Female Founders: Jennifer Kennedy of HoneyBug On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Don’t delegate what’s important. Once a day I hear “you should delegate that” when working on the things within my wheelhouse — Product & Marketing. We expect founders to only focus on the “Big Picture” and rely on others to accomplish important consumer facing goals. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are, nothing is more important to a start-up than generating sales and making your customer happy. Don’t delegate that responsibility, stay in the weeds, stay hands on, talk to your customers, make the sale. Those who say otherwise are simply wrong.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing HoneyBug.
HoneyBug is a children’s essentials and gifting retailer, founded by Jennifer Kennedy in San Diego, CA.
Whether you are buying for your child, or gifting to someone else’s, HoneyBug is reinventing how you shop for kids. HoneyBug celebrates the joy of getting and gifting baby essentials through extraordinary convenience, comprehensive selection and a personalized buying experience that helps you make the right choices every step of the way. With thousands of the hottest baby and kids’ items around, moms can find new gems, stock up on old favorites and explore the magical world of motherhood, one milestone at a time.
HoneyBug is known for celebrating all of life’s little (and big) moments. From every holiday to celebrating moments like being “Promoted to Big Sibling” or a “First Birthday.” Whether you are getting ready for a baby shower, birthday, holiday, or other celebration, HoneyBug’s unique children’s gifts will always put a smile on your loved one’s face, because HoneyBug believes it “Takes More Than a Village, It Takes a Hive.”
Buy all your children’s essentials and gifts at www.shophoneybug.com
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 San Diego, CA about 10 minutes from the Southern Border. My father was a SWAT Officer, and my mother was a Librarian at low-income elementary school. My mother is Mexican, and our heritage and culture are a huge part of who I am.
My whole life I was the kid who couldn’t listen but had the ability to create and imagine. After struggling in a traditional school model, my parents moved me into a Creative & Performing Arts school in 4th grade which ended up being one of the most pivotal moments in my life. Even as early as high school I knew that I wanted to do something in business and was drawn to Marketing, but I truly can’t say I gave it much thought other than “it felt right”. Following my intuition became a defining characteristic of my personality, so after giving it very little thought I applied and got accepted to San Diego State University. I ended up being one of the early recipients of an Integrated Marketing & Communication specialization from the College of Business. IMC focused on what was a newly developing concept that unifying all your marketing efforts helps create a stronger brand. Of course, now that’s just a given, but back then it was a cutting-edge concept as the digital space — including social media — was just appearing on the scene in a real way.
After graduating, I had this notion that “success” looked like working at a big brand that garnered respect from my peers or my community. While I quickly achieved success in my career, becoming the Chief Product & Innovation Officer at a multi-billion-dollar brand before I was 35, I always felt like something was missing. In 2019 after having my two children, and working full time, I started building HoneyBug as simply a creative outlet. One year later, HoneyBug started to show some promise, and as many others did during COVID I embraced the Great Resignation making the leap to a Full Time Founder & CEO — and truly have never looked back.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
The most interesting thing that has happened to me since starting the brand has been the evolution of becoming a true CEO. I had been an executive leader for so many years so didn’t expect the level of growth that would come as I evolved into the position. There is a level of confidence that comes with facing new challenges every day and knowing you can survive them.
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? Oh man, I might be too deep in to see anything funny about the mistakes right now… but… I am obsessive about finding a lesson in each of them. One of the biggest mistakes I made early on was we were ALWAYS running out of things. Our supply chain processes were terrible. We have over 2,000 items customers can choose from to create their own custom Baby Gift Boxes, and it was like a game of Wack a Mole when it came to inventory. Something would arrive and we’d realized we were missing something else. I ordered the wrong items — or — didn’t order enough — or ordered too much of things we didn’t need. Packaging, product, shipping labels, you name it, we ran out of it. We finally implemented systems that improved our logistics, but it truly was comical how bad it was at times.
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?
Absolutely my husband. Being a Founder is hard, being a female founder and mother is even harder. I was working full time, starting this brand, trying not miss any important moments with my kids and neglecting myself. You underestimate how much starting a company is a family decision, it takes on a life of its own, so without my husband supporting this crazy dream I would have stopped years ago. You need something cheering you on.
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?
This is truly a fantastic question that hits home with me. While much of it is based on the things we already know — funding sources not being readily available to women, the stress of balancing family life — for me the biggest reason is that we treat business ideas Women have as “hobbies” or “side hustles” where we treat business ideas Men have as viable concepts that could scale to support their families. I have seen it countless times, but I think we as Women are just as responsible for creating this myth as Men are. Usually when a girlfriend says they’re starting a business, we say “Oh Cute, let me know so I can buy”, we don’t Red Team the concept or work through the challenges of their go to market strategy. We offer a thumbs up and an obligatory “share” on Instagram. Simply wanting to start a business doesn’t mean you will be successful, but imagine how the narrative would change if we helped our fellow Sisters workshop their ideas and found a model that worked? That could be powerful.
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’d love to see Women have honest and thorough conversations with each other when it comes to our business ideas. As a society, we have become overcome with Internet Business Gurus encouraging you to become a “Boss” just by following their Social Media plan. The truth is, starting a business is really hard and running a successful business is WAY harder. We do each other a disservice when we simply say “that’s so cool” when hearing about a friend’s business idea. I try to spend time talking to them about the idea, their long-term vision for the brand, their logistical challenges and was to streamline the operation. Most importantly, as a Marketer, I think it’s so important to be honest and share feedback about the product itself and if there is a market for it. We take these discussions as hurtful challenges, where Men have these conversations all the time without a second thought. Without these impactful conversations you cannot create a successful business, so if we want to see more Female Founders, we need to decouple the belief that offering insights to success means we’re not supporting each other.
