The MBA Behind That Teenie Weenie SI Bikini

“We still weren’t getting the sales we needed,” Sanchez-Rivera recalls. “To me, I could either do something to focus on entrepreneurship or just keep working full-time and trying to bootstrap this company. I knew the arguments: MBAs aren’t worth it; they’re too expensive and a kid with a high school degree can learn to code and become a wizard at it and make tons of money.”

THE PURSUIT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

But Sanchez-Rivera had already started a company. And it had some mild success. He knew he would get a master’s degree at some point in his life anyway. So he started researching. He visited multiple East Coast schools but said he just felt like a number on his visits. At one school, he was actually given a number and told to wait on his visit. His last visit was to the Raymond A. Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Sanchez-Rivera was wooed by the Southern comfort.

In 2007, when Sanchez-Rivera began his MBA, the Alan B. Miller Entrepreneurship Center was just developing. Sanchez-Rivera says being able to study in a center for entrepreneurship while building his company was the ultimate reason why he ended up at the Mason school. And at the helm of the entrepreneurship center was Banks Professor of Entrepreneurship Richard Ash.

“My relationship with him and the impact he had on the company was huge,” Sanchez-Rivera says. “The biggest lesson I learned from him and getting my MBA in general was the importance of focusing on one thing and perfecting it. When I was a kid I played guitar, skateboarded, and played soccer and basketball on teams. That kind of grew with me.”

A CUSTOMIZED MBA EXPERIENCE

For the first time maybe ever, Sanchez-Rivera focused his time and energy on one thing. He built his schedule around developing La Isla. He designed nearly all of his class projects to reflect problems he had with La Isla. The result was a focus entirely on a couple swimsuits. That led to a breakthrough. One of his swimsuits made it on the cover of the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

La Isla blew up. Private stores started to pick up the brand. Other magazines were calling. “We were manufacturing a product no one else was,” Sanchez-Rivera says. “We were selling the best quality. There was hand embroidery from Colombian seamstresses.”

With a strong foothold in the women’s swimwear industry, stores started asking for a La Isla clothing line and men’s swimwear. So in a focused manner, Sanchez-Rivera started adding strategically to his business. Later this year, they will be rolling out yoga-wear, in addition to the beachwear and swimwear lines.

BRED FROM SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

But there is also a social side to this story. For as long as Sanchez-Rivera can remember, two things have been emphasized in his family—respect for the natural world and giving to others.

“I spent weekends traveling out of Cali and to my grandparents’ farm,” says Sanchez-Rivera. “Grandma would wake us up at 4:30 a.m. to milk the cows. Then we’d make cheese with her and wrap the cheese in plantain leaves.”

Sanchez-Rivera also spent his free time hiking and exploring the Colombian portion of the Amazon rainforest, which he calls the “lungs of the earth.” He also happened to be friends with the son of National Geographic photographer Victor Englebert. The wild and adventurous spirit that led Englebert to be the first person to cross the Sahara desert on a Vespa also led to many adventures around Latin America for Sanchez-Rivera.

Sanchez-Rivera runs La Isla with a sense of social responsibility. Soon after its founding, Sanchez-Rivera reached out to the Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the conservation of oceans and beaches. “We gave all that we could,” says Sanchez-Rivera. “We didn’t have enough to meet the minimum they get from companies but we still gave as much as we could.”

LOCALS ONLY

Additionally, La Isla’s manufacturing facility, now in Medellin, Colombia, has always employed local women, the vast majority of them heads of households. About 100 women work in the manufacturing facility. Sanchez-Rivera operates the company from a quaint California central coast town, San Luis Obispo.

Currently, Sanchez-Rivera is trying to make the entire La Isla line of swimwear from recycled fabric. “We’re not able to do the recycled thing to the scale of a Patagonia does but we’re always on the lookout for new ways to use recycled material,” says Sanchez-Rivera. “For the first time ever, we started making swimsuits from recycled bottles. Honestly, the fabric is not great, but we want to have them available.”

La Isla partners with the LA Youth Network, Jean-Michael Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, and nearby (to San Luis Obispo) Woods Humane Society. “It’s literally the nicest facilities for rescue dogs and cats I have ever seen,” boasts Sanchez-Rivera.

Despite his grandfather’s passing away when Sanchez-Rivera was young, the man’s bootstrapping business techniques and desire to do social good continue to guide Sanchez-Rivera’s approach to La Isla. “He taught my mom everything and she taught me everything,” says Sanchez-Rivera. “He was such a tough human being and went from diving for produce to serving as the mayor of Buga for a while. Losing him put a lot of things into perspective. It taught me the value of time. And how short and precious our lives and time here really are.”

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