Target Said No. A Decade Later They Came Back. — with Nancy Yen

Sometimes the best growth strategy is refusing to grow the way everyone tells you to. Takin’ Care of Lady Business 172 Nancy Yen was working as a management consultant and merchandiser at The Gap when a problem she kept running into as a mom sparked the idea for OmieLife. She wanted a better way to pack hot and cold food together for her son, so she started researching, prototyping, and eventually built the product that became OmieBox. But building the company meant ignoring a lot of conventional startup advice. Nancy was told to grow faster, raise venture capital, add technology to the product, and expand into retail before the business was ready. Instead, she focused on profitability, product quality, customer research, and building the brand one step at a time. OmieLife has been profitable since its first year, and nearly a decade after an early conversation with Target, the retailer came back to the brand. In this episode of Takin’ Care of Lady Business, Jennifer Justice sits down with Nancy to talk about bootstrapping OmieLife, learning to trust her instincts, and why the right advice for one founder can be completely wrong for another. Nancy also shares how Kickstarter helped validate the market, why focus became one of her most important operating principles, and what it took to build a consumer brand that could grow on its own terms. What You'll Learn Why Nancy chose profitability over the traditional venture growth model How Kickstarter helped validate demand for OmieBox Why founders need to know when advice does not fit their business How years of patient brand building eventually led OmieLife into Target Highlights: (00:00) Meet Nancy Yen (01:30) When Target said you're not ready yet (02:31) Why you can't run before you walk (04:09) How a lunchbox problem became a business (06:14) Going into people's homes to find the truth (08:58) Why venture capital doesn't fit consumer brands (11:19) The advisor who kept her on a straight path (13:34) How to filter advice and trust your gut (15:28) When no one believes in your vision (20:55) What makes an Omie Box different (24:43) Profitable from day one without VC About Our Guest: Nancy Yen is the Founder and CEO of OmieLife, the consumer products company behind OmieBox, a bento-style lunchbox designed to keep hot and cold foods together. Before starting OmieLife, Nancy worked as a management consultant and as a merchandiser at The Gap. She launched the company after identifying a problem in her own life as a mom and spent months researching how families packed and ate lunch before developing the first product. Today, OmieLife remains a small, fully remote team of nine and has been profitable since its first year in business. The brand has grown from selling through Amazon and its own website to expanding into Target stores nationwide, while continuing to develop new products around the needs of kids and families. Nancy Yen’s LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyyen1/  Explore OmieLife: https://www.omielife.com/  About Jennifer Justice and The Justice Dept. JJ’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-justice-354a0b99 The Justice Dept: https://www.thejusticedept.com/ JJ’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferjusticel/  Newsletter: https://tkolb-newsletter-a50814.beehiiv.com/ JJ’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TakinCareOfLadyBusiness  The Justice Dept. is a female-focused advisory, consulting, and law firm advocating for female founders, talent, execs, and brands. We represent bo$$ ladies to make them 💰💰. If you love what you hear, please subscribe and share with a friend. This is a Lady Business LLC Production.