May 1, 2023 • 22 mins
Get ready to be inspired by Jake and Caroline Danehy, the visionary siblings behind Fair Harbor Clothing, who transformed their shared passion for sustainability into a thriving and profitable company – not to mention earning recognition on the Forbes 30 under 30 list! Listen now to hear the dynamic duo sit down with host Greg Muzzillo and share their journey of creating a sustainable beachwear brand from scratch, scaling it to new heights, and turning it into the success story it is today.
Chapters:
1:51 - A Passion for Business and Sustainability
6:17 - From Idea to Business
8:48 - The Start of Designing and Constructing Clothing
11:46 - Trunk Shows
13:46 - Scaling the Business
16:57 - Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned
19:45 - Success Along the Way
Resources:
Connect with Fair Harbor Clothing
Website
Instagram
Facebook
Takeaways:
- We've always really had this passion deep inside of us. And this is just a way to kind of make a larger impact through the work that we're doing with the Harbor.
- Sometimes there are no massive, big wins. There is just grinding, grinding it out. Great little decisions that at the end of the day, lead to a big business
- If you treat a customer well and you have a great product, they'll keep coming back.
- It got crazy. At one point, we were sending up to 500 to 1,000 orders per day from our parents' garage.
- We'd been so passionate about this from the beginning, and that passion is what drives you to make time to see the vision through.
- In the first four years of the company, we did over 500 trunk shows. We traveled up and down the east coast, going to small beach towns, talking to everyone and anyone who would hear our story and touch and feel our product.
- Our mission statement in a nutshell is to create products for people that make it so they can enjoy the home that they love.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello and welcome to Million Dollar Monday.
I'm your host, Greg Mazzello,bringing you real successful
people with real useful advicefor people with big dreams.
I understand big dreams.
I turned an investment of$200and a lot of great advice from
some really successful peopleinto my big dream proforma that
(00:31):
today is a half billion dollarcompany.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, hello and welcome.
I have a first for today, and itis a brother and sister team
that are very cool.
They, uh, have developed aclothing line, uh, that not only
is super cool, celebrating thesimplicity of summer, but also
dedicated to our environment.
They are both recognized byForbes Magazine and they're 30,
(01:04):
under 30.
And so I'm excited to introducebrother and sister and
co-founders of Fair HarborClothing, Jake and Carolyn, Dana
Heat, Jake and Carolyn, welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Thank you so much
Speaker 4 (01:19):
For having us.
Really appreciate it.
Excited
Speaker 3 (01:21):
To be here.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah.
We're, I, I I, I, I love yourstory and, uh, uh, especially
how you don't just have a coolclothing line, but how you're
really dedicated to ourenvironment.
Let, but let's start at thebeginning.
Talk to us about your growing upyears and, and maybe your school
years and, and where did youfirst of all learn a passion for
(01:42):
business and then eventuallywhere did you learn a passion
for the clothing industry andmost importantly, our
environment?
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeah, so thanks for asking the question.
Um, we, so kind of our story ina nutshell is we grew up going
to this place called Fair Harborand Fire Island.
Fire Island is a, it's a islandoff the coast of Long Island,
and the island's about 27 mileslong, but only about a hundred
yards wide.
And so there's no cars in theisland.
Um, it's pretty much covered inBoardwalk.
(02:11):
And, um, when we were kids,really all we need was a
surfboard and para swim trunks,and that was it.
And kind of ran around as welearned how to surf and fish.
And, um, it was incredible.
You know, it, it's funny when wehave, we don't really talk about
this often, but we had a, astrong business acumen, um, from
the beginning.
We used to, would, would collectseashells from the shore and
(02:32):
paint them and sell them, sellthem to people.
We'd have lemonade stands, we'dcreate lanyards and we'd sell
them.
And that was our, um, firstlesson on margins and trying to
figure out how to turn a profitby selling goods.
So, um, well,
Speaker 3 (02:46):
And because there's no cars on the island, the only
way to bring everything aroundis on wagons.
So we would kind of create ourown wagons on different corners,
street corners, um, on the dockstoo, people were going down for
a sunset.
So we've kind of made thosewagons.
Our, uh, our mobile, our mobileworkshops,
Speaker 2 (03:02):
.
I love it.
I love it.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Um, but yeah, it continues.
So that's definitely like ourfirst, I guess, business and
entrepreneurial, um, or project.
But, uh, what we notice with FarIsland in Fair Harbor in
particular, it's a glorifiedsandbar.
So if plastic waste wasn'tdisposed of correctly, it went
into the waterways if they onone side ocean on the other
side.
And we started, cuz we, we grewup, we started to notice more
(03:26):
and more plastic waste washingup on the shorts.
Oh.
And, um, fast forward a bunch ofyears, um, I went to Colgate
University, um, I played thecross there and, um, I went in
with the expectation of being aneconomics major.
Um, but then I started takingsome geography classes and was
learning about global oceanoccurrence and climatology and
ultimately this massive plasticproblem.
(03:47):
And, uh, Caroline at the sametime had always been super into
fashion.
She had a fashion blog since shewas in middle school called Case
Cook is in Cardigan.
So Caroline was on the latesttrends, but she was also, um,
considered the tree hugger, ourfamily, so very, you know, into
sustainability at a, at a veryyoung age.
And so, um, basically with allof these issues going on with
(04:08):
our environment, I actuallyended up running a thesis on
plastic waste and fact anderosion.
