Podcasts about philz

Send us a textIn this edition of Brewstilled, I'm recapping episode 9 for Hacks season 4 from HBO. For the pentupulate for the series, episode 9 showed a preview of what may come for Deborah and Ava along with Jimmy and Kayla. This was an episode that showed where our characters stand before their journey ends and a final challenge that Deborah and Ava might face that could alter their destiny. I'll be discussing here on Brewstilled with coffee from Philz coffee as the beer pairing. 

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Send us a textVictor, Evelyn, and Mark hang out this week to talk about Luka Doncic trade drama, mom's in the chat, and the gang play a spirited LA "this or that" to build for Luka's new home in Los Angeles.

PhilZ sings praises for the new level that modern "kids" movies get to.Message Jason and Ryan

This week on Extra Serving, a podcast from Nation's Restaurant News, managing editor Leigh Anne Zinsmeister sat down with Mahesh Sadarangani and Andi Trindle Mersch of Philz Coffee. Philz Coffee has been thriving in California for more than 20 years, and now it's ready for more. With 70 locations as of the end of 2023, 64 of which are in the chain's home state (the other six are in Chicago), the company wants to take its cult following and custom coffee blends to even more consumers.Sadarangani, CEO, and Trindle Mersch, vice president of coffee operations and sustainability, talked about what makes Philz special, from the coffee itself to the hospitality from not only baristas but also executives. They also hint at special things in the brand's future, including a possible expansion. Listen to this episode of Extra Serving above.

PhilZ argues for Empire Records and dances his way into our hearts with an amazing 80s movie question.

Young is a highly accomplished entrepreneur and coach with a remarkable track record spanning over 20 years. After working with brands such as Starbucks, Apple, Philz, and Limelight- Young has mastered helping business owners to reach their first million in annual revenue. In addition to his coaching services, Young has developed the Owners Club, an exclusive community designed for ambitious and growth-minded business owners. Owners Club serves as a platform for these individuals to connect, collaborate, and elevate their businesses to new heights.While building his own businesses, Young adheres to his Owners Manual framework, which acts as a blueprint for achieving financial freedom and creating a life that prioritizes quality time with family.To find out more about Young Han and Owner's Club visit his website: www.owners.club

Agent Fined $15,000! $375000? Santa Clara County Hi's and Low's

On this episode of Real Talks on the Rocks, I sit down with Dave Sands, who is the host of "The Food Origins Podcast". Dave is a former police officer with the San Francisco Police Department who recently left the department. Dave talks about his passion for food and why he decided to start a podcast, especially since he is an introverted person.Dave talks about what he saw as a police officer and how that shaped his interest in food, owning a restaurant, and the stories behind those who create some of the most delicious cuisine in San Francisco. Dave and myself also spend a great deal of time discussing what it takes to build a podcast and understanding why it is we decided to start our own. We learn just how important it is to communicate why your show exists and the the importance of building trust with your audience. You can reach out to Dave on his Instagram at:https://instagram.com/food.origins_Thank you to all of my supporters who are supporting me on Patreon and allowing me to grow this channel! Your support of this channel allows me to continue to provide you with better and better content. Click the link below to make a contribution to the future of the show and to access this episode's bonus content: https://patreon.com/realtalksontherocks For all of the links to the other avenues to view/listen to my show, you can visit my website at: https://realtalksontherocks.com There you will find links to Apple Podcasts, Spotify as well as my Patreon page. You can also follow me on:Facebook: https://facebook.com/realtalksontherocks Instagram: https://instagram.com/realtalksontherocks Twitter: https://twitter.com/realtalksrocks #food #podcast #police #realtalk #cookingChapter list: 00:00-Preview 00:30-Intro 01:30- It started with moms cooking 03:00-Learning Japanese 06:05-The BEST Japanese food 11:35-Getting BURNED OUT as a chef led to… 15:30- Working for SFPD 18:30- The REAL reason why Homelessness is bad in SF 22:10-When you TRY to help people that are suffering… 26:58-Where the best restaurants are HIDDEN! 29:00- Cooking for Cops! 32:25- Cooking a Tur-duck-en! 33:50- PHILZ coffee 36:50-Community Policing 39:50-Balancing food and work 42:10-Dealing with loss 47:45- The Origins of “The Food Origins” podcast 52:00-Courtney Henderson's influence 55:30- The biggest challenges to starting a podcast 1:12:25- The future of “The Food Origins Podcast” 1:23:15- WHY do you want to do a podcast 1:26:15- Chefs who stay in shape 1:28:30- Chefs who make it happen 1:31:45- Reach out to Dave 1:32:30- How profitable are restaurants 1:38:20- Final Thoughts

Jacob Jaber, Chairman and Co founder of Philz Coffee joins the show to talk about:The founder's story behind building one of the industry's most successful specialty coffee brands.Creating a culture of "Grandma's house hospitality" and a personalized approach to building product and delivering service to customers, one cup of coffee at a time.How Philz harnessed initial customer fandom and built the flywheel around the Phil's brand.The role of the Philz barista, finding and empowering great people to extend the culture you're creating.Competing against global coffee brands like Starbucks and Peets, disrupting the coffee space, and thinking big but acting smallHow a lost bag at an airport resulted in a game changing distribution deal with Virgin America.Jacob's focus as an investor and building companies and products that people have a personal relationship with.

In today's Hot Spotting Real Estate Podcast we'll be chatting with Bridget Zamora.Bridget Zamora is the Director of Real Estate at Philz Coffee.Topics DiscussedBridget shares the warm story of how Philz coffee started as a company.Bridget and Mike dive into the challenges of finding sites in an extremely competitive industry.Bridget talks about the mobile component of Philz Coffee and how it has impacted their business model with COVID-19 and beyond.Mike and Bridget discuss the importance of being a customer of the brand that you work with. "Alessandra Wants to Know" segment of the show*How to contact our guests*Bridget Zamora – bridgetzamora@philzcoffee.comPhilz Coffee WebsiteBridget Zamora's LinkedIn

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Jacob Jaber, Co-Founder of Philz Coffee and Consumer Investor. In 1978 Phil Jaber purchased a convenience store and in his off hours, he blended and tested coffee, looking to make the perfect cup. Philz Coffee was born and has gone from starting from one store to seventy-five. Jaber says, “I love people, I've been in business since I was nine years old. I started in a convenience store in my dad's convenience store in the Mission District in San Francisco standing on top of milk crates ringing up people at the register. I hated school because I felt like I was forced to learn stuff I wasn't interested in from people who weren't interesting. So I kind of put all of my energy into working with my dad and I learned a ton about business and people there and I fell in love with it and I've been doing that mostly ever since.”Jaber talks about how he and his dad built Philz Coffee. He said that he knew how to treat people, how to make a personal cup of coffee, and how to work the business. They worked with people that knew how to create systems, processes, and organizational structures to help them open locations. In terms of investing and advising Jaber says that he's helped hundreds of entrepreneurs strategize, find product market fit, and build a team. He says this brings him the most joy. Jaber currently has almost twenty companies in his portfolio and they are out there looking for businesses. Frischling asks Jaber what it takes to build a restaurant or venue today. Jaber says, “I think the most important thing is you got to love what you're doing, you got to love the product that you're selling, I see a lot of technology-first companies that sell food and it's very difficult to succeed because you have to love food if you're in the food business. Technology's an enabler it's not the starter.” To hear more insights from Jaber about opening a business today and what he looks for when investing, plus get the Tuesday trivia answers check out this episode of Hospitality Hangout.

Am I making the right decision? What should I do? For many of us it's not until we're facing big life challenges or decisions that we start moving into a listening posture. But if our ears are not tuned to hear the small things it can be hard to hear God for the bigger ones. God will provide guidance for us, but he is more interested in the person that we are becoming. Which means we don't have to approach the future with fear, as there is no decision, we can make that God can't redeem. And if God doesn't provide clear direction, it means that he trusts us to move forward; we can act with confidence because we know he is with us. This week, bring your discernment questions before God. Practice Holy indifference and listen for God's leading. Formation practices are our training ground for Christlikeness. The formation practice during our Hearing God sermon series is Listening Prayer. Listening Prayer can take many forms and be done privately and communally. Head to http://menlo.church/hearinggod each week for the sermon video, a Life Group discussion guide, and a formation practice resource. We've got a brand-new mini-series for you on our Menlo Church podcast! Phil in the Blank is your time to get to know our new Senior Pastor, Phil EuBank. Jess and Mark sit down with Phil to pass along your questions in a fun conversation asking everything from "What's your Philz order?" to "what is your favorite part about leading a church?" Check it out every Friday wherever you listen to podcasts http://menlo.church/podcasts Find a sermon-based study guide for this week: http://menlo.church/studyguide012923

This week Jess, Mark and Rachelle sit down with Cheryl Fletcher to chat Menlo Park dining recommendations, how a person's intentions can affect a group, and a guided practice to praying for someone. Text us: (650)600-0402 When it comes to hearing God, we all sometimes need help. In this sermon we discuss finding that support and guidance. We consider who can help us and what that help looks like. As a bonus, we talk about how you can learn to be a person who helps others hear God. Formation practices are our training ground for Christlikeness. The formation practice during our Hearing God sermon series is Listening Prayer. Listening Prayer can take many forms and be done privately and communally. Head to http://menlo.church/hearinggod each week for the sermon video, a Life Group discussion guide, and a formation practice resource. We've got a brand-new mini-series for you on our Menlo Church podcast! Phil in the Blank is your time to get to know our new Senior Pastor, Phil EuBank. Jess and Mark sit down with Phil to pass along your questions in a fun conversation asking everything from "what's your Philz order?" to "what is your favorite part about leading a church?" Check it out every Friday wherever you listen to podcasts http://menlo.church/podcasts For more Hearing God resources go to: http://menlochurch/hearinggod

When it comes to hearing God, we all sometimes need help. In this sermon we discuss finding that support and guidance. We consider who can help us and what that help looks like. As a bonus, we talk about how you can learn to be a person who helps others hear God. Formation practices are our training ground for Christlikeness. The formation practice during our Hearing God sermon series is Listening Prayer. Listening Prayer can take many forms and be done privately and communally. Head to http://menlo.church/hearinggod each week for the sermon video, a Life Group discussion guide, and a formation practice resource. We've got a brand-new mini-series for you on our Menlo Church podcast! Phil in the Blank is your time to get to know our new Senior Pastor, Phil EuBank. Jess and Mark sit down with Phil to pass along your questions in a fun conversation asking everything from "what's your Philz order?" to "what is your favorite part about leading a church?" Check it out every Friday wherever you listen to podcasts http://menlo.church/podcasts For more Hearing God resources go to: http://menlochurch/hearinggod

Jacob Jaber describes Philz Coffee, the company he co-founded with his father, as a ‘people company serving coffee, not a coffee company serving people.' This distinctively human approach is not just the engine driving the company's remarkable growth; it's also deeply reflected in Jacob's perspectives on leadership, product experience, and brand strategy. In his talk with Jesse, Jacob reflects on formative years with his father and describes how their efforts to build community through hospitality came to define the Philz experience for customers and employees. He breaks down the tenets of his own personal growth, including what he learned about leadership while serving as CEO during Philz' expansion. Throughout, he lays out a blueprint for any leader looking to create and scale a more human business.(2:18) Jacob describes the early days of working with his father (5:41) On character, competence, and the mountains we choose to climb(11:55) The makings of an authentic and energizing experience (18:40) Why ‘good hospitality is often inconvenient to the giver'(20:19) Leading humbly, but with a fresh outlook(23:40) Bringing the Philz mantra of hustle and hospitality to new marketsGuest BioJacob Jaber is Co-Founder and Chairman at Philz Coffee. Jacob and his father, Phil, built the business together. Jacob was most recently CEO of Philz successfully growing the business from one store and two employees to over 70 stores and 1,500 employees before transitioning to Chairman. Jacob is passionate about consumer experiences, community, people, product and business. In addition to Philz, Jacob is a renowned investor, advisor, and was listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2016.Helpful LinksPhilzcoffee.com Peninsula Press: The Origin Story of PhilzLaunching a partnership to feature local student artistsJacob on LinkedIn  and Twitter

Everything feels like a choice. Career is a choice. Where you live is a choice. Whether you want Starbucks or Philz is a choice.We are always surrounded by decisions in our lives that we choose. Have you noticed forging our path in life doesn't always come together as easy as checking some boxes or making a choice? What if your truest calling isn't something to be decided but discovered?Join us as Pastor Samuel Laws deep dives Part 2 of "It Starts With Me," and see how God wants to use YOU!

Is Steve Sauron? Is Josh Sauron? Who's Sauron? Are you?

Actor & Comedian, Jamie Kennedy, shared his journey to Hollywood from Philadelphia after his friends suggested he try out stand up comedy. Jamie reflected on how he went from a struggling new comedian, to a well known successful actor with multiple movies/TV shows to his name! Make sure to check out: https://linktr.ee/thejamiekennedy to see Jamie perform in your city!The link will also take you to his highly acclaimed podcast, ‘Hate To Break It To Ya with Jamie Kennedy'

It's NATIONAL COFFEE DAY and we've got a special edition podcast dedicated to all you java drinkers. Please welcome to the show, Jacob Jaber, chair of Philz Coffee, and the son of Phil. We'll talk the early days of the first Philz location on 24th Street in San Francisco, coffee rituals and routines, espresso vs. coffee, and even a song written about the shop by Lil B. I've also included a personal First Impression. There's also random cameos from the likes of Neen Williams, Tim McKenney, Jason Adams, Ben Raybourn, Bill Murray, the GZA and more... Go grab yourself a Greater Alarm at Philz and listen to this one as you get pumped for the weekend. VENI • AUDIVI • DIDICI SUPPORT & SUBSCRIBE NOW: https://bit.ly/2RYE75F --------------------------------------- FOLLOW PHILZ ON THE GRAM: http://www.instagram.com/philzcoffee WEBSITE YEAH!: https://www.philzcoffee.com/ --------------------------------------- TALKIN' SCHMIT SOFT GOODS IN JAPAN: https://www.instagram.com/underdogdistribution --------------------------------------- INTRO MUSIC: "Mary's Cross" by Natur FIRST IMPRESSION: Gregory Scott Smith CREDITS MUSIC: “Adirondack gate” by Shane Medanich CLOSING MONOLOGUE: Noelle Fiore EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Sharal Amber Camisa Smith INTERVIEW & EDITED: Greg "Schmitty" Smith If you want to help support the show, head over to https://www.talkinschmit.com/ and pick up some merchandise. There's also lots of photos, video and extras to help complement each interview. WEBSITE: https://talkinschmit.com/ YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/epiclytrife INSTAGRAM: @Talkin_Schmit FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TalkinSchmit/ CONTACT with comments or suggestions: TalkinSchmit@Gmail.com --------------------------------------- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS: BLOOD WIZARD (http://bloodwizard.com/) BLUE PLATE (http://www.blueplatesf.com/) --------------------------------------- During these difficult times I encourage you to help your local skate shops, your favorite restaurants, friends and family. Be kind and give what you can to those that are in need. If you have good friends, tell them you love them while you still can. #skateboarding #podcast #TalkinSchmit #Coffee #PhilzCofee #NationalCoffeeDay #BrownStuff #sometimesskateboardinginvolvescoffee --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/talkin-schmit/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/talkin-schmit/support

Why Netflix, why? I mean you don't have enough to justify this pricing!!! Anyway, we got a great show for y'all, the infamous Steve is here tonight, so stick around and we'll be right back.

"Check, Please!" creator David Manilow, back with host Amy Guth for his weekly chat on all things food, recommends where to warm up with the best cups of coffee, including Metropolis, Metric, Bridgeport Coffee Shop, Hexe, Gaslight, Ipsento and others, as well as out-of-state imports like Bad Owl, Colectivo and Philz. He'll also share highlights from his recent conversation with Justin Doggett from Kyoto Black Coffee. Plus: Amazon is planning to add 450 jobs downtown; omicron becomes the dominant COVID strain with 73% of cases in America; Amtrak cranks up speeds on trains to St. Louis and Springfield; and BMO Harris' parent ends 2021 with the priciest U.S. bank deal of the year.

EPISODE 8: Big Philz Garage ... In this Episode, we interview our favorite auto body man our good buddy Phil. Phil has been hard at work straightening out Andy's Blazer, but he also has some amazing projects of his own. Come hear about his projects and get an inside look art just how bad the Blazer's body was. Check him out @big_philz_garage. Featured Beer: Hazy By Nature - Kicks IPA If you want to be on the show please feel free to send us an email at projectsandpilsners@gmail.com. You can follow the podcast on instagram @projectsandpilsners. You can follow John @jpopylisen and you can follow Andy @andymillerlite. Thank you very much for listening. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/andy-miller6/support

What does it take to bring an iconic brand and experience to digital? What makes the Philz app one of the most loved and used apps in the industry and how do you take the specific vision of a founder and transform into an on par digital experience? That and stories of success, failure, the invention of the mobile boarding pass and how Philz ended up on HBO's Silicon Valley are featured in our first episode of “How I Grew This” with Francisca Hawkins of Philz Coffee.

Justin is an artist, and he was digging Charity's vibe as something that was really working for him. He thought she felt it too, but now she's ghosting? He's confused. We're going to call her up and see what's going on.

Alyssa Cooper is the Manager of Facilities and Asset Management at Philz Coffee. Alyssa has been in the facilities management industry since 2013, where she began her career as a Facilities Coordinator for The Taubman Company. She sharpened her expertise in facilities management as the Repair and Maintenance Analyst for Gymboree and the Facilities Maintenance Coordinator at Cycle Gear Inc. before joining Philz Coffee. Alyssa is skilled in project management, departmental goal-setting, and advanced problem solving. In this episode… The facilities management industry is more than just maintenance and project management; collaboration and team support are important aspects of any facilities management role. So, how exactly can a facilities manager help your company? And how can you get your foot in the industry's doorway? With experience on both the facilities management side and retail side of operations, Alyssa Cooper's approach is people-oriented. What does this mean? You have to be an advocate for your vendors and a support system for your whole team. And, when you position people first, the industry will reward you.  Listen to this week's episode of Watching Paint Dry, as Greg Owens talks with Alyssa Cooper, Manager of Facilities and Asset Management at Philz Coffee, about the detailed roles within the facilities management industry. Alyssa discusses Philz's development through the pandemic, what she has learned throughout her career, and her advice for anyone looking to get their start as a facilities manager. Stay tuned.

Josh, Caleb, Makoto, and Maverick rate Philz Coffee and tell a bladder bursting story.

Shoutout Young Thug Yessiirrrrrr. Issa new lifestyle. Aaliyah shares with us her new habits and approach to her "inner child." She reflects on childhood life goals, moving to Italy, her anime story, and now obtaining a burst of creativity. All these ideas popping up in her head and she wants to share them with you! Grab a cup of Philz and enjoy while creating something new! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/aaliyah-safi/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/aaliyah-safi/support

Today's episode is about body image. Aaliyah reveals her struggles with her physical appearance, self-confidence, society's standards, and how idiotic trends are. She shares tips on how to begin loving yourself since this is something new to her as well. Oh... also rate her singing skills... *insert crickets here* Grab a cup of Philz and enjoy! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/aaliyah-safi/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/aaliyah-safi/support

A little update from Aaliyah. Gym, Reading, and Being Vegan are on her mindset. Not only does she share an embarrassing gym moment she experienced but she reveals her biggest insecurity... Acne! Aaliyah is very familiar with the term and talks you all through her acne journey. Sit back, grab a cup of Philz, and get ready to enjoy while wearing a face mask! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/aaliyah-safi/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/aaliyah-safi/support

It's a switch-up but a good switch-up! Welcome to the new and improved @Aaliyah Podcast! This week Aaliyah reflects on her college experience, covid online school life, and finding passions while sipping on Philz. Also shares the fact that she wants to kidnap Timothee Chalamet.. sit back and enjoy! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/aaliyah-safi/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/aaliyah-safi/support

Hey guys! Welcome back to Cracked Minds (now changed to “@Aaliyah”podcast) This week Aaliyah is discussing her eco-friendly and sustainable journey! She dives into her past thoughts on the environment, how she evolved and practice being environmentally aware, and her views on the planet while sipping on Philz. Also mentions her freshman year bio teacher... Hi Mr. Westbrook! enjoy!  --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/aaliyah-safi/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/aaliyah-safi/support

This episode will be the first of many interview we will have as we learn leadership and life experiences of people in San Diego and beyond. We started with someone we already know and got to sit down and share some coffee and good conversation with Ferdi's co-Team Lead at Philz Coffee; none other than Eddie Bernardo! He's first gen Filipino and we wanted to learn how it was like for him to work at Philz, as well as his own personal upbringing as a child of a Filipino immigrant. We'll also learn about his experience living in the Philippines and the irony of getting culture shocked in the land of your own heritage. He will also impart a lot of his own leadership style and motivation and how he relates leadership and life to dancing as well as looking up to his role model, Will Smith! I hope you all enjoy this episode and while you're at it, feel free to check out Philz Coffee in Del Mar, La Jolla, and Encinitas and pick up a bag of Gratitude, their delicious and festive holiday blend! Cheers! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/barakoproject/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/barakoproject/support

Pour yourself a rich cup of coffee and join Paul and Annie at Philz Coffee, Old Towne Orange!  Our dynamic duo recently had the chance to sit down with Rocky Covill, team leader and barista at Philz.   Rocky explains the dedicated process of harvesting and roasting coffee beans for Philz' coffee blends and dives into the specialized routines that produce each "cup of love" at each coffee house.  Paul and Annie learn about the history of Old Towne Orange and why this special Philz location was positioned at an old garage.  Rocky explains how they made it through the quarantine and introduces several special coffee blends that have our BFFs' mouths watering.   Find Us On: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

In this episode Kjersti and Kristi discuss the creation of Kristi's newly illustrated e-book, Self-Care 101 for Busy Parents, as well as the positive response from a few individuals regarding Kjersti's book, Running for Mental Health, A How-To Guide. Kristi shares about some of her recent collaborations and presentations that have inspired her to increase how much movement she includes in her self-care routine. Kjersti shares about a recent visit to the beach with her kids --during the school day-- underscoring the silver lining of schooling-from-home during a pandemic. Kjersti and Kristi share about some professional connections that have been made over instagram, and ooh and ahh about how magical it all seems. Mentioned in this episode: Emily Doliner (artist, graphic designer, illustrator) Sergio Jaimes-Vigaray @rootedparentmovement Suzy Reading (Australian psychologist) @suzyreading Jessica Robson of Run Talk Run @jessicamaryrobson William Pullen of Dynamic Running Therapy @d_runningtherapy Jack Kornfield is an American Buddhist teacher and a founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center Our favorite coffee: Kristi shared her love for cold brew coffee with cream from Philz. Kjersti shared about her love for cafe au lait from Blue Bottle Coffee.

What happens when your customer clicks ‘order’ on your Ecommerce site?  Do your systems have rules that look at the customer location and choose the nearest warehouse to fulfill that order? Or are you relying on one fulfillment center and allowing days or weeks to pass before it arrives to your customer?   The real-world logistics behind each digital order can be a complex process… but if you could set up the proper systems, what if you could then compete with the new industry standard of two-day shipping? Understanding this logistical side of Ecommerce is vital for any store owner or executive team looking to master this world.  Today, we’re exploring the logistics side of Ecommerce with an industry expert.  Casey Armstrong, is the Chief Marketing Officer at ShipBob working hard to ensure that Ecommerce shops are able to get products to their customers effectively and efficiently.  On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, Casey takes us behind the scenes of what makes for a good third-party logistics partner, or 3PL. Plus he explains when companies might want to start thinking about finding a 3PL partner, and why Amazon, which is seen as the gold standard in fulfillment, might not actually be the best choice for your Ecommerce shop.  3 Takeaways:  Optimizing your 3PL Strategy: There are many options when it comes to choosing who to partner with as your 3PL partner. But making sure you ask the right questions is key. Do they help with creating a beautiful unboxing experience? Are they distributed? Can they grow and scale with your company? Tune in to hear all the things to consider when setting up your 3PL operations. Focus on The Product, Not The Fulfillment: So many entrepreneurs start off having to do everything themselves from marketing, to product development, to fulfillment. After a while, the fulfillment process will wind up taking up the majority of your time that should be spent on developing, talking to customers, and scaling the business.  Owning the Tech Stack: From top to bottom, when a 3PL owns the tech stack, it can provide data to its customers that can directly impact ROI. With easy access to data like inventory, distribution centers, customer location/preferences, an Ecommerce shop can make decisions about its fulfillment strategy with a sharper focus. For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length. --- Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce --- Transcript: Stephanie: Welcome back to Up Next In Commerce. This is your host, Stephanie Postles, co-founder of Mission.org. Today on the show, we have Casey Armstrong, the chief marketing officer at ShipBob. Casey, welcome. Casey: Hello. Thank you for having me. Stephanie: Yeah. Thanks for coming on the show. I am eager to have you on since we have not had anyone in your industry on yet. I think there's a lot to learn. Casey: Perfect. Stephanie: I want to hear before we dive into ShipBob, a little bit about your background and how you got into your current role of CMO. Casey: Yes. Thank you for the intro. As you mentioned, chief marketing officer over here at ShipBob. Where at ShipBob, we are an Ecommerce fulfillment solution essentially bringing that Amazon level two-day, three-day shipping experience to direct to consumer brands. We can get more into the specifics of ShipBob later. I'm not here just to pitch that, but we do that through our distributed fulfillment network. We've got 10 facilities around the world. Casey: Then before ShipBob, I actually was the VP of marketing over at BigCommerce, one of the leading Ecommerce platforms who also happen to go public in IPO last week. Another huge congrats to the BigCommerce team over there, that was a huge accomplishment. I'm just very proud of what they have accomplished. I know that they're just getting started. Then prior to that, I was the SVP at a company called Watchmaster. We were a luxury watch Ecommerce brand actually located over in Europe. Those were the last couple roles for me that brought me over to ShipBob. Stephanie: Tell me a little bit about ShipBob. What is it? How would you explain to someone who does not know even where to begin with that? Casey: Yeah. We ship off to really simplify it. Again, if I would really simplify it, we're a tech enabled 3PL which again means we store and ship your products. If you're a direct to consumer brand and you want to utilize ShipBob or let's say another 3PL, you would send us your inventory. We would store your inventory. Then, as orders come in, we ship it out on your behalf. We are not a carrier. We are not like FedEx or USPS. We partner with them. Casey: Every day they send multiple trucks to our facilities and pack that truck to the brim. Then, take those orders out to deliver to the end consumer. Yeah. I think that covers most of it. Stephanie: Yeah. That's good. You're kind of like the behind the scenes operation that can help fulfill products and orders for an Ecommerce shop? Casey: Exactly. We really are pushing the envelope to do a lot more than that. I mean, we are platform agnostic. We can connect on all the marketplaces. We don't really care how you are selling or where you are selling. We just ingest those orders. Then, we can ship the products to the end consumer. We're really enabling that entire e commerce experience regardless of how you are running or facilitating your business. Stephanie: How does ShipBob differentiate itself from other 3PLs? Casey: One of the ways, the most obvious ways is our fulfillment network. We have 10 facilities, eight in the US, one in Canada and one in Europe. Why that is important and why we're making a huge bet on the distributed fulfillment model is because then you're closer to the end consumer, which means that you can deliver your packages not only faster, but also much more cost effectively. That's a huge focus area of ours. Casey: Another very, let's say, obvious item too is the technology. I'll touch on two items there. One is we really are making our bet on controlling that entire stack. That goes from the merchant application, which should really be your go-to source for all inventory and order management. You don't have to use another tool. You get all of that within ShipBob. Another is the ShipBob fulfillment engine, which is really the logic of what and where and how to ship all products. That's what talks to our fulfillment centers. Then, it's our warehouse management system or WNS technology, which powers all the logic within the fulfillment centers. Casey: That's from how should we receive your inventory when you send it to us? Where should we store it? When the order comes in, which person in the fulfillment center should pick it? What box should they put it in? Which label should they print it out? When should they prioritize that within their day? All of that is ShipBob technology. The reason why we think that is so important is that's how we can create this unified fulfillment experience for our customers across all of our locations. That way, we can also be as cost effective and efficient with our time, so that we can then pass on those savings to our customers. Casey: Then, another item with the technology as well is that allows us to, again, not just optimize what happens there but share this data more transparently with our customers. For example, all of our customers get ... we're we actually going to turn this into a paid product, we decided because of how much value it drove to our customers, we just decided to open it up to our analytics dashboards. Customers can come in and just get some pretty robust data and analytics on how their business is performing from like an inventory and fulfillment perspective. Casey: They can even see things like with a click of a button, let's say they're storing all of their product in our southern California location. They actually see they're getting quite a few sales in the northeast. They can click one of our northeast locations and they can see, okay, this is the cost savings and the reduction in transit speed if I utilize two facilities. Sometimes, you're like, why wouldn't anybody use two or three or 10 facilities? You have to think through the business, which is it might cost incremental money to ship to multiple facilities or you might want to double up on inventory. Casey: There are pros and cons of both. That's just one of many examples of with a click of a button, you can really dive down in your business and see where there are some cost savings and time saving opportunities. Stephanie: That seems very good, very helpful. I will point though, would someone know like, okay, now is the time that I should maybe outsource my fulfillment. How big should they be? Or when will they know it's the right time to maybe hire or bring on a 3PL? Casey: Yeah. I think knowing the right time, I think that's the easier one to answer. I get this question all the time. Is it 100 orders a month? Is it 1000? What is it? Just like most answers to things in life is it depends. I think it's beneficial to pick and pack and ship products for maybe a little bit, maybe even just when you're getting started, because one you kind of learn the mechanics of it and what goes into it and just even things to optimize yourself. Casey: An example there is sometimes people want this extremely robust unboxing experience. They'll get these extremely customized boxes. Then they realize, oh, well it takes them 10 minutes to fold it all up together every time. That's not efficient for them and that won't be efficient for the 3PL. Also, I think it's actually just extremely important to understand who your customers are and so as these orders come in, and you can do this after you outsource it as well, but as orders come in, look them up. Casey: Is it Casey Armstrong? Okay, he lives where? Okay, he has children, he's into certain things. Who are these people? To really understand your customers. I'd say the time to outsource it is when you start getting close to a point where the fulfillment side of the business is eating into your time that can be better spent on sales and marketing and product development fulfillment is often a low leverage use of your time. There's a reason why people utilize companies like ShipBob. Casey: You should be spending your time on growing the business, again, sales and marketing and product development, probably not picking and packing boxes, which also takes a lot of time. Stephanie: Yeah, that makes sense. How would I think about you guys versus maybe like Amazon fulfillment? What is the difference there? Casey: Yes ... Stephanie: Would I pick you over Amazon? Or is it either or? Can I use both? Casey: You can use both. Sometimes, we're a replacement. Sometimes, you would utilize us instead and sometimes we're a compliment. With Amazon, it depends on what you're looking for. With us, we often work with Ecommerce brands. I definitely stress brands, people that care about owning that customer relationship and owning that data and having full control over what and how products are getting sent to their customers. Casey: With Amazon, which really sets the gold standard in logistics, no question, with them, it's really you ship stuff to their fulfillment centers, everything goes out in an Amazon box. You get extremely limited data if something goes wrong, or if they make changes. Like for example, they stopped shipping essentials or receiving essentials, early on in COVID. Most recently, they are limiting the amount of inventory you can store in their facilities. They're the end all be all. They make that decision and there's nothing you can do about it. Casey: You just have to conform your business to how they change. With us, you can include marketing inserts. You can include custom packaging. You get and own all of the data about your customers and about the fulfillment experience. If you want to pick up the phone and talk to somebody, you can. It's really weighing what is right for your business. Stephanie: Yeah, that makes sense. The one thing I've always kind of struggled with when thinking about 3PLs is the cost aspect. Because at one point, I don't remember what I was looking this up for but I was trying to find a good one here in California. They all use different metrics. I actually had to build a matrix in Google Sheets to be like, well, this person is quoting it based off of like, what are they called, partials or the big wooden blocks? Not blocks ... Casey: Pallets? Stephanie: Yeah, pallets. Hey, there you go. Yeah, they're quoting it based on pallets. Then, other people are talking about pieces. They all had different ways of talking about it. I felt like I didn't fully understand what cost to even consider when looking for different 3PLs. What do you advise if someone's going this route right now and thinking through it? Casey: Let's say, before even getting into the pricing equation is understanding what's important for you and that should hopefully allow you to whittle down your options because you probably are going to get handful of pricing agreements that are difficult to compare apples to apples. I mean, you could spend a little bit of time and get it to that point. Is connecting to certain technologies important? If so, you can probably cross a bunch of options off your list. Casey: Is having a location in a certain region or regions important? Do you want to split your inventory? Is certain things from a kidding or a packing or an unboxing experience important? If so, again, you can probably widdle some more off. With us, we really try to simplify it so you get billed off of receiving storage, and then what we call a total fulfillment cost. We try to simplify it some but again, even when you're looking at us versus others, you can't necessarily always get to this true apples to apples comparison but you can get pretty close. Stephanie: Yeah, that's a good point. If someone is doing a lot of other things like you mentioned like unboxing or having distributed fulfillment centers, that is probably even more important than just like how much will it cost to ship certain pieces. When thinking about the distributed fulfillment centers, how does the reduction, maybe like shipping days increase purchase size or cart abandonment? Have you seen any metrics around that where a quicker shipping time, I'm assuming helps with higher purchases, purchase volume? Casey: Yeah. We actually have a couple of case studies that are pretty interesting on our site today. I'll give two examples where one is with this one brand and they were utilizing our two-day express program. There, we split their inventory and we try to optimize everything or as much as possible to be shipped via ground, because we're going to pay ground versus air is night and day. That's why distributed fulfillment networks are important is because then you're getting access to a larger footprint of the US. Casey: Let's just say in this example, the continent of US for ground shipping because anybody can ship two day in air. That's easy. You can ship it from one facility, it's just going to be very expensive. Anyways, they were able to see slightly over 20% increase in their average order value by showcasing this two-day shipping experience. I think that's because they were really showing off that Amazon level experience. Amazon had a lot of data on just the additional spend, granted this isn't necessarily apples to apples but how much more the prime members spend versus a non-prime. Casey: Again, if somebody is using prime, they might have more ... maybe they're like in a higher income bracket or they put more emphasis on Ecommerce. We had another customer honestly that saw a 97% increase in average order value once they started showcasing this fast and free two-day shipping. I would not mark that as your baseline or your benchmark or target because doubling your average order value is pretty insane. It does go to show things that people, I think, think about a lot more now than they used to. That shipping and fulfillment experience both whether it be free for two days or free and two days can really move a lot of levers that will also help feed back into your ROI and your marketing. Stephanie: Yup. I think a lot of customers in the back their mind they know, if I don't get this in probably a week, I'm going to forget about it or I won't be as excited about it. I mean, that's at least how I am when I see maybe like seven to 14 days. I'm like, what am I going to be doing in 14 days? I don't even know if I want to wear that t-shirt in 14 days. Casey: Something that's really tough to calculate is how does that improve ... I mean, you can calculate like your net promoter score or NPS or your C-SAT or customer satisfaction score if you poll your customers. Maybe improvements in NPS improve word of mouth or improve customer retention as well. Something that I think about a lot is people always focus on email marketing or SMS or ads, but what is the number one place? Where do you get 100% open rate with your customers? Casey: That's on the products that you ship them. Everybody's going to open that box. From the speed and the experience and how they receive the package to maybe even the actual package to maybe what's inside the package is extremely important. Focusing on that because there's no better channel than word of mouth, but word of mouth is also the toughest to measure and also the toughest to grow. Stephanie: Yeah. I love that, especially the 100% open rate quote. How are you advising brands that you're working with when it comes to creating a delightful unboxing experience? Casey: It often depends on what they're selling. Stephanie: Yeah. Casey: I'd say it's more on not trying to do things overly complex. I think, back to the first website that I guess commissioned to be built. The poor developer who's actually the designer as well wanted to hang up the phone on me or delete my emails, because I just made what should have been so easy, so complicated, where I really just needed a homepage. Then, I needed a bunch of other let's call them child pages, but they could follow the same design template over and over again. Essentially, I just needed to build out two different design templates. Even if my website was going to be let's say, 50 pages. Casey: Where I came to him and I was like, I want the homepage to look like this. I want the blog to look like this. The about page to look like this. The service page to look like this. He's like, we haven't even got off the ground and you're asking for 50 things. The same thing with that packaging and unboxing experience, which is, let's say you're shipping in just standard brown boxes today or poly mailers today. How can you make just like an incremental step up? Maybe it's that brown box but it has your logo on it. Then, maybe make another incremental step forward from there. Casey: Because every time you add complexity, it's going to cost more money most likely to create these custom boxes. Also, your 3PL might charge you for kidding fees. There's a company that I'm a customer of, Lovevery, if you're familiar with them, I know you have little ones. Stephanie: Yeah, I've heard of them. Their unboxing experiences, it's beautiful. I know my wife and kids look forward to it every time it hits the door. You don't ... Stephanie: What does it look like? Tell me a little bit about it. Casey: From the box, and there's another company called KiwiCo that does the same. It's this beautiful box, you open it up, everything is laid out like in the order that you're going to use it from the instructions to the toys or the products you're going to use because they're more like educational toys. It's almost like this story or they're like hand holding you through this experience. Let's just put them at the far end of the spectrum of this amazing unboxing experience. You're going to maybe even pull out your phone and Instagram it or something. Casey: Maybe that's your future state goal. If right now, you're just throwing things in a brown box, don't try to do that overnight. Just try to make it like a little bit better and then just progress on that overtime. Stephanie: Yeah, that's a really good point, not just for boxing, but I think this advice in general, sometimes it's easy to want to go, let's do 1,000 things and then it's like you're frozen and you can't move forward. I'm sure you see a lot behind the scenes with a lot of new brands, probably approaching you and trying you guys out. What kind of trends are you seeing in the fulfillment world? Are there new things that have come up since the pandemic that maybe you weren't anticipating before that you guys are kind of pivoting to help out with that maybe you just didn't have customers asking for that prior to COVID? Casey: I don't know about trends of things that they're asking for that they weren't prior, I'd say, their sense of urgency is increased. We knew that we were going to roll out a few international locations, but the demand for those capabilities and the speed at which customers are trying to close themselves. For our business, it's actually rather welcoming, but it's been pretty fascinating to see that really accelerate over time. Casey: We rolled out our European and Canadian fulfillment centers this year and people just kind of been banging on the door to leverage those because Ecommerce demand everywhere has spiked. I'd say another that's been kind of interesting is while Amazon is still viewed very favorably, let's just say across the US, how people are evaluating Amazon as a 3PL, depending on their business, again, whether they put all their eggs in the Amazon basket versus like just viewing it as a compliment. Casey: I think this has really shed a huge light on