Female Founders: Jillian Bardo of Bay 2 Swimwear On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Take everything one step at a time: It’s important to have a vision, but also remember nothing occurs overnight. Taking small steps and continuing to move forward ultimately leads to your vision. There are a lot of moving parts in motion, and I have found that perfecting to small steps is paramount to achieving success.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jillian Bardo, Founder of Bay 2 Swimwear.
An experienced ocean lifeguard and lifelong beach lover, founder Jillian has always been in search of her ideal swimsuit — one that looked and felt high-end, stayed put in the waves, and didn’t cause a maze of tan lines. Her search eventually led her to create Bay 2 Swimwear, a unique swimwear line inspired by her experiences living and working on the beaches of New York City.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I grew up in Brooklyn, NY but my parents had me in the ocean for as long as I can remember. We grew up going to Riis Park and Rockaway during the summer and traveling. My dad owns his own scuba business, so all of our family vacations were usually in desirable dive spots (Cozumel, Turks and Caicos, Palau, Curacao, Bonaire, St. Lucia to name a few). When I was in high school, I got a summer job lifeguarding at Riis Park, and to me there was nothing better than being able to spend your workday on the beach. My job as a lifeguard allowed me to spend most of my time by the ocean and made me think that I wouldn’t mind working at Bay 2 forever, so I guess in some way this is how I am trying to make that happen. My love of the ocean and the beach demanded a top-notch swimwear wardrobe, and I was always very particular about the suits I wore. I would spend a great deal of money and time on swimwear, and little things like cheap lining, awkward padding and unflattering cuts would drive me crazy. In recent years, trends have pushed the swimwear industry in different directions, and I started to feel there were a lack of choices that I felt comfortable and confident in. I decided to create what I loved and what I felt was missing in the market in Bay 2 Swimwear.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
Since this is a completely new venture for me, it’s hard to pinpoint one specific story or event that stands out as interesting since every experience has been completely unique to me. One of my favorite moments was a few months before our debut Resort 2022 Collection launched, I used my bachelorette party as an opportunity to gift all of my closest friends with a Bay 2 Swimwear suit. We were all in Isle of Palms for the weekend and seeing the suits on my best friends on the beach was one of the best moments and the first time it really hit me that this was happening.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Well, after I decided to start this company, I really had no idea what the next steps were to start a clothing brand and get from Point A to Point B. I had been in marketing for ten years and my college degree is in English, so the fashion industry was completely new territory to me. I immediately ordered some fabric and a sewing machine and called my mom asking her to teach me how to sew. In my mind, I would sew all the suits myself with the chosen fabric. Luckily, I did a lot of research and asked the right people a lot of questions, and eventually I learned the process of designing garments (hint: you are not required to make the garments you design). My naivete in the beginning of the process was something that could have been considered a huge flaw, but I really feel like it allowed me to learn so much. Never be afraid to ask questions and don’t let the fear of rejection prevent you from pursuing a dream.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
As I said, although I had a strong idea of the suits I wanted to design and the brand I wanted to build, I really had no idea how to make that happen in the very beginning. I did a lot of research and made appointments with people I thought could help. A lot of the leads I followed in the beginning were not the exact ones that I needed, but almost all of them ended up pointing me in the direction of where I needed to go. I had made an appointment at The New York Embroidery Studio with Michelle Feinberg in the early stages of the process, and I arrived filled with questions for her. Not only did she happily sit down with me and answer everything I asked, she also referred me to a pattern maker in New York City that specializes in swimwear. As I was leaving, I thanked her and her response was “Us girls need to stick together, it’s hard when starting out and trying something on your own”. I will never forget that, it provided me with some confidence at a time that I was really doubting my ability to make Bay 2 happen.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
From my personal experience, I never felt that starting my own company was an option for me early in my career. It seemed like such a lofty goal that required money I just did not have available coming out of college. There was so much I did not know about how to start your own company, and the answers were not easy to find. There are now some small business loans specifically available for female business founders, but I still think that is not a known option to a lot of women. When I started Bay 2 Swimwear, I was in a position where I could invest my own money and time into founding a company, but it took me ten years to get to that place. There is a lot of pressure early on in your career, especially for women, that can become overwhelming. Entry level jobs are usually time consuming yet relatively low paying, rent is expensive, and most women do not have the option to get out of this cycle.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
