Raph: Just thinking about like the people involved in your business
you're, what you're creating here.
I feel like the way you talk about like what it is and giving
parents a space to take a break and kids having a fun experience.
I, It sounds very community minded.
and kind of curious if you can talk a little bit about that, like
what community means, for you
Alex: Community is such a big importance to what I'm doing at Bubbles.
As a mom who went through postpartum depression, not having an outlet
to just get out of the house, with my baby at the time and talk
to other moms was a challenge.
I managed to get through it and I did find my community, but I want
Bubbles to be that space for new parents who do need an outlet.
If you need a cup of coffee, come over, like I'll hold your baby for you
while you sit and have a little cry.
Like, no problem.
It doesn't have to just be about hair.
It really is about creating that environment for people to go
through what they're going through.
So these things exist, but they don't really exist in
the area where I'm living now.
So just creating a business that really puts women and families at the
forefront is really important to me.
I'm not going to do it if it doesn't work for women.
And then the other aspect of the impact from the kids perspective is again, giving
them a space where they can be themselves
and, Letting them use things that are designed for them.
Nothing is designed for children.
There's playgrounds and stuff like that.
But those are public spaces.
There's not that many businesses that are like, Hey, what do you want to do?
What's going to be fun for you?
Let's do it.
Raph: Hey folks and welcome to another episode of the sustainable tech podcast.
Today.
I've got another amazing guest.
I met her at startup Fest during the summer.
And I just was really inspired by the way, she talked about her business, her
background, the things she'd been doing and the intersection of technology,
community building, and all kinds of other stuff that just kind of bubbled
together and bubbled is really the, the word to use here because she
is Alex Weaver Crawford founder of bubbles hair care for kids and she's
got an extensive background in design in communications in the tech sector.
And she's applying that stuff in a bunch of different ways with this new
venture bubbles haircare for kids.
Before the interview, it really struck me the way she talked about
community and purpose and these things in terms of building a business but
that felt so much more concrete after I interviewed her for the podcast.
I think what she's building and this sort of community centered effort to create a
space that feels supportive for parents, for women, for kids is really inspiring.
So I hope you enjoy listening to the interview.
As much as I enjoyed recording it.
Here's my chat with Alex.
Hey Alex!
Alex: Hi, Raph.
How's
Raph: How's it going?
I'm doing alright, how are you?
Alex: I'm good.
I spoke over you, didn't I?
No, I'm great.
It's so great to see you again after StartupFest.
Raph: You too!
How have things been?
Alex: Things have been really good.
Uh, I've been traveling quite a bit this summer, uh, and, uh, we're just
about to sign the lease on Bubble's flagship location here in St.
John.
Raph: Amazing!
Cool!
So, yeah, with that, how about you tell us a little bit about Bubbles?
What is Bubbles?
Alex: sure.
Um, Bubbles Haircare for Kids is a hair salon concept exclusively
for kids that makes it fun for them and easy for their parents.
So really, it's a hair salon.
Kids can come in.
We've got decor that's specific for kids, make them feel comfortable and welcome.
And the process is easy for parents, so they can prepay for appointments.
Moms or parents with long hair can come in for blowouts while
their kids play in our play area.
It's really just something that's designed for kids because there's
not a lot of things in this world that are specifically for kids.
Kind of giving parents a bit of a break.
So, you know come have a coffee get a blowout get your kids
a haircut and Just have fun.
That's that's what we're all about
Raph: That's awesome.
So I'm kind of curious, how, how did you, A, decide uh, that you wanted to,
to build this and sort of what, what in your uh, led you to to figure out
that there was, there was this problem?
Um, yeah, what happened?
Alex: It's a really good question.
And what happened to you is sort of like a good way to frame it to be honest Maybe
I'll dive into a bit of my background with the caveat of you don't have to do
what you studied in school to do what you want to do with your life, because,
I mean, I started off with a business degree, and then I dabbled in fine
art, so I ended up with an undergrad in business and fine art, so I knew I
Raph: Love it.
Alex: creative, but my, like, Calgary oil and gas family past forced me into
business, but I'm so glad I haven't.
I'll get back to that.