the importance of owning your business and owning your distribution channels as much as possible and owning your customer data and owning that supply chain like the example that I gave earlier. Again, I have so much respect for Amazon. They push our industry forward, not just Ecommerce, but logistics as well, is when they can start limiting which products you can ship to them and when they can start limiting which products that you can store with them, which therefore dictates which items you can ship out, which is how you make money. Casey: That's a lot of power to give to a third party. They're doing it because they need to do what's best for them as a company. They need to do what's best for all of their third party sellers and aggregate. No matter how big you are, you're just one of those hundreds of thousands of businesses. Just making sure that you plan accordingly. Stephanie: Yeah, that makes sense. It seems like the shipping delays that happened with Amazon as well or when they started prioritizing essential stuff also gave a lot of DTC companies and people who aren't relying on Amazon a chance because all the people on Amazon are maybe used to that two-day shipping, that started turning to five and seven and two weeks, started looking elsewhere and started being open to other ideas other than just like Amazon is my source. Stephanie: I know myself included, I have actually been okay ordering from brands directly. Because I'm like, this brand is maybe four days, Amazon might be two to three, not that much of a difference. Whereas before this, I don't know, if I would have considered ordering directly from a brand if it was also on Amazon. Casey: You're spot on. That's what's going to be so interesting as COVID hopefully starts to dissipate and then hopefully it's in the rearview mirror, is the habits that we have formed over the last four to six months and which of those stick and people being comfortable with a slightly longer fulfillment time because they can buy directly from the brand or because whatever fear that they had has been reduced and so they'll trust these other websites more. Casey: Even I know when I was at BigCommerce like we had a quarter that was super focused on digital wallets. As that's evolved, digital wallets meaning like the PayPal buy button, the Amazon one click, I'm trying to think what else Visa and Apple Pay. Those also allow people to buy not just on desktop but also mobile so easily where you don't even need to go and get your wallet. It's just the ease of purchase is just so much easier now versus like on Amazon, they stored everything and it was very easy. Now, those digital wallets are also on a lot of these direct to consumer sites. Stephanie: Yeah. I think that's so important. It's like we have a Philz down the street and I used to always go in and order, use my credit card and whatnot. When they started doing only mobile ordering where you can only pick it up at their ... like outside, instantly, I'm all of a sudden ordering like two Philz a week. I'm out and I walk my dog I'm like, oh, I've got my phone I can order it. Payment is already set up. Something I never would have done before. Now, I'm like, why did I ever wait in line? What was wrong with me? Why didn't I get their app to begin with? Casey: Yeah. Great point. It's like this forcing mechanism for us to try these slightly more innovative products. Even somebody like myself has been in Ecommerce forever and buying stuff on Amazon, I'm sure you've ... since whenever you had a credit card, my wife and I, we never utilized like Whole Foods delivery or buying groceries on Amazon. Then, with this and with the little ones, we've just been very diligent on really living the quarantine life as fun as that is. We get multiple Whole Foods deliveries a week now. Casey: When before, we're like, I'm not sure about how the produce will be. What about getting meat? It's been great. I mean, the cons are usually you get about 85% of the things you put in your cart, because they don't have everything but they deliver right to you. There's just so many changes, just like your example, the coffee. Stephanie: Yeah, I'm starting to wonder too, if consumers will be ... I think there's going to be two sides of it, one where they're going to have very high expectations for things like they want to have trust in the brand. They want transparency. They want to see what's going on behind the scenes? Are they socially conscious? Then, I also think there's another side of the consumer where they're going to be okay with good enough. Like with your Whole Foods example, I was the same way like, I pick tomatoes out in a certain way or avocados and they just won't know how to pick out my avocado. Stephanie: Now I'm like, if four out of five of the avocados are good enough, I'm happy with it. I kind of see two ends of the spectrum of what this push consumers to be, which would be kind of hard to meet. Casey: I agree. I might be slightly biased and we're pushing ShipBob to deliver everything within, let's say, one to three days. Sometimes, a merchant can only store all their inventory in one location. Let's say, it's on the east coast and I know you're in California, as am I, and we order something, maybe it takes about four or five days to get to us. Am I willing to take that slightly longer delivery speed, because I know that I'm supporting entrepreneur that much more? Casey: I'll be curious to see how that changes just as we do are more conscious about supporting SMBs. We know that if we buy it directly from their website versus Amazon or elsewhere, that we put more money in their pocket. I'm very interested to see how that evolves over time. Stephanie: Yeah, no, that'll be really interesting. We're just talking about putting more money in the merchant's pocket. How do you advise or what best practices do you see when it comes to setting pricing? If I'm implementing a 3PL, should the retail price of something have like a 50% profit margin or 70? How do you advise someone to set their prices in a way that makes sense to make sure that their margins are good and not eaten up by 3PLs and returns and all that? Casey: I mean, every business will just be so different. I think what's important that you're getting at is, and something that not everybody fully carves off the time to understand off the top of their head, like all these numbers off the top of their head. What are their true costs of goods sold? How much does it cost for them to receive these products? As they scale over time is there opportunity to reduce those cogs so that they can improve their margins? Casey: You start with something like that. Then it's like today and then as they forecast in the future, what are their customer acquisition costs or CAC? Then, understanding that, because then that tells you how much money you still have left over for fulfillment. What are your true shipping and your total shipping and fulfillment costs? I think a lot of people focus just on reducing their customer acquisition costs without understanding all the levers that they can pull. Casey: Again, it's just knowing your metrics extremely well. Then from there, identifying which are the biggest numbers and how can you start pulling levers to reduce those or increase those over time? Stephanie: The other thing I'm thinking about when you're talking about opening up fulfillment centers in Europe, what does a brand need to consider when they are thinking about using a fulfillment center overseas, if they are in a California or New York? Is there anything special that they have to take into consideration before utilizing fulfillment center overseas? Casey: Yeah. We'll keep this relatively succinct because this can ... Stephanie: Be a whole episode? Casey: Exactly. I guess, are there any regulatory issues with me getting my products into a certain country? For example, I know certain cosmetics, it's actually more difficult to get into Canada and ship from there versus it is to get into Europe. It's understanding that. Then, number two, which where you'll spend most of your time is just that value added tax. What do you have to pay to get your products in? Then, how do you need to include that within your pricing? Casey: Every single country in Europe has their own batch structure. You can just spend a lot of time there. Or like what we're working on is allowing people just to think of that as in Europe is like one country. Then, we do a lot of the heavy lifting on the, let's say, peripheral or outside and so you really only need to think of that once versus that differently for every country. Stephanie: That's a good thing to consider. You guys are kind of taking care of that for them in a way so they don't have to do all the research on the different locales and what to charge and whatnot. Casey: Exactly. There are different types of that. With Watchmaster, for example, sometimes we would buy watches in the south in a country like Greece, where I think their VAT is like 22 or 23%. Then, we'd sell them in the north. Let's say Germany, where I believe the VAT is 18%. There alone, let's say in Greece it's 23% and in Germany's 18%, that's a 5% delta. Even if we sold the watch, for the same exact price, we have 5% margin just because of the delta in the VAT. Casey: I'm simplifying this greatly. Just as an example of like there's just so much complexity and that's just one product in two different countries. Stephanie: That makes sense. Then, do you guys, I mean, I'm sure things get caught up in customs, do you also help keep track of that? Or is that something that they need to get it to the warehouse or center in Europe, and then you guys help take care of it from there? Casey: If we're shipping things from the US internationally, that's one thing. There's duties you can pay in advance and then there's also unpaid. Then, from getting the stuff into the country and into our facility, we will help some there, but it's usually utilizing partners of ours. We're not a freight forwarding company. Stephanie: Yup. Cool. That makes sense. With everything you guys are doing behind the scenes, I wanted to touch a bit on the technology because it just seems like you have a lot going on. Like you said, you guys are tech enabled. What kind of technology are you using to make the fulfillment process seamless? Any AI you're implementing? Or new leading or cutting edge technologies that you're implementing to make that process work? Casey: Yeah. We do use a lot of machine learning. Our bet also is building a lot of this stuff ourselves. That's utilizing from connecting our solution and APIs to third party solutions, to then building all the logic and intelligence internally. Again, that's utilized a lot of machine learning. Then, that's driving the decision making. Really, I'd say the biggest bet with us on the technology is owning the entire stack from what our customers are using to how those orders are being sent to the fulfillment centers and the technology in the fulfillment centers. Casey: It's not using let's say like a third party warehouse management system. Stephanie: Got it. When you're talking about integrating seamlessly and partners, what kind of partners are important to have integrated with your 3PL? Who are you guys making sure that you're partnered with to make it a seamless experience? Casey: Yeah. Definitely, at the top, it's the Ecommerce platforms. Then, on the output side, it is the carriers. It's making sure that we're able to get the best pricing within the right timeframe across FedEx and UPS and USPS and DHL and some of the local carriers so that we can make sure that we're making the best cost efficient and time efficient decision on behalf of our customers. Stephanie: Cool. The one thing I always love is stories. I'd love to hear any mistakes that merchants have made where they come to you and you're like, we've been doing it this way for 10 years, or like, this is how we do things now and you're like, oh, that's bad. Any stories like that that other people could learn from like don't do this? Casey: One that sticks actually off the top of my head. This was something I thought about a lot when I decided to make the jump over to ShipBob was when I was at BigCommerce, we were doing this big film series and we were visiting a bunch of our merchants. I met this one merchant. This husband wife duo where ... and I love their story and they're doing really well. Certain businesses run their way for certain reason. Casey: I love their story because the wife, she started the business initially by herself. She ran it by herself for a couple years, where she signed up for the two-week trial. She literally hit the Launch button from a Starbucks. It's like the American Dream version for Ecommerce. Stephanie: All the pictures show that you're in a coffee shop and today is the day. I'm hitting go live website. Casey: Exactly and still free, you're on the trial. Fast forward however long it had been, like five years from when I'm sitting in their "office", which is essentially just a mini fulfillment center. The place was packed to the brim. Now, it was the husband and the wife and they were doing all things sales, all things marketing, all things website development. They were doing everything except for the storing the inventory, picking it, packing it, handling returns, putting the labels on the box, taping up the boxes. Casey: They had 18 employees so 90% of the workforce, including them, were doing fulfillment work. They were the only people focused on building the community and sales and marketing and product development. I knew at the time this is before honestly, they even knew about ShipBob, this is not right mix. When I left, they were actually going across the street to negotiate extending their warehousing space, so they can move across the street to store even more inventory. Casey: Now, you're adding all these fixed costs, such as your rent and also fixed costs with all your employees. While you can maybe get rid of the employees, if things go bad, you're most likely going to be stuck with the rents. Whereas if you utilize a third party logistics solution, you're often paying them on performance. The more you sell, the more you pay them. The less you sell, the less you pay them. It's more of this variable rate versus this fixed rate. Casey: I just was blown away because these people were going to do over 15 million that year. It was really just two people doing everything except for fulfillment. Stephanie: My gosh, I blame Shark Tank for that. You know all the ads they show where they're like, we started in our basement and here we are with our whole family packaging everything. If you show that ad enough, people would be like, that's how you do it. Casey: I'm not going to name names. We have customers and it's kind of unfortunate. We have customers that will throw up their Instagram stories every week of them picking and packing boxes and storing a bunch of stuff in their spare bedroom and all this stuff because they're selling the dream to their community. They get it to an extent. Then, all of their followers were trying to do things themselves. They're replicating these false mistakes when I'm like, what? Stephanie: Oh, gosh, yeah, that's really good, though. I mean, I think that's an important lesson all around is like there's a certain point when you can do that. Then, after that, you need to be focusing on the product. It can only get you so far when you're doing everything on your own. Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Stephanie: What kind of disruptions do you see coming to the world of fulfillment? Casey: Some news that just broke the other day that I think will be interesting to watch is a lot of these older retail spaces. A big question is what's going to happen with these malls? I think a lot of that also comes down to ... and with these retailers. It comes down to I think it was signing property but it was these large mall operators and owners, what are they going to do with the space? Casey: Amazon unsurprisingly is right in the mix. Are they going to start leveraging these now vacant or near vacant malls, where they can be very close to ... because these malls are often in suburban areas, which are close to a lot of the end consumer. Can they start leveraging these mall facilities for their last mile operations? That'll be interesting. It's definitely something that we've looked at. We're definitely building our technology in a way that individual store owners could possibly even utilize it at some point, people could start injecting it in the malls. Casey: I think that's going to be pretty fascinating to watch. Then, another thing less on like the innovative side, just more of like the blocking and tackling stuff is like, with Q4 coming up, how big of upswing in sales are we going to see? Usually we see between let's say 30 to 50% uptick in sales volume. With unemployment and everything, not in the best space, are we still going to see that? If so, these brands that are trying to get ahead of the curve and store all their products, now, Amazon's already said that they're not going to allow unlimited inventory like they had in the past. Casey: We've come out and taken the opposite stance where we're not going to restrict because of COVID. How are a lot of these mom and pop 3PLs that really only have one facility are going to be able to do things and just how are a lot of people are going to be able to conform. That's just the kind of boring work of I just need to literally store my product somewhere and then ship it out. I think it'd be interesting to see how a lot of brands navigate that. Stephanie: Yeah, completely agree. That'll be a good area to watch. All right. We have a couple minutes left and we do something called a lightning round brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This is where I will ask a question and you have a minute or less to answer. Casey, are you ready? Casey: I am ready. Stephanie: What's up next on your reading list? Casey: My reading list. Oh, man, I've been buying way too many books lately. I actually bought this book. Here, let me grab it, I actually have it next to me. Stephanie: Yeah. Casey: I've been trying to get a lot more into finance and so I actually I bought Titan by Chernow and then I bought Reminiscence Of A Stock Operator. The one I'm reading right now is called How Finance Works. It's by this Harvard PhD or Harvard professor that just really kind of uses some humor, but really gets you hands on and breaking down a lot of things from a finance perspective. Casey: I historically read a ton of fiction, but now I'm reading this and maybe that's why I'm falling asleep faster at night. Stephanie: I'll have to check that out. I mean, I love finance. I will be checking that out. What's up next on your Netflix queue? Casey: Oh man. Because I have little ones probably like Rescue Bots or something. Stephanie: Yup. I feel you there. Casey: Yeah. I think I've exhausted the rest of Netflix. Stephanie: That's all right. Kid stuff. I'm on the same page as you. Casey: There we go. Stephanie: If you were to have a podcast, what would it be about and who would your first guest be? Casey: Gosh. I've thought of this idea quite a bit. I mean, there's a bunch on the business side, but I think it'd be ... I just love sports. I'd say probably Shaq, Shaquille O'Neal. I want to understand what was the catalyst for him to get very business savvy for an example like he ... I don't think it was maybe like his rookie year, but very early on he never touched a paycheck because he was making so much money from endorsements. Casey: Basically, all of his NBA salary would go to his bank. From there, he's just invested in ... he owns like a ton of like Popeye's and a bunch of car washes. He just very diversified the assets that he owns and where he makes money. It's just fascinating to see how he was just so early in that. Then, you see people like James Harden and Steph Curry and others, and I think Kevin Durant recently did buying minor shares in MLS teams. Casey: I think that the athlete getting more business savvy is just a fascinating concept and would allow me to geek out about sports. I know that's not a lightning answer, but it's my long winded answer. Stephanie: All right. The last one is what app or piece of tech are you using right now that's making the most efficient in life or business? Casey: I'd say an app that I have a love hate relationship with like most people will be Twitter, because sometimes I'm like, is this just an absolute waste of my time? I don't necessarily tweet over too often, but using it as something I've actually been doing a lot more over email to is just cold email, cold outreach. The connections you can make with people to send direct messages. It's fascinating. Casey: Then, as you evolve those relationships over time like there's no way to even put an ROI on that. Just opening the doors in different business opportunities and partnerships and stuff, it's just been fascinating and it's free. It's insane. Anyways, I'd say for now it's Twitter. Stephanie: I need to try more of that. DMs make me nervous. I'm like, I don't know if I should do it. I should just go for it. Start DMing everyone. Casey: You should. I mean, worst case, they don't reply and that's where you were in the first place. Stephanie: Yeah, so true. All right, Casey, well, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. Where can people find out more about you and ShipBob? Casey: Yeah, shipbob.com. Come check us out. As I mentioned, I'm on Twitter CaseyA. Come hit us up over at ShipBob. Let us know how we can help. Stephanie: Awesome. Thanks so much. Casey: Thank you.

