CFD 178 - Extra… Extra: Founders of a Cool Woman-Owned Business Were in the Tank with Circling Sharks and Lived to Tell About It!
We found Kim Kaupe and Brittany Hodak, founders of ZinePak, on Shark Tank, one of our favorite shows. In fact, we love the show so much that we do a weekly Inside the Tank review show that airs live every Friday at 10 p.m., PST. So how did Kim and Brittany get started? They met while working in advertising, where they had both landed after growing a little disenchanted with their prior work. One was in the music industry and the other was in magazine publishing. It must have been fate, because in 2010 these two smart women formed a great new business, ZinePak (fusing the words “magazine” and “package”). So what is a ZinePak? A grouping of tangible products for super-fans of entertainers, shows, movies and any number of celebrities across lots of different industries. You can find them on the shelves of Walmart nationwide! In less than five years, ZinePak has grown into a company of a dozen dedicated entertainment superfans, who’ve worked with entertainers as diverse as Katy Perry and KISS; properties ranging from the very popular movie Frozen to the massively popular television series Orange Is the New Black; and brands including Unilever, MillerCoors, and American Express. Millions of fans have spent tens of millions of dollars buying ZinePak products in more than 20 countries. Listen to the story of these bright, young, female entrepreneurs. Find out why ZinePak and its founders earned recognition on “30 Under 30” and “40 Under 40” lists in Advertising Age, Forbes, Billboard, and Inc. In fact, the company was named 2014’s Most Disruptive Young Company in Marketing by Empact at the United Nations. As you listen to this Cash Flow Diary podcast interview, see if you resonate with the choices Kim and Brittany made when making the jump from advertising to what they’re doing now. They talk about overcoming their fear, weighing it against their realization that they weren’t happy in their jobs. They each took a risk, which turned out to be the right decision. While they aren’t overnight successes, it surely happened quickly. We can’t wait to see what they do with ZinePak next! They have plans for expansion in very clever ways. Learn more.