Um, so with the creativity part, I decided to go down the path of
design and specifically architecture.
So I have an undergrad, another undergrad in architecture and
a master's in architecture.
So that's kind of, I spent my twenties as a full time student
and, um, you know, popped out at 30 being like, Oh, what the heck?
Like, What am I actually going to do with my life now that I have
this, like, massive skill set, um, and, and not really interested in
pursuing capital A architecture.
And when I say architecture, I mean building science and not software
engineering and architecture.
I might as well mention that on this podcast.
Raph: On the tech podcast, yeah.
Alex: Yeah.
Um, so right after graduation, I went into opening essentially
my own creative agency.
So with my husband, he's a software engineer.
We did website design, branding.
I know you and I spoke about this quite a bit at StartupFest because it's what
you're doing too, uh, with really the goal of just making things look good and
work really well for other businesses.
So I had this.
This, I got to work with great companies and small shops and small businesses and
artists create how they want to present themselves in the real world through
architecture and branding and online.
But I always wanted to do something for me and I never really got to do that.
And, and I, I was always looking for something that, that I could
design and build like how I had been designing and building for my clients.
in my creative firm.
So that was, that was always kind of low key in the background,
like, what are you going to do?
You're going to put, you're going to want to build something.
How are you going to make this happen?
Um, and then I became a parent seven years ago.
And my daughter has, Really thick, long hair.
Like, well, she was born with quite long hair for, for a baby, but she has long
hair now and it was like impossible to get her hair cut and everything sucked.
Like she didn't like going to the hairdresser.
I love going to hairdresser, so I thought it would be this neat experience that
I bring my kids to the hairdresser, my hairstylist didn't want to cut kids hair.
Yeah.
And I was like, Oh crap.
Like, where do I take her?
Cause she has, she needs a haircut anyway.
So, you know, I dabbled with like at home haircuts and she looked like a bit of like
an indie rock star for a bit with like uneven bangs and like mismatched lengths.
And I mean, she looks great.
Whatever she does doesn't matter, but it didn't feel like how I wanted it.
And growing up in Calgary, we had this salon called Beaners
Fun Cuts for Kids, and they did, and that's what I grew up with.
So you just, I was kind of like, where's the kids hair salon in Atlantic Canada?
Um, so that was kind of, again, in the back of my mind.
Um, and about 2018, my husband and I went to Australia,
where he's from, in Melbourne.
And, um, they have kids hair salons, and we brought our
daughter into one of these salons.
And I looked around and I was like, this is an amazing experience for her.
There's chairs that are shaped like airplanes.
Um, everybody is really nice.
Things are child sized.
So, you know, there's low, low level sinks.
So when she goes to the washroom, she can wash her hands and
it's right sized for her.
But that never happens.
Always a really great experience.
That really set it off for me, Raph.
And that's when I was like, I can do this.
I can do this better.
And
it's no doubt on where we went, but using that skillset that I talked
about, I can design and build and market and brand and create an experience.
That's really fun for kids.
And I don't need to hire anybody to do it like I have it.
Oh, caveat.
I don't cut hair.
I actually have to
hire
Raph: That is, that is one thing.
Alex: Yeah.
So besides the actual cutting of hair, which I'm sure we'll get into,
Raph: Yeah.
Alex: that's kind of how I got to where I am.
That's what happened to me.
You want to open a kid's hair salon.
Raph: Nice.
I love I'm kind of okay.
So you, you decide you want to do this thing that you've seen in a
couple other places, and you think you can bring your skill set to
improve the experience, the business.
what, What specifically do you think, like your, your background, uh,
like is, what is in your background that, that's going to make this, uh,
A special, different, like, what's the unique thing about bubbles?
Alex: Well, you, with my skillset, it really is that kind of merge of design,
both physical design, so architecture and spatial building, um, mixed with
the branding and then mixed kind of with my husband's skillset of creating, um,
technological solutions that work better.
So an example of that is, oh my God, like, I don't know if you have
it out in Vancouver, you're in BC.
Raph: I am in Vancouver.
Alex: Um, like if you go to a barbershop, sometimes you
can't even pay with your card.
Like it's cash only.