As Randy Goldberg says, ‘no one dreams of going into the sock business.’ But if there is one sock company you can name off the top of your head, it’s probably the one Randy built with co-founder Dave Heath. Bombas Socks has grown from a small Ecommerce company with a mission into a $100-million dollar enterprise, and the success they’ve had all boils down to remembering the fundamentals.  On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, Randy takes us through his journey to Bombas. He details why founders need to avoid ‘shiny object syndrome’ and focus their sights on the basics if they want to succeed. Plus, he talks about Bombas’ culture of transparency and how to decide between leading with the company mission or the merits of the product when trying to attract customers. Key Takeaways: Bring in the Right People. Scaling requires people — employees, execs, investors, and mentors. Lean on your network, ask questions, hire carefully, and create a dialog with other D2C companies to learn from them. Pro tip: It’s time to bring someone else in when you start to ask questions that neither you nor anyone on your team can answer Ask Yourself, “What Matters More?” When it comes to getting better conversions, don’t let shiny objects distract you. For example, changing the copy or placement of a video matters a lot less than the speed of the site. The faster your site speed, the more conversions you will have. Stay focused on what investments really convert Transparency Impacts the Bottom Line. When employees feel invested in the company and comfortable in the environment you create, they begin to ask more questions, buy-in to the company mission, and work harder to achieve success for themselves and the company For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length. --- Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce --- Transcript: Stephanie: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Up Next In Commerce. This is your host, Stephanie Postles, co-founder of mission.org. Today, I'm really excited to have Randy Goldberg on the show, the co-founder and Chief Brand Officer at Bombas. Randy, welcome. Randy: Thank you for having me. Happy to be here. Stephanie: Really excited to have you. Thanks for taking the time. I'd love to dive into your background a little bit before we get into Bombas, a little bit about what brought you into the world of Ecommerce and starting Bombas. Randy: Yeah, I guess, we have a sock company, an Ecommerce sock company. I say this a lot, but I don't think anybody ever really grows up dreaming of being in the sock business. It was kind of a winding path for me to arrive at Bombas and to think about this company. My background is in branding, so I was a copywriter and a strategist, and I worked for digital agencies and I worked for a lot of brands through the years. Writing brand books, trying to find out where they had gone astray, brands that were sort of struggling a little bit. I think through that work, I gained a perspective on what I thought a good company looked like, talked like, acted like. At some point, I moved from the agency side to the media side and I was working at a digital media company, and that's where I met Dave Heath, my co-founder in Bombas, and we sort of cooked up the idea when we were working together way back then in 2011. Stephanie: Cool. Why did you guys think, I want to start a sock company? Did you both want to start this or did one have to pitch to the other? Randy: Yeah. Well, I don't think we thought of it as a pitch. We were friends and we were both very entrepreneurial in our outlook. Our families were entrepreneurs. We just, I think, had that same point of view on the world, and we liked the idea of maybe starting a business one day. We weren't actively writing things on a whiteboard and crossing off a list, but we would just talk about things and the business landscape at the time. It wasn't, we need to get this done this year, we were just having a regular day, and Dave was on Facebook, and he saw a campaign that the Salvation Army had been doing with Hanes. Randy: The Salvation Army, they had a quote in there that said socks are the most requested clothing item in homeless shelters. We were having lunch, and Dave said, "I saw this quote, did you have any idea about socks and homeless shelters?" And I said, "No, and I don't even understand why." We started to call around to some shelters in New York, and we were talking to people and we just realized that there was a real problem here. If you're living on the streets, a fresh pair of socks, foot hygiene means a lot. You might be walking more and have less frequent opportunities to wash your clothing. And then, shelters don't accept used socks for donations. So they were always having a shortage and it was always a big need and people would have to buy new socks and then donate them. Randy: People just tended to donate the things that they had worn or gently used. We really just wanted to help solve the problem. So, we started thinking about that, we started buying socks and donating them. Then, I guess just the way our minds work, we started to think there's probably an opportunity here. We looked at the success that Toms had been having and saw their one-for-one business model, and Warby Parker had just launched at the time and they had a charitably inclined business. We thought, maybe this business model really works for this product. It really maps well to it. Just because this is a product that people really aren't allowed to donate on their own. Randy: Then we started to think about socks and we just got obsessed with socks. We were like, socks just haven't changed in 50 years. Athletic socks look the same. They're cardboard, they're white or they're black. Even if you're somebody who cares tremendously about the things that you wear, where they come from, what you're putting on your body, the last thing you get to generally is socks. We thought there was an opportunity to make something really great, to really improve on a product that people take for granted, and that are afterthought in the consumer market, to help solve a problem that's an afterthought sort of for shelters and organization. Randy: Just like, if we can make something really great, we'll sell a lot, and if we sell a lot, we can donate a lot, and if we donate a lot, we can help solve a problem in the community where we work and live. It's easy to look back and say that, but at the time, it just took a while for us to wrap our head around this and think about it as a business idea. Stephanie: Very cool. I will say that I'm definitely someone who had socks as an afterthought, but I will say when I tried on Bombas, I was like, this is a whole different level of socks. I didn't realize I cared about them at all. I would normally just get black ones and just be like, whatever, as long as they're short, I don't care. Then I tried them on, I'm like, oh, these are game changing. They're amazing. Randy: Thank you. I think that's what we're going for. We want to change the way people think about socks, and make it hard for you to go back once you put on a pair of Bombas. Stephanie: Oh yeah. You can't. In the early days, when you were starting out, how did you think through the economics of developing the one to one program? Randy: The early days for us, that meant making sure that we could, from the start, bake into the unit economics, the donation pair, so that no matter what anyone said along the path, if we were raising money, if we were building the business, that there's nothing anybody could do because we were ironclad around the donation model. We built it into the covenant of the business. We've codified it. It's just something no one could ever really take away, but just focusing on it from the beginning and making sure that we could afford to do it, as a for profit enterprise, was a big early step. We've grown and we've gotten smarter about it and we've built a big network of giving inside of the company. It's all gotten bigger and better, but it really started with that idea. Randy: I think that's the right question. Did you think about it from the beginning? Yes, or else we wouldn't have been able to do it and maybe somewhere along the road, we would have compromised, but it's been a big part of how we've talked about the business and the brand and a big part of the success of the company, and having a great product on the side for the consumer allows us to afford the development costs of the donation product, which is an important thing to make sure we're making a product for people who are experiencing homelessness or living on the street. All of these things have been really thought out from the start. Stephanie: It's amazing. I think I saw that you reached profitability by year three. What does your revenue look like now, annually? Randy: Well, we don't typically share exact revenues like numbers, but it's a multiple hundred million dollar a year company at this point and profitable. Stephanie: Very cool. Yeah, I think that's what I saw, but I wanted it to come from you instead of me saying what I think that I read. Randy: Yeah. You read correctly. Yeah, so profitability, I think you're seeing a lot of direct to consumer companies and Ecommerce companies now really starting to think about profitability in this moment. The way that people are raising money and what companies who are handing out money have been looking for, it's forcing a lot of companies who've raised a lot of money and had profitability as a down the road kind of goal, shift how they're operating and shift how they're thinking. I see that, and I've talked to founders who were dealing with this and it seems really painful. I think for us, it was a goal from the beginning. We wanted to have a really solid conservative financial outlook, get to profitability quickly, build a business for the long-term, for the long haul. Randy: We want our grandkids to be wearing Bombas. That's one of our core values. I think that plays into the way that we built the business from the unit economics and financial side of things as well, and the way that we approach marketing, which obviously as you know, as a direct to consumer company, is the hot topic, of course. Stephanie: Yep. Were there any issues that you ran into along the way? Because scaling to over a hundred million revenue is probably pretty tough. Is there any lessons you learned along the way or things that you're like, ooh, we did this great, or we maybe should have done this a bit different? Randy: I think the number one lesson is about focus. Know what you do really well, know why your company exists, why your product deserves to exist in the world, and then focus on doing that well, focus on telling the same story over and over and over again. Whenever we've been able to really focus on that product on the donation, on the sort of foundational elements of the business, that's when we've done the best, and that's when the company has grown really well. When we've gotten distracted by, hey, let's try this pop-up retail idea, or let's advertise in this new place that is unproven, but seems good for this one specific reason, and it's taken our focus away from the things that we do best, that's where we've had the most trouble. I think that's been the big theme for us in the early years, is just focus has really led to growth, and it's where we've had the most success as a company. Stephanie: Very cool. When thinking about the first conversion or a brand new customer, do you think the social good aspect of the business sells the product initially? Because it's pretty hard to convey how good the socks are on the website. Randy: Yeah, it is. It's hard until you, I guess, you try them on, and we just want to get as many socks on feet as possible. But yeah, there has been a constant debate at Bombas since day one about what comes first and the way we talk about the company. The quality of the product comfort or the mission, our commitment to give back to the community. Some people come for the product and stay for the mission, and some people will come for the mission and stay for the product. I don't think we've solved that debate. We poll our customers and we're surveying people and we're thinking about this a lot, but I think the thing that works the most in marketing for prospects, people who haven't heard about our company, is talking about comfort, is talking about the quality of the product. Randy: The mission definitely helps complete a sale, helps with the follow on sales, and our customers, people who've already made purchases, expect us to close the loop, report back on how we're doing with the donations that we promise we would do on their behalf. That storytelling element helps us with both sides of it. It's just about where we show up with the mission and where we show up with the product marketing, at what time in the life cycle. It's an ongoing debate and we stay nimble around it, but those are still the two elements, and they have been since the beginning that show up the most in our communication. Stephanie: Cool. The other thing I saw that you all had was the happiness guarantee, which I was like, how do they remain profitable? Because one of the things I think I saw in there was, if your kid outgrows a sock in a year, which I have three kids, so I'm like, that could happen quick, or if your dog chews up a sock, which our dog, [Tossy 00:11:14], does that every day, how do you make sure that people aren't abusing those rules? How did you come up with that happiness guarantee? Randy: I think for us, we think about the great companies that we all like to work with, or shop at, or interact with. A common theme is that they have great customer service and they stand by their products. We wanted to make that a hallmark of Bombas. In the early days, Dave would take all of the calls that would come in to our phone number on his cell phone. So we would be out talking about the business or in a bar, back when there were bars. He would get a phone call and go outside, and an hour later, he'd come back and he'd just talk to a customer. I think that idea of just making sure that we're taking care of the people who are spending money with us, that led to the idea of the happiness guarantee. Randy: We have our internal customer service team, they're called the customer happiness team, and we've also, just sort of connecting it back to the business, to get back to your question, people who interact with our customer service team have two times the lifetime value of customers who don't. We're trying to turn issues that people have into positive experiences, and that turns people into bigger longterm customers, because then they trust us, they trust that we take care of them. Sure, there are people who try and abuse the policy, but that's far outweighed by the number of people who are just trying to solve a problem, or get to the bottom of something and want things to be right and don't want to have to jump through a lot of hoops to get there. Randy: For us, the good of having that really strong internal team to deal with our customers and to respond to problems, and yes, to make sure that if your kid outgrows the sock that's expensive or that ... We'll be there to grow along with you. All those things are ... we just want peace of mind as people go through the process and think about, should I be making this purchase right now? Stephanie: That's great. How do you train your customer happiness team? Because I feel like it takes a certain kind of person to be peppy and to, like you said, have a higher lifetime value with the people who interact with that team. What kind of training process do they go through? Randy: It's pretty rigorous. I think Dave passed on the mentality of our customer happiness team to the person who originally ran the program, and he's still running that team. I think, like almost everything at Bombas, when we have something that we want to do and we feel like we've reached the limit of how we can handle it ourselves, we try and bring in people who are way smarter than we are and have the right skillset, and really focused on hiring great people. It also helps that, people who come to work at Bombas, tend to want to give back to the community and are inclined to support and work for a company that cares about that as well. Then, we in turn, care tremendously about our company and the company culture, and all of those things lead us to find, I think, the people who are right for the roles and write for the company and speak to those core values, and that's how it works with the happiness team. Randy: They're trained, not only on what to say in the situations that come up most often, but how to deal with Bombas customers, how to put the extra spin on it. It's about, I guess, just that level of care. Our whole team really appreciates that customer service team, and we make sure that they know how appreciated and important they are as the first line of defense for our customers internally as a team. I think giving them the support and love that they need as the team that has to deal with a lot, and has to clean up mistakes when they happen and make sure that everybody's happy, and then understanding how we want them to communicate with the world as a brand. The way that we talk in an ad versus a video, versus on the phone with the customer, versus internally, none of that should really be different, right? We're trying to be really consistent as a brand. Stephanie: How do you create that consistency? Because I can see as a company grows, and I've seen this happen before, where you start developing silos and the teams are kind of off doing their own thing, maybe trying their own marketing campaigns, and it starts getting a little bit chaotic. How have you kept a consistent culture and feel at Bombas? Randy: Yeah. We're not immune to some of the issues that you just brought up. But just recognizing it, being honest about it, trying to get ahead of those things, and focusing on that core messaging and communicating well internally. We're also at the stage where we're really thinking about planning and processes as a company as we've grown to 150 employees and being remote, how we interact and how we work