Kaylin Marcotte – Founder & CEO of JIGGY

Episode 194

How can you turn a hobby into a full-blown business? Our guest today is Kaylin Marcotte, the founder and CEO of the puzzle company, JIGGY. Kaylin decided to start her business after seeing a whole in the market for a product that she so wanted to see made better -- puzzles. She shares how creating a product out of a passion allowed her to build the incredible business that she has today. Tune in this hump day episode and be inspired on this episode of the #TheKaraGoldinShow

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Transcript

Kaylin Marcotte 0:00
thought maybe there’s actually business I can build not just my little hobby, I am unwilling to give up. That I

Kara Goldin 0:08
will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be I want to be just want to make sure you will get knocked down but just make sure you don’t get knocked out knocked out so your only choice should be go focus on what you can control control control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara golden show. So join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go Let’s go. Hi everyone. Its Kara golden from the Kara golden show. And I’m so excited to have my next guest here we have Caitlyn Marcotte here from jiggy, which is one of my favorite new brands that is out in the market. I’m so so excited. As a matter of fact, I have my jiggy here that I’ve been holding on to and told everybody you cannot build this puzzle yet until I talked to kailyn because I wanted the beautiful jar glass jar that it comes in. And I mean everything about it. We have, you know, the nice jiggy piece here that really is amazing, especially when you finish because you have the sealant that you can put on it, that you can actually make this really pretty picture. I could be on your commercial. Right, Caitlin? You are loving the day, I know I got the whole pitch down. So anyway, very fun. And I was mentioning to kailyn that I also sent it to my college daughters who are so excited to start building it on their floor and their dorm rooms. And I think they already started. But yeah, so so so fun. So anyway, very, very nice to have you here kailyn. And just a little bit about jiggy. So we’ll get into it and obviously have kailyn tell us a little bit more about it. But She’s the founder and CEO, and it’s a jigsaw puzzle brand on a mission to modernize and elevate the humble, the somewhat boring puzzle market. And she’s also doing an incredible job of supporting artists out there in the world. female artists out there in the world. And her story has been featured and many top publications including Vogue and elle. So you make the today’s show the New York Times, so you may have read about her as well. And prior to launching jiggy, Kaelyn founded village strategies, which was a marketing consulting group, but she also worked at another super cool brand called the skim, we’re going to get to talk about that I love the skim to another female founded brand. She lives in Brooklyn, and she’s from California. Hopefully we’ll get her back one day to California. She loves spending her free time doing what else but building out jigsaw puzzle puzzles for and we’re just really, really excited to have her here. We’re also so just in case you thought about putting this episode on hold for just a minute, we’re going to get to talk to Caitlin about being on that little show Shark Tank too. So you have to hear all about that as well. But kailyn I’m so excited to have you here.

Kaylin Marcotte 3:41
Amazing. Thank you so much care what an intro. thrilled to be here today.

Kara Goldin 3:46
Super excited. So tell us a little bit about little kailyn like how did you Were you always this puzzle going kid that was you know, constantly looking for that puzzle doing a puzzle or tell me a little bit more about you as a as a kid.

Kaylin Marcotte 4:04
Yeah, right. I certainly you know, doing puzzles and and we were a big board game family. So a lot of game nights. And my dad had been a physics major in college. And my brother was very science oriented as well. So we were, you know, building our own Rube Goldberg machines and a Van de Graaff generator and making our hair stand up on its end. So always just kind of tinkering building. But no, I was not a kind of a puzzle fanatic until I rediscovered them in adulthood.

Kara Goldin 4:46
That’s That’s awesome. And you started out in the legal world. So tell me a little bit about that.

Kaylin Marcotte 4:54
Well, I was pre law on undergrad I majored in political science. I was on the undergrad law Review Board and thought I was going to take that path. And I hadn’t yet taken out that when I graduated college and so I started in management consulting, I thought it, you know, had parallels to legal career of being client facing and, you know, analytical and that it would kind of be a transferable experience. So started in management consulting, while I kind of bought some time to take the L sat and apply to law schools. And then I met Carly and Danielle, who were the cofounders of the skin and just total hard right kind of derailed but but ultimately, quite the blessing.

Kara Goldin 5:41
That’s wild. So you were living in New York at the time.

