437 founders Hyla Nayeri and Adrien Bettio

Who hasn’t dreamt of starting an amazing company with their best friend? For Hyla Nayeri and Adrien Bettio, this dream has become their life! The two co-founded swimwear brand 437 together in college, and in just a few short years have built up a hugely popular company—and all before turning 25!

Wonder how they did it? We spoke with Hyla and Adrien to hear about their early days of 437, how they use social media to grow the brand, and more:

SIMPLY: How did the two of you first meet, and how did you decide to go into business together?

HYLA NAYERI: Adrien and I met in the first year of University. We were both getting our Bachelor of Commerce at Queen’s University, at their Smith School of Business. Being in the same class, we eventually met and became best friends instantly.

During the third year of our program, we both participated in their exchange program and studied in Europe. One weekend we were in the Amalfi Coast in Italy and realized that none of the bathing suits we packed were flattering on our bodies. Especially being girls who love to eat, we found that none of our suits gave us the confidence to indulge. At that point, we decided that upon our return to Toronto, we would design our own swimwear — specifically suits that would flatter a woman’s body.

What were your main goals when starting 437?

HN: Our main goal was to design suits that would allow us to feel like our most confident selves. Being in a bikini is a vulnerable time for woman, and we wanted to find a solution that would allow women to feel comfortable, without sacrificing style. Once we designed the suits and noticed the difference that they made in our self-esteem, it became our goal to bring that feeling to the masses.

Tell us about the highs and lows of starting out. What was the biggest obstacle you overcame when launching, and the first big success?

HN: We achieved many “firsts” at the beginning, so there were many exciting milestones. For example, when we received our first batch of inventory, or when our first influencer tagged us. After a year, our highs became greater, such as signing the lease on our first office, to hiring our first few employees. Today there are a lot less “firsts”, but the milestones are a lot more substantial.

At the beginning, a lot of our lows were about manufacturing issues. One time we invested over $30,000 to produce a collection with a reputable manufacturer in NYC, to then realize they closed their business halfway through our production run. To this date we have never gotten that money back from them.

A large obstacle we overcame when launching was our lack of sales and awareness. We thought that the day we launched we would sell out, and that was not the case. We had two or three orders that day. We were extremely persistent and worked so hard to grow a social following, which eventually became instrumental to the majority of our online sales.

Our first big success was when a large-scale influencer posted an Instagram picture wearing our suit and tagged us. This was so integral for our company, because it was the first time that people who didn’t believe in us, finally took our brand seriously.

How has 437 expanded since its inception?

ADRIEN BETTIO: 437 started by launching our Staple collection in July 2017, which was made up of four classic styles (Aubrey, Kenzie, Sanders and Johnson). We only offered this collection in black, white, and a blush pink. Since then, we’ve dropped 6 new collections, and released our staple styles in a range of new colors (our most popular bottom, the Aubrey, is currently available in 11 colorways!).

As our community (and budget) has grown, we’ve been able to get creative with new designs, new branding initiatives, and even brought our first 437 IRL location to life - the 437 Loft in Toronto.

This year, we made the decision to start designing apparel after an overwhelming demand from our community requesting clothing that provides the same attention to detail in fit that our swim is known for. We’re super excited for our first apparel collection to drop late this summer, and can’t wait to continue developing products our community loves.

How do you use social media to market and connect with both new and existing customers?

AB: Social media is an integral part of 437’s company strategy. It’s where we can market existing products, and tease new product drops. It’s where we can connect with our customers and see how they wear their 437’s, while we show ways we wear them. It’s the front lines for our customer service team to have a direct conversation with our customers and genuinely hear what their feedback is for us as a company.

Social media, and Instagram in particular, creates a space where our customers and partners can share photos of themselves in their suits, which is really amazing “word of mouth” style marketing for us. When their personal following sees their photos and wants to know where they got their bikini, we benefit from having new people directed to our page. This is just one of many ways we can reach new customers on social.

In addition to our organic marketing we do though our own Instagram, we also rely on paid ads to help us reach new customers! This is especially great for when we are looking to enter new geographic markets, as we can expose people in those areas to our brand via ads.

What are your goals for the future of 437?

AB: Our goals are constantly changing and evolving as we grow! Our biggest goals at the moment are to open 437 loft spaces in other major cities across North America, and to have our newest collection (“Daydream”) spotted on some celebrities.

Learn more about 437 here.