cross departmentally. Those types of things are at the front of mind right now. We're hearing it from our team, we listen to ideas, we bring in people to help us. I think we're laser focused on making sure that some of those breakdowns and that siloed work doesn't get the best of us. We have seen that and we're working on it. Randy: I think any company that starts off operating like that, when you have five or 10 people, that would be overbearing, and I don't think the type of people who end up coming to a company that small would appreciate that, but as you grow, you have to adjust and you have to get ahead of it so that people keep that same feeling of freedom in terms of thought, in terms of how they can innovate in their work and get things done, and expectations around their jobs, all that stuff becomes really important to be more documented, to have tighter processes so that people feel freer to do the things that they love to do. That's what we're trying to work on, but it's not an easy thing. Stephanie: Yeah. It's definitely a tough juggle. If someone were to join and they're employee number five, and then all of a sudden, there's 150 employees, it's like, okay, well, I used to be able to do everything at the company, and now you want me to shrink my role. A tough thing to work through with employees. Randy: Yeah. It's a challenge. You want to retain the people who made Bombas, Bombas, but you also want to make sure that people are growing in the right way, and there are opportunities, and the new people who come in at certain levels understand what they're supposed to do and what everybody else is supposed to do. You just start to get into these things that maybe you thought you would never have to deal with if you started a company, but as it grows, this is what it looks like. Stephanie: Yup. Were there any resources that you leveraged along the way when you were growing quickly, when you were like, I need to learn this or I need to figure this out, or companies that you were watching to learn from? Randy: Yeah. I think that's been our mindset since the beginning. Just from our early advisory board, just to fill in the gaps, to hires that we've made, the things that we tend to lean on are people. Dave and I are like, we don't know the first thing about performance marketing, when we started this business. We need to bring in somebody who's an expert in that, or at least, have somebody on our advisory board who can help answer questions for us as we grow that until we have that right person, or to help us find the right person. That's been a big part of how we've grown this business, is leaning on our network to reach out to people, to ask questions, to make good hires, and then watching other D2C companies and having a good dialogue with the other D2C companies who have grown to our size and larger. That's been really helpful as well. Randy: Then you also think about companies like Toms. They've been really helpful to us, in terms of watching out for certain mistakes that they've made along the way with their donation aspects of their business. They've been really open with us about those things and helping us avoid them. We try and do the same with other companies who reach out and want advice from us as well. Stephanie: Very cool. How did you think about building out the website? What kind of things did you want to have on there to make sure that you kept with the brand story, but also, sold enough to be able to be profitable to keep the model working? Randy: It's a great question. The idea of what a website looks like when it's your only store is so important. You want to have that right blend of storytelling, but you want people to be able to breeze through the checkout process the right way. That's been a journey for us. I don't think it's anywhere near where we want it to be, but I would think that you would ask any direct to consumer company and they have a lot they want to do, and their technology roadmap is pretty long, and that's part of it. You're always building, you're always tweaking, you're always improving. You're looking at the data and you're making changes to just make it better. Randy: In the beginning, at some point we have to replatform. But just the processes along the way to get us from where we started to where we are now, to where we're heading, it takes a lot of care and attention. Like I said, when it's your only store, I think it's your job and your duty to make sure that it works and operates really well. Stephanie: Yeah, I completely agree. How did you know it was time to replatform and what was that experience like? Randy: I knew it was time when we just had so many issues with managing traffic or the backend or uploading content. It was wrong. We launched the business and the website in 2013. Since 2013, there've been a lot of changes in technology and the way that Ecommerce works and looks. If you went back to a site from 2013, as a 2020 consumer, you wouldn't last a minute. You'd be out. Stephanie: You'd bounce right away. Randy: You'd bounce. There was a lot more tolerance then, but less people using Ecommerce because the experience just wasn't great. I think, if you go back even further, and I think about this a lot, if you were starting a direct to consumer company in 2009 and you didn't have a lot of money that you would raise, building the website itself would have been prohibitively expensive for most brands, for most companies. But if you managed to get it up, the marketing was basically free. There was no algorithm that was holding your content back. If you had a Facebook page, whatever you posted, everyone who followed you with anyone who shared it, and anyone who got added to your page, not some of these early companies, resources to build a site were able to build huge businesses. Randy: But then, as it shifted, now, if you want to launch a direct to consumer company, the technology is basically free, getting that website up, but the marketing is prohibitively expensive. It's totally flipped. We just happened to launch, I think, in a sweet spot where the technology had gotten more affordable and the marketing was still affordable, but it was not free like it had been in 2009, and it wasn't very hard or challenging environment like it is now. We sort of had time to figure out both pieces, and we had runway to figure out the marketing and we could afford the technology. Then that got a lot better, and just have to stay on top of and ahead of all those things. Stephanie: That makes sense. To focus on the website piece first, and then we can jump into the marketing aspect, so the website, was there any like big fundamental changes that you made where you're like, this made the biggest difference when it came to sales and conversions and even getting traffic in the first place? Anything that you remember that you change where you're like this had the biggest improvement for us or a couple of things? Randy: Site speed, I think is the number one thing. As a person who comes from the creative side of the business, a copywriter or strategist, there's nothing that I could do from my previous job or as a brand person that would make the improvement of one second of site speed in terms of how something loads or how it acts. Just sort of getting over some of the sort of shiny objects into saying, oh, if we change the copy here, or what if we put this video here, or had this type of look on our site? If you make your site faster, it will convert better. Things like that, just understanding the fundamental way things move and what people want from you, layering the other stuff on top then becomes just sauce and becomes fun. Then you can start to have incremental changes and things that work. But I think, just looking at site speed, if you want one good thing, that's where I would start, as dry as that might be. Stephanie: Yeah. No, that's a great one. Was there anything affecting the site speed that you were surprised by? Randy: I think the way that you manage and load images, obviously has a big effect on that. Your product architecture and understanding Randy: I think some of these things you don't realize when you're starting out, but the way things are organized, hosted, served, there's sort of best in class ways of doing that now. But if you want to have your variants of your products perform a certain way, or if you want to create bundles in a different way than most companies do it, then all of a sudden, you're creating ... you could be creating extra things that are weighing your site down, even though you think ... it helps you organize the things that you want to sell the way that you see them in your mind. It doesn't always benefit you because maybe you're slowing things down. If people are bouncing before they're even seeing it, then what's the point? Again, this isn't my area of expertise, but these are the things that you learn along the road when you're doing everything in a business when there's five people. Stephanie: Yeah, I think that backend infrastructure piece is hard to focus on in the beginning because you're so excited about the product and the marketing, and like you said, getting good copywriting and telling your friends that you don't really think about how to set up, maybe the data and the backend piece to actually create a good performing website. Randy: Totally. Listen, like I said, my background was in branding. I was a copywriter. I think we built this business around the brand because it's, in many ways, a commodity that you turn into a brand. You do that by being really consistent and having good storytelling and build a moat through brand. But none of that exists if you don't get the infrastructure piece right, and you can't get to that. I talked to founders who were starting companies, and they're so focused on hiring the right creative agency or branding agency, they'll put together the right logo, and it's just not the right place to start in my mind, even though I love that work and I love thinking about that for companies and thinking about how you communicate to the world and understanding why your product exists, but without that fundamental infrastructure piece, no one's going to care about that other piece. It's just maybe a little bit of a sad truth for creative side of business people. Stephanie: That's okay. Got to hear it sometimes. Randy: That's right. Stephanie: One thing I saw that you guys were doing was that you were investing in a data science team and embedding more data elements into the customer journey. Can you tell me a little bit more about that and how you knew it was the right time to bring on a team like that? Randy: How will you know it's the right time is that when you start to ask questions that you can't answer, and nobody internally can answer it. That's the truth, and when one person ... Randy: You also know when you're having a debate about something in the business and somebody is able to pull out data or a statistic related to what you're talking about, and the conversation ends because it's hard to argue with the data. When you see that and you've thought about it the other way, and you're not trying ... You can't convince data, right? I know [crosstalk] manipulated. Stephanie: There's no argument there. Randy: That's right. Then you sort of think, this is really valuable, and rather than trying to think about something from the perspective of, I think it should work this way, you want something to show you how it should work, and you want to be able to interpret data the right way and be able to use it to your advantage to build out a strategy, rather than just making assumptions and going off of somebody who has the most experience or who has the most seniority. I think companies get in trouble when they just rely on the loudest voice in the room or somebody who's the most persuasive at arguing rather than bring data as a voice into the room for decision making. Randy: I think it started to creep in when we would understand a little bit what we don't know, and then have debates that were a little bit out of our depth and we didn't have the right people. We didn't really have that skill in the beginning. We knew that it would be a big part of this business, even back in 2013. We just knew that it wasn't the first thing we were going to invest in. It just sort of came naturally to the time. We were always excited about the idea of what a data science team could bring to the table for a sock company. There was a point where you almost can't operate without it anymore. Stephanie: Yeah. That's awesome. What does it look like now having that team, and what kind of metrics are you guys paying most attention to? Randy: A lot of the metrics are the same. You'll see a lot of Ecommerce companies paying attention to, but what the team looks like, and what's interesting is, now that we have the team in place, getting other teams to work with that team the right way is the key, and getting our directors and decision makers accustom to partnering with the data team, to help surface solutions to problems and present them and work, it goes back to some of the work that we're doing, trying to figure out the processes and cross departmental work and to avoid some of the siloed behavior that you brought up earlier. A big part of that is the data team and how they can help support. There's support teams within an organization, there's execution teams, and that's very much a support team, and they love answering questions for teams, and some teams use the data and analytics team more than others. Randy: We just try and be really loud about it at our all hands meetings and present back case studies so that people understand how they could better use that team. It's a process and something that was getting better all the time, but you just sort of have to make it central to how you operate as a company. That doesn't happen overnight. It's a big change. We've been working on that for the last six months to a year in a major way. I think it's really paying off for us. Stephanie: Very cool. Yeah, I definitely have seen business intelligence teams in the past struggle with being able to create a partnership with the product team or the engineers. I like the idea of showing a case study. So instead of pushing it on a team member, it's like, well, here's what another team did. Look how great this turned out, and encourage them to want to partner with that team even more. Randy: Yeah. You're making decisions, how many times a year should we ... We're not a promotional company. But if you wanted to ask a question, like how often should we do a sale? There's logical times of the year when you think that should happen, and the merchandising team might have a different perspective than the marketing team, and using the data team to think about the effect on customers or prospects. There's so much information that could help steer a decision like that, that is major to the business. Those are the types of things where you start to see a lot of power in the team like that. Stephanie: Yeah. We're talking about data. I want to also shift into the aspect of transparency. I read that you and your co-founder both had subpar experiences with transparency at previous companies you were at. I wanted to hear, how do you think about being ... Well, first tell me the story. I want to know all the nitty gritty details, and also how did that influence your culture now? Randy: Sure. I don't know, the cliff notes is that was a major influence on our culture now, but we had the experience together. Like I mentioned, we worked together at a previous company, and at that company, the person who ran the company brought amazing people together, and there was a great team, and the work was fulfilling and we learned a lot, but it was really hard to have conversations around career growth or compensation, or how well is the company doing? Or data. One person tended to hold on to decisions for so long that it was counterproductive and it was demotivating for people. You felt nervous to even ask a question, and nobody understood their stock options. You would ask questions about it and you'd get them response months later. Randy: That sort of fogginess around the things that people really care about when they're going to work at a smaller company, it was really hard for us. We knew no matter what company we started together, building a culture of transparency, where people really understood the why behind the business, the core values, the financial performance, what their ownership meant, and a culture of being able to ask questions, that was hallmark from the beginning. We just wanted to create the company that we would have loved to have worked at and centering our employees in the business, and thinking about them just as much as we do our bottom line. Our theory was that it would make the bottom line better. People would be more inclined to give something beyond their capacity or to continue to learn or to grow if they felt safe and supported at the company. Stephanie: Cool. Yeah, that definitely is a good way to build a company from the ground up, and maybe not fun to have that experience, but hey, you learn from the best people you work for and the worst people you work for. Randy: Absolutely. I wouldn't trade that experience because that's what led to the culture that we've built at Bombas. I think, if you talk to our employees and the way they think about it, we're maybe more proud of that than anything else that we built in this company. Did I give you enough nitty gritty details? Is that good enough? Stephanie: Yeah, I was hoping for a little more drama, but I'll take it. That was good. Randy: There was plenty of drama. We can talk about that offline. Yeah. Stephanie: That sounds good. Earlier, I mentioned, I also wanted to hit on your marketing a little bit. What kind of channels do you focus on? What are you seeing success in right now in any new channels that you're excited about? Randy: Yeah, for us, listen, we're a direct to consumer company that started in 2013. Can you guess what our number one marketing channel is? Stephanie: Facebook? Randy: Bingo. Right. Okay. I think we still see a lot of success there, and while it might've been a way larger percentage of our