Ecommerce Conversations

Peter Keller launched Fringe Sport in 2010 to help folks assemble home-based gyms. He also wanted to make a lot of money. "I was very financially motivated," he told me. Then he attended a seminar a few years ago that focused on a company's purpose, its mission. He spoke with employees and customers. He discovered the real value in Fringe Sport.

The idea for Chisos boots started with back pain. Will Roman, the founder, owner, and lifetime cowboy-boot wearer, injured his back in a motorcycle accident. Wearing boots became painful. So he launched Chisos.com, a high-end, handcrafted bootmaker, in 2019. Quality and craft drive Roman and his outlook on life.

I've interviewed entrepreneurs for this podcast who developed organic consumer-care goods. But none did it before Eric Malka. He and his wife, Myriam, devised shaving oils from their kitchen in 1996 and then launched The Art of Shaving. Their new company, Ingredients, focuses on wellness and sustainability.

Imagine selling home gym equipment online at the onset of the pandemic. Athletic clubs were closed. Consumers were stuck in their houses. According to Kaevon Khoozani, the founder of Canada-based Bells of Steel, the demand for weight-training equipment was “obscene.” “We ran into two giant hiccups,” Khoozani told me.

Most entrepreneurs start with a business idea and then secure the domain name. Peter Askew does the opposite. He purchases domain names and then builds the business. Take VidaliaOnions.com, for example. Askew purchased the name in 2014. It's now a thriving farm-to-door seller of Vidalia onions.

Jay Sauceda launched his ecommerce fulfillment company, Sauceda Industries, in 2013 in Austin, Texas. He says packing and shipping products is easy. What's difficult, he stated, is managing unforeseen events. "The shipping business is, essentially, the exceptions management business," he told me.

Having co-founded Feat Socks in 2015, Taylor Offer hired Aly Raisman, the gymnast, to design and promote a custom sock. It generated $500,000 in revenue. Influencer marketing was clearly effective, and Offer wanted more. "I started looking at the kids that got famous from Vine, the short-video app," he told me.

Marco Marandiz is a musician turned software engineer turned product designer. He's worked for Capital One, HomeAway, and a failed startup. But it was his ecommerce consulting work for companies with unproven inventory that sparked the idea for Drop Party.

Johnathan Ruggiero and his wife Michelle founded Manly Bands, a direct-to-consumer online men's wedding-ring company, in 2016. To compete, their rings had to be unique — really unique. "We try to develop what we call show-stopper products," Johnathan told me. "People might say, 'You have dinosaur bones? That's crazy. You have meteorite? That's nuts.'"

Judson Morgan is a Los Angeles-based actor and director. He owns an agency that creates films and other visual content. He's also a successful ecommerce entrepreneur — with a purpose. He told me, "I have zero interest in making money off of a random product. I wanted to build a real brand that people could resonate with." That brand is Benevolence Los Angeles, an Amazon-focused gift...

Kate Knecht is the fourth-generation owner-operator of Tomlinson's Feed, a family-owned retail business with 16 brick-and-mortar locations in Central Texas. The company is 75 years old. Amid the pandemic and the onslaught of online behemoths, can such a business transition to 2021 consumers? I asked Knecht that question and more.

Braxton Manley was a sophomore at Texas Tech University in 2017 when he attended a workshop on entrepreneurship. The purpose was to conceive a product based on market research. "My idea was cool Apple Watch bands," Manley told me. Fast forward to 2021 and his company, Braxley Bands, is a direct-to-consumer seller of elastic, colorful bands.

Ridge wallets launched via a Kickstarter campaign in 2014. Sean Frank is the company's chief operating officer. Ultra-thin, metal-clad, with RFID protection, the wallets are enormously popular in the U.S., with $50 million in sales in 2020 alone. Influencer marketing has driven much of the growth.

Patrick Coddou's company, Supply.co, sells razors and shaving accessories. My company, Beardbrand, sells beard products. He wants men to shave. I want them to grow a beard. We're both direct-to-consumer ecommerce merchants selling premium grooming products to males. We're direct competitors, in other words.

Industry pundits might say the future of retail is brands, manufacturers, and marketplaces. But don't tell that to Blair Budlong. His company, DecksDirect, doesn't own a brand, manufacture a product, or sell on marketplaces. And it thrives.

Dr. Squatch, Jack Haldrup's company, sells its own natural soaps and other grooming products for men. Revenue in 2020 was roughly $100 million, having exploded from $5 million just 18 months earlier. How does a company grow from $5 million to $100 million in 18 months? I asked him that question and many more in our recent conversation.

The required skills to launch a business are typically much different from managing it for the long term. Bill D'Alessandro has done both. He launched a single ecommerce business in 2010 and then transformed the company into an operator of multiple online brands. He has evolved from performing most every task to focusing on a few.

In 2012 Vivian Kaye was a successful wedding decorator. But she had a problem. The climate in Toronto, Canada, was brutal on her hair. Kaye's solution was hair extensions, which were easy and attractive. Fast forward to 2021, and KinkyCurlyYaki, Kaye's company, sells hair extensions, wigs, and more — all to empower Black women with confidence and beauty.

Finbarr Taylor moved to the U.S. with a goal. "I moved from Scotland to Silicon Valley nine years ago with the express intent of starting a tech company," he said. "I'm doing it, and I'm having the time of my life. I'm in no rush to stop." Taylor's tech company is Shogun, which provides innovative page-builder tools that enhance ecommerce sites. He is co-fou...

Perhaps no industry has been more disrupted by the internet than education. Online training is booming — from 1-hour courses to college degrees. Take Barbell Logic, for example. It provides one-on-one strength and conditioning training, entirely web-based. Matt Reynolds founded the company in 2016.

Online selling is increasingly competitive, forcing merchants to selfish and shortsighted decisions. That's according to Corey Blake, CEO of MWI, a digital marketing agency. "When we have a scarcity outlook with shortsightedness," he told me, "We're scraping and clawing to keep it all. A better approach is an abundance mentality."

Selling shoes online is notoriously competitive. Zappos, Amazon, big-box retailers, shoe brands — all are vying for a share of the consumer footwear market. Nonetheless, Sean McGinnis's employer, Kuru, is thriving by focusing on foot pain.

An ecommerce company is a collection of platforms, apps, and service providers. That's certainly the case with Beardbrand, the company I launched in 2012. James Wilson is Beardbrand's growth marketing manager. I asked James to describe our technology stack, hoping that the decisions we've made (good and bad) can help other merchants.

The mission of Anthony Frasier's company, ABF Creative, is to broadcast voices and stories from the African American community. He launched the company in 2016 from his hometown of Newark, New Jersey, having founded a tech conference and authored a book. To Frasier, ABF is much more than a business.

Most entrepreneurs in 2020 are uber connected: phone, text, email, Slack — you name it. But to Arri Bagah, the founder of Conversmart, an ecommerce agency, always-on connections means non-stop interruptions. "It's a matter of taking control of my time — trying to be less reactive and more active," he told me. "Receiving all of those notifications prompts you to react."