The Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award 2021 winner Kristy Chong has sold more than four million pairs of underwear globally since she launched her business Modibodi back in 2013. And she broke an entire market category doing it...

Which is exactly why Kristy has just been awarded the prestigious Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman 2021 award as part of the Bold Woman Awards, which strive to identify the role models of today and tomorrow. The women who inspire through their own journeys. The women whose names will become synonymous with boldness. 

When Kristy launched, her sustainable leak-proof, life-proof apparel was dubbed “comfy undies”, but as she says, there’s “nothing like a good rejection to get me motivated”. As more consumers look to shop sustainably (and discover facts like the average Australian woman uses up to 12,000 disposable pads, liners and tampons in her lifetime), Modibodi is a company at the forefront of changing the way we live and consume.

To get off the ground – one of the biggest challenges for many entrepreneurs - Kristy took money out of her mortgage, and worked on the company as a side hustle while raising her children, until she knew she was onto something big. She had a mountain of a problem to solve: periods and incontinence weren’t spoken about, and period poverty was a huge problem which was kept quiet – and it still is. “In Australia alone, 3.2 million people live under the poverty line, half of those are women and girls, and they can't afford food but if they could, when they have got any money, food is the first thing they're going to buy, so sanitary items just do not even get a look in and so they end up choosing very unsafe products like rags, dirty rags, newspapers, and napkins,” she explains.  The company will donate 100,000 products to women in need this year and making an impact continues to drive every decision this exceptional woman continues to make. And it’s paying off – there has been a 929% revenue growth in the past two years and for Kristy, being awarded the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman award was a career-defining accolade. “For me it's a significant recognition. As a mum and a female entrepreneur, to receive that award is pretty phenomenal because it's seen in such high regard globally. Madame Clicquot was such a trail blazer herself in what she was able to do taking over that business at a time when women didn't run businesses, and lead great innovation. To be seen or positioned alongside someone like her with a brand that has such global recognition, I'm very proud of that.”

Here, we dive deep into how this bold woman is creating change for women globally…

Go to modibodi.com

The idea for Modibodi came to you after the birth of your second child in 2011 - what happened that sparked that idea?

I was living in Seattle, and I had two children – a five-month-old and a two and a half-year-old – and I was training for a marathon, it was on my bucket list. I was experiencing light bladder leaks and my periods had not long returned. During one of those training runs, I realised that my underpants were failing to give me the protection I needed and the only solutions available were disposable hygiene – that just didn't seem right to me anymore. This experience really drove me to think there's got to be something better.

You were really before the curve – did you see yourself as an eco-warrior back then?

Not at all. I wouldn't have considered myself to be an eco-warrior at the time, but living in Seattle really opened my eyes to sustainability. Everything aligned at the right time and ultimately, I wanted better protection, I didn't want to get caught out anymore, I wanted to feel dignified, and I wanted something comfortable as well as something that was sustainable. I always had those things top of mind when I was doing the design and the research for the product.

You've said before that you underestimated how big a market challenge Modibodi was going to be and I always love this because I think if any entrepreneur knew what the market challenge was going to be, they probably wouldn't do it. Tell me about the challenges that you faced that you didn't expect?

I'd brought into the product idea myself, and obviously the few friends and family I'd spoken with had also brought into the idea too. I'd forgotten it was a whole category that I was changing. I had to come up against subject matters that were seen as taboo, and for me, I'd grown up in a very open family. My mum was very open about all bodily issues so I didn't realise how much society couldn't talk about periods, let alone incontinence. It was big shock, and I got a lot of mainstream media just going "These are comfy undies", and I'm like "No, they're more than comfy undies! They have this whole technology to them, why can't you talk about this?" They wouldn't even mention the word period, it was tough.

You put two years into the product and went through a thousand scientific tests – tell me about these two years. Was Modibodi a side hustle at this stage?

I had left my job to focus on my children and followed my husband across to Seattle, so he could focus on his fellowship at the University of Washington, so I was looking after my two children and doing this as my side hustle. It was my escapism from the craziness of just being a full-time mum and the physical demands. It was my mental challenge and I really enjoyed it.

Talk to me about Modibodi products and how they work?

