McCormick in the early days of developing Bite toothpaste. I was so nervous, you can see my hands shaking during our pitch, but the Sharks were extremely kind and receptive to our business and growth which was amazing. The morning of our shoot, we had an issue pop up with our manufacturer and were literally on the phone up until it was time for us to walk on the stage - running a business never stops! We had spent a ton of time preparing beforehand but even still, I was floored by how well it went. Being on Shark Tank in February 2020 was a wild experience. I spend 30 minutes to an hour each day connecting with our community, often on social media through comments or DMs, and sometimes on the phone. We're bootstrapped, so instead of raising money through traditional investors, our business is powered by our customers and their support. We launched new products like a bamboo toothbrush and mouthwash tablets, and quickly grew to an 8-figure business.
#BITE TOOTHPASTE BITS FULL#
That all changed overnight in 2018 when a video about our product went viral on Facebook, and our sales skyrocketed.īoth my boyfriend and I left our jobs to work on Bite full time.
Tell me about that.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It was a serious hobby at that point, so I started selling on Etsy, hoping I could cover the cost of the machine over a few years.Īnd then you went on "Shark Tank," where you turned down offers from both Mark Cuban and Kevin O'Leary. I bought a tableting machine, a $1,000 investment. They would say, "This doesn't taste good," or, "This doesn't foam enough," or, "I put it in my mouth and I just instinctively ate it because it felt like candy." It was a challenge. My first customers were myself, my family, my friends. McCormick began pressing the toothpaste tablets herself at home and asking friends and coworkers to try them before she started selling them on Etsy. That's a whole different thing - it's an actual science. I started to buy all these raw ingredients and experiment with them at home until I was able to press a tablet. When you take out that stuff, you end up with something much more concentrated, without the chemicals and flavors and preservatives. People added glycerin and all these things not to benefit your teeth, but for a better customer experience.
#BITE TOOTHPASTE BITS TV#
I think it was the TV producer in me: Once I scratched the surface, I had to know everything. I started talking to dentists and digging into what toothpaste is, why we need it, what it's doing to your teeth. How did you actually start making the toothpaste tablets? (Editor's note: Toothpaste tubes are difficult to recycle because they contain mixed materials, usually metal and plastic, although some manufacturers have begun introducing recyclable tubes.) Over a billion toothpaste tubes are thrown out every year, which is the equivalent of the Empire State Building 50 times over. But it was through having to throw out those little ones back to back that I was like, wow, this is a really solid piece of plastic.Ĭan eliminating that waste really make a big difference?Įveryone has to brush their teeth. When you throw out that big tube every two or three months, you don't think about how it really does add up. It's something that's so innocuous in your life, right? You use it everyday, twice a day, and it's not something you question. I try my best to avoid plastic, but I'll be honest, I've never really thought about toothpaste tubes. The water activates a foaming agent to mimic the feel of toothpaste. So how do they work? Just pop one in your mouth, bite down and then brush with water. The toothpaste bits come in recyclable and reusable glass jars, and no plastic packaging is used. And I was like, OK, I need to come up with a solution, because I'm creating all this plastic waste, and this is not something that I want to be a part of. But I kept throwing out these little toothpaste tubes.
I had figured out (refillable containers) for everything else - my shampoo, my conditioner, my face wash. When you're on TV shows, a lot of the time you're only in a place for a few days. That's when I came up with the idea for Bite.
I got my first job as a producer and I was traveling all over the place. I was 29 years old and working with 21- and 22-year-olds, but that's how I wanted to get my foot in the door.
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