Isabel Aagaard from Last Object

Sam: Isabel, welcome to Beyond the Inbox. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us.

Isabel: Thank you for having me.

Sam: Can you tell us about your background and how you got started with LastObject?

Isabel: Yes.

I have a mixed educational background.

I have a master’s degree in IT, digital media, and design. Then I completed a master’s in collaborative design at the Royal Danish Academy here in Copenhagen.

So my background is digital, but also very design-focused.

I became involved in LastObject—or rather, we created LastObject—around four years ago.

One of my brothers is a co-founder, and the other co-founder is a designer friend of ours.

We’re all designers, although they’re more product designers and I’m more focused on collaborative design.

At the time, we were all doing different kinds of work but shared an office.

I was working on hospital equipment and projects within the medical industry, while they were doing more classical Danish furniture design.

At some point, we started asking ourselves what we actually wanted to spend our lives doing.

Where did we want to put our energy, and what would feel meaningful?

That’s where LastObject evolved.

We started looking at where design could make a huge difference.

We listed all the single-use items we might be able to replace.

If we could replace thousands of disposable objects with one reusable object, we could make a real difference to the oceans and to waste in general.

That’s where LastSwab came from.

Sam: Can you explain the term “collaborative design”?

As far as I understand it, it’s a relatively new term, and it’s fascinating because it involves other people in the process.

Isabel: Yes. I love it. Those were the best two years of my life.

In the design industry, you often create alone.

You may be designing garments or larger products and collaborating with other designers, but many of the things we create are ultimately for very specific people.

Collaborative design is a method where you design with people.

It isn’t primarily about you as the designer.

It’s more about how you facilitate a design process with a group of people.

A good example is my work in the hospital industry.

I worked with patients, nurses, and doctors to understand what they were going through every day.

We looked at how a disease affected patients and how we could design something comfortable and useful for that situation.

The goal was to involve them in designing the solution and give them the right tools.

Maybe they couldn’t draw, but they could move different objects around, feel different fabrics, and express what they wanted in other ways.

There are many ways to communicate what you need from a product or experience.

Sam: For listeners who may not be familiar with it, can you describe LastSwab and explain how that idea came about?

Isabel: LastSwab is a reusable cotton swab.

It doesn’t actually contain cotton, but “cotton swab” is the phrase most people know.

We wanted to create a usable, reusable alternative to a single-use item.

That meant creating a washable Q-tip.

Our swab has a thick stem so that it can withstand repeated use.

We have different versions, but the most popular one is designed for the ears, because that’s what most people associate with Q-tips.

The ends have a closed surface made from TPE, which is a thermoplastic material that feels similar to silicone.

That material bonds better to the other components.

Because it’s a completely closed surface, you can wash and reuse it.

It’s durable, but it also has a slightly bumpy texture that helps it do the job properly.

Sam: I watched the Kickstarter video before this interview.

Can you tell us about that launch and some of the lessons you learned from it?

Isabel: We had done Kickstarter campaigns before.

Around two weeks before the LastSwab launch, we could already see that our prelaunch email signups were converting unusually well.

That was when we realized we might have found something special.

Maybe we had created something that could survive for a long time—something people genuinely wanted.

When we went live, I think we were fully funded in around 18 minutes.

It was the craziest day.

We kept refreshing the page, and people were pouring in and putting money behind a product that didn’t even exist yet.

That’s what Kickstarter is all about.

You put your design into the world to see whether it resonates.

You set a funding target based on what you need to move into production.

If enough people back it, you can begin making it.

The campaign ran for around three months and became very large.

We had about 20,000 people put money into something we hadn’t produced yet.

That was exciting, but then we spent the next several months figuring out how to actually deliver it.

Sam: Why do you think the campaign became so popular?

Do you think people are now making a more deliberate effort to live sustainably, or was it a combination of factors?

Isabel: I think it was a combination.

First, the world is changing.

People’s mindsets are changing, and they’re willing to spend money on eco-friendly alternatives.

More people want to live a zero-waste life.

Second, the swab had a strong “brilliant idea” factor.

Half the comments on Facebook were essentially, “That is disgusting. Seriously?”

The other half were, “Oh my God, that’s amazing. I need two.”

We received a lot of both negative and positive attention, and that helped it go viral.

A lot of people saw the ads, and the conversion rate was extremely strong.

