WEBVTT - Businessweek Extra - Bombas CEO David Heath 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:06.280 This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Jason 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:08.880 Kelly and I'm Carol Masser. Welcome to the Bloomberg Business 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:11.560 Week Extra. It's our weekly podcast bringing you an in 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:15.400 depth interview you will not hear anywhere else this week Bombus. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.200 You probably know the company from their ads. Maybe you're 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:21.680 wearing their socks right now. The Director consumer company. It 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:25.600 was started back in as a way to help the homeless. 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:28.159 For every pair of socks they sell, they donate a 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:30.360 pair to those in needs. It's a great mission. It's 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:32.680 an interesting company, and Jason, they've done it all out 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:36.240 of profit and with impressive growth. Here's founder David Heath. 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.040 All right, so go back to the beginning. I love 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:43.080 the origin story of this. You heard a stat, you 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:46.200 read a stat and that sort of got you thinking. Yeah. 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.800 So I was scrolling through Facebook one day back in 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.479 early two thousand eleven and I came across a quote 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.640 on a post that the Salvation Army had made um 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:57.680 and it said that socks were the number one most 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:01.200 requested clothing item a homeless shelters, and I kind of 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:02.760 just sat there for a second. I was like, Wow, 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:05.160 that's pretty sad. Here's an item of clothing that I've 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.479 never spent more than a few seconds a day thinking about. 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.039 And this item of clothing is perceived as a luxury 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:12.520 item for a large group of people, almost six thousand 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:16.479 people experiencing homelessness in the US on any given year. UM. 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:19.120 And so I remember just kind of sharing the idea 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.440 with friends and one of my co workers who ended 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:25.000 up becoming one of my co founders, Randy Um. We 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:29.319 worked together, so it's quite easy in proximity, and you know, 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:31.039 we were like, what can we do about this? And 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:33.880 at first we just started carrying socks around in our bags, 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:35.640 you know, to and from work and handing them out, 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.160 and we started experiencing the kind of mission firsthand and 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.400 seeing the elated faces of people who are like, how 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:44.319 did you know that I needed a pair of socks? 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:45.840 And thank you so much? This is the one thing 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.320 I really need today, UM, And that I've got us thinking, obviously, 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:51.440 like how can we help scale and solve this problem? 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.080 And you know, around the same time, you know, Tom's 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:55.960 was in their fifth year of business and obviously the 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:58.800 pioneer of one for one and Warbie had just launched 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:01.320 UM and gotten a ton of fanfare and there to 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:04.880 release articles and you know, we're like, wow, if this 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:06.640 company is doing it for shoes and this company is 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:08.520 doing it for eyewear, and maybe we could solve this 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:11.480 sock problem by um, you know, imploying the same type 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.440 of mission. So we launched the company. I want to 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:16.680 talk more about to launching the company and what you 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:18.160 what you're doing today, But I want to go back 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:20.080 to this whole idea of Bumble, because there's a there's 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:23.400 a mission or mantra if you will, that you have 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.120 about be better. This whole concept of bees and hives 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:29.280 and working together. I mean, that's where it all comes from. 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:31.000 That's a really big part of the culture of your 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:34.200 company totally. It's it's it's ingrained in kind of everything 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.640 that we do and UM the name Bombas and the 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.639 tagline and kind of the design for bees and utilization 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:43.440 of bees and the hive kind of mentality and the 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:47.960 hexagon pattern that's on our arch support was really kind 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.240 of the UM the idea of our other co founder, 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:54.440 Aaron walk was our chief creative officer UM and as 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:56.040 soon as we heard it, as soon as we saw 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:58.560 kind of the initial idea he presented to us. We 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:00.560 were like, yes, this is it. We're going to go 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:02.440 all in on this. But David, you could have just 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.200 made socks and handed it out or created a nonprofit 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:07.799 and just got money in to do that. You did 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.480 it a different way totally. Um. Why, Well, I mean 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:13.720 I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I went 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:17.240 to school for entrepreneurship. My dad's an entrepreneur. Um. I 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:18.880 think I was an entrepreneur before I even knew what 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:20.880 an entrepreneur was. I was the weird kid in the 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:23.600 in your neighborhood that was like knocking on your door 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:26.200 and I wash your car or walk your dogs or 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:29.640 do whatever. Um. And so I think, you know, I've 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:33.320 always tried to solve problems through business, right, I've always 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:35.960 tried to make the connection. Um. And Randy, who's my 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:39.080 co founder, we worked Eigelberg. We worked together at a 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.640 startup and so we were experiencing fast growth startup life 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.440 together and we became really fast friends. And he had 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.440 a passion for entrepreneurship. His dad was an entrepreneur as well, 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.600 and so we kind of just came together and we're like, let's, 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.640 you know, utilize this idea as our company well, and 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:56.880 one of the things I think, keep me honest here, 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:58.840 that you guys also learned was that you wanted to 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:01.960 run a company in the different way than the company 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.160 where you were working. Yeah. I mean, look, there were 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:06.240 some good things at the place we were working, Um, 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.040 there were some bad things. And I think, like any 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.920 good entrepreneur, you you take the lessons that you've learned 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:14.840 throughout your life and apply them into the world of business. 