doozi

Building the next biggest social media app for travel. Think TikTok meets Tripadvisor.

Co-Founder

You're Not a Bad Person Podcast

Podcast host for You're Not a Bad Person podcast. A self-help podcast dedicated to helping you step into the most authentic version of yourself. 

Your past does not define you, discredit you, or disqualify you. New episodes every Wednesday.

Podcast Host

Bro Dough

Snacks that allow you to relive your childhood through your tastebuds in a healthier way. Fun, functional, nostalgic. Find our new cookie dough bites in select Canadian retail locations! 🍪

Founder & CEO

➕ Follow along while I build a business in an industry I’m brand new to — and share the unfiltered reality of what that actually looks like.

I’m Erica — a creator, entrepreneur, and storyteller helping people break the rules they were taught to follow… and build lives that actually feel like theirs.

Over the past 4 years, I’ve created raw, real, and radically honest content that’s generated nearly 1 billion impressions, built a community of over 300,000, and sparked conversations around self-worth, shame, failure, and freedom.

📍 I went from perfectionism and plastic surgery…
➡️ to healing and self-love.
📍 From launching a cookie dough brand into hundreds of stores…
➡️ to filing for bankruptcy and starting over with nothing.
📍 From hiding my past as a s*x worker and “failed founder”…
➡️ to owning my story — and helping others do the same.

In 2020, I met my now co-founder Gillian Gallant on Bumble BFF (true story). Our friendship & love for travel took us all over the world.

We both lost our businesses last year, and this brought us closer. We bonded over loss, reinvention, and the fire to build something better. 

Now we’re building doozi — the next big social media app for travellers and creators. 👀

We’re building in public. Sharing the messy middle. And showing up every day to create something that gives people — especially creators — the power, opportunity, and visibility they’ve earned.

This isn’t just a business. It’s a movement.

If you’ve ever felt like you needed permission to post, speak up, or live your life differently — I’m here to say: you don’t.

💌 My content is about starting before you’re ready, rewriting your story, and being the proof that it’s never too late to do it your way.

…and giving the trolls a front-row seat to your glow-up.

Keep showing up, unapologetically.

✨
With love,
Erica

📬 Sponsorships + collabs: hello@ericarankin.com
➕ Follow me everywhere @acceptingerica

I’m not a multi-millionaire.
I don’t have an exit.
I’m not on any fancy 30 under 30 list.

But I am someone who recognizes that those things aren’t indicators of success.

Success is literally defined as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.” 

Success, for me, has looked more like:

→ Reinventing myself when my life fell apart (hello bankruptcy & business failures)
→ Building again when I didn’t know how 
→ Choosing growth over comfort
→ Taking risks people told me not to take

Don’t get caught up in the shiny stuff you see on here (or anywhere, for that matter).

You need to find the definition of success on your own.  

Or rather, your aim or purpose.

What does success mean to you?

🫶

Erica Rankin

Disrupting the creator economy. | Content Creator | Co-Founder of Doozi & Doozi Marketing ✈️📱

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I got asked last week if I was an influencer for my own company.

Nope. I’m the founder.

…oh to be a woman.

To be constantly underestimated.
To be constantly undervalued.
To be minimized to our appearances.  

It’s just another reminder that women do have to work harder to earn respect. 

And to be seen as more than a “pretty face.”

Don’t believe me? Here’s some statistics:

When it comes to startup funding, women-only founding teams received just 2.3 % of global venture-capital funding in recent years.  

Over 40% of female entrepreneurs say they’ve experienced gender-based discrimination in leadership or entrepreneurial roles.  

In 2023 when I did my first raise, I was called things like “sweetheart” by male investors and talked to in ways I’ve never experienced before. 

So yes.

Being a woman founder is more than just building a business.

It’s carrying expectations and breaking barriers that men done even realize are there.

If you’re a woman in business this post is for you - you EARNED your seat at the table and don’t let anyone make you think otherwise.

 ❤️

➕ Follow for tips, tools, & inspiration to own your story & show up authentically online.

