Building Community for Better Balanced Organizations
In most industries, the higher up you go in leadership, the harder it is to find a woman in the room. At SDSI, we’ve been working towards changing the leadership landscape of the Sports and Active Lifestyle Industry for almost 10 years. From entrepreneurs to the C-suite, we provide support, guidance and mentorship for women in our industry. It’s not the kind of change that happens overnight, but we’re starting to see progress. Read on to hear from SDSI members and program graduates, about how they’re moving our industry forward.
The Power of Community
When Perspective Fitwear founder Stephanie Perez started her sustainable and size inclusive women's sports apparel company three years ago, she couldn’t have imagined the impact insisting on local manufacturing would have. Shortly after being accepted into SDSI’s Accelerator Program, Stephanie quickly found herself working on an unexpected product – cloth face masks. Through prioritizing building relationships within her business, Stephanie was able to facilitate producing a much-needed public health and safety product during the 2020 Global Pandemic, while also putting manufacturing facility employees back to work.
“I’ve always placed great importance on my supply chain relationships.” Said Stephanie. “It was important to me to find a local manufacturer here in San Diego. And when I did, I worked to developed a great relationship. My manufacturer and I achieved this together: we identified this opportunity and scaled this over the course of 5 days to produce millions of masks. I trusted my manufacturer to produce, and he trusted me with our buyer. This wasn't just a business transaction: our relationship allowed us to do something extraordinary.”
But there was another community force at play. Perspective Fitwear SDSI mentor team. “The team was a crucial guiding light in navigating new territory. SDSI could not have come at a better time to help us pivot. The weekly virtual meetings kept us organized, helped us think outside the box and put us in the right place to be able to help when it mattered.” Said Stephanie. “I couldn’t imagine navigating this time without the input from the industry experts on my team.”
“Stephanie’s ultimate goal for the Accelerator was scale.” Said Donna Desrosiers, lead mentor on Perspective’s SDSI team. “Within a week of our first meeting, the world changed: COVID-19 hit. Like all business owners, Stephanie could have had a ‘fight, flight, or freeze’ response. But she chose to fight and stay ahead of the curve – all while pregnant, and with her husband deployed with the US Navy. In an instant, her company reduced the time to reach a new and broader audience by minimum 2 years. I can say for the whole mentor team we are so proud of her accomplishments and look forward to seeing where she takes her company, in the future.”
What It Takes To Accelerate Growth
When 3 friends decided to build a better sports bra, they didn’t quite understand they’d just boarded a roller coaster. Tera Kaia creates basewear for active women. Basewear is a baselayer... AND a swimsuit. It's a water-friendly, super comfortable underlayer that’s versatile enough for any outdoor adventure. Basewear is designed to fit modern women, which means muscles ARE included.
When Tera Kaia started, they had challenges many small businesses face. “At our small scale we couldn’t get priority at our production facility, which meant we would run out of stock for several months on end while waiting for them to create our products. It was like a slow death sentence for the business. Additionally, we had some legal baggage in the form of unsecured IP and our finances were a big question mark.” said founder Bridget Kilgallon.
After finding the SDSI Accelerator program, Tera Kaia was paired a team of mentors to help them with their challenges. “There’s a whole community of people at SDSI who have diverse experiences and perspectives that want to help you make your plan 10000% better than it is now. To gain that knowledge you’ll have to listen to them and put your own biases aside. No one is going to hand the resources to you, but they will hand you a map to get there and where to find them.”
Female founders face unique challenges - especially when you’re pitching the concept of a better sports bra and most investors are men. Bridget had this say, “I try to take every situation as an opportunity to change someone’s gender biases in a subtle way. Maybe after meeting me they rethink what is possible for women to do, or maybe the re-assess how they should treat women. Perhaps as a woman, they’re inspired to succeed themselves, or as a man they're motivated to extend more resources to other women in business. The more women we have setting an example of success the more we see “proof of concept”. Look, there’s a woman succeeding - surely I can do it too.”
Today, Tera Kaia is growing. They’ve secured a strategic financial partner with experience in production and is establishing retail relationships, as well as stabilized production and built a team experience in retail apparel.
Gaining Confidence, Gaining Knowledge
Slyde handboards started with a food tray and a 14 year old’s quest to ride waves in new ways. Flash forward a couple decades and husband and wife team Steve and Angela Watts developed Slyde into an international business, including landing a deal with Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher on Shark Tank. Growing a business and preparing for the opportunities that may arise is no small feat. “Before SDSI we were growing, but really slowly. We were in need of investment but didn’t know how to get it. SDSI helped us with our financial models and the confidence to pitch to investors. They filled a hole in our knowledge base by giving us experienced experts to lean on. We really owe a lot to SDSI and the mentor programs. When it came to appearing on Shark Tank, we wouldn’t have gotten the deal with Mark and Ashton if we hadn’t gone through the program when we did.” said Angela.
As the CEO of Slyde Angela voiced concerns we hear from many female entrepreneurs and leaders. “Being a female executive, I’m often the only woman in the room. One of my challenges was gaining the confidence to be comfortable in that position. Having examples of other female executives, and learning how they navigate these situations helped to bolster my confidence and continue to grow as a leader.” said Angela.
Along with Slyde’s continued success, Angela now runs multiple direct to consumer companies with her business partners Mark and Ashton, including Veldskoen Shoes. With each business endeavor comes new challenges that Angela navigates by seeking knowledge and support. “I always aim to surround myself with people that know more than I do. Running a business can be isolating, so having access to experienced mentors and peers, even just to bounce ideas off of, can be invaluable.”
Want to get involved?
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Female Founder Update
Jenny took her company SOLO Eyewear through the SDSI Accelerator program in 2014 and recently had a successful exit in early 2019. Here’s what Jenny had to say about her experience building her eco-friendly sunglasses company with SDSI:
“The SDSI Accelerator was a game changer for me and my company, SOLO Eyewear. When I joined the accelerator, I had a lot of uncertainty about our strategy moving forward. We entered the program with a lack of clarity about next steps and exited the program with new advisors, a sales strategy and an investment offer. I'm grateful for the SDSI Accelerator experience and wholeheartedly recommend it to any early stage startups in the active lifestyle space. There is always something to learn from challenges whether you're being introduced to new subject matter or learning to become more resourceful. Having a solid support system and believing in yourself is critical.”
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