JESSICA LIAO MAYERS BUILT A 7-FIGURE BRAND WITH $300 AND A SEWING MACHINE

Jessica Liao Mayers did not begin her entrepreneurial journey with venture capital, a large team or a sophisticated manufacturing operation. She started with $300 worth of fabric, a sewing machine she already owned and a belief that there was room in the swimwear market for something different.

In November 2015, Mayers launched Slate Swim from her home. At just 21 years old, she was working full-time while developing the business on the side, purchasing fabric during lunch breaks in Los Angeles’ Fashion District and sewing products at night.

What began as a small side project eventually became a seven-figure business and, in July 2026, resulted in a seven-figure acquisition.

For Mayers, the journey was built around a simple philosophy: identify a genuine gap, create a distinctive product, reinvest revenue and avoid expanding simply for the sake of growth.

From Fashion Student to Founder

Fashion was not an obvious career path for Mayers. She grew up outside Dallas in a family of medical professionals, but a high school fashion class unexpectedly changed her direction.

Initially, she enrolled in the class because she assumed it would be easy. Instead, she discovered a passion for fashion design and construction. She went on to compete in state and national competitions before moving to Los Angeles to attend the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, where she studied product development.

After graduating in 2014, Mayers joined BCBG as a designer and product developer. The experience gave her a foundation in fashion design and product development.

She later moved to Tobi, where she worked as a buyer and gained experience on the wholesale and retail side of the apparel industry.

At Tobi, Mayers found herself finishing assignments unusually quickly. Her workload often took only hours instead of the entire week.

Rather than viewing that as simply a comfortable situation, she saw an opportunity.

“I was very quick,” Mayers said in an interview with Entrepreneur. “My boss would give me the week’s worth of work on a Monday, and I would finish it in a few hours.”

With time on her hands and a growing interest in entrepreneurship, she decided to start her own company.

Finding a Gap in Swimwear

The idea for Slate Swim came from Mayers’ own frustration as a consumer.

She struggled to find swimwear that was both comfortable and aligned with her personal aesthetic. She saw a market dominated by mass-produced, relatively thick nylon swimsuits on one side and highly trend-driven premium brands on the other.

What she wanted was simpler: minimalist swimwear with clean silhouettes, neutral colors and comfortable materials.

That became Slate’s positioning.

The brand focused on swimsuits with minimal seams designed to lie flat and smoothly against the body. Mayers experimented with thin, soft fabrics that provided a second-skin feel. Some of her earliest fabric experiments involved materials traditionally used as lining fabrics.

Instead of trying to follow every emerging fashion trend, she built the brand around a consistent visual identity.

That decision would eventually become one of Slate’s biggest competitive advantages.

A $300 Start

Mayers invested only $300 in fabric when she started the company.

She already owned a sewing machine, so there was no immediate need for expensive equipment or a manufacturing facility. Slate initially operated on a made-to-order model, allowing Mayers to keep inventory requirements low and limit financial risk.

During the day, she worked her regular job. During lunch breaks, she would travel through Los Angeles’ Fashion District looking for materials. At night, she returned home and produced the garments herself.

The operation was extremely small, but it allowed her to learn every part of the business firsthand.

Then came an unexpected opportunity.

The Trade Show That Changed Everything

Slate’s early Instagram account attracted the attention of Agenda Trade Show, a surf- and skate-focused event looking to bring swimwear brands into its lineup.

Mayers accepted the invitation even though she was still working at Tobi.

There was one major problem: Slate had no manufacturer and almost no inventory.

To prepare for the trade show, Mayers produced approximately 30 samples herself in her apartment, cutting and sewing each one.

The effort paid off.

Slate secured orders from 22 retailers at the event, including Diane’s Beachwear.

The success created an immediate operational challenge. Mayers now had wholesale demand but lacked the infrastructure to fulfill it.

Fortunately, she met someone at the trade show who connected her with a small production facility in Los Angeles. That manufacturer helped Slate complete its initial wholesale orders.

Eventually, Mayers moved production overseas and partnered with a small, family-owned manufacturer connected to her through her previous experience at Tobi.

The new manufacturing relationship provided more consistent quality and greater production capacity, allowing Slate to grow without losing control of its product.

Growing Without Outside Capital

One of the defining characteristics of Jessica Liao Mayers’ business journey was her decision not to raise external capital.

Instead of relying on investors to finance growth, she reinvested Slate’s own revenue into the company.

Money went toward better production, inventory, photography, branding, ecommerce and eventually fulfillment infrastructure.

The approach meant that growth was slower than it might have been with significant outside funding. But it was also manageable.

Mayers did not attempt to build every business function simultaneously. She expanded capabilities as demand justified them.

That discipline helped her maintain ownership while gradually creating a more valuable and organized company.

Why Staying Focused Paid Off

Slate could have expanded into numerous categories.

Mayers received suggestions to introduce menswear, resortwear and other adjacent products. She chose not to pursue them.

Her reasoning was straightforward: specialization could make the brand stronger.

“I would much rather be successful at one thing than mediocre at many things,” she said.

The decision protected Slate’s identity. The brand remained associated with minimalist silhouettes, neutral colors and flattering fits.

