Founder Friday: Kait Stephens & Zack Morrison, Co-Founders of Brij 📲
Founder Friday is a content series from SuperAngel.Fund highlighting companies in our portfolio and the inspiring founders behind them.
In our 34th edition we are featuring Kait Stephens & Zack Morrison, Co-Founders of Brij, a software platform that helps brands create QR code-activated digital experiences.
One incredibly interesting and unpredictable side effect of the Pandemic has been the reemergence and exploding popularity of the QR-code. A technology that was first invented nearly 30 years ago, it has taken on a new life and massive utility in today’s contactless world.
Enter Brij! A software platform that powers one-touch registration & reorder to connect brands to their customers with the simple scan of a QR code. By scanning a Brij QR code on a product or its packaging, consumers can instantly access personalized discounts, product manuals, ingredient lists, care instructions, subscription settings, video tutorials, warranty information, customer service & more. Brands, on the other hand, get access to first party data such as customer name, email, and location. Brij works with companies of any size and across any industry, including Consumer Electronics, Apparel & Outwear, Appliances, CPG, Luggage & Accessories, & Beauty.
Co-Founders Kait Stephens (CEO) and Zack Morrison (CTO) have more in common than just their shared leadership position at Brij…they are both Harvard Business School grads. The two are a complementary pair, with Kait’s background in retail, commerce and finance, and Zack’s in product design, engineering and manufacturing. To learn more about Brij and how the platform works, request a demo here!
Describe your company in 5 words or less.
Kait: Platform for QR Code experiences.
Zack: Magical QR Code Product Experiences.
What was your primary motivation for starting your business?
Kait: I've always been obsessed with the concept of omni-channel, yet find it absurd that this giant problem still exists where brands are disintermediated from their customers when selling through 3rd party retailers. Then, when the pandemic drove an entirely new consumer behavior around QR code adoption, I saw a pretty compelling opportunity to leverage this new consumer behavior for brands to solve this massive problem.
Zack: My motivation was to improve how people engage with their products through technology.
What piece of advice would you give an entrepreneur starting a business today?
Kait: Love the problem you're solving and industry that you're in because it makes it so much more fun and easier to weather the challenges that you'll face.
Zack: There will be many ups & downs, so it's important to stay positive.
What do you love to do in your free time?
Kait: I'm a new mom so I love spending my free time with my 5-month old daughter, Harper. We love exposing her to all kinds of activities like hiking, traveling, going to the beach, and spending time with friends and family.
Zack: I love to play soccer, watch sports, and travel.
What is the most interesting place you’ve visited recently and why?
Kait: Jackson Hole, Wyoming - beyond being a beautiful place to visit (in the summer or the winter) and teaming with wildlife (grizzly sightings!), I learned that Wyoming is known as the “Equality State” and was the first state in the country to allow women the right to vote, serve on juries, and hold public office.
Zack: I visited Shanghai while in business school and was amazed at how technologically advanced the city was.
What is your favorite app or tool in your work life and in your personal life?
Kait: Personal life - Nanit, our baby monitor that connects to an app on your phone. It tracks my baby's sleep and allows me to easily sneak a peak at her when I'm at the office! Work life - Slack! As a flexible / remote company, it provides such a great collaboration platform where we can organize different conversations and provide transparency across the org on what is going on, so that people always feel well-informed.
Zack: Figma, because it is an incredibly powerful design and collaboration tool that is also easy to use.
What do you believe is the most important skill or attribute of a successful founder?
Kait: Grit! You are going to face so much rejection so you need to have the grit to keep going and optimism to see around the corner of failures and roadblocks.
Zack: Creativity.
SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund that invests in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work. You can learn more at SuperAngel.Fund.
