Revolutionizing the Feminine Hygiene Market with Vilmante Markeviciene

Check out Vilmante online!

• Instagram - @vilmante_gd @genial_day

• LinkedIn - Vilmante Markeviciene Genial Day

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• TikTok - @genialday_gentleday

• US Website - genialday.com

• EU Website - www.gentleday.com

Full Transcript:

Note: This is an original transcript–edited for sense, length, and clarity.  If you have any questions or concerns, please email our host, Doria Lavagnino, at doria@sheventurespodcast.com.

Intro:

Doria Lavagnino: After college, she started in marketing as an interior designer in her native country, Lithuania, before pivoting to entrepreneurship in 2009. She started market research and development of a feminine hygiene company, called Gentle Day, which makes panty liners and menstrual pads with a patented design. Her feminine hygiene products started as an idea and over time became known in several European countries. In 2016, she introduced her products to the United States. They’re known here under the company name of Genial Day, where she has expanded her offerings to include menstrual cups and period underwear. If you order from Genial Day right now, for every product you buy, one box of pads will be sent to help Ukrainian refugees — women and girls who are displaced and experiencing period poverty. Here to talk to us today about starting a business with a social conscience from scratch is the CEO and founder of Gentle Day and Genial Day, Vilmante Markeviciene. Welcome to SheVentures!

Vilmante Markeviciene: Thank you, thank you so much! Thank you for the introduction and thank you for having me. It’s very nice. 

00:01:37

Doria: It’s a pleasure. We have been going back and forth for a while and I’ve very much been interested in what you’re doing. I thought it would be great for listeners to hear a little bit about your origin story from Lithuania. What comes to mind when you think of your childhood? 

Vilmante’s Childhood

00:01:56

Vilmante: Yeah, I was growing up in the U.S. at that time, and when I was 15 years old we got

our independence. Lithuania got its independence back. All those teenage years I was experiencing, [I was in] all this euphoria of getting freedom back. I love my country, and I’ve been patriotic about that. I lived in [the] United States for five years, too. 

Doria: As an American, I don’t know. I know in history class we learned about perestroika. What was it like before and after independence? If you could, could you give us a feel of that?

Vilmante: Yes, sure it was very different. I still remember. It was different. We didn’t have much stuff in stores. I was living in the United States. When we got our independence back, we kind of opened up. Before that, we were a very closed country; we couldn’t go abroad, we couldn’t travel [like] we could travel in the U.S. If we would like to travel somewhere, we needed visas everywhere. 

It was very hard to leave the U.S. because it was a very strict system and very simple things like toilet paper were not available in stores. You can imagine that it was not a good thing. If there was something good in stores, the lines would go long — long lines waiting to get good shoes or good coats, everything. Everyone was dressed in the same clothes. 

If somebody’s, let’s say, friends or parents would go abroad, they would bring something that was so cool and everybody wanted to have the same. 

Doria: It was a big deal. 

Vilmante: Yeah, it was! It was very different from where we are right now. It was not fun growing up as a child. Of course, we had a lot of fun with friends outside — playing outside. . [There was no computer.] It was nothing like right now. We had a lot of fun as kids growing up so there was good and bad in it. 

Relating to Ukraine

Doria: Absolutely, and I think often as children we also don’t know any different. We don’t have anything to compare it to, right? It’s also so timely to me that [Ukraine’s president] Zelensky addressed our Congress recently. It was an incredible thing to watch. I’ve never, as an American, in my lifetime seen such bipartisan support of him and the country and what they’re going through. It brought tears to my eyes, honestly. To think about the candlelight he talked about and how people may be having Christmas by candlelight, but it’s not necessarily by choice.

Vilmante: Yeah, and hearing what people say right now in Ukraine, the local people. They say “we don’t care if we don’t have heat, if we don’t have light. We want to be free,” and that was the same in Lithuania so many years ago. We had some tanks in our capital city, so it was a little scary. 

Doria: I could imagine. 

Vilmante: People didn’t care about their lives. They would go to the streets, they would go and be willing to fight for their freedom. I respect and know what’s going on in Ukraine right now and how hard it is for those people. 

Doria: And to your point, Lithuania I learned last night — I probably should’ve known this — was the first country in the Soviet bloc to get independence. Then many followed when they saw what you were able to do.

Vilmante: But the United States helped us a lot. Without its support, I don’t think we could be where we are right now. Small countries need to have the support of such big countries, like the United States. It was, I think, the most important thing for us. 

Vilmante’s Small and Mighty Business

Doria: Yeah, absolutely. You are helping in your own way – as a small to medium-sized business owner.

Vilmante: It’s very small, yes.

Doria: Very small then, that’s great.

It’s beautiful what you’re doing. I know that earlier this year, you donated 9,000 menstrual products to, I believe, the Lithuanian Red Cross.

Vilmante: Yes.

Doria: I wondered in 2022, do you have a figure of how many pads you’ve been able to donate?

Vilmante: Yes, we’ve been donating all year round. Till now, we have donated about 20,000 different items of hygiene products. It’s underwear, it’s pads. For our small country, it’s a big number but in how much they need of everything, it’s very tiny. We’re trying to help and at least [do] what we can do. 

Doria: Well, I will tell you this, my daughter — I’m not going to say which one because they are very private, but one of them — wears period underwear, and after our podcast, I will buy some because I want to ensure that we’re able to support in your effort in helping Ukrainian women and girls. 

Vilmante: Thank you so much. 

Doria: Absolutely. That’s for all the audience, if you go to the website, which we’ll mention at the end of the podcast, by buying any product, you are helping Ukrainian women and girls who have been displaced by this war. 

Vilmante’s Early Career

Doria: You have two bachelor’s degrees, initially in business administration and then later in interior design. Can you speak to us about them from the perspective of how they influenced your pivot into entrepreneurship? What were you doing early in your career and how did you pivot?

Vilmante: Yeah, [I have one degree in business]. Then when I was 30 years old, I graduated in interior design in the United States while I was living there. What I know is that many people at the age of 30 already know what they want. When I was a student in business administration when I was 19 — 20 years old, I didn’t know what I wanted. 

Doria: No one does.

Vilmante: It was just popular, yeah. It was a popular occupation and I knew, “I will have a job if I have this degree.” So I did it. Then in my 30s, when I already had my two kids, I decided I wanted to do something for myself. I wanted to create.

I always was very into interior design because my father was a furniture carpenter. He built furniture. I was always around it.

Doria: Wonderful.

Vilmante: It was very close to me. I was also thinking about fashion design. It was those two options — either fashion design or interior design. I went with the more practical one to have better money in the field. So, that’s the story. 

Doria: Money does help make decisions. 

Vilmante: Yeah and creation and working with interiors, you’re always creating something and that was a draw to me. 

Starting Gentle Day

Doria: How did Gentle Day come about?

Vilmante: It was very accidental. Once I finished interior design [school], we came back to Lithuania. It was 2007. A lot of people were buying into that field. I could work as an interior designer. Then, 2008 came with a crisis.

Doria: Right, the recession.

Vilmante: Of course. Nobody was buying houses, nobody needed interior designers anymore. Everybody was saving money for more important things. Here I was again like, “what should I do now?” I can maybe find some clients but it was hard. I was open-minded about the ideas that came to me. 

One day my friend gave me pads that were totally different from the pads I was buying in the stores. The problem was that these pads weren’t available in stores. They were not easy to get. They were very expensive. I was on a mission to find these pads somewhere in America. The good thing was that I was good at English – without the English language, I wouldn’t be where I am right now. I knew only Lithuanian and Russian [before] so knowing English helped me. 

That’s what I want to say, too, about our brand because it changes how women feel about their period. It’s hypoallergenic; you don’t feel a rash, you don’t feel skin irritation. I started perceiving menstruation differently as a person, because I was always thinking “it’s bad, it’s bad, [it’s annoying, I [don’t] want [it].” Once I started working with my brand and introducing those pads, I changed my mind totally and completely. 

Now I’m at the stage where menopause will kick in somewhere in a couple of years — 

Doria: You and me both, sister.

Vilmante: Yeah, but I don’t want [it] to end. I still want my menstruation. That was the idea. I got the product I love. It changed the way I felt. I wanted other women to have this great product. I found the inventors of this product. We went to China, we talked to them, we wanted to [build a] brand.

I didn’t know [anything] about building your own brand, even though I graduated from business school. It didn’t give me anything. Then, after like 10 years after graduation, it was so much different. In the United States, it’s very common to build brands. People didn’t know how to do that in Lithuania. We didn’t have brands till the USSR collapsed; it was one big government brand. 

Doria: Well, and people were surviving. 

Vilmante: Yeah, so I didn’t have all this experience. I had to learn a lot. Of course, Google was my main major teacher.

Doria: Professor Google, yes!

Vilmante: Yes, so that’s how I did it, little by little. From interior design, I became a graphic designer, because I created all our packages and visual marketing stuff. How do you say when you’re going from one to another? Good transition?

Doria: Oh, like a stepping stone?

Vilmante: Yeah! So, it was not hard for me [to go] from one thing to another. 

Doria: So, surely like the brand aspect of it, I understand. Being a business owner, — as you said — you don’t learn that in school.

Vilmante: No.

Doria: One of the things that struck me about your LinkedIn is you wrote about how, I believe, it was in 2009–2011, you entered a period of trying the product and getting user feedback. That is what everyone talks about, right? Is iteration and making sure that you’re listening to your customers and giving them what they want? And it sounds like you did that. Was that something that you knew intuitively to do or how did that come about?

Vilmante: I think so because usually what I do, I always kind of take from my perspective if I would be a customer what I would do, how would I [react to] this advertisement, how would I feel about the product. Of course, my daughter was [also] growing up close by my side. She was the tester of products. 

I was more like intuitively taking everything. Of course, all my friends would try products. I would go get feedback from them. Then, I would hear good things. I was going to experts in Lithuania and experts in the United States and say to them that I was getting feedback from women. They would say, “Oh, I was running around trying to get your product.” At first, we sold our product only at stores in Lithuania. 

Certifying Products and the EU

Doria: You were in stores in Lithuania and then, presumably, you had to expand [in the EU]. I was wondering: What is it like to deal with the regulatory aspect of getting a product approved?

Vilmante: Yeah, it’s with the EU. It was not hard because we were in the union, so once we brought our products to Lithuania, it already had all the requirements for the E.U. It’s almost the same in other countries so you don’t have to change much with sanitary napkins, even cups, tampons, etc. 

The factories had to have certification. I always look to see if the factory had it: Is it ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified?

Doria: What does that mean?

Vilmante: Environmental management, so I know if they have that it means that they conserve water and raw materials. When I look for factories, that’s where I look first. [It’s like the most and then the other.] Then, if they have that, the next steps are certifications. 

Doria: Got it, like the basic level. 

Vilmante: Yes, then I certify sanitary pads and wet wipes in Europe for ecological certification. I send products each year to textile institutes. They test the products for different various chemicals. Then, you either get the certificate or not. In 2011, we started to certify our products. Until this day, we still have the certificates. We always renew.

It was Google, again. I was trying to find the certification for sanitary pads as a whole product — not just like the top layer, because it’s not just the top cotton layer. I wanted to check the whole product and see if it was good. 

I found this certifying company organization… 

Doria: Manufacturer?

Vilmante: Yes, that!

Doria: Excellent! So, it needs to get approved in Lithuania, which is a part of the EU. Was that process cumbersome or was it pretty straightforward?

Vilmante: In the United States, it’s different with these kinds of products, because they go under medical devices. In Lithuania, there are no strict procedures to bring the products to the European Union. For other products, it’s different but I’m not sure. I know the cosmetic products, which we also have. We have to notify those in the European Union, but it’s very easy. There’s a website where you go, you notify, you list the ingredients, attach the files, and that’s it. You get the notification, you have the number. It’s not hard. 

Doria: It’s not that difficult. I guess, my only question would be — if a woman were to develop some kind of reaction to a product — how does the EU keep track of that?

Vilmante: We never had such a situation but, usually, if something happens with the product, you have to go to the customer. There are different organizations. One is customer care and government establishment. You can go there and tell them what’s happened. A different story is with drugs and medicine — those which go under medical devices. That’s different. But here, since it’s not medical devices, people can complain to customer care organizations or there are nonprofit organizations. If the client was like, “this product was bad,” or “I had a bad reaction,” then this organization comes to the company and they can take the product and do testing with it.

Doria: Okay, and today how many stores and countries are you in, in Europe?

Vilmante: We have some distributors in different countries. We are also in the Western Czech Republic, Latvia, Netherlands, Italy, the U.K., and Poland.

Doria: Congratulations.

Vilmante: Thank you! Yeah, but it’s not easy.

Doria: Oh, I know.

Vilmante: [It’s not easy to have distributors.] For them, I would say, we try to help them but they don’t want to invest so much in the advertisement. Since it’s our brand, we have to take care of that. 

Our online store is for all the European Union, so women from any European Union country can purchase from our website. We did that because we noticed our Lithuanian girls would move to different countries to live but they’d say, “there are no such products in those countries.” So, we opened the store online for women who are from different countries. We ship to them. We get clients, not only Lithuanians. We get women [everywhere]. 

It’s not easy to advertise in the whole of Europe. Of course, you can do things like Google advertisements and Facebook, but then each country is different; you still have to focus on each country. We have different languages, we have different cultures. It’s not like you’re going to just have the European Union as a whole. You still have to focus on different countries in the European Union.

Doria: Absolutely, that makes perfect sense to me. My father was Italian and I know how different the cultures are.

I can only imagine what it was like when you started. Did you have to do it alone or did you just slowly build up?

The Beginning Days of Gentle Days

Vilmante: Yes, we slowly built. We — me and my husband — started in Lithuania from our funds. We took a loan, actually... We had to order more products just to get better prices. We had to, of course, invest more money. We took one more loan, but it wasn’t huge — it was a small loan. It helped to kind of move us forward a little bit. Right now, we’re starting to bring it back and return the loan. 

Doria: I love your story. Every so often, I will get an entrepreneur who finds the product accidentally out of their own need. I feel like that tends to be the more successful products. If the person pursues it and believes in it, which is the case with you. I really admire what you’ve done in all of Europe.

Vilmante: Thank you.

Doria: And then the patent is that difficult in Europe?

Vilmante: It costs a lot. It takes about two years but it depends, again probably on the patent. Our patent, because we patented our period panties, has a crotch where you can hide pad wings so I patented that. It takes time, it costs a lot. We just patented it in Lithuania. So yeah, that’s the reason, because it’s just too expensive to cover all the regions and not just for small companies, but for big ones.

Doria: So expensive. Exactly. I was going to say that because I once looked into getting a patent for something, and not only was it expensive to file but the other piece of it was you have to then defend your patent against people. 

Vilmante: Yes.

Doria: And that’s where it can get incredibly expensive for a small business owner.

Going Global

Vilmante: Yes, and what I feel like is, it may be okay for marketing. It’s not like we’re gonna go and get some other companies who make something similar. We’re not going to sue them. It’s a really good thing for marketing to have. It shows that it’s an innovative product, there’s something different about it. I’m not sure if you have your own patent but you have to register your brand name, that’s for sure, in the United States. 