So I spent an entire semesterwith the professor really
digging down the nitty grittiesand nuts and bolts of what was
happening.
And in my study, this is back in2014, I found a mill that was
actually converting plasticbottles in a yarn.
And so I turned to Carolyn, Iwas like, we need to do
something about this issue.
(04:28):
And so that's when the idea ofher harbor was born.
And our objective was to createa platform to help promote the
mitigation of uced plastics bymaking an awesome product that
people wanna wear and love.
And so we make all of ourproducts out of recycled plastic
bottles, about 11 going intoeach of our shorts.
And, um, yeah, so really likewhat our mission statement is in
a nutshell is we create productsfor people who enjoy the place
(04:50):
that they love, like Fair Harboris for us.
And while they're protectingthose places at the same time,
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And it's, it's fine too, based on what Jake said,
part of my fashion blog, Istarted it actually when I was
in sixth grade.
So it was a way for me to kindof have a foot in the fashion
industry while still in school.
Um, the whole premise of it.
On the weekends, I would comeinto the city and go to
consignment shops and vintageshops and try to find a way to
make, you know, old clothing newagain, um, by kind of changing
(05:15):
the way the styling and findingdifferent treasures and finds.
And it was a way to kind of givefashion a second life by, you
know, going through that processtoo.
So, um, from I think both of ourstandpoint, we've always really
had this passion deep inside ofus and this is just a, a way to
kind of make a larger impactthrough, uh, the work that we're
doing with Fair Harbor.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I love it.
I love it.
All right, so at some point youtalked about having this idea
and you've discussed the ideaand feeling that you really
needed to do something.
Talk to our listeners about howdo you go from this idea, and I
think we need to do somethingand some passion about the
environment, some passion aboutthe simplicity of summer
clothing and living, right?
(05:54):
And uh, uh, uh, um, how doesthat go from an idea to a real
business?
Talk to us about those detailedsteps, like how long did you
talk about it and then when didyou start incorporating
designing some clothing, puttingsome stuff online?
I mean, how did you go from anidea to a real business?
How long did it take and thenstart really designing and
(06:16):
selling stuff?
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Yeah, so we first kind of discovered this
technology in the summer of2014.
Um, and then in the spring of2015 or the fall of 2014, um, we
applied to Kogi University, hadan entrepreneurship program
called Thought Into Action.
Um, and so basically, kind oflike what you're saying, um,
their idea was like, let's takea thought and let's turn it into
(06:39):
action.
So cuz Colgate's a liberal artsschool, so we didn't have an
entrepreneurship major orbusiness major or anything like
that.
And so what they did is theyconnected aspiring entrepreneurs
with alumni, entrepreneurs whocould really help them start and
mold their businesses.
And so we started working on itin this fall of 2014.
Um, we had no idea anythingabout the apparel industry.
(07:01):
Our our dad was in real estateand, um, our mom was a
stay-at-home mom.
And so again, like apparel ingeneral was a super foreign
concept to us of how to actuallyget stuff made.
But we found this mill that wasconverting pla balls in the er.
And so we thought about what,what can we make outta this
product?
And, and Bor Schwartz inparticular is the first product
(07:21):
that we started with.
It was a really kind of naturalsegue into starting our business
because it's where you spend themost time around the water.
And, and so people typically whospend time in the water, around
the water should have a strongappreciation for the
environment.
Um, and so that was kind of whatwe started.
And then we, um, part of thisprogram, um, we reward the
(07:43):
opportunity to pitch at a mockshark tank competition.
So, um, Colgate put together aShark Tank competition every
year and, um, in the spring wereward the opportunity show.
So we pitched in front ofJessica Alba, MC Hammer, Neil
Blumenthal from Morby Parker,Jessica Oh
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
The runway.
And uh, yeah, we ended upwinning$20,000 in grant money
from the university to start thebusiness.
Carolina was a senior in highschool at the time, and I was a
junior in college.
And, uh, that's how we initiallygot started.
You know, I I would say it's alot of, it's a lot of just like
cold calls trying to figure out,you know, different people that
could help us, um, and with, youknow, manufacturing products.
And so that was, that was quitethe journey to figure out how to
(08:20):
actually get something made.
Um, but so I, I'd say that thatwas definitely a very
interesting part of the, thejourney.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Okay.
So you wrote up a business planand you pitched the plan to this
shark tank kind of group peopleat, at Colgate, you won$20,000,
you have a source for recycledfabric.
Um, yep.
But I still don't know.
How do you actually startdesigning and constructing
clothing and get to the firstreal cell?
(08:47):
Tell us about that.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Yeah, so we actually, um, prior to pitching at the
Shark Tank competition, we had aconsultant who had a factory in
Guatemala.
So he had actually, we hadn'tdesigned our first pair of board
shorts before.
So it took about a year fromthe, actually more like six
months.
So from the start of 2014 towhen we pitched in the spring of
(09:09):
2015.
That's, um, when we actually,uh, had our first samples and we
had a whole production ready torock and roll.
So we had a consultant that wehired that really had a factory
that they worked with inGuatemala.
And then we manufactured, uh,the fabrics, um, in China where
we, but
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Before the consultant actually, we had ordered some
sample yardage of this fabricand Jake and I were running
around the garment district ofNew York City just trying to
convince a single sample factoryowner to allow us to make one
simple product.
Um, and we just realized fromthat that wasn't scaled, like we
needed to kind of take the nextstep.
