Female Founders: Kiana Jones of Happening Hands On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Entrepreneurship is a bit lonely, especially at first. When I first started learning about how to run a marketplace, it was really difficult to find others who owned marketplaces who were willing to speak with me about their experiences. I didn’t have a mentor in the traditional sense — and by that I mean someone who had built something exactly like my business — because there really isn’t anything out there exactly like it. When you run a unique business unlike anything specific out there, you have to learn how to find people who can support and mentor you regarding different parts of it. There’s a lot of searching, networking, relationship building, and curating that goes on.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kiana Jones.
Kiana Jones is an artist and the founder of Happening Hands, a marketplace and learning community for makers. As a former fine arts librarian and Pinterest manager for artists, Kiana started Happening Hands at the beginning of the pandemic after quitting her full time job, so she could share her marketing expertise with her fellow makers. In just a year and a half, Kiana’s marketplace has attracted award-winning artists to sell their work on the platform and gotten buzz from media outlets like Community Leaders Magazine.
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 spent 10 years selling art and jewelry on Etsy, and 8+ years as a Pinterest marketer and strategist for makers and other entrepreneurs. The maker community really has been a passion of mine for a long time, and after all those years listening to the needs of makers who were trying to grow and run thriving, profitable businesses, I knew something was missing. That’s when I started dreaming about starting a new handmade marketplace with an unmatched community of support for its makers. Although I had originally followed a career path in academic libraries, in 2020 I finally left my faculty position to start Happening Hands full time, seek funding, and launch the marketplace and community.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
After about 6 months of running my company on a very slim budget and only 15 makers in the marketplace, I was approached by a local non-profit, Bridgeway Capital and their Creative Business Accelerator, who wanted to partner with me! I was shocked! I definitely felt like the idea for my business was there, but the marketplace site was very clunky at the time, and I didn’t even have an LLC set up yet. Knowing that there was someone out there that believed in me when I was just getting started significantly helped get my business going. A year after our first meeting they awarded me $50K in funding to launch the new marketplace and community space. Their support has been amazing.
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?
When I first started, I thought Happening Hands was going to be a brick and mortar storefront in Pittsburgh. Part of me will never completely let go of that dream, but it’s in my back pocket for now. I remember driving to work with my husband, and every day for a week not shutting up about all of the amazing vintage furniture I was going to buy to start filling a storage unit with until the storefront was ready. He reminded me that I didn’t even have a business name picked out yet. I quickly stopped spending every waking hour looking for cheap furniture on Facebook Marketplace. Looking back it makes me feel so silly!
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?
Nicole Swartz from Sprout Law was integral to getting my business off the ground. She’s a small business attorney who owns a law firm for women, and when I was first getting started she had an awesome business accelerator course that helped me formulate the business name (with the idea that I would trademark the name down the line), the values behind the business, and who my business was serving. The course also helped me think about website usability and the policies I’d need in place legally to start and run a marketplace business.
One of the biggest things I’m grateful for is that Nicole pushed me to just START, even though everything wasn’t perfect. That meant so much to me in my business journey, and I’ll never forget it, because without that support I wouldn’t have known where to start.
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?
Education, funding, and business coaching. Without education, women are often unsure where to start, or even that funding is an option. There are also so many big voices out there today that it’s hard to know exactly where to find the right education that’s going to teach you how to get your unique business off the ground.
Mindset is a big issue as well — women often tell themselves stories about how far they can go or not go in the business world, and that limits them. Finding a coach or a community of support who can help you through your mindset barriers can make a huge difference, similar to what Nicole did for me when I was just starting out.
Funding is another thing often holding women back, especially women of color. As a woman of color myself, who grew up in poverty, it is a serious struggle to climb out without help, and without ASKING for help (which is a very vulnerable place to be). Education costs money. Transportation and living expenses are astronomical today. Childcare is unaffordable and hard to find for many people.
I was privileged in that I was able to secure many scholarships to make it through college while living at home to save money, and after getting my Masters’ degree, I was able to find a fairly well paying job. Regardless of how difficult the road is for many women to become founders of funded companies, especially for women of color, that struggle we’ve gone through makes us some of the strongest leaders and founders you’ll find.
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?
Caring for women is huge. That also means caring for impoverished communities. Caring for immigrant families. Caring for mothers. Taking down financial barriers to education and proper medical care, especially for communities of color. Government leaders need to make sure women are paid the same as men, which unfortunately still doesn’t happen today even with the Equal Pay Act in place. The list goes on.