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.320 And I think the one thing, I mean, the gratitude 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:19.599 we have for what we experienced at a company that 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.919 didn't have a ton of transparency, was heavily micro managed, 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:25.480 not a lot of you know, personal empowerment, but had 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.760 a great culture in terms of you know, friends being 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:30.360 friends with the people you work with. And so we 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.920 kind of took that, but then also you know, took 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:36.080 all the things that we didn't like experiencing as employees, um, 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:38.279 and kind of flip that all around. And so you know, 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:41.480 we're a hundred and thirty employees today. We've only had 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:45.080 four people leave the company in six years. Um. You know, 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.840 we were just named by Fortune is the number one 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.719 best place to work in retail, uh in the US. 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.920 And so you know, company culture is is a huge 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:57.600 part of what we do, and I think a lot 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.680 of our mission actually plays back into that as well. 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:03.520 And donate time together. We volunteered together, um, and when 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:08.120 our employees can go out and experience the work that 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:10.760 they're doing, you know, and see the end benefit to 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.599 a person who's truly in need firsthand, all of a sudden, 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:16.360 they come back to the office and have a ton 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.320 more humility. Right, They're not complaining when the cold brew 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:21.880 coffee goes out of tap, right, if they have an 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.880 argument with a friend, you know, Yeah, it provides a 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:27.280 ton of perspective. So what I think is interesting too 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:29.400 is that we're at a time coming off of the 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:32.159 Business Roundtable this year, getting a lot of attention about 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:34.640 it's not just about your shareholder, you know if you're 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.120 a publicly health company, but there's a lot of stakeholders. 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.040 You guys from the get go have thought about the environment, 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:44.280 your employees, you know, your workers, so many different stakeholders. 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.040 How easy is that to do? And run a business 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.160 and you've got to make money at the same time, 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.919 and you're giving back. It's it's actually really easy to 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.560 do when all of those things are built into the 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:59.080 DNA from day one, right, I mean if you kind 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:00.640 of put stakes in the around and say we're not 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:03.480 going to compromise on all these different things. Um, you 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:05.640 kind of build the model around it, right. You set 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:09.400 margin targets that you know, afford a donation, you you know, 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:13.159 building op x that affords a great company culture. You know. 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:15.520 Now we're in kind of the next life ctycle where 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.120 we're big enough that we're going to start tackling sustainability 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:20.440 in a real way. Um. And that's the thing that 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:22.920 you know is a much bigger you know, not to 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.159 crack and it will happen slowly over time. But you know, 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:29.320 we're we're committed to constantly doing the right thing and 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:31.880 we feel like our customers are rewarding us for that. 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:33.960 So talk to us about the nuts and bolts of 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.600 the business. Because you weren't other than being a sockwarer. 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.680 You weren't like a suck guy. You know, like you 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.839 didn't have a manufacturing background. You didn't have an apparel 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.600 background of any uh note, So how did you go 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.679 about sort of learning how to make this product? Yeah? 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:54.720 I think you know the reason that company is like 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:59.120 ours and Harry's and Warby all have seen so much success. 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.400 Is because we're not in the industry. Um. You know, 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.080 we come at it from a consumers standpoint. So we 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:09.160 are disrupting these products because we ourselves were consumers of 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.600 this product, right, and we saw that these were nascent categories, right, 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.160 not much time and attention or energy. We're being put 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.280 into raizors or you know, eye wear, our socks, you know, 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.640 some of these more commodity type products. Um. And I 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.720 think that gave us a huge competitive advantage. Um. Luckily. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:26.760 I mean this is where like luck plays a huge part. 