Startups are hard: How five Juneau business owners make it work

Every startup has a different story.

For Lindsey Burnet, the original idea for a bra shop came years ago from her friend and business partner Hollis Kitchin, and the idea stuck with Burnet.

“One day while I was out working at the Taku Lodge, a friend of ours came up to me and was eight months pregnant and just sobbing because she was trying to find a dress for a party and she couldn’t find anything. And she was a big busted gal and she couldn’t find a bra that was comfortable,” Burnet said. “I said, ‘Our friend Hollis has this idea about starting a bra shop,’ and she looks at me and is like, ‘You should do it.’”

Burnet emailed Kitchin that night about how combining a bra shop and maternity clothing could be a “win-win.”

“And voila, we started a business,” she said. Bustin’ Out Boutique opened at the end of 2014.

[Bustin’ out the new bras: New downtown business is all bust]

Burnet was part of a five-person panel during Thursday’s Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon. The discussion was also hosted by the Juneau Economic Development Council to kick off Alaska Startup Week, which begins on Saturday.

Developed by economic development organizations in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, JEDC executive director Brian Holst told the audience of about 50 that the week is meant to promote entrepreneurship and bring attention to the important role that startups play in the economy.

“There are a lot of people in business and a lot of people making difficult decisions that drive our economy, but there’s a special place for that startup, for that person that’s willing to go from something that doesn’t exist, create it and grow it,” Holst said.

Holst called the people behind startups risk-takers. Rico Worl, co-founder of Trickster Company, is one of them.

“It all started when I painted my own longboard with my clan crest and I made one for my cousin. I wanted to represent my clan, represent who I was. My cousin’s cousin wanted one and there was just continuous demand for it,” he said.

Worl, who’s Tlingit and Athabascan, did a run of manufactured skateboards.

“For Native people, it was an identity product. For non-Native people, it was a way to appreciate without appropriation,” he said.

Worl thought he’d focus on Native design skateboards, but he said he’s a designer before a skater, and kept designing other things related to his lifestyle.

“There was always the next project to do and eventually the projects became so big, it turned into a business,” Worl said.

The Trickster brand started five years ago and the shop opened in downtown Juneau in 2014.

[Worl siblings open design shop downtown]

Patrick Courtnage started Adventure Flow, a small group tour company, with friend Eric Oravsky in 2015. He said working the daily grind wasn’t for him and he was looking for something more fulfilling.

“It’s honestly a game to get out there and try to create something brand new that you can then provide to people that they see value in, and so you get a lot of reward from that. That keeps me going,” he said.

Sandro Lane said he related to that. Lane, a seasoned entrepreneur, started Taku Smokeries in a converted garage in the early 1980s. He sold the business in 2002 and then, a year later, started Alaska Protein Recovery, which makes fish oil supplements.

While running your own business is fun and rewarding, Lane said it’s also incredibly challenging.

“Sometimes it gets really tough when you have a lot of stress, you can’t sleep, you don’t know where you’re going to get your next payroll funding from,” Lane said. “But the desire to succeed has to be greater than the pain of the stress. If that’s the case, you’ll make it.”

[Juneau small businesses saw growth in 2013]

Sydney Mitchell, another seasoned entrepreneur, helped start Shoefly Alaska 11 years ago. What’s kept her going is the endless possibility of invention and innovation.

“If I reach a point when I bored of what I’m doing, I look at some facet of my business and I think, ‘You know what? I bet there’s way to do this better. How can I do this better?’” she said.

And Mitchell brings her team together — sometimes even customers — and they tackle whatever it is.

She said it’s a time of opportunity in Juneau, mentioning new Seward Street businesses Pretty Please and Downtown Dames. On Front Street, Mitchell said she’s excited by businesses like Trickster, Alaska Robotics and Kindred Post.

“I’m excited to see a younger generation starting to invest in downtown Juneau with their energy and their passion,” she said.

[Seward Street shuffle: Downtown block sees lots of changes, new shops]

Advice from the panelists for startup hopefuls include: bring your business plan to Ian Grant at the Alaska Small Business Development Center in Juneau; expect your business plan to change and evolve; have enough capital to weather tough times; build solid organizational skills; prepare to sacrifice time away from your family, friends and hobbies; don’t be afraid; and make sure you love what you do.

“If you have a great idea and there’s a niche in the market for it, do it. If you love it and are willing to dedicate your life to it and make it work, then you will make it work,” Mitchell said.

• Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.

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