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Business
Quality and Craft Drive Chisos Boots Founder
April 30, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
The idea for Chisos boots started with back pain. Will Roman, the founder, owner, and lifetime cowboy-boot buyer, injured his back in a motorcycle accident. Wearing boots became painful. He launched Chisos.com, a custom, handcrafted bootmaker, in 2019. Quality and craft drive Roman and his outlook on life.
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Business
Personal-care Founder: No More Petrochemicals
April 23, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Business
Home Gym Provider Overcomes Supply Disruptions, Thrives
April 16, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Business
Online Onion Seller Rises from Domain Auction
April 9, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Shipping & Fulfillment
3PL Founder: ‘I’m in the Exceptions Management Business’
April 2, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Business
Lessons from Vine Elevate Feat Clothing
March 26, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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."
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Business
Drop Party Thrives with Turnkey Product Design, Testing
March 19, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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 consulting for ecommerce companies with unsold inventory that sparked his idea for Drop Party.
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Business
Show-stopper Wedding Rings Drive Manly Bands
March 12, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
Shopping in-store for wedding rings does not appeal to all men. That was an insight of Johnathan Ruggiero and his wife Michelle when they founded Manly Bands, a direct-to-consumer online wedding-ring company, in 2016. The second insight was the rings had to be unique — really unique — to compete against established jewelers.
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Business
Hollywood Actor, Director Finds Success on Amazon
March 5, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Business
Tomlinson’s Feed: Fresh and Relevant after 75 Years
February 26, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Business
DTC Seller of Apple Watch Bands Soars from College Project
February 19, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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," Manely told me. Fast forward to 2021 and his company, Braxley Bands, is a direct-to-consumer seller of elastic, colorful bands.
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Influencers & Affiliates
Ridge Wallet Hits $50 Million with Influencer Marketing
February 12, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
Ridge wallets launched via a Kickstarter campaign in 2014. 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. Sean Frank is The Ridge's chief operating officer.
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Business
Lessons from a Friendly Bet: Beardbrand vs. Supply.co
February 5, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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 items to males. We're competitors, in other words.
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Business
DecksDirect, a Pure Retailer, Thrives
January 29, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Business
Dr. Squatch Scales to $100 Million with Natural Soaps for Men
January 22, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Business
Elements Brands Founder on Moving from Doer to Manager
January 15, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Business
Entrepreneur’s Hair Products Empower Black Women
January 8, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Business
Entrepreneur’s Page-builder Tools Attract Outside Equity, 100 Employees
December 18, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
Finbarr Taylor moved to the U.S. nine years ago with a goal. "I moved from Scotland to Silicon Valley with the express intent of starting a tech company," he told me. Taylor's tech company is Shogun, which provides innovative page-builder tools that enhance ecommerce sites. He is co-founder and CEO.
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Business
Gym Owner Shifts to Online Weight Training (and Thrives)
December 11, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Business
Agency CEO: Adopt an ‘Abundance Mentality’
December 4, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
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 short-sightedness," he told me, "We're scraping and clawing to keep it all. A better approach is an abundance mentality."
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Business
Kuru, a DTC Shoe Brand, Solves a Pain
November 27, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
Selling shoes online is notoriously competitive. Zappos, Amazon, big-box retailers — all are vying for a share of the consumer footwear market. Nonetheless, Sean McGinnis's employer, Kuru, an independent shoe company, is thriving.
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Business
Beardbrand’s Technology Stack: Platforms, Apps, Services
November 20, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Business
ABF Creative, a Podcast Network, Is ‘More Than a Business’
November 13, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Business
Turn Off Your Phone, Says Agency Founder
November 6, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
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.
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Content Marketing
CopySmiths Founder on Content Marketing by the Numbers
October 30, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
Kat McKinnon's agency, CopySmiths, produces hundreds of blog posts per month for, mainly, ecommerce clients. She's developed a formula of sorts for getting those posts ranked in Google's search results. "You need between 1,000 and 1,500 words for a blog article," she told me. "Definitely not 600. Avoid 800, unless you're literally just answering a short question."
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Checkout Tactics
Manual Texts Recover 21 Percent of Abandoned Carts, Says LiveRecover Founder
October 23, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
Dennis Hegstad believes the best way to recover abandoned carts is via text messages. But his messages are not automated or bot-driven. Hegstad's company, LiveRecover, sends one-to-one texts from a real person to folks who have left an ecommerce checkout without completing a purchase.
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Business
‘Gated’ Product Launch Leads to $250,000 in 1-day Sales
October 16, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
Jordan West launched Little & Lively, a direct-to-consumer children's apparel company, with his wife, Carmen, six years ago in Canada. The business has grown to mid-seven-figures in revenue selling through its website, mostly. He's a master at creating demand for his products before they are available for purchase.
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Business
Native Deodorant Founder on Scaling to $100 Million in 2 Years
October 9, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
Despite reaching a whopping $100 million in revenue in just two years, Moiz Ali, the founder of Native deodorant, says the initial version was less than stellar. "We had a pretty mediocre product," Ali told me. "We understood that people were looking for [aluminum-free deodorant] and were willing to pay a higher price point for it."
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Business
Real Men Wear Makeup, Says DTC Co-founder
October 2, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
Jon Shanahan wants men to wear makeup. He's a co-founder of Stryx, a direct-to-consumer manufacturer of concealer and tinted moisturizer for males. The company launched in 2017. Shanahan joined shortly afterward, having created his male grooming channel on YouTube.
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Business
‘My Wife Quit’ Founder on SMS Marketing, SaaS Platforms, osCommerce
September 25, 2020 • Eric Bandholz
In 2007 Steve Chou's wife, Jennifer, wanted to spend more time with their growing family. So she quit her job. Fast forward to 2020, and Bumblebee Linens, the Chou's ecommerce company, is prospering. Steve is now an ecommerce celebrity, having launched the "My Wife Quit Her Job" blog, podcast, and YouTube channel.