Kaylin Marcotte 5:44
Yeah, so I grew up in Pasadena in Southern California. And then I came out to New York for undergrad. So I went to Barnard and had an amazing experience there and then stayed in New York since then.

Kara Goldin 5:56
That’s wild. So you’re so you were at IBM? And is that where you were during the management consulting? Like you went there, right after college? What do you think about management consulting in general, as like a first job? Like, what did you learn?

Kaylin Marcotte 6:12
Yeah, I think, honestly, as a first entry, which so much of your first job, I think, is just learning how to be an adult employee in the workforce that like, write emails, and, you know, interact with colleagues and wake up on time and all that. So I think also, what management consulting does do is just create such a foundation of just how to think how to be analytical, you know, they really kind of teach you how to approach have a framework approach, you know, certainly kind of confidence building to speak in front of clients. So I think some of those just basic foundations are applicable to pretty much anything you do next. So I only lasted a couple years in the end. But as a first job, I think it’s a great place to start.

Kara Goldin 7:09
That’s awesome. So transitioning from there into a startup, how big was the skim at the point?

Kaylin Marcotte 7:15
So I met the co founders. Yeah, it was quite the pendulum swing from IBM to essentially the two co founders no office, first employee, so I met them about a year after they had launched the newsletter, that email newsletter, the daily scam, and they did a seed round of funding. And so we’re just starting to you know, hire got an office, build out the team. And we have coffee at a coffee shop in the West Village and just talked about their vision and and I came at it from the angle of being a reader. I had been subscribed very early and had, you know, been reading it every morning on my commute. and serve really came at it from you know, here’s what I love about it, here’s the opportunity I see. And so we had a coffee and I remember walking away from it, and it’s just like, have to be a part of this in some way, shape or form. I was just so connected to their mission and vision, and so ended up joining as their first employee.

Kara Goldin 8:25
That’s amazing. And so what were you doing as their first employee?

Kaylin Marcotte 8:29
You know, it’s one of those like, there’s there’s some idea of the job description, but really kind of blends into any and everything. But what we had had talked about in those early conversations was really the kind of grassroots approach to growth and marketing and the idea of a back end brand ambassador program, which ended up becoming skin vasodilators, and it was kind of the the tentpole marketing and community initiative we launched and so that was essentially audience development and community building around the content was my job on paper, and then just by virtue of being their first you know, office mom and setting up, you know, kind of culture, team, social media, I was, I was really interested in at the time, this was like trying to 2013 2014 so to go over our Instagram, Facebook. So yeah, heavy on the kind of content and grassroots marketing and then some fun kind of team and onboarding stuff.

Kara Goldin 9:46
I love it. Did you know at that point that you might want to be an entrepreneur when you join them? Or were you actually just excited about going and working for a startup?

Kaylin Marcotte 9:59
Yeah, I definitely was just excited to see something that early on and really, in those kind of maybe creative days, you know, from theory, from the seed to, I say four years until after the Series B. So just like hyper growth, super creative, you know, trying everything for the first time and that pace of just, you have an idea you try, it didn’t work, to innovate, try it again, you know, and just kind of throwing stuff at the wall and see what sticks. So I was pretty immediately kind of addicted to just that environment and pace and the level of ownership and creativity. And then kind of slowly started thinking about, you know, what would it look like, if I did my own thing and becoming more and more comfortable, I think from the outside, sometimes it’s very easy to think like, Oh, they they must know what they’re doing, they must have, you know, XYZ skill set that I don’t, or as this experience that set them up for success. And I think being on the inside and seeing like, we’re just winging it, you know, and,

Kara Goldin 11:14
and trying lots of things and Yay,

Kaylin Marcotte 11:17
right? And that, almost like demystify what, what it’s like to start something. And I think, you know, over the four years, I was there definitely gave me more and more confidence that I could do it, too.

