Female Founders: Patty Perreira of Barton Perreira On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Not everyone is up for the challenge of being a founder, you have to truly be passionate. To me, a successful founder is someone who is a good leader, compassionate, and empathetic. The person is a visionary with good instincts, thick skin, and isn’t afraid to take risks.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Patty Perreira.

Patty Perreira is the designer and co-founder of Barton Perreira and has been designing eyewear for more than three decades. A self-taught designer, she honed her craft designing for the likes of Oliver Peoples, where she was responsible for many of the brand’s iconic styles. In 2007, Patty along with her business partner Bill Barton founded Barton Perreira, an independent fashion eyewear brand based in Southern California known for their unparalleled design and impeccable craftsmanship as each pair is handcrafted in Japan.

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’m a self-taught designer and I have always had a creative instinct. Growing up, my mom and I shopped thrift stores and made a lot of my clothes. I had no idea this would help pave my way as a designer. I honed my eyewear design skills during my 18 years at Oliver Peoples. I also created eyewear collections for Prada, Miu Miu, Jil Sander, Helmut Lang, Paul Smith, and Vera Wang.

What I love about eyewear is that it’s a combination of fashion and function. The first Barton Perreira collection is the most special to me — I designed for other brands for so long, so to design something for my own namesake was an incredible feeling. I was very inspired to have the freedom to design and develop new technologies for my own eyewear brand.

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

There have been so many memorable moments over the years, the most recent one that comes to mind is our partnership with EON Productions and 007. I have been a Bond fan for many years. I have a home in Jamaica and it’s where I go every year for design inspiration for Barton Perreira. Jamaica is also the home for Bond so when I found out that the wardrobe stylist for the film No Time To Die wanted to buy Barton Perreira glasses to style Daniel Craig’s last film as James Bond, I was thrilled! The stylist said that when she was thinking about how to dress James Bond, he had to look iconic and definitive. I was so honored to have our glasses styled throughout the film and we have garnered such an incredible partnership with EON Productions that we recently just launched The Legacy Collection, with initial styles in the series of sunglasses re-imagined and inspired by Bond characters in vintage films.

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?

When we launched Barton Perreira, I designed a style called the Emmanuelle in 13 colorways. It was an inventory nightmare to have that many skus and it drove our factories crazy. But it was the #1 selling style for many seasons and celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Jada Pinkett-Smith wore the style, and it was all over the press which was amazing exposure for our brand launch. However, too many skus of a style can be an inventory nightmare and difficult to manage, but it’s important to make mistakes as they are learning experiences that lead to growth.

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?

My partner, Bill Barton saw something in me at Oliver Peoples and he approached me to partner with him to start Barton Perreira. Working alongside Bill is amazing, separating the personal from the business has never been an issue for us. We have a great partnership, as well as mutual respect and admiration for one another. He motivates, challenges, and inspires me. Bill and I trust each other’s instincts. We both have many years of experience in the eyewear industry. His expertise is in the business aspect, while I am the creative. This allows each of us to focus and utilize our individual skill sets in ways that are best suited to the success of Barton Perreira. I believe our talents truly complement each other.

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?

While there has been some tremendous progress with gender equality, I think that women still struggle to have a voice, especially women of color. Generally, they are not lifted up and often discounted so I think there are many women out there that have the potential to be incredible business leaders but hold back because they lack the confidence or the people around to support them.

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?

I think that it’s important to choose your partners wisely and surround yourself with friends and colleagues who support you and want to see you succeed. Obstacles are like hurdles, you have to either jump through them, under them over them or around them. Regardless, you have to find a way, there is always a way. Trust the process and believe in yourself.

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?

Women are less driven by our ego and more driven to find solutions. We have more empathy and I think women are great multi-taskers and we’re great at balancing time.

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

I honestly don’t know what the “myths” are about being a founder. What I do believe is balance in all that we do and that success is not the key to happiness; happiness is the key to success.

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?

Not everyone is up for the challenge of being a founder, you have to truly be passionate. To me, a successful founder is someone who is a good leader, compassionate, and empathetic. The person is a visionary with good instincts, thick skin, and isn’t afraid to take risks.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

Leadership

Compassionate / Empathy

Instinctual / Visionary

Risk Taking

Confident yet Humble

I’m very supportive of all my colleagues, friends and family and I try to do everything I can to help them succeed and lift them up. I have invested time and money helping with loans, connecting people with jobs & providing platforms for people to expose their talents. I genuinely want the best for everyone around me and I’m happy to see them accomplish as much success as they possibly can. Many people have done this same thing for me and it’s important to pass it on.

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

From the inception of our brand, I have been committed to crafting eyewear using the highest quality materials in Japan, derived without harmful chemicals. We use plant-based acetates, with cellulose obtained from wood and cotton, for an environmentally friendly resin. I aim to design timeless eyewear, intended to be worn season after season, ensuring a lifetime of use. Our shopping bags are made of recycled materials and our cleaning cloths are made of recycled PET bottles. We do what we can to reduce our carbon footprint and be kinder to the Earth.

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.

I feel strongly about living a Vegan Plant based diet. It’s better for the planet, animal agriculture is killing the planet and a way to stop climate change is to stop eating animal protein.

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.

Michelle Obama, she’s an advocate for so many things that I believe in — healthy nutrition for kids in school, female empowerment & poverty awareness.

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