One of the things I’m most excited about doing through Fire Ant is interviewing dynamic business leaders who are reshaping commerce. I’m very pleased to kick things off with Jen Lee Koss, a woman extraordinaire who inspires me with everything she does.
Jen is an active investor, advisor, and board member in the consumer space and loves connecting with, mentoring, and learning from fellow entrepreneurs. She has spent most of her career focused on the consumer and retail sectors having worked in management, consulting, investment banking, and private equity before starting BRIKA in 2012. As if all of that isn’t impressive enough, she is a Juilliard-trained cellist, a mother of four young children between the ages of 2 and 9, and a graduate of Harvard University, Oxford University, and Harvard Business School.
For readers who don’t know, how would you describe BRIKA and your nearly 8 year journey building the company?
The journey has been the biggest roller coaster ride of my life, besides being a mom to four young kids, of course! We started back in late 2012 as an online marketplace much like a very curated and elevated Etsy. Six months into that ride, we pitched Hudson’s Bay and convinced them that we should do a pop-up shop at their downtown Queen & Bay flagship location. That was when we realized that offline retail was not going away. We started opening stores (one on the West side of town and another on the East side of town), and we continued to work with major property developers to create curated pop-up retail environments. We soon realized we were a service business and that’s when we pivoted to become a modern retail agency.
Love that you evolved BRIKA into a B2B agency business, after scaling it as an online e-commerce marketplace for artisans for nearly 6 years. How is the pivot going and what kinds of projects are keeping you busy?
We pivoted the business two-and-a-half years ago. I had gotten to a point where I was looking at what we had built and thought there is so much here that is amazing, but the business model is all wrong. We knew there was a lot of interest from property owners and developers to have our imprints in their spaces, and at the same time, we were also a touchpoint to thousands of talented smaller and emerging brands and buinesses. Although what we do may not look or feel that different from what our stores and pop-ups had been, we have taken on much larger clients and accounts to include multi-national and global brands, too. We have also worked with almost all of the major developers out there in Canada, and continue to value those relationships immensely. Covid has clearly put a halt to many of the projects we had going for this spring/summer, but we are seeing a lot of pent up demand and anticipation for Q4 this year from both the developers and brands. I am feeling like 2021 particuarly will be a big year for us!
Any advice on how to successfully pivot a business is incredibly timely in this post-Covid world. What wisdom would you share with startups and founders that are currently contemplating pivoting their own businesses to survive?
There’s never a “perfect” time to pivot. I liken it to having a baby — there is definitely never a perfect time to have one, you just know you want one (or four in my case!). I think pivoting can be scary and filled with so many unknowns, but it can also be the “answer” that was there all along. Sometimes the most obvious things you were doing may be what you end up pivoting towards and it doesn’t have to feel like or be that complete 180.
What were some of your biggest accomplishments through BRIKA and what can we look forward to in the near future?
We have had so many wins over the years, many of them attributed to my former co-founder who really built this brand so intently and the committed and A+ team we have worked with at every turn. We have had BRIKA pop up in nearly 20 Hallmark locations across the U.S., we created the first ever pop-up for Yorkdale Mall (one of the top three malls in North America), we have partnered with incredible brands such as Madewell, Birch Box, Mejuri, Knix, and Holt Renfrew. Ultimately though, I can say I am most proud of collaborating with, supporting, and giving a platform for distribution to thousands of amazing independent brands and businesses out there. We have worked with so many incredible individuals who deserve to have the light shining on them.
You’re one of the most inspiring entrepreneurs I know. What are some key lessons that building companies and teams has taught you? What would you tell yourself if you were to go back in time and speak with the younger Jen?
A few things come to mind:
- Hire for potential. I have been blessed by the people who I have worked with on this ride. Every single person has made an indelible impact on what BRIKA is today.
- Don’t expect magic bullets. They don’t exist.
- Keep the lights on. The business is only a business if the lights are still on.
- Make the asks. Don’t be afraid of making the big hairy asks — you already expected a no anyways, so it’s always a joy when someone responds.
- Don’t burn out. My mother-in-law gave me a Christmas gift two years ago which was a gold bracelet with two tiny turtles on the end. I wear it to remind myself to slow down.
What would I tell myself if I went back in time? I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I started a conductor-less orchestra in university which still exists today! I would tell myself that I was meant to be an entrepreneur because it was always somehow a thread that I kept pulling through all of my career.
Any regrets when you look back at your career so far?
Honestly, no regrets. I don’t like to look back and harbour resentment towards decisions I clearly made. However, I can say that I have learned, explored, been inspired by people and taken chances on new opportunities. Some of the people closest to me in my life come from my previous jobs.
Despite the challenges presented by Covid, we’re seeing a lot of areas of opportunity in the retail and digital commerce sectors. As a big picture thinker with deep domain expertise, what trends are you expecting to see take off post-Covid?
What will be the new normal? No one knows yet, but I do believe that themes and trends that were on the rise or budding before Covid have only been accelerated. One area I am expecting (or hoping) for innovation around is customer engagement tools. As a person who believes in the power of offline retail and the connections that can be made in person, I am interested in the new ways customers can fall in love with a brand or product without having to be there in real life.
You’re also an active angel investor. How are your Covid-related predictions informing your investment strategies?
I am obviously a huge fan of the consumer/ retail sector which is getting crushed right now. However, I am really interested in brands that I believe will stand the test of time and will become the new iconic companies of the future. I am also very keen on investing in the gender equality space — the stats on what is happening to working women everywhere given Covid is staggering.
Speaking of gender equality, you recently launched Springbank Collective — a new organization with an objective to mobilize $100M in private capital to build the tools, products, and services that can eliminate the gender gap. Where the heck do you find the time to do all this? And how can people who are reading this support your efforts with Springbank?
I have been pondering about the gender equality space for a while now. Let’s be clear, this will be my life’s work because it will take over 200+ years (and now even longer with Covid) for women to attain gender parity. For nearly two years, I have had discussions with two ladies in my life (one who I went to university with and one who I went to business school with) around what could be done in this space that was meaningful. We wanted to go beyond just funding female founders, for example. We finally connected on a thesis that closing the gap between men and women on economic attainment and power requires intersectional approaches — building infrastructure to support all women and working families. Therefore, the investments made to support the infrastructure are companies in the care, career, and household consumer space regardless of gender. How can people help? Firstly, keen individuals can sign up as members to join our collective. We are also interested in connecting with family offices and corporations who want to join us on this, and we are always on the lookout for amazing companies in our space.
What’s one video, book, or other resource you’d like to leave our readers with that’s currently inspiring how you’re thinking about the future? Or maybe it’s a person?
Oh my goodness, have you seen The Last Dance?! I haven’t been that inspired in a while. It was actually executive produced by the husband to one of my roommates in college so it’s just that much more special when you know the talent behind the talent — so impressive! I love the storytelling of that whole era, and beyond Michael Jordan, I was really moved by Phil Jackson as a coach. What a man of stature and success and what clearly seemed to be an ability to deeply understand each individual player to make up a winning team.
This interview was edited for clarity.
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