Before University of Utah alum Lindsey Shipley launched and successfully exited her startup, Lactation Link, she was a labor and delivery nurse.
To explain her journey, she recently led a Lassonde for Life workshop, “From One Follower to Exit,” showcasing the importance of digital products and how anyone — with the right path — can turn a casual hobby or interest into a full-time income.
Her niche was breastfeeding.
“While working in labor and delivery, I saw a lot of families who had a desire to breastfeed, but in the immediate aftermath, it wasn’t coming naturally,” she said. “I saw a mismatch in the expectations from families and the tools that were available.”
Initially, Shipley went searching for existing support she could send to her patients.
“I found a lot of dated videos from the 1980s,” she said. “That was it.”
Disappointed by the lack of modern, accessible resources, Shipley decided she could make a difference. It wasn’t a big product launch or fancy release party — she started holding breastfeeding classes in her living room for free.
“It wasn’t pretty,” she said. “But I think you should act imperfectly. Take imperfect action and then iterate.”
Common opinion in the breastfeeding industry was that no one could make a full-time living — or income at all — from training or coursework. Shipley ignored those voices.
“If you’re passionate about something or curious enough, push past the roadblocks that come up,” she said. “I started my business with a few dollars and got going from there. Can’t you make a prototype that doesn’t function perfectly but is close to what’s in your head? You don’t need all your components to line up perfectly. Just get started.”
After months of grassroots effort, a handful of attendees turned into a roomful. Soon, Shipley felt confident in charging for her courses, making them a little more professional and tailored.
However, as Lactation Link picked up steam, Shipley was hit with a cancer diagnosis.
“I was diagnosed with cancer when my second child was eight weeks old,” she said.
A good support system — her husband, family, and friends — surrounded her and gave Shipley the strength and ability to keep working on Lactation Link, even when it felt impossible.
“I gave it 30 minutes, then an hour, then three hours,” she said.
Those combined bits of effort, any time she felt able, really added up.
Soon, Shipley began more targeted efforts to recruit customers.
“One thing that I did from the beginning that helped me build a product that could scale over time is starting with surveys, even in my first classes,” she said. “I read all of them, and I made changes based on responses. You really have to go to your ideal customers and see what could make it better.”
Despite well-meaning responders, discerning between good feedback and distractors is imperative.
“You need to know the difference between good feedback and unreasonable requests,” Shipley said.
Some of her initial feedback said that the audience couldn’t hear well and needed longer snack breaks.
“Okay — I’ll get a microphone, and I’ll bake more time into the schedule to help get their blood glucose up,” Shipley said.
Problem solved.
But other feedback asked for more.
“It was great that some clients wanted one-on-one appointments included in the class price,” she said. “But I knew that giving more for the existing price just would not work for my business model. One-on-ones would be available, but as a separate booking.”
Throughout the growth stage of Lactation Link, Shipley continued to circle back to feedback, even when it was inconvenient or not a long-term strategy.
“Let feedback guide you,” she said. “You must do the unscalable things to be able to scale in the future. You’ll never get to scale unless your product is iterated to the point that the majority of customers not only like it but become raving fans.”
One piece of feedback changed her startup forever: a request for on-demand classes that could be watched anywhere in the world, at any time. Shipley’s presentation approach became more podcast-like, with casual, group setting still the norm but now consumed on a one-by-one basis. Her slides got fancier, her content more knowledgeable, and with it, the course price grew to match the increased value.
As Lactation Link grew, Shipley was deliberate.
“I had an accountant doing my books,” she said. “I made sure I owned all of my own media.”
Shipley dove deep into the world of online marketing and learned to create a sales funnel.
“You might be hesitant to give your best information out for free,” she said. “But sharing some of your best things is what gets your audience to fall in love with you — they’ll pay for the rest.”
Shipley doubled down on cold calling, content marketing through Instagram posts and ads, word of mouth, and affiliates.
That turned into a partnership with hospitals, which paid for on-demand content to be available at the patients’ bedsides.
At this point, Shipley had a choice: commit to this new market, or pivot back to the consumer.
She anchored back to her feedback.
“Sitting on your decisions for a long time can cannibalize your progress,” she said. “Consult your data and make sure they’re informed decisions, but just make them.”
In this case, Shipley knew that her business needed to be customer-facing. She pivoted back to on-demand content for the individual rather than the hospital level.
At the same time, she faced a fourth recurrence of her cancer diagnosis. Again, her support system stepped in.
“Cancer may not be part of your journey, but different bumps are going to come up,” she said. “Reach out to someone you can trust who can help you during those tough times.”
Part of that support was deciding to delegate more of her work.
“It’s not the first thing I wanted to do,” Shipley said. “Sometimes in order to grow, you need to be disciplined to work on your business, not in your business.”
Delegation and collaboration was what was best for her company. Lactation experts and other team members started taking on more administration tasks and even teach on the company’s platform, while Shipley took a leadership role throughout her recovery.
This culminated in a strategic partnership with Aeroflow Breastpumps, a market leader in pregnancy and maternity medical equipment.
“That turned into acquisition discussions,” Shipley said. “I was so happy during the due diligence process that I did things by the book internally.”
Clean books, employees, and content ownership allowed for an acquisition to run smoothly. In August of 2021, after six and a half years, Shipley sold her company and exited.
The biggest thing she learned through all the ups and downs? Stay consistent.
“As we went along year to year, class to class, things got more polished,” she said. “But what never changed was the passion that I had for this education and community building — the high energy I felt in my first class in my living room all the way to scaling the on-demand classes was the same.”
