"Don’t get yourself into a position where your only friends are people on your payroll" with J. (Zino) Haro

Photo Credit: Beom Joon Baek

J. (Zino) Haro is the CEO of Uni-ke, a start-up that has made its way into various aspects of the fashion industry: from manufacturing to the runway. She serves as a face for Gen-Z leaders, combining visionary approaches to the workplace with unwavering regard for societal impact. Despite beginning her career in the space of cybersecurity, Haro has rapidly pivoted to include the worlds of design and entrepreneurship. She is the 24-year-old daughter of a Mexican immigrant.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

Hello. I’m Zino. I’m kind of a first-generation everything. First to go to university. First to be born in the United States. First to go to high school, even. When it comes to things I’ve done, it’s pretty varied. Academically, I have a background in computer science, specifically in digital systems and cybersecurity. I dedicated myself to that exclusively for a couple of years - almost to the point of obsession, looking back on it.

I think I’m more “well-rounded” now. I don’t know what else to call it. The arts have always interested me, and I’ve put enough work into that aspect of myself during the past two years that I’ve released a few songs and had my physics-inspired artwork put up at Fermilab.

From a business perspective, I started off by joining the NextGen community in New York. I wanted to see what young innovators were doing near me. Since then, I’ve gone head-to-head with people two or three times my age to run a company, and I’m currently considering an MBA.

What inspired you to start your business?

It was a combination of things - and I’ll only be speaking for myself here, not my co-founders. They have their own inspirational stories to share. My very first inspiration was completely unrelated to Uni-ke, but it led directly to it. It was my first year of university. I was in New York, and I was surrounded by things I felt I couldn’t be a part of. I was talking to people outside of my university - Parsons and FIT students - and those interactions inspired me to make my first collection that summer. I decided, without the option for failure, that I would show my work in New York Fashion Week that September. It was difficult financially. I had to borrow money from a friend, but everything went well in the end. I made a note of all the difficulties I had and the difficulties I could foresee impacting me if I decided to continue with this venture. How does someone actually build a brand with manufacturers and shipping and everything else that a brand entails? Shortly after that show happened, Columbia sent everyone an email inviting them to participate in an entrepreneurship competition and that sort of planted the seed for a business. Combined with that, I like building things, and I’ve never been particularly fond of passively accepting my fate.

Where is your business based?

We are spread out. Originally, we were all in New York City, but we opened a studio around Los Angeles within the first year of being active. Now, our CTO Christian Cruz Godoy travels between California and Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, where a part of our in-house manufacturing takes place. I am still based in New York.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

Christian contacted me after my fashion show - the one I mentioned - to invite me to participate in our school’s entrepreneurship competition. He wanted to work on the idea of economic empowerment, to create jobs for people, and he admired the work I had already done by myself. We did a lot of research, more than anything else. We read about Y Combinator winners. We did their startup school lessons and considered the entire scope of the fashion market.

We partnered with local organizations like the NYC Makerspace to build our first “studios” to test manufacturing, and Christian began coding a platform that would connect manufacturers with designers. When a crude version of the platform was up and running, we got a small cohort of designers and manufacturers for more feedback, and everything grew from there, iteration after iteration.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Superficially, Instagram. I say superficially because it does have the most numbers but not the most impact. The best method to both get noticed and be remembered has been to attend relevant events. In some cases, we’ve organized and created them. Pop-ups, collaborations with brands and musicians, and even after-parties on some occasions. This is industry-specific, of course, but I think every industry has an equivalent. These things get us closer to manufacturers, designers, models, and virtually everyone that would work with us at one point or another. This addresses the B2B aspect of our company, which for us is just as important as the consumer aspect.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

All of the cofounders come from low-income households with no connections, so our biggest challenge has been financial and psychological: allowing ourselves to take the risk in the first place.

We started out believing that we needed to have a backup, that we didn’t have the luxury to explore like the people we observed around us. At school, we were surrounded by classmates doing unpaid internships while we took on three part-time jobs simultaneously. I guess it wasn’t everyone, but when things are hard you tend to feel alone - like it’s just you going through this - so for a time, we worked on our idea with a lingering sense of uncertainty.

