Meet Emily Griminger

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emily Griminger. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Emily, so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk?

For the first 29 years of my life, I wouldn’t say I was naturally “good” at taking risks. My ability to take risks was something that slowly grew overtime by following little nudges that didn’t necessary fit on the “path” I had chalked up for myself but my gut was pushing me that direction.

After college, I moved to NYC, swore I would never leave. I spent almost a decade working in Wealth Management at the same company. I had a good, steady job, and clear next steps, no part of me was itching to me an entrepreneur. But in 2022, something shifted for me and I that feeling started to subside. I was sitting in the nail salon next to a woman in her 60s, who told me her biggest regret was never trying to live in a new city, because, “New York would always be here.” Six months later I found myself moving across the country to Santa Monica. Moving away from family and friends to a city I knew almost no one, was the turning point I really started flexing the risk taking muscle.

I continued to work in my same job and shared my idea with friends and family about starting a flushable wipe company, called Semmi (which comes from a nickname my parents used to call me, Sweet Emi). I realized if I was going to actually bring this idea to life, I need to just start, there was never going to be a right time, or magical feeling.

I started taking small bets on myself; sharing early brand concepts with friends, cold emailing female founders I admired, teaching myself design skills, and developing 3D models with a product development company. And eventually, those small risks helped me understand that I was going to have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. The biggest shift was realizing risk isn’t about being fearless, it’s about trusting that I could handle whatever comes next.

And then came the biggest leap, leaving corporate to launch Semmi, a chic and elevated flushable wipes brand designed to look more like skincare than a baby product. Starting a company in a category people still whisper about was not exactly the predictable next step after finance. But I’ve learned that risk becomes easier when your mission is louder than your fear. For me, that mission is making something mundane and embarrassing feel beautiful, intentional, and confidence-boosting for women.

The ability to take risk didn’t arrive overnight. It was built through a series of choices: choosing to listen to myself, choosing to pursue an idea no one else could see yet, choosing to keep going even when it was slow or lonely.

Semmi exists because I finally stopped negotiating with my own potential. That’s really how I became more comfortable with building the risk taking muscle. And honestly, I’m still building it. But now it feels a lot less like jumping off a cliff and more like believing in myself and my brand.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m very excited to share that in September 2025, I officially launch Semmi, a new personal care brand that I really think is going to change your bathroom routine forever, especially if you’ve ever questioned why we’re still using dry toilet paper in 2025.

Semmi is a female-founded hygiene brand redefining skincare, from the bottom-up. We created flushable, biodegradable wipes that are gentle on your skin and safe for sensitive areas paired with a sleek, refillable dispenser you’ll actually want to display on your counter. Self-care should never feel like a secret.

Fed up with babyish packaging, harsh ingredients, and the embarrassment that comes with using traditional wipes, I set out to create a product that feels elevated, instead of embarrassing. After two years of testing and development, Semmi has arrived to bring a little luxury to your bathroom, a place where we all start and end our day.

Women are up to 30x more likely than men to experience UTIs – due in part to anatomy and wiping habits that can transfer bacteria from back to front. Dry toilet paper can also cause micro-abrasions and irritations that can be particularly uncomfortable for individuals that struggle with conditions like yeast infections, hemorrhoids, and skin irritation. Using a moist, pH balanced cleansing wipe helps remove residue that toilet paper can leave behind.

We spend lots of time focusing on skincare for a face, but it shouldn’t stop there!

Semmi’s key features include:

-Flushable, biodegradable wipes third party tested for safe and efficient breakdown
-Refillable dispenser designed to look chic on your counter, not hidden under the sink
-Hypoallergenic, alcohol-free, plastic free, and fragrance-free formula safe for sensitive skin
-Refill system that makes reordering effortless and eco-friendly
-Travel-friendly options for on-the-go freshness
-Sleek, aesthetic design in neutral tones that blend seamlessly into any bathroom

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. One of the biggest unlocks for me was learning to actually listen to my gut. When you’re building something like Semmi, a chic flushable wipe brand in a category people still tiptoe around, you’re not going to get immediate validation. Additionally, there were times during the development process where I would lay awake at night for days on end worried about an aspect of the sample or formula I wasn’t comfortable with. In those scenarios, I knew the tweaks would delay my launch date, but rolling out a product that I wasn’t certain about was not something that sat well with me. So in this case, listening to my gut was extremely important.

2. Learning to be endlessly resourceful. That was a skill I took with me from corporate when building Semmi. Try to find the answer, educate yourself on the topic instead of just trying to outsource it immediately. Now being a solo founder with zero employees, “figuring it out,” is a daily sport. I taught myself branding, basics of supply chain, Shopify, etc. For example, while I will eventually ship through a 3PL, I currently do all packaging and shipping myself first so I could really understand how it all works on the back-end. And its given me the opportunity to write a handwritten note to everyone that’s ordered. I wasn’t an expert in any of it, and I’m still not, but doing the research whether it was Google, Youtube videos, or networking helped me learn what I needed to know.

3. Emotional endurance. People don’t talk enough about the emotional stamina required to build something from the ground up. You always feel like you aren’t doing enough, days can be lonely, or something doesn’t go as planned. In those moment resilience is everything. I’ve learned to create my own momentum by focusing on what I can control like developing routine things I would do for myself and my business everyday.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

As a founder, I think being overwhelmed is just part of the job description, especially at the very beginning. I’ve learned that pretending I’m not overwhelmed never works. What does work is giving myself a moment to pause instead of powering through on autopilot.

In those moments, I write down every single thing going through my brain that I think I have to do and then tell myself if I could only pick three things that are MUST DO’s today, what are they?

I try to zoom out and remember not everything needs to be solved today. Sometimes overwhelmed is just a sign that I’m holding myself to an impossible standard. Breaking things into the smallest next step makes things feel a lot more manageable.

My biggest piece of advice is don’t wait until you’re drowning to build practices that support you. Take care of yourself as you go, not just when everything feels like too much. And don’t be afraid to ask for help or let things be imperfect. You can’t pour into a brand if you’re completely depleted.

At the end of the day, when I’m overwhelmed, I remind myself why I started and that I’ve figured out every hard thing up until now so the evidence is there that I can get through whatever is in front of me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.getsemmi.com/
• Instagram: get.semmi
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilygriminger
• Other: tiktok: get.semmi