SET ACTIVE - Bootstrapped and Bold

Ramon Vela (00:02.296)
This is Ramon Vela and again, we have just an amazing show for you today. Today, we are featuring Set Active and their founder and CEO, Lindsey Carter. Welcome to the show.

Lindsey Carter (00:29.524)
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.

Ramon Vela (00:32.418)
Well, I appreciate you making time because you're running this fabulous brand and I can't wait to dive into it and I know you're busy. So let's get right down to it. I have a, I guess sort of like an opening question. It's something I've asked every CEO, every founder who's been on the show and that's nearly a thousand people now. And I just, I'm a big believer in that. feel like consumers, listeners, they want to know.

more about the people who are behind these companies. Because it's so easy to see your brand, see your product, see something on the retail shelf or on the rack and just think, you know, it's just some faceless corporation. But I want people to know that there's real people behind these brands who care deeply about what they do and the quality and the consumer service and all of that. So a great way to kind of get to know people behind the scenes is to understand what they're grateful for. So if you don't mind,

Can share a moment or a memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you, your vision, or your potential?

Lindsey Carter (01:36.53)
Yeah. So when I think back to the very start of starting Set Active, I knew that I needed someone who was like a hands-on girl who could help me.

navigate the early days. And that was my very first intern, Nikki Shay, who's still with the brand to this day, seven years later, which is a, you know, a testament to, like, who she is as a person. I remember reaching out to her, she went to the same college I did was younger than me, but was very with it in terms of what was happening in the

Ramon Vela (01:59.086)
you

Lindsey Carter (02:13.566)
demographic we were trying to attract at the time. And I offered her a internship with us. And I remember, like not want not needing to see her resume. And she called me back and she's like, need to see my resume? It's like, No, I like I love your attitude. You seem ambitious. You seem like a go getter. Like I want to bring you on to help me and thinking about it that day and thinking about it years later, like I didn't have anything.

like concrete tangible to show for Set Active. It was just an idea, but she believed in me and pause, sorry, my dog is barking. I'm just gonna tell Nancy. He's barking. He's barking, yeah. So sorry, okay, where do you want me to pick up again?

Ramon Vela (02:51.578)
That's okay.

Ramon Vela (03:02.114)
That's all right. You can just start, go from where you, but let me count you back in. Unpause, one, two, three, go.

Lindsey Carter (03:07.049)
Okay.

Lindsey Carter (03:10.538)
So thinking back to, you know, knowing that I didn't have anything concrete or tangible to show for Set Active, the fact that she said yes, moved from Arizona to LA for the summer to, and then she ended up staying with me, to help me launch the brand, I think just was the first sign that someone else besides me believes in what I'm doing and what I'm building.

There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not grateful for her because she's the one who really solidified, okay, she believes in the vision and she's still with us to this day.

Ramon Vela (03:50.19)
Wow, that's, well, first of all, that's a great example because that goes to heart of the question that someone believed in you even before you really had anything, even before you had the business was off and running and so forth. So there was something that they saw in you that told them, hey, I'm gonna put my life on hold or I'm gonna try this or maybe she gave up opportunities. Who knows? There's probably a lot of stuff going on in the background.

but she chose to participate and be a part of the team. And that says a lot. That says a lot about her, but it also says a lot about you and what you were building at the time. And, you know, and also it says a lot about you in terms of, you know, that she felt that you were able to execute on this vision or this dream that you had. And so she was kind of trusting you on that part. Like, hey, I'm going to trust you, you know, that you're going to do your end and I'll do my end.

And so I think that might be a really good place to start. if you can take us back to that moment where you had the conversation with her, what was it? What, what did you convey to her about the vision, about what you saw in terms of the set act of dream or vision? that really, that convinced her to do what she did.

Lindsey Carter (05:13.234)
I think just the simplicity of that I'm building an active wear brand or an athleisure brand for the everyday girl. At the time, know, when I was starting set, I didn't feel like I fell into the different niches that active wear was offering. You you had active wear for yoga at the time, you had active wear for technical and gym goers, you had active for crossfit, you had active for...

spinning and there was just, it was all these different niches. And I was like, there's not really someone who's doing active wear that's marketed for the everyday girl. And that was sort of the messaging that I was going after. And it didn't take a lot of convincing, you know, to get someone like Nikki on board or Nikki herself on board to kind of steer this ship with me.

Ramon Vela (06:05.07)
And how has the vision evolved since then? Because it feels like there's a big core of what you just said is still alive today. But from your perspective, what has evolved with the brand since then in terms of the vision?

Lindsey Carter (06:24.0)
I think our community, it's been like something that we started set with was community. You know, I built the Instagram from zero. I completely bootstrapped the whole company. And I didn't have, you so funny, like you see.

On the internet, so many people can make assumptions about, well, she comes from family money. Like, that's not true. I, you know, my dad was raising four kids. My mom died when I was little. He had to work his ass off to be able to provide for us. And when I said I wanted to start set, he, you know, said no, he didn't, he didn't say he didn't not believe in me, but he wasn't going to fund something. He didn't give me any money.

