#116: Female Tech Founder Noa Gadot is Changing Brand Marketing—For the Better!

Show Notes

Product reviews are not new, but recently they’ve become less trustworthy as influencers charge high fees for their endorsements and more marketing agencies purchase fake reviews. Noa Gadot founded the5starz to change this.
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Today, co-hosts Nola Boea and Lori Vajda sit down with entrepreneur Noa Gadot, owner of the Israeli company the5starz, to hear how she started her game-changing company and what lessons she learned along the way. Find out how this tech CEO brought her incredible marketing solution to market as she shares her inspiring founder story with us.  ​

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In This Episode You’ll Learn 

• The ways in which successful female tech startups founders are exceeding those established by men.
• The surprising and unique skillsets of female tech founders. 
• What support women need to succeed in the startup world?
• Why the biggest barrier to business success isn't gender or gender identity, but something entirely different.

Key points Lori and Nola are sharing in this episode:

(03:13:23) Why and how starting a tech company can have a significant impact on the market and the sector 
(04:38:39) Even without a background in technology, this is how you can start a tech company using the knowledge and experience you have in a particular industry. 
(07:08:43) Whether you stay in the business you start or go back to a traditional career, entrepreneurship teaches you things that will advance your business or career. 
(08:30:09) This is the step-by-step process Noa used to launch her first business, which you can use as a guide to start your own.
(12:05:49) Noa shares the lessons she learned that you can apply to your business journey

Resources 

Guest website: www.the5starz.com

You can subscribe to Lori and Nola's show (we love you and want to make it easy) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Nola: Do entrepreneurs, especially female entrepreneurs, have certain qualities or skills in common? How do they handle risk and adversity? And what drives them to pursue their business in the first place? And where do their creative aha ideas come from? Stay tuned, friend, because in part one of this two-part episode, we'll be talking to journalists and tech startup founder, Noa Gadot, to hear her own entrepreneurial journey. Then be sure to listen to part two when Noa shares what she's learned from interviewing other female founders.
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[00:00:32] Announcer: You're listening to the Sticky Brand Lab podcast where time strapped professionals like you learn how to create a business you love in as little as three hours a week.

[00:00:42] Lori: Founding a successful business is not easy. It's even harder for women to launch a profitable tech company. According to research, male and female entrepreneurs have very different experiences when it comes to funding and getting support. In addition, nearly half, about 48%, of female founders say that a lack of mentors and advisors prevents them from moving their business forward. There's no doubt that data can give us valuable insights. But there's nothing quite like tangible advice from someone who's been there and can offer real world experience to help guide entrepreneurs in the right direction.

Meet Noa Gadot. Before becoming a writer and successful entrepreneur, Noa had an amazing career as a marketing director for several large international companies, including L'Oreal and Estee Lauder. She's the founder of the Israeli company, the5starz, a marketing tech startup aimed at creating 100% honest and authentic content from real people, not influencers. Noa believes that female entrepreneurs are the future of the industry, and that glass ceilings are waiting to burst all around us if we just aim high enough.

In addition to running her startup, she is a journalist for Ctech, a technology news website where she writes a column called, She Inspires. The column is aimed at promoting female entrepreneurs in the industry. Welcome, Noa!

[00:02:18] Noa: Thank you so much.

[00:02:19] Nola: We're so glad you are here.

Before we explore your journey from innovative idea to startup and everything in between, can you give us a big picture understanding of your company? I mean, exactly what does the5starz do?

[00:02:34] Noa: Sure. So basically, what we do is we connect real people, these are people that are just like you and me, and we connect them with brands that are looking to boost their conversion rates. At the moment, conversion for marketing content is 3%, and when you use honest, authentic content, it can boost it by up to 30%.

[00:02:54] Nola: Wow.

[00:02:55] Lori: Wow.

[00:02:56] Noa: Yeah. And on the side, we also are making a super positive impact because we're changing the content that people are seeing online. We're making it honest.

[00:03:05] Nola: That's amazing.

[00:03:06] Noa: Yeah. I mean, when you think about it, think about yourselves, okay? So you're seeing influencer content all the time on social media, right?

[00:03:12] Nola: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:13] Noa: Can you trust that? Do you know, these people are being paid to tell you what the brands want them to say? How can you trust what you're seeing? And so, basically, we're connecting these brands with real people that say really what they think 100%. And that helps people decide what to buy.

[00:03:29] Lori: That brings up a really good point because reviews are really important. So your background in marketing and the fact that you've worked with some very big named brands, authors say, write what you know. And I think that also applies to entrepreneurship. Start a business based on what you know. So can you tell us, how did your previous career and experience in marketing contribute to even the idea that you came up with for starting your business?

[00:04:00] Noa: Sure, I do this every pitch, so I'm very comfortable answering this question. So, I was working at L'Oreal. Estee Lauder. I was a marketing manager for many years, and over the years, I mean we started working with influencers and I have to tell you, I hated every single moment of this.

Really?

It's awful. Working with influencers is very, very A, time consuming, because there's ping pong back and forth until the content is what you want it to be. And B, if you're looking to convert to sales using your content, it's not working because you can't trust it. And so I finished working at Estee Lauder. I went on maternity leave with my second son, and basically decided not to come back. And over time I realized that I think I can do it better. I think I can change this industry. I can create something that I fully trust and really believe in. And so I spoke to my husband. I'm like, listen, this is what I want to do. What do you think? And he was super supportive. He's like, yeah, you know, let's give it a shot. And I kind of started out really small just to see if brands are interested. And slowly I saw, yeah, I'm creating something that's worthwhile for these companies.

[00:05:10] Nola: That's really inspiring because you saw something that made you really uncomfortable about the industry as a whole, about that whole line of marketing, and you decided to take that discomfort and turn it around and do something about it. And that's really inspiring. I mean, talk about inspiration for a business! And founding a tech company, obviously, is a great way to take that depth of knowledge and years of experience that you had in the marketing industry to create that niche focused business.
But for our listeners, let's say we're expanding this in general terms. There's a big difference between using your expertise to climb the corporate ladder and using it to start your own business. So, tell us about taking that corporate knowledge and using it for your own journey into entrepreneurship.

[00:06:01] Noa: Personally, I'm a firm believer in learning first. I didn't even know I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I have to tell you, honestly, I really came out of nowhere. Yeah.

[00:06:10] Nola: You just wanted to fix this problem.

[00:06:12] Noa: Yes. I mean, my dad is an entrepreneur. So I did see it at home. But it's not like I, you know, I didn't build my career thinking, okay, one day I am going to be an entrepreneur. No, I started in the corporate, I learned from the top and the best. Yeah, I mean, Coca-Cola, L'Oreal, these are huge companies. I had like the best school that is possible. And so I am a firm believer in learning first. Especially if you want to be an entrepreneur, because nobody's really there to teach you. You kind of have to use all that knowledge, and that's why, like you said, Lori, before, you want to go into a sector that you know. Because it's hard enough anyway. So if you have knowledge that you're bringing with you, it's going to make it that much easier.

[00:06:53] Lori: Agreed. Because you can build on it. There's some familiarity. But it doesn't have to be exactly the same path. It's just that, as you said, in learning first, that learning never goes away. You can build off of it.

[00:07:08] Noa: I learned so much in the past two years. I look back on the marketer that I was two years ago, and if I were to go back into corporate now, I am 10 times better. Because I know P & L's now. And I know what it's like to pitch to really important people. So I know how to talk, I know how to sell myself. I know how to hire and how to form teams. And there's so much about it that the learning, it never stops.

And when you think about success and failure, most startups, they fail. Most companies, it's part of the process. And if you look at those two years, and I say to myself, how much have I learned? Even if this startup doesn't do well, I have learned exponentially in the past two years. And so it was completely worthwhile, even if it doesn't amount to anything.

[00:07:58] Nola: That's a wonderful attitude. You can't fail. Again, you can only learn.

