in retailers including Priceline and CVS, and Annabel pitched the business on Shark Tank.
The session
What Annabel teaches
Guess the buyer's email address instead of networking your way in
Annabel had zero retail contacts. She searched terms like "Priceline beauty buyer" on Google and LinkedIn to get names and titles, worked out the company's email format, then guessed. An out of office reply confirms the format is right. One day she sent 300 emails and the Priceline buyer replied almost immediately. Her framing: path of least resistance, and if they don't reply there are 365 days in the year, so email again until you catch them on a good day.
From Annabel Hay: from nightclub idea to Priceline and CVS shelves →Pay for third-party QA before a batch leaves the factory
Clutch's first 5,000 units were sealed by a machine running too hot, which pierced the tube tops and caused leaks in transit. Annabel had to issue mass refunds on nearly all of the $160,000 made at launch, then pay again for new manufacturing and a new manufacturer. She had never heard of third-party QA inspectors who squeeze and check every tube before dispatch. Build a pre-launch checklist and don't let the excitement of holding a finished product make you ignore red flags.
From Annabel Hay: from nightclub idea to Priceline and CVS shelves →Budget your patent in stages across the 12-month window
Annabel paid roughly $30,000 to $40,000 to lodge with the International Patent Office. About 12 to 18 months later the office confirmed patentability, which opened a 12-month window to lodge in each individual country. She ranked countries into priority one to four and spread the filings across quarters to match cash flow rather than paying around $300,000 at once. Miss a country in that window and you start the whole process again.
From Annabel Hay: from nightclub idea to Priceline and CVS shelves →Sell while patent pending and while your trademark is pending
You do not have to wait for registration to go to market. Annabel confirmed you can sell as patent pending and that this still protects your IP. Same with trademarks: TM signals pending, R signals registered, and you can trade the whole time. She engaged a patent lawyer before she even had a final formula, which cost very little at that stage.
From Annabel Hay: from nightclub idea to Priceline and CVS shelves →
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Session notes are free. The recordings, the live advisories and the founders in the room are for members.