For me, the switch flipped when I realized that I intended to buy the company I was working for. I can’t really say why that happened, but it did. From that, I had to recognize that buying the company would be impossible if all I ever did was work for that company as an employee. I had been limiting myself to “safety,” and safety didn’t lead to all the possibilities I considered for myself. Starting from nothing all over again was preferable to not taking the risk. After all, I had already made the “from nothing to here” journey.
Fundraising hasn’t been easy. Definitely not. We have some funding though, and we’re still on our round, but we already have revenue.

How do you stay focused?

We don’t have a schedule for anyone except for occasional meetings and physical events. I know that sounds crazy, but we really don’t. We have a set of tasks that have to be done, and as long as they get done well with frequent updates, we don’t care what people are doing with their time. When someone gets tired of a task, they can stop and watch a show or play video games and get back to it whenever they feel like it.
When someone decides to do something, they’re more focused on the task than if they feel forced to do it at a particular time or in a particular way. This is our start-up environment, of course. I imagine this will change as we grow, but maybe it won’t have to.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

We target people that get ignored, people that would traditionally be excluded from the industry. Designers tend to look for large-scale manufacturers, and low-income creatives find it very hard to start on any aspect of this industry. We lived it, so we decided to include the small manufacturers, help people set up their studios, help people start their design careers, and - on at least three occasions - helped launch modeling careers.

We are spanning the entire length of the industry and establishing roots from the beginning. We invest in people, their drive, and their potential.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

This isn’t a marketing strategy, but it helps us grow nonetheless: Acknowledging those we work with. If we work with a musician, we interview them. We write about our models and make posts about them. We recognize the value of people, and that travels far. People share things about themselves. They share the interviews, the photographs, the podcasts…

One time during the closing of my first show, I was too nervous to remember there were people around me, and I forgot to thank the makeup artists publicly. One of them messaged me after the show to tell me they were hurt about that, and I remembered that ever since. People want to be recognized for what they do, and it’s really the best thing to do for everyone.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

In the beginning, you’re going to live the stereotype of the entrepreneur who never stops working, but if you don’t tune back into the people around you, things will get harder. Don’t get yourself into a position where your only friends are people on your payroll.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favorite app is Duolingo. I like old languages. I’m currently re-learning Latin, and I wish they had Old Norse. I’ve actually been on the search for a print of the Eddas in their original version, but the only thing I found was out of stock in an Icelandic bookshop that I have little chance of getting to.

For blogs… I have no favorite blog. I prefer finance and opportunity newsletters, but none in particular. The one I read without fail is NextGen’s Momentum newsletter every Monday.

My favorite book changes often, although I tend to say Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. It helped inspire my cybersecurity career as a teenager, and the author responded to my email, so that made an impression.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Trello. There are a lot of substitutes, but I like the customization options and the ability to easily integrate media. If we were in another industry, it might not be so important, but working with highly creative people in a highly creative industry makes this practically non-negotiable. Google Colab is also helpful because we can make project notebooks with unique features that are only dependent on our ability to code them. We’ve made some pretty cool things there.

Who is your business role model? Why?

There are aspects of people that I admire, but I can’t name any single individual as my role model. I value leaders who respect people’s time, who think about the progress of society as a whole rather than just their own pockets - although I guess that varies on perspective. For some, those might be the same thing. I admire the businessperson who is simultaneously a researcher, but I also admire those who have overcome great adversity.

How do you balance work and life?
I take care of my plants, and I go outside every time it rains. It rains quite often, so it’s a forced distraction. I know the plants thing sounds odd, but I swear I can hear them when they need more sun or water, so I get pulled away from my screen.

There are a lot of little things like that. Little distractions are built into my life that make sure I’m never disconnected from everything else around me.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?
Netflix - thrillers and horror - and maybe travel. I like cold places without much sun, and I like being on a plane. I stare at the sky a lot, too. Some things about it make me comfortable, like storm clouds and wind patterns.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

We will be very active this September. Three of our designers are representing the company in its first-ever New York Fashion Week show. We have a pop-up planned in New York City, and there will be an after-party, too. There will also be some announcements I can’t talk about yet. After that, we are fully focusing on fundraising and the expansion of our internal manufacturing space before onboarding our next batch of members.

How can our readers connect with you?

On Instagram @zinoharo or LinkedIn. 
(LinkedIn link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmharo/