Know Your Neighbor: Tate and Kirsten Tegtmeier, Entrepreneurs, Pleasantville
Entrepreneurs Tate and Kirsten Tegtmeier have come a long way in a short time span.
In March 2014, the two sisters were attending Salve Regina University together in Newport, R.I., Tate in the midst of earning her MBA and Kirsten a freshman getting used to college life.
Kirsten, now a junior and a marketing major with a minor in business administration, hatched a plan for a niche business. As a member of the school’s intercollegiate equestrian team, it was routine for her and her fellow riders to misplace their gear or unwittingly pick up someone else’s because it all looks the same.
“In equestrian, we all have the same equipment, so it’s common for everyone to get their gear mixed up,” she said.
That was the impetus for her to suggest to Tate to launch Personally Preppy, their own business that focuses on monogrammed vinyl decal stickers for riders’ jackets and helmets. It made sense since each sister has loved horses since their parents first took them to Fox Hill Farm not far from their Pleasantville home when they were young.
But Tate, four years older, was at first a little leery to take the plunge.
“Our father gave us $200 and I said, ‘Kirsten, we’ll never be able to pay him back,” Tate recalled. “She was like ‘We’ll do it.’ I had no idea I’d be working full-time (at this). Kirsten is a full-time student, but she works just as hard in the business.”
In the 23 months since its launch, Tate and Kirsten not only have their core customers in the equestrian world buying their decals containing initials, a last name or some other identifying feature, but they’ve been branching out to other areas. More recently, they have created decals for skiers and a field hockey team.
They have also added an extensive line of gifts for a variety of different occasions and recipients, whether it be for friends, significant others, relatives or business acquaintances, all containing the Personally Preppy monograms.
Despite its humble, almost on-the-fly roots, Personally Preppy has been growing exponentially, so much so that during its first year Tate quit her Manhattan corporate job and eventually was forced to find office space in Elmsford. They now have several employees and an intern working for them and about 37,000 Instagram followers.
“I had a studio apartment and we were doing it out of the apartment,” Tate, 24 and four years older than Kirsten, said of the initial venture. “Then I graduated and we brought the business home, and my poor parents, we were doing it out of the dining room. But finally, maybe last September, it was like it’s time to get an office, you’re big enough.”
For Kirsten and Tate, who also have a younger brother who is now a freshman at Salve Regina, they have been able to play off of each other’s strengths. Kirsten said she concentrates on the customer relations and social media component of the business, despite still being a full-time student and handling her duties as a resident assistant at school. She comes home two or three weekends a month to help Tate with the business.
Tate does a lot of the monogramming and handles the daily nuts-and-bolts operations.
They each credit their parents for instilling a strong work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit. Their father operated his own business importing and exporting construction equipment while their mom has been an interior decorator and realtor.
Kirsten said some of her drive to succeed has been fueled by overcoming a learning disability while going through the Pleasantville School District, which resulted in her being a special education student. She credits the more personal attention students receive at Salve Regina, particularly in her business classes, in providing real-world preparation.
“It’s just been very gratifying not just because of the success of Personally Preppy but because I’ve been proving people wrong who doubted me,” said Kirsten, who plans on joining her sister full-time after she graduates next year.
Tate said her sister’s will to succeed and naturally headstrong ways provide the stick-to-itiveness that is required for business success.
While the two sisters have always been close, Tate said Personally Preppy has also added an extra dimension to their sibling relationship. She said the business also highlights their positives.
“We were close but I don’t think we were this close,” Tate said. “Now if I don’t call her twice a day or she doesn’t call me it’s weird.”
To learn more about Personally Preppy, visit www.personallypreppy.com.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/