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?
While we make up half the world, we do not make up half the businesses we give our money to. Women not only bring unique insights to leadership, but we bring a unique insight into the types of products and services people could benefit from. It’s a win, win for everyone. Diversity of thought has started to be championed in the workplace, but if we do not start to encourage our young girls to pursue their wild ideas and take a seat at the front of the table, then we are missing out on ideas that could change the world.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
One of the biggest myths is that founders aren’t rational. The notion that we can’t see the forest through the trees and we’re so blinded by our idea. This is an absolute myth. Most founders know what’s good and bad in their business. They know what is working, and trust me, they know what is not working. What we don’t have is the luxury of letting that be an excuse. Often when you talk to a Founder you will hear them rationalize problems, that’s because those problems can’t be showstoppers, we have no choice but to solve them. Sharing how we’re going to tackle issues doesn’t make us irrational dreamers, nope, it just means we’re finding a way through the problem.
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?
This is one of those honest conversations I was talking about earlier that we should be having. I think anyone can be a Founder because anyone can have a great idea, but the reality is if you do not have certain traits, you will not be a successful Founder. I don’t think this means it’s all or nothing, but if you don’t have these traits than seeking out a Co-Founder who does will be mission critical.
To succeed you need to be:
- Self-aware & openminded. You will lose a lot of valuable time if you aren’t willing to listen, learn and pivot. You must be willing to listen when you’re doing something wrong or you’ll fail
- Self-motivated to the point people think you have lost your mind. Support goes in waves when you start a company. Sometimes you’re on top, sometimes you’re wondering how you can keep going. You must be able to stay motivated without the help of an audience, because they will not always be there
- Unapologetically committed to do what’s right for the brand. As women we often hate having tough conversations, or we’ll try not to hurt each other’s feelings. I have kept partners around for too long or let someone lead something they weren’t capable of because I didn’t want to hurt their feelings. The only thing that gets hurt when you do that is the Founder, the Brand, and the Bank Account. Do what is right for the company no matter what, you can’t make everyone happy
- Driven by short term goals. I wish a brand went from 0 to 100 overnight, they don’t. You must be driven by short term, incremental wins that add up to success in the long run. If you’re only driven by achieving overnight success than this journey is not for you
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- This is going to be harder than you think, but so worth it. Even with over 15 years of experience, this has been harder than I expected. As a Founder you can’t really have a bad day. You must always be on, and you have to be good at everything (which of course isn’t feasible). It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s so worth it
- The numbers are powerful. As a marketer the brand, product and communication came naturally to me, but the numbers are where the power lies. Make them your friend from the beginning or you’ll be fighting an uphill battle
- Don’t delegate what’s important. Once a day I hear “you should delegate that” when working on the things within my wheelhouse — Product & Marketing. We expect founders to only focus on the “Big Picture” and rely on others to accomplish important consumer facing goals. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are, nothing is more important to a start-up than generating sales and making your customer happy. Don’t delegate that responsibility, stay in the weeds, stay hands on, talk to your customers, make the sale. Those who say otherwise are simply wrong
- Stay fearless. I had a friend and angel investor recently leave us after a battle with cancer. She was known for her incredible positivity and encouraged everyone she knew to live life fearlessly. Once you see someone live that way, even while facing that battle, you realize there no excuse for you not to. Allison taught me that things are going to be scary, but you cannot let that fear stop you from moving forward without hesitation. She wanted everyone around her to know that living a fearful life is scarier than anything else you can imagine. I truly try to reflect on that anytime the fear starts to creep in
- Starting is easy, running it is hard. I almost laugh at this one because it’s so true. Starting HoneyBug was nothing compared to running HoneyBug, but if you remind yourself that this is NORMAL and all Founders experience highs and lows you’ll be just fine. Someone once told me that having a start-up is like having a series of near-death experiences — they were so right!
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Since its inception, HoneyBug made an unwavering commitment to prioritizing brands that strive to leave our world a little better than they found it — those focused on ethical sourcing, sustainable & organic production, community giveback, fair business practices and progressing female owned & independent businesses forward. We are proud to say over 80% brands meet these standards.
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 appreciate the platform for this, because there has been an idea I’ve had for some time. I’d love to have a program where we offer Women Owned businesses the opportunity to sell their products at HoneyBug free of charge. The biggest hardship for new businesses is getting exposure, it can be expensive, and you could lose all your money before you even know if the idea has legs. While going to retail could get you exposure, they may not have the margins for that early on creating even more pressure or forcing them to raise capital too early. I love the idea of offering emerging baby & children’s brands the opportunity to sell their product at HoneyBug and keep every dollar until they know the business is viable. After that we could help support in other ways like micro loans, investments and buying product. Imagine how impactful that could be for businesses who just need someone to give them a chance at the beginning. It’s on the roadmap for sure ☺
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?
Elon Musk has been someone I’ve been intrigued by for years. While he’s on top now, he had some dark days with Tesla, yet still found a way to push forward. There is something incredibly inspiring knowing someone so successful dealt with all the same challenges I deal with today — not to mention his vision is second to none. Love or hate him, he’s changing the world is ways that happen once in a generation.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Jennifer Kennedy of HoneyBug On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.