Three Things I Wish I Had Known in My 20’s: Adina Jacobs

Full name?: Adina Jacobs

Position / Job title?: SVP Product for STM

Why did you seek out this particular job / start your company?

I was in my early 20’s, working as the accessories buyer for a teen fashion brand when a colleague approached me with an idea. He’d just bought a laptop and couldn’t find anything other than the ubiquitous basic black laptop briefcase to carry it in. Those bags didn’t suit him or his lifestyle and with nothing else available at the time he cobbled together his own solution. He bought a padded envelope from the post office, put his laptop inside it and carried it around in a backpack. 16 years later Ethan and I are still working together, making your digital day easier with bags, cases and accessories to protect and organise your digital gear.

How has life changed (hopefully for the better 😉 since you landed this job / launched this company?

I love what I do, the people I’m with every day and the creative thinking needed to come up with solutions to make peoples days a little easier. I travel, I meet interesting people and I get to think outside the box. I have 3 young kids so the flexibility that comes with having your own business means that I can be at concerts, help out with class activities and be around when I need to be (most of the time!). On the flip side, the responsibilities that come with a business mean I never really switch off. I’ve done bleary-eyed midnight feeds while checking emails more than once!

And now: WHAT 3 THINGS DID YOU WISH YOU HAD KNOWN IN YOUR 20’S? A note on format – each of the “three things” are written according to this example, below:

1. Make sure you understand the numbers– I work on the creative side of the business in product development, and numbers aren’t my forte. I’ve had to force myself to get my head around the numbers so that I can make educated decisions on product. Being creative is important, but knowing what you should and shouldn’t spend money on is a huge contributor to the health of a business.
2. Focus is key– For me focus is about 2 elements. It’s about being able to concentrate on your strengths and trying not to spread yourself too thin, and it’s also about pulling together strong product and brand stories that support each other and not getting easily diverted into things that take your attention away from the core focus of the business. When you start a business and everything has to be done by 1 or 2 people, it’s easy to become a ‘Jack/Jill of all trades”. It’s important to be able to do that but also to realize when you need to concentrate your efforts on things that will make the most difference, not on the things that are easy to cross off the list.
3. As the business grows, grow with it– I’m a product focused person and being involved in the fine detail of bags and cases is where I’m most comfortable. As an owner of this company, that’s not necessarily the best use of my skills, so I’ve had to consciously pull myself out of the minutia and look ahead at medium and long term strategy. We have people working for us and we have a responsibility to them and to ourselves to make sure that STM is a great place to work and that we have a plan for the business going forward.