Barbara Baekgaard

Co-Founder & Director, Vera Bradley

Search every verified Barbara Baekgaard interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Barbara Bradley Baekgaard, co-founder of Vera Bradley, has been speaking about her entrepreneurial journey and the evolution of the company since its founding in 1982. She has stated that she and co-founder Pat Miller each borrowed $250 from their husbands to start the business, initially making cotton handbags on a ping-pong table in her basement. Baekgaard has described the company's growth to a $500 million brand and noted that since becoming a public company, "some of the fun has left because now we have to go through focus studies and there's a bigger risk if something fails." She has also discussed her philosophy of "selling yourself first, your company second, and your product third," and has said she focuses on her strengths—positivity, adaptability, empathy, and belief—while hiring others for areas where she lacks expertise, such as numbers and finance. Baekgaard has been active in philanthropy and new ventures. Through the Vera Bradley Foundation, she has helped raise over $38 million for breast cancer research, an effort she has said she is "most proud of." She also opened The Bradley, a $30 million boutique hotel in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 2022, which she described as fulfilling a 30-year dream. Baekgaard has said she personally selected the decor for the hotel's 124 guest rooms, aiming for a look that "is more of a wink than a shout" of the Vera Bradley brand. Additionally, she has discussed building Birchwood, a day-away center for people with dementia, and has said she wanted it to "not look institutional but like a home."