So like things like, Hey, guess what?
We're going to be able to offer you payment with your card.
You can tap or you can prepay.
So when you're
Raph: Online booking?
Alex: your kid, you can online book.
So it's just those types of things.
Yeah, I know.
How, how is it 2024 and like 90 percent of hair salons aren't using.
easily accessible technology to help their processes.
So mix kind of the design aspect and the marketing from my past with like
the ability to apply, um, technology.
And I think it's really an easy thing for us to do.
That's not easy for everybody else.
Raph: Yeah, that, that makes a lot of sense.
And on the flip side, okay, so that's what you bring to the table
and, and from your background.
And then brick and mortar, like, I feel like that's very different.
You didn't say anything previously about ever doing anything brick and mortar.
So
what's what's that side of things?
Alex: It's, it's stressful.
And I think, um, as we talked about in Montreal at StartupFest, I've been looking
at this physical location to open the shop for like months now and like, Somehow
the landlord has, like, graciously let me
delay and delay and delay signing the lease.
It is scary, and I don't have a lot of experience in that, but again,
I do have experience, um, you know, we've done a little bit of
residential development, for example.
So I have that experience where it's not, again, it's not brick and mortar
shop, but it is physically building.
I know it's still not the same, but, um, another great thing, and I'll give a
plug to Propel, which is an accelerator that I'm currently with, they pair
you up with a mentor and my mentor, had exited after building a successful
chain of restaurants in Atlantic Canada.
And his wife is a hairstylist, so having him as part of my team, although not
formally, he doesn't have any stake in the business, but having him to talk to
every week and talk about things like.
Is this lease look okay to you or is it going to like screw me over?
Those types of questions from somebody who has gone through the brick and
mortar experience where he had not done that in the past has been really
helpful and has like bolstered my confidence to be able to do it.
Raph: nice.
That's awesome.
Um, I'm curious, what's been like the most, uh, I don't know, the most different
sort of thing, like the thing that you've learned that you're like, oh, that
is, that is not what I was expecting.
Alex: Um, the hair is the hair industry in general.
Like, um, let me give you an example.
And I was looking for employees and I was like, oh, great, I'll put an ad out.
You can't advertise for a barber and a hairdresser at the same time.
You have to be one or the other.
These are
like two boring factions, like, you, you can't be a salon and a barber shop
at the same time, so there's no way I could hide, there's, and this is,
this is kind of like topical in St.
John because there's so many barber schools here, but there's
very few hair stylist schools.
So I was like, great, I'll open this hair salon and I'll hire barbers.
No, like you can't get insurance.
If you do that, you are not going to be able to like, please either association.
You will not be able to get a certificate of business, like from either of
them, if you try to mix the two.
So early on, I learned that they're very different, but.
They're not different, but they're different in that you can't, you
can't have both at the same time.
So that's been really interesting.
Um, learning about what motivates hairstylists as employees has
really been a big thing for me.
What I've landed on in terms of the HR package and compensation is really
like, hey, I'll pay you more and you don't have to deal with the day to
day drama that you might be dealing with at a high end hair salon where
there's multiple egos and personalities.
And no offense to any of them because they have helped me get to where I've been,
but it was just something that I wasn't aware of before I started this journey.
Raph: Yeah, that makes sense.
Just thinking about like the people involved in your business
you're, what you're creating here.
I feel like the way you talk about like what it is and giving
parents a space to take a break and kids having a fun experience.
And I, it sounds very community minded.
Um, and kind of curious if you can talk a little bit about that, like what
community means, for you and maybe also dig into like, like, your vision
and mission and your impact and yeah, how you frame all of those things.
Alex: sure.
I'm glad that you brought that up, Raph.
Like, community is such a big importance to what I'm doing at Bubbles.
As a mom who went through postpartum depression, not having an outlet
to just get out of the house, with my baby at the time and talk
to other moms was a challenge.
I managed to get through it and I did find my community, but I want
Bubbles to be that space for new parents who do need an outlet.
If you need a cup of coffee, come over, like I'll hold your baby for you
while you sit and have a little cry.
Like, no problem.
It doesn't have to just be about hair.
