Don Oakes & Fran Philip of Sea Bags

Today, my guests are Don Oakes and Fran Philip, who came to be entrepreneurs in the second chapter of their professional lives. Both Don and Fran were very successful senior executives with L.L. Bean. Fran, ultimately, was the chief merchandising officer, and Don worked in senior positions in creative and brand. Fran has a great deal of professional governance experience not only with private companies where she's very active, but also with public companies with firms including Vista Outdoor, Vera Bradley, and PacSun. About 10 years ago, they departed L.L. Bean for different reasons, and you'll hear them talk about how Fran called Don one day and said, "I've got this interesting business. I think we could make an investment in it or maybe even acquire most of and we could run it and it's called Maine's Sea Bags." And I think Don probably heard that discussion with a teensy bit of professional skepticism after being a senior executive of a more than a billion-dollar company and said, "Well, Fran, how many stores do they have at Sea Bags?" And she said, "Three." He said, "What do they do?" And she said, "They make tote bags out of used sails from sailboats." So, I think what you're going to hear we have a double-barrel interview today because we'll hear both Don and Fran talk about their individual experiences, some of their insights and ideas that they shared with each other, some of the ways that they work in different seasons of the year (believe it or not), and some of their hopes and dreams for Sea Bags. Sea Bags now, by the way, is a very widely known national consumer brand with more than just bags, and I think probably as of this recording, 50 retail stores, in addition to a very robust online presence. So, listen and learn. I hope you enjoy listening to Don and Fran. I sure enjoyed having them on the podcast.