Founders Everywhere: Samantha Coxe
Samantha Coxe is the founder & CEO of Flaus, a patented, electric flosser that uses sonic vibrations & high-performing dental floss to make flossing as quick, easy & comfortable as brushing your teeth
Welcome to Founders Everywhere, where we highlight the incredible people behind the companies we’ve backed at Everywhere Ventures, a global pre-seed fund supported by a community of 500 founders and operators.
Have you been flossing? That dreaded question we all hear at the dentist office that often leads to a less-than-truthful answer. Flossing is essential for healthy teeth and gums, but only about 30% of people actually do it every day. Most skip it because it’s uncomfortable, time-consuming, and feels like a chore. That’s why Flaus has created the world’s first electric flosser, with patented sonic technology that delivers 18,000 vibrations per minute. It removes every excuse for not flossing because it’s fast, comfortable, effective, and designed for accessibility. With a bold mission to help people keep their teeth for life, Flaus transforms flossing from a dreadful chore into a delightful ritual. Beyond helping non-flossers, it’s often the only way for people with arthritis, MS, Parkinson’s, or limited mobility to floss independently. Flaus improves oral health, which is directly tied to heart health, diabetes, cognitive function, and overall systemic wellness.
Founder and CEO Samantha Coxe never intended to become an oral care entrepreneur. After working as a corporate M&A Attorney at Skadden, she gave it all up to pursue her new-found passion and purpose to give the world a better way to floss. With no technical background, she worked with engineers and dentists to design an award-winning, electric flosser to solve a problem shared by millions.
What inspired you to build Flaus?
After a devastating dental visit revealed 12 cavities, despite being a diligent twice-a-day electric toothbrush user, I realized I had not been so honest about my flossing for years. I was one of those people who would start flossing about a week before and a week after the dental visit, just hoping that they wouldn’t notice. Flossing was simply too painful, too time consuming and too annoying for me to really get into the habit of doing. I went home from this very painful and expensive dental visit and thought to myself, I hate flossing, but I love using my electric toothbrush. I’m going to go online and buy an electric flosser that can just do it for me. I went online and was shocked to discover nothing like this existed. And so I thought, if I, a successful attorney, was avoiding flossing, there must be millions of others who were avoiding it too. So that search sent me on a journey of disrupting the oral care and flossing space, a category that hasn’t seen real innovation in over 200 years.
What’s Flaus’ North Star?
Our North Star is helping people keep their teeth for life and empowering customers to become the best versions of themselves with independence and confidence. From an operational standpoint, it’s about new customer profitability, making sure our business model is ROI-positive.
Tell us about some recent milestones that Flaus has crushed.
We scaled to eight-figure revenue in our second full year of business and achieved profitability, nearly unheard of in consumer hardware.
Last year we grew 630%, and at the start of Q4 we’re already up 140% year-over-year.
Nearly 90% of our customers now report flossing daily, a breakthrough in behavior change for oral care.
Flaus was featured on the finale of Shark Tank and landed a deal with Candace Nelson.
Our product has earned validation from over 5,000 dental professionals.
We were named to TIME’s Best Inventions and Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas lists.
Improved the lives of over 200,000 customers, including those with arthritis, Parkinson’s, and limited mobility who hadn’t been able to floss independently in years.
We’ve developed a sustainability program to help customers recycle used floss heads, reducing plastic waste in oral care.
How has your background influenced you as a founder?
Working at Skadden taught me how to think strategically about complex business problems, negotiate high-stakes deals, and understand what makes companies valuable - skills that proved invaluable for building Flaus. The intellectual rigor, attention to detail, and ability to synthesize massive amounts of information under pressure became my founder toolkit. Beyond that, perseverance and resilience were instilled in me from a young age, and I’m a person who never quits.
Any advice for other founders?
Solve your own problem first. I think the best companies come from founders who viscerally understand the pain they’re solving because they’ve lived it. You don’t have to wait for permission or have the “right background.” I had zero hardware or dental experience and created the world’s first electric flosser. You can disrupt an industry by being resourceful enough to learn what you don’t know and honest about solving your own problem first.
Let your personal adversity become your founder superpower, because being a founder is a role that demands immense personal sacrifice. The hardest moments in my life (my former co-founder getting sick, my father’s death, depleting my entire life savings) forced resilience that nobody can teach you. Don’t let the obstacles break you; let them forge you into someone unbreakable.
Fun Fact:
Most people don’t know I was a serious competitive golfer - AJGA tournaments, varsity captain, D1 college recruitment, the whole nine yards. I walked away from playing collegiately to pursue other passions, but my short game is still deadly and my handicap proves I haven’t lost my edge entirely.
Listen to Hugh Dixson with Bobby Katoli on the Venture Everywhere podcast: On the Supply Chain Switchboard. Now on Apple & Spotify. Check out to all our past episodes here!
