First and foremost, thank you and sending a massive shout-out to our friend, Evan Lessler, for joining us in this mini entrepreneur roundtable.
When we started our first business, Aggregate, we were looking to collaborate. Because we’ve always been such huge fans and supporters of a well-known Bay Area brand, Adapt, we thought, “Why not reach out directly to the founder?” Luckily for us, Evan graciously took the time to get to know us, our vision, and our brand.
From there, a collaboration super team evolved: the combination of Graphic Design and Industrial Design led to developing two amazing products.
Our first collaboration with Adapt was the Radius Carabiner, which ultimately won an IDEA Design Finalist Award in 2019. One of the many reasons we loved this collaboration is because it took us back to our roots in designing with friends. No client pressure or expectations; just a fun passion project. The success of the product itself was a bonus.
Our second collaboration, the STEM touch tool, came from seeing the effects of COVID-19. When going out in public, we understood there was an underlying fear of potentially touching contaminated surfaces. Because both teams were already designing face masks or face shields, we wanted our second collaboration to be timely and memorable, so we put our twist on a touch tool device.
One of the best aspects of entrepreneurship and design is collaborating with so many different people of different backgrounds. When you remain open-minded and collaborate with people outside of your niche, multiple creative minds can come together and produce viable products. In our case, our collaborations with Evan, although in the design spectrum, took two completely different worlds of design and it led to the development of two products people found to be useful in their daily lives. Additionally, collaboration helps with Marketing on both sides. Teams can leverage audiences and double their reach after each collaboration. Especially if you’re starting your own business, reach out to those you admire–you never know who will be willing to guide and work with you.
Check out our mini roundtable discussion with Bay Area entrepreneur and Founder of Adapt Clothing, Evan Lessler on our YouTube channel/the video above.
The Hatchery 