marketing mix in the early days, and we've diversified away from that a fair amount, it's still an important driver for us. In the beginning, in the early days, we would create a video that we didn't even intend to be an ad, just a thank you to our customers, and then eventually it gets turned into an ad on Facebook that's seen a hundred million times. Leaning into the trends and trying to see around the corner at Facebook. now working closely with that team. has really helped grow our business. Randy: One of the things that we have had since the beginning is ROI positive or breakeven on first purchase. We're not over our skis on Facebook spend, while lot of companies are to just to try and build up their customer base. For us, it was important to really be disciplined. We knew that if we were going to grow our budget and grow our company, and we were a really marketing led company, we'd have to diversify away. So, Hello Podcasts, radio, direct mail, TV. Those are all big parts of the business now, and they're all growing probably at a faster rate as a percentage at least of the business than our online ads on Facebook. But search has grown for us tremendously in the last year and a half as our brand has grown and recognition has grown. Randy: Some of that comes from broader marketing, like on TV, and then people are searching Bombas by name, and we can lean into search advertising and that works better. Some of these things are just about timing. Yeah, we still have a tremendous success sort of trialing things out online. We've never used a creative agency. Everything is internal at Bombas, so all of our creative direction and the marketing team and the partnership between the creative team and the brand teams and the marketing team operates as an internal agency. We like places where we can test things, test creative, test lines, test different cuts of videos, see what works, preview it, and then build it out into bigger campaigns that could work across all those different places that we talked about earlier that I mentioned. Randy: I don't know, that's sort of more of an overview than what's working now. But if I think about the last few months, when everyone's at home with COVID, people who were still able to afford to be buying things right now online are looking for comfort, and socks have done well in this moment. On the other side of things, we talk a lot about our efforts in the community and how we've adopted and been able to help out in this moment above and beyond how we normally do. That's also something that people want to hear about. For us, it's the combination of the product and the storytelling and the marketing mix, and making sure that we're nimble enough in all three of those places to make adjustments as we build and grow. Stephanie: That's awesome. Do you find that you have a community also, because it seems like with your story and your brand, you would have this community of people who want to lift you up and talk about you and spread the word organically without you really having to push too hard? Randy: Yeah, absolutely. Community is a big word at Bombas. Something that has been since the beginning. I think about the community of giving partners that we have. In the beginning, when we wanted to donate the socks, you buy a pair and we donate a pair on your behalf. We didn't know how to do that. We started with one giving partner that would accept socks from us, and we learned a lot from them. Then we built a specific sock that we donate, that's more tailored to the needs of the homeless community. Since then, now we have 3,500 giving partners across all 50 States. These are the people who are working really hard on the front lines helping out that community and doing what they can to serve their communities, and our job is to support them. Randy: That is a big community. We get a lot of feedback from them. Then you have our customers who really care tremendously about the product and the donation aspect of it, and they're telling our story on their behalf. You mentioned earlier about one of the keys, I think for us is consistency. The more you're telling the same story in different nuanced ways, the easier you make it for other people to tell your story on your behalf, and that word of mouth marketing, or letting people explain to somebody else when they're having dinner that, hey, they just got these socks and they're really excited about them. Randy: They donate for every pair they sell, and they also just happen to change the way they feel about putting on a pair of socks in the morning, and they feel more supported and comfortable in their daily life. That's a pretty amazing thing that you can get somebody talking about socks at dinner. I think all of this stuff is related, making sure the messaging is tight, keeping that internal, having a marketing team that's nimble and always trying new to new and different areas, and then having that product that's really high quality to support all of that, to give you the confidence to go out and sell something. Stephanie: That's great. How do you keep things organized? Because I'm thinking about, you have all these community organizations that you're mentioning to do the one to one program, then you've got your own product that you need to focus on. How do you make sure that you're spending the right amount of time with each area? Randy: You don't want to be playing whack-a-mole, I guess. You want to be seeing ahead of things a little bit. There's a certain element of making sure ... You start to see when some friction comes into a certain side of the business and you need to spend a little bit more effort getting your go-to-market process ironed out, or on the technology side, if we don't install an ERP process in the next X amount of time, we could see a lot of trouble. I think that starts with a leadership team that communicates really effectively, often open, and is really humble, and then syncing up on our company roadmap, and making sure that when something does seem like it needs a little bit more attention, that people spend their time on it. Randy: That's the idea. I guess some of that is also thinking about, and talking to companies that are a year or two ahead of us, and have been through some of these sort of growing pains at the same times, and looking for the pitfalls that they went through and trying to get ahead of it rather than to have to be reactionary. Stephanie: The D2C community, it seems like they're very helpful with each other, and you just mentioned, looking to someone who's maybe two to three years ahead of you, how have you utilized that community and leaned into it to get advice or build friendships or mentorship? Randy: Yeah, it's a great community. For us, we're a pretty open group. We talked about transparency and communication as pillars of Bombas from the beginning. We want to help out other companies who are coming up behind us, and then we've looked to other direct to consumer companies, and other, generally, just good companies to try and help us out. You ask the question and you find that people are generally willing to say like, yeah, this is how we did this, or connect with this person on our team. They know that at some point they'll have a question for you. We've always been just asking questions outside of the organization. It's the same approach with hiring. We want to bring in people who are smarter than we are. Randy: We want to ask the questions to the companies who are ahead of us. You don't get the answer if you don't ask the question. It's just an important thing, and I'm not sure why this group of companies especially is more open or collaborative, seeming than other groups that you've been in, but maybe it's this generation of founders and the way that we grew up and the interest in community, and the expectation from customers that our company just can't look the way it used to look or act the way it used to act, and it has to have more of a purpose. Maybe that just drives us all to be a little bit more open and a little bit more flexible and a little bit less guarded about some of the things that we're doing. Stephanie: Yeah, I agree. It also just seems like there's so many opportunities. It's not like you're going to be talking to someone who's doing exactly what you're doing. There's just so many opportunities and so many things to start and try that I'm sure that also helps with people wanting to share and show how they did things. Randy: Yeah. I don't really feel competitive with anyone in that space. In some ways, those companies, you could see them as more of our competition than another sock company, because we're competing for the attention of people online. It doesn't matter what you're selling. If somebody else is taking away time that somebody might spend thinking about Bombas, then I guess that's competition, but approaching it, from a lens of collaboration and like, if they can help us know we can help somebody else, it's just the way we've done it. I'm not sure it's right, or it does feel like it's helped us. It is nice to feel like there is a community around this. I like to think about these companies, I like the community of the businesses. Randy: I'd rather be lumped in with these companies, as a community of people that can help each other with the business side of things, than on the brand side of things. I'm wary of being one of the direct to consumer brands out there, because I don't feel like that set of companies always looks the best or the type of press that is out there is always positive. For me, it's just about the people running it and the people at these companies, and making sure that people in our teams are connecting to people who've done something that they maybe don't know how to do perfectly. Stephanie: All right. Before we jump into a few higher level Ecommerce themes, I wanted to hear what is the best day in the office look like for you? Randy: Oh, the office. Stephanie: How do you walk home when you're like snapped in and you're like, that was a good day. Randy: Remind me of what an office is. Stephanie: Okay. What's the best day from your bedroom look like? Randy: Well, okay. It is interesting to think about at home versus at the office. The office is a big part of who we were as a company and getting everybody together and that spirit of community that comes into it, and being able to sit down with someone face to face. We do miss that. Although the teams are really productive and risen to the challenge of working remotely. The best day feels like when something goes well beyond what you expected and teams are celebrating each other and recognizing each other. Also, when we have a speaker from one of our giving partners to give us perspective on what's happening in our work life and why maybe it's not the most important thing in our life and in our world. Randy: When all of those things are kind of clicking together, I think people remember why they work at this company, what's truly important, how they can impact it, and then the collaboration and the spirit that comes along with it. Those are the best days for me, when you're reminded of what's important and how that impacts the company. Stephanie: I think it's good to document those days too. I really like, there's a coffee shop, Philz, right up the street, and they have all these pictures of their employees and just having fun and team meetings they have. It's on the way when you're headed to the bathroom, but it's really fun. I would think as an employee, but also as a customer to see and remember like what it felt like that day and how excited this person looks when they're receiving this award. Because it seems like it could be easy to forget when something's moving so quick. Randy: Totally. I love that idea. I also think about the times when we all got to volunteer together. Now we tend to volunteer in smaller groups which is obviously still great. We have sign up sheets for all of our volunteer opportunities and you have to pounce on them to get the spots that you want. I think that speaks a lot about the culture of the company, but some of the photos you look back on from those moments, or those days when the team feels really connected, those are really exciting days. Stephanie: Yep. All right. A higher level Ecommerce question. What do you think the future of online shopping looks like, like in 2025? Randy: Ah, like when we're all driving around in flying cars, what does Ecommerce look like? Stephanie: Yup. I'm on Mars. Where are you? Randy: I might be on Mars too. Do you want to have a rival colony? I'm down or maybe we have a collaborative colony. Stephanie: Okay. Oh, I'm down. Maybe, we'll see. Randy: We'll see. Okay. All right. We'll see. We'll figure it out then. Stephanie: It depends if you accept my LinkedIn request, I guess, then I'll know. I'll be like, is it any cooler now? Randy: Wait, that's how we judge if you're cool, is if you accept our LinkedIn request? Stephanie: I just made it up, but we'll see. I might have higher criteria afterwards. Randy: Okay. All right. We'll put a pin in that. I don't know what the future of Ecommerce looks like, I got to tell you, I know the percentage of people who get comfortable shopping online, that's only going to go up. I know that companies are going to invent new ways to make it easier for people to buy their product, to review their product, to look at it. I think ease is the name of the game. In a world that's going to be more and more competitive, the way to stand out is going to change. All I know is it's not going to look like it looks right now, and having the attitude that, even if you're doing something right, that the way to succeed in a few years, it's going to be a different version of right, then you'll be okay. Stephanie: Yep. I love that. All right. Before I move into the lightning round, anything that you wanted to share that we missed, where you're like, I really wish you asked this, Stephanie, and you just didn't? Randy: No, like I said, I'm here for you guys. You want to talk about Mars and infrastructure, then great. Whatever you want to talk about. Stephanie: Mars and the moon, that'll be the next podcast. Anyone who wants to sponsor it, hit us up. I don't know what we're going to talk about, but we're going to need help to figure it out. All right. Lightning round brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This is where I ask you a question and you have a minute or less to answer, Randy. Are you ready? Randy: I'm ready. Stephanie: All right. What's up next on your reading list? Randy: Can we just start that over? Sorry. Stephanie: Yep. What's next on your reading list? Randy: Up next on my reading list is the Mike Nichols book. I'm not sure what it's called, but I'm excited to read it. Stephanie: What's it about? Randy: Its about the director, Mike Nichols, and his life. Stephanie: Cool. We'll have our producer, Hillary, will find the link to that and everyone can go explore it there. Randy: I don't tend to read business books. I know that they could be helpful, but I'm more interested in people, humanity, fiction, novels. Stephanie: Yep. Cool. Any podcasts you listen to? Randy: Yeah. There's a great podcast I listened to about words called The Allusionist, Allusionist with an A. Love that podcast. I have a whole list, but let's just do one. Stephanie: Yeah. We'll check that out. Any hobbies that you're really getting into these days? Randy: Hobbies that I'm really getting into. I really like this sport called paddle tennis. It's not pickleball, it's not ping pong. It's called paddle tennis. If you look it up, it's like a fast version of tennis. You play with a paddle and a tennis ball, but you poke a hole in it. There's like a really small, but passionate community around the sport. It's really fun. Stephanie: Do you play on a tennis court? Randy: You play on a small tennis court. It's basically the service boxes and two-ish foot baseline, and a net. You serve under hand, and you can't serve [inaudible 00:52:55], and you poke a hole on the tennis ball so it doesn't fly everywhere, but it still bounces. It acts and feels like tennis, but like a faster version. It's really cool. You can play in New York. There's courts in New York in StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village, and there's courts in Venice Beach in California. Those are kind of the two centers in the US. It's not a very big popular sport. Stephanie: We will have to bring it up to Palo Alto. I will be the one do that. That would be my initiative over the next year. Randy: Do it. Stephanie: All right. If you were to have a podcast, what would it be about, and who would your first guest be? Randy: Oh man. If I was going to have a podcast, wow, I don't know. Do we need another podcast? Do we need a podcast from me? Stephanie: Yes, we do. Randy: Maybe it would just be rants. Just do like a short rant every week. I don't know. Stephanie: I like that. Hey, that seem to do well sometimes. Stephanie: That's okay. All right, this one's slightly harder so you might have to think. What one thing will have the biggest impact on Ecommerce in the next year? Randy: I think the thing that will have the biggest impact on Ecommerce in the next year is the timing on reopening the economy and stores and retail. If people can't go to stores or don't feel comfortable going to stores, they're going to, inevitably, accelerate their comfort level with shopping online. We already see that happening. I think it's just going to push that trend line even further forward. I'm for one, excited about it. I think the biggest, biggest test for this will be this Q4 and the holiday season, and to see what percentage of shoppers are shopping on Ecommerce and what they're demanding of Ecommerce retailers that they weren't a year ago when the percentages were smaller. Stephanie: Yeah, I completely agree. Great answer. Randy, it's been a blast having you on the show. Where can people find out about you and Bombas? Randy: You can find out about Bombas at bombas.com, and everywhere else you would expect, B-O-M-B-A-S. That's it. Thank you for listening and thanks for having me. Stephanie: Yeah. Thanks so much. It's been fun. See you next time. Randy: All right. See you next time.  