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.840 My godfather was actually in the hosiery business for forty years. Um, 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:33.040 and so when it came to actually figuring out who 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.640 are the best manufacturers, you know, what are the best 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.560 places to produce Um. He is a guy. Yeah, he 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.280 actually was the presidency of gold Toe for a bunch 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:45.800 of years in the early nineties. So um, he knew 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:48.360 had every factory relationship and kind of walked us in, 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:50.680 you know, through the front door, and you know, vouched 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:52.200 for us. We'll talk to us about that because I 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:53.880 do think we all know about the horror stories and 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:57.040 retail manufacturing. So as part of your mission, I'm assuming 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.640 you're trying to make sure that you know, wages are 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:01.679 fair and so to go forth. I mean, how easy 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.880 is that to do this this in this day and age. 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.120 It's pretty easy. Um. You know, there's a ton of 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:12.840 third party compliance um auditors that you know, independently certify 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:16.800 these organizations and factories and you know you kind of 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.280 just look at you know, what's your AP certification and 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:22.080 you know, we we also work with an organization called 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:24.560 Made in a Free World, which our factories have to 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:26.440 sign a piece of paper, let's say, is that they'll 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:28.480 open up their supply chains because I think one of 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.240 the difficulties is often your factory might be good, but 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:33.080 the place where they get it, or the place where 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.400 they get you know, their stuff gets the other stuff 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:37.360 might not be. And that's actually one of the hard 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:41.440 parts of consumer technology. Conversation with someone about retail supply chains, 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:43.520 and they just talked about so many different people and 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.680 layers in the middle, and unnecessary layers at some point 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:50.360 that really contribute to that sort of opaque nature of 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.560 the chain. Yeah. And one of the things I'm learning, 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:54.800 you know, as as we kind of dive into this 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:57.679 and become more you know, focused on all of these 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:01.880 efforts is you know, it's actually like hardware components, So 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:05.920 you could have some trace element of some metal that's 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.000 being mined somewhere, and you know, it goes through three 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.640 people before it ends up in your laptop or your iPhone, 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.640 and you know, it is really challenging. But you know, 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.840 I think with technology and I think with the age 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.439 of information sharing that we're in, all of these things 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.000 are starting to become more prevalent and start to rise 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:25.080 to the top. So when you think about sort of 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.760 getting going and getting the product to customers and getting 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.760 that getting it in front of them, not even just physically, 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:35.040 but just the idea of it, you guys, I mean 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.680 it's become almost like a meme, you know, in terms 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.560 of like the amount that you're advertising on podcasts and 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.240 and things like that. Was that always the strategy, just 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:44.880 like we got to get to the people, We gotta 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.839 flood the zone. What what are the mechanisms to do that? Yeah, 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:49.600 I mean we knew that we wanted to be a 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.760 digitally first brand, right Serrany and I worked at a 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.640 digital media company and so somewhat in our kind of 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.160 you know, blood um and this was kind of the 0:09:58.160 --> 0:09:59.600 world that we grew up in the world that we 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.720 knew UM Randy is an incredible storyteller, and so you know, 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.840 we really wanted to leverage the power of storytelling. Which 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.960 actually the unlock with D two C is it allows 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:14.880 commodity type products like a sock for instance, director consumer um. 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:17.720 You know, you can spend three minutes on a video 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:20.160 on your website and someone will watch it. Where you know, 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.040 if you're walking through nord Strums, you're not going to 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.760 stop and watch a three minute video on a sock company, 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:27.000 right um. And so that was kind of a huge 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.720 unlock for us. But you know, from from day one, 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.480 we were always just focused on UM positive r o 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:35.240 I in terms of customer acquisition. You know, I think 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:37.160 one of the things that really separates us from a 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.240 lot of our peers is that, you know, in total 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:42.000 to date, we've only raised four million of capital UM, 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.920 while a lot of our peers have raised fifty fifty 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.280 million dollars with these crazy evaluations. But you peek behind 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.400 the curtain and none of them are generating any money 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:54.360 because they're chasing this lifetime value per cost pro acquisition ratio. 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:56.800 We kind of went back to the fundamentals were like, 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.199 consumer businesses have been around for you know, a most 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.000 a hundred years now, and the way that consumer businesses 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:05.720 work is buy a product for Y, you selive or x, 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.280 and you run the company off of the margin. And 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:10.559 so we're like, why does director consumer have to be 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:12.680 any different? So we really bucked a lot of the 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:15.760 trend there, and we've been profitable every single year that 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:17.480 we've been in business except for a year two, which 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.400 is a big kind of growth capital year for us. 