[00:08:02] Noa: There is no failure because you learned. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:08:06] Nola: I'd like you to kind of go back because you've explained the why behind your startup. You weren't planning to be in an entrepreneur, but you said, I've got to do something about this. And you basically decided to take those steps. Could you now describe the other steps you took? What are those steps? I mean, literally you decided to start a company. How did you go about doing that?

[00:08:30] Noa: First thing I did, like I said, I spoke to my husband. I'm like, listen, this is what I want to do. I want to make sure that I have you on board, because that's an issue. We have two small kids, we have a mortgage, in one of the most expensive cities in the world. So yeah, that was number one. And then number two was kind of to start dreaming about it. I thought, what would my company's name be and what would my logo look like and what would I be dealing with? You know, dreams. Just thinking about it. And then what I did was, you need a team, right? That is one of the most important things for anything we do. So I turned to my dad, who is an entrepreneur, and I said, listen, this is what I want to do. I don't want to do it alone. It's way too hard and do you want to do this with me? And he was like, yes, I would love to do that with you. I can't think of a better thing to do at the age of 73.

[00:09:25] Nola: Wow. That's awesome!

[00:09:26] Lori: That is awesome!

[00:09:28] Noa: Yes. And so we started building it together. And then I kind of said, okay, so I have this whole thing in my head. This is kind of what I want to do, and then let's see if this is of interest to anybody. Because the next thing you want to know, is your dream even relevant? Because you can think about something and your friends and your family will say, wow, this is great. But unless someone is willing to pay for what you're doing, then it stays in the realm of a dream.

I built a site on Wix. I have no idea how to build sites. I'm zero tech, really, zero. And so I built a site because you need that today. And then I started cold calling these companies and saying, hi, this is what we do. I played around with my pricing. I still do. It's like a daily issue. And then at first I was like, okay, I'll do it for free. Let's see if people want it for free. And then I started taking a little bit of money and adding more money and just to see if it's working. And it was. All the time, you're checking. You want to make sure that what you're doing is correct, what people are looking for and what you're giving them, there's a match. So you always have to be open to feedback and to hearing what your customers are saying to you. And so your pitch gets better. How you sell gets better over time.

And then at one point I decided, okay, I want to take this international. And so I made the decision that by April of 21 I'm going to start selling in the US. And I was terrified. I'm like, how am I going to do this? I have no idea. And then I kind of consulted with people because that's another aspect that you need to know to do. And you need to outsource smart. And so there's a lot of research that you're doing.

And then at one point, I realized, okay, this is a nice little business, but it can also be a startup. Because I realized that if I add tech, then I can actually really scale. And that's when I started sitting on business projections and a pitch deck, and I started meeting VCs. And it became this whole other thing, which is difficult in itself, but that's a whole other story.

[00:11:35] Nola: So you basically were doing the bootstrapping method.

[00:11:40] Noa: Yes.

[00:11:40] Nola: And then you realized if you had the right technology behind you, that would enable you to scale it. And that's when it became a startup? Thats' awesome. Yes. Very cool. You had said that it was constant evaluation and with each one you had to pivot. So that tells me that you were constantly looking to see what you were learning. And my question is, what are lessons that you did learn that would be applicable to our listeners?

[00:12:09] Noa: I can split it kind of into two. The actual business, the work side of it and kind of the personal emotional side of it. With the business, you want to set goals for yourself, and you want to make them completely obtainable. Because a goal that is unobtainable is always just going to keep you frustrated. And goals that are too small, then you're not challenging yourself. So you really need to understand what are the goals? Where do you want to go? Where do you see yourself in the next two months, the next six months, the next year? And you always have to kind of adjust to make sure that you're on that right path. And one of the most important things that I'm going to say is do not fall in love with what you're doing. Ever.
Oh. 

Because once you do, all the signs are kind of going to point to that. And then you're not learning, you're not listening to feedback anymore. You're like a horse-drawn carriage. You need to always ask yourself. Is this really the right way? Is this really what I need to do? Don't fall in love with it. And that's a hard thing to do because a startup is like your baby.

[00:13:14] Nola: Yes. That would be hard to do.