Ramon Vela (07:03.982)
Thank

Lindsey Carter (07:10.722)
And so I had to really lean into how can I get my brand out there and build something that people want to feel a part of and that was with community. And I think something, you know, for our path forward, it's heavily guiding everything we do. How can we have more touch points with our community? How can we activate them more? How can we amplify?

how we interact with them. And that's sort of at the heart of everything that we do. We've also kind of sunset at our original fabric, which is Skull Plex. And I think it's making room and paving the way for like new and exciting improved fabrics that we're working on. It was a big decision for the brand. Obviously, it's the first product that we ever launched with. But I think it's also

a meaningful exercise of knowing when it's time to evolve the brand and involve your product offerings. And we're just embracing the innovation that's in the pipeline and I'm really excited.

Ramon Vela (08:18.35)
And for everyone out there, if you want to take a look at what we're talking about, you can go to setactive.co. SET, S-E-T, the word active.co is the website. And so what was your first milestone? Given that it feels like you had some headwinds, you your dad didn't want to fund you and you had to just bootstrap and do on social.

You know, it could feel like you have a lot of headwinds against you at that point or just not, you know, like you have to really push against the headwinds. But what was the first milestone for you that just made you feel really good and want to celebrate and think, okay, I think we're onto something here. You know, was it like a, was it a sale that you did? Was it a retailer that you got into? Was it, I don't know, was there something like that? I'm sure there's something like that in the early days.

Lindsey Carter (09:13.306)
I, I honestly think back to our first ever Ecom shoot, you know, I was like, we need to have images for our Ecom shoot. at the time had no idea how that worked or what to do. I just booked a studio downtown and got as many people as possible who were comfortable being in front of a camera, whether it was friends or family or people I reached out to on social media.

I think there was like 12 people and like now, you know, if you're listening, might chuckle because you do an e-comm shoot. It's usually one model. and I had 12 people and I remember just the energy of that morning showing up the product. Everyone got to see it for the first time, like in real life, people, the models, friends, family who were volunteering their time to model for us were

Ramon Vela (09:49.464)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsey Carter (10:07.264)
touching and feeling the product for the first time. And I think that energy was just electric. And it was the first time where I was like, I'm doing this. Like this is, this is happening. And hearing everyone's reaction to putting the product on and touching and feeling that like sensory part of the brand, I think was like the, shit moment for me in a good way. And I think that was like,

you know, it's little moments like that, that keep you going even when you have the pushback or the headwinds. Like, I remember when you know, my dad said no to giving me money, I was like, well, do you know any investors and he chuckled and gave me a number to someone who does investments and stuff like that. And I remember calling them and being like, oh, was, you know, I gave them this whole pitch. I felt so excited. I was so confident in the pitch and

He asked me all these questions that I didn't know the answer to at the time. Like, what's your EBITDA? What's your CAC? And I was like, huh? And I was so discouraged after that phone call. And I was like, you know, I feel like most people after a phone call like that kind of internalize and look to find an answer, like, should I really be doing this? And for me, it kind of just motivated me to want to do it even more.

Ramon Vela (11:11.662)
You

Ramon Vela (11:29.08)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsey Carter (11:33.83)
on my own. And so I think that's really what kind of like that phone call was a pivotal day for me. So I would say like those two things.

Ramon Vela (11:48.238)
And you said something really interesting in there that I just want to explore just for a second, because I think you're unique in being in this position. You are absolutely correct. Something like that can really discourage somebody, because you can get that and you can think I'm not prepared, I don't know what I'm doing, et cetera and so forth. That whole imposter syndrome stuff can really do a number on you, but you continued. And that's the sign of a...

of an entrepreneur who's convicted or has convictions and has a vision and wants to move forward. is it more for you, is it more about your personality to say, know what, I'm going to dust my, you know, that was bad. That was a bad call, but I'm just going to keep going because I'm just not going to let it stop me. Or do you have something that you do

It could be like, I was just speaking earlier today to someone about reframing and how they reframe situations or I don't know, like is there something that you do because you are an entrepreneur, right? You're also a mother, if I'm not mistaken. You have a personal life. Entrepreneurial life can be difficult, but you have all these other components of your life. Sometimes it feels like everything could be.

You know, like not working, you know, every, you know, every few moments you could feel like, okay, wait a minute, is not working. And it can bring you down. Is there something that you do that helps you stay up, that helps you keep going, that helps you moving forward, that helps you even after you have a bad call or I don't know, see a bunch of negative social media comments, is there something that keeps you going?