The top layer is both hydrophobic hydrophilic layer, so not only does it wick the moisture, it doesn't wick it across the fabric, but it wicks it through. This is why with Modibodi you stay really dry, unlike other products that now have come into the market. It’s also a very natural fiber as well, so that's really important, and it's anti-microbial, naturally anti-microbial, so it kills any odor. It's wicked through to a very absorbent middle layer which traps the fluid and it's a very quick drying layer so it also dries the fluid and that's really important.

Then you've got an outer layer which is waterproof and breathable so that's also good for hygiene reasons, to be very breathable, but to stop it leaking through to your clothes and depending on the technology our maxi 24 hours also includes waterproof sealed edges which stops leaking happening at that gusset area, so that's important.

What were some of the biggest issues that you found talking to women?

I either got two schools really. Some women, when I spoke about the product, were very much on board. Like yourself, I've thought about this, so great, thankful that I'd given them this product. Other people were unsure because some of them are tampon wearers, so very much never even comfortable or au fait with the idea of free bleeding, so that was a bit of a change of mindset for them. They were like "Oh but it's so icky and gross", and I'm like, but so is a pad and a tampon. You can't get away from the fact that blood is a bit icky. That part I can't solve the problem for.

 Modibodi is a more sustainable solution, so when you bring the sustainability into it, over the years, I think people have accepted the whole process of free bleeding. The other part about our product is that you do feel dry. I've heard someone say "Oh they're like magic undies, you bleed and it's gone, it's not there anymore", so getting that sort of communication out there has been very important to overcome those barriers to purchase.

It was back in 2013 when Modibodi launched, and with a background in PR you obviously know how to market a product. How did you launch Modibodi in the market so it would get noticed?

I did use my background in PR and a big part of it was using micro-influencers. Not only was sustainability coming to the focus of consumers and the general public, but so was social media. It was a real growth opportunity. Mainstream media wasn't going to work, but micro-influencer mums that had a few thousand followers wanted to jump on board and talk about it. I also used my own personal experience. I did a lot of vlogging, talking about my own personal experience, which would get shared. Once I got beyond those early years, we invested in digital media and paid spend. 

Would you say that social media has been a huge part of growing your brand, and how do you use social media now to grow Modibodi, because it's a different scenario now to when you launched in 2013?

We definitely use it for conversion of new customers now, but in the early days it was more around educating consumers and also getting them to buy into the brand. In those early days you didn't have to boost all your posts, you got a lot more engagement organically through social media. Now you have to pay for it. The biggest shift is what we used to do early on, we have to now pay for, to get access to that audience.

I know that in my social circle a lot of my friends mostly are mums, and we joke about incontinence after childbirth and it's just almost become normalised to wet your pants all the time after you have a baby. But I've spoken to numerous doctors and it's not normal, yet women seem to accept that it's just what we should put up with. Why do you think as women we do ignore incontinence, and do you think deep down we're embarrassed?

We've come a long way when it comes to periods and normalising the conversation there but when it comes toincontinence, we've got some work to do. I just want to emphasise that Modibodi is not a solution. While you work on your pelvic floor, we are a more sustainable option and product that you can use as you are working on those problems. But ultimately for some people they never will fix it, so there are people who've had unfortunate permanent prolapses and things like that, and Modibodi is a great solution for them long term.

For mums, I think we don't want to talk about it because it is the embarrassing factor. I've got pretty good at my control these days, but right around my period, my muscles weaken and therefore I often have a problem around that time. The more we talk about it and admit it, the more we can seek the right help to solve it.

I want to talk about a hurdle that many women face getting a business off​ the ground and that's capital. Modibodi was self-funded in the beginning. I'm interested in what areas did you spend the most on, and where did you save, and how did you generally manage cash flow​ in those early days?

We put money from our mortgage into the business, to get it off the ground and do all the research. It would have been about $50,000 in total for research and then another 30k to get it to launch, and then another 20Kto 30K for marketing and buying the stock. The rest I did myself. I wasn't paying myself a salary for a couple of years. I was fortunate enough that my husband was working so we decided that he’d bring the income in and I'd focus on Modibodi and the kids. I balanced starting Modibodi with raising the children, so we didn't have to pay for childcare, and taking money off the mortgage.

