Clothing on a mission for good

Karla & Co was founded in 2017, by Karla and Bryan Butvidas, with the intention of creating high quality, affordable apparel for the Latin market. We are all about spreading positivity, while representing and empowering members of Latin culture. Although our market space was almost non-existent just 5 years ago, it has recently undergone massive growth, as Spanish becomes more and more a part of mainstream American pop culture. With our clothing brand up and running for almost 5 years already, with over 36,000 sales to date, we have an edge on any new competitors in the space!

Founder, Karla Butvidas, is a self-taught designer, social media manager, and branding expert who has successfully launched 3 profitable companies (including Karla & Co) before the age of 30 and has sold over 150,000 products since 2016. Co-founder, Bryan Butvidas, holds an MIT Certificate in Systematic Innovation of Products, Processes, and Services, has held C level positions in 4 different startup companies, has managed over $2 million in ad spend, and has sold over 90,000 books, both published and self-published. 

There is a lack of Latina-driven clothing in the fashion world

Many people lack an understanding and education about the various cultures of Latin America, and there is an apparent lack of representation of Latin culture in fashion. 

Simply put, Latinas do not have enough access to Latina brands and Latina-driven clothing. That’s why we make high-end, affordable clothes and accessories that allow our target audience to express themselves through fashion.

Apparel that educates, expresses, and empowers 

Karla & Co is Latina-founded and run. Our brand aims to educate the world about the many different Latin cultures, while helping to combat stereotypes. Karla & Co represents an opportunity to express Latin culture in a positive way and empower Latinas to express their culture through the clothes and accessories they wear.

We sell our products directly to our consumers, through the Karla & Co website, and have a high-margin business model. Our apparel is ‘made to order’, which means orders are not created until they are purchased, allowing for very low inventory spend, faster turnaround time, and higher margins. We have had over 36,000 orders to date, with an average order cost of $40, and over 26,000 customers. 

We are excited to be on the leading edge of such a fast-growing and young market space

We are on the forefront of a market with a rapidly growing customer base. The Hispanic population reached 62.1 million in 2020, and increased by 23% over the previous decade (source). The Latino market is undergoing massive growth, with a spending pool of $1.9 trillion per year (source). Our specific target audience includes Latinas, around the ages of 21 to 38. 

The Spanish language has made its way into mainstream American pop culture, as evidenced by much of today’s pop music. Latin music revenues grew by 37% in the US, within the first half of 2021 (source), and many of music’s biggest stars are learning Spanish so that they can co-produce songs with famous Latin artists.

We realized that this market gap also creates a lack of stories and cultural toys in stores making it hard to keep our kids engaged with our tradition and heritage. So, we created Carlitos as a way to share our Hispanic culture with our children. Now with Carlitos Latino families around the world can share the joy of Three Kings in a more personal way and also a way to share their traditions within non-Hispanic homes.

Carlitos, a child camel, has lost his mother; and in his search for her, he embarks on a fantastic journey with his friend Gabriel, to discover all the magic of January 6, the day of the Three Kings. Join them to live the fantasy behind one of the most incredible traditions of the year.

Karla & Co has several advantages above the competition. We are early to market, as one of the first Latina brands launched on Etsy and a standalone website. Our quality apparel is able to be produced with high-profit margins, at an affordable price point, which is likely why we see such a high retention rate among our loyal customers. 

Steady growth, media features and collaborations with celebrities and notable brands

Karla & Co has been profit positive since sales began, and continues to receive countless 5-star reviews from customers. We were also able to remain profitable during 2 years of COVID-19 not only affecting health, but also supply chains and material costs. 

^{*The above testimonials may not be representative of the experience of other customers and is not a guarantee of future performance or success.}

Our podcast, Gossip in Spanish, has been running since March of 2020, and we have been featured by magazines such as We All Grow Latina and Latina Magazine. Our products have been featured in HBO’s Pa'lante premier box (source) and we have produced clothing in conjunction with Bacardi (source, source, source), as well as partnered with celebrities and influencers who genuinely love our clothes. 

Karla & Co owns two patents: “I Can Laugh in English and Spanish” and “Brava Pero Cute” and has a loyal customer base with a customer retention rate of about 45%.

Karla & Co is spearheading a niche industry and has promising plans for the future

Our 3-5 year goals are as follows:

• Apparel in major retailers like Wal-mart, Target and hundreds of boutiques around the US, Puerto Rico, Mexico and throughout South America
• 50+ monthly wholesale boutique
• Full FBA with Amazon
• 2 brick and mortar stores
• 10 co-branded partnerships
• Expand our children’s brand, “Carlitos the Camel”
• 1 million podcast listeners
• Major warehouse with at least 5 to 6 employees

We intend to use this raise to fund these next ventures, rebrand our products and website, create a Karla & Co app for iPhones and Androids, begin YouTube development and hire for roles such as content creators, an ad specialist and more. This year, we will also begin utilizing the TikTok platform for our marketing, as it has helped countless businesses to organically grow their audience and is an especially fast-growing market for Latino creators. SMS is also a major push we are focusing on this year, as the conversion rate and ROI  we've seen using SMS are double to triple compared to our email blasts.

Most importantly, Karla & Co will remain committed to celebrating positivity and empowering our customers, while educating the general public about Latino culture and breaking stereotypes. As the industry continues to grow at an all-time high, we hope you will join our mission of creating authentic cultural connections across the Hispanic diaspora!