Crystal Etienne On Raising $18 Million to Transform How Women Experience Periods

Building a venture-backed company doesn't always start with fundraising. Sometimes it starts with solving a problem you've personally experienced.

For Crystal Etienne, founder and CEO of Ruby Love, that problem was something millions of women deal with every month: feeling comfortable while on their periods. Frustrated by traditional menstrual products and the lack of innovation in the space, she sketched an idea for underwear that could securely hold a pad without discomfort. That simple concept eventually evolved into patented leak-resistant period underwear, swimwear, and activewear.

Crystal bootstrapped Ruby Love from the ground up, growing the company to more than $12 million in revenue before raising venture capital. After later raising $18.7 million from investors, she learned firsthand that outside capital doesn't always make building easier.

Today, she's sharing why understanding your customers will always be more valuable than blindly following investor advice, and why buying back control of her company became one of the best decisions she ever made. Ruby Love continues helping women and girls navigate their periods with confidence while proving that profitable consumer brands don't have to follow the traditional startup playbook.

Watch the full conversation on the YouTube player below, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://youtu.be/TmcdEGAq-r8?si=APMGdE3pxvtTZRjJ

What inspired you to start Ruby Love?

Crystal Etienne: I was frustrated with my own period. I looked down and saw my pad sticking out and thought, 'There has to be a better way.' I grabbed a piece of paper, sketched the idea, and couldn't stop thinking about it until I built it.

How did you build your first product?

Crystal Etienne: I came to New York's garment district with my sketch, bought fabric myself, and worked with manufacturers to create the first sample. Three months later, I improved it by adding absorbent technology and eventually patented the invention.

How did you acquire your first customers?

Crystal Etienne: I studied my competitors obsessively. Wherever they were advertising, I made sure Ruby Love showed up too. I also listened carefully to every customer who called. That's how I realized our real customer wasn't just women, it was moms shopping for their daughters.

Why didn't you focus on retail partnerships?

Crystal Etienne: Everyone told me retail was the goal, but our direct-to-consumer business was already outperforming it. Macy's was selling a fraction of what we were selling online, and waiting months to get paid didn't make sense when demand on our own website was so strong.

How did Ruby Love grow without relying on social media?

Crystal Etienne: We never built the business around social media. We focused on creating a product customers genuinely loved. One $5 blog post we published years ago ended up generating millions of dollars in sales because it answered exactly what people were searching for.

How much did the business grow before raising venture capital?

Crystal Etienne: We bootstrapped Ruby Love to about $12 million in revenue before taking institutional venture capital. The business was already profitable, we didn't raise because we needed to survive.

Why did you decide to raise venture capital?

Crystal Etienne: At the time, people kept saying Black women couldn't build large venture-backed companies. I wanted to prove that wasn't true. I had already built the business, and I believed it deserved to grow even bigger.

What changed after raising $18 million?

Crystal Etienne: The day after the money hit our account, I remember thinking, 'We didn't even need this.' Raising capital came with pressure, expectations, and advice from people who didn't always understand our customers as well as we did.

Why did you eventually buy back your company?

Crystal Etienne: I realized I had scale fatigue. Building wasn't fun anymore, and I wanted to run the company my way again. Our customers were still there, the brand was still strong, and buying back control gave me the opportunity to build on my own terms.

What's your biggest piece of advice for founders?

Crystal Etienne: Know your audience better than anyone else. Investors may have data, but founders live with their customers every day. Never let someone else's assumptions outweigh what you know firsthand about the people you're building for.

Listen to the Full Conversation

Crystal's journey proves that there isn't one blueprint for building a successful company. By focusing on product, customer experience, and long-term value instead of chasing every startup trend, she built an eight-figure business before ever raising institutional capital.

In the full episode, Crystal shares how she patented her invention, bootstrapped Ruby Love to $12 million in revenue, raised $18 million in venture capital, why she believes many consumer brands overvalue retail partnerships, how she built without relying on social media, and why understanding your customers will always outperform following conventional startup advice.

Watch or listen to the full episode of The First 200 Podcast for the complete conversation and more stories from the founders who changed venture capital history.