Lindsey Carter (13:40.082)
Yeah, it's the community, honestly. I mean, at the end of the day, I know what I'm building is changing people's lives. And if I'm having a bad day, you know, I listening to a podcast with one of Paltrow and something she said.

really resonated with me and it's something I've been repeating to myself when I am having a bad day. And she said, if I'm having a bad day, I've lost perspective. And that really landed with me because I have...

worked my ass off to build what I've built. I also started building this brand when I was 25 years old. I didn't know who I was like as I'm still learning who I am. But I you know, this was almost 10 years ago when the idea was first like came into my head.

and to like figure out how to build a brand and lead and do all those things when you're 25, 26 years old is very confusing. And so I think I just remind myself now that what I built is changing people's lives and people feel part of something. I think that I not I think I know that's what keeps me going. You know,

things that I said, I've made mistakes. have, you know, said things that maybe I shouldn't have. I've led incorrectly. That's part of this journey is you have to make the mistakes to figure out the type of leader that you are. But at the end of the day, one thing that I know that I've done right is build a very, very, very loyal community. And I know that there are so many people

Lindsey Carter (15:31.7)
that feel so good when they put on my product. And that's what's important to me at the end of the day. So on the bad days, I just remind myself, keep going. It requires a lot of tenacity and thick skin to be an entrepreneur. And I don't think anyone knows what it's like to be an entrepreneur until you're an entrepreneur.

Ramon Vela (15:58.146)
you

Lindsey Carter (15:58.304)
You know, someone else, everyone always said to me, a lot of a big piece of advice I got when I was starting the brand was you got to push past the hard days. And in my head, I always said to myself, like, okay, I can do that. You know, I lost my mom when I was young, I lost my best friend to cancer in high school, like I can, I can get through anything. But this is a different type of hard. It's not the type of hard where you experience loss. It's a

It's a hard where people are going to give their unsolicited advice on how they think you should be running your company. It's hard because you might say one thing and it might land a different way to someone else and it's not what you meant or it's hard in that you're going to have so many eyes on you judging your every step and your every move and they're going to amplify and magnify your missteps. And you're going to have to, you know, learn from that and push forward and

Ramon Vela (16:50.797)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsey Carter (16:56.7)
it's it's things that you don't experience growing up or things that you don't experience normally in life. So you don't know what the hard is. And so to go through that hard as an entrepreneur and be like, this is what those friends that are entrepreneurs were talking about. I'm reminding myself that it's okay. I've lost perspective. I'm grateful for

Ramon Vela (17:05.868)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (17:12.663)
Okay.

Lindsey Carter (17:23.39)
like look at what I've built. have half million followers on my brand's Instagram. We've done millions in sales. I have a community like no other. Like I try to just focus on all of those things on the hard days. And that's usually what gets me to wake up and do it all over again the next day.

Ramon Vela (17:43.892)
Wow, I love what you just said. by the way, I know this is a long time ago, but my condolences to you about your mother. I actually lost my father when I was 13. So I know that's a pain that, you know, is it, recedes a little bit, but it's always there. And so I feel for you. So I understand.

So I love what you just said and I think that's incredibly helpful to people because, you know, not everyone is an entrepreneur, but we do feel there are times where people feel like an entrepreneur, feel the financial pressure, the emotional pressure, you know, the public facing pressure, all of this stuff and it can take its toll. so I love that. And while we're kind of on the subject, let's talk a little bit about the challenges because

You started this at 25, which is amazing. And then in the last 10 years, there's been a lot of, mean, it's interesting to me that in my lifetime up to, you know, before 2020, the economy and things were pretty cyclical. You know, it's like you had a recession every 10 years.

You know, there was a war, you know, every so often or something. mean, I know not trying to be casual about it, but it was cyclical. But in the last 10 years, we've had so many things just happen all at once. And from an entrepreneurial perspective, I mean, that's like, that's a hard environment to operate in. So what has, what have been some of your challenges? Like for instance, I'm assuming you, you COVID really was a potential threat for you guys. Is that correct?

Lindsey Carter (19:32.518)
Yes and no. think, you know, for the staying home portion of COVID, it was great because everyone was like, you know, working from home, taking their Zooms from home, working out at home. So the off leisure at home was obviously an upward trend, like upward trend for COVID. So that was, you know, explosive growth for us. I think when it comes to like unprecedented

to times like something like COVID or something like the tariffs or something that you can't really plan for. You kind of just have to take it day by day and pivot as the days come. You're not always gonna make the right decision, but you'll learn from whatever the wrong decision was and you'll course correct. And I think that some of the like...

the biggest challenges I would say is, you know, when you start a brand, you usually start in the world that we're in or that sets in, you usually start with a lean skew plan. And then you build up all this momentum and you grow and you take off and you immediately, immediately at least for set, we were like, oh my gosh, like we have to expand into every category possible. And like really, you know, if we can, if set can be on a

I don't know, chapstick it'll sell. Like we really just built that brand name and we thought like, oh, well we can expand into all these different categories. And we tried doing that in 2023 and 2024 especially. And we learned quickly like that didn't work. And of course there's still some people that follow the brand. know, I saw one of them, someone who's an influencer but also just like a fan of the brand post yesterday like.