It really is about creating that environment for people to go
through what they're going through because they don't really exist.
Honestly, at least where we are here in Atlantic, Canada.
And that kind of runs into employees as well, as like a female
entrepreneur and business owner.
I want to make businesses that work for women.
So, um, for example, the first stylist that I've hired, she's got a couple
of kids and there's a gap between three and five where her kids are,
maybe they're going to go to daycare.
We're not sure yet.
We're still working that out.
But for
Raph: yeah.
Alex: it's important for that, that works for us.
So we're going to, there's a space in the salon where we're going
to be able to bring our children.
Raph: I love it.
Alex: Yeah, so it's like, I want this to be able to work for us.
I don't want her to feel that, okay, it's either my career
or being a stay at home mom.
I'm really trying to bridge the gap and bring it together.
This is not popular, but I did have, I've heard of this before.
I mean, I've worked at architecture firms that have had childcare in the building.
So these things exist, but they don't really exist.
In this, in the area where I'm living now.
So, um, again, just creating a business that really puts women and families at
the forefront is really important to me.
And I was talking to someone the other day, I'm not going to do
it if it doesn't work for women.
Like, I'm just not going to.
So those things are really important to me.
And then the other aspect of the impact from the kids perspective is again, giving
them a space where they can be themselves
and, you know, letting them use things that are designed for them.
Nothing is designed for children.
There's playgrounds and stuff like that.
But, um, but those are public spaces.
There's not that many businesses that are like, Hey, What do What do you want to do?
What's going to be fun for you?
Let's do it.
So, um, and then because they have a space for themselves and, uh, stylists
who are listening to what they want to do and how they want to project who they
are through what their hair looks like.
Uh, is really important and it builds confidence and, and self esteem.
And that's the other half of it that's super important to me is I don't
care what, what it looks like, but as long as those kids leave, leave
the door feeling like they look a hundred percent to them, awesome.
Raph: Nice.
I
love it.
Alex: So that's really important to me too.
Raph: Cool.
Um, I'm, I want to go down a little path here that I don't know
how, how we'll make, how we'll
Alex: Go down the
Raph: I'm kind of curious because this is a tech podcast after all.
Like if you can talk a little bit more about like how tech fits into your
business, whether it's operationally, whether it's on like the customer side,
whether it's, um, any of those things.
And I guess also more how like your background, uh, like helps
you integrate those things and how you think about tech in the context
of building a business like this.
Mm
Alex: Yeah, I, it's obviously a good thing to talk about for your podcast and for me.
And I had a bit of time to think about this and like, what's my tech stack?
Like I use it, I use so many different pieces of technology every day and
I haven't even opened the doors yet.
So like I mentioned, we use Square for POS, um, scheduling our appointments
and scheduling our employees.
Um, That's amazing.
I've been really impressed with them actually, because I thought
with my marketing experience, I would need to use HubSpot.
And we do use that, but, but Square really has most of the CRM
capabilities that I need, which is again, awesome, because it's a lower
cost to just use one rather than two
. Other things like for design wise, I use the Adobe Creative Suite to create
a lot of my, um, Designs, and then bring them into Canva to create the assets
with them so I can share with people.
So, the ability to share things on Canva is great.
And I used to be a Canva hater, but now
I
Raph: yeah,
Alex: forget.
Like, don't tell anybody.
Raph: I have the same transition,
Alex: It's like embarrassing to say almost.
And the other thing that I use all the time is Chat GPT and like
Canva's like native AI piece as well to help me write my content.
Like, it's, it's good.
And like, I know people were talking about it, but I was always kind of like, okay,
I use it, but I don't talk about it.
But I thought it'd be good to mention it on a podcast.
Like, Like,
I use Chat GPT.
Yeah, I read it and have to edit it.
But.
Especially the Canva's AI, like, I feel like it's got my brand voice now.
Like, we've really trained it to be able to use the type of tone that we want.
So that's been really amazing.
And it saves so much time.
So, yes, definitely an AI adopter over here.
And, You'd never think this.
I remember at Startup Fest, somebody, we're in a loud networking setting.
I think you were nearby because I told you about this.
