How did your career as an entrepreneur begin?
Nobody would hire me…so it just had to happen. Out of college, I started a clothing brand called SWOBO that operated on the fringes of bicycle enthusiasts. It was quite the experience and we made a large splash in bicycle culture. I also built a brand strategy consultancy over the years, and now there’s Caddis. I’ve always felt “safer” designing my own employment rather than being employed by others. There’s this misconception that entrepreneurs are risk takers, but I believe the opposite is true. Many of us are risk adverse, so we build our own employment as a way to de-risk our lives.
Tell us about your eyewear brand, CADDIS! We love the brand's take on evangelizing awesome aging.
Caddis is an eyewear brand that we position as Anti Anti Aging. People should be stoked whatever age they are, but what we found is that lifestyle or creative communication (with brands) stopped at age 40 in the United States. Aging and “Ageism” was the last great taboo subject that nobody wanted to talk about, so our goal is to have that discussion in as many places as possible. We have optical and sunglasses options, and we tend to have a lot of fun along the way. We’ve been designing and selling eyewear for almost 9 years now, with our own stores and online.
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What’s your favorite part about the New York creative community?
The depth of the creative community is world class, and how this creative scene cross pollinates with different disciplines is special. Whether it’s art, fashion, design, business, music, or anything else you can think of, people want to talk and meet with others for inspiration. You run into the most interesting people in NYC, and serendipity occurs all the time.
How does your background in music inform how you operate CADDIS? We'd love to hear more about what inspired you to start your non-profit, Music Farming!
Before Caddis, I was a touring Bluegrass musician.The "do It yourself" nature of being a musician parlays easily into entrepreneurism. In touring around the country, I saw there’s a need for dollars to be directed towards already existing music programs, so Music Farming was created so it could collect donations, and then distribute those dollars to 501(c)3 organizations within the U.S.
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What is your most-worn pair of CADDIS frames?
Whatever is in my pocket at the time. I tend to give away whatever I have on me to people I meet. So I don’t have them long.
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