Welcome to another edition of Failsights.

In today’s edition of Failsights, we look at Jenny and Jacob Sukut’s entrepreneurial journey. Their story spans across several states and even continents but more importantly, their story showcases their willingness to take risks despite the several setbacks they’ve had.

TLDR - At a Glance:

Startup: Multiple startups

Products: Magazine, Baking Company, Polymer Clay Earrings, Jobe

Major Challenges:

• Converting interest to paying customers

• Seasonal demand fluctuations

• Health complications

• Building an online community

• Market timing (tech layoffs)

Key Lessons:

• Network is crucial

• Use conservative projections

• Learn when to let go

• Reframe failure as a learning opportunity

• Persistence is key

The Origin Story

“I traditionally come from a background of teaching,” Jacob explains. “I’ve been a teacher, a middle school teacher for history and literature”.

The couple’s entrepreneurial spirit is evident from the start of their marriage. They have constantly worked on side projects to satisfy their creative itch and supplement Jacob’s teaching and Jenny’s graphic designer income. Their journey has taken them from Montana to Tennessee and now to Albania, where they currently reside with their three children.  

1. Christian Living Magazine (2013 – 2015)

Their first major venture was born out of their faith at the time. In 2013, the Sukuts launched a Christian living magazine aimed at young women. The magazine was more than just religious content. It offered a blend of DIY crafts, recipes, fashion, features on social impact and movie suggestions! Jenny’s graphic design background coupled with Jacob’s knowledge in history and literature came together to create a high-quality publication. They would attend Christian conferences up and down the United States and gather subscriptions for their magazine. Four to six issues of the magazine were published a year.

The problem however as most startups find - paying users! The publication received great feedback, but when it came to subscriptions, it just did not hit the metrics the Sukuts desired.

“We were studying the metrics, if you're getting it in front of this many people, at least 10% of them should be interested. And of those, 10% like 2% of them should buy. We were going off those numbers and it should have been successful, but we were just hitting absolute zeroes constantly for months” as Jacob summarises.

Moreover, the cost of the magazine was significant, costing around $40,000 for each edition. With sales going down each print run, the Sukuts had to close the business before running into more debt.

2. Little Things Baking Company (2016-2018)

This business was an evolution of a short-lived hobby the Sukut’s had dabbled in. They initially tried their hand at calligraphy for wedding invitations, but seeing little momentum, they pivoted the business to specialising in French macarons.

"That one was probably our one that was closest to success," Jacob notes. "We were making like $500 every time we would go to a market, which is really good because you could do 2 markets in a week and that's $1000 bucks a week, which supports us."

The macarons were indeed a hit and were in demand by a number of patisseries. They were just getting the ball rolling when life threw a curveball. Jenny’s third pregnancy came with health complications. This derailed the momentum they had created and could not get the business fully operational. Following the birth of their third child and a move to Tennessee, the Sukuts took a break from business and concentrated on family.

3. Polymer Clay Earrings & Blacksmithing (2021-2022)

It wasn’t long until they dove back in, this time with two simultaneous ventures in 2021. Jenny started making polymer clay earrings, while Jacob took up blacksmithing. It was the earrings that showed the most promise as Jacob recalls.

"At one point we met a guy that wanted earrings for Dolly Parton. I was still on a learning curve for blacksmithing, it wasn't like a lot of money I made, a 100 bucks here and there. But the earrings were doing well, especially in the summer. The summers were big for the earrings, but we just couldn’t hang on through the winter”.

That was the crux of the problem for the earrings business, it was seasonal. The Sukuts were doing well in the summer but struggled to maintain momentum through the winter season. Despite some successful markets and growing connections, they couldn't sustain the business long-term.

Moving countries

The Sukuts refuse to bend to the norms of society, they are willing to try anything they put their mind to and to see it through. They have the work ethic, the discipline and most importantly a will to succeed. The businesses they have tried are different to the ones we usually hear about. As a couple, they are creative, and their experiences show that. They are not afraid to try new things, a trait that saw them move to another country.

Living in Tennessee they were about to purchase a home they were renting, but due to unforeseen circumstances pertaining to the landlord, they were forced to move out. But rather than move within Tennessee, the Sukuts packed their necessary belongings, sold everything else and travelled to Europe seeking a new path, a new life.

After coursing through Europe, they have now settled in Albania for the next year, and working on their latest venture, more on that later.

Lessons Learned

Network is crucial – a strong network is often the backbone of a successful business. Many of the businesses the Sukuts had tried, failed because of not having a solid network. As Jacob admits, “one of the biggest challenges is not having a network to sell to. We’re alone in this idea. Knowing how to build a community online was really hard.” I would go so far to say, build an audience, a network before you build a product. It is impossible to sell something to nobody.