Mayers also learned not to chase trends simply because they were popular.

At one point, Slate experimented with trend-driven colors, including neon yellow. The collection did not perform well.

The experience reinforced her belief that the brand should remain authentic to its original aesthetic rather than attempting to follow every fashion cycle.

Building the Brand One Relationship at a Time

Slate’s early marketing strategy was similarly resourceful.

Before the company could afford major professional campaigns, photographers approached Mayers about using the swimwear in beach shoots and test shoots.

Rather than paying for expensive campaigns, Mayers provided products in exchange for imagery, credit and exposure.

This allowed Slate to build a polished visual identity at a relatively low cost.

Influencer relationships also played an important role.

One influencer wearing Slate generated approximately 30 orders overnight. For a young company, that represented a significant surge.

But Mayers did not depend on a single viral moment.

Instead, she gifted products to individuals who aligned with the brand and developed relationships over time.

She believes the company’s growth came from the cumulative effect of those smaller efforts.

The Advertising Lesson She Wishes She Had Learned Earlier

While Mayers was disciplined in many areas, she believes she made one significant mistake: waiting too long to invest in paid advertising.

Slate did not begin investing in advertising until 2021.

Once she hired an advertising team, growth accelerated. Mayers says the company grew approximately 76% during its first year of paid marketing.

The advertising strategy focused not only on selling individual swimsuits but also on communicating Slate’s overall aesthetic and lifestyle.

Mayers’ first outside hire was an advertising team with an engineering background. Their ability to understand data and Meta’s advertising systems appealed to her.

Looking back, she says starting paid advertising earlier is the biggest change she would make to her entrepreneurial journey.

The additional demand created another important effect: Slate needed better fulfillment infrastructure.

More orders required warehouse or third-party logistics support. Increased fulfillment capacity made it easier to handle larger wholesale orders.

Delegating operational tasks also allowed Mayers to move beyond being the person responsible for every part of the business.

Turning a Bootstrapped Company Into a Sellable Business

Slate’s business model remained relatively straightforward.

According to Mayers, approximately 92% of sales came from direct-to-consumer channels, while wholesale accounted for about 8%.

The company continued to operate without outside investment.

That financial discipline became particularly valuable when Mayers eventually decided to sell.

By carefully managing inventory, limiting unnecessary product expansion and reinvesting revenue, she had built a company that was profitable, organized and less dependent on a large full-time workforce.

During Slate’s final three years under Mayers’ ownership, the company grew by approximately 36% year over year, according to her account.

Shortly after Slate’s 10-year anniversary, Mayers listed the company with an online brokerage.

In July 2026, she completed a seven-figure acquisition.

The deal represented the culmination of more than a decade of building the company from almost nothing.

Selling More Than a Business

The decision to sell Slate was not purely financial.

Mayers had spent 11 years building the company and described it as her “baby.” But she also felt ready to return to another part of her creative ambition: contemporary womenswear.

She wanted a buyer who understood fashion, swimwear and the identity she had built around Slate.

Ultimately, she found a buyer with a background in swim, fashion and marketing.

The fit gave Mayers confidence that the company would be in capable hands.

She described the feeling surrounding the acquisition as “an inner peace.”

The transaction also moved unusually quickly. Because Slate was profitable, organized and supported largely by contractors rather than a large salaried workforce, the business was relatively straightforward to transfer.

Mayers said her lawyer described it as the fastest acquisition he had seen.

What’s Next for Jessica Liao Mayers?

Mayers is continuing to support Slate during the transition, but her attention is now turning toward her next venture.

She plans to launch Knitte, a contemporary minimalist womenswear brand, in spring 2027.

The new company will allow her to explore a broader range of silhouettes, fabrics and materials.

For Mayers, womenswear offers a level of creative freedom that swimwear could not always provide because swim garments must be tightly fitted and structured around the body.

After more than a decade focused on swimwear, she is now ready to experiment with clothing on a broader scale.

The Bigger Lesson for Entrepreneurs

Jessica Liao Mayers’ story offers a different model of entrepreneurship from the familiar venture-backed startup narrative.

Slate Swim did not require millions of dollars in funding to become valuable.

It began with $300.

It grew through direct customer demand, wholesale relationships, organic marketing, strategic reinvestment and a tightly controlled brand identity.

Mayers did not attempt to become everything to everyone. Instead, she built around a specific product and aesthetic, resisted unnecessary expansion and gradually invested in the infrastructure required to support demand.

Her experience also demonstrates that bootstrapping does not necessarily mean avoiding growth. It means financing growth differently.

Instead of giving up equity to investors, Mayers used the company’s own revenue to fund its next stage.

The eventual seven-figure acquisition demonstrates the potential payoff of that approach.

For founders considering their own businesses, her advice is closely connected to the way she built Slate: start with a genuine point of view, remain resourceful, stay focused and be willing to commit for the long term.

“You have to have that passion that’s going to wake you up every morning,” Mayers said. “If you don’t have that, you’re just not going to get far.”

For Jessica Liao Mayers, that passion started with a sewing machine and $300. Eleven years later, it had become a seven-figure exit and the foundation for her next chapter in fashion.