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

Hi Jesse, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Right at the beginning of the pandemic, I found myself job hunting again. I had spent my 7 years post business school as an executive at earlier stage companies. It was a scary time, but I still was hoping to find something entrepreneurial. While I was job hunting, I was looking for opportunities to start my own company and found papabubble. I was thinking franchises as I knew how difficult brand building could be and was looking for one that made a cool, tangible product that I loved.

It was a mystery to me why they didn’t have a bigger presence in the USA, so I emailed the CEO and the rest is history.

What should our readers know about your business?
Papabubble will be my 3rd business that I’ve started from the ground up. My first was a lending company where I joined a founding team of 2 and grew the company from an idea and a spreadsheet to a 55-person firm that had lent over $125M and raised over $35M in equity.

At times, I felt I was just holding on for the ride – it was hard, scary, emotional, intense, everything you’d imagine. At some point, I think it’s helpful to realize that everyone in the organization likely feels this way. The most helpful bit of advice I received was that perfect companies & products aren’t a destination, but rather a journey. And also to focus my attentions on big issues rather than little issues. It’s so easy to spend your day putting our little fires at the expense of big goals. When those fires get too frequent, it’s time to hire and delegate. I’ve had to “fire” myself many times in my roles and surround myself with people smarter than myself. It can be intimidating, but I’ve never had a bad outcome this way.

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?
Coffee & Breakfast @ Common Bond NASA in Clear Lake and make sure to take the Govt Facility tour.
Pit stop @ Bucee’s
Mastranto’s for dinner
Wicklow Heights for drinks

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?
I’d like to shout out my business school, Georgetown. Obviously there’s a huge focus on academics there, but they really focus on a well-rounded course work of both hard (finance & accounting) and soft (negotiation & communication) classes. I feel like it was a crash course in running an entire organization, not just a single department.

Website: www.papabubblehtx.com

Instagram: @papabubble_htx

Image Credits
Jesse Cushman, Luis Sanchez

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutHTX is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.