We could spend relatively little money to bring people in and get them to back the campaign.

That continued after the product launched.

It was also gadget-like, which made it a perfect Kickstarter product.

We’ve launched more female-oriented products on Kickstarter since then, and those campaigns have been more difficult.

Kickstarter’s audience is more male-dominated and tends to respond well to gadget-style products.

LastSwab was unisex, everyone could understand it, and the price point was accessible.

It was also a funny gift you could give a roommate.

All of those things helped.

Sam: I find that fascinating.

When I think about sustainability, I sometimes assume I’ll have to pay more or give up some of the convenience that made the original product worthwhile.

With LastSwab, it’s stylish and also makes financial sense.

Instead of buying hundreds of swabs repeatedly, you buy one and reuse it.

I also like how the product page communicates the number of uses per unit.

That’s a strong way to convey value.

Isabel: Definitely.

With some of our products, you don’t have to use them many times before they become more economical than the single-use option.

Some disposable products are actually expensive, especially if you’re buying something made from organic cotton or other higher-quality materials.

Many customers end up loving one product so much that they want everything in the collection.

They think, “If I need this and want to live sustainably, then I probably need that too.”

It becomes a great community to join.

Sam: I want to return to community later.

First, for listeners who aren’t familiar with the collection, can you talk about some of your other products?

Isabel: After LastSwab, we created LastTissue.

The best way to describe it is that a handkerchief and a tissue pack had a baby.

It’s about the size of a normal tissue pack, so you can carry it around.

You pull the clean handkerchiefs out from the bottom.

There’s a barrier inside the case, and you place used tissues in the top.

That keeps the clean and used ones separate.

It’s actually the LastObject product I use the most.

We also made other versions, including something more like a tissue box.

Then we moved into reusable rounds.

LastRound is a reusable alternative to disposable cotton rounds.

You can wash them in the washing machine or by hand.

They took longer to develop because the fabric was difficult.

We want every product to feel as close as possible to the single-use experience, so the new habit is easy to build into your everyday life.

The rounds need to become soft like cotton when they’re wet.

We created standard rounds similar in size to disposable cotton rounds, a larger version for removing a full face of makeup, and a black version for nail polish or more stubborn makeup.

We then moved into personal-care products, including washable menstrual pads.

There were already reusable pads on the market, but many looked homemade.

We wanted to create an elegant, high-quality, attractive pad.

That’s the time of the month when many people feel least attractive, so we wanted the product to feel comfortable and considered.

We have different sizes and colors.

We also recently launched laundry-detergent sheets.

Normally, you might use powder or liquid detergent.

Customers kept asking us which detergent they should use to wash our products.

When we researched the category, we were shocked by what many mainstream detergents contain.

We wanted to create something very clean and compact so we weren’t shipping unnecessary water or bulky packaging around the world.

It’s a concentrated sheet that washes your clothes and comes in a very small pack.

It contains no sulfates, and we’ve removed as much unnecessary material as possible.

Sam: How has your thinking about sustainability changed over time?

I know you became a parent in the last couple of years.

How did that affect the way you think about single-use products?

Isabel: It’s amazing how many single-use items you consume as a parent.

Before becoming a parent, I thought mostly about products I used personally.

Now there are diapers, wipes, straws, and all kinds of objects I didn’t use before.

That changed which products I wanted to create and which products I used most myself.

As I mentioned, LastTissue has become the one I use most often.

My son enjoys using it too.

He knows where to put the used tissue, which is very cute.

Becoming a parent shifted my perspective on both product development and daily use.

Sam: I want to change gears and talk about the brand’s marketing.

How does LastObject acquire new customers, and which strategies have been most effective?

Isabel: It has changed over the years.

In the beginning, we were very successful with Facebook and paid advertising.

Then TikTok became popular, and we did well with short-form videos and Instagram Reels.

That gave us a chance to go viral and reach customers who had never heard of us.

We’ve also used Google.

We’ve tried almost everything because the world changes constantly.

You have to keep moving your time, energy, and content toward the places where they create the most value.

Right now, partnerships are making a big difference.

We collaborate with other eco-friendly brands.

It might be a brand selling soap or a sustainable bathing suit.

We have a strong understanding of what is genuinely sustainable and what is greenwashing, so it’s exciting to work with other brands that are trying to make a meaningful difference.

Customers respond well to it.

Those partnerships introduce us to new communities of people who are likely to be interested in what we do.

We’ve also had success with PR and podcasts.

A year or two ago, we were featured in places such as BuzzFeed and in articles like “The 25 Products You Need for a Zero-Waste Lifestyle.”

A lot of people find inspiration through lists like that.

So we’ve used many different channels.

Sam: Are you actively pursuing PR, or are those links and mentions mostly happening organically now?

Isabel: We had a period where we worked very actively on PR.

I work with a small women-led PR company in the United States.

It started as a one-person business and has grown to around three people.

They’re our point of contact.

They still reach out on our behalf, but today we mostly take the easier, lower-hanging opportunities.

We aren’t running a major PR push right now.

Sam: What about partnerships?

How are you finding and recruiting partner brands?

Is someone on the team sending direct messages to brands you find on Instagram, or is the process different?

Isabel: We recently made a list of around 200 brands that were similar to us.

We found their email addresses and cold-emailed them to see whether they wanted to collaborate.

We were trying something new with email, and it was moderately successful.

I’ve also found platforms that make it easier to connect with other brands.

We became B Corp certified a couple of months ago.

That helps because it gives us an easier way to connect with other B Corps and set something up together.

The process hasn’t been very structured.

We’re still trying to understand the best way to make those connections.

Sometimes it simply comes from our local network in the Danish startup community.

You know someone who knows someone else, and then you can get something moving quickly.

Sam: The Danish marketing community is certainly close-knit.

Isabel: Yes.

Sam: You mentioned community earlier.

What does community mean to LastObject?

Isabel: Community is what allowed everything to grow in the first place.

The zero-waste community is made up of people who are actively trying to understand what they can remove or change in their everyday lives.

They look at habits, products, methods, and ideas.

They follow many of the same Instagram accounts, read the same articles, and participate in the same conversations.

I’m part of that community too.

I’m always asking myself what I should change next.

If I need to buy something, what should I buy—or should I avoid buying it altogether—to make the biggest difference?

It’s an amazing community, and it also creates very strong demand for transparency.

People want to know where a product was made, which materials were used, and how it was produced.

That’s great for us because we enjoy getting into the details of why something was designed a certain way.

“Sustainability” is a huge word that can mean many things.

Something might be better for water use but worse in another area.

Some people focus heavily on animal welfare.

Others focus on carbon, waste, or plastic.

It’s difficult to be perfect in every dimension, so part of the work is explaining that sustainability can be evaluated in different ways.

We can look at water consumption, microplastic pollution, transport, materials, durability, and end-of-life disposal.

All of those topics matter.

The zero-waste community is highly educated about sustainability and greenwashing.

It also understands that the facts are constantly changing.

A plastic might appear sustainable one year, and then new information emerges showing that it can’t be disposed of safely.

That makes the work very interesting.

Sam: I want to return to sustainability near the end of the interview.

First, I want to ask about something we discussed in the pre-interview: email.

What role does email marketing play at LastObject, and how are you using it to grow the business today?

Isabel: Email is very valuable for us.

The conversion rate is stronger, and people have time to read and follow what we’re doing.

One email can be worth a lot.

An Instagram follower isn’t necessarily worth as much, although it can be difficult to track perfectly.

With email, the value is easier to measure.

We’ve shifted our focus away from trying to grow Instagram as much as possible and toward growing our email list because the list is simply more valuable to us.

One of the newest developments is localization.

We recently translated our website into Danish, and the effect on conversion was dramatic.

A Danish visitor can now read everything in Danish.

We can also run Danish ads and send Danish emails.

That language shift has been extremely valuable.

In Denmark, we use MobilePay for almost everything.

It’s a popular payment method.

I think around 80 percent of our Danish sales go through MobilePay.

That option wouldn’t be there if we didn’t have a localized Danish store.

Email fits into that ecosystem because we can translate our communication and speak to customers in their own language.

Sam: What does the customer lifecycle look like?

Does someone see an ad, make a purchase, join the email list, and then buy something else?

Or is it a short journey because the products are relatively affordable and don’t require much nurturing?

Isabel: People often begin by trying one item.

They might start with LastSwab.

The people who buy our products are often also the people buying household essentials for everyone else in the family.

Cotton swabs and cotton rounds are in a similar category to toilet paper.

There’s usually one person in the household who buys those products for everyone.

That creates an interesting dynamic.

Some customers become extremely strong buyers.

They try one product, love it, and then buy products for their friends, family, and the entire household.

They stock up on everything, and those can become very large purchases.

Other customers try one thing and return later.

Because many of these are new types of products, most people don’t immediately buy the entire collection.

They test something.

Then they think, “The rounds work for me, so I’ll try LastSwab.”

Later, they might decide to try the menstrual pads.

It’s a process.

Sam: What are you doing to drive customer reviews?

Do you have a workflow in place?

Isabel: Yes.

Every customer who purchases through our website receives a review request around a week after the purchase.

We ask whether the product worked for them and whether their experience was good or bad.

We use that data extensively to improve the products.

We created an Excel sheet and systematically transfer the feedback into it.

Every rating and comment is categorized.

We monitor the scores for the different products.

Then we might decide that, during a particular month, we need to improve three products.

Sometimes the solution is explaining the use case more clearly.

Other times, we need to change the product itself.

Sam: We’re approaching the end of the interview, and I want to ask a few questions about sustainability.

What do you think sets LastObject apart from other companies in the sustainability industry?

Isabel: First, we’re a company that was born from sustainability.

We didn’t create a normal cream and later try to make it more sustainable.

We created something that didn’t exist: a reusable alternative to a disposable cotton swab.

Then we evolved from there.

We commission third-party lifecycle assessments for all our products.

We’re very focused on making the best choice we can with the information available today and continuing to evolve as a sustainable brand.

That’s one important difference.

The other is that the company was founded by three designers.

We aren’t going to make something generic or cookie-cutter.

We understand production and how people use products.

We want everything to be beautiful.

As you said earlier, LastSwab is practical, but it also looks good.

That matters.

We want every product to be easy to use and attractive enough that you want it in your bathroom.

That’s another thing that distinguishes us.

We’re also one of the only brands focused entirely on reusable alternatives to single-use products.

That’s all we sell.

Sam: What does the future of sustainability look like to you?

Isabel: I think it looks positive.

Sustainability will become the new normal.

My son, for example, has never used a traditional disposable tissue.

He doesn’t know what a single-use cotton round is because we don’t have those items in our home.

They’ve never been introduced into his life.

I think that will become increasingly normal.

Maybe not our children, but our grandchildren may look back and say, “What? You used a menstrual pad once and then threw it away? That’s disgusting.”

The perspective may reverse.

Today, some people think washing a reusable pad sounds unhygienic.

In the future, throwing away so many disposable pads may be what feels unhygienic and strange.

I grew up in a single-use world.

The changes happening now will create generations that think very differently about what is normal, hygienic, and responsible.

Today, we might look at toilet paper as something that could never change.

Maybe one day it will.

It’s exciting to think about.

Sam: What’s next for LastObject, and what are your long-term goals for the company?

Isabel: My goal is to reach as many people as possible and change as many habits for the better as possible.

I want to create a healthy, green company built on goodness.

Everything we do—how we design, produce, ship, and operate—should be carefully considered from an environmental perspective.

I think LastObject can become very large.

There is so much potential in this space, and we have so much momentum.

It’s a meaningful company to be part of and a meaningful movement to join.

Other eco-friendly companies aren’t necessarily competitors.

We’re all moving in the same direction.

There’s a bigger mission behind the company.

In the future, I want LastObject to tackle more difficult reusable alternatives to single-use items.

Some of those products require more research and product development than we’ve had the resources to pursue until now.

It’s exciting to begin opening those possibilities.

They aren’t necessarily new categories, but they’re more advanced products.

Sam: I appreciate everything the brand is doing to normalize reusable objects.

Isabel, I think that’s a great place to start wrapping up.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about LastObject and connect with you and the team?

Isabel: You can go to lastobject.com and see everything there.

You can also contact our customer-support team.

Camilla, who handles customer support, is amazing and can answer questions better than I can.

Instagram is another good place to connect with us, follow what we’re doing, and see new launches, products, and stories.

Sam: Perfect. We’ll put all those links in the show notes.

Isabel, thank you again for taking the time to join us, and all the best in the future with LastObject.

Isabel: Thank you, and thank you for having me.