Meet Karys Rodriguez | Co-Founder, Sir Cadian

We had the good fortune of connecting with Karys Rodriguez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Karys, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I come from Puerto Rico from a family that instilled in me the values of hard work and dedication from an early age. I started my career based on what I had seen from my parents, traditional corporate background. I worked on financial services, management consulting, and corporate strategy. These jobs taught me the importance of having strong processes and frameworks, questioning how things have been done and looking for ways to make them more efficient, and being able to function with ambiguity or when I don’t have all of the details but need to start making some progress. Management consulting also exposed me to different industries and functions which helped me learn quickly about a lot of things and gave me the confidence of diving deep into something I knew nothing about previously. In Sir Cadian, my role is the CEO and I’m in charge of strategy, marketing, and product development.

Ale couldn’t come from a more different background! He worked at his family business in Guatemala (a plastics injection manufacturer). He is great at dealing with people/employees and operational/logistics topics. Being at the family run factory gave him the opportunity to solve problems in unconventional and creative ways given lack of people and/or funds. He is also super social and has a vast network of friends in Latin America which has opened the doors for us with supply chain. His belief in me and the idea, got me onboard even though I never imagined I would be an entrepreneur! He also was the engine behind our fundraising efforts. Ale is the COO and he’s in charge of logistics, supply chain, legal, accounting, and technical stuff (integrations with Shopify, etc.).

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My husband (Alejandro, Ale for short) and I started Sir Cadian because we felt there was gap in the men’s sleepwear category that we personally identified with. Ale used to go to bed with the most horrible shorts and tees, and it became a constant peeve for us especially during quarantine where we spent much more time together. Nighttime is usually a prelude to intimacy and instead we were arguing by how he made me feel wearing his worn-out shorts and stained tees not only at nightime but also while lounging around the home.
More broadly, we started analyzing the sleepwear category and noticed there wasn’t a men’s sleepwear brand that came to mind. Products were either comfortable or stylish, but you rarely had both components at an affordable price. We also felt that most of the marketing/experience was very functional, even though over half of men’s purchases are made by women/partners. As gift givers, we require a bit more storytelling and can identify more with the aesthetics, whereas the man/user usually cares much more about comfort.

So we launched SIR CADIAN! Our sleepwear is truly bringing comfort AND style back to bed. We use premium fabrics that have performance components. For example, Tencel is 3-6x more breathable than cotton. We are also using sowing techniques usually used for athletic wear which makes the garments much more comfortable in sensitive areas like the gusset or arm pits. And, because we don’t come from the fashion or design world, we’ve been able to take a fresh view at traditional products and tried to innovate as much as possible (e.g. our boxer doesn’t have a traditional elastic waistband, we sell separates so that you can choose your own).

Starting any business is rarely easy. It required us learning about a new industry, fundraising, ruthlessly prioritizing, and learning how to work together as husband and wife. But the best advice we have is to start! So many people stay in the thinking and planning phase, and while that is important, if you don’t start putting your thoughts into actions they stay as just thoughts and ideas.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Ale and I are both foodies, so we’ll probably spend most of the time eating!

Miami is a city that starts a bit later than most, so would probably head to brunch/lunch first.

Top picks for breakfast / brunch:
Yardbird (best fried chicken!)
Kyu
Amara at Paraiso (best view and good food)
Zak the Baker (amazing bread, pastries)
Lung Yai Thai (amazing fresh Thai in a very casual setting)

Then if the weather is nice would probably suggest we do something active. We love paddle boarding alongside Biscayne Bay or riding a bike along South Beach and taking in the views at South Point. We also love having friends with boat memberships, so if we’re lucky we could go on a boat ride and take in the sun.

To close out the day, would dress up and go to a people watching/ trendy restaurant and end the night with a nightcap.

Top picks for dinner:
Mandolin
Cote
Carbone
Swan
Uchi

Drinks/Bar:
Wynwood, hard to pick a place, love walking around
The Broken Shaker
Champagne Bar at The Surf Club
Bar Bevy

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We are lucky that we’ve had supporters, mentors, and role models throughout because we couldn’t have been able to succeed alone. There are too many people to thank and name, but a few that deserve a call out:

Our parents have been an inspiration, especially their hard work and determination for us to have better education and pursue graduate studies, an opportunity that they did not have for themselves.

Karys: One of my bosses in my second job out of college encouraged me to apply to business school and even helped me look for resources so that I could afford to go to business school. I ended up with a full ride for my MBA thanks to her advice and The Consortium (an organization that awards fellowships for MBA programs to minority and diverse students with a record of promoting inclusion).

Ale: One of my coaches from when I was in middle school, Antonio. He taught me about not being scared of failing, and concentrating my energy and focus on the present and not necessarily on the outcome. Not to sound cliché but he taught me about the importance of the journey and not just looking at the destination, or end goal. This has impacted how I make decisions, how I evaluate risk, and has made me much more open to try new things even when I don’t know for sure what the outcome will be.

Website: www.sircadian.co

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sircadianco/

Image Credits
Soona Benjamin Holtrop