So that's when we hired theconsultant after Jake and I were
(09:46):
sweating, running around tryingto find a, a sample maker in the
city.
Um, so that was kind of thefirst step there too.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
So you're still no revenue, um, you're trying to
find somebody that you got, yougot the cloth or the fabric, um,
yeah, that, that, that, did youdesign the clothing, Carolyn?
Was that you that actuallydesigned it?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
So Jake and I really compliment each other in that
sense because Jake focuses moreon the fit and the construction
of the garments.
And then we collaborate on theactual aesthetics and the color
and the inspiration for theseasons.
Um, but that's, we, um, yeah, wekind of worked that way.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
So you're both young, you're in, you're, you're in,
you're in college, Jake andCarolyn's, uh, in high school.
Where does the money come fromto hire a consultant and do some
of these things stillpre-business formation?
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Our consultant was paid a commission on the amount
of products that we produced.
Ah,
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Clever.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
So basically, um, we had our samples.
We didn't pay them anythinguntil we actually won the grant.
And then with the grant money webasically utilized it to
purchase our first line ofproduction.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And after that too, because, you know, we're still
figuring it out and we didn'treally have, we had our website
but um, weren't really spendingon digital or anything like that
in terms of actually gettingpeople and traffic to the site.
So Jake and I took it to the, tothe road and we did trunk shows.
So in the first four years ofthe company, um, we did over 500
trunk shows, uh, just going outand we traveled up and down the
(11:20):
east coast going to small beachtowns, talking to everyone, at
anyone who would hear our storyand touch and feel our product.
And at the same time, you know,that was really our market
research that people were givingus feedback on, you know, the
product that fit the customerexperience.
And that was really kinda thosepivotal years.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
What is a trunk show defi, help me understand, is
that where a group of people puton a fair by a beach or is that
you just going to the beach andsaying, Hey, look at our
swimsuits, or what is that beachtrunk show?
Speaker 4 (11:46):
A little everything.
We, we, we had a plastic table,like a fold up table that we put
in the back of my car and we hada bunch of like product and we
would like, we would talk todifferent store owners and we'd
set up in front of their shop orwe would set up in a park or
we'd set up on a beach orthere'd be an event.
And yeah, so really, you know,no, no event was really too
(12:07):
small.
We were actually joking cuz Iactually did a, a trunk shot of
pumpkin patch one time.
.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I love it.
There's a lot of hustle.
I say hustle builds muscle.
So good for you guys.
But wait a minute, I'm still alittle confused though, Carolyn,
you're still in high school andthen college, so how are you
able to straddle school andtrunk shows and all this other
stuff?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
It was definitely a lot.
Um, and I think it, you know, itseems a little less painful
looking back in terms of cuzevery, you know, every summer
that's really when we did ourtrunk shows.
So it was, you know, my summer,ah, summer off and then, yeah,
really since my senior year inhigh school I've been doing Fair
Harbor.
Um, but every Sunday, you know,I would sit down and map out my,
(12:51):
my week in terms of when I hadclasses, when I'd do my
homework, when it was fairharbor time.
Um, and ultimately just, I,we've been so passionate about
this from the beginning and somake you make the time.
Um, and so
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yep, yep.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And how were you feedingyourselves?
Um, or, or did you start makingpretty good money from these
trunk sales right away?
Speaker 4 (13:14):
Uh, no, I, I lived at , thankfully my parents are are
good people and let me live athome for the first few years
after school.
My parents was in college, soyeah, no, I, we didn't pay
ourselves for quite some time.
It was really just, um, I, Iknow people say the, the ramen
diet, I wasn't quite on theramen diet, but pretty close to
it.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
, I get it.
Yeah, no, it's all good.
I love it.
I love it.
So, um, it, that sounds like youstopped doing these trunk shows
three years ago, four years ago,something like that.
Yeah,
Speaker 4 (13:45):
In 2017 we realized that the trunk shows were not
scalable in terms of, so wecould do a lot of'em.
They're profitable, they're agood way for us to get the brand
out there and talk to people.
But they weren't scalable interms of what we actually wanted
to, you know, make the companyhow big that we saw that this
company could be andaspirationally where we wanna
take it.
And so that's when we raised asmall round of friends and
(14:07):
family funding to invest intoour D d C infrastructure.
And so that was really makingsure that we had the
infrastructure to really buildout to support some growth from
an econ perspective,
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Pay per click the money mostly went to your pay
click PPC strategy is whatyou're saying?
Um, no, I
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Wouldn't say so.
Most of our marketing was paidfor through credit cards.
Um, it really went intodeveloping, um, it really went
into developing kind of theinfrastructure from an e-com
standpoint.
Revamping our website, um, wentto, um, making sure that we had
the proper consultants oragencies to work with.
(14:47):
Um, and, and yes, we wanted makesure that we did have an ad
budget, um, to go alongside thatgrowth.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
But we have been pretty, I mean we've been really
bootstrapped since the beginningand as we mentioned before, we
actually shipped all of theproduct out of our parents'
garage up until 2019 and oh, itwas, it was a lot.
Um, but ultimately we needed tohave a proof of concept, um, and
keep the low, you know, overheadlean.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
It got crazy at one point we had, you know, we were
sending up to 500 to a thousandorders per day from our parents'
garage.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
That's alright.
I guess if, uh, I guess if it'sokay for Amazon to start from a
garage, it's okay for you guys.
So that's exciting.