Um, and this lady couldn't quite hear what I said.
And she goes, are you using AI to cut kids hair?
No, but yeah, like, no, um, there's not like a Edward Scissorshand robot
by like an LLM or whatever, but I use it in my marketing strategy
and it's a huge tool for me.
So, that's how I use it.
And then on top of that, like I mentioned, we're building, um, our physical space.
So I use AutoCAD and for 3D modeling, I use SketchUp.
There's so much tech in my every day and it helps me be able to communicate with
my customers and helps them be able to book and pay for their appointments and
for me to help schedule my employees.
So it really is a tech enabled startup and People would never know
that if you don't talk about it.
Raph: yeah, that's awesome, I love it.
I'm curious, how do you, like, what's your process when you, like,
how do you evaluate a technology?
How do you decide, like, okay, this is going to be the thing
I'm going to use, and why is it?
I don't know.
I have a tendency to just try everything and just be like,
oh, cool, let's just, yeah.
Alex: Yeah.
I try, I've tried everything.
Like I've, I've used a few different design softwares to kind of get
where, to where I want, or like websites, another one, like, do I
want to use a Squarespace site and pay for it for the rest of my life?
Or can I actually make WordPress work for me without putting too
much, you know, time and energy into making something that will inevitably
break because a plugin won't work.
And then it's so like
I try everything too.
And, and again, as, as a creative agency, like you guys, like you, it
really depends on the application, but I've tried a lot of different things.
And I, and I've really settled on what works.
Again, the good example is like the HubSpot.
I thought I would just give all my money to HubSpot and, and that would be great.
And I could do all my, my intake forms and everything right there.
But then when I found out that Square does it too at a much,
Raph: Yeah.
Yeah.
Alex: And remember to cancel the subscriptions when you
decide to not use it anymore.
Because the amount of things that I'm just paying for in the
Raph: So many subscriptions.
Yep.
I heard recently about like these, I mean, they're more enterprisy,
but like the subscriptions to manage subscriptions, like tools to help
you manage your SaaS products.
I'm just like, I feel like soon we'll just have SaaS products to
help manage the SaaS products that help manage the SaaS products.
Like
Alex: Oh my God.
It's so, it's so crazy.
It's a, it's a little meta thinking about that.
It's a bit too much.
To be honest.
Raph: Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, I'm curious if you can like, tell me, so.
I feel like you've just been an entrepreneur for
for forever, it seems like.
like, How did you, did you decide to step into entrepreneurship?
Did you just kind of trip and fall into it?
And like, maybe you can talk about Entrepreneurship specifically in,
uh, in New Brunswick, like, uh, I've talked to, uh, Fred Lafarge
a couple episodes ago, who spoke a little bit to that, but yeah, like,
what's, what's your story like in that
context?
Yeah.
Alex: one because I think the trip and fall analogy that
you mentioned is very true.
I didn't mean to do this.
Like as someone who's studied so many different things and didn't feel like
I fit into any of those traditional career paths, I felt lonely and
like I didn't fit in to anything.
It sounds so stupid saying it out loud, but like, I knew I didn't want
to be an architect, but I wanted to learn design at the highest level.
So when all my friends are going to get jobs at these amazing, world renowned
firms, um, I didn't want to do that.
I, I thought I could.
Have more fun, make more money, design better and design more
autonomously by doing it on my own.
So I kind of lost that community of being an architect and you do
the things that architects do, you know, or the same for business.
Like I didn't, everybody from my graduating class at business school
went and got a job at like Pepsi or L'Oreal in the marketing department.
But I thought that was kind of like selling your soul to the devil, like
no offense to all those friends, but I felt like I didn't have a place to fit.
And through creating my own agency and now with Bubbles, I feel like you can
control the narrative and it wasn't an intentional decision to say, yeah, I'm
going to be an capital E entrepreneur, but it's, it's just something that
you've tripped and fell and fell into.
And then New Brunswick is an interesting one too.
I'm glad that you mentioned Fred.
I met him and I listened to his podcast that you guys did.
And, and I have to echo, like there's, There's New Brunswick is a fun place
because if you want to do something, I firmly believe you can do it.
