From DU Classroom to Kickstarter: How Alum MK Barlow is Redesigning the Bra Industry

Transcript:

John Sebesta:

Welcome back to the Entrepreneurship at DU podcast. I’m John Sebesta As the new director of entrepreneurship at du. Today’s conversation is one that’s special for me, not only because our guest is an incredible founder, but because she represents what’s possible when students are given the space supports and encouragement to build something meaningful. MK Barlow is a DU alum, a Basecamp graduate, and the founder of Lon Bra. She’s now preparing to launch her company into the world through Kickstarter, and today we’ll talk about her journey from classroom to accelerator to alumni and founder. MK. Thanks for being here,

MK Barlow:

John. Thank you for having me. That was the sweetest opening ever. I’m so excited to be here.

John Sebesta:

All right, MK. So you’re now a DU alum, a founder, and just a couple of weeks away from launching your Kickstarter. When you zoom out, how does this moment feel compared to when you first started sketching out this idea as a student?

MK Barlow:

It’s surreal. I remember walking into my first entrepreneurship class and thinking, oh, I’m just going to do this as my minor. It’s just going to be whatever. And now to think that I’m at this stage and at this point, it’s mind boggling. I remember looking at previous alumni such as Chanel, who’s the founder of Good Love Foods, and just thinking, reaching to somewhere that’s where she’s at was unfathomable. And now that I’m here and I’m one of those people, it’s the greatest honor I could have.

John Sebesta:

So for listeners who may not be familiar, what is Phila Bra? Who’s it for, and why is this a problem worth building a company around

MK Barlow:

Flaa Bra is my company where we focus on creating brass catered to asymmetrical boobs. So the bra connects in the back and the front so that each cup size can be interchangeable. So say your right boob is an A and your left is a C, you can just get an A cup and a C cup, clip it together, call it a day. If it fluctuates, you just buy that size in that half and then clip it together, call it a day. It’s mainly for women who have struggled with breast asymmetry, whether that’s through puberty, perimenopause, just on a hormonal level. Breast cancer, women are struggling with breast asymmetry throughout their entire lives and no one’s talking about it. And so it’s for this market of women that has been ignored by traditional bras and the traditional industry.

John Sebesta:

So this idea came from a deeply personal connection with your cousin, Emma. Walk us through that and the moment that the idea came to you and why it stuck with you so

MK Barlow:

Much. Yeah, Emma, like you mentioned, is my cousin and she’s six months older than me, and we grew up living 10 minutes away from each other. She is my best friend in the whole world. She knows everything about me inside and out. That is my girl, and I know everything about her. In 2023, I got spend about a month with her, and there was one day when we were changing the same room and she was showing me a new bra that she had gotten. She loved it. She loved the color, but she didn’t love her asymmetry. And this conversation sort of started where she was like, I can’t find a bra that fits me. That’s cute, that’s comfortable, and that’s affordable. And so when you see someone that you know so deeply and that you love with your whole heart, go through something that is catered to them supposedly and made for them, and you’re seeing their struggle with it, it hurts you too. And you’re sitting there, what is going on and how can we make this better? And so I’m a woman that wears glasses. Both of my prescriptions are different. And I kind of had this moment chatting with her where I was like, why aren’t brass made for each boob rather than as a whole for the chest? You know what I mean?

John Sebesta:

Well, I love that empathy and the association to another good that is commonly customized and recognizing the ability to extend that. So that’s one data point, right? One person that’s struggling with this. Talk to me about the journey of exploring that it was beyond just Emma, and what surprised you when you started speaking with other women about this problem?

