Female Founders: Jen Cohen Bogan of Bluejay Electric Bikes On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Vanessa Morcom

Pick your team wisely. Trust but verify. A few great people make all the difference, as do a few not-so-great people. I couldn’t be more proud of the amazing team we have at Bluejay today.

As a part of our series about Women Founders, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jen Cohen Bogan.

Jen Cohen Bogan, the founder of Bluejay Electric Bikes is a Harvard Business grad, and mother of two with an incredible background in the fashion and beauty industry. After completely transforming her work direction and career, she now makes the most beautiful and functional E-bikes on the market that counts celebs such as Kourtney Kardashian, Gwyneth Paltrow, Minka Kelly, Melissa McCarthy and more as fans of the brand. After living and launching the company in Marin County, CA, she and her husband recently renovated their dream mountain home in Park City to spend more time outdoors. Once she perfected the original Bluejay premiere bike model that she launched with, she has since expanded her brand and designed and launched a SPORT model, as well as WILD which are children’s e-bikes, with more on the way.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I spent a career marketing to this audience through my background in beauty and fashion. Once I left my old job and took some time off it allowed me to decide to move out of the city into the suburbs. I was looking around and noticed a ton of people riding up the hill with kids on the back of their bikes. People often ask me if I am a cyclist and I am not… which is why I started an e-bike company. I love the feeling of being outside, it is such a mood booster. I remember trying an e-bike that existed, but I had never heard of it and a lightbulb went off. I thought to myself how are these not as common? I was doing some research and felt really intrigued as a product marketer. I always wanted to do my own thing but was waiting for the right product to speak to me because it is such a big undertaking and endeavor. I started one step at a time, did a ton of research, checked out bikes in various stores, test rode a ton of them and what I discovered was that there was a huge disconnect with what the e-bike market offered, especially in terms of the aesthetic and what you would see as a traditional Dutch cruiser. I felt that what E-bikes needed was something that inspired and created the lifestyle that people wanted to live. Like a woman who always dreamed of having a cruiser bike with a wide, comfortable seat and a flower in my basket where she could place a loaf of bread and a plant from the local farmers’ market. To create that aspirational lifestyle for storytelling and using some of those best practices that I learned from my previous background and trying them on this industry that wasn’t thinking of using them, was “perfection packaged with a bow, or basket,” as it turns out. I kept thinking that this is truly a relevant product and that it is a lifestyle. I started

imagining it and started getting serious about getting into production. Our brand now has the first retail location, which opened Fall 2022 in Newport Beach. Experience the brand in real life!

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

There is never a dull moment when you start a company, which is part of the fun but also the challenge. The first time I went to Taiwan was quite an experience. One of my favorite moments was meeting industry legend, Stella Yu, owner of Velo Saddles, who manufactures 80% of all bike saddles in the world. She is considered the most powerful woman in the cycling industry. Stella absolutely loved my idea of Bluejay and told me the industry needs an outside perspective like mine. She has been a huge supporter ever since (and yes, she does all of our gorgeous saddles and grips).

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Early in my career as a buying assistant at Bloomingdales, I once accidentally set an entire department on sale at 40% off. I was terrified as all the stores started calling and my bosses were about to lose their minds. To make matters worse, the tech team wasn’t answering the phone or emails, leaving us pretty helpless to fix it. I immediately walked three blocks to the tech office to get help in person. It turns out they were all in the conference room celebrating a birthday lunch and I was able to quickly get the problem solved. Instead of firing me, my boss complimented me on how resourceful I was…for walking over to the other building. I had been trying to impress her all this time, and who knew that taking responsibility to fix my own mistake would make me stand out from the crowd. There is no mistake too big if you are willing to own it and face it head on. You can turn a negative into a positive.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Bluejay is inspired by my family. My husband believed in me from the moment I told him the idea. (He also wanted to get a Sprinter van and saw this as a good opportunity to push for it). The idea was all about the joy of riding, alone or

together with friends and family, and breaking free from being stuck in a car. Bike riding with my children, who were 4 and 6 when I started this and are now 10 and 12, has always been a great present in-the-moment activity. It is so fulfilling as they get older to see them be proud of what I do and want to be a part of the business, as well as get excited about their own business ideas and dreams.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

