Beysis co-founder Ariana Hendry was sitting down at her desk nursing her third coffee of the day when she saw something on her computer screen that caused her mind to go completely blank.
She called over her colleagues to confirm she hadn’t experienced some sort of startup mirage and outside the Beysis office, commuters heard the elated screams of the all-female team confirming the larger-than-life development.
Oprah Winfrey had ordered the customisable Beysis water bottle, declaring that her search for the “perfect water bottle” was over in a video posted to the Oprah Daily Instagram account spruiking — and tagging — the Australian-owned brand.
“And here’s what I love so much…. I was looking for the perfect water bottle,” Oprah said in the video to her 21 million loyal followers.
“I love the smoothness of this one when you pull it out of your bag, and the most important [thing] is having everyone’s name on their water bottle.”
The Beysis team was immediately snowed in by an “avalanche of orders from the US”, with traffic to the website surging over 4366% and sales increasing a staggering 1200%, Hendry tells SmartCompany.
But it was the endorsement from Oprah that meant the most — the talk show matriarch had been a fixture on Hendry’s boxy television when the Aussie founder was growing up in the 1980s.
“We can’t believe Oprah is a Beysis customer,” Hendry said.
“She was the embodiment of female empowerment and shaped my perception of what it meant to be a successful woman in a male-dominated industry, so to have an endorsement from her means more than words can say.”
It turned out Oprah’s team had ordered the customised Beysis bottles to feature in the goodie bags of Ava DuVernay’s lavish 50th birthday party, a three-day Maui extravaganza.
Sure, Hendry along with co-founders Anthea Hendry and Jessica Bryce, had seen the big order with the “Oprah” customisation, but they’d figured it was a die-hard fan, not the larger-than-live woman herself.
It was a watershed moment when the trio realised it was.
“Any SME owner knows that the early years of the business require an enormous level of energy and determination in order for the business to take flight,” Hendry said.
“We launched the business just four months before the start of the pandemic and this presented an additional layer of challenges that we had to overcome.
“So, my initial reaction was one of elation and gratitude that we have been afforded a windfall opportunity to showcase our business to the world — an opportunity which we could not otherwise afford at this early stage of the business.”
Beysis, which sells customised products including iPhone and AirPods cases as well as vases, candles and makeup cases, is a retail lifestyle brand with a purpose.
A percentage of the profits from a selection products are donated to partner Project Change International, an Australian charity and social enterprise that helps women and girls to exit poverty.
Each year, Beysis also commission emerging female artists to design products and packaging to support the network of creative women worldwide.
So what next after receiving the endorsement to end all endorsements? For now, the Beysis team are busy packing and posting the orders pouring in in the wake of Oprah’s video, but Hendry says there are big things on the horizon, too.
“We were already in the final stages of our launch in the US, so Oprah’s endorsement has just expedited our plans for this new market,” she said.
“Early traffic and sales from the states have significantly exceeded our forecast. We had a conservative ramp up profile, but we are now closer to hitting our run rate targets thanks to this amazing exposure.”
Hendry added that there are six new products in the pipeline due to launch in the next quarter, described as “design-focused reusable products that aim to minimise waste”.
“Most Australian states will have legislation in place banning single-use plastics by the end of the year and our goal is to be a market leader for quality, customisable sustainable products,” she said.
Beysis had pencilled in a capital raise for next year to fund the next stage of growth for the blooming business, but now the team is thinking of moving it forward “to capitalise on the momentum we have gained”.
“I’m just incredibly excited for the business and the team,” Hendry said.
Emma Elsworthy is Climate Editor at Crikey, SmartCompany, and The Mandarin, and writes daily morning newsletter the Worm. Before joining Crikey in 2021, Emma was a breaking news reporter in ABC’s Sydney newsroom, a journalist at BBC Australia, and a journalist in Fairfax Media’s regional network. She was part of a team awarded a Walkley for coverage of the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfire crisis, and won the Australian Press Council prize in 2013.
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