Student Spotlight: Sarah Greisdorf

Sarah Greisdorf (CAS ’20), CEO & Founder of Holdette

Sarah Greisdorf has a substantial yet growing list of roles since arriving at Boston University. Among the general responsibilities that any student has, Sarah can include being the CEO & Founder of Holdette, Director of BostonHacks and UXD Program Lead at BU Spark! 

“When I was a senior in high school I started to become aware of the fact that every time I wanted to go out to dinner, to see a movie, or hanging out with friends I had to bring a purse with me just to carry my phone, keys, and wallet. I noticed that none of my male friends had to deal with this problem because they have pockets big enough to hold all of their belongings.”

Sarah took advantage of the many resources that BU has to offer and pursued her goals of creating her business, Holdette, when she realized the demand in women’s fashion for pockets that can fit more than just the tip of your fingers. Holdette offers a curation of women’s clothing from various affordable brands that offers functional pockets and expects to launch her own line in 2020. 

“After doing some research it didn’t seem like anyone was tackling this issue so instead of thinking ‘why me’, I just thought, ‘why not me?’”

While starting Sarah’s endeavor may not have been the hardest part for her, juggling her life as a student and as an entrepreneur has proven to be something that need a delicate balance in order for both to function properly. 

“Time is definitely the biggest issue. Being a student and starting a company is difficult. I do prioritize going to class and making sure I get my work done. Balancing school work and Holdette is definitely the trickiest thing for me at the moment.”

However, doing both is not impossible. Sarah tries to find time for both her social and her professional life to flourish, and even finds ways to make her time with her friends even more valuable. 

“I think the idea of balance while being an entrepreneur isn’t really achievable, but that’s by choice. I pour a lot of energy into Holdette and sometimes that means I can’t hang out with friends or do everything that I want to be doing socially, but working on the company energizes me and gives me even more appreciation for the time I do have to hang out with my friends.”

All of the time and commitment that Sarah puts into Holdette is not for nothing, and she is expecting her hard work to debut in the upcoming future.

“We are currently in the design phase for launching our own clothing line! It’s a pretty time consuming process and one which I am continually learning about as I go but we are hoping to get that off the ground in the next couple of months and grow from there.”

Having functional pockets that can actually carry your belongings doesn’t force women to spend more money just to carry around a purse to carry around her things. Taking matters into her own hands, Sarah did not hesitate to begin pursuing a change in women’s fashion that has been long overdue. 

“There is no harm in starting. Put something out there, get feedback, and iterate. I got started by sending out a newsletter to 50 people about clothes with pockets and seeing how people responded to that. Getting started is the easy part because you don’t need to launch with a perfect product, but you certainly won’t know what people think until you do it.”

Sarah took a problem that she saw was persistent amongst women’s fashion, and affected herself and many other women, and decided that she was the perfect person to solve this issue. It took one idea for Sarah to make her vision into a reality, and she doesn’t plan on stopping after launching Holdette’s fashion line.

“If you’ve ever seen The Intern with Anne Hathway, that’s my dream scenario. Biking around a loft office in Brooklyn, New York running a fashion startup that is growing fast, that’s the dream. Whether we are there in five years or ten, I hope one day we’re successfully empowering women to take on their days with confidence knowing they don’t need to worry about where to carry their belongings.”