But come on, you're brother andsister, you fight sometimes,
huh?
Come on.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I have to say it's, it's kinda we, you know, I think
we do compliment each other andwe had, I think, you know, we
have complimenting skillsets andif we didn't we wouldn't be, you
know, where we are today.
And I think we can support oneanother respect to another and
ultimately trust one another.
Yeah.
Uh, you know, obviously, youknow, family dinner tables are,
are one thing, but ultimately,you know, there's, it's been,
(15:55):
it's been really great to beable to do this together and um,
yeah.
And share the ups and the downsand our whole family's been
incredibly supportive too fromday one as we were mentioned.
How fun
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
.
Yeah.
From shipping to the, you know,out of our garage and um,
everything like that.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
How fun.
Well I'm excited for you.
So, um, and I love the ideaabout how you, um, were a part
of a pitch competition, youknow, especially we've had a few
other folks who are Forbes 30under 30 and I'm learning that
these competitions really are agreat way to raise money and
some of them aren't even limitedto students at the school.
(16:30):
There are some of them thatoutsiders can even come in and
then there are other incubatorcompetitions.
So it really is a great way, wayto bring in at least uh, an
initial seed round.
Alright.
Tell us about a couple of thethings that maybe mistakes that
you made along the way that gaveyou what I call, you know, a
(16:50):
very expensive mba.
What were the lessons youlearned from some of the things
uh, that didn't go quite right?
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I would say the first mistake that I made that, or
that we made that was incrediblyimportant was, um, in our first
line of production.
Um, it was, uh, so our firstline of production, we had the
fabric we manufactured inGuatemala and uh, you know, like
I mentioned before, we didn'thave any idea how to actually
build or manufacture a product.
(17:17):
We were taking our consultantswork for it, we had our general
ideas of how we wanted thegarment to construct and look
and everything like that.
And we were having a launchparty at the Delania rooftop.
We only made, we made 500shorts, we had five different
colors, so a hundred of eachcolor.
So really, really smallproduction.
But it was, it was a great wayto get started.
And we're having a launch partyat the Delane rooftop in, in,
(17:41):
um, lower Manhattan in um, lowerEast Side.
And um, I am going to thebathroom and I'm opening up my
fly to go to the bathroom andthe Velcro completely comes off
and I'm like, oh my God, this ishorrible.
Turns out that on one color ofthe shorts, the factory had
actually glued down the Velcroinstead of sewing the Velcro
down.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Ooh.
Oh, you were wearing one of theproducts,
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Correct.
I was wearing, I was wearing oneof our shorts cause
Speaker 2 (18:06):
We have a fly failure.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Correct.
And I was like, this ishorrible.
And so, um, it was our firstlesson and we had already sold
20 of the products.
Oh.
And so it was our first lessonin customer experience and also
product quality.
So we reached out to all 20people that got it.
We got them to send it back.
We sent it to, we found a localseamstress who sewed them down,
sent it back to them.
(18:29):
And um, those are still some ofour best customers today, you
know, and I think that sure, itwas a mistake in not
understanding really how to makea garment then we should have
been looking for these things.
Um, but then a lesson in howimportant customer service is
and that, you know, if you treata customer well, you have a
great product that they'll keepcoming back.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
You know, one other thing too, looking back, um,
when we were first diving intodigital marketing, we outsourced
it to begin with and um, youknow, while we worked with a few
different agencies here andthere, we didn't actually know
what we were looking at.
And so we decided to take it inhouse and do it ourselves and
learn every part of it so thenwe can, you know, bring people
on.
(19:07):
And once, you know, we reallyunderstand everything that goes
into it.
And I think that was a biglesson too for us because
ultimately we needed to doeverything ourselves and really
understand it so then we canhelp teach and coach people, um,
once we kind of are able to doit that way too.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah.
Nobody cares as much about yourproduct and your sales as you
do.
And um, yeah, I completely agreeand understand that decision.
Alright.
Talk to us about a couple of themassive successes, the great
successes that really taught you, um, that you were going in the
(19:41):
right direction that taught yousome other great lessons.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
That's a good question.
Hmm.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Um, a massive success that has taught us that we're
going in the right direction
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Or that just was a great decision.
I don't
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Know if there's been like, there's hasn't been like
an aha moment, like, that wasawesome.
I'd say there's been a lot oflittle wins throughout the way.
We had a, a nice breakout yearin 2019 and in 2020 that was
gonna be a kind of our, ourgrowth year and we haven't
placed a bunch of inventory bets.
And, um, we had in March of, youknow, March 13th, we, it was at,
(20:23):
that's kind of when the countrystarted shut down.
And then in April, um, menswimwear was the fourth quickest
clowning online category online.
And we had to really figure outhow we were going to continue
building our business and how wewere gonna continue forward.
Like, we had a lot of inventory.
And so I, I'd say that was ahuge lesson for us because we
(20:45):
had to be incredibly scrappyand, and learn how to pivot the
business.
So we figured out how to sellour shorts in a different way,
how to portray how to, and wefilm some our, of ourselves, we
collaborate with influencers, weleverage our email list.
There was tons of differentthings that we did that, you
know, we wouldn't have been ableto do if we hadn't had that
(21:05):
pressure.
But it was because we had thatpressure that we were able to
make these small littlevictories and test out new
things.
And then once we had somethingthat was working, we put our
kind of foot down the pedal andthen we continue to, to scale it
that way.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
You know, there's a lesson in that and that lesson
is that sometimes there reallyaren't massive victories.
