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Come Sail Away
Re: Michael Sard (MBA 2018); By: Julia HannaTopics: Entrepreneurship-GeneralOperations-Product DevelopmentCareer-General
Come Sail Away
Re: Michael Sard (MBA 2018); By: Julia HannaTopics: Entrepreneurship-GeneralOperations-Product DevelopmentCareer-General
Come Sail Away
Above: Taking the plunge with Tombolo, unisex “escapewear” designed for everyone’s happy place, wherever that may be. (Photo by Jordan Hollender)
When Michael Sard (MBA 2018) arrived at HBS, he owned about 50 Hawaiian shirts. “It was one of the few items in a man’s closet that could have a ritual to it around going out, like a tuxedo does,” he says. Purchase options, however, seemed limited to two extremes: vintage items with poor fit and decaying fabric or high-priced designer numbers. Sard addressed that gap by cofounding the brand Tombolo with childhood best friend Chris Galasso, creating unisex “escapewear” described by Forbes as “something your dad’s coolest cousin might have worn on a bender in Bimini.”
The pair encountered the requisite startup hiccups. “We had no experience in the clothing industry, which is probably what gave us the hubris to try it at all,” says Sard. Their first run of size-small shirts fit like a large. When shirts didn’t arrive in time for Tombolo’s soft launch event in December 2017, Sard took pre-orders and did personal deliveries around New York City in time for the holidays. But Tombolo’s humorous, funky, retro designs gained traction, taking off at the end of 2018 with the introduction of its terrycloth cabana shirt, now a mainstay. “That’s when I could quit doing supplementary consulting work to make ends meet,” Sard recalls.
A little over five years out from Tombolo’s start, Sard has this advice: “If you’re thinking of starting a business with a physical product that feels like a pretty narrow niche—but you think that niche can help you get a toehold, build a brand identity, and grow from an emotional, storytelling basis—I would encourage diving in.”
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