I Spent $100,000 Testing My Sock Business Idea

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Allison Strumeyer, cofounder and CEO of doublesoul. It has been edited for length and clarity.

When I was in college at the University of Pennsylvania, I had a side hustle selling T-shirts. I would connect with local artists to feature their work and sell the shirts on campus. I also did pitch competitions with my now-husband, Ben. I’ve always felt very native to entrepreneurship, and I knew I wanted to start my own business.

Yet, when I graduated, I chose to work at BlackRock. It was intentional: I believed working with a global finance company would give me insights valuable to me as an entrepreneur. BlackRock also taught me how to perform at a high level, in everything from communications to project management.

I was at BlackRock for about two years, then joined Mirror, a startup that was acquired by Lululemon. Mirror was smaller and scrappier, and during my four years there, I learned about scaling a startup. The combination of both experiences left me ready to start my own company.

I became really passionate about socks

I always found it interesting that we wear socks more than almost anything else in our wardrobe. But there’s little innovation, product development, branding, or design around socks. I felt the category had been ignored, and I believed that we all deserve socks we’re excited about.

My husband Ben and I became really emotionally attached to the idea of creating better socks. But we wanted to test the market before diving in. We created a prototype and ordered 10,000 pairs — the minimum order, which was about $100,000 worth of socks.

We shared them with pretty much everyone we’d ever met and asked them to post about the socks. That gave us organic sales and — more importantly — proof of our concept. In 2022, we officially launched Doublesoul.

Investment gave me the confidence to leave my job

I chose to stay in my day job as long as possible while we started the company. On social media, people are encouraged to leave their jobs to pursue their own projects, but that felt like dangerous territory to me.

Having that backing gave me the confidence I needed to leave my job. Ben and I knew we would need to sell lots of socks before we could fund a team. But we also wanted to move quickly, so we pursued venture funding. We raised about $2 million.

Leaving my job was emotional. I went to a school where most people went on to high-paying careers, and I was walking away from a secure salary. Even though I knew I was building equity in the business over the long term, that was scary.

I was too pregnant to appear on ‘Shark Tank,’ so my husband went

We had a lucky break early on at the company when comedian Pete Davidson tried the socks and loved them. He started as a customer, but quickly invested. Now, he’s like a third partner to Ben and me.

We were brainstorming unique marketing opportunities and decided to try to get on “Shark Tank.” I was too pregnant to travel when the show taped, so Pete and Ben went.

I didn’t mind missing out: I didn’t have to be nervous, and having Ben there was like having an extension of myself. Ben and Pete called to tell me about the deal with Kendra Scott, the Shark who invested in the company.

We create time daily for family, without business talk

When the show aired last September, our son was 3 weeks old. In many ways, early parenthood mirrors a startup. I’m glad to have Ben at my side for both. Splitting responsibilities and knowing that we share a vision for our future — for the business and our son — is very grounding.

We take a walk most mornings to bring the baby to the park. During that time, we’re not allowed to talk about Doublesoul. We just relax and enjoy a family moment. We need to be intentional about clearing time for our relationship, or it would be too easy to talk business all the time.