These Founders Started a Global Business with Just $4k

Cofounders Heather Aiu and Rachael Leinaʻala Soares are former roommates who each contributed $2,000 of their own money to commence Aloha Collection. Considering it was a sizable chunk of their respective reserves at the period, the property symbolized their commitment to solving what they saw as a gap in the economy for waterproof bags.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the two launched Aloha Collection to produce Hawaii inspired waterproof bags. That Kickstarter campaign helped them secure their first customers and distributors. Today, their business is a multimillion-dollar brand with retail stores in Hawaii, California, and at the Walt Disney globe Resort in Florida.

Here’s how they turned that initial $4,000 property into a business that lets them live a aspiration lifestyle.

 

Navigating early challenges

Starting a business with minimal pool required Rachael and Heather to be scrappy and resourceful. They invested the first $4,000 in essentials like a collaboration agreement, a trademark, and samples of their first bag.

At the period, Rachael was a flight attendant, and she couldn’t discover a stylish, water-resistant bag to put her bikini in while she was traveling. Heather also knew gym-goers and yogis could use a bag like that to tote their sweaty athletic wear. 

The two launched their initial Kickstarter campaign to gauge economy profit and found a well demand for their concept. Aloha Collection raised a little more than $6,000 on the platform and catalyzed the next step of their business.

Taking a uncertainty on a trade display

Thanks to the achievement of their Kickstarter campaign, Heather and Rachael could order some samples and put some of that money toward conference potential buyers. So they spent $2,000 on a booth at Magic, a fashion trade display in Las Vegas they had heard about through a partner. They road-tripped from Southern California to Vegas, got the cheapest room they could discover ($29 a night at Excalibur) and bought some fake palm trees at Home Depot to decorate their booth. “We ended up getting some of our very first Hawaii accounts that are still our customers today,” Heather says.

Aloha Collection also caught the eye of a Japanese distributor, who wrote a $30,000 check as a investment on the spot. “That’s the most money I’d ever seen in my life,” Rachael says. “ I look at Heather. I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, we just hit it large in Vegas.’”

Developing the hero product

Rachael had found that Tyvek, a synthetic material, had the functionality she wanted for Aloha Collection’s first bags, but it wasn’t ordinary to add designs to the material. “One period, we got our bags, and the print just started wiping off of the bag,” Rachael says. “ It took a while to figure out how to actually keep the print on coated Tyvek.”

Rachael says specializing in different areas of the business made working together easier.

Heather handled the business aspects of working with a manufacturer while Rachael designed the products and sourced materials. “Rachael’s special sauce is like really having an eye for things,” Heather says.

Going omnichannel

Heather and Rachael’s large bets paid off, and the brand grew steadily over the next few years with wholesale and ecommerce sales. But during the pandemic, Heather and Rachael began to get worried about how reliant the business was on ecommerce. By 2021, 80% of their sales were from their website. “ We never desire to have all of our eggs in one basket,” Heather says. “ Our aspiration had always been to be like 50% ecommerce and 50% everything else.”

With the volatility in wholesale and rising customer purchase costs online during the pandemic, Heather and Rachael decided to receive matters into their own hands. They took advantage of some COVID leasing deals and opened two Aloha Collection stores in two popular beach destinations: Waikiki, Hawaii, and Encinitas, California.

The stores helped them reach recent customers and make a brand encounter that evoked the spirit of Aloha that they hoped to spread. “We wanted our stores to feel welcoming, as if you’re walking into someone’s home,” Rachael says.

Living and growing the business authentically

Heather and Rachael are both Native Hawaiian, and they declare the brand’s authenticity around Hawaiian population and creating a global “o’hana” (or household in Hawaiian) has been part of their achievement. The business contributes 5% of profits annually to Hawaiian conservation organizations.

Aloha Collection’s founders couldn’t have done it without being factual to themselves as well. Both cofounders adore to trip, and they set up their business as remote in 2014, before it was as popular as it is now. “The beach is our home. trip has always been our encouragement,” Heather says.

To discover more about Aloha Collection’s growth over the history 10 years, listen to the packed interview on Shopify Masters.