KAYLIN MARCOTTE OF JIGGY

“I really think it comes down to a mindset of being resourceful and scrappy, having such conviction and belief in your idea, and betting on yourself to be the one to do it. ” - Kaylin Marcotte

Kaylin is the founder & CEO of JIGGY, a direct-to-consumer jigsaw puzzle brand on a mission to modernize and elevate the humble jigsaw, and support female artists around the world. Prior to launching Jiggy, Kaylin founded Village Strategies, a marketing consultancy, and was the first employee at theSkimm, running its community marketing, social media and Skimm’bassadors. Kaylin holds a BA in political science and economics from Barnard College. She lives in Brooklyn, NY and spends her free time doing jigsaw puzzles of course, and running Project Plastick with her sister, Mackenzie.

5 years ago, Kaylin Marcotte was working 24/7 as the first employee at theSkimm and started doing jigsaw puzzles as her nightly meditation. She fell in love with them and was completing a puzzle every week, but found the designs to be outdated and uninspiring and began dreaming up a new kind of puzzle: an elevated, modern take on the classic jigsaw and supporting emerging artists at the same time. Kaylin started going to art fairs and shows in NYC and curating art from female artists that would make for a great puzzle experience - which is why each box comes with puzzle glue and a straight edge - so it can look good on the wall after it’s complete! JIGGY features art by female artists around the world (who get a percentage of every sale), chic packaging, and puzzle glue to preserve your masterpiece for framing. She’s a first-time, solo, bootstrapping founder so can share a lot of the ups and downs of doing it all!

What inspired you to make the shift from consulting to founding JIGGY? Are there key lessons you learned from your experiences in consulting that have been vital to your experience growing JIGGY? 

There was a middle step in my shift; first I was doing management consulting after school and then I spent four years at theSkimm. theSkimm was really the experience that put me on this entrepreneurial path. I was the first employee, so working directly with two young female founders and seeing them navigate it, and gaining so much insight from being in on the ground floor, gave me the confidence to do it myself and really go after it with starting JIGGY.

I think consulting is a really strong foundation for any career. It teaches you how to think analytically and how to take a framework approach to a problem. As with any client-facing roles, you also learn how to be articulate, responsible, and communicative. I think there are very transferable things from consulting that really set you up for any path going forward. When I dove in from that structured environment to a very unstructured environment with theSkimm and then with JIGGY being a one-woman show, it was really important to have that foundation of management, of project outcomes, and deliverables and best practices. That was the foundation that consulting gave me. So I'm very grateful for my experience right out of school because it allowed me to build that foundation which set me up for success in more creative and entrepreneurial environments.

JIGGY meshes your passion for sustainability, as well as the goal of supporting female artists so beautifully in the puzzles you create. What skills are vital to starting a business and staying true to yourself on that journey? 

There are certain things that you need going into a business and it’s mostly the mindset - the hunger for it and the perseverance. There are going to be a million hurdles. There are things you probably know you don't know, and then things you didn’t even know you needed to. So, I think it's really about the approach of just one foot in front of the other and tackling one thing at a time— knowing when to raise your hands and ask for help and seek out advisors and mentorship. So depending on if it’s a tech vs. e-commerce vs. services company, the skills may differ but I really think it comes down to a mindset of being resourceful and scrappy, having such conviction and belief in your idea, and betting on yourself to be the one to do it. 

And then with JIGGY, I definitely feel that having a mission behind our product gives so much more purpose to not just the brand externally, but to me in my experience of building it. To be having a bigger impact on the world is especially important because there are a lot of tough moments— there are highs and there are lots of lows. To get through those lows, if you know what you're doing is connected to something that you care about, it makes them so much easier to push through. 

Our two missions that I deeply connect with and that certainly keep me going during those lows are the support of emerging artists around the world, and the wellness, mindfulness, and self-care the puzzles bring me and I hope they bring to others. I really fell in love with puzzles as my form of meditation and stress relief. I think especially in this hyperconnected world of burnout, overstimulation, and screentime, it is important to carve out the time to really just be present, to turn off your phones and computers and just do something analog with your hand to get that creativity going. 

Were there any specific challenges that came with being a female founder? 

