Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Balcauski.
Hi Jason, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
It all started with a strange conversation. “Dude, we’re going to look like jellyfish this year at Voodoo.” And with that, the journey to make the ultimate party costume was set out by two friends, Gerry Gilligan and Jason Balcauski, who had met through mutual friends just five years before at Voodoo Music + Arts Experience. Little did we know then that a neat idea for a Halloween costume would transform our lives and get us in re-runs forever on our favorite music show of all time, Austin City Limits (on the back of the shiniest man in showbiz, Shinyribs) or on the runways of Paris Fashion Week worn by superstar Instagram models like Deborah Albuquerque!
Gerry had taken ideas from his days running light rigs for the likes of George Strait, Janet Jackson and the Grateful Dead, with the desert fashion and creativity of his fellow Burning Man campers to come up with the idea of our first cloak. After sewing together his first LED inspired project, which promptly ripped apart in a stiff wind, he knew his concept would work, but he also knew his rudimentary sewing skills were not going to cut it! So he recruited our good friend Kendra Cook to assist us. He knew that a cloak or a cape would be the best way to dance around with the LEDs and not (probably) cause breakage, and therein lied the first thoughts of what would eventually become the Firefly Cloak.
With these initial prototypes, we took off for our 5th Voodoo in 2015 to have some fun in the crowd. It did not take long for us to realize that after the 15 picture with a random group of smiling strangers, that we might have something special here. The combination of holographic sequins, bright multicolor glowing LEDs that synced between costumes and a happy attitude got us so many friends and memories that weekend Jason spent the whole ride home convincing Gerry that we needed to mass-produce these costumes. The final straw was at a Phuterprimitive show at Vulcan Gas Company on 6th street, where the bartenders all pooled their tips and attempted to hand us $500 to hand over a cloak!
Learning about industrial sewing and mass production took several years of research and a few lucky breaks. Jason was working at a tech sales job in Austin and happened to start his job with another new hire whose wife won backing on Shark Tank for her sewn product. She was willing to get us connected to her manufacturing team in Asia, which was a key to keeping our costs reasonable and product quality high. For prototyping and iteration work, we found Nga Keith at Blue Bonnet Cut and Sew in north Austin, as well as the team at White Star Manufacturing for top-notch consulting.
After ten iterations on the initial design, we finally were able to launch our Kickstarter campaign in the fall of 2017. Leveraged more for PR and marketing as we were bootstrapping, we were extremely happy that our campaign got fully funded at $10,000 with three days to spare! For fashion Kickstarters, this represented about 1% of all successful campaigns at this level, so we knew then that our idea really was a unicorn and could potentially have a mass-market appeal.
Fast-forwarding to today, we currently have multiple retail and online partners that carry our product, including the famous Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds on south Congress avenue here in Austin. We have made a small army of satisfied customers into brand ambassadors that help “spread the light” at festivals and concerts worldwide. After opening up international shipping after our first year, we have now shipped our Firefly Cloaks to Japan, Australia, Switzerland and more! Our goal of “putting more light in your night, and more glow in your soul” has been fully realized many times over, and it feels phenomenal every time we hear our customer’s stories about “cloaking up” for their first shows or festivals!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We have faced many challenges with our business. We had to learn about industrial cut and sew operations from the ground up while making sure that our initial startup funds were not being wasted. Communications with a team overseas can be extremely hard, but our team did a phenomenal job getting us on late night, early morning calls with the production floors there while we tried to juggle our day jobs at the time. Having a local negotiations team on the ground was also key to smoothing out big issues early on in the process.
Next was learning how to market our product effectively, using all our social media and online channels and not spending inordinate amounts of money doing it. That took a lot of practice and patience to make sure we were effectively communicating with the right audience. Surprisingly, there are very informative marketing classes for free through Hubspot and cheaply through StackSocial that helped a lot.
Of course, like most small businesses, Covid was absolutely devastating last year. Without a concert and festival season for basically 14 months, sales took a considerable hit. Thankfully, we are seeing a lot of pent up demand in ’21 and have high hopes for the rest of the year!
Finally, we think customer satisfaction is our #1 priority for building our brand. We have tried to go above and beyond for clients who may have issues, as word of mouth is a major driver in this space and we never wanted to have poor experiences marking our record or stopping a sale. Trying not to fall into the cheap, pop-up costume shop model of ‘use once, throw away’ has always been part of our business plan and we feel it’s reflected in the quality of our products.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Jason Balcauski After spending the last five years as CMO of ABLD, I have recently joined the ad sales team of an online publisher here in town. I have over 17 years of experience in consultative high tech sales and marketing, including some Fortune 500 companies. What sets me apart is my determination and doggedness to solve problems for my customers, be well researched on a variety of topics so that I can speak to issues they’re seeing intelligently, and my desire to genuinely help people. I am very proud that a company that I helped found is now putting smiles on faces around the world while getting people to meet and make new friends.
Gerry Gilligan, Trusted Advisor and Growth Guru: Award-winning sales and marketing executive with extensive experience in sales, contract negotiation, strategy and marketing. Three times winner of the Boston Scientific “Triple Crown” award for exceeding sales plan across all product lines. Demonstrated clinical aptitude, passing the highly competitive IBHRE exam the first time for proficiency in pacing, ICD, CRT-D therapies.
Results-driven C-Level Negotiator: Recognized by President Clinton and Bush for leading negotiations in the passage of two major legislative efforts. Recognized in the Congressional Record and issued commendations for staff excellence in executing unique legislative strategies to achieving Senator’s policy goals including the designation of I-22 in Alabama through a budget-neutral mechanism. Entrepreneur and creator of three companies so far!
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
We see a lot of startups in this space with easier access to design tools and resources becoming more prevalent for the “small” and “fast” fashion industry. Locally, we are very excited to see the Fashion Incubator at the Highland Mall ACC campus begin to train and educate the next generation of Austin fashion moguls, as well as bolster local talent in the cut and sew workforce. Seeing this talent develop is certainly a long gameplay, and we’re happy that the city of Austin is investing in that talent now so that in ten years, we will have a more evolved fashion industry in Central Texas.
With the expansion of the craft industry as a whole on platforms like Etsy and Pinterest, it’s making it easier for brands of all sizes to try out small runs of product and see real-world feedback in sales on lines that could be popular… There needs to be more efficiency in the supply chain as a whole so successful lines can ramp production quickly, and with fashion there is only so much that can be done with software and technology. The investment in people development really matters there.
Pricing:
- Firefly Cloak- retails at $249
- ABLD Custom Logo Tees- $20
Contact Info:
- Email: austinbrightlightdesign@gmail.com
- Website: www.austinbrightlightdesign.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/austinbrightlightdesign
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/austinbrightlightdesign
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/ATXBrightLights
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWBL5Eg7v2fH0OAQk_mbPdQ
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/austin-bright-light-design-austin-3
- SoundCloud: www.instagram.com/fireflycloak
Image Credits:
Mountain Trout Photography Louis Ayuma Photography Jimmy Small Photography Austin Bright Light Design Funky Bitch Photography
