Well Made

73 Testing Things with Jenny Gyllander, founder of Thingtesting

Episode Summary

On the Thingtesting Instagram, Jenny Gyllander offers her perspective on DTC goods from the lens of a consumer and venture capitalist.

Episode Notes

It was Jenny Gyllander's passion for branding and her studies and experiences in venture capital that led her to start Thingtesting — an Instagram account dedicated to DTC product reviews with a twist. On the Thingtesting Instagram, Jenny, a former CMO of Slush and investor at Backed VC, offers her perspective from the lens of an everyday user and venture capitalist. A year later, she’s amassed over 22K followers, an accompanying newsletter, and website.

On this episode, Jenny illuminates on the backstory on how she found herself in marketing to venture capital to best VC on Instagram (1:56). Jenny’s tested everything from prescription face wash to probiotics, she shares the three factors she looks for as a venture capitalist (6:18). A year and a half ago, Jenny didn’t know the term DNVB was, she shares how she uses the platform as a tool for constant learning (11:55). Stephan and Jenny discuss the difference between the US and European retail market (17:23), and the problems with homogeneity in the DTC space (25:12). Jenny shares how she balances her curation (29:39). As Thingtesting grows, Jenny considers her long term plans, hoping to make product discovery easier and crowdsource feedback (33:06). Jenny questions how she’ll stay scrappy while fostering her growing community (35:02). Finally, Jenny talks about her larger role as a thingtester (42:46).

Also mentioned on the show:

Links and images can be found on the Lumi blog.