Viral Video Leads to Booming Sales for Indy Startup
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowJust a few weeks ago, Indianapolis-based startup Sunny posted a TikTok video that unexpectedly went viral, and orders are now exploding for its hygiene care product created by two young female entrepreneurs. Sunny has designed a menstrual cup, and unlike others on the market, it comes with an applicator. When co-founders Cindy Belardo and Drew Jarvis posted the video, Sunny racked up $130,000 in sales in just five days.
Belardo talked about the company’s product and sudden boom in an interview with Business of Health Reporter Kylie Veleta.
“My co-founder and myself met up and were innovating upon this idea of a menstrual cup, and both of us had experiences of it not being very easy to insert for beginners,” she said. “And so that’s what we’ve made here: the first beginner-friendly menstrual cup that inserts like a tampon.”
The menstrual cup is reusable for about a year and Belardo says it creates an eco-friendly alternative to tampons.
“Compared to tampons, you’ll use 15,000 in one period’s lifetime, and the menstrual cup can replace 528 tampons for every one use,” she said.
The TikTok video was meant to explain Sunny’s product to potential customers. Belardo says they received numerous inquiries from viewers on how they could buy it, which led the company to open pre-orders before they had originally planned.
“This was all a surprise. We’re just riding that wave and so excited that our idea and dream has really turned into reality,” she said.
The company is currently working to fill its pre-orders with plans to ship by the end of this year.
Belardo says she and Jarvis founded Sunny to not only provide an eco-friendly product, but to end what is known as period poverty.
“We are donating a portion of our proceeds to nonprofits that help donate to people in need experiencing homelessness or incarceration,” she said. “We ensure that everybody has access because we believe that’s a basic human right.”
Sunny won a $40,000 pre-seed investment at last year’s Elevate Nexus Statewide Pitch Competition. The company is currently working toward a $750,000 seed round of funding.