We have different brands. In the European Union, we have Gentle Day, and then in the United States, Genial Day. We weren’t lucky here because there’s a big brand called Gentle Glide Camp. When we tried to register for Gentle Day, they wrote us a note and said we could not. We either had to go to court or refuse Gentle Day. We refused Gentle Day, we found something similar like Genial Day and that’s why it’s Genial Day in the United States, but it’s more [of an] investment. Now, we have to deal with different packaging. If we knew that before we started in Lithuania, we probably would have gone with Genial Day [there] also, but we didn’t know at that time. 

Doria: Hindsight is always 20/20. I feel like first-time entrepreneurs always have these things that they’re learning, and I wouldn’t have known that, either. Now, I realize that one of the very first things one should do when one starts a company is to research the brand name, as you’re saying. Not just for the country that they’re in but globally, just to ensure or understand what the risks are. 

Vilmante: Yes, yes, and again it costs money to register. You have to have an agent who does that, but for small businesses, it’s a lot of money, but you have to do that. If you think globally, you have to do that. 

Doria: Absolutely, and in the U.S., was the process as simple as the EU?

Vilmante: Yeah, since we don’t do registration, we [gave] it to agents — they know better. I know that our agent couldn’t register our brand [in the] United States, so we found another agent in the United States who could. It’s not hard, it takes time, but you have to know what you’re doing. Maybe, again, you can Google [it and do it yourself] but I would prefer to give that to professionals.

Doria: Absolutely. I think what you’re saying is so true. At some point, you do need to outsource certain things, if you can afford to do so because it just makes it so much different to try to do it yourself. 

In the past 20 years, one of the things that I’ve noticed — and I’m sure you have, as well — is that the feminine hygiene market has exploded. I feel like part of that is because there are more women — not enough, but more women — who are involved in thinking about feminine hygiene than men. The market size, for listeners, was $22.2 billion in 2021, globally. It’s projected to reach $32.3 billion in 2028 — so it’s growing about 5.5 percent a year. In your view, what is the role women are playing in the feminine hygiene market?

Revolutionizing the Feminine Hygiene Market

Vilmante: I would say major because we are the users of those products. We need good, comfortable products. Of course, there are companies ruled by men, but I’m doing it from my heart, from my needs. Men are a different story, probably. They are willing to take more risks to grow faster and maybe to get investors. I think because we are the ones using [these] products, we know what we need. With the market being so open right now, you can find factories online that you don’t have to travel to. You can just make everything on email; stuff just got much easier to build your business, to build your brand. [With that] switch in the market, I see a lot of new brands. 

What I see in the United States, I don’t know if it’s our mistake because we came in 2016 but we are still very small [there]. We cannot jump into a higher level of sales. Our sales are still very small but we’re still doing better in Europe, even though the United States market is huge... We only make like 20 percent of the revenue we make in Lithuania. Here, we are a big brand. We are on top. Then, even, in some pharmacies, we are a top brand. In the United States, it’s a different story. 

What I see with brands coming into the United States, is they’re starting to put a lot of money into marketing, millions. I would say [this] because nothing really works — tens don't work, hundreds, thousands don't work. You have to put millions, and then you have to draw investors into your company and maybe sell. Maybe keep just very little of your company. Then, you can scale from your pocket — like us. 

I always look at the Spanx founder, Sara Blakely. I took her MasterClass, even. She’s like my role model because she said they grew their brand from their own money. 

Doria: $5,000, she started with, she says, in her garage.

Vilmante: Yeah, and I believe that we will be there one day but it takes time. We don’t want to sell our company.

Doria: You will. Yeah, Sara, I think you need to listen to SheVentures and know you play a little role here.

Vilmante: Yes!

Getting on Store Shelves

Doria: So, you are in the U.S.... Is it your website only or are you trying to find distribution partners?

Vilmante: We, actually, were in Bed, Bath, and Beyond. 

Doria: Oh, wow.

