Female Founders: Nikki Day of Ayla & Co On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Be patient with yourself and don’t compare yourself to other brands or companies. It’s easy to focus on where you want to be and get caught up on how far you are from that. Don’t compare your year one or year two to someone else’s year ten!
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nikki Day, founder of Ayla & Co, the innovative diaper bag company that is helping parents everywhere take on the chaos of life with a little less mess.
Ayla & Co combines both fashion and function, with beautiful diaper bags and handbags made for the modern women, that also can include their patented 1 lb cordless vacuum! With its dual suction and beautiful design you can tackle life’s messes wherever they happen.
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?
First and foremost, I am a wife and mom of 4 little kids. In fact, we had four kids in 4 years (no multiples) so it’s safe to say life was/is a little hectic. I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit and have owned various smaller businesses over the years. I remember one pivotal moment that really got the gears turning for Ayla & Co was when I “graduated” to minivan status (yes that’s a thing that many of us moms have to embrace). I told my husband I would only drive a van if it had all the bells and whistles. Long story short, the van came with a small built-in vacuum. At first I thought it was ridiculous, but I ended up using it almost every single day. It made me think about how nice it would be to have a small hand held vacuum with me wherever I went, because let’s face it, kids are messy! I was also feeling extremely frustrated with my current diaper bags and felt that nothing was really suited for my needs. This is what led to my “light bulb” moment when I really knew I could design something better, more functional, and more innovative than anything else on the market. It took about a year of product development and design but we finally launched our business at the tail end of 2020. Looking back, I’m not entirely sure how I survived that year because I became the sole income provider and a homeschool teacher for my four children all about one week before our business officially launched. It was nothing short of sink or swim, but I did it. All that hard work has paid off and will continue to pay off.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
As I stepped into the role of leader and founder, I noticed a shift in my confidence. The self esteem that I’ve gained and the sense of purpose outside of my role as just a mother was real. Being a mom will always be a very important part of my life, but it isn’t the only thing that defines me. Running my own business allows me to explore that creative outlook and nourish myself in a way that I wouldn’t necessarily be able to outside without it.
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?
This is a little embarrassing to admit but if you can’t laugh at yourself you are never going to make it in this world. I once was doing an instagram live and was showing our followers our new products. The “live” lasted about 25 minutes and once I finished I watched it back over to make sure I didn’t forget anything, and to my horror, I realized that my cute oversized sweater was tucked into my underwear and showing above my pants waistline. All in all it was visible for about 30 seconds of the video. It was pretty embarrassing (luckily nothing R-rated) but definitely not my best moment.
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?
I was lucky enough to have a lot of mentors who were just a few years ahead of me in the product development world. I was able to ask lots and lots of questions and they so graciously offered their advice, support and help throughout my startup life. It is very easy to feel isolated in this entrepreneurial world and having that connection with other business owners is a priceless blessing that I was able to experience. It is my hope that I can return the favor one day to a fellow entrepreneur.
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?
While we have come so far in the last 50 years with women in business, we still have such a long way to go. The Covid-19 pandemic hasn’t helped in recent years. According to a recent study, 1 in 5 women were forced out of the workforce since the pandemic began, most citing child care or family care responsibilities and have not returned to work. That is decades worth of progress erased in a matter of months. The challenge of running a household, providing childcare, homeschooling and/or working from home all hold women back from founding companies. Today, more than 80% of CEOs are male. The glaring discrepancies between men and women in the workplace are likely to deepen and last for generations. We desperately need a recovery plan that supports women in the workplace.
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?
My advice is to set clear expectations with your partner about both your work life/home life balance. Figure out how to divide up childcare, work, and what accommodations need to be made. While you could have the most supportive and productive partner in the world, the fact is that women still carry most of the emotional and mental load in a relationship and families and this really is a huge factor in why women don’t have a larger role in business. Women don’t have adequate access to resources needed to succeed. The reason there aren’t more women CEOs is unfortunately because as a society we set women up to fail. In addition to these limitations, there are also the same old assumptions about assertive, empowered and successful women. We need to teach people how to reframe their view of a successful woman.
As a society, we need to aspire towards more affordable child care, and better maternity leave options. We also need larger corporations to create more accommodations that make it easier for women to have more flexible schedules. Lastly, we need to address the pay gap discrepancy, especially for women of color.
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?
Arguably, the best time for women to start a company is now. Women have been fighting back against lost jobs by creating their own. According to the most recent census, women were two times more likely to start a business than men and over 4.4 million businesses were created in the US during 2020 alone. This is the highest on record to date. It’s never been easier to get your product or service out there to the world. Marketing, word of mouth, social media, and the resources available to you on how to be successful are all at the tips of your fingertips.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
I would like to dispel the myth of what you think life as a founder looks like. What people typically see on the outside is surface level and might look a lot like financial freedom and creating your own schedule. This is the tip of the iceberg and while entrepreneurship can bring those things, it is often not as simple as that. Owning a business and being a founder is super rewarding, but it is also a lot of work. I quite frequently refer to Ayla & Co as my fifth child. There are a lot of sleepless nights, tears, sweat, and worry put into this business. While I knew it would be difficult, there are some days that I never dreamed it would be this challenging.
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?
Resiliency. You have to have the ability to dust yourself off after falling down and be willing to try harder. You can have the greatest work ethic in the world, but if you quit after one set back you will never make it as the founder of a business. If I would have quit after my unfortunate instagram live video, I would never have been able to hit my million dollar mark in sales and be able to celebrate that win. If you can learn to look at your setbacks as growth opportunities, then they can propel you forward and help you make necessary changes within yourself and your business to really achieve the growth and success you are looking for.
It is also important to surround yourself with people who believe in your aspirations. If you create a support system that helps you thrive, the chances of doing so become much greater. I am lucky enough to have a very supportive husband and family who are able to help with childcare while I work.
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.)
- It’s a marathon not a sprint. Focus on the journey not necessarily the end goal, and remember that the small steps forward that you make each day will make the biggest difference in the long run.
- All growth is not necessarily “good” growth. Grow responsibly. In other words, make sure you can support the scaling that you are wanting to do. It can be a business crippling problem to grow faster than you can reasonably support.
- Start creating a profitable business as early as you can. Of course there are certain start up investments related to starting a business, but turn your focus to profitability as soon as you can. It is all too easy to get caught up in the “reinvestment” strategy of the business and never graduate from that. At the end of the day, you are starting a business to pay yourself and be profitable.
- Be patient with yourself and don’t compare yourself to other brands or companies. It’s easy to focus on where you want to be and get caught up on how far you are from that. Don’t compare your year one or year two to someone else’s year ten!
- Don’t be afraid to hire. Hiring new team members can feel impossible early on and not financially feasible. However, hiring out the work that you can, really can be a catalyst to scaling and growing your business. Find your strengths, focus on how they can support the business, and hire out your weaknesses.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
At Ayla & Co we like to find ways to give back. One of our favorite causes that is near and dear to my heart is World Purple Day which is March 26th. World Purple Day is a day to help bring awareness and public understanding to Epilepsy. In March of 2020, my 6 year old daughter was diagnosed with a seizure disorder and we have been learning to adapt and thrive with this diagnosis ever since.
As many as 65 million people worldwide have Epilepsy including 3.4 million in the United States, 470,000 thousand of whom are children. 1 in 26 people will develop epilepsy at some point in their lives, so you probably already know some one with it!
In honor of World Purple Day, Ayla & Co donates 100% of their profit from the sales that day to the Epilepsy Foundation for research and to train more people in seizure first aid response. In addition, we match that amount donated to the foundation and put it towards new books that get donated to the Neuro Trauma Unit at one of the largest children’s hospitals in the country.
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 would love to eventually get to the point where we are able to set up scholarships for women entrepreneurs. I would love to find a better way to help support and encourage women in business.
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.
I think it would be amazing to sit down with Kendra Scott. Not only is she one of the most notable self made women in America, but she is also a mother as well. It would be an honor to pick her brain and learn from one of the best.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Nikki Day of Ayla & Co On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.