This is a bit random, but I moved from Guatemala to St.
John,
like, and, and we used to say todo es posible in San Juan del Norte.
Like anything is possible in St.
John of the North, because I felt like when I moved here, my
community immediately opened.
Everybody wanted to know.
What I was doing, who I was how they could support me as I started
my entrepreneurship journey.
Like it was really supportive.
So there, I found there was like an immediate community.
They might have not been like a business community per se, but it
was a creative community, a community of people who wanted to support
somebody who was new to their city.
So St.
John, like there's, You know, I'm not from here originally, but there's always
going to be a big place in my heart.
I was able to connect with an accelerator run at ConnectionWorks here.
And again, they were pretty good at connecting me with the different supports
that are available for entrepreneurs.
There's not tons.
And again, if there's any grants out there for female entrepreneurs, and if
anyone wants to give me money to start my business, I will happily take it.
But, um, at least I know now the avenues to go to to get, you know,
loans and lines of credits to be able to get to where you want.
So it's supportive and I feel like I can pick up the phone, call anyone
I need to, to get what I need done.
But I just wish there was a little bit more support for the innovation
sector here in New Brunswick.
honestly.
Raph: Cool.
Well um, we are coming up to uh, the end here and uh, we a, on a tech
podcast and we like to shout products that might need a little shout out,
things that you find helpful, things that you find, you know, products that
are cool and helpful in your life.
Uh, So do you have a product to shout out, Alex?
Alex: Yes, um, I was toying up which one to pitch on your show.
One is interesting, it didn't work as well for me, and the other I
use every day, so I'm gonna go with the one that I use every day.
Uh, it's a hardware piece, following in Fred LaForge's footsteps here,
but I got, when I was an early parent early young parent this light.
Called the Casper Glow Light.
Casper is a mattress company in Canada.
I think it's, maybe it's not Canadian, but the mattress company, but they have
this little light and it integrates with your phone and you can, it gets lighter.
It kind of is like a rise to wake light in the morning as opposed to an alarm clock
and you can turn it on just slightly if you have to get up in the middle of night
with your child as opposed to turning on a light and the design is so comforting
and warm and it, it looks really nice, but just the way that you can, you can
program it through your iPhone is awesome.
And there's tons of stuff out there, but, but this one, like I legitimately
touched several times a day and I buy it for my friends who are new parents.
I think I bought them 4 this summer, so I don't know if Casper needs a
plug, but if you are a new parent and you need something to help you
with your parenting journey, this could be a good piece of technology.
Raph: Sweet.
Awesome.
Cool.
Well, thank you so much, Alex.
It was really fun chatting with you and learning about bubbles and how you
got there and how you're building it.
And yeah, I really appreciate your time.
Alex: Yeah.
Thanks, Raph.
It's been so exciting being on your podcast.
Raph: Cool.
Well, see ya.
Alex: Bye.
Raph: Folks that was my chat with Alex Weaver, Crawford.
learned so much from her.
It's really inspiring to see these kinds of community driven projects.
Um, love the way she, fits in her sort story, her Uh, motivations and
her purpose building this business as well as you talk sometimes about
how, fits into different kinds of businesses fits into sustainability
into kinds of things in our lives.
just find it really cool to see people who have that sort of tech background.
Um, bring it into other aspects of their lives and their
businesses and their purpose.
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we'd love feedback.
We're always trying to learn.
We're trying to improve this thing.
You'll see that like, The podcast has changed so much since we started.
So we're always trying to improve, uh, love to hear more.
if you are building something awesome, that is trying to help
build a more sustainable world, economically, socially, environmentally.
We'd love to chat with you, especially if there's an intersection with tech.
Uh, shoot us a message and we can schedule an interview.
It'll be super fun.
just let me know, shoot us a message hello@sustainabletechpodcast.com
and we'll make something work.
also find other ways to contact us, just head over to the website
and you'll find what you need.
That is also where you'll find the newsletter, where we will
be sending out some updates.
So, if you're interested in building a better world, a more sustainable world
with technology, sign up for that too.
meantime, we all want to do something good in the world.
So go out there and build something.
Good folks.
I will see you in the next one.
See ya.