Vilmante: I say we were because we are not there anymore. We were in CVS, Florida, and, lucky enough, I think around New York. Then, because we wouldn’t put millions into advertisements, women don’t know — when they look on the shelf — what Genial Day is. We were, probably for two years, on shelves and stores for three. Then, we just took the products out because it wasn’t worth it. You still have to pay for those stores and advertisements. You have to do promotions every three months. Now our products are available in natural food stores and some good ones. We are in smaller scale stores and work with three distributors of major natural product distributors. We sell online, too. 

Doria: That’s great. My father told me this once — I don’t know if it’s true — but that you also have to pay in a grocery store for where your product is on the shelf. That also plays a role in how consumers relate to it.

Vilmante: We didn’t have that fee but you have to pay a slight fee, which is very huge once you get into the store. You have to pay a one-time slight fee, and that could be from $2,000 to like $15,000. If you have like we did…

Doria: $60,000?

Vilmante: Yeah, so we wouldn’t do that, but we would pay $2,000, maybe $5,000 for all. But there are different fees involved. It’s painful when you have to take your product out of the store. Then, you lose all the profit — but you had to because you have to pay for that, too. 

Doria: That’s frustrating, and I guess a step back. I have a feeling you’re going to find your way around it.

Vilmante: I think we will, yeah. Thank you so much. 

Education and Destigmatizing Menstruation

Doria: Absolutely, one of the things that I love about your brand is your focus on education. I think that that is so paramount because girls oftentimes aren’t necessarily taught enough about menstruation or it’s stigmatized as something gross, which it’s not. It’s a daily function.

Vilmante: Yes.

Doria: Talk to our listeners a little bit about the role of education in your company. 

Vilmante: It’s very important. What I have learned in 13 years of being in this business is I want to bring this knowledge to women and, especially, to girls. [My daughter] was growing up together with [the] brand. She’s 21 right now but she was 11 when we started, so it was her teenage years.

Doria: Perfect.

Vilmante: It was perfect.

Doria: You could have her, so you could test products [with her].

Vilmante: Yes, and then I knew how important it was to talk to her about menstruation. She would look at my body and then she would see her body. It’s very important to have that connection with your daughter, and I wanted to bring that out because I know how important it is. 

I don’t want girls to feel scared or afraid of menstruation — to think that it’s horrible. If, especially, she doesn’t know what menstruation [is], to have this blood in your pants and think you’re going to die. 

Doria: Exactly. I’ll tell you something, I consider myself fairly educated about women and when one of my daughters got her period — I obviously failed to make this clear — but she thought that she would bleed then, every day for the rest of her life. She was so upset and I couldn’t figure out why. Until we [had a] conversation and then I said, “Oh, no no no, that’s not how this works.” Sometimes a parent can be well-intentioned and you think you’ve said everything that needs to be said, but there’s still [something missing].

Vilmante: That’s why we made very nice, cute books. I will show you.

Doria: Please!

Vilmante: [They’re] for girls. This period book, it’s done by me. I put all the information in — like what’s discharge. It’s very interesting [because] they’ve never had that and now [they do]. We explain when they’re going to have menstruation, what [it] is, this is very important. We have those first period kits that mothers can buy for girls. 

We also have this project like “girls support girls” where mothers buy the kit for girls [and] the other kit goes to a girl in need who doesn’t have a mother. It’s very important, especially from [a] young age. 

Sometimes we get questions from girls like “I got my period, how should I tell my mom about that?” and that’s so sad. It’s like why can’t you say that? Why do you feel so embarrassed about that? We want to change that.

Doria: I think that’s wonderful and the stigma does still exist even in the United States. I have two daughters and they often will ask, “can you see anything from behind?” They’re terrified at the idea of having some spillage — oh, of course, that would be embarrassing — but like, in their minds, it would be devastating. I think that is partially an internalized stigma. 