As the business grew and I started to see some traction, I knew it wouldn’t work on a small scale, I felt it had to go big. I did a Springboard Enterprises accelerator program. It cost about $5K but it was the best thing I ever did. I then took on an angel investor who put in a couple of hundred thousand dollars and took 20% equity. In 2019, I took in another large private equity company to help grow the business globally. 

You generated three million dollars in sales within the first three years of launching, without outside investment which is absolutely phenomenal. I'm interested in which market or which woman was the most responsive to your product initially?

The age group was around 25 to 45-year-olds, and those who were beginning to think more sustainably. We were getting a lot of young mums and I think it’s because when you become a mother, you start to think about the world around you that you're leaving behind for your children. I think that sustainability association and connection becomes more ingrained at that stage. The 20 to 25 group is still about fast fashion. 

You've said that your product was seen as taboo by many large retailers - why was this and how have you noticed it has changed in the last eight or so years?

I couldn't even have a conversation with a buyer, in a supermarket or a department store. They just didn't want to talk about period products, let alone have them on their shelves, but now that's totally changed. It was also very difficult to get it spoken about at all on mainstream media, as I said before, they'd call it ‘comfy undies’. I'm very proud of the work that we've done and our community has done to champion change.

I want to talk about your ‘The New Way To Period’ advertising campaign, which did receive backlash because it showed blood. Tell me about the campaign backlash. How did it make you feel, how did you react, and tell me about getting it overturned?

Facebook told us that by depicting blood being red, that it was sensationalised and it was violent. We couldn't believe it. We got it overturned by pushing that feedback out to media and to the CEO of Facebook. We're not in the game of being sensational, all we're doing is depicting what happens normally every month for almost half the population. I was very happy when it got overturned.

To date,​ you have donated 25,000 pairs of underwear to women in times of crisis and women in need, so tell me about your mission with Modibodi?

Our vision at Modibodi is to have limitless positive impact, and so when I started, I connected with organisations like Share the Dignity and Days for Girls and as much as I could, I would donate stock. Over the years, I've wanted to make that more impactful because we're not only reducing waste and carbon emission through our product, but we want to make an impact on people’s lives who can't afford access to a sustainable period or leak proof products. This year we're donating another 100,000 pairs, and next year that'll be bigger than ever - we have a mission to help end period poverty, because so many people can't access a product.

What do you think that people don't know or don't understand about period poverty? Do you think they realise it is as big a problem as it is?

No, they don't. In Australia alone, 3.2 million people live under the poverty line, half of those are women and girls, and they can't afford food but if they could, when they have got any money, food is the first thing they're going to buy, so sanitary items just do not even get a look in and so they end up choosing very unsafe products like rags, dirty rags, newspapers, and napkins. It’s a really serious problem that we're just not thinking about. 

Earlier this year, Modibodi became the latest Australian business to implement paid menstrual and menopause leave - tell me why this was so important to you?

This is part of our mission to normalise the conversation around these very normal or unexpected bodily issues that happen to women. We have a very female dominated workforce, so I wanted to remove the stigma that's associated with having a physical or a mental pain or symptom that's associated with menopause, miscarriage or menstruation. People then say "Well you're not going to get as much out of them", and I believe the opposite. I actually believe if you give a little, you get 140% back because ultimately they're not going to be as productive if they're in pain. Give them that day or let them work from home and you'll get more back.

You have now sold more than four million pairs of underwear globally, which is absolutely incredible, and you've seen a 929% revenue growth in the past two years and won numerous awards, most recently the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman award. If you look back on the last eight years, why do you think the company has been so successful?

A couple of reasons. We've created a product that's really filled a need in the market – we’ve catered to the demand for something that is more sustainable. We’ve also created a product that offers better performance compared to what's on the market - more comfort, and ease of use especially amongst our teen audience. The product itself has paved the way for success, but on top of that the fact we're a purpose led brand, so part of our DNA is aligned to great purpose. Be that sustainability or the work we're doing around social impact, or the positioning of the brand to be an inclusive and diverse brand. We’re not afraid to speak openly about the issues that others don't feel comfortable doing, we have a voice.