🎉 ENROLMENT NOW OPEN TO MY PERSONAL BRANDING COHORT 🎉

👋  I’m Erica, and here’s a quick backstory:

I launched a protein cookie dough company in 2019 out of my car & apartment (Bro Dough).

With zero experience.

I took it nation-wide to over 200 stores.

It failed.

I filed bankruptcy in April 2024.

Along that entire journey, I shared my story transparently online. 

Resulting in a community of nearly 300k people. 

Resulting in over 50 million impressions on LinkedIn. 

In my 5 years of entrepreneurship, I’ve been on a mission to live an authentic life.

Now it’s my mission to help others step into the most authentic versions of themselves, too.

Your story matters.

And when you own it, and commit to sharing it, you'll get everything you've ever wanted.

-Erica

—

Sign up to my Personal Branding Cohort: https://www.ericarankin.com/magnitude-method

➡️ Accepting newsletter & LinkedIn Sponsorships, email: hello@ericarankin.com

➕ Follow me on all social platforms: @acceptingerica

🎙️ Tune into my weekly podcast You're Not a Bad Person

Disrupting the creator economy. Breaking norms. Living free. | Content Creator & Co-Founder of doozi ✈️📱

We just got REJECTED !!! on a partnership we were really pumped about.

They literally had nothing to say after our pitch (that we spent hours preparing). 

My co-founder Gillian and I wanted to collaborate with a leader in the travel industry for our startup doozi.

It was going to be a mutually beneficial partnership & could have really transformed their business.

But on the call:

Crickets. 🦗  🦗 🦗

Followed by disappointment, because all they saw us as were influencers for their business, but we were looking at the bigger picture.

Did it suck to get rejected? Yes.

But rejection is a part of the journey, it's inevitable.

In business.
In dating.
In you career.

... in every area of your life.

Just because someone says no, or don't believe in what you're doing, doesn't mean you should give up or lose hope.

We're trying to disrupt the oldest industry around, that's dominated by boomers (to be blunt).

And it's going to take a lot of convincing for them to understand the shift that's happening right now. 

Gen z's and millennials are relying on social media for travel discovery & planning, and it's happening whether we like it or not.

That's all to say - keep going, even through the disappointment.

I truly believe what's meant to find you, won't pass you, and that:

REJECTION IS REDIRECTION.
...a more aligned partnership is just around the corner.

I’m Canadian, but I love America, and my American friends. 🇺🇸

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Whether you’re celebrating with family, friends, or on your own - I hope you can take some time to find gratitude.

Sending love to those who need it today - I know the holidays aren’t fun for everyone.

And thank you for the Thanksgiving wishes, it’s always nice to hear twice a year (don’t ask me why we celebrate in October lol). 🇨🇦

Send me some pumpkin pie will ya? 🥧

I just tried ordering something from a very popular brand.

…and they lost me as a customer, here’s why:

(I won’t tag them but it’s an athleisure brand many people know) 🙃

I couldn’t get an answer to a question I had about a product.

Their customer service is AWFUL.
So they lost me to their competitor.

Which makes me think how many other e-commerce brands are missing out on sales??

Customers want real-time communication.
… and if they don’t get it, they click away (like moi). 

Here’s a tool that I think every e-commerce store should have:

LiveChat, powered by Text. 

It lets you:
→ Chat with visitors in real time
→ Handle way more conversations using automation + AI
→ Set up targeted holiday campaigns without needing a dev

This is a no-brainer to me not only as a customer, but as a former e-commerce founder.

It’s not complicated and by communicating quicker with customers, you’ll have higher conversions. 

Stop making it so hard for people to get answers and use tools that get you more sales - especially around the holidays.

Holiday shopping is already stressful enough. 😅

Try LiveChat for free here & get 10% off with this link: https://bit.ly/3Kd6VpI  (They also have ready-to-use holiday campaign templates on their landing page) 👀

#LiveChatPartner

We just applied to our first pitching competition for doozi!

SXSW - we're lookin' at you! 👀 

This year has been a rollercoaster, but our travel app launches NEXT MONTH.

NEXT.
MONTH.

After 6+ months of planning, building, testing, researching... it's all coming to life really soon.

2026 is the year we will really hit the ground running by heading into our first raise.

I have ONE REQUEST: please comment/tag any startup pitching competitions you know of.

Or any other resources for a tech startup - every little bit helps!

❤️ 

About what we’re building:

Travel discovery is broken... and doozi is fixing it. 

We’re building an ecosystem where creators, travelers, and businesses thrive together. 

Authentic short-form videos replace fake reviews, creators earn for sharing real experiences, and travelers finally discover places they can trust; all in one platform (think TikTok meets TripAdvisor).

About our outfits:

How else do two broke scrap-preneurs stand out? 😉

The reality is, most founders SHOULD NOT be founders.

The goal isn't to simply BE a founder...

The goal is to be the BEST PERSON to solve the PROBLEM.

Heard this during a League of Innovators Accelerator call this week with Vivek Sodera, founder of Superhuman.  

The best founders are solving problems they have experienced, first-hand, and they know exactly how to solve it.

And because they've experienced it, they're determined to create the solution.

...and it couldn't be more true.

doozi was created because Gillian and I are not only people who travel frequently, but we're content creators ourselves.

We are building a travel platform for creators, while travelling.
While creating content.
While talking to creators. 

Every. Single. Day.

This post is just a reminder to FOCUS on the people you are trying to help.

Help them better than anyone else can.

If you do that, then you're winning.

🫡

I’m giving away my biggest marketing hacks for scrappy startups.

This got me hundreds of millions of impressions & recognition in my industry:

→ Brand yourself like a product - this might feel weird, but what’s something you could wear, or do, to make you, YOU? For example, we wear pink jumpsuits & bucket hats with airplanes on it now at every industry event & in our content. This one thing has made us memorable & we’ve gotten meetings that might have been more challenging to get otherwise. 

→ Be messy - share stuff online that most would NEVER share. It’s more relatable and actually builds trust with your audience. What are you struggling with? What have you learned? People admire success but connect with vulnerability. 

→ Be a giver in your industry - set some time aside to connect with other founders, and mentor, when you can. I am a big believer that when you contribute, it comes back to you (but that’s not the only reason why you should do it). It also opens doors to collaboration & expanding your network for future opportunities. Plus it feels good to help.

Let me know if you like this & I can share more.

I haven’t ever really spent money on marketing (and neither has my co-founder) & we’ve collectively built communities surpassing 2M+.

We’re going to be doing some wacky, scrappy campaigns for doozi soon (we’re coming for you Bumble Inc.) ;) 

So stay tuned on more scrappy secrets!!!

Caption this photo:

We’ll buy coffee for the 3 funniest/most clever.

Bonus points if your caption is something HR department wouldn’t approve of. 😏

doozi
Gillian Gallant

PS this is a real photo from a video we took, not AI. 😂

If email marketing feels overwhelming, this video is for you!!!

You know what used to take me hours?

Building campaigns.
Sending follow-ups.
Tracking who opened what.

Now? I can do marketing in minutes.

This is what happens when you stop doing everything manually and start letting AI and automation work for you.

Tools like ActiveCampaign have become a core part of my workflow.

Their autonomous marketing platform doesn’t just automate tasks, it uses Active Intelligence to better understand your audience.

It also:
→ Creates email sequences for you with a single prompt 
→ Scores your leads, tracks every interaction, and updates your customer journeys in real time.
→ Builds full workflows with drag-and-drop (this is my fav feature).

It’s like having a marketing system that runs in the background 24/7,

…while you focus on doing things that really matter (and the things that are A LOT more fun). 😉

Come join the party where marketing is fun & isn’t time consuming.

Try ActiveCampaign for free - and tell me how you like it! 👉 link here: https://lnkd.in/esE_n9Xt

#ActiveCampaignPartner

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