I think the two biggest reasons holding females back are lack of support and lack of funding. Lack of support can come in both personal and professional forms. On the personal side, many women have family responsibilities that vie for their time and take them away from personal endeavors. Perhaps they feel if they are working outside the home, they need to be bringing in a steady paycheck to cover the costs of childcare, etc. On the professional side, fewer female founders means a smaller network of support, which is critical for building a business. In terms of funding, the numbers do the talking. The low percentage of women in the VC community (11%) means there are fewer relationships with investors to get deal flow for female founders.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

The great news is that in recent years the trends have been going the right way. The investor community is starting to understand the value of females on both the VC and founder side. Funds are being created with specific focus on female founders. Key trailblazers, such as my mentor and friend, Julie Bornstein, are organizing get-togethers for networks of women in the start-up community, so they can share experiences and support each other. As the number of women in the community grows, so does every individual’s opportunity. Come join us!

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Before I started Bluejay, I was reading a Vanity Fair article on the 50 most powerful people in the world. At the time, aside from Sheryl Sandburg and the co-founder of the Chinese Uber, there wasn’t a woman in the top 30. Most of the group consisted of male founders. This was Vanity Fair in 2018! I know from experience that it’s

hard to create systemic change in the corporate world. It’s too established and political. We’ve made strides in getting to the executive level, but not in being Number 1. This was most evident during my time on the executive team at LVMH owned beauty juggernaut, Sephora, a company that caters mainly to women. There were many women in the C-suite, but never the top position. I saw my talented and capable bosses and mentors get passed over time and again. I thought, “Forget the glass ceiling. I’m going to build my own building.” More women need to be the TOP BOSS, not #2, 3 or 4.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

I think one of the biggest myths about being a founder is that you are either going to strike it big in the first couple of years or go bust. It takes time to build a brand, especially a product-based lifestyle brand. I can’t believe we are already in our fifth year at Bluejay– and it’s our most successful ever. In many ways, I am so proud of how much we have accomplished and how much of my vision has already become a reality. In other ways, I thought we would have already taken over the world by now. However, there is so much more to come.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

No, absolutely not. If you are uncomfortable with ambiguity, defeat, are not a self-starter, like being told exactly what to do, or require consistency, this is not the job for you. This isn’t just for founders, but anybody who takes on a role in a startup. All of my successful team members have these same traits. They are problem solvers and go-getters. They are creative and thrive on belief in what we are doing. Being a founder requires hard work, but also patience, resilience, optimism, and most importantly, the ability to motivate and inspire others.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

1 . It takes time, step-by-step. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Celebrate even small successes and look at failures as opportunities for growth. I talk about this a lot with my team in Taiwan as we go through the development process. We approach everything methodically, otherwise it would be completely overwhelming.

2 . Pick your team wisely. Trust but verify. A few great people make all the difference, as do a few not-so-great people. I couldn’t be more proud of the amazing team we have at Bluejay today.

3 . Trust your gut vs. so called “experts.” I have been an outsider to the cycling industry, but all of my instincts have been right so far. We are doing something unique and not everybody gets it, but that’s what makes us stand out.

4 . It can be lonely at times. As a founder, you can become close with your team, but you can’t confide in them with every fear. It is your role to be confident and a leader and to make decisions that will better the company and better your employees’ lives. It is a lot of responsibility and sometimes there aren’t a lot of people who know what you are going through. That is why I think founders connecting with each other and sharing stories is so important.

5 . Take everything in stride — nothing is truly the end of the world, but it is easy to get emotional and feel that way, especially when it is your “baby.” The same goes for success.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Bikes and e-bikes make the world a better place. Let’s reduce our carbon footprint while connecting to our surroundings and having fun. I also believe allowing employees to have flexible work schedules so they can balance their personal lives makes the world a better place.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

My movement is to get people out of their cars and reconnect to the world. The joy our bikes bring to our customers is the greatest good for me.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Greta Gerwig — I am so impressed by everything she has done and the relationships she has built. It’s apparent that everyone who has ever worked with her has nothing but amazing things to say. I would just want to know, “how do you do it?’

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

About The Interviewer: Vanessa Morcom is a millennial mom of three and founder of Morcom Media, a performance PR shop for thought leaders. She earned her degree in journalism and worked for Canada’s largest social enterprise. She can be reached at vanessa@morcom.media.