Founders Everywhere: Jimmy Zollo
Jimmy Zollo is the co-founder and CEO of Joe & Bella, a premium adaptive apparel brand for older adults.
Welcome to Founders Everywhere, where we highlight the incredible people behind the companies we’ve backed at Everywhere Ventures, a global pre-seed fund supported by a community of 500 founders and operators.
As people age, getting dressed can become a stressful, painful, and stigmatizing part of their day, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Joe & Bella makes adaptive clothing, designed to meet the unique needs of seniors and individuals living with significant physical or cognitive change. Their innovative solutions offer a blend of comfort, functionality, and style that significantly enhances their daily lives. Their clothing promotes independence and dignity by featuring easy-to-use fasteners, adjustable closures and stretchy fabrics. Whether people use adaptive clothing as a temporary solution due to an injury or medical procedure, or are living with a chronic condition, such as arthritis or limited mobility, there are plenty of options that can assist with specific needs. Joe & Bella boosts confidence and well-being by allowing seniors to maintain their personal style and plays a vital role in ensuring that aging adults can live more comfortable, independent, and fulfilling lives.
Co-founders Jimmy Zollo and Peter Zollo are a father-son duo who have a deep connection to this cause with a passion for residents of care communities, their families and caregivers. They also have a history of working together, including co-founding Collaborata, a Chicago-based startup serving the insights and marketing-research space specializing in successful aging, in collaboration with AARP, Procter & Gamble and other organizations serving older adults. They created Joe & Bella to make dressing safer, faster, easier, and more dignified for those living with physical and cognitive changes.
What inspired the creation of Joe & Bella?
I never expected to start a clothing brand, but the inspiration for Joe & Bella came from my personal experience with my grandmother. She lived in a memory care community and suffered daily when getting dressed. I realized clothes weren't designed for 90-year-old women who use walkers or wheelchairs and have limited upper body range of motion. I went online and purchased some adaptive clothing for her, but – true to her fashionista self – she refused to wear it because “it was too ugly,” and preferred to deal with the pain rather than wear something that didn’t align with her personal identity. This experience isn’t unique to my grandmother; it’s familiar to so many individuals living with significant physical or cognitive change. We were shocked by the lack of innovation in this space and that’s when we decided that we wanted to make clothing that didn’t just make dressing faster, safer, and less painful, but also offered a modern design with premium fabric that was comfortable, functional and stylish.
What’s Joe & Bella’s mission?
Our mission is to bring more dignity, joy, and ease to the lives of older adults and those who care for them and – in doing so – helping older adults rediscover and express their identities through what they wear. We want to remove the stress and stigma of dressing.
What sets Joe & Bella apart?
We focus on universal accessibility, designing for the most difficult use cases like my grandmother's. Each of our products has never-before-seen features that no other brand has come out with. Our product development includes extensive research not only among older adults but also with caregivers, family members and medical professionals to ensure our products meet real needs. It takes 8-16 months from concept to market to launch a new product. We prioritize quality and functionality, using the best fabrics and innovative designs. We want to make the best article of clothing we possibly can, and anything less than that isn't living up to our mission.
How does Joe & Bella inspire “customer love”?
We receive daily emails, reviews, and calls from people sharing how our clothing has positively impacted their lives. For instance, one older man shared with us that he was able to put on a shirt by himself for the first time in a decade. Another individual let us know that she could travel by airplane for the first time in years due to our clothing's catheter access. We've even heard from a 22-year-old college student with ALS who can attend class in person thanks to our products. These emotional responses are both inspiring and daunting, as they highlight the profound impact we have on people's lives and the challenges we’re working on everyday.
Tell us about some recent milestones Joe & Bella crushed.
We recently won the John Hopper Impact Award in Aging, which is a significant recognition. We're also excited about launching four new products including: a women’s nightgown, a woman’s cardigan, an updated version of our side-zipper pants, and a men’s quarter zip with hidden magnets. Also, most of the models you'll see on our site are real people living with some form of cognitive change and the average age of our models is 88, which is super cool. We recently hosted a fashion show that brought the house down.
Any favorite book recommendations?
I’m currently reading (for the second time) The Creative Curve by Alan Gannett.
Listen to Christina Ross with Jenny Fielding on the Venture Everywhere podcast: Think Outside the Cube, Listen now on Apple & Spotify and check out to all our past episodes here!