Conservative Projections – The magazine was a perfect example of this. The quality of the magazine was high, but their initial projections of the number of units sold were incorrect. There was false positive feedback in that people loved their magazine, but they did not convert into paying customers. Ensure you have conservative projections before venturing into a business that has a high production cost. Better yet, get a third party to do some analysis to remove confirmation bias from your own projections. This will give you an idea of whether it is worth venturing into a high-cost business.

Learning when to let go – Spending three years promoting their magazine and getting into significant debt, they’ve learnt to let go of ideas that aren’t working. You can see that with each subsequent idea, the Sukuts were learning to let go much earlier. “If we had known, been more savvy about it, we probably could have seen the tide turning on the magazine earlier and cut our losses and saved ourselves thousands in debt. I think that there is a bit of a learning curve with letting go of a business that’s failing”

Reframe failure -  This is particularly important when you try multiple things with little success. Jacob admits that their failures was initially viewed as a personal shortcoming. Over time, however, the Sukuts have managed to see it as a natural part of the entrepreneurial process. Reframing failure as not a personal shortcoming, but one to learn from and build upon in your next venture is key. Don’t let failure be an anchor, let it be a springboard to success.

Persistence is key – The Sukuts are determined to be a success and that comes with a willingness to try anything. That requires being patient. They didn’t start one business, failed and gave up. They continue to venture into the unknown and whilst they haven’t seen the success they desire; they continue to develop themselves and learn by being persistent.

Current Venture: Job Search Platform (2024-Present)

As ever the entrepreneurs they are, they travelled through Europe whilst simultaneously attending coding bootcamps. The will to learn is impressive with both Jenny and Jacob. Raising three children, travelling in unfamiliar territory and continuing to develop and learn new skills is truly admirable.

But as ever in their story, unfortunate timing meant that although Jenny had the skills to be a junior software developer, there were massive tech layoffs, specifically for remote jobs. As Jacob put it,

“The market was totally destroyed and we thought there is absolutely zero chance for Jenny to get a tech job right now. We could probably spend about 300 or 400 hours trying to advertise yourself and apply to jobs and just brutalise yourself for the sake of maybe getting a job”

The dire job market was the reason for their latest venture, straightforwardjobsite.com. The most popular job sites are too large and do not have a good user experience, the Sukuts are trying to change that with their latest venture.

What’s more interesting is that they are having a crowdfunding campaign, specifically deciding against capital investment.

“Capital investment comes with caveats like we need a seat on the board or partial ownership … we care more about the service that we provide so all of the features of our site are based on the idea that we're not trying to extract money”.

I personally think that Jacob and Jenny may have a great idea on their hands, job search sites like Indeed and Totaljobs feel stale and outdated and Jacob and Jenny are trying to breathe new life into it, I really hope it’s a big success for them, they truly do deserve it.

Founder-to-Founder Insights

At the end of each interview, founders will pose a question they’d like answered by the next founder. Our next featured founder will answer this question and, in turn, ask a new one for the subsequent founder. I hope this brings about a virtual dialogue between founders spanning different industries, experiences and challenges.

In our last case study, the founder had asked our latest guest:

“If you could do anything differently, what would you do”

Jacob responded with:

“There are stages, there’s a stage where you must work really hard, but then you may not get enough time with the kids, there’s a stage where you’re sick and you have to take care of yourself and put the business to the side a little. So, if I could do things differently, it’ll be that don’t predict the future based of the stage you’re on, especially if it’s a bad one.”

Jacob’s question for the next founder on Failsights is:

“What are the things that you've done that's not for the sake of profit, but because it's a personal passion”

Stay tuned for our next issue to see how our next founder answers this question.

Final Thoughts

The Sukuts have been through a lot, both personally and professionally and it got me questioning what a lot of people say, “don’t start a business with family”. After my conversation with the Sukuts, I think it should be, “don’t start a business with family, unless you have a Jacob/Jenny by your side”. They complement each other, are well aligned and are focussed on what they, as a couple, want to achieve. I think that’s what a lot of founders miss when starting a business with family, a focussed end goal. I wish them all the success in the world.

Think of failure as a stepping stone, the same way the Sukuts have. They’ve tried things and it hasn’t really worked out for them, but that’s fine. Their attitude to failure is exactly what Failsights is trying to promote, don’t give up, keep failing but keep learning. These failures will add up to be a success sooner or later.

If any of you would like to follow the sUK startup journey, you can via:

LinkedIn

straightforwardjobsite