For eight years, Jacksonville-based venture capital fund PS27 Ventures has been celebrating female entrepreneurs, bringing together women who have founded and run a range of companies.
This year's sold-out Female Founders Forum — March 3 at the UNF Adam Herbert Conference Center — will feature Sarah Kauss, the founder of S’well, a reusable water bottle and insulated products company. Staring with $30,000 in savings, Kauss has taken the business to more than $100 million in revenue.
Leading up to the event, Kauss sat down with the Business Journal to talk about the challenges she has faced and how she's overcome them.
What challenges have you faced as a female entrepreneur?
It’s hard for me to answer that as a female entrepreneur because my challenges weren’t really different from any other entrepreneur. Most venture-backed companies are men, and for many years at the beginning of S’well, I didn’t always have the confidence that I have now. I felt like I had to have all the answers and pretend like everything was going well. Now, I am openminded to saying, ‘I need help.’ A specific decision I made as a woman is that I never raised capital. I didn’t have a background in raising funds or venture capital. I bootstrapped and was scrappy for a long time.
What advice do you offer new founders at the onset of their launch?
I would say go all in. I was fortunate that I was able to leave my job and devote all of my time and attention to what I wanted to do. I have a lot of respect for those who can do two things at once and dabble on the side, but if at all possible, go all in and really commit. Tell others, ‘This is what I’m doing’ so you’ve got community champions who are pushing you along the way.
How has networking with women enhanced your rise to success?
I’ve been successful because I had a positive community around me. You know, being an entrepreneur can be quite lonely, so networking started early in my career. I didn’t like being an auditor, but I learned a lot from the teams that I was on and from clients assigned to me. One of my first bosses became a mentor who encouraged me to take something from every opportunity and experience that I was a part of. That stayed with me years when I started S’well. Having new founders around you encourages others. You champion their success and commiserate when things are going poorly.
What are two resounding points attendees can expect to hear you address on Friday?
I think a couple themes I’m going to stick to are having purpose and being authentic in the journey. It’s the reason I started S’well and got great people to commit their talent for a long time. The other thing is that I am humble. People think I’m so successful or an overnight success, but I love to talk about all the things that went wrong. My journey was not linear. There were so many times things were not going well, and I think that is important to share with other entrepreneurs.
Which has been most integral to achieving long-term success: passion or patience?
If I had to pick one, it’s patience. Patience sees you through. There are a lot of parts to the journey that are really boring. It’s not glamorous all the time or an overnight success story. Passion is the catalyst that gets you up in the morning, but patience sees you through for the long run.
