In this exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Jessica Donati & Rhaelyn Gillespie, co-founders of Mintier, share the story behind their transformative approach to oral care and wellness. From their game-changing Breath Serum to the innovative Mouth Tape that has taken the market by storm, Jessica and Rhaelyn explain how their deep curiosity and commitment to solving real consumer problems have propelled Mintier to success. The duo discusses the challenges and triumphs of building a brand that values intentional design, customer feedback, and continuous innovation. With their passion for creating impactful products and fostering a strong connection with their community, Jessica and Rhaelyn are leading Mintier into an exciting future, aiming to revolutionize both sleep and oral care.
We’re Jessica & Rhaelyn, the cofounders of Mintier. We’re an Ontario-based modern mouth care brand best known for our award- winning products, our first-of-its-kind
Breath Serum and new Mouth Tape.
Mintier began focusing on breath mints and has now expanded into mouth tapes. How do you identify opportunities for product innovation in the oral care space and bring these ideas to market?
We are curious to a fault and constantly trialling every wellness trend we can find chalking it up to market research. We came across this concept of mouth taping, and similar to having a personal problem of wanting fresh breath that lasted longer than a couple minutes, we also wanted to sleep better. We tried a few ‘no name’ brands and it felt like magic, but we were so disappointed in the design, adhesives, and brands. We knew that we could create an intentional design which would include solving every need from making it hypoallergenic to latex-free, using a gentle adhesive that stacks over skincare, and a shape that felt comfortable with a tiny slit so we didn’t get claustrophobic. The intentionality behind our design and mouth tape launch really spoke to our community because we completely sold out in less than a week.
Your Mouth Tape has been incredibly successful, selling out multiple times and winning awards. What does its popularity say about changing consumer attitudes toward oral health and sleep quality?
We have said this many times before but people are searching for solutions to their personal problems. Sleep is the cornerstone of our health, and so many people suffer from poor sleep quality, which often can be linked to something as simple as mouth versus nasal breathing. The oral care benefits of not drying out your mouth all night from mouth breathing, which by the way can be linked to cavities, are a complete bonus to this innovation. What has really been the driver for consumer’s attitudes changing in regards to our brand is that they are not only seeing immediate results, but also sharing their experiences be it online, through word-of-mouth, and directly to us through reviews.
As co-founders, you’ve built Mintier as a two-person team. Can you share insights into your working dynamic and how you’ve leveraged each other’s strengths to grow Mintier?
A lot of people ask us if we’re sisters, which we are not, but we became fast friends and something just clicked between us. We are quite literally always on the same page, but also not afraid to push back on different brainstorming sessions or ideas because it helps us to remain super innovative and flush out different strategic exercises in an intentional way. I think that the main reason our partnership works is because we have always operated with the same values of kindness, respect, and love. At the end of the day, business can be so stressful and because we mesh so well we get to still have fun with it. If I were to give any advice to someone searching for their perfect cofounder it would be don’t go with your head and pick someone who seems perfect on paper. Instead, go with your gut and think about if you will want to go through the trenches with that person on your hardest days of building.
Mintier has experienced rapid growth since its launch in 2021. How do you maintain product quality and customer satisfaction while scaling up production to meet increasing demand?
We say that our suppliers and partners are incredibly patient with us because we have a zero-miss expectation. We aim to work with our partners on a long-term basis and that means that they need to be able to start small with us to test things in the market, trust our launch strategies, and be ready to scale with us incredibly quickly. We are completely upfront about the accountability portion here and how important our customer’s experiences are with the brand, so there really is no room to cut quality or make impactful errors. We’re communicating with these partners on a daily basis and honestly they’ve been able to match our expectations and grow with us because of these upfront, transparent conversations.
Looking ahead, what trends do you see shaping the future of oral care and wellness, and how is Mintier positioning itself to lead in this evolving market?
We can’t tell you all our secrets! No, I’m kidding, but what we can tell you is that we have some products that have gone through a grueling 18-month long R&D process because we’re of the mindset that we will never settle for a finished product that we don’t fully believe in. Big things are coming, but good things take time. This category as a whole is so tired and has lacked disruption for actual decades. We are fully shaking things up and cannot wait to share with you what we have planned with sleep, oral care, launches, events and more!