And a lot of, a lot of peoplethat I know that are angel
investors or a venture capitaltype people would say they don't
believe in hockey sticks.
You know, hockey sticks is whensomebody says maybe sales are
gonna go like this and thenthey're gonna go like that.
Kinda like shaped like a hockeystick and there are no hockey
(21:37):
sticks.
And um, and so sometimes thereare no massive big wins.
There are just grind, grindingit out.
Great little decisions that atthe end of the day lead to a big
business.
Jake and Carolyn, I've reallyenjoyed our time together.
Thank you very much and all mybest to Fair Harbor Clothing.
(21:58):
Thank
Speaker 4 (21:58):
You very much.
Thank you for having
Speaker 5 (21:59):
Us.
Really appreciated it.
Hello and welcome to Million Dollar Monday.
I'm your host, Greg Mazzello,bringing you real successful
people with real useful advicefor people with big dreams.
I understand big dreams.
I turned an investment of$200and a lot of great advice from
some really successful peopleinto my big dream proforma that
(00:31):
today is a half billion dollarcompany.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, hello and welcome.
I have a first for today, and itis a brother and sister team
that are very cool.
They, uh, have developed aclothing line, uh, that not only
is super cool, celebrating thesimplicity of summer, but also
dedicated to our environment.
They are both recognized byForbes Magazine and they're 30,
(01:04):
under 30.
And so I'm excited to introducebrother and sister and
co-founders of Fair HarborClothing, Jake and Carolyn, Dana
Heat, Jake and Carolyn, welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Thank you so much
Speaker 4 (01:19):
For having us.
Really appreciate it.
Excited
Speaker 3 (01:21):
To be here.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah.
We're, I, I I, I, I love yourstory and, uh, uh, especially
how you don't just have a coolclothing line, but how you're
really dedicated to ourenvironment.
Let, but let's start at thebeginning.
Talk to us about your growing upyears and, and maybe your school
years and, and where did youfirst of all learn a passion for
(01:42):
business and then eventuallywhere did you learn a passion
for the clothing industry andmost importantly, our
environment?
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeah, so thanks for asking the question.
Um, we, so kind of our story ina nutshell is we grew up going
to this place called Fair Harborand Fire Island.
Fire Island is a, it's a islandoff the coast of Long Island,
and the island's about 27 mileslong, but only about a hundred
yards wide.
And so there's no cars in theisland.
Um, it's pretty much covered inBoardwalk.
(02:11):
And, um, when we were kids,really all we need was a
surfboard and para swim trunks,and that was it.
And kind of ran around as welearned how to surf and fish.
And, um, it was incredible.
You know, it, it's funny when wehave, we don't really talk about
this often, but we had a, astrong business acumen, um, from
the beginning.
We used to, would, would collectseashells from the shore and
(02:32):
paint them and sell them, sellthem to people.
We'd have lemonade stands, we'dcreate lanyards and we'd sell
them.
And that was our, um, firstlesson on margins and trying to
figure out how to turn a profitby selling goods.
So, um, well,
Speaker 3 (02:46):
And because there's no cars on the island, the only
way to bring everything aroundis on wagons.
So we would kind of create ourown wagons on different corners,
street corners, um, on the dockstoo, people were going down for
a sunset.
So we've kind of made thosewagons.
Our, uh, our mobile, our mobileworkshops,
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I love it.
I love it.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Um, but yeah, it continues.
So that's definitely like ourfirst, I guess, business and
entrepreneurial, um, or project.
But, uh, what we notice with FarIsland in Fair Harbor in
particular, it's a glorifiedsandbar.
So if plastic waste wasn'tdisposed of correctly, it went
into the waterways if they onone side ocean on the other
side.
And we started, cuz we, we grewup, we started to notice more
(03:26):
and more plastic waste washingup on the shorts.
Oh.
And, um, fast forward a bunch ofyears, um, I went to Colgate
University, um, I played thecross there and, um, I went in
with the expectation of being aneconomics major.
Um, but then I started takingsome geography classes and was
learning about global oceanoccurrence and climatology and
ultimately this massive plasticproblem.
(03:47):
And, uh, Caroline at the sametime had always been super into
fashion.
She had a fashion blog since shewas in middle school called Case
Cook is in Cardigan.
So Caroline was on the latesttrends, but she was also, um,
considered the tree hugger, ourfamily, so very, you know, into
sustainability at a, at a veryyoung age.
And so, um, basically with allof these issues going on with
(04:08):
our environment, I actuallyended up running a thesis on
plastic waste and fact anderosion.
So I spent an entire semesterwith the professor really
digging down the nitty grittiesand nuts and bolts of what was
happening.
And in my study, this is back in2014, I found a mill that was
actually converting plasticbottles in a yarn.
And so I turned to Carolyn, Iwas like, we need to do
something about this issue.
(04:28):
And so that's when the idea ofher harbor was born.
And our objective was to createa platform to help promote the
mitigation of uced plastics bymaking an awesome product that
people wanna wear and love.
And so we make all of ourproducts out of recycled plastic
bottles, about 11 going intoeach of our shorts.
And, um, yeah, so really likewhat our mission statement is in
a nutshell is we create productsfor people who enjoy the place
(04:50):
that they love, like Fair Harboris for us.