Kara Goldin 11:33
It’s funny, I’m totally dating myself here, but it’s way back when when I was first starting my career, I had an opportunity and was recruited OUT OF TIME magazine to go to CNN, and this is when 24 hour news was not, you know, worldwide, it was probably in like 4% of households. And so Ted Turner was running around the office. And, you know, truthfully, some days were like, Oh, yeah, he really gets it. And other days were like, I don’t know, maybe we should go work. I mean, we were like, I don’t know, right? I mean, it was those moments, the visionary entrepreneur. And but it was really the it was when I finally decided to go start my own company. And the reason I asked you that question, I never thought I was going to go start my own company. When I was back at CNN, I just wanted to go and work for a product work for a company that I was really excited about. But it really did demystify it. And ultimately, we ended up getting on the map when Ted and CNN learned that, that there are actually heard that a leader of a country was learning that their country was being bombed by another country, on CNN, and that’s what puts cnn on the map, and it would Wow. And being there and watching it and watching the audience go from not believing or not really always believing to believing was really, really powerful. And I say that about, you know, if you ever have an opportunity to go and work for entrepreneurs, it doesn’t even matter if it doesn’t totally work out the way that you thought the stuff that you’ll learn the demystification of it all, you know, is just it’s really hard to even articulate or read in a textbook. It’s just getting in it and seeing it, I think is just such an amazing experience. So I asked, I

Kaylin Marcotte 13:43
totally agree. Yeah, Riley. I was just talking to a friend about that and how there’s kind of a survivor bias after you know, of course, of course, they knew that was going to be successful and tell you definitely not you know, Dave, like, is this gonna work is it and a lot of the ideas didn’t work and, and so I think that once you’ve been a part of it, and seeing that it it certainly Yeah, demystification is a very valuable experience. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 14:11
I always say to that I would have made a lot more money quicker if I would have run a tape on all of the crazy, you know, nights that would have been going on the reality show that I’m sure you have many of those moments to where you’re like, you can’t make this stuff up. It’s crazy. So So you left the scam. And then you decided to launch this product. And for those of you who haven’t heard about jiggy before, or didn’t catch the episode of shark tank, you should definitely watch it where kailyn talks a little bit more about it, but for everybody or tell us, how did you get this idea?

Kaylin Marcotte 14:54
Yeah, so it actually started back in the earliest days. Rain you know everything that that that I just said about the experience and the creativity and the pace which was incredible and such an enriching environment was also very stressful and all consuming and you know it was 2014 and we’re starting to talk about like burnout and we know like tech fatigue and kind of what that would look like in terms of self care meditation headspace you know was was all the rage and so I just started thinking about what you know what unplugging will look like for me and and getting away from screen time and all of that and tried meditating and I had nothing just really quieted my my mind and I had a pot you know, just in a stack of board games had a puzzle and did it somewhat randomly. And it just clicked immediately it totally just consumed gave me kind of productive tunnel vision and and you know, as a chronic multitasker I just forgot all pings notifications and it really kind of just quieted and centered me and so I started doing them pretty much every night you know before bed robe to do like half hour puzzling and and really kind of felt felt the effects myself and so just started seeing if it was if that was a thing and found studies connecting them to improve memory and sleep and decreased dementia and so on there was a study that Yeah, they use it for PTSD patients and people struggling with grief and how it is just kind of this this escapism and helps pass the time just kind of center you so totally adopted it as my kind of nightly ritual and I was going through about 1000 piece puzzle every week so constantly online at a toy store nearby looking for more puzzles and all the ones I could find were just like reuse that grandma’s puzzles super kind of you know stock photography cheesy landscape photos and um you know you spend eight to 12 hours immersed in this image studying every piece of it literally and so vino seedling of the idea was just couldn’t please this be a better experience if the design I’m putting together were compelling and something that you know I want to be living inside of for all these hours and so that just kind of planted I started a folder on my phone and I photos of any time I was a gallery or even Instagram and saw a design that I thought would be fun to puzzle he put it in this folder but this was like year one at this game and I ended up staying for a year so you know it was just slowly this idea of keep coming back and take a little bit more shape and and growing up in LA my mom spent her entire career in arts nonprofits and education and I was always surrounded by the art community and so started thinking of you know what interesting kind of platform this this product is essentially just a vehicle for this design that you’re piecing together So could I kind of merge the to and actually help emerging artists monetize their work by creating this this product that there was demand for so you know, slowly started taking more and more shape and then once I was ready to leave this game after those four years and in that time I also have had seen some of these bags that gave me more confidence that there was an appetite for this product so like adult coloring books and kind of just you know, Pinterest DIY crafty type products and so I thought maybe there’s actually a business I can build not just my little hobby. So yeah, Lassen started building JV.