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.800 But your growth rate been a hundred percent year over 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:27.280 year some years, you know, close to two UM and 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.240 you're like at a hundred or two hundred million sales, Yeah, 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.560 just about Yeah. And so talk to us about the customer. 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.760 I mean, I'm a customer and and it's interesting because 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:40.000 I've both bought socks and then you know they've been 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:44.280 giveaways and or whatever. It is a great gift. Who 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.319 is the typical customer? If you can generalize there, there 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.240 isn't really just one. I mean, we are actually you know, 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:52.280 what we've been super surprised about is that we have 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.439 super broad demographics. And I think that's to the point, right, 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:59.040 socks are an item that every single person wears. Um. 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:00.959 You know, whether you're two years old or ninety two 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.080 years old, you're probably wearing socks at some point, you know, 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.920 in your year, even if you live in warm weather climates. Um. 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.360 And I think the idea that you know, we've produced 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.400 something that stands out in the marketplace, it's super comfortable. 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:17.839 Comfort is not unique to uh, you know, millennials or 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:21.360 Gen xers or boomers. Right, everybody wants to feel comfort. Um. 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:24.240 And so yeah, we've got just as many customers who 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:26.880 are you thirty five as we do customers who are 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.760 sixty five to seventy five and older. Um. Same thing 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.560 with demographics in terms of you know, spends we have 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:35.520 of our customers are an under fifty dollars a year 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.920 and over a d fifty dollars a year, and so 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:41.920 we see it as somewhat of an affordable luxury. Right. 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.079 One of the benchmarks that we've always used was Starbucks. Right. 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:49.079 We took a commodity type product, improved upon it, provided 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:51.960 a really good customer experience in a great brand, and 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:53.960 all of a sudden, you can see how a customer 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.040 who used to spend twenty dollars a year on socks 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.280 could spend sixty dollars a year on socks. It's not 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:01.720 the forty delta is not the difference between them, you know, 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:03.920 paying their mortgage or not, where you can't do that 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.040 with something like a car, right. And so I think 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.600 because it's an affordable luxury, and because we have the mission, 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.920 and because our product stands out so much in the marketplace, 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:15.679 it attracts a large group of customers. Well. And I 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:17.679 also do think about something we've talked a lot about 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:19.960 that people are thinking about, let me let me do something, 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.040 let me pay some you know, I'll pay up for quality, right, 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.160 and something that's going to last. But that also is 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.160 giving back and doing good and not maybe impacting the 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.280 environment as much. And we are slowly maybe seeing a 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:34.000 lot more of that happening in retail. I think about Fashionopolis, right, 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.840 and you know kind of the waste in the retail industry, 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:38.920 so that people are starting to kind of filter through 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.720 and you're seeing that play out totally. Yeah. I mean again, 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.839 we're living in a social media age, right where information 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:51.040 is king and no longer can you hide bad company values, 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:53.680 you know, behind a closed door. Right, all of this stuff, 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.440 whether it's glass door with your employees are you know, 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.080 social media where the customer is going to post whether 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.120 they had a good experience or a bad experience on 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:03.400 any one of your social posts or one of your ads. Like, 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.560 so you've got it. The benchmark and the standards by 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.680 which you have to live are so high. But it's 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:13.760 great because it makes everybody responsible, right because the lens 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:15.840 and the and the voice has moved, you know, the 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.760 power has shifted back to the consumer where yeah, it 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:20.080 used to be, but there was always kind of a 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:21.960 delay and you could kind of cover it up for 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.480 you know, a while. But this day and age, like 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:29.560 information is like flowing rampantly, so you can't hide behind 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:31.000 these things. I mean you look at some of these 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.840 companies and look at the wee Works or even Away 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:37.280 which just happened. Like, you can't prop up a company 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:41.480 on you know, bad actions. It will eventually sus out. 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:44.000 So you've got to play by the rules. And so 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.800 have you had any of those sort of I mean, 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:48.640 this has been a really nice straight line up, it 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:51.520 feels like, generally speaking, but surely you've had some sort 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.360 of gut check moments either early on or maybe midway 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.520 on where you thought okay, either this was a bad decision, 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:00.600 or this wasn't working, or this isn't matching on the 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.520 way we thought. Tell us about one of those times. Yeah, 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.800 you know, I think we have been incredibly lucky. Our 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.960 growth has been pretty sustainable. Um, we have had very 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:12.240 little turnover. You know, I think we've done a lot 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:15.720 of things right. Um. I think some of those strategic 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:20.760 decisions happen more