And while they're protectingthose places at the same time,
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And it's, it's fine too, based on what Jake said,
part of my fashion blog, Istarted it actually when I was
in sixth grade.
So it was a way for me to kindof have a foot in the fashion
industry while still in school.
Um, the whole premise of it.
On the weekends, I would comeinto the city and go to
consignment shops and vintageshops and try to find a way to
make, you know, old clothing newagain, um, by kind of changing
(05:15):
the way the styling and findingdifferent treasures and finds.
And it was a way to kind of givefashion a second life by, you
know, going through that processtoo.
So, um, from I think both of ourstandpoint, we've always really
had this passion deep inside ofus and this is just a, a way to
kind of make a larger impactthrough, uh, the work that we're
doing with Fair Harbor.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I love it.
I love it.
All right, so at some point youtalked about having this idea
and you've discussed the ideaand feeling that you really
needed to do something.
Talk to our listeners about howdo you go from this idea, and I
think we need to do somethingand some passion about the
environment, some passion aboutthe simplicity of summer
clothing and living, right?
(05:54):
And uh, uh, uh, um, how doesthat go from an idea to a real
business?
Talk to us about those detailedsteps, like how long did you
talk about it and then when didyou start incorporating
designing some clothing, puttingsome stuff online?
I mean, how did you go from anidea to a real business?
How long did it take and thenstart really designing and
(06:16):
selling stuff?
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Yeah, so we first kind of discovered this
technology in the summer of2014.
Um, and then in the spring of2015 or the fall of 2014, um, we
applied to Kogi University, hadan entrepreneurship program
called Thought Into Action.
Um, and so basically, kind oflike what you're saying, um,
their idea was like, let's takea thought and let's turn it into
(06:39):
action.
So cuz Colgate's a liberal artsschool, so we didn't have an
entrepreneurship major orbusiness major or anything like
that.
And so what they did is theyconnected aspiring entrepreneurs
with alumni, entrepreneurs whocould really help them start and
mold their businesses.
And so we started working on itin this fall of 2014.
Um, we had no idea anythingabout the apparel industry.
(07:01):
Our our dad was in real estateand, um, our mom was a
stay-at-home mom.
And so again, like apparel ingeneral was a super foreign
concept to us of how to actuallyget stuff made.
But we found this mill that wasconverting pla balls in the er.
And so we thought about what,what can we make outta this
product?
And, and Bor Schwartz inparticular is the first product
(07:21):
that we started with.
It was a really kind of naturalsegue into starting our business
because it's where you spend themost time around the water.
And, and so people typically whospend time in the water, around
the water should have a strongappreciation for the
environment.
Um, and so that was kind of whatwe started.
And then we, um, part of thisprogram, um, we reward the
(07:43):
opportunity to pitch at a mockshark tank competition.
So, um, Colgate put together aShark Tank competition every
year and, um, in the spring wereward the opportunity show.
So we pitched in front ofJessica Alba, MC Hammer, Neil
Blumenthal from Morby Parker,Jessica Oh
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
The runway.
And uh, yeah, we ended upwinning$20,000 in grant money
from the university to start thebusiness.
Carolina was a senior in highschool at the time, and I was a
junior in college.
And, uh, that's how we initiallygot started.
You know, I I would say it's alot of, it's a lot of just like
cold calls trying to figure out,you know, different people that
could help us, um, and with, youknow, manufacturing products.
And so that was, that was quitethe journey to figure out how to
(08:20):
actually get something made.
Um, but so I, I'd say that thatwas definitely a very
interesting part of the, thejourney.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Okay.
So you wrote up a business planand you pitched the plan to this
shark tank kind of group peopleat, at Colgate, you won$20,000,
you have a source for recycledfabric.
Um, yep.
But I still don't know.
How do you actually startdesigning and constructing
clothing and get to the firstreal cell?
(08:47):
Tell us about that.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Yeah, so we actually, um, prior to pitching at the
Shark Tank competition, we had aconsultant who had a factory in
Guatemala.
So he had actually, we hadn'tdesigned our first pair of board
shorts before.
So it took about a year fromthe, actually more like six
months.
So from the start of 2014 towhen we pitched in the spring of
(09:09):
2015.
That's, um, when we actually,uh, had our first samples and we
had a whole production ready torock and roll.
So we had a consultant that wehired that really had a factory
that they worked with inGuatemala.
And then we manufactured, uh,the fabrics, um, in China where
we, but
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Before the consultant actually, we had ordered some
sample yardage of this fabricand Jake and I were running
around the garment district ofNew York City just trying to
convince a single sample factoryowner to allow us to make one
simple product.
Um, and we just realized fromthat that wasn't scaled, like we
needed to kind of take the nextstep.
So that's when we hired theconsultant after Jake and I were
(09:46):
sweating, running around tryingto find a, a sample maker in the
city.
Um, so that was kind of thefirst step there too.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
So you're still no revenue, um, you're trying to
find somebody that you got, yougot the cloth or the fabric, um,
yeah, that, that, that, did youdesign the clothing, Carolyn?
Was that you that actuallydesigned it?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
So Jake and I really compliment each other in that
sense because Jake focuses moreon the fit and the construction
of the garments.
And then we collaborate on theactual aesthetics and the color
and the inspiration for theseasons.
Um, but that's, we, um, yeah, wekind of worked that way.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
So you're both young, you're in, you're, you're in,
you're in college, Jake andCarolyn's, uh, in high school.
Where does the money come fromto hire a consultant and do some
of these things stillpre-business formation?
