We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jack Ventura. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jack below.

Hi Jack, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The Idea for Faro Board Bags was created while on the road traveling, surfing, and looking for a new creative project to sink my teeth into.

I was spending a lot of time traveling after college and knew I wanted to start a business. I explored other options outside of the surf industry and nothing seemed to have enough soul. Other business options I explored seemed to only have money and profit driving them, and I knew I wanted to start something with more depth than that.

Also, while on the road, I notice the need for goods that lasted a long time. The amount of overconsumption in the world is crazy! Too often I would hear people say “don’t worry if it breaks, you can just get a new one…” This was what I knew I had to change.

So, I continued surfing, traveling, working odd jobs until it kinda randomly hit me: to combine surf and travel through a product that facilitates both!

And just like that Faro board bags was born.

I did do a fair share of market research before launching to iron out my branding angles and make sure there was a need for what I was creating.

The main reason I thought this idea would work though was that it was something that I wanted! I knew I needed to be passionate about the process and the product if I was going to take on starting my own business.

Jack, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started Faro as a way to bring long-lasting, sustainable products to the surf industry and to create a brand and a product that people could really feel connected with.

My background was not in business, product design, branding, or anything of relevance…

I was a surf-bum-bartender always saving up money for the next trip.

But I knew if I was passionate about something I could learn the skills and get something going! So I learned about business, branding, and how to sew– sewing the bags was never the plan but with a low budget to start and unsure if the market would respond well to the product I decided to teach myself to sew and make the bags myself! Since then we have expanded to a team of seamstresses located here in San Diego who help make the bags with me.

Surfboard bags are our main product but we have expanded into other items but we keep our core values in mind. Each item is sustainable which means it is first a foremost made to last a really long time, secondly it is crafted from sustainably sourced materials and made close to home.

Sustainability was a non-negotiable for me starting out. We are a “sustainable brand” but that wasn’t really the idea starting out. I just didn’t see the need to purchase materials that cause our ocean more harm than it needs to.

We always strive to put people and the planet ahead of profit.

I think that alone (putting people and the planet ahead of profit) solves a problem for people. Not a lot of brands in the surf industry are doing that.

The next big problem I wanted to solve was having a surfboard bag that people could feel connected to, that worked well and looked bad ass! something that focused on the journey and not the product…

I am very proud of where the brand has come and the utility of our products! We still have a long way to go and a lot of new product ideas to develop but I know that this endeavor has been worth it solely by the community Faro has built in such a small amount of time!

If there is anything I want y’all to know it is that Faro is a place for us, for you, for me, for the adventure!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding Faro board Bags was and is still a difficulty I face. the initial investment to get it started and running came from my own pockets. I knew I wanted to start something and always worked along with my travels so I just kept my lifestyle costs low, worked hard, and kept saving! Then threw it all into this business and I am hoping it pays off.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Building our social following has been fun! One thing I would recommend is not to count followers. Faro Board Bags doesn’t have 10,000 followers but we have a small, engaged audience. I think that goes further than the thousands of followers that we strive for sometimes, just to make our egos proud.

I would recommend starting out by posting real stuff and making it look cool. Talk with your audience as much as you can and be consistent. Consistent in posting but more importantly consistent in communicating. Don’t let the followers you have forget about you!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://faroboardbags.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/faro_boardbags/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/farosurfboardbags/

Image Credits
@matt.hume