Braid Community Spotlight: Betsy Mikesell

Meet Betsy Mikesell, the CEO and inventor of Beddy’s zippered bedding. Keep reading below to hear about her story.

How would you describe yourself in 10 words or less?

I’m a split red/yellow personality. (Even when I retook the test and picked different answers I was a yellow/red haha) Excited, Happy, Creative?….I get excited about random things (like when a restaurant has Diet Dr Pepper, or when I see a cute pair of shoes) I also love creating things…like a pair of earrings that I can’t find in stores.

Tell us about the brand that you are hoping to grow.

Bedding has always been the same.  I’m excited to tell people about our bedding.  It solves so much more than making your bed. It’s perfect for keeping your kids covered and warm at night.  No more bedding falling on the floor!

What inspired you to start your company?  

I have twins with bunk beds and I couldn’t get them to make their bed, so one day I got on the top bunk to show them how it’s done and realized making a bunk bed is near impossible.  I tried googling how to make a bunk bed and after coming up empty I realized I needed to create a solution for bunk beds. I didn’t realize it would be perfect for every bed. I even have it on my king size bed and I love it!  

If you have a mission, goal, or vision for your brand, what would it be?

Make life easier.  We all have so much going on, we want to help create good habits and share goodness. 

Who is your target audience?

Moms.  I honestly feel like I’m the target audience, so almost everything I do is to market towards myself.

What are some of the biggest challenges that you’ve experienced so far with your product?

It is so expensive to create our bedding.  While machines can easily make traditional bedding in minutes ours is all done by hand and it takes our skilled sewers 1/2 of a day to make one bedding set. We also have such a long lead time.  Planning is crucial so we have the right amount of product on hand at all times. We can’t quickly reorder our bedding. It’s all planned out almost a year in advance.

Your biggest successes?

I feel like funding on Kickstarter was our biggest success.  I know we’ve had bigger sales and reached so many more people since Kickstarter, but that felt like such a huge milestone to just fund!  I had no idea it would be so hard to get started. I’ve learned so many things since then, but that was the biggest learning curve. I went from a full time hairdresser to a business owner and entrepreneur. Hair school taught me how to do a killer haircut but didn’t teach me anything about running a business.

What do you hope to learn and who do you hope to meet at Braid events?

I don’t know what I don’t know. I think that’s why I love meeting other business owners, they always offer great advice.  Creating new friendships and learning from everyone is so important. I love seeing what other business owners do and why they do it.   I don’t have anyone specific I want to meet, but I do think it’s important to hear what other people have done to solve similar issues to mine. I think we all tend to go through similar things and it’s so nice to be validated from other business owners.