I think it would be really helpful to make programs aimed to help women entrepreneurs more accessible, even if it is just by increasing awareness.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Some of the most successful startups in recent years have come from women founders and their ability to pinpoint gaps in the market. A great example is some of the recent developments in the beauty industry. Years ago, you had all these products that were essentially the same, developed by men and large pharmaceutical companies. But women founders of brands such as Drunk Elephant, Huda Beauty and Fenty Beauty were all able to identify what women were not getting from their longtime cosmetic choices, whether it be clean beauty, the appropriate foundation shade, or products that address different areas all together. Women listen to women and know how come up with the appropriate answers, especially since in a lot of cases they are able to tap into their own personal experiences as well.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
There was always an idea in my mind that I would need outside capital to start my own company. While this is true in some cases, and is even necessary for some companies, it does not apply to all. There are a lot of ways to be creative and in taking small steps, especially in the beginning, you can start to see early on how effective budgeting and planning goes a long way in investing in your own company.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
I would imagine it’s not a matter of whether everyone is cut out to be a founder, but whether everyone wants to be a founder. Traditional jobs provide security, consistency and community, and those qualities may fit some people’s lives more comfortably than the risks and responsibilities that come with being a founder. I think everyone is capable of being a founder to some degree, but that is all relative to what your expectations are and the work your comfortable committing to.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Everything is fixable: Mistakes happen and although they can be upsetting or stressful, there is always a recovery option. The day Bay 2 launched I logged into our website domain to double check everything and accidentally pressed a button that deleted the whole site. I, of course, had a panic attack and thought our launch was completely ruined, but luckily Shopify never deletes anything! After some tech support from our website designer, everything was restored. Stress tends to be more damaging than the actual mistake.
- Always maintain some flexibility: Even for the best planners and the most organized people, there are always some factors that just cannot be controlled. I planned my first campaign shoot in Montauk for the end of August 2021, and everything was organized to a tee. However, the date that was planned turned out to be a complete rainout and everything had to be rescheduled. I was so disappointed because there was so much work put into that shoot, but in reality, we were able to reschedule everything and we got our campaign shoot done on a beautiful, September day in Montauk.
- Tap into talent you trust: When it comes to building a brand, don’t be afraid to reach out to people you trust and admire for help, advice, or even potential collaboration. My friend Claire Peterson designed our logo, and it was a great process since we already had an established history and we both knew each other’s style preferences etc.
- Recognize your weaknesses: Your strengths are obviously to be celebrated, but don’t be ashamed to admit and acknowledge weaknesses. I am terrible at budgeting, and that’s a necessary part of running a successful company. I enlisted my husband to organize our budget, and it has definitely gotten us a lot further than my budgeting skills would have.
- Take everything one step at a time: It’s important to have a vision, but also remember nothing occurs overnight. Taking small steps and continuing to move forward ultimately leads to your vision. There are a lot of moving parts in motion, and I have found that perfecting to small steps is paramount to achieving success.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I hope being a female founder further inspires girls and women to pursue their passion and find ways to incorporate doing what they love into their careers. I think women (and people) are always the most successful when their work is also what they genuinely enjoy. I also hope that as Bay 2 Swimwear grows, we are able to do as much as possible to help aid the environment and contribute to a sustainable future.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I always talk with my mom about how society and the demands of daily life often end up suppressing individual creativity and talent. There is so much raw talent in this country, but not everyone is given the same opportunities. I’d love to inspire a movement that allows all people the platform to have their talents seen and heard effectively despite any of the typical societal deterrents (money, gender, race, education, etc.).
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Yes, I would love to sit down with Jimmy Buffett. My parents raised me on his music, which reflected my own love of the ocean, adventure, and traveling. I have always admired that he seemed to be doing something he loved very successfully while following his own path and maintaining control and individuality.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this
Female Founders: Jillian Bardo of Bay 2 Swimwear On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.