In the early days of the pandemic and ensuing lockdown, trendy activities like crocheting, bread-making, and whipped coffee dominated many people’s free time. As these humble hobbies gained popularity throughout the world, savvy e-commerce entrepreneurs began turning them into legitimate business ideas.
But what makes entrepreneur Kaylin Marcotte so unique is that she was already ahead of the trend. After modernizing the age-old pastime of jigsaw puzzles, Marcotte set out to turn her company into a multi-million dollar business amid the pandemic’s sudden home-activity boom. With little funding and zero business experience, she launched her framable art-focused puzzle brand, Jiggy, in November 2019 — just before the pandemic spiked.
With millions of people stuck at home searching for ways to occupy themselves, Marcotte saw the perfect opportunity to nurture her brand into something more than just a side gig.
A Puzzling Idea
As an early employee at a small business startup, Marcotte was tasked with working 14-hour work days, staring at a computer screen, and using her knowledge of social media to launch initiatives and build a following.
Though this helped the company surge through a stage of hyper-growth, Marcotte experienced extreme fatigue, stress, and the beginning stages of burnout. “Puzzles became my form of therapy,” recounts Marcotte in an interview with Bootstrappers. “I did a thousand-piece puzzle every week for about three years. And these were like your grandma’s puzzles with cheesy stock photography.”
As Marcotte’s love for puzzles grew, she wondered if there was a way to modernize the leisure activity into a more aesthetically pleasing finished product. “The idea was planted right then to reinvent puzzles and modernize them.”
Marcotte continues, “I wanted to work with emerging and established female artists. I grew up in Los Angeles and my Mom started an art nonprofit. I was always surrounded by the art community. Right away, I knew that this was an amazing chance to marry the two worlds. Because what is a puzzle? It’s a vehicle for a design with a unique image on it.”
Piecing the Business Together
Marcotte never set out to use the get-rich-quick business model. Instead, much like completing a puzzle, she sought to use the time to her advantage. While keeping her day job, the young entrepreneur began gathering ideas on the aesthetic appeals of puzzles, and how her end product should look.
Though she had no professional background in product design, Marcotte knew she wanted her puzzles to be completely one-of-a-kind. “I wasn’t just thinking of the finished piece, but also about detail, color, saturation, and layers. It all matters.”
As she researched packaging, Marcotte also decided she wanted to include puzzle glue so buyers could have the option of framing the completed product. “I wanted people to be struck by the thoughtfulness when they unboxed and completed each puzzle,” she comments.
With the help of social media, Marcotte reached out to artists on various platforms to manifest her artistic vision. Fast-forward four years later and Marcotte had finally decided her business idea was ready to become a reality. After leaving her day job, she officially launched Jiggy at the end of 2019.
Between 2020 and 2021, Jiggy saw massive organic growth, selling over 250,000 puzzles. Following a Shark Tank appearance in 2021, Marcotte raised $500,000 from investor Marc Cuban in exchange for a 15% stake in the company, which helped fuel Jiggy’s post-pandemic growth.
Success Worth Framing
Now, Jiggy has become one of the most renowned puzzle brands in the industry. Though still generating the majority of sales through its direct-to-consumer channel, the company has cemented various brand deals with big-name retailers like Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Macy’s, and Anthropologie.
Entering 2022, Marcotte looked to experiment with brand partnerships, securing several collaborations with celebrities and musicians. In January, Jiggy partnered with music star Kacey Musgraves to turn her latest album’s cover art into a framable puzzle so fans can keep themselves busy while they listen.
The company subsequently partnered with the Michael J. Fox Foundation during Parkinson’s Awareness Month, creating a custom puzzle featuring art by a female artist with Parkinson’s.
Marcotte has also looked to advertise the decor aspect of her puzzles. Earlier this year, Jiggy launched a line of frames, which customers can purchase in conjunction with the puzzles.
The founder even expanded the brand by creating adjacent categories to complement its core collection, including a kid’s jigsaw puzzle line called Jiggy Junior. To encourage returning customers, Jiggy also has a new rewards program that rewards buyers for habitual puzzling.
But as if that growth wasn’t significant enough, Marcotte is aiming to take Jiggy even higher.
Marcotte continues, “After getting sold out during supply chain delays, we diversified our supply chain to produce small batches domestically. This also allowed us to have more control over partnership orders with quicker turnarounds.”
Thanks to this move, the company has been able to participate in more collaborations and corporate gifting, with high-end clients like Spotify, Warby Parker, and Meta participating in Jiggy’s corporate gifting program.
Looking at the Bigger Picture
Though some businesses struggled during the pandemic, Jiggy serves as the perfect example of a company developing the right product at the right time. But as the quarantine-friendly activities begin to drop off, companies in these home-activity fields must find a way to continue engaging their customers.
Fortunately, thanks to both the addictive nature of puzzles and the proactive efforts of Marcotte, Jiggy has not just stayed afloat but has gone on the establish itself as a profitable and reputable e-commerce brand.
With new product launches, physical retail expansion, and unique programs like an artist marketplace, Jiggy has been able to consistently generate $1 million in sales annually. The company has even been featured in magazines like Forbes, Vogue, Goop, and Condé Nast, and gained national exposure on the TODAY Show and CNBC News.
Now, as we enter the new year, Marcotte sets her sights on pushing her boundaries of learning. “If I can support emerging artists and inspire people to reconnect with downtime and experience art in a whole new way, I’ll feel like I’ve accomplished something.”