We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Angela Kornas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Angela below.
Angela, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Finding those key vendors can often be make or break for a brand. Can you talk to us about how you found your key vendors?
Although my background is in product development, there are still core skills that can help you succeed in securing manufacturing. The top 2 of my list are persistence and not letting no’s get you sidetracked. My product is unique and is a difficult process to make it, so there were even extra no’s to go through in order to find suppliers that believed in me and my idea and were willing to go through many rounds of development to figure it out. Take your time and get pricing, leadtimes and minimums from more than one resource. Pay attention to communication during the whole process. Trust your gut, if the relationship is one-sided and the manufactuer does not follow through on promises, typically it will continue and get worse. You need a good partner. It is hard to find and a gem when you do secure. Just like anything it takes hard work. If you go in knowing that its going to be difficult and that there is always a way and to not give up , you will find someone that will work with you. It just takes one yes! So many great inventions were told no repeatedly, far outweighing the one yes. If someone is not willing to go through the work and persist, multiple times over, they will fold. This is a non-negotiable in building something, The next skill is research, there is a considerable amount of what I learned simply by researching. Piece it together and figure it out. I can be obsessive about research and I think that it gave me an advantage.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Angela Kornas. My background is in product and textile development. I worked in both the swimwear and textiles industry for 15 years prior to starting Honey Cloudz. I worked on technical race suits for the Olympics to custom fabrics for Project Runway licensing all of which I drew from. I am a believer that many dots connect, you have to look for it sometimes. I launched a company around shifting, flipping, bunching bra inserts that women have dealt with for 25+ years. I decided that I would figure out how to solve it and I did. Our product is patented, no other insert brand out there has a unique grippy exterior that adheres against fabrics not skin and does not lose its stickiness. Our product line is also skintone and size inclusive providing a more seamless look and literally covers more women. I am proud of being in O Magazine our first year and being invited to be on The View twice. The last being a female founder special. Literally I was one person doing everything from the product development, marketing, sales, and was able to bring it to life so large. I also worked a full time job while building Honey Cloudz. It was intense but my passion for building products that improved women’s lives and having something of my own far outweighed the heavy loads of work. I have felt and continue to feel such intense passion for the brand, I believe in the long term goals, the big picture. That is what drives me.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Ridiculous passion for quality and our unique voice. While building the brand I was hard on our partners regarding color standards, dye lots, sizing, molds, packaging, engraving, every single detail. I truly believe it is needed in order to establish and maintain quality products. When women open our box, they know they are going to get high quality bra inserts. This was a big change from the existing industry of cheap, flimsy inserts that did nothing but cause frustration. I carved our own path with quality, technology and inclusiveness.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I built Honey Cloudz on the side for the first 2 years during lunch breaks, before/after work and weekends every single day. When we came to market I had to make a very conscious decision to leave my full time high stress “career job” and take a lesser full time job in order to devote more time and sacrifice more in order to build and grow. It was scary and it took 5 years total to grow and juggle 2 jobs. It takes longer than you think and its harder than you think. No matter how much work you think it will be, time it will take, it’s more. It’s a long haul and worth it. I could not be as far as we are if I had still kept my career job. There was a defining moment where I knew I had to jump in and swim fast.
Contact Info:
- Website: honeycloudz.com
- Instagram: /honey_cloudz
- Facebook: /honeycloudz
- Linkedin: /honeycloudz
- Youtube: honeycloudz
- Other: We sell wholesale through our website and Faire https://faire.com/direct/honeycloudz