internally around you know, what's the pathway 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.640 for the company, right, you know, do we how long 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:25.680 do we stay in just socks? Right? And then what's 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:28.640 the category we moved to after that? Is that category 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:31.640 determined by what our customers want from us? Or is 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.320 it determined by what the second most requested clothing idemen 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:37.880 homeless alters? Is lucky for us, they happen to coincide um, 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.520 which is underwear, and we're you know, working on that 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.080 and we'll have that out shortly. Um. But you also 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.720 have shirts and sweats like you have expanded, right, But 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:47.960 even now we're starting to think, okay, do we just 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:50.800 become a socks teason underwear brand and you know, is 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:52.720 sweats and some of the other products we're working on. 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:54.800 Is that dilutive at this point? So These are these 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:56.920 hard conversations that you invest a lot of time and 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.600 energy into. But I think one of the things that 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.760 a great leaders and the things that I'm learning about 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:06.240 being a CEO is sometimes you have to stop and 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:08.840 really got to check yourself and say, just because we've 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:11.760 started to invest time and energy and resources into this thing, 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:14.520 we still until it's out in the public, and even 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:16.840 after it's out in the public, you still always maintain 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:19.400 control about what to do, and you can pivot. And 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:21.760 I think the best company has decide to pivot when 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.200 it's even when the decision is really hard. Do you 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:28.920 stay directed consumer? So we're predominantly director consumer, mostly because 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:31.200 that's where we're seeing all of our growth. Um. You know, 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.640 so nent of our sales happen through bombas dot com 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.440 um two percent of our sales happen in retail, mostly 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:39.760 because we've seen a lot of demand there. But also 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:41.600 we know that if our goal is to build a 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.920 billion dollar plus global, you know, apparel company, we have 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:47.640 to be homni channel, and so we're kind of dipping 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.080 our toe into retail and learning, you know, how do 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:52.000 we show up to the customer, How does does the 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.640 customer understand our mission when they just see a pair 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:56.720 of socks on the shelf, right, And I think what 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.520 we're seeing is that because we've got an incredibly large 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:02.360 marketing budget, you know, and we're telling our stories so 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.680 much online and on podcasts and on radio and TV, 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.280 that actually some of that's bleeding through. So we are 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.640 actually the number one selling soccer brand in every store 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.679 that we're in, and you know, we're like, ooh, that's amazing. 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:15.199 We must have done something well and they're like, no, 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.880 you your marketing budget is about a hundred times more 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:23.199 than the next people who we are. Um, so we 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.840 feel really excited about that, and you know, we're once 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.160 we kind of continue to build out product categories as well. 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.040 We're excited about what a Bombas retail location could look like, 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:33.879 and you know, really framing it around potentially making a 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.159 community center where part of the time we open up 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:39.320 the doors to the homeless community where they can come 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.080 in and shop. Um, everything will be free, but they 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:44.640 can shop the most needed items that we have available 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:48.040 for donations. And like Lululemon and Nike where they utilize 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.919 their stores for run clubs or yoga, we could use 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.280 them for volunteer events. Where we gathered groups of our 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:56.639 customers then go out and serve. It's really exciting about 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.440 what's to come. But again, I think the hard part 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:03.320 about being a leader is, you know, is narrowing in 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:06.200 on your lane and saying, look, that stuff will come right. 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:08.040 It doesn't have to be tomorrow, it doesn't have to 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:10.120 be in two years or three years. Like we want 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:12.679 to build a company for longevity. And I think again, 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:14.840 I think this this notion of taking on a lot 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:17.879 of fundraising early on. You have this immediate expectation that 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:20.639 you've got to go from zero to five million in 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:22.639 revenue in three years or else you're not a success. 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.720 But the big manufacturer came to your big brand conglomerate 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:30.040 because we're seeing a lot of like yeah, like, how 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:32.480 do you say, Because there's certainly a lot of benefits 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:34.679 to staying on your own and staying private and staying 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:37.440 you know, or being part of a big company. Yeah, 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:41.840 I mean, we're again, we're profitable, so we have a 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:44.479 lot of optionality. Um And I think that's been one 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:47.439 of the best disciplines about us focusing on profitability is 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:50.480 that we're not forced to make these types of decisions 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:52.440 because we're running out of cash, which again I think 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:55.080 a lot of our peers do. Some of the acquisitions 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:58.680 are either raise more money or get acquired. Um. And 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:00.879