Kara Goldin 19:18
I love it. So you said you were kind of incubating this idea while you were sitting at the skim and you’re in your spare time. So when you finally launched in November of 2019 How long do you think it took you from the time you actually wrote the business plan to actually you know getting it off the ground?

Kaylin Marcotte 19:41
Yeah, it was about it was once I fully dove and it was pretty quick. It was about beat to nine months to make the product which for me was the steepest learning curve because you know coming from the scale, a lot of the branding marketing, how to make Jane came very naturally but how do you make a thing get it from point A to point B and so the whole world of yeah manufacturing and finding a factory and freight logistics all that was was all new to me So that ends up being taking the longest amount of time and then you know prototyped it found found the right partners on the manufacturing side and ultimately that launched on November 2019 and went right into holiday and and then four months later obviously never could have known what was coming but it was threw us into this whirlwind

Kara Goldin 20:42
it’s crazy I remember when you launch we’re on a group called the list together and I remember you saying that you were We were heading into the holiday season and and you highlighting that you’re just launched this company and I look at it and it was just so so awesome. I was so proud of you and so what do you think was like the key learning curve and you touched on this but you were not doing physical products at the scam right and you were it was very similar to me coming into you know, a physical product I was on America Online in tech and it was Bits and Bytes my entire career and then all of a sudden you know, something I share with entrepreneurs it’s like a whole new level I mean even people that have been entrepreneurs and the non physical world it really is different and there’s things that you have to worry about that you you know just never even thought about and never would have thought timelines and and things so what was kind of the biggest shocker I or aha moment and and sort of the physical world that you just hadn’t really thought about

Kaylin Marcotte 21:55
ever so many I mean definitely just finding the right factor you know, I guess I just assumed like there must be directory or the lists event you know, of course there are people out there who make things I want to make a thing like how hard could it be to find them and really finding the right partner you know, all of our packaging each component of our puzzle kit is custom and so people who you know, we’re working with those materials and also willing to do to do a different version and create them custom for us. And then also you know, minimum order quantities Okay, we find the right factory and they’re like great, you have to order 300,000 of them I can’t do that right so you know just every step of the way like alright so how what can we work out how do we you know, kind of just creative problem solving every every step and and trying to get them to a yes and certainly as a pre you know pre launch when they don’t even know if it’s really worth the time to like staff the factory for you, you know, you’re unproven as a brand. So that was definitely hit a lot of road bumps there and then, you know, free we wish you the Suez Canal, you just never know and I remember the first time our product was stuck on the boat. And you know, our freight forwarder was like it’s here. It’s out the port. They’re just not docking it and I’m like, What do we got to do? Like who I’ll go down to the port do we got to like grease someone like tell me what to do? Like that’s it like you wait, there’s like how can this not be in my control and anything that’s you know, at this game, okay, tight deadline, you pull an all nighter, you just like there’s a lot more within your control when it’s digital. And you know, when it’s something that you kind of have the power to execute on in the I found that the accepting when I can’t control and that the timelines, you know, what they say like renovating a house, it’s always going to be take longer and cost more. So having just yeah, that kind of just rules of thumb and learning, you know, the right questions to ask the right timelines to put into place. Has has certainly been a steep learning curve.

Kara Goldin 24:30
So you get through a great holiday season, you’re off to the races, everything’s going great. Suddenly COVID hits, right. I mean, it’s insane. And so what so what did you do at this moment? I mean, what, how did you think about your business? How did you survive? How did you grow all of those questions?

Kaylin Marcotte 24:59
Yeah, Andre. those first few minutes I mean one just being a New Yorker at this point had been here you know 12 years pretty much all of my adult life so just what the city was going through those first months was just so difficult to to witness and then at the same time it was very there’s kind of this very conflicted emotional experience of actually having our business be booming when you know every story was about people losing their jobs and being out of work and businesses having to close and we couldn’t keep up with demand and so on the one hand you know, it brought a ton of attention to our product and this category everyone was looking for at home activity. On the other hand, it brought a lot of supply chain issues, you know, global freight issues and you know, warehouses what they were trying to we don’t know who’s gonna show up today so we can’t promise anything in the timeline so just a lot of difficulty to restock quickly enough so on the one hand, oh my god this like this is this is a window of opportunity we have to meet the moment and rise the occasion on the other is just a constantly moving target of trying to keep up quickly enough and so essentially what we did is you know, we sold out of inventory very quickly and then we created gift cards first so they were actually puzzle gift cards so it’s a 24 piece puzzle about postcard size and when you put it together it unlocks your redemption code. So we’ve launched those to kind of tide us over and then we ended up doing this campaign which became a real fun moment for for us and I think it really speaks to the need for innovation that saying I love Necessity is the mother of invention you know and so essentially we were sold that we were going to be sold out we rushed into production but we couldn’t restock quickly enough and so what I was able to get were blank white puzzles and so nothing was printed on that but the pieces were caught they were just white and and we have this community of artists who you know we’re also we’re talking to them at the beginning of COVID and they’re saying your galleries are closed exhibits are closed canceled like we have nothing to no outlets right now for our work and to support ourselves so we got these blank white puzzles we distributed them to the artist community and they hand drew and hand painted directly on blank white you know creating these these one of the conference’s have already we hosted essentially an auction you know an art auction for these originals and and raise money split it between the artists and New York City COVID fundraising efforts and it ended up you know being being a really special campaign we had some celebrities paint wine and help help kind of get the word out so yeah that that was our our you know kind of innovation for the times and then we ended up being able to restock and and kind of launched back in two to keep up with the demand but it’s been it’s been a crazy year

Kara Goldin 28:30
crazy time so supply chain obviously you talked about being you’re making most of the stuff outside of the country do you think you’ll you’ll try and figure out options on this side or all the mean it seems to be the story for everybody around supply chain who is doing stuff outside of their own country not just the US but I feel like everywhere if the majority of your business is in one country and you don’t have the ability to actually get what you need to sell quickly it’s it’s sort of like a huge lesson learned that I think everybody has been really working on Do you believe that’s that’s also one that you feel as a is a Yeah, you know challenge for you that you need to you needed to take on

Kaylin Marcotte 29:15
Yeah, we actually ended up doing it so you know, because of the it’s kind of silver lining of these constraints that we ended up finding a domestic partner and so that’s opened up a ton of new year, new opportunity in that we can essentially print on demand so be much more nimble with turnaround time, you know, minimum orders. So now not only can we restock quickly, but we also are able to kind of take on custom projects. So brands companies who want to do you know, their their logo or or some kind of branded art for employees. gifting or you know VIP client gifting or to actually bundle it with the product and have it be kind of an upsell so yeah certainly one one silver lining of having to figure something out domestically has been essentially a whole new kind of product line and revenue stream for the business.

Kara Goldin 30:20
I love it. That’s awesome. We should definitely talk about that for sure. Yeah. For Hans, I love it. So you self funded the company correct initially and and so it was so how did you do that? What was kind of the strategy behind being able to do that

Kaylin Marcotte 30:40
yeah, I you know again I had the idea and been thinking on it for years and so by the time I actually dove in to doing it had just been saving up and it was comfortable with just going at it myself at least in the beginning and I think it you know, kind of similar to the original CMA master of doing I think it forced a lot of creativity of having eliminated the resource constraint you know forced a lot of creativity and so ended up just bootstrapping and and getting creative with you know, turns and pre sales and how to to structure it with the factory and all that but ultimately was able to launch with with just the savings over the past couple years and then from there just you know, cash flow I continue to reinvest and grow it Yeah.

Kara Goldin 31:47
Have you had more people since you were on Shark Tank reaching out to you wanting to invest or I can only imagine actually, we’ve had a few Shark Tank participants, Kodiak cakes and and yeah, and it’s a lot of others tippy toes to a bunch of others over the years that I’ve been on there Yeah, super fun. Yeah. But tell us a little bit about that that experience so you you got to the show. And tell us a little bit about had you met the sharks before you went out to pitch your idea

