Sarah Kauss is Managing Partner at Avignon Partners, where she is an investor and advisor to brands in retail, tech, and wellness. As the founder and former CEO of S’well, Sarah is a consumer products leader with a track record of launching companies, building multi-million-dollar brands, and assembling high-performance senior leadership teams. She is a product design expert with deep experience developing and implementing successful exit strategies. Sarah held the position of CEO of S’well for ten years, bootstrapping the company with $30k of her savings to reach over $100M in annual revenue. During this time, Sarah created a new category and well-loved brand that helped displace more than four billion single-use plastic bottles and was named by Architectural Digest as one of the 25 designs that helped shape the world. Sarah sold S’well in 2022.
Prior to S’well, Sarah was a real estate developer leading large international collaborations and partnerships, and a consultant working across a range of industries. Sarah started her career with EY as a Certified Public Accountant, working in both tax consulting and auditing. She provided professional services to public and privately held companies in the technology, healthcare, consumer products, and media sectors.
Sarah has been recognized as a Fortune “40 Under 40” honoree and awarded the Harvard Business School Entrepreneurship Award. Under Sarah’s leadership, S’well was named the #1 Fastest-Growing, women-led company by the Women Presidents’ Organization, was honored with the Brand Design award by Inc. magazine and placement on the Inc. 5000 List (top 100) of fastest-growing, privately-held companies. She is a member of the 2018 Class of Henry Crown Fellows and the 2020 Class of Braddock Scholars within the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute. She earned a BS in accounting from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
A few things come to mind. One being the idea that people were buying bottled water because of convenience, not because they thought the water in the bottle was purer than their drinking water at home. They were out and about, and thirsty! My unlock was that the bottle needed to be insulated, which most were not at the time, to keep drinks cold (and hot). Also, it was really important that the bottle be more of a fashion accessory; it needed to work harder and look better than existing bottles on the market to encourage people to carry it.
I was never thinking about an exit. This was due in part to the fact that I didn't have investors looking for returns, and also because I always had something in the business that I was excited to work on or that needed my attention to scale or fix. I was surprised when people saw the exit as a big milestone and treated it as the achievement — “She exited her company!” — rather than the act of building, which was the real achievement.
I meet a lot of founders, and I look for two things: vision for what they are building and their attention to detail. I want to understand the why behind their idea and see the passion in their eyes for what they are working on. I also need to know that they understand the vital components of the (sometimes boring) business functions that are often essential to building that vision. Too often, this second skill is missing.
Determination. A "couldn't we just..." mindset of making things work in creative ways.
My mom! She was an entrepreneur who taught me so much about balancing a career while making time for my brother and me. She also has a big laugh and taught me to take some time to have fun along the way.
Other than my water bottle, it is a journal or a notepad. I keep a written journal for work and life milestones. And I always have lists going. This means everything from new recipes to try to books that I'd like to read.
I am seeing sustainability returning, from green energy to electric cars to plastic-free and sustainable packaging. While there is a lot to fret about on the planet right now, I am encouraged by the growing groundswell of sustainable practices.
This is a hard one. I was a big reader growing up. I actually read every book in the young adult section of my local library. The sweet librarian would set new books aside for me to check out first! Even with all this reading, I think the books that had the biggest impact on me were the Wider Opportunity catalogs from the Girl Scouts that came out each Spring. I would spend hours deliberating over the options for distant excursions. I was able to do everything from camp in Wyoming to sail a three-masted schooner in Long Island Sound. I think these opportunities gave me a great sense of adventure and confidence at a young age.