Stereotypes of Menstruation

Vilmante: Yes, and then another thing is: Women think that their period should hurt, like PMS; we always have to have cramps or some kind of pain. That’s what we want to change, too, because no this is not true. As I [like to] say, our menstruation is a mirror to our health. If something’s wrong with your menstruation or cycle, you have to look deeper. [Things like] cramps shouldn’t be there if you’re eating well, good, healthy food. If you’re taking care of your hormones, if you’re not stressed — stress is very big. It’s very big for our hormones. Then, we get cramps. We have to kind of work with our heads, what’s in our mind, and then take care. Sport is very important. Sometimes women would say, “Oh, I just want to lie down,” if it’s hurting — but a little sport is very good. 

Doria: The worst thing you can do, sometimes, is to just lie on your bed, in a stationary position. 

Vilmante: Yes, even just take a walk. You don’t have to exercise hard but just take a walk. Do a little yoga and that will help. You have to kind of keep it moving — the blood circulation has to be there. We’re also trying to teach women that it’s not normal if you’re always getting pain. You have to look deeper.

Doria: I love that, and a pill is not always the solution, which is very American. 

Vilmante: We’re trying to change that.

Mothers, Daughters & Menstruation

Doria: I love it. The other thing that I’ve noticed is that more and more brands — my daughters are both very into this — are nonsynthetic, organically, derived products. I think your products are like that and it has been something that has been requested. Do you think it’s one of the major selling points of your products?

Vilmante: Yeah, some people will always care about health and the environment. Unfortunately, more people don’t care about their health or environment. I’m not sure what the percentage is but sometimes I ask some questions on Instagram and see maybe 30 percent are more into sustainability. Then, about 60 to 70 percent don’t care. This was something that I care about. What I’ve noticed is, once you start using products — and it was for me — it’s very important that those products will not have harmful chemicals. 

I would say maybe women, once they get [to having] babies, they start learning more and more about all those environmental chemicals [and] how bad they are for your baby. Of course, you start thinking about yourself and how bad it is for you. 

The funny thing, sometimes, is, especially in Lithuania, there are a lot of teens who are using our products and then they get their mothers to use our product. 

Doria: That’s so cool that they’re brand ambassadors.

Vilmante: Yes, and that’s so interesting because we don’t advertise for teens. We just advertise for women. Then teen girls [are getting their] mothers out of those chemical pads or tampons. That’s very interesting. 

Doria: That’s wonderful. One of the arguments I do hear is that one of the reasons why people choose not to go [sustainable] is because it’s more expensive. Is that the case with your products?

The Cost of Being Sustainable

Vilmante: It’s more expensive, yes. When I do tests with absorbency, our pads absorb 120 milliliters, while others absorb about 20 milliliters. You don’t need this huge amount. You’re not going to have so much blood, but you feel more comfortable for longer because you don’t have to change so often.

I remember I bought organic pads to try to use. I sat in the pads for two days and that whole package cost about $5. I was like, “it’s too expensive.” 

Doria: It’s not sustainable.

Vilmante: It’s not always very comfortable for women, so you have to find another choice. Yeah, but all the organic products are more [expensive] and, especially if you want to make plastic degradable. Then, it gets even more. 

We checked the prices because we have this plastic, which we make with calcium carbonate. It’s more sustainable but, again, it’s not organic by a degree. We wanted to change — to buy the degradable — so our path would cost even 40 percent more than it costs now. At this point, nobody can afford such expensive pads. 

Doria: Well, the interesting thing, too, I was thinking, is it's kind of like preventative care in medicine. There are certain things that you might put money in to prevent things down the road. If you look at your product in that way — or any product — that’s organic or natural based, it might be more expensive to produce in the long run. The carbon footprint, the name, or whatever is going to be less in the scheme of things. It isn’t more expensive.

Vilmante: Yeah, and let’s take some women who would get skin irritation while using some kind of pads. Then, they have dermatitis or a virus where they have to buy some medicine to treat it, or infections —– like yeast infections. We get that from pads, too. You have to treat that with medicine. You have to pay for those treatments. You have to educate people. 

I was the same until I was 30 to 40 years old. I thought that periods had to hurt, that you have to have skin irritation because this comes with your period. From my experience now, I know that was not the case. The case was not a good product. 

