Becoming an entrepreneur: My interview with Sam Reich-Dagnen

One of my favorite things about running Work It, Mom! is the chance to meet some absolutely incredible women and be inspired by them. Sam is one of those women and I wanted to share my interview with her. She is the co-founder, with her husband, of Braincandy, a company that produces digital products, including DVDs, to help kids learn, play and explore the world around them. She lives in Seattle, Washington and is a mom of six year-old twins: Blaise and Logan.

Sam gave up an impressive (and lucrative) career with Microsoft to start Braincandy with her husband and shares some great perspectives about starting a company and live as an entrepreneur.

Can you tell us a bit about your company? Braincandy is a world of live-action and animated digital content designed to model and provide opportunities for young children to creatively play, learn, and explore their world. Braincandy’s first series is designed for very young children ages 6 months to 4 years and focuses on children learning about themselves and the world through their five senses. Braincandy’s first DVD, “Braincandy, My 5 Senses” was the most award-winning developmental video in the children’s category with 12 industry awards of excellence.

What did you do in your previous life? I worked at Microsoft for 10 years and did fun things like managing and developing Microsoft’s television and print “image” campaign with a budget of over 100 million dollars. During my last four years at Microsoft I was the group manager of marketing and communications for the Microsoft TV division.

Before Microsoft, I spent many years in Los Angeles working on independent and studio film projects. I got to work with such great filmmakers as Lawrence Kasdan and Roger Corman, among others. I also worked at the Walt Disney Company for several years, creating and producing media for their theme parks.

Do you think being an entrepreneur makes it easier or harder to balance your work and family responsibilities? Why? As one of my entrepreneur mentors has told me from day one, the best thing about being an entrepreneur means you get to pick whatever 60 hours a week you want to work! Seriously, what makes it easier is that I’m much more focused and efficient at doing both—I have to be. Because my work day is shorter in the daylight hours, I have to cram more into those hours. Because we’re a small company there are far fewer distractions. And as I’m doing now, it’s 8pm and I’ve just put my kids to bed and am diving back into work for a couple of hours. I’m not sure it’s balanced but it works.

What has been the most challenging part about starting your own company? The most challenging piece of starting the business is the uncertainty. We have an enormous amount of confidence and passion in what we do but not knowing whether we’ll be successful, whether consumers will embrace our products, whether kids will love them as much as we enjoy making them, serves for a roller coaster ride like no other. When I was a freelance filmmaker in Los Angeles my life was vague and I lived paycheck to paycheck but I didn’t have a family to support. Because I work with my husband who is the other principal in the business, we’re both completely invested both with our time and money. That means that we share successes but are miserably intertwined with our failures as well.

What do you find most exciting about being an entrepreneur? The most exciting thing is that I own my successes and my failures. When you feel passionately engaged in what you do it gives you the strength and the stamina to live through and enjoy the journey of both. When I take a call from a mom somewhere in the country and she tells me how much her child loved watching Braincandy or listening to our music it’s the most exciting thing in the world.

Do you work at an office or from home? What are the positives and negatives of this arrangement?
For the first year of our business we worked in the laundry room of our Seattle home. We created our first video during that time with poor Johnny—my husband and our creative director—editing the content between spin cycles of the Maytag. Nice thing about this arrangement was being able to roll out of bed and onto the computer, never worrying about a shower or shoes. The challenge was the amazing amount of distractions. How does one work three feet from the treadmill and the washer/dryer?

What advice would you share with aspiring women entrepreneurs?
Keep the end goal in mind. If you are giving up a 60 hour-a-week job at an office another 60 hour-a-week job running your own business doesn’t mean it’s any better just because it’s your own. For us the end goal is freedom. We are working extremely hard right now to build our business to be a great success. We know that accomplishing that will provide us with many more opportunities and time in the future to spend as a family.

I ran into a good friend of mine yesterday who started her own business with a friend about two years ago. She started it when her daughter was about two and a half and her son wasn’t born yet. She’s done a fantastic job building a great business over the past couple of years but it’s taken its toll on her family. Her husband is a bit frustrated, her children miss her even when they’re with her and she’s feeling like she does nothing right. She’s decided to step back from the business for the summer and see how she feels at the end of it. Knowing when you’ve sacrificed too much is paramount to your business and personal success.

Nataly Kogan is the co-founder and CEO of WorkItMom.com, an online community for working moms. For more career tips, to connect with working moms, share advice about balancing work and family, quick recipes, and growing your business, and to read working mom blogs, visit www.WorkItMom.com.