150,000 orders in 11 months
Tallow & Ash know exactly what they're doing
Hi there,
150,000 orders in 11 months (Source: Stroudtimes). Yep, you read that right. That is the incredible growth feat of Tallow + Ash, a sustainable laundry startup.
This female-founded startup (with 70% female investors) has had an interesting growth journey, to say the least.
This week, I’ll break down their key growth drivers and why these have worked so well.
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What is their proposition?
In an industry as stagnant and crowded as laundry, how has Tallow & Ash managed to stand out?
They’re a sustainable brand, but that alone will not help you stand out. So, their proposition is also centred on their smell, which they use to stand out from the crowd. They use unusual scent profiles, such as Bahama Vibes and Odyssey.
They also offer beautiful, sleek bottles instead of the usual bulky, uglier laundry detergents.
This strong proposition has definitely helped drive their growth, but what else has helped them succeed?
Community-led growth
Tallow & Ash has built a huge community in a short period of time, with over 155K followers on Instagram.
What makes this a community rather than just a following?
They regularly involve their community in company decisions, asking for their feedback. Their community chooses which scents stay and go. Tallow & Ash are also very open and transparent about what they are improving based on feedback, e.g. packaging, offerings and more.
Next to that, they share the behind-the-scenes on things like product development on both their social media and email communication.
They follow up on community guesses in later emails to show the impact of community involvement. People don’t feel like they’re speaking to a wall, they feel that they’re truly being heard.
They even sponsor ads for product improvements to ensure their community knows about them. Yep, they are paying for people to see that they have issues and fixed those issues.
This really helps to build trust that they listen to feedback and also, for potential or newer customers, serves as social proof that people care and are involved. It will also make their audience more forgiving of mistakes and future issues.
Strong initial offering
With products where taste, fragrance, or even simple effectiveness matter, buying a full product on the first try can be scary. This is especially true for taste and fragrance as they are so specific to preference — such as the Great Coriander Debate. One bottle of Tallow & Ash is 24 washes, so if you don’t like it, you’re stuck with a full bottle.
As someone who recently bought 90 servings of Mud\Wtr (the coffee alternative) in one go, trust me, it sucks when you don’t like it retrospectively and still have 89 servings remaining. In their defence, their product name perfectly described the taste: Mud Water. I should have known better…
So Tallow + Ash takes a sample first approach. They make trying it out very low risk by allowing you to discover a range of different scents at a low cost.
And you guessed it, this was an idea that came straight from the horse’s mouth (AKA their community!).
They seem to have stuck to the sample approach over time (the comments in the emails were from 13 months ago), using samples as part of their Meta ads strategy.
Founder-led communication
What you may have noticed with the emails is the informal familiarity of them — “Hey guys, it’s Ciara” and “Hey it’s Ciara here”. There are no introductions, but the assumption is that you know who Ciara is (the founder).
A lot of the ads follow a similar structure, boosting what I would assume are organic posts about company updates.
I’m sorry to break it to you, but I don’t think Ciara is actually writing these ads or emails. But positioning them as direct communication from her makes them much more personal and relatable.
The other interesting thing is how they share the months since launch (11 months, 13 months, 14 months), which makes you feel like part of Ciara’s journey and that these feel like real updates.
Interestingly, unlike some founder-led brands where the founder has a huge following, Ciara doesn’t. Some casual internet stalking made me realize she has 1.2K followers on Instagram and 5K on LinkedIn, which is tiny compared to Tallow + Ash.
This suggests that it really isn’t about utilising her personal brand but about sharing the Tallow + Ash journey directly with its customers.
But strong promises need to be backed up
One risk I noticed for Tallow + Ash relates to the recent customer experience. If you go hard on driving your proposition home and build that audience's trust, you need to live up to expectations; when you don’t, be there to resolve it.
With 3,000+ reviews on Trustpilot, a 4.4 / 5.0 isn’t terrible, but I noticed a wave of negative reviews in recent months, mainly about no scent or issues with delivery.
Now, these things happen, but what surprised me was the inconsistency in responding to reviews, especially when I noticed one of the responses gives the vibes of asking ChatGPT to “write a casual, positive response to this review.”
I strongly believe that customer experience is key to long-term success, so I hope it’s just a case of Tallow + Ash growing faster than expected and experiencing some growth pains along the way.
Recommendation
If you enjoy this kind of content, I’ve done a few DTC brand reviews over the last year on Medium.
Here are friend links (so that you don’t need a Medium subscription) to view them:
Who Gives a Crap - Full funnel analysis of a £38.7 million toilet paper brand
Grind - How does a £20+ million D2C coffee brand convert email subscribers?
Emma & Simba - Converting cold audiences: lessons from the world’s largest D2C Sleep brands
Wild - Analyzing Wild’s email flow: from free product to sale
Perfect for some nerdy reading on a cold winter’s day. Perhaps with a steaming cup of Mud/Wtr? 😅
Confession time: I’ve never used Tallow + Ash. Rachel Pyrde, who assists me with my client load, suggested this great brand to review.
She loves their approach to “successfully taking a simple cleaning supply - laundry - and creating a loyal, growing customer base to switch from other, longstanding alternatives.” I can’t agree more with their approach. So, a big thanks to her for suggesting this newsletter.
Now, after diving deeper into their brand, I’ve realized I definitely need to get my hands on some samples!
I’d love to hear your biggest takeaway from Tallow + Ash.
Feel free to hit reply and share,
Daphne
Looking for speakers for Women in Experimentation Summit
Writing about an incredible female-led company made it the perfect place to share another female-led initiative I’m working on.
Last year, together with Convert, WiE organised its first summit (with 400+ live attendees and 10 incredible speakers); I’m excited to share we are busy planning this year’s event on July 9, 2025.
Part of what made last year’s event a success was its goal of improving diversity among speakers and supporting new speakers in entering the speaker world. This goal led to actionable and original insights.
We plan to approach it the same way this year, using an unbiased process to choose a lineup of 10 speakers. Both female and male speakers, as well as new and experienced speakers, will be welcomed on stage.
All speakers will be offered the same compensation and professional speaker coaching to support them. Eager to apply? Here is the link.
Topics on experimentation, growth, data analytics and user research are all welcome.
If you have any questions, please send me a message. Our WIE monthly newsletter includes more tips on applying.