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Our consultant was paid a commission on the amount
of products that we produced.
Ah,
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Clever.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
So basically, um, we had our samples.
We didn't pay them anythinguntil we actually won the grant.
And then with the grant money webasically utilized it to
purchase our first line ofproduction.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And after that too, because, you know, we're still
figuring it out and we didn'treally have, we had our website
but um, weren't really spendingon digital or anything like that
in terms of actually gettingpeople and traffic to the site.
So Jake and I took it to the, tothe road and we did trunk shows.
So in the first four years ofthe company, um, we did over 500
trunk shows, uh, just going outand we traveled up and down the
(11:20):
east coast going to small beachtowns, talking to everyone, at
anyone who would hear our storyand touch and feel our product.
And at the same time, you know,that was really our market
research that people were givingus feedback on, you know, the
product that fit the customerexperience.
And that was really kinda thosepivotal years.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
What is a trunk show defi, help me understand, is
that where a group of people puton a fair by a beach or is that
you just going to the beach andsaying, Hey, look at our
swimsuits, or what is that beachtrunk show?
Speaker 4 (11:46):
A little everything
We, we, we had a plastic table,like a fold up table that we put
in the back of my car and we hada bunch of like product and we
would like, we would talk todifferent store owners and we'd
set up in front of their shop orwe would set up in a park or
we'd set up on a beach orthere'd be an event.
And yeah, so really, you know,no, no event was really too
(12:07):
small.
We were actually joking cuz Iactually did a, a trunk shot of
pumpkin patch one time.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I love it.
There's a lot of hustle.
I say hustle builds muscle.
So good for you guys.
But wait a minute, I'm still alittle confused though, Carolyn,
you're still in high school andthen college, so how are you
able to straddle school andtrunk shows and all this other
stuff?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
It was definitely a lot.
Um, and I think it, you know, itseems a little less painful
looking back in terms of cuzevery, you know, every summer
that's really when we did ourtrunk shows.
So it was, you know, my summer,ah, summer off and then, yeah,
really since my senior year inhigh school I've been doing Fair
Harbor.
Um, but every Sunday, you know,I would sit down and map out my,
(12:51):
my week in terms of when I hadclasses, when I'd do my
homework, when it was fairharbor time.
Um, and ultimately just, I,we've been so passionate about
this from the beginning and somake you make the time.
Um, and so
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yep, yep.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And how were you feedingyourselves?
Um, or, or did you start makingpretty good money from these
trunk sales right away?
Speaker 4 (13:14):
Uh, no, I, I lived at , thankfully my parents are are
good people and let me live athome for the first few years
after school.
My parents was in college, soyeah, no, I, we didn't pay
ourselves for quite some time.
It was really just, um, I, Iknow people say the, the ramen
diet, I wasn't quite on theramen diet, but pretty close to
it.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yeah, no, it's all good.
I love it.
I love it.
So, um, it, that sounds like youstopped doing these trunk shows
three years ago, four years ago,something like that.
Yeah,
Speaker 4 (13:45):
In 2017 we realized that the trunk shows were not
scalable in terms of, so wecould do a lot of'em.
They're profitable, they're agood way for us to get the brand
out there and talk to people.
But they weren't scalable interms of what we actually wanted
to, you know, make the companyhow big that we saw that this
company could be andaspirationally where we wanna
take it.
And so that's when we raised asmall round of friends and
(14:07):
family funding to invest intoour D d C infrastructure.
And so that was really makingsure that we had the
infrastructure to really buildout to support some growth from
an econ perspective,
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Pay per click the money mostly went to your pay
click PPC strategy is whatyou're saying?
Um, no, I
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Wouldn't say so.
Most of our marketing was paidfor through credit cards.
Um, it really went intodeveloping, um, it really went
into developing kind of theinfrastructure from an e-com
standpoint.
Revamping our website, um, wentto, um, making sure that we had
the proper consultants oragencies to work with.
(14:47):
Um, and, and yes, we wanted makesure that we did have an ad
budget, um, to go alongside thatgrowth.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
But we have been pretty, I mean we've been really
bootstrapped since the beginningand as we mentioned before, we
actually shipped all of theproduct out of our parents'
garage up until 2019 and oh, itwas, it was a lot.
Um, but ultimately we needed tohave a proof of concept, um, and
keep the low, you know, overheadlean.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
It got crazy at one point we had, you know, we were
sending up to 500 to a thousandorders per day from our parents'
garage.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
That's alright.
I guess if, uh, I guess if it'sokay for Amazon to start from a
garage, it's okay for you guys.
So that's exciting.
But come on, you're brother andsister, you fight sometimes,
huh?
Come on.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I have to say it's, it's kinda we, you know, I think
we do compliment each other andwe had, I think, you know, we
have complimenting skillsets andif we didn't we wouldn't be, you
know, where we are today.
And I think we can support oneanother respect to another and
ultimately trust one another.
Yeah.
Uh, you know, obviously, youknow, family dinner tables are,
are one thing, but ultimately,you know, there's, it's been,
(15:55):
it's been really great to beable to do this together and um,
yeah.
And share the ups and the downsand our whole family's been
incredibly supportive too fromday one as we were mentioned.
How fun
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Yeah.
From shipping to the, you know,out of our garage and um,
everything like that.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
How fun.
Well I'm excited for you.
So, um, and I love the ideaabout how you, um, were a part
of a pitch competition, youknow, especially we've had a few
other folks who are Forbes 30under 30 and I'm learning that
these competitions really are agreat way to raise money and
some of them aren't even limitedto students at the school.
(16:30):
There are some of them thatoutsiders can even come in and
then there are other incubatorcompetitions.
So it really is a great way, wayto bring in at least uh, an
initial seed round.
Alright.
Tell us about a couple of thethings that maybe mistakes that
you made along the way that gaveyou what I call, you know, a
(16:50):
very expensive mba.
What were the lessons youlearned from some of the things
uh, that didn't go quite right?
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I would say the first mistake that I made that, or
that we made that was incrediblyimportant was, um, in our first
line of production.
Um, it was, uh, so our firstline of production, we had the
fabric we manufactured inGuatemala and uh, you know, like
I mentioned before, we didn'thave any idea how to actually
build or manufacture a product.
(17:17):
We were taking our consultantswork for it, we had our general
ideas of how we wanted thegarment to construct and look
and everything like that.
And we were having a launchparty at the Delania rooftop.
We only made, we made 500shorts, we had five different
colors, so a hundred of eachcolor.
So really, really smallproduction.
But it was, it was a great wayto get started.
And we're having a launch partyat the Delane rooftop in, in,
(17:41):
um, lower Manhattan in um, lowerEast Side.
And um, I am going to thebathroom and I'm opening up my
fly to go to the bathroom andthe Velcro completely comes off
and I'm like, oh my God, this ishorrible.
Turns out that on one color ofthe shorts, the factory had
actually glued down the Velcroinstead of sewing the Velcro
down.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Ooh.
Oh, you were wearing one of theproducts,
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Correct.
I was wearing, I was wearing oneof our shorts cause
Speaker 2 (18:06):
We have a fly failure
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Correct.
And I was like, this ishorrible.
And so, um, it was our firstlesson and we had already sold
20 of the products.
Oh.
And so it was our first lessonin customer experience and also
product quality.
So we reached out to all 20people that got it.
We got them to send it back.
We sent it to, we found a localseamstress who sewed them down,
sent it back to them.
(18:29):
And um, those are still some ofour best customers today, you
know, and I think that sure, itwas a mistake in not
understanding really how to makea garment then we should have
been looking for these things.
Um, but then a lesson in howimportant customer service is
and that, you know, if you treata customer well, you have a
great product that they'll keepcoming back.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
You know, one other thing too, looking back, um,
when we were first diving intodigital marketing, we outsourced
it to begin with and um, youknow, while we worked with a few
different agencies here andthere, we didn't actually know
what we were looking at.
And so we decided to take it inhouse and do it ourselves and
learn every part of it so thenwe can, you know, bring people
on.
(19:07):
And once, you know, we reallyunderstand everything that goes
into it.
And I think that was a biglesson too for us because
ultimately we needed to doeverything ourselves and really
understand it so then we canhelp teach and coach people, um,
once we kind of are able to doit that way too.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah.
Nobody cares as much about yourproduct and your sales as you
do.
And um, yeah, I completely agreeand understand that decision.
Alright.
Talk to us about a couple of themassive successes, the great
successes that really taught you, um, that you were going in the
(19:41):
right direction that taught yousome other great lessons.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
That's a good question.
Hmm.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Um, a massive success that has taught us that we're
going in the right direction
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Or that just was a great decision.
I don't
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Know if there's been like, there's hasn't been like
an aha moment, like, that wasawesome.
I'd say there's been a lot oflittle wins throughout the way.
We had a, a nice breakout yearin 2019 and in 2020 that was
gonna be a kind of our, ourgrowth year and we haven't
placed a bunch of inventory bets.
And, um, we had in March of, youknow, March 13th, we, it was at,
(20:23):
that's kind of when the countrystarted shut down.
And then in April, um, menswimwear was the fourth quickest
clowning online category online.
And we had to really figure outhow we were going to continue
building our business and how wewere gonna continue forward.
Like, we had a lot of inventory.
And so I, I'd say that was ahuge lesson for us because we
(20:45):
had to be incredibly scrappyand, and learn how to pivot the
business.
So we figured out how to sellour shorts in a different way,
how to portray how to, and wefilm some our, of ourselves, we
collaborate with influencers, weleverage our email list.
There was tons of differentthings that we did that, you
know, we wouldn't have been ableto do if we hadn't had that
(21:05):
pressure.
But it was because we had thatpressure that we were able to
make these small littlevictories and test out new
things.
And then once we had somethingthat was working, we put our
kind of foot down the pedal andthen we continue to, to scale it
that way.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
You know, there's a lesson in that and that lesson
is that sometimes there reallyaren't massive victories.
And a lot of, a lot of peoplethat I know that are angel
investors or a venture capitaltype people would say they don't
believe in hockey sticks.
You know, hockey sticks is whensomebody says maybe sales are
gonna go like this and thenthey're gonna go like that.
Kinda like shaped like a hockeystick and there are no hockey
(21:37):
sticks.
And um, and so sometimes thereare no massive big wins.
There are just grind, grindingit out.
Great little decisions that atthe end of the day lead to a big
business.
Jake and Carolyn, I've reallyenjoyed our time together.
Thank you very much and all mybest to Fair Harbor Clothing.
(21:58):
Thank
Speaker 4 (21:58):
You very much.
Thank you for having
Speaker 5 (21:59):
Us.
Really appreciated it.
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