MK Barlow:

I came to entrepreneurship at DU with this idea being like, okay, I’ve heard from my cousin and my mom that they both have this problem. I think there could be some sort of business idea around it. What do you guys think? And then I was told, go get some data. Go talk to some women and find out if this is a real problem that people are experiencing. And so I went out and during my pre-B base camp time, I was getting so much market data. I got 500 responses on a survey I put out, and then I later interviewed about 50 of the women that did the survey and hearing their struggle just about the fact that there’s no conversation happening here, there so insecure about their bodies and feeling so horrible in their clothing, and yet they’re like, I’m the only one that is struggling with this. That’s what really took me aback is that all these women, 60% have this problem, aren’t having the conversation and think that they’re alone. And that’s the thing that not only really saddened me, but also empowered me to realize, okay, a conversation needs to take place. These women need to know that they’re not alone and we can make change together.

John Sebesta:

That’s awesome. And especially there’s such vulnerability and risk, quite frankly in building a company around a body related issue. Talk to me about your thought process and you’ve really leaned into that instead of trying to shy away from it. Talk to me about your strategy around that and what gives you the confidence to really lean into that.

MK Barlow:

Yeah, I think this kind of goes back to that point I was just making about conversation. How are we going to fix things that we have a problem with? If we’re not talking about it, we can’t understand what the root of the problem is unless people express themselves. And I think that that has always been a major focus of flan to bra is focusing on the customer, focusing on the pain point and being like, Hey, I know it’s a really sensitive topic and it’s not something that everyone wants to talk about, but let’s have those sensitive conversations so that we can create a better world.

John Sebesta:

So how do you go about building that trust with your customers so that they are open and willing to talk openly about it,

MK Barlow:

That’s have

John Sebesta:

That conversation? That’s

MK Barlow:

A great, yeah, absolutely. And there’s always going to be people in the world that don’t want to have that conversation. That’s okay, because they’re not necessarily ready to. I think moving forward, you have to educate people on the problem and let them know, A, they’re not alone. B, there’s a solution. And that’s how you really get the conversation rolling. If you’re open and honest with your customer base and saying, I know this is really, really hard and that you’re struggling with this, but we can make change together. It is possible. It’s scary, but it’s possible. And I think that applies to so many different things in life too. You have to be open and honest to change because otherwise what’s the point in being stagnant for the entirety of your life?

John Sebesta:

Yep, absolutely. I love that openness to change and the desire to keep pushing forward even when it’s uncomfortable, that’s where the real growth happens.

MK Barlow:

Absolutely.

John Sebesta:

So I want to dive into your time here at du. So you’re a media studies major with minors in marketing and entrepreneurship, not a fashion degree, not engineering. How did that background and that mix of experiences serve to help you as you launch this venture?

MK Barlow:

I think marketing with Philant Bra has always been one of our strongest points live. Your breast life has existed for longer than the name Flon Bra has, and at the end of the day, living your breast life is what brings me back to Flon Bras core. This defined and focused marketing has helped me build up and structure the company in a way that allows our authenticity to shine and attracts people. Because people don’t want a company that’s just going to sit there and yap your ear off about something and not be authentic and what they’re doing or honest about what they believe in. And philanthropy’s honesty through our marketing is what really does make us stand out and shine. My entrepreneurial experience completely helped structure the company. I knew nothing about starting a company until I started taking entrepreneurship classes at du. I had no idea how to make a quarterly plan, five year plan, 10 year plan, but my time here is what really helped structure the company figure out, okay, I do need a flow, an order of operations, of consumers, production, marketing, all of the above. And I think that that is what has really helped shape the company. And while I never had that fashion or design experience, my experience in marketing and entrepreneurship is what really helped give the company structure and understanding and know who our people are, which I think if you don’t know your people, then how are you going to have a product or service that serves them?

John Sebesta:

Yeah, really appreciate how you’re leaning into being an authentic company and showing up in a genuine way for your customers that’s vulnerable for you, that instills that willingness to be vulnerable on them. So that’s awesome. So you are a graduate of Basecamp. Basecamp is intense by design. What was the hardest part of that experience for you?

MK Barlow:

I hate this question. I think there were so many difficult things that I powered through and learned during my time at Basecamp. I think something that really, really pushed me, not only as a founder was people’s feedback and getting up every day in front of the cohort, giving a pitch and having to sit and listen to every single person’s opinion and know that they want the best for you, even if you don’t agree with their opinion, was something that was really difficult for me. And I really struggled with, I’m a very stubborn person, so I’m very much so set in my ways and having to sit down and listen to people be like, MK, I know you think this, but you should try this. I think it could be a great avenue for you to learn from. That was hard. It was hard getting that kind of feedback, but it taught me that people’s opinions are so valuable and sometimes you get so deep and so hyper-focused on what you’re doing and what you’re focused on within your company that you can’t see the big picture. And sometimes other people do have that perspective and you have to take it whether you like it or not.

John Sebesta:

Was there any specific feedback that still sits with you where it was a nugget that ended up proving really helpful, where you hadn’t thought about the business that way before?

MK Barlow:

A big thing for me that was a common theme throughout my time at Basecamp was, what is your target market? 60% of women struggle with breast asymmetry. That’s throughout their lifetime. It doesn’t just pertain to one section if they’re going through this specific thing. And throughout my time, I was just really focused on I need to do a younger market. I know that they’re the ones struggling. And while this is true, I wasn’t as open to focusing on an older market of women who may be going through perimenopause, menopause, breast cancer, breastfeeding, and now more so than ever, I’m more focused on, okay, what are the steps to opening our product to these women? How do we go from point A of focusing on these young insecure women to these older women who are feeling the same pains?

John Sebesta:

So when in this process, so came up with this idea, worked on it initially, as I recall in a class with Professor Pollard, continued it through some other classes with me and others through Basecamp. What was the moment where you said, I can really do this. This could be what I do when I graduate?

MK Barlow:

I love this question. I don’t know if there is a moment. More so a collection of moments. I’m the type of person where since my time at Basecamp, I have really learned that database decision-making is so important. And so in deciding if I wanted to go into a corporate job or continue Atlante Bra, a lot of it was what am I hearing from people? What are my customers saying and what does my heart say? I really did have to dig deep and listen to myself and listen to where my heart wanted me to go, which I know is a bit of a mushy gushy answer. But at the end of the day, I, after speaking to all the women that prototyped the bra who may not have prototyped, but gave me their experience on breast asymmetry and their struggles to all the women who have done every survey on every QR code I’ve put up through Daniel’s College of Business, it was all those women that were like, what you’re doing is great.

You have to keep going. I remember there was one weekend I was out with some friends at the bar around college, and that night I had three different girls who I had never met in my life, come up to me and say, I know you. You’re the boob girl. And to be known as the boob girl was the greatest honor I could have had from these girls who I didn’t have any mutual friends with, I hadn’t had any classes with before, but they just knew me because I was the boob girl, and that was the difference I was making on campus. It’s all those women who are standing there saying, thank you for what you do. Keep going.

John Sebesta:

The power of listening to your customer and addressing a problem that resonates so deeply with them that they’re going to show up and go out of their way to find you and say, thank you. Keep, absolutely. Make sure that that continues to inspire you as you move forward. That’s

MK Barlow:

Awesome. Always and forever. It will.

John Sebesta:

Yeah. So I want to talk a little bit about the experiential learning process here at the University of Denver. If a donor were listening and asking, what difference does experiential entrepreneurship education really make, what would you tell them?

MK Barlow:

I would say that if you’re sitting in a classroom and you are learning the theory of entrepreneurship, that’s great, but businesses a lot like boobs, no two are the same. Businesses are created by people, and therefore every business is going to be different. You can learn the book way that a business went about and grew and were successful, and that’s great, but you can take that same theory and try to apply it to your own. And it isn’t necessarily going to work out the same because no two businesses are the same, just like boobs. And personally speaking, throughout my time, I wouldn’t be able to be launching a Kickstarter campaign eight months after graduation if I did not experience entrepreneurship throughout my education, and I didn’t apply my education to my business. I went to every professor, as you know, my junior and senior year and said, I love your class. I’m really excited about this project. Can I apply it to Flaunt bra though? And every single professor said yes. And I learned so much more by doing rather than by sitting and taking notes and memorizing theory.

John Sebesta:

That’s fantastic. And that is what we want at Daniels, and that is what we believe is the Daniels effect of we know you and we understand who you are and what inspires you.

MK Barlow:

Absolutely.

John Sebesta:

We’ll try to tailor that. We’ll try to make it so that you can work on something that’s important to you as long as you’re still getting the right learning objectives.

MK Barlow:

100% agreed.

John Sebesta:

That’s awesome. Then you walk across the stage, you graduate the real world hits. Tell me what changed for you after graduation? What parts of it felt harder? Did anything feel easier? Talk to me about that experience.

MK Barlow:

Going from being a student full-time, working on a business to moving out of my college apartment, living in my big girl apartment, working two jobs, both Flaa bra and my part-time job to support myself. It was really isolating because when you’re in school, you have direct access to your mentors. They’re on your doorstep. You can go to office hours whenever you want. You can ask a question in class. You have support through grants. Thankfully, entrepreneurship at DU did support me in that way, which I’m so grateful for. But then you go to this space where you’re sitting there in your apartment alone with laptop, and it’s like, okay, do your work. And then you sit there and you’re like, okay, what work do I have to do? You have to create it for yourself and figure it out. And it can be really isolating in that way, but I think when you go out of your way to reach out to those mentors to be like, Hey, I need help.

I need a 30 minute zoom if you have the availability this week. And that has been a really, really helpful thing for me. I think having the dedicated time to work on flan de braw has been so helpful. I mean, when I was in school, I was so excited to not be doing school and to just be doing flon Bra full time. So it’s really given me the opportunity to focus in on that and lock in. But it is isolating, and you do have to go out of your way to continue those relationships with your mentors to go out of your way. Talking to the women that are experiencing this problem, it’s a lot harder to get outreach and get data from people if you’re sitting in an apartment alone versus if you’re walking to class every day. So yeah.

John Sebesta:

Yeah, the motivation, I think the hardest part of entrepreneurship is figuring out what work to do in a lot of cases. And so having that motivation and that drive to not only keep working and keep pushing it forward, but to figure out where to prioritize, and then having both the confidence and being comfortable again with the vulnerability to reach out and say, Hey, I’m kind of stuck. Could you help me out? I think that’s awesome and key to your success. So now, what does it mean to still be connected to DU as an alum and as a founder?

MK Barlow:

It’s the greatest honor I could think of, to be honest with you, John. I remember my first quarter being Alon Broth founder and everything, and just dreaming of a day like this. The fact that I can walk into Daniel’s, see my face on a tv, it’s so surreal to me because when I see that, I’m like, oh, it’s just whi me. I am just doing what I do, and I love boobs, and we’re going to make the world a better place for women. But it’s such an honor and to know that my story can help impact other women that want to get involved in entrepreneurship or even just business, that is the greatest honor. Through Flan Bra, we have our main mission of empowering every woman to be unapologetically confident living their breast life. But throughout the past two years as I’ve been working on Flan Bra, I found a personal goal for myself, and that’s to encourage more women to become founders, to get involved in entrepreneurship, to take business by the reins, step up and excuse my French, but be a badass. And so it’s just such an honor to be able to still be connected, to sit here today. I love du. I’m so grateful for the way that Du Daniels an entrepreneurship have supported me, especially over the past two years. And so it is the greatest honor.

John Sebesta:

That’s awesome. Well, it’s been fun to have you as a student and fun to see you continue to excel as a founder. So now looking forward, why Kickstarter? Why is that the right approach and why now?

MK Barlow:

Yeah, I think that’s a great question. I have four different rounds of prototypes for bras, and this fourth round I’ve received tremendous positive feedback, literally little to no negative comments about this current prototype. And so I’m at this point where there’s a significant amount of women that have tested this. I’ve given me amazing feedback, and I’m like, okay, let’s go into manufacturing. Let’s get it out into the world. Let’s get the customers wearing the bra so that way I can get their feedback and be like, okay, the classic cup does need these edits. It does need to be improved in this way for the customer. So a lot of it is getting a larger outreach of people so that they can help impact the creation of this amazing bra.

John Sebesta:

That’s awesome. What does success look like beyond just hitting that funding goal?

MK Barlow:

To me, I believe that as long as you’re happy, no one can tell you that you’re unsuccessful. But in regards to Flon Bra, I do believe that if I am creating this community and space where women don’t feel alone, they feel heard, they feel validated, that would be success to me. I just want women to feel comfortable in a community where they feel understood. That’s

John Sebesta:

Awesome. So when you think about the next DU student sitting in a classroom with an idea, what do you hope that they’ll take away from your journey?

MK Barlow:

I hope that they do it. I hope that they do it because now more than ever, they are the people with the resources. They’re the people with the support. You don’t understand how helpful it is having entrepreneurship at DU here. These are the people that want you to do this venture and want you to succeed. You have so much a tremendous amount of support behind you. Now is the time more than ever. When I first started my business, and I know you know this, but a big thing that I struggled with was I had imposter syndrome around my age, and I was like, I’m so young, this makes no sense. What do I know? But what don’t? You’ve become the right person for the business that you want to create, and only you can do that. So there’s no better time than now to do it.

John Sebesta:

That growth mindset of I may not have all of the things, but I can grow into it. I may not have the right knowledge or the right network, but I can learn those things. I can develop that network. And by continuing to push, you’ll get

MK Barlow:

There,

John Sebesta:

Especially when you, again, go out and surround yourself with the right group of people that are there to help and there to support you.

MK Barlow:

And that goes back to that point of I was in marketing and entrepreneurship. I wasn’t in fashion, I wasn’t in design, but you become the right person. You figure it out as you go along. And now I could tell you a thing or two about bras.

John Sebesta:

Well, when it’s rooted in that passion, I think that’s one of the things we see with students and with school is

When you’re doing it to do the assignment, you do enough to get by. But when you’re doing it because you have the passion and it’s so clear to hear the passion in your voice and the way you define success, that you’re going to keep pushing until you understand it. And all of that information, especially in this age, it’s learnable. It’s accessible if you have the drive to go out and gather it. And so I love seeing that passion and how you continue to push yourself to go out and develop and get the knowledge and skills and network and everything else that you need to be successful. So where can people follow along and support the launch?

MK Barlow:

Yeah, there are multiple ways where you can follow along. We are on all social media, so Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Atlan bra, and so you can follow along there, or you can also visit our website to learn more about our journey, how the bra works, that sort of thing. At ww dotlan braw.com. You can also learn more about the product and our specific values that we bring at Get bras dot fl bra.com. You can also sign up for our $1 reservations, where if you do that, you’ll be getting a 33% discount on bras when we launch on March 5th. So there are multiple avenues, multiple ways, and if you want to reach out to me personally, you can email me at mary kate atfl abroad.com. I’m always happy to talk to potential customers, answer questions. I always have an open ear.

John Sebesta:

Amazing conversations like this are why entrepreneurship at DU exists. Mk, your journey from student to founder to alum, launching into a new market shows the long arc of entrepreneurial education and the importance of sustained community support. We’re incredibly proud of you. Grateful that you’re a part of our alumni community, and excited to see what’s next for Launch Broad.

MK Barlow:

Thanks so much, John.

John Sebesta:

Thanks for being here.

MK Barlow:

Thank you for having me. It was such a pleasure.

John Sebesta:

Mary Kay Barlow is the founder of FlauntaBra and her Kickstarter campaign launches March 5th, 2026. You can follow her journey, atfl bra.com or on social media at Atfl Bra. Our podcast was recorded at the Media studio in the Daniels College of Business. Our sound engineer and producer is Harrison Tarr. I’m John Sebesta. Thanks for joining.