How Liz and Dave Findlay founded Albion: And went from sewing for other companies to founding their own brand.

• Position: FOUNDER SERIES

IN 1988, WHEN I WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD, I came home to an unexpected "For Sale" sign in front of our home in sunny Sherman Oaks, CA. My dad thought our family needed "an international experience," and within seven days our home was sold, movers came, and our family was packed into a Jeep headed on a three-week drive to Guatemala.

"Don't worry, kids! It'll be an adventure!"

Moving to Guatemala wasn't a completely random decision. My mom was, in fact, Guatemalan. We'd visited only a couple of times, and none of us (including my dad) spoke Spanish. But after a particularly difficult day at work, my dad decided to retire at the age of 45, and Guatemala checked off all the boxes for his next phase. The US dollar was strong, the golf was good, and Mayan ruins would fill our weekends. So off we went!

But after a year, my dad needed more to fill his days. He bought my mom a small sewing "taller," or sewing boutique, to keep her "happy and busy" as they created small orders for the local markets.

Fast forward ten years and my parents had grown this little hobby boutique into a thriving business with clients that included Nike, Reebok, Vanity Fair, Victoria's Secret, and more. Like most businesses, there were ebbs and flows--some great years and some difficult ones. But my parents were a successful team in one of the most demanding industries in the world. Their work ethic left a lasting impact on me, especially when my husband, Dave, and I founded our own company some years later.

Dave and I met while working in a law firm copy room while we attended the University of Utah, where I was pursuing an English degree, and Dave was studying graphic design. I was interested in law and thought I'd get a good taste of what attorney life would be like by working at a firm. Instead, I decided I absolutely did not want to be a lawyer but did absolutely fall madly in love with the cute boy with bright blue eyes who played rugby on the weekends.

We were married three years later and moved to San Diego in 2003, where I started a Ph.D. program in literature at the University of California San Diego. We were currently on plan B--instead of practicing law, I aimed to be a professor. Dave had a great job as a graphic designer at a jewelry business in La Jolla, and life was good. We lived by the beach and enjoyed newlywed bliss without a care in the world for three years, and then reality hit. Within a year, Dave and I found out that we were expecting twins, my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, and the economy was starting to shift. It was 2006, and the darkest, most difficult times of our lives were looming ahead.

BACK TO GUATEMALA

My dad needed help at the factory, and I needed help with the twins to finish up my degree, so my parents offered Dave a job in Guatemala to learn the family business. Truthfully, we knew my family's business was struggling when we moved down, but it was about to get a lot worse in just a matter of months.

My parents had over 1,000 employees with factories in two countries and customers they'd worked with for 25 years. However, all of that would change in 2007 when manufacturing quotas in China were lifted. Seemingly overnight, all our work moved east, where labor was significantly cheaper. The writing was on the wall when our customers asked to videotape our sewing team to send visual aids to their new factories in China.

Dave's role quickly transitioned to finding new customers. Our team specialized in high-minute, technically difficult, high-quality swims and fitness apparel--not mass-produced, basic t-shirts, which was all that was available. We were desperate for work and took orders we knew would just barely keep us afloat, even at a...