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Editor鈥檚 note: This profile is part of聽Something Ventured, an ongoing series by 附近上门 News examining diversity and access to capital in the venture-backed startup ecosystem. As part of this project, we鈥檙e following seven seed-stage entrepreneurs over the course of several months as they build their businesses. Read all of our profiles of Kim Stiefel and Sarah Wissel and Los Angeles-based Repeat, here, here听补苍诲 here. Access the full project聽here.

Los Angeles-based has hit a major startup milestone since 附近上门 News last profiled them in July: the raise of its Series A funding.

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Repeat had intended to raise a 鈥渟eed plus鈥� round, CEO said during a recent interview, but ended up raising $6 million鈥攎ore than they intended to raise.

鈥淥ur plan was to raise $2 million to $3 million, and when we started the process of raising, it became clear, based on feedback from investors we were speaking to, that we had some early signals of product market fit,鈥� Stiefel said.

The company鈥檚 SaaS platform helps consumer packaged goods brands turn one-time buyers into repeat customers. Its technology analyzes individual and household behavior to remind customers when it鈥檚 time to replenish a product, like toothpaste or toilet paper. Backed by investors including and , the company is led by Stiefel and co-founder .

The first handful of meetings the pair took to raise more money were with investors they didn鈥檛 think Repeat was necessarily a fit for, given that it was a seed-stage company, Stiefel said. But the partners believed it was a good opportunity to practice their pitch and begin to proactively form relationships with investors.

One of the first calls they took was from , which ended up leading the $6 million Series A. As part of that raise, Battery General Partner joined Repeat鈥檚 board of directors.

One thing that helped during the fundraising process was going into it with the mindset of raising money as a founder, rather than as a female founder specifically, Stiefel said. Dropping the pronoun helped her focus on the business and the progress it had made, instead of getting caught up with the idea that female founders tend to raise less money than founders who are men, she added.

鈥淚 was almost believing the narrative before it even happened to me,鈥� Stiefel said. 鈥淪o it was a small shift in perspective: I鈥檓 not a female CEO raising a round of funding, I am a CEO raising a round of funding.鈥澛�

Repeat is using the new capital to hire engineers and product managers, and to invest in sales, marketing, and customer success. The company has grown to 15 employees (there were 11 when we last profiled it) in locations including New Hampshire, Tennessee, Berlin and Canada. And prior to the COVID-19 Delta variant taking off, Wissel and Stiefel flew the cross-country members of their team out to meet up in Los Angeles, where Repeat is based.

Hiring as a founder has been interesting, Wissel said, because 鈥測ou keep hiring people to replace parts of your job, essentially.鈥�

The product and engineering teams, which Wissel oversees, grows by about one new member each month. More people means more possibilities for communication breakdowns, which means processes have to be instilled across the board.

Hiring is hard because it should be–the people make a company successful, Wissel said. But Repeat has found success with hiring so far, Stiefel added.

鈥淚 think we really value hiring the right people for the job and giving them agency and getting out of their way,鈥� Stiefel said. 鈥淎nd making it really clear that this is a team of people that trust each other. This is a team of people that work really hard to give people room to do what they鈥檙e really good at. And I think that comes through in our hiring process.鈥�

• Read part 4: After Series A, Repeat Focuses On Growing Company Through Community

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