Doria: Right, that makes so much sense to me. 

Surround Yourself with Family

Vilmante: Every day is a challenge because maybe the biggest challenge is to keep the brand growing. You have to always think about growing your brand, investing in new products, and creating new products. If you stop, you die — that’s the rule of being in a business. As a woman entrepreneur, I’m lucky because I have my husband on my side who I can talk to, we can discuss, and he can give me some advice. It’s a very healthy family atmosphere. and I talk with my kids now. They’ve grown up. It’s always good to have these nice surroundings where I’m not by myself. If I would be by myself, it would be very hard. 

Doria: And with people you trust, right?

Vilmante: Yes, people you trust. You always need advice from someone because to make decisions by one person, just myself would be very hard. You always have [to have] someone. it’s easier. Maybe it’s a mentor or somebody who can give you some advice. but then you’re going to do it your way, but you still have to get some opinions. 

Vilmante’s Biggest Win

Doria: Absolutely, that makes so much sense to me. What would you say has been your biggest win?

Vilmante: My biggest win, I would say, is I do what I love and that’s very important. I’m not stressed, I love my job, and I love creating packaging, creating products, and thinking about new period panties, to make it more comfortable. I’m so very lucky that I found my passion and I can live from it. I think this is my biggest reward.

Doria: Yeah, I think it’s awesome. I think it is great and I’m very inspired by you, based on your experience. What tips would you have for a young female entrepreneur who’s starting out?

Vilmante: Thanks. Yeah, sometimes, it’s just the timing. It’s so interesting. I never thought I would be an entrepreneur. I never thought I would be a businesswoman, even though I graduated in business administration. I never thought, “I will be in business.” Now, people will sometimes call me “businesswoman,” and I’m like “No, I’m more like a creator/developer of products.” 

I think the biggest thing is actually to find what you love to do — it’s very important to find what you love to do, what you’re passionate about. If you are passionate, you will succeed. I don’t see any other way. 

You have to be very patient consistently. This is very important. You have to be patient, you have to take into account money, what you earn, so you don’t lose all your money. You still have to live. You have to keep your family, so you have to really measure everything to be patient and to be consistent. You have to really measure everything and do what you love. This is just from my perspective, but everyone is different.

Connect with Genial Days

Doria: Absolutely, that’s wonderful advice. With that, I’d like to close the podcast with you letting us know where people in the United States and Canada can find your products. Then, also Europe. We don’t have many listeners there but a few.

Vilmante: Yeah, so in Canada, our products are available, actually, in Whole Foods. Then, we have Amazon and we have online. We don’t ship to Canadians, it’s too expensive from the United States, unfortunately. 

Gentleday.com [is our] page, join our Instagram, learn more about health, and join our TikTok.

Doria: What is your Instagram handle?

Vilmante: It’s a “gentleday_eu”. So look for that, and it’s the same for Canada. Then, on TikTok, we have genialday_gentleday and gentleday. I’m not very consistent there yet, but I promised I’d be better.

Doria: I completely understand, and people can also buy on your website in the U.S., correct?

Vilmante: Yes!

Doria: If you were to get an offer from a large company that wanted to buy your brand would you consider it?

Vilmante: Well, it depends. At this point, it’s my baby. I really love what I do. If I sell, I don’t know what’s next.

Doria: What if it’s like a crazy amount of money? What if, all of a sudden, this company comes to you and says, “We’re going to offer you $500 million,” would you take it?

Vilmante: Yeah, I think I’ll take it. Then, I will build another brand and I will still be creating something. Maybe I will go into the underwear category.

Doria: I think that’s wonderful. That is not like a real hypothetical, but you know with Sara Blakely — she’s listening and she may make an offer. 

Thank you so much, Vilmante.

Vilmante: Thank you, thank you. It was a great pleasure, and what you do — it’s really great. I wish you all the best to grow your brand. 

Doria: Likewise, yes. Thank you so much.

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