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Sarah Kauss founded S’well in 2010 after ten years as an accountant – a mid-career leap from running spreadsheets for startups to setting up her own business selling steel water bottles. Inspired by the idea of keeping plastic containers out of landfill, she self-funded S’well with just $30,000 (£22,000) in savings, bootstrapping her way to success. By 2016, the company’s revenue had topped $100 million (£74 million), and Kauss has gone from being the sole employee to managing a team of more than 100 people. Here, Kauss shares what she learned while creating a fast-growing firm – one in which she still retains a 100 per cent stake.
“Both my parents are entrepreneurs, so I grew up around business. It got into my blood. I didn’t know I’d grow up to be an entrepreneur, but I don’t think that I was shocked when I did start my own business.”
“In Arizona, hiking with my mum, I was in a reflective mood. My mum asked me, ‘What would you do if you could do anything?’ It all just came out of me at once: I would create a better water bottle that looked good and actually kept things cold. It was that day the idea was born.”
“At the University of Colorado Boulder, students are issued a big mug, and you pledge to try to not use foam cups or plastic bottles. It’s fine in Colorado to use a bottle that looks like a camping accessory, but then at Harvard and New York and working internationally, my bags, my shoes and my suit were getting nicer, but my water bottle still looked like I was an undergraduate.”
“Entrepreneurs are made, not born. I’ve accepted more imperfection than the risk-averse accountant inside me was born with. You can convince yourself that you have the disposition to be an entrepreneur, even if it’s really uncomfortable to begin with.”
“I was tired of accounting, but luckily, I’d worked with entrepreneurs, and my clients were people, not companies. I was trying to understand, as a junior accountant, how I could become one of my clients.”
“In the early days, I wasn’t confident enough to ask mentors for help. Now I realise there are so many formal and informal networks and opportunities for entrepreneurs to learn from each other. If only I could go back and tell myself not to hold it all in.”
“There are benefits and challenges to self-funding. I didn’t want to be pushed on numbers until we had built the brand – but because I didn’t have the capital, I didn’t have the budget to market the brand. So, up until now it’s really been word-of-mouth. There was something special about building a brand in an authentic way. It’s been fun to grow slow and steady, and now be fast and strong.”
“Take yourself out of your comfort zone with reckless testing. Get a little closer to the line, and you’ll realise you’re OK, so the next day you get a little closer again – until you realise there is no line.”
“A professor at Harvard University convinced me to do this. My journal covers five years on one page, so it shows progress and helps me log the highs – and to realise that challenges aren’t insurmountable, as I’ve manageda them in the past. It’s a little pep talk to my future self, and helps me put one foot in front of the other, even on days when it’s difficult.”
1975: Born in Florida
1993: Gets handed a reusable mug as an undergraduate
1997: Joins EY as a junior accountant
2001: Heads to Harvard to get an MBA
2010: Launches S’well, wins its first major customer
2011: O, The Oprah Magazine features S’well, inspiring a wider range of colours
2013: S’well included in TED Talk delegate gift bags
2016: S’ip bottle is launched and sold in Target stores
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