Chad Ledford likes to say that his Ecommerce journey started with a van and a fax machine. And it’s true. Chad has gone from selling socks out of a van to building one of the first and only online sock-sellers in the early 2000s, to his gig now, as the co-founder of AddShoppers, a company that was named one of the fastest-growing startups in Charlotte for two consecutive years, and an application installed on thousands of eCommerce websites  There were obviously many twists and turns on his journey, and he explains them all on this episode of Up Next in Commerce. But the main idea that drove Chad throughout his winding road was the idea of diversification. Long-lasting success only comes through diversifying marketing platforms, acquisition tactics, and communication channels where you can build those coveted one-to-one relationships with customers. He explains it all here.  3 Takeaways:    Anything that allows you to build a one-to-one relationship should be valued above others. Be willing to experiment here to maintain customer relationships  Be open to new and emerging channels and be ready to quickly experiment with those platforms so that you can be a first-mover and gain market share More and more publishers will soon invest in creating their own platforms, thus lessening the reliance of major consumer channels like Facebook and Google   For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length. --- Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce --- Transcript: Stephanie: Hey, everyone, welcome back to Up Next in Commerce. This is Stephanie Postles, your host, and today we have Chad Ledford, co-founder of AddShoppers. Chad, welcome to the show. Chad: Thanks for having me. Stephanie: I would love to dive into your background a bit, because it seems like you've had a really interesting background, and getting into ecommerce, I want to hear all the stories around that, and how you got to where you are today, if possible? Chad: Yeah, you got it. I like to say that it started with a van and a fax machine. So, to give you a little background, my grandfather who raised me has been in the hosiery industry for the past 25 years, so he kind of introduced me to just entrepreneurship in general, but whenever I turned 16 I took one of his vans and loaded it up with socks and went door-to-door to small businesses to sell the socks. So, I did that pretty much throughout high school, saved up enough for college, and then whenever I went to college, my freshman year I didn't do a whole lot, played probably too many video games, but it really introduced me to the internet. Chad: So, my sophomore year I started to get the itch around trying to make money again, and that's when I basically took the socks that my grandfather had, and then put up my first ecommerce store. It was built on Microsoft's ecommerce platform, I don't even remember what it's called today, but it was back in the early 2000s. We just put up a couple SKU's, I gave my grandfather a fax machine, put a fax machine in my dorm room, and then as I would get orders I would fax it over to him, and it would print the labels off for it. Stephanie: Oh, my gosh, that's amazing. So, what kind of socks were they to be selling like hotcakes like that? Chad: Yeah, it was pretty much every type of sock. So, I think Bombas has probably made it cool, but at the time we didn't really have a brand, it was just socks. It was like ankle socks, or crew socks, but nobody else was selling them online at the time, so we got really good at the search marketing side of it. If you bought socks in the early 2000s, you probably bought them from us, because we were number one on Google for the keyword socks, and- Stephanie: Wow. Chad: Yeah, it was kind of a fun adventure at the time. Stephanie: So, was your grandfather any bit hesitant to go online, or work with his grandson? What was that like working together? That sounds, yeah, just really fun. Chad: Yeah, he was really supportive early on until it got to be too many orders that he didn't want to do it anymore. So, he basically said, "We have to find someone else.", and then that's when we got introduced to the idea of dropshipping. We basically just needed to find somebody that wanted to handle the capacity, and then that's when we learned about dropshipping, and how that fits in ecommerce. Stephanie: Wow, so you've definitely seen it all from the very start. What are some of the biggest shifts that you remember where you're like, "Man, dropshipping used to be like this.", or building up a website I remember silly things that would be super hard. What were some of the things that you remember from back in the day that just kind of look silly now looking back on the processes that you were doing, or the things that you were undertaking? Chad: Yeah, I think whenever we started doing it we were just thinking about it more from like a tactical execution standpoint. But what I mean by that is we could basically put up a site, put some products on it, and then we could rank for it pretty quickly. We weren't really focused on creating a brand, we weren't really focused on lifetime value, or how do we kind of cross-pollinate between multiple brands and things like that, it was really just how do we rank number one for this thing, and then push as many orders through it as we can? So, I think part of that is just being young and figuring out what business actually means, and how to maximize lifetime value. Chad: But at the same time, just the shifts that we saw, search was starting to gain more momentum, and more people were going online to start to look for things, and that's when we started to see the shift from retail dollars going a little bit more online, obviously that's accelerated a lot recently. But yeah, it's just kind of interesting, at the time we just saw it as a way to make money, but now kind of in hindsight it was a bigger shift that was happening with people, and people wanting to get more convenience, and better deals, and things like that. Stephanie: So then what brought you to co-founding AddShoppers? At what point were you like, "This is something I want to do."? And could you give us a little background on what AddShoppers is? Chad: Yeah so, that first business, 3tailer, was really built around Facebook. Whenever Facebook made a change to their algorithm we had to react as fast as we could to try to keep up. So, whenever we started AddShoppers ... we tried to be a little bit ahead of the market when it came to social media. Again, this was before everybody had a Facebook profile, and Pinterest was just sort of coming online, but we saw that a lot of people were spending time there, and a lot of people were engaging there. Chad: So, the first version of AddShoppers was to try to figure out what was happening inside of social, and is it driving sales for people? So, it was mostly an analytics product that a brand could plug in and it would tell them if a social channel was driving sales, and if so kind of break that down and tell you how and why that was happening. But the thing that we were trying to solve is diversification of revenue. We had the 3tailer business, which was really built on SEO, but we saw social kind of up and coming, so we wanted to figure out how to monetize that and drive sales for our own business. Stephanie: Wow, that's great. It seems like you guys were definitely very ahead when it came to spotting these trends, