S5. Ep. 343 Real Founder Stories: How Jiggy's Kaylin Marcotte Went from Zero to Shark Tank by Mastering Partnerships, Publicity, and Scrappy Growth
What happens when a burned-out startup employee discovers jigsaw puzzles as her stress relief, and then decides to completely reinvent the category? You get Jiggy, one of the most creative and scrappy real founder stories we've featured on Dear FoundHer.
Kaylin Marcotte is the founder of Jiggy Puzzles, a multi-million dollar brand that transformed the humble jigsaw puzzle into a lifestyle product, a wellness tool, and a platform for emerging female artists. She launched in November 2019, just months before a global pandemic turned puzzles into the hottest product on the internet. She landed in Anthropologie before COVID hit, struck a deal with Mark Cuban on Shark Tank, and built a three-channel business with a team of three.
But here's what makes Kaylin's story so compelling for every woman startup founder listening: she did almost all of it without a marketing budget, without paid ads, and without a playbook. Just creativity, partnerships, and a relentless willingness to do the legwork.
In this episode, you'll hear:
How Kaylin identified a gap in the market and built company messaging around elevating puzzles from a toy aisle product into a lifestyle and wellness brand
The scrappy manufacturing process that got Jiggy off the ground, including negotiating her way onto the end of a factory run to meet impossibly low minimums
Her early publicity strategy, pitching herself, leveraging HARO, and doing her own PR long before she could afford to outsource it
How she grew an audience from day one by baking a built-in partner network into the business model itself, her artists
The partnership with Anthropologie that changed everything, and how it came directly through Instagram before she'd spent a dollar on ads
What founder visibility looked like for a one-woman show, and how leaning into organic social and authentic partnerships drove real growth
Her Shark Tank experience from start to finish, how she got scouted, what the process was really like, and what happened to her business the night it aired
The real scaling challenges of going from DTC startup to a multi-channel brand in Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, and Macy's
How she has managed rapid growth and built a B2B custom business, including a puzzle collaboration with Kacey Musgraves, with a team of just three people
Why she believes getting press and building partnerships is a more powerful and sustainable growth strategy than performance marketing will ever be
The honest truth about managing teams as a solo founder, and how freelancers, contractors, and a scrappy mindset have kept Jiggy lean and profitable
This episode is for every woman startup founder who is building something from nothing, trying to figure out how to get press without a PR budget, and wondering if it's really possible to grow an audience without throwing money at ads.
Kaylin's answer is a resounding yes, and she gives you the exact roadmap in this conversation.
Connect with Jiggy:
Instagram: @jiggypuzzles
Website: jiggypuzzles.com