[00:13:16] Lori: It is. It's a lot of why Nola and I felt that Sticky Brand Lab podcast was so important, and correct me if I have misunderstood what you are suggesting. But what we have found from our experience that led us to start this was that often people pay money for aspects of their business, and then when that is no longer valuable or they're no longer enjoying it, they won't change because in their mind, they paid big money. So we wanted to give aspiring entrepreneurs low cost, no cost or DIY tips and techniques that they could do while they were establishing kind of that foundational piece. Who do you want to work with? And what aspects of the business do you love doing, and what might you need to hire out because you don't enjoy doing? So invest in the future, but invest where you know you're going to get the most bang for your buck, and in the beginning do things that aren't going to cost as much because it opens you up

[00:14:25] Noa: Free!

[00:14:25] Lori: Yes! It gives you the opportunity to change.

[00:14:28] Noa: There's so many free options.

[00:14:31] Nola: Yep. So you've covered the lessons learned from the business aspect. So tell us what you learned personal and emotional. Yes.

[00:14:41] Lori: And also, what is it like partnering with your dad? Because that's definitely emotional and personal.
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[00:14:47] Nola: That's personal and emotional.

[00:14:49] Noa: Oh my gosh, yes. So I mean, it's a rollercoaster ride. We've heard this from everyone. It's a rollercoaster ride. You need to come in understanding that and not to be surprised by that because life is that way and when you are sailing the ship, then life is that way times 10. So I think having the correct support system obviously is important, but it's kind of what you tell yourself daily. I will have days that are through the roof. Wow. Amazing. I am the best thing since sliced bread. And then there are days where you're like, oh my God, what am I doing? I'm wasting my time. This is a complete failure. I should stop. And it's kind of talking to yourself as you go along, saying, it's okay. Everything's okay. Nothing is irreversible. There is no failure. Calm down and breathe. Talk to someone. You need to be there for yourself, first of all. And if you can do that, everything becomes easy.

[00:15:52] Lori: That's really helpful advice, because so often women feel like we have to do it right, right from the start. That we can't show what we don't know, because somehow that'll reflect poorly on us. But you're saying just acknowledge it, lean into it, go with it.

[00:16:11] Noa: Yes. And 100% understand that you are not perfect. Society expects you to be this perfect mother, perfect wife, perfect entrepreneur, perfect friend. And when you have so many balls up in the air, you're not going to be perfect at anything. You can be a better mother at a certain point in time. You can be a better entrepreneur at a certain point in time. You're not going to be perfect at all of them, and you need to understand that and accept that. Otherwise, you're just going to hurt yourself. You're going to suffer. I mean, a lot of women are perfectionists. That's kind of the deal. And society expects that of you and you have to be able to go against the grain and say, okay, so that didn't work out. I was not my best mom today. And that's okay. As long as I'm happy and I'm doing what I want to do, my kids will see that. And even if I had a bad day, so what? They're not going to remember that. They're going to remember the successful mother. The happy mother. That's what's important.

[00:17:05] Nola: That is such a relief to hear.

[00:17:08] Lori: It is. It definitely is.

[00:17:10] Nola: Wow.

[00:17:10] Lori: It definitely is.

[00:17:11] Nola: That is simple but profound.

[00:17:13] Noa: We don't talk about it enough, but it should be out there.

[00:17:16] Nola: Wow. I'm so glad you shared that.

[00:17:18] Lori: And how is it working with your father?

[00:17:20] Noa: I love my dad to bits. I'm an only child, so it kind of makes it easier because there's no jealousy or whatever. And I mean, nobody is in my corner more than my father. So that's a real comfort. On the other hand, there are difficulties because I don't want to hurt his feelings. Many times, I find myself kind of working around things just to make sure that he doesn't get hurt by something. But I don't think there's perfect anywhere. So if I have someone in my corner that I can 100% trust, then that's worth any difficulties that I would have otherwise.

[00:17:57] Lori: I think that's really important.

[00:17:59] Nola: Absolutely.

[00:17:59] Lori: Thanks for sharing that part. Now I want to switch gears just a little bit to talk a little bit more about the5starz. In recent years, influencers and bots and paying for followers have really replaced what sites like Yelp and other review sites were designed to do. So, the fact that you created the5starz, can you speak and tell us about your experience? You kind of alluded to it with the influencers, but just the experience in general about getting authentic reviews and anything else that you were hoping to use to resolve or solve problems that led you to create this business?

[00:18:45] Noa: First of all, there are a few trends going on that I noticed, that pushed me in the direction. The first one is the world is moving from what used to be like celebrity influencers, Beyonce or Santa Claus. And slowly it was working its way down to macro influencers, micro influencers, nano influencers. And I'm like, I mean, the next level is just regular people. It's going in that direction. And so, that was the first thing that makes complete sense.

The second thing is that people are kind of getting over influencers. We've had it as a trend for quite a few years now, and slowly but surely, people are getting sick of it. And I was kind of trying to think, okay, what would be the next big thing after influencers and just generally the fact that you cannot trust what's going on in an ad. Obviously it's the brand's ad, so you're like, okay, so you're taking that with a grain of salt because the brand's ad. And with influencers for a very long time, at the beginning, nobody understood how it works, that they're actually getting paid to say these messages, and that's only influencers. If we look at the world of reviews, can you really trust what you're reading on Amazon or eBay? No. It's, and that's a scary thought, right? Because I don't know about you. I read reviews all the time before I purchase things. Almost anything. And if I can't trust what I'm reading, what kind of world are we living in? Right? Because why not trust?

[00:20:13] Lori: You bring up a, I think a really important point of being able to trust the review. Even in medical professional, like I was looking for a new doctor, we moved to a new area. I saw a doctor with over 500 reviews. Now that in and of itself was a red flag for me. How do you get that? And the overwhelming number was five stars. Well, anybody who goes to medical professional knows you're not going to get kind of consistency.

[00:20:46] Noa: Not even close.

[00:20:47] Lori: Exactly. So as I was reading the reviews and I'm getting farther down in reading and it occurs to me that these sound very similar. There's no substance in the review. It's just wonderful doctor, wonderful office. Wonderful doctor, wonderful office. And it made me question how authentic was what I was reading. And that led to a very negative perception of that medical doctor. Yes.

[00:21:16] Nola: So it kind of boomeranged.

[00:21:18] Noa: Yes.

[00:21:19] Lori: Is that what you were hearing from brands as well, who had been using influencers or using bots? That their own customers were doubting the authenticity?

[00:21:30] Noa: I don't think they know. I really don't. I don't think that brands are saying, oh yeah, people that must be doubting us all the time. I don't think that's kind of the conversation that's going on. I looked at it more as a consumer myself. When I have a sales call, I have brands asking me, well, what if the review isn't good? Well, first of all, the ideal rating for a product or a service is 4.2 stars. It's not five. Just for that same reason, because if you're seeing 5, 5, 5, you're like, okay, that's fake. Even if it's real, you're like, okay, that's fake. Yeah, I'm not doing that. And then I will tell them, if nine out of 10 people did not like your product, guys, I'm doing you a favor. You should be happy that I have found this out using my people and not just any customer.

[00:22:15] Nola: That's a good point. For someone who is just getting started in business and they have not really had the track record yet to even collect online reviews, what can they do? Are there any tips you can give them?

[00:22:28] Noa: Definitely. One of the most important things is your brand's personality online and your reputation online. And so first of all, have a website, have an Instagram page, have a Facebook page. Your presence is important. People, when they're searching, they're searching for you. Have a Google Page. And if they don't find you, that's a problem. They're going to see, oh wow, maybe it's a kind of small company. I don't know if I can trust that. So have pages. I know it's super tedious because you have to manage these pages, but it's important and it's worthwhile. And so I would do that.

And then the second thing I would say would be, talk to your customers. Give them the best customer support in the world. Because that is the best way to receive 100% authentic and free reviews. Make sure that every person that walks through your door or enters your site is a happy person. And if they write about you online and they're writing bad things, don't erase that. Reply to them. Oh, we're so sorry to hear that you had a bad experience. We would love to hear more. And mean it. Don't just write that, really mean it. Understand why your customers are unhappy. Even if it's one customer. It's tedious, I know. It's hard to do. But if you really want positive word of mouth, you need to bring a positive attitude to your customers.

[00:23:57] Lori: That's very important. And I think just even asking somebody to give you feedback.

[00:24:03] Noa: Oh yeah, definitely.

[00:24:05] Lori: If you don't ask, then people who aren't happy with your service, they may just disappear. But if you've asked and they let you know, as you said, it gives you an opportunity to improve your business, to respond to them, and that lets other potential customers see that you're not perfect, but you are responsive.

[00:24:27] Noa: Exactly. I have one more thing. Super important. Just thought of it. Lots of companies that I meet and that I talk to, they want content. Everyone wants content. And so for some reason they think that content is just going to magically appear around their product. That doesn't happen ever, unless you're, I don't know, your product is saving the world or whatever, but generally people don't want to create content about your product. And when you're talking about the features of your product, you can't expect people to get excited. It's like, I'm going to ask you, Nola, Lori, can you create content for my TV? And you're going to be like, no. Why would I want to co-create content for Panasonic? No, I don't want to do that. So when you're creating the messaging for your company, make sure your messaging is resonating with other people on a level that is not talking about features, it's talking about how you are really helping these people.

[00:25:26] Nola: Mmhmm.

[00:25:27] Noa: Do you understand what I mean?

[00:25:28] Lori: Yes. The benefits, being in service to others as a business owner.

[00:25:34] Noa: Yes.

[00:25:34] Nola: That's a very good point.

[00:25:35] Noa: High level.

[00:25:36] Lori: Very, very much so. Noa, before we say goodbye to you, one of the things, given your experience and your journey in entrepreneurship in your company, what would be the lasting impact that you would like to make in the world?

[00:25:53] Noa: Wow. Big question. Very big. Very deep. Very deep. Ideally, influencers, they're going to be there. They're going to be there for many years to come, and that's okay. That's fine. They're very good for creating awareness. They're very good for creating engagement. They are NOT good at conversion. If marketing is like a pie, using real people to create content for your brand is kind of the final solution to that pie. And when you look at what you're doing for the world, you're creating content that other people can trust. And how great is that when you believe in your product enough to use someone who's going to say what they really think? And so ideally, my company adds that piece of the pie to a marketing budget and to have lots of people creating authentic content online that we can actually trust.
[00:26:48] Nola: I love that.

[00:26:49] Lori: Yeah, for sure. Great business model.

[00:26:51] Nola: Bringing trust and authenticity into the marketing and business world is a very worthwhile goal and worthwhile "why." It's a good why.

[00:27:01] Lori: It is a good why. Start with why. There you go.

[00:27:05] Nola: Yep. Well, thank you Noa, for being our guest. If someone wants to learn more about you or your company, the5starz, where should they go or how can they connect with you?

[00:27:16] Noa: So, we have a website, www.the5starz.com. It's t h e 5, number five, starz with a z, dot com. And I'm on LinkedIn. Noa Gadot, you know, you can look me up. Happy to help.

[00:27:28] Nola: Thank you. We'll be sure to put those links in our show notes as well. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope it inspires and encourages you to start your entrepreneurial journey so you can create your best and most exciting business and life. If you found the information shared here today helpful, let us know by posting here where you're listening, or on our Facebook page.

[00:27:50] Lori: Not sure how to turn your idea into a profitable side business? Contact us at stickybrandlab.com/contact. We'd be happy to help you.

[00:27:59] Nola: Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative, inspiring, and motivating episode. And remember, action creates results. So tap into your desire to create a business and brand you love by taking 1% action every day. Small steps, big effects.

[00:28:18] Noa: I have a website, the5starz.com, dot cohaha

[00:28:23] Lori: It took you long enough. It's at the end.

[00:28:25] Noa: My turn.

[00:28:26] Nola: That's okay.

[00:28:29] Lori: She,

[00:28:30] Noa: Dot com.

[00:28:33] Lori: Go for it.