How did it feel winning the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman award, and what does it mean to you?

For me it's a significant recognition. As a mum and a female entrepreneur, to receive that award is pretty phenomenal because it's seen in such high regard globally. Madame Clicquot was such a trail blazer herself in what she was able to do taking over that business at a time when women didn't run businesses, and lead great innovation. To be seen or positioned alongside someone like her with a brand that has such global recognition, I'm very proud of that.

Madame Clicquot met every challenge in her life boldly, so how would you say you approach your life boldly?

I'm pretty bold. I take risks that others may not. Starting this business was definitely a bold decision, with a product that I didn't know that was going to be accepted in an area that has been very silenced around unmentionables, so I think that's pretty bold. 

Madame Clicquot was, as you've just said, the first female entrepreneur and at the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman awards we learnt that the number of women aspiring to become entrepreneurs has jumped from 39% to 44% - why do you think so many women are becoming entrepreneurs and taking that leap?

Opportunity is allowing us. Where women were positioned many years ago, there's much more resources for us to do that, we've got more support from the partners around us which is great. I followed something that I believed in, it was very purpose driven, I wanted to solve a problem and along the way everything has been about this problem. Do the research, activate, and break it down into small parts and go forward. 

Your teen range is called Red. Periods for teens and tweens can be embarrassing - how are you trying to change that conversation?

A big part of it is presenting the facts and educating a young girl around what her periods are as well as providing a product that she's involved with. What we hear from the mums who buy this for their daughters is that she's doing the rinsing and washing. Through Modibodi, you get your first period kit, and it has all that information you need. We also have our podcast which is all about demystifying periods and what they mean, and we also support a lot of menstrual educators, so Bright Girl Health and others, going into schools to have the chats with young girls around periods. We just have to normalise that conversation and actually celebrate this stage of getting your period. It's not shameful, it's just blood, and it can be a discomfort and a bit icky, but it's not shameful at all.

Your photoshoots​ celebrate women of every size, ethnicity and age and diversity has been very important to Modibodi from the beginning. So tell me about how women have reacted to a brand celebrating such diversity?

I'll be really honest, some of the feedback we got at the beginning was a little bit shocking. There were emoji vomits when we used curvier models, and that was really sad. I was determined to show women that there's not one type of normal and there's no sense of perfect either. All bodies should be celebrated, and that was very, very important from my own experience as a teenager. I kept pushing – we now get a lot of influencers of all shapes, sizes, ages, abilities, share our product and talk about product.

For your latest investment round, you spoke to 20 investors and of them there were two women. How does it feel stepping into a room of mostly men and pitching your product, and have you ever had a crisis of confidence and if so, how have you overcome it?

I also had a three-month child, my fourth baby, so I was very, very sleep deprived when I was going through that process. I was lucky to have a female advisor and then I'd also hired a female advisory agency. It was really important for me to have females by my side, championing Modibodi and helping to present Modibodi in a way that men couldn't turn their back on it and couldn't say this isn't a great product with a great purpose and they want to invest.

Of the men that we did end up presenting to, I think it was only two who just turned their nose up and didn't want to engage, but all the other men were trying, not always perfectly but they were trying to engage. They were trying to relate, either to their mothers or daughters or sisters in some way, and they could see why this product had a role to play in society, so I personally had a really good experience, but there's always nerves. I've always said to myself nerves are always part of you just doing something new. As you get on and you get a bit more mature and experienced you do realise the nerves are there for a purpose. Also by that stage I'd backed myself, the business was a good business, it was profitable, it was growing at a pace, I really thought if they're not interested then they're not the right partner, and I was lucky in the end that I had to choose from the top two private equity companies who were very much aligned to the vision of where we wanted to go, so that was great.

Your company is built on changing women's lives, so which women have changed your life?

My mum has been very instrumental in my life. She gave me a lot of opportunities and was always telling me to put my best foot forward. She wanted me to go to university as she didn't have that opportunity as a young mum. I'm very grateful for her friendship and her guidance over the years. Sara Blakely who started Spanx; Natalie Isaacs of One Million Women; and of course, Madame Clicquot. 

Find out more about our Bold Woman Award 2021 Finalists here