Ramon Vela (21:00.878)
you

Lindsey Carter (21:29.396)
her favorite PJs in the world are set sleep. And like we do have a small subset of our community that is obsessed with set sleep, but our core competency is our active. And so I think over the last year and a half, we've course corrected and like really learned that we really need to master our core competency and get that so buttoned up and something that we feel is, you know,

Ramon Vela (21:38.498)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsey Carter (21:57.898)
kind of bulletproof in terms of the quality, consistency, the fabrics, the styles, are we doing contrast? Is it tonal contrast? Like really just leaning into how many different ways we can reiterate our core competency before expanding into different categories. And I think that's a mistake that some founders make when they're building a brand that has fast momentum is they think they have to expand very fast. And I think that's like,

Ramon Vela (22:14.926)
Hmm.

Ramon Vela (22:24.408)
Hmm.

Lindsey Carter (22:26.309)
a common misconception.

Ramon Vela (22:28.364)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, that reminds me of a interview I did with, the founder, the CEO of, Hammett, which is a, like a luxury bag that they do leather bags and things like that. And, they have also very core group of people. but they thought that their brand could expand into other areas like, like shoes and,

for whatever reason it didn't work out for them. He said it nearly cost him a million dollars, mistake, but he learned right away that sometimes people love your brand, but there's just some things that just didn't work. But yeah, that's something that's a great lesson. In terms of the tariffs, you, when I talk to founders right now, because of the up and down,

you know, environment of the tariffs, you sometimes they're on, sometimes they're off, sometimes they're paused, et cetera. A lot of founders are just kind of waiting to see. They're kind of checking, they're doing their due diligence, they're looking at other options, but many are just kind of waiting to see like what happens or at least not making big changes right now, but preparing just in case. Is that how you guys are looking at this right now? Have you made any changes for the tariffs? Are you planning to, are you?

changing your supply chain or manufacturing locations.

Lindsey Carter (23:52.202)
Right now everything is the same. We're kind of absorbing the costs. If there are any, we have really great relationships with our factories. And I think that's really important, know, should something like this happen and you're an entrepreneur. I think that so many people who are building a brand forget that you also have to nurture your relationship with your factories. And right now we've worked with our factories.

Ramon Vela (24:16.717)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsey Carter (24:21.748)
to not have this be an implication on the customer. And we're just going to keep it that way for as long as humanly possible.

Ramon Vela (24:32.226)
Well, that's great. And also, I think it also helps with your community, right? They have certain expectations. You wanted to be accessible to this wide group of people. so it's, I mean, this is just, this is one of those things like you mentioned earlier. It's like one of those things that you have no control over, but it's happening nonetheless.

Lindsey Carter (24:39.358)
Yeah, of course.

Ramon Vela (24:56.014)
So I wanna start talking more about the designs and the products, but before we do that, I have a couple more sort of entrepreneurial questions. And so the next one is really about your advice. mean, you went into this bootstrapped, you went in using your skillsets that you had, marketing, social media, et cetera, and you were really just moving forward, going against the headwinds,

and continuing and getting up each and every day. And the one piece of advice you already gave us about how you handle those down days is fantastic. But is there anything from an entrepreneurial perspective that you would share with someone who came to you and said, hey, Lindsay, I admire what you do. I'm 25 years old. I want to start my own brand. Is there anything?

You know, I had one founder jokingly said like, yeah, when people tell me that, tell them like, don't do it. It's so hard. But what would you tell that person?

Lindsey Carter (26:00.812)
I would, I feel like I would tell them a couple of things. I don't feel like there's like one piece of advice that you can give to someone who's starting because there's so much that goes into being an entrepreneur. I think one is make sure you're passionate about whatever it is that you're about to embark on. because if you're not passionate about what you're doing, you'll be bored. and then you'll lose motivation and I've seen it happen and,

It happened to me before I started set. had another brand, not a brand, sorry. I had another company. It was a social media agency. And you have to just make sure that you're passionate, that you know you can wake up not five days a week, but seven days a week, every single day, even on the hard days and be excited about what you're doing. And if you think for one second that you can't be,

Ramon Vela (26:49.39)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsey Carter (26:55.432)
I think you have to take a real hard look and ask yourself if this is the right journey for you. I think that the second piece of advice is learn your strengths and learn them fast because you're going to have to be okay with delegating your weaknesses and you're going to have to be okay with relinquishing control once you hire employees and to the things that they're good at. And I think a lot of the mistakes that I made as an entrepreneur is I wanted to kind of

have control over everything. And you're not going to be able to do that as an entrepreneur, you're going to have to be able to delegate a lot off and be able to create filters within employees of like, you know, people before you that can filter through you that understand your vision. And that's part of it. That's why it's like such a loaded question. Like you have to know what your vision is and make sure that you can stay on the right path towards your vision and

if you fall off the tracks on the way to your vision, making sure you can get back onto course correct and how you get back onto course correct. mean, being an entrepreneur is single handedly the hardest thing I've ever done. It's harder than any physics tests, calculus test I had in high school that I remember I would sit and cry to my tutor every Wednesday about I don't understand this. How am I going to get up? How am I going to pass this test? It's you know,

It's harder than...

