We were lucky to catch up with Sheera Goren recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sheera, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Our product is called Zygo. When we were researching more about the tech our product required, one of those qualities was bone conduction. After digging further, we learned that bone conduction works by decoding sound waves and converting them into vibrations that can be received directly by the cochlea so the eardrum is never involved.

Many devices sit on the zygomatic arch, near the cheekbone, to send such vibrations. Our first business had a very generic, non-ownable name and so when we saw “zygo” in zygomatic, we liked the ownability, the fact that it had the word “go” in it to create a sort of action, that it was four letters starting with Z, and that it was a slight nod to a piece of our tech product.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Sure! My co-founder Charlie and I decided to quit our jobs and focus on developing Zygo, the first and only underwater streaming audio solution. Before Zygo, the only things that existed were MP3 players which are a relic of the past. We quickly learned that our invention and our plan to break the laws of physics to penetrate sound through water wasn’t going to be as easy as we initially thought! Through countless challenges, we built Zygo from the ground up. From dark days of realizing we had to change the initial design, overpaying for work and not knowing if/when we were going to have enough money to pay the bills, we persevered and today, we are the proud founders of one of the top ranked swimming headphones on the market. I’m happy to say that Zygo is ranked one of the best headphones by Forbes, named one of TIME Magazine’s best inventions and is routinely described as the best and most premium solution for listening to audio underwater.

Since its launch, Zygo has won legions of fans and is the go-to product for swimming novices, elite athletes and everyone in between. We like to document interesting and inspiring customer case studies on our website. Of particular note is a woman using Zygo to get strong ahead of surgeries related to a breast cancer diagnosis and an on-call obstetrician in a rural area of Texas who can now stay connected for emergencies while swimming thanks to Zygo’s technology!

I began my career as a lawyer but made the bold decision to leave my firm and pursue Zygo full time. The challenges have been plenty, and I continue to face new ones every day, and yet inventing Zygo has been the most fulfilling accomplishment of my career to date.

In February 2024, we released Z2, a revolutionary update to our world-leading product. Building on the success of the original Zygo, the new Z2 is packed with enhanced features, design changes and innovations designed to transform the swimming experience.

I think my career journey shows the significance of courage and determination in pursuing entrepreneurial goals, emphasizing that expertise isn’t a prerequisite for success. My transition from law to tech entrepreneurship challenges the notion that one’s educational background should limit their career path. I hope that my story encourages people to break free from conventional career molds, urging them to redefine success on their own terms.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I spent my childhood surfing and playing every sport except swimming. Growing up in LA and attending Harvard-Westlake, I played soccer year-round, which led me to the Division I team at the University of Michigan, where I graduated Phi Beta Kappa. After UCLA Law School, I realized my real passion was not compatible with a desk job. I was working for an international hospitality and restaurant group when I reconnected with my highschool classmate, Charlie. While working in China, Charlie became fascinated with boutique fitness. Both of us wanted to start swimming and felt the same pain point: there was literally no fun option akin to SoulCycle or Barry’s Bootcamp! So we launched SwimTeam swim classes in LA to address the void in the market for a low-impact, pool based exercise and this is where the idea and demand for our Zygo came from. We quickly pivoted to hardware when we realized there was no solution to stream audio underwater and this decision ultimately led us to quit our jobs and work on Zygo fulltime.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Initially, Zygo started as a pool-based class. These classes were designed to offer a fun, accessible group exercise experience akin to Barry’s Bootcamp or Soul Cycle, but in the pool. We started SwimTeam, a 45-minute pool-based class for all levels offered at pools across LA. In order to run the classes, we spent months hacking our own headset solution to broadcast a live coach and Spotify playlist to the swimmers. It was the overwhelming customer response to this headset that led us to an even bigger opportunity: Zygo – the first underwater streaming headset with an app of guided workouts (“the Peloton of swimming”). We began shipping in September 2020 and the response was instantly positive.

This was a big pivot from the initial vision, but we realized instantly that the hardware we had hacked was where the real business opportunity was. It meant learning on the fly, and tackling challenges we had never encountered before head-on. I quickly learned that my different perspective was an asset, not a liability: So what if you don’t have the perfect career history to be a tech entrepreneur? If you have the idea and the determination, you can make it happen.

One of the key things I learned throughout this process was to listen to your customers, fail fast and don’t be afraid to pivot!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shopzygo.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zygogram/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shopzygo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zygoaudio/about/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdpooaADOTlx9thNtLiSQnA

Image Credits
Headshot by Chris Straley Z2 images
Zygo images by Donut Digital & Miriam Bribiesca