Hello!
I'm Jayla.
I'm so happy you're here because I love people with big dreams who are making things happen. I live in sunny Santa Barbara California with my hubby James and I'm a product creation junkie.
My work is my passion and I've learned so much over the past 15 years from working in Product Management with global brands like Burton Snowboards and Diesel Footwear, to launching my wine business and appearing on ABC's Shark Tank making a deal with Mark Cuban.
Starting a consumer products business can be daunting (to say the least) so I’ve created this website to help other entrepreneurs who are jumping in and could use a little help in bringing their product to market.
A little more on my journey below...
Cheers!
I LOVE the nitty gritty of making things.
Whether it’s a new recipe, a DIY house project, or a new product for the market, I love the process of figuring it out. I visualize it and then get to work bringing it to life.
This started in high school when I got a sewing machine and taught myself how to make clothes. Little did I know that skill helped me land my first job after college with Diesel Footwear in product development.
While I was at Diesel I had a little art studio where I would make custom leather handbags (give me a glass of wine, a pile of leather and a sewing machine and I’m a happy camper).
Instead of starting a business, I took a job with Burton
Snowboards as a Product Manager for footwear, bags and accessories. At Burton,
pushing the limits in product development was not only encouraged but expected…
as was snowboarding before work—no complaints there.
During these seven years at Diesel and Burton, I traveled to China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan multiple times a year working with factories and materials suppliers and learning the most important rules of product development (1) where there’s a will there’s a way and (2) don’t take no for an answer.
Despite the amazing perks at Burton, I started getting bored. I had so many ideas and I found myself still day dreaming about starting a business and working for myself. Deep down I knew I could do it.
Finally, I decided to take the leap and I quit my job to set out and create a product that stemmed from a personal need, a lighter, healthier wine.
While quitting my job was scary, it was also crazy exciting and exhilarating. Of course, I thought I’d have it off the ground in a year and have nation wide distribution in no time. Little did I know how much time, effort and planning goes into bringing a product to life and getting it on a retailers shelf, especially in the alcohol business.
As the reality of quitting my job settled in, I went through my savings, cashed in my 401K and was bartending nights to work on my business during the day.
As I was figuering out how the hell I was going to make this drink (I had no experience in the wine industry so all of my professional contacts and experience up to that point were pretty well useless) I realized it wouldn’t hurt if I learned more about the business side of things.
So I studied for the GRE's and went back to school for my MBA at USD, studying entrepreneurship and marketing.
While I was at USD, I wrote my business plan for Bon Affair
and started entering business plan competitions. After a year and a half of
pitching investors, I closed a half million dollars from angel investors as a
pre-revenue company. It was off to the races.
I was working my ass off building a website, setting up meetings with retailers, developing the packaging & product, and getting ready for production. At the time, there was only one bottler who would take us and while they had a good reputation what I didn’t realize was that they were in a downward spiral getting ready to go out of business.
Our first 5000 bottles that came off the line had tomato floating in them, yes for real, tomato. From there it was one thing after another and in total we lost over $100K in inventory on that first production run.
The inventory that “passed inspection” shipped to our fulfillment center but as we started shipping boxes to customers and the boxes were showing up soaking wet… all of the caps were leaking. Devastating.
Six months later that bottler was out of business and I thought I was going to have to close the doors. I had to let go of my few employees and figure out what to do. To say the least it was not a fun time, it was actually pretty depressing and it took a lot of yoga and positive thinking to get through it. After six months, I finally found a new bottler and started planning a new production run. We barely stayed in business.
Since then I’ve raised a total of over a million dollars from angel investors and appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank making a deal with Mark Cuban and most recently ABC’s Beyond The Tank.
I’ve definitely had my share of bumps in the road and I’ve met many other entrepreneurs who have overcome the many unique challenges that come with producing, selling, and distributing consumer products.
When I was starting out (and still now) listening to other peoples experiences, lessons and strategies has been invaluable. I love the entrepreneurial spirit and process and was inspired to create this website as a resource for other entrepreneurs like me who are launching and growing consumer products businesses.
Instead of trying to figure it out yourself (or pay expensive consultants or an outrageous price for an MBA like I did) I hope you can use this site as a resource to find some shortcuts and get your business where it needs to go a lot faster.
It takes creativity and passion to bring a new product to life, which I know you have if you’re already here.
I can’t wait to connect with you to learn more about what you’re doing. And I look forward to helping you any way I can to launch and grow your amazing product for customers all over to enjoy!
Cheers!
Jayla