It is the hardest thing that I've ever done.

Ramon Vela (28:29.09)
Well, yeah, and I think it is very unique to a lot of people or it's very unique position in lifestyle. I actually think entrepreneurship in many ways is almost more like a personality versus like, you know, an option that people choose. I know people can learn to become entrepreneurs, but there's always something in

I don't know the makeup or the chemistry or whatever it is about that entrepreneur personality that it's sort of different. Because I know people, even myself, who have had really terrible moments in entrepreneurship, who have had to close businesses and swear that they will never start in their business again. But then they end up starting another business because there's something about like the growing of the business or something about those emails that you get or those community messages that you get. And you think, you know, like this is why I do it, right? Like this is why

why I push and move forward, that kind of stuff.

Lindsey Carter (29:30.506)
Well, there's also the growth that you go through. Like I look at who I was year one, year two, year three, year four, year five, year six, now we're in year seven. And I'm not the same person that I was seven years ago, 10 years ago. And I think people get addicted to the growth that you go through when you're an entrepreneur. I think also like people have a false

idea of what being an entrepreneur is, it's so glorified on social media, they think that just because you see sellouts or high sales means that you're profitable or just because you are an entrepreneur, you are rich. Like that's not that's not what that

Ramon Vela (30:09.987)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsey Carter (30:18.622)
that means and I feel like a lot of people don't speak up on what it means to be an entrepreneur enough. I'll never forget when I had my old podcast, Ready, Set, Spill, I was interviewing the CEO of Matt Happy and I asked him, would you do it again? And he said, absolutely not.

And I remember being like, huh? Like, and then I was like, that's actually an interesting question that I would ask myself. And my answer is different. I would do it again. In fact, I've talked about starting another brand. But you know, I'm not done building set. And it's still something seven years later, where Monday or Sunday through, you know, the rest of the week, I wake up. And even on the hardest days, I still get myself out of bed, excited to come to work.

So I think that it's just, we glorify what being an entrepreneur is on social media. And I feel like not enough people are talking about, you know, the ugly side of it.

Ramon Vela (31:24.044)
Yeah. Well, and that's why I actually like to talk about some of this stuff here on this show. And I do that. I did that initially for other entrepreneurs because I knew that other entrepreneurs listen to the show, but I also do it because I think consumers need to know this. Even people who don't want to be entrepreneurs. I honestly feel like. Like the more that they understand how much you bleats, sweat and tear over the product, over the brand, over the quality and all of that.

It's almost, they see how much you care. And it almost, it's almost like subconsciously you're giving them permission to care. So your community, when they hear you and they talk to you and they know, see how hard you work and that you're always on doing things and so forth, they just think, you know, wow, it's like, she really cares about this brand. She cares about what's going on and the quality and all of that. I don't know. I just think that it's what you just said. think.

Communicating that is great for other entrepreneurs and for people who want to be entrepreneurs. But I also think it's great for people who are just consumers who love your brand and you give them permission to want to support you more and want to be there for the brand. And that's why we call our tagline, products worth buying, brands we're supporting. Because I really feel like if we can convey that to people, that definitely helps them want to build an emotional connection to the brand.

which this is a good segue to some of the products. So just for everyone out there, I want to make sure that you know that you can go to setactive.co, setactive.co, and you can take a look at what we've been talking about. So Lindsay, there is, I mean, you know this, right? There's a lot of competition in your space and in surrounding spaces in terms of

athleisure wear and athletic wear and all sorts of stuff. Let's start off with what are you, from your perspective, what sets Set Active apart from all the other competitors?

Lindsey Carter (33:36.8)
I mean, I think it's the community that we're building. We really are a community first brand. Every decision we make is derived from like, what would the community think, or do? And also, I mean,

it, everything's been so organic. We really care about, you know, what story are we telling? What are we positioning? It's not just product we're selling. Like we're selling a story with every single drop or a lifestyle or something aspirational that when you put on this product, that's a feeling that you feel when you put on a product and that feeling that you feel when you put on the product is something that we have to visually and

clearly tell that story in our marketing. And I think that we just do our marketing a little bit different than most of the competitors out there. Our active wear isn't something groundbreaking. There's no special secret sauce in our fabric that makes it different from another competitor, but.

the feeling of what you're putting on everything is so intentional from the line plan, how we're making the line plan come together to the color palettes and why we're choosing those colors to emit a feeling that we're trying to convey. And I think that there are brands who don't kind of emphasize that storytelling the way that Set Active does. And it's something I'm really proud of and it's something I know we do well.

Ramon Vela (35:08.195)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (35:15.17)
And how are you involving, because I want to find out a little bit like high level in terms of like how does the design process goes. And I am curious because I know you're so community oriented. I once interviewed the founder of Bally Welling and she would tell me that she would use the community to help make some of the products, know, like ask them questions and ask them, hey, know, know, things like that, get their input and their feedback.

do you guys utilize the community also to kind of like help build some of the designs or the, the, the pieces.

Lindsey Carter (35:51.464)
Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I think we are the only brand that does a community drop. So we do something called the community collection where it's a drop that's entirely picked by the community. Obviously, majority votes for the community. And it's a collection we release and it's like they picked it. They voted on the colors. They voted on the styles, the designs. And it's a drop that

always does really well for us every time we do the job. But we also look at, we take our data very seriously, our data from the community, what our customers are buying, why they're buying it, what are they giving feedback on, what changes can we make after every single job we go and we look at what resonated, what didn't, what changes we can make. I think in January of this year alone, we saw the climate of the way

people are purchasing things in this economy and everybody wants, they're very intentional with how they're buying things for themselves. And so it's on us to do that product education and also understand the data. Like what is it that people are coming to us for and why? And understand that data to drive decisions for the future line plans, I think is something that is community oriented.

in and of itself, even if it's not forwardly facing publicly that like we're taking community advice or what they want. Like the data also kind of shows for itself. And we take the data very, very seriously here.

Ramon Vela (37:33.934)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (37:37.324)
Yeah. And you know, I really love this idea of the community drop because in many ways you can look at it from a different, from lots of different perspectives. But when you were saying it, I was just thinking like, this is actually, of course, you you want to create products that people buy and do well and that you want there to be some profitability and so forth. But it's also like an investment that you are making in your community because

Lindsey Carter (38:03.69)
Is it?

Ramon Vela (38:07.832)
Cause having them feel like they have an input in terms of creating a product with Set Active alongside Set Active is, could be almost like a magical experience for someone who really loves the brand. Like they feel a sense of agency, of ownership, like, hey, I'm, yeah, they feel invested. And, but from your perspective, that's almost like a really cool investment on your end. Like,

Lindsey Carter (38:28.202)
They feel invested, yeah.

Ramon Vela (38:35.212)
You could even say to yourself, and I'm not saying you should, but I'm saying you could even say like, hey, this could break even and we still have made progress because we've just increased our goodwill and our net, you know, the, is it? The net score, you know, of the brand, but cause people love this kind of stuff.

Lindsey Carter (38:52.382)
Yeah, totally.

Ramon Vela (38:54.338)
Yeah, see, and I think that's smart. think that's, mean, I, you know, obviously I hope you make money on those, but I'm just saying that I think even from that perspective of, increasing in, in increasing your community and you know, many people look at community as almost like a moat, know, like this isn't going to help you good times, bad times, because you have these people who really care emotionally and connect and who are connected emotionally to the brand. So from a design philosophy, why don't you tell us a little bit about, you know,

What the different, well, let me phrase it this way. Someone is listening to this and they're thinking, I really love what she had to say about her origin story and how she bootstrapped and how she handles the ups and downs of the brand and all of this. And they're ready. They want to take a look at more. Maybe they've never purchased from you before. Maybe they haven't heard from your brand before. Where would you tell someone like that?

Where would you tell them to start on their journey with the brand?

Lindsey Carter (39:57.6)
I would start on our website. Our website just got redone actually. So if you're unsure, there's a ton of fabric education. There's videos on the PDPs on some of the PDPs where you can see the fabric like move in action. It kind of breaks it all down. if you

go to a high intensity workout and you sweat a lot. Sport body is probably for you. If you want something more every day, you don't know if you're gonna make it to a workout, I would say form cloud is for you. If you want something in the middle where like you might get sweaty, you might work out, but you also wanna feel comfortable all day, then Air Lux is gonna be for you. I would go with, you know.

our website first, we did just redo it. And I'm really proud of it as well to give that education to someone who's like, I've never tried the brand before. You would probably go on the website, click active wear, or I have to see the navigation button, but there is a section on the website where you can learn about active wear fabric guide, where you can click that and understand exactly what it is that we have.

Ramon Vela (41:16.35)
And is there any place that or I should, I know this is probably not fair because you want to, you want to say all of them, but is there anything for someone new, brand new to this? Is there any best seller, any, any piece that just, I don't know, like if, someone just said, which product should I buy? Which, which, which one should I try first? Is there anyone that you would recommend them starting first? mean, would it be, you know, like

Lindsey Carter (41:44.17)
Sure, yeah.

Ramon Vela (41:45.998)
The bras, the tops, the bottoms, the sweats, what would you?

Lindsey Carter (41:50.322)
Yeah, I think that data will tell you sport body. But I will tell you air lux, because air lux is my favorite fabric. Obviously, we are called set active, we promote shopping and sets. So you wouldn't buy like a sport body top and an air lux bottom, we try to keep everything in the fabric family. But

Air Lux is my favorite. I can wear it in a heated Pilates class, but I can also wear it if I'm tracing after my toddlers or if I'm just sitting on the couch. I actually, I was supposed to go to a workout class this morning. I heated Pilates class and I slipped on my Air Lux. It was like 6.15 this morning and I actually, I woke up not feeling well, so I decided not to go.

And I got in bed wearing it because I was like, well, it's still comfortable and I can get back at my kids aren't waking up for another hour. So I got back in bed wearing Air Lux. It like feels like butter. But the data will tell you sport body. It's what sells the best. But they're all great. And I think that's what I'm proud of is that I genuinely back everything that you see on our website.

Ramon Vela (43:05.102)
Yeah, no, I think the designs and the colors are really great. This is amazing. I love your website. I hadn't seen it before. what I'm not sure I can compare the two, but this website looks great. I love the videos that you just show right at the very beginning. Everything looks really fun and active and so forth. Yeah, and I think.

Yeah, I think it was great. You know, one thing that hit me that I hadn't asked you before was, you know, I know you said you had other companies before like a social media, think, or an agency or something like that. What was it about at leisure where or whether you called it that at the time, what was it about that that made you want to, to, to participate in this? Was it something that was part of your life in terms of being active or?

you doing things or, and you you mentioned you didn't find the kind of stuff that you were looking for at the time. but you know, was there anything in particular in terms of the, like the usage of it? Like that you found that just was, I don't know that just, I guess I'm wondering like, what was it at the time in particular that really made you feel like I needed to create something on this? I know you might've said it, but I'm just, I was, I'm looking at this.

I'm beginning to wonder if you can remind us.

Lindsey Carter (44:34.048)
Yeah, it's active for the everyday girl. I feel like you can put on anything on our website and you don't have to go to a workout to wear it or you don't have to, you know.

go to a workout class to wear it. Like you can truly wear it for every day and the matching sets, you know, kind of take the thinking out of getting dressed in the morning. If it's like one less thing you have to think about and you know that you're gonna put on a matching set, you instantly know you have an elevated outfit on, even if it's the most casual outfit. And so those were like the two things that I...

Ramon Vela (45:06.37)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsey Carter (45:12.628)
didn't find in the market when I was thinking about starting this brand.

Ramon Vela (45:18.798)
But I mean, I guess I'm wondering on a personal basis, what were you doing that you felt like you were finding the right clothes or the right outfits? Were you doing, was it hiking? Was it working out? I mean, were you active person when you saw and noticed this? Or did you just happen to notice this space in the marketplace?

Lindsey Carter (45:42.802)
No, I think that was the problem is I wasn't, you I wanted to look sporty and I wanted to look like I was on the go, but I wasn't someone who was working out. So I wasn't active. I wasn't a hiker. wasn't, I wasn't a yogi. I wasn't a cross fitter. I wasn't a spinner. I wasn't, I didn't have something that I felt like I belonged to, which is where community came into it.

And so I was like, well, what about me? Like, I'm just an everyday girl. Like, maybe I'll make it to a workout class. But I mostly have brunch with friends or I'm working or have client meetings. And I still want to look sporty and on the go. But you know, it's not every day I want to put on a pair of Levi's and a t shirt or it's not every day I want to put on a baby doll dress. Like sometimes I want to just like, look.

sporty and chic and cool and go on throughout my day and casual without having to like think too much about what outfit I'm putting together. And that's how Set was born.

Ramon Vela (46:43.8)
You know, what you just said right now, I just want to point out, this so aligns with what you've talked about your vision with the brand. Because what you said right now is just, is such an honest and transparent thing to say because you are saying what most people, how most people feel.

You know, because most people, mean, I've looked at data and so forth. Most people like love to wear this stuff and don't are necessarily like working out and things like that. They just like the way it looks. They like the way it feels. and, and I, and, you you listen to other people talk about this stuff and they're hardcore, you know, workout people or Pilates or yoga, whatever it is. And I just loved your really transparent answer right there. like, you just like the way it looks, way it feels.

you know, if people want to work out, they can. If people don't want to work out, it's okay. You know, it just feels like that is so aligned with what you've been telling me in terms of your vision. And it feels so authentic that you just said it right now, because it just feels like it's just such an honest answer. And I love that because I think, you know, what you do too is that you make, don't intimidate people with this, you know, because some people may feel like, I got to

you I gotta be working out in order to wear this kind of stuff or whatever. And you're just like, hey, it feels good. It feels comfortable. You know, it's cute or whatever. Like you just want to wear it. It's sporty. and I love that answer. So, anyhow, that's more of a comment than a question, Lindsay. but I love that answer. Thank you. what else can, what else would you like them to find out about the brand? Is it available anywhere else other than the website? Is it on marketplaces? Is it in retail? talk to us a little bit about that.

Lindsey Carter (48:35.824)
Yeah, you can find our core collection on shop off and an extension of it our core collection on Amazon through shop up you can also shop our stores we have a store on Melrose place and on bleaker Street in New York and then if you I don't Know the exact list we can get it to you of our equinox locations, but we have an equinox exclusive

We have two colorways, I believe, with them that are in the Equinox gift shops or lifestyle shops. But mostly everything we do is D2C. We are strategically rolling out different wholesale opportunities in the next year or two, but primarily everything is on setactive.co.

Ramon Vela (49:24.558)
Great, and then in terms of the next 24, 48, however many months, what is the vision for the brand? Is there any new products, any new areas that you're gonna be exploring that we should know about or that you can mention?

Lindsey Carter (49:42.056)
We have a new fabric coming called Luxform. I'm so excited about it. It's like, you know, it's in the name. It's a little bit more luxurious of a fabric. It was more expensive to make, but it's a fabric that I'm really looking forward to.

just to add to our beautiful lineup of activewear fabrics. We have a lot of really fun collaborations in the works, a few collaborations that we're in talks to do that I'm excited about, and just really going after some of the customers that we haven't been able to get yet.

We call them set get girls. just building out that strategy and what that looks like and how we're going to get those, you know, that customer acquisition is something we're really focusing on in the next year or two. And we might do a surprise men's drop to test the appetite in the next two years for, you know, set men's.

something we've gone back and forth on a lot, but I think we're finally just gonna do like one drop, see how it does and discuss from there. But yeah, a lot of exciting things in the works. Some things that are expected and unexpected and I'm very excited.

Ramon Vela (50:55.628)
Wow. I love that. I, was one of the questions I had, regarding man's, but you just answered it. okay. So I want to be respectful of your time. I know that you, you have a business to run. my next question I've been waiting, this is my last question to you and it's the one that I'm to put you on the spot a little bit. So don't feel free. You have to rush into answering this unless you know right away. what is something that you are very proud of about the brand that people can't find on the website?

Lindsey Carter (51:09.638)
Okay.

Ramon Vela (51:25.398)
on your social media, on your labels or packaging or anything like that. But it's something you're very proud of. And if a listener or a consumer hears it, it would make a difference with their buying decision.

Lindsey Carter (51:41.568)
I honestly I think we covered it a little bit, but I think that we're 100 % bootstrapped and all of our growth has been 100 % organic until very recently, you we've done zero paid advertising. Every brand touch point, every celebrity and influencer seating has been genuinely earned and not paid for.

And I think that that's something that is a testament to our product. It's a testament to our brand. It's a testament to the way we show up for ourselves as a brand. And it's something that I will forever be proud of from day one. think it's, it's really, really hard to stop, to start a bootstrapped brand. And you really have to believe in yourself and be willing to take that risk on yourself in order to be a bootstrap brand, which takes a lot of bravery and ambition.

Ramon Vela (52:37.478)
And like we talked about in a stomach to take all that stress and everything else. And you're right, it's an incredible accomplishment to grow the way you have in your Instagram and everything else. mean, it's just amazing. So thank you so much. This has been amazing. I love this conversation. I have to pick and choose to like what we talk about because we only have an hour and an hour actually goes by very quickly.

But I appreciate it. And I just want to say to you that, you know, I love what the answers you gave. are, you know, from my perspective, are transparent and honest and down to earth. And like I said, just your answer a little while ago, I just, I love that because I think some people would have felt like they had to answer something differently and I just love the way you answered it. So I appreciate your time and I appreciate you sharing.

everything about your brand with us. So thank you so much for that. And I appreciate it. everyone out there, we have just had Lindsay Carter, who is the founder and CEO of Set Active. You can go to the website setactive.co and we're going to have that in our podcast description. And Lindsay, if you wouldn't mind, what is your Instagram handle or your social media handles?

Lindsey Carter (53:59.122)
Instagram is Lindsey Carter with an E, Lindsey with an E.

Ramon Vela (54:02.688)
Okay, so we're going to have that link on our podcast description as well. Beyond that, everyone, this has just been amazing. Thank you again, Lindsay. think you are what we refer to on the show as a product we're buying, brand we're supporting. So thank you so much again.

Lindsey Carter (54:18.196)
Thank you so much for having me.

Ramon Vela (54:20.366)
Everyone out there we're gonna have all of that in our podcast description which you could find at Apple Spotify and pretty much anywhere you listen to podcast simply lists Type in the story of a brand show and you should be able to find it. We just hit 1300 episodes So this has been amazing because we've also just bootstrapped our show to people just have listened to it So we really appreciate it and I will just calculate in the numbers Over the last seven years there have been 19 million minutes

of this show listened to by listeners. So we really, really appreciate that. That's a lot. So thank you. Stay safe, sane, stay healthy. Don't forget to go to the website and check out Set Active. Sign up for their newsletter because I think that's the best way to keep up with all the products and all the things that they're coming out with. And then beyond that, everyone, one last thing. We're all going through a lot of stuff in the last few years. The pandemic, the tariffs, the economy, whatever, politics, geopolitical wars.

Let's just do ourselves a favor and remember that everyone is going through something. And if we can just be a little kinder to each other remembering that, I know we can make this human experience a better one. Beyond that, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.