There are definitely challenges. I think the biggest one that I've heard from other female founders is in fundraising. I was bootstrapping the company so that didn't really come up for me, but probably my equivalent of those fundraising challenges would be in the manufacturing world, which is very male-dominated and kind of old school. I think convincing factory manufacturing partners to take you on and to have that shared vision, is something I felt the need to really negotiate for myself. I don't know that I was treated differently as a woman, but there were times that I felt I particularly needed to fight for myself and the brand. And then, there are just the numbers. The percentage of female-founded and female-owned companies that make over a million dollars in revenue is so low. I think just knowing that the odds are against you can either be demoralizing or actually very motivating. I have definitely felt both at different times, depending on what's happening and my morale at the moment. But, it's actually given me a lot of purpose to try to show that female-founded companies can be successful, profitable, and entirely female-run.

What was it like being featured on Shark Tank and how has that affected JIGGY?

It was amazing. It was such a whirlwind and it was a really special experience to be able to share my story and the company’s story and to not only share it live with the sharks but then have it reach so many people around the country who we never would have been able to get in front of otherwise. It was a really incredible experience that I definitely took very seriously and prepared a ton for. By the time film day came, I just tried to enjoy it and have fun as well as be super present and connect with the sharks as people and as business people. It was a great experience. 

Since its airing, it has brought so much amazing feedback and attention to the products that going forward we are going to be able to do so much more with: working with more artists and launching more products. So it was really a jump start that put some wind on our backs coming off of the show. 

It’s so inspiring to see a Barnard Alum doing such amazing things, and I was wondering how your experience at Barnard informed the work you do? And of course what advice do you have for current Barnard/Columbia students trying to make the most out of our degrees and the city? 

Yeah absolutely! I am so grateful for my Barnard experience. Not only was I just grateful for the actual curriculum and coursework, and for teaching me how to be a thinker, a writer, and a leader. But I was able to do the Athena Center for leadership studies and hold leadership positions in on-campus clubs which was such an enriching environment that really set me up for success on this path. And the people I met at Barnard were incredible— I mean my best friends today are my friends from Barnard and they've been so supportive, and everyone's doing incredible things now! So not only are we friends who support each other, but we also collaborate and network.

And in terms of advice, I would definitely say, invest in those relationships. Spend time with your peers and faculty advisors, and really make sure that when you leave those four years you'll be able to take your community from Barnard with you. I think one of the most unique things about going to school in the city is being able to jumpstart your career while you're still an undergrad. I had friends who were at more rural schools where you have four years on campus, and then you move somewhere and start your career. But at Barnard, I would intern on Fridays, ask people I admired to meet me for coffee, etc. I felt that I was able to meet people and have the opportunity to jump-start my professional development while I was still in school. 

Quick Take One: What are some books, podcasts, newsletters, or blogs that you’ve enjoyed and would recommend to our website readers? 

I listen to The Daily every morning. And then my other go-to’s are interview and start-up podcasts like How I Built This, of course, and then story-telling ones I just get lost in. Actually when I'm puzzling, I'm either silent, with my thoughts meditative or I'll put on a storytelling or narrative podcast. I love the Moth Story Hour and This American Life. I'm also reading a novel right now called A Gentleman in Moscow—I read a lot during the workday so I try to keep my reading time at night fun. 

Quick Take Two: Who is a woman you look up to? 

There are so many! In this kind of chapter of my life with JIGGY and being a founder, I look up to Sara Blakely the founder of Spanx. I love her story. She did a Masterclass, which I watched recently. She gives a lot of advice and motivational content on her Instagram as well. She's a true hustler, from inventing Spanx, running a one-woman show as well as full salesforce herself and then building a team. She never raised money, is 20 years in and still owns the company and has done it her way. That’s super encouraging and inspiring to see. Not everyone has to go that VC-hypergrowth-unicorn path, and I think she showed a different way to do it.

Quick Take Three: Name one act of self-care you practice each day. 

Besides puzzling, of course, as my form of stress relief and meditation, I also go running. Running is the other kind of activity that consumes my mind and allows me to just get lost in my thoughts. I'm always multitasking and at my computer, so puzzling and running are the two activities that really break me out of that and give me some good thinking time.