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?
I do believe women are uniquely poised to lead, and if we want a bright future, putting equal amounts of it in the hands of women is important. It’s simple: women should become founders because we deserve a voice too. Becoming a founder often also provides more flexibility for women. Because women are still the primary caregivers in today’s world, this flexibility would make such a huge difference in women’s ability to manage everything we have going on.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
One myth is that we’re rolling in cash. This is simply not true for every founder. Yes, starting a company = risk and money, but most founders are in the red for a few years while they try to get things off the ground.
Another misconception I hear often is that we must have it all figured out. This is also simply not true. We are constantly learning and growing, improving and failing, just like you. We are just as human as everyone else.
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?
Everyone isn’t cut out for it — not everyone wants it! Everyone has a different dream and a different personality.
Having traits of being a self-starter and a delegator increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder. Another big one is lack of pride — being able to step back and say, “I need help” or “I need to hire this out because I’m not an expert in this, nor do I have time.” Being a natural advocate is another big one, especially if the goal of your company is to better the lives of others.
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.)
- Entrepreneurship is a bit lonely, especially at first. When I first started learning about how to run a marketplace, it was really difficult to find others who owned marketplaces who were willing to speak with me about their experiences. I didn’t have a mentor in the traditional sense — and by that I mean someone who had built something exactly like my business — because there really isn’t anything out there exactly like it. When you run a unique business unlike anything specific out there, you have to learn how to find people who can support and mentor you regarding different parts of it. There’s a lot of searching, networking, relationship building, and curating that goes on.
- Mindset is often more important than ability. I wish someone had told me at first that my entrepreneurial spirit and drive to achieve my creative dreams and help others was more important than my ability to make all the “right” business decisions. Now I like to be as honest as I can with myself, and say “How long will that task take to learn? Is it sustainable for me to do it myself and build it into my routine?” If it’s too much, I hire it out if I can, and because running a business can be overwhelming without that help, I don’t feel bad that I’m not doing everything myself anymore.
- I’m the CEO and can make all the decisions. Someone eventually told me this, and it was a really important realization for me. I remember when I first started my business I kept asking my mentors, “Can I do x thing? Can I make x decision?” Moving from a 9–5 into entrepreneurship involved trying to leave behind a lot of mindset baggage surrounding my autonomy and independent decision making. It was almost traumatic in a way, but it was nice to re-discover my independence and then find a new community.
- Success doesn’t just show up overnight. When I first started my business I was incredibly impatient. I had wanted to leave my 9–5 for a few years already, and I wanted to hop into an already successful business. Unless you’re a unicorn, overnight success just doesn’t happen. You have to put in a lot of hours, trial and error, and build a lot of relationships. All of that takes time, and then you realize that as a CEO you’re constantly strategizing to keep that momentum going. Success doesn’t just show up and maintain itself on its own.
- Strategy is everything. Without a plan, it’s really easy to flounder and not know what to do next. Even if your strategy doesn’t bring you the level of success you’re hoping for, it keeps you on track and working towards your goals in concrete ways.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Helping others is what I do. Originally, when I was a librarian, this meant helping students and faculty 1:1 with research questions and educational support. Now that I’ve founded Happening Hands, I’m helping small business makers grow thriving, profitable businesses. One way that I’ve helped is through offering business strategy coaching, where we discuss all of the pain points a small business maker is experiencing, and taking those pain points and turning them into positive goals with achievable steps they can take to beat their pain points and grow their business. We also offer a lot of free education in our community space to reduce the financial burden for makers who can’t afford that education.
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.
Free business and entrepreneurship education for low-income and minority populations would be a wonderful thing to see. Resource availability through the public or academic library is one thing, but actual education and coaching is another — and that’s what I’d love to see. People who have resources lifting up those who don’t, so they can succeed too.
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.
Amanda Palmer. Her book, The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help, made a profound impact on me when I first started my business. I grew up with an entrepreneurial father, but he taught me that I should do everything on my own, for myself, and never ask for help (but be grateful when it was given out of love or pity). Amanda has this nitty-gritty belief in people and that you open yourself up for opportunity if you simply ask. This spoke to me and gave me the courage to ask for help in my business journey when I needed it most, and to fight against that negative mindset I grew up in. I’d love to pick her brain on how I can impart that same encouragement to those in the community I influence.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Kiana Jones of Happening Hands 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.