Kaylin Marcotte 32:25
now and now I’ve had an end I don’t know if you if you do and have normal years but this was also filming I mean it was kind of a vehicle that they weren’t able to film safely and make it happen in the middle you know the fall of 2020 so in the middle of all the restrictions and they essentially you know belt a bubble and recreated the whole set in a controlled environment and so but we you know did did fall quarantine and and didn’t meet anyone else founders or sharks or anyone and so yeah, you go out there and you know, it’s kind of uncanny it looks exactly like it does on TV and they the doors open and you walk down the carpet and hit your spot and then you know, it’s one tape cameras are going and I think they actually do a pretty good job of kind of camouflaging the cameras behind the set so it doesn’t feel super invasive and you really just are able to kind of fall into this dialogue and get to know the sharks I think the average time is like 45 minutes to an hour I was out there about that time we see no certainly there’s a lot of the conversation that doesn’t make it into the episode so you really do get to kind of take your time spend spend time on each of their their questions but yeah, I of course I was nervous and and you’re trying to juggle all these things of okay I want the parents have beautiful I got to know my numbers you know, how what would the value proposition to each shirt be how do I convince them I also just want to be likable on TV like I you

Kara Goldin 34:13
know, all of these all of them, what do I wear?

Kaylin Marcotte 34:16
What do I wear and so you know, all of that for the weeks and months leading up but then day of just trying to go out there and you know, the opportunity to share the brand and my story with the sharks and then ultimately, you know, the the country was really, really special

Kara Goldin 34:38
and ultimately did a deal with Mark Cuban, which was amazing. So tell me tell us about you know that deal a little bit. So I actually loved Daniel from kind bar in his how he approached it and he sort of laid it out and said this is what you should ask him for. I can’t remember exactly. I was like Oh, that is so Funny, but tell I thought it was really creative. Actually, I give a give Daniel a lot of credit to at least the way that it came off as kind of thinking outside of the box a little bit about this right? You didn’t go in to it actually thinking that that’s what you were going to do. Right? In the initial deal.

Kaylin Marcotte 35:19
Yeah, you know, I really went in just thinking about who, you know, I really wanted a partner the business was doing well, you know, we weren’t looking at fundraising, you know, outside of the show, and so really just went in the good, like, who, who is connecting with the mission, who seems to see the vision and is interested in being a partner in this and just having watched the show so much, just as a viewer, and certainly in preparing for it. I really felt that, you know, Mark is a partner for entrepreneurs and that mentorship really, but yeah, Daniels Daniels great. He’s I was really glad he was on on my panel. And you know, each of them gave just a little bit of feedback that that is really helpful and insightful. And just their their quick take, even when they go out. They you know, give give some little nugget that you can, you can incorporate, so, yeah,

Kara Goldin 36:28
yeah. Awesome. So what was the actual deal? Again, just to remind people, because I thought it was a little bit unique.

Kaylin Marcotte 36:34
Yeah, I said we did. We landed it by $100,000 or 15%. And then I asked him to meet to match our donation fundraising efforts. So during 2020, we had through this originals campaign and some other initiatives that we did, we were raising money for artists who were out of work. That’s what it was, right. Typical van. Yeah. So we asked him to match $50,000 of fundraising,

Kara Goldin 37:02
which is awesome. That’s so great. And such a good. I mean, he, I loved the last piece that he talks about actually in the frame at the very, very end where he says that he’s investing in you, which I think is so true. I mean, I would say that most of our investors as well, I mean, they love the business, they think it’s going to work, they believe in it, but they invest in the people, right. And I think it’s the same thing that I think about, you know, what consumers do to that they, you have to have a great product, but then they start getting curious about who’s behind the product. And part of the reason why I want to do this show is really to share that story and get your story out more to but so what can we expect from jiggy in the next year?

Kaylin Marcotte 37:55
Yeah. Yeah, a lot ahead. Really excited to share it all. So we, this year have launched our puzzle Club, which for the others who can’t get enough, we have a monthly membership. So you got to jiggy every single month, we are also going to be launching our own frames. So as you mentioned, each puzzle comes with the cheaper puzzle glue and full ideas, these are real pieces of art buyer, these emerging artists we work with. So we are launching our own frame pairings for the puzzles. And we will also be going into kids puzzles, so an incredible whole new batch of artists I love who focus and kids are so those will be 100 piece puzzles for kids. And then you know we really core to the mission are these these artists who we support and help monetize their work. So we’re really looking into ways and platforms to be able to work with so many more artists we you know, have a waitlist going and we only release a certain amount at a time. So a ton more to come in terms of how many artists we can work with. And then really excited to keep exploring these collaborations as well. As I mentioned, we’ve been doing some corporate custom but we’ve also started working with nonprofits and and organizations to create a puzzle around their mission and we did one before the 2020 election with Sophia Bush’s organization. I’m a voter in three incredible female artists created a piece of art around voting what that phrase I’m a voter means to them. We turn those into puzzles and those the proceeds went to to help for voter registration turnout. We’re doing a couple this year. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So we have a boobs puzzle that we’re helping raise money with. So yeah, a lot more connected. collaborations and custom projects as well. That’s what

Kara Goldin 40:03
I absolutely love it. And we bought the boobs project so I love to absolutely love that one and love everything that it represents to Well, I think you were doing some amazing things and I’m so excited to see where this goes going forward and more than anything, where can people find je tell everybody?

Kaylin Marcotte 40:30
Yes, we are jiggy puzzles. everywhere.com Instagram, Facebook Genki puzzles.

Kara Goldin 40:36
Awesome. And how about you? Where can people find Caitlin and follow more about your journey?

Kaylin Marcotte 40:42
And yeah, I am kailyn Marcotte on social media and LinkedIn can connect and follow the journey there.

Kara Goldin 40:52
So great. And it for everybody who is listening. Thank you so much for listening to Caitlin’s incredible journey. And it just makes me want to go do puzzles. I need to look into that puzzle of the month because it’s such a great idea. I’m so curious. The one question I didn’t ask you. So what is the size puzzle? That people seem to be okay doing? Right? But it’s not too small. It’s not too big. Huh? Like I just wrote a book recently. And I heard like, you don’t want it more than 250 pages. 250 is like the magic number. Anything over that? It’s like, yeah, maybe but anyway, I’m so curious. Is there a pun? Yeah.

Kaylin Marcotte 41:41
I would say our court like if you’re, if you’re a comfortable puzzler, and you know, do them on a somewhat regular basis, are larger than 800 to 1000. Like, that’s pretty standard, you know, 1000 piece. And then 500. And our smaller one is 450. I think it’s kind of the the gateway puzzle if you’re keeping your you know, your toes. And so yeah, that’s, that’s why we split those two sizes. And, and we also wanted them to complete a standard frame sizes for framing, which they do. But um, yeah, I think I think 500 and then 1000. And we’re actually going to be adding to the state difficulty ratings, because that is a question we get alive. It is. Yeah, it’s not just the size. It’s the art and how much of one color and whole areas or how detailed is the design? So yeah, we’re launching and difficulty rating for each each design to I

Kara Goldin 42:43
love it. That’s that will. Definitely that. You know, I think I think about the difficulty, but I just take on the hard stuff anyway. Go on, why not? Right. Well, thank you, everybody. Thank you, Caitlin, and everybody, we are here every Monday and Wednesday. We’re on Apple and Spotify. And as I was telling kailyn This podcast is trending as one of the number one entrepreneur podcasts nationwide in the US and also worldwide. We’re hearing from so many different places outside of the US. And I love, love, love talking to entrepreneurs and hearing how they built, what they’ve done and hearing all of the challenges along the way. And hopefully, you’re all inspired by learning from kailyn and other entrepreneurs that really, hopefully make you realize that you can do it, you have to have an idea. You have to go out and try and tackle things and just figuring out how to make that first step is really often the hardest. And thank you so much Caitlin, everybody, go and buy a puzzle from GE puzzles and have a great rest of the week, everyone. Thank you. Thanks so much. before we sign off, I want to talk to you about fear. People like to talk about fearless leaders. But achieving big goals isn’t about fearlessness. successful leaders recognize their fears and decide to deal with them head on in order to move forward. This is where my new book undaunted comes in. This book is designed for anyone who wants to succeed in the face of fear, overcome doubts and live a little undaunted. Order your copy today at undaunted, the book calm and learn how to look your doubts and doubters in the eye and achieve your dreams. For a limited time. You’ll also receive a free case of hint water. Do you have a question for me or want to nominate an innovator to spotlight send me a tweet at Kara golden and let me know. And if you liked what you heard, please leave me a review on Apple podcasts. You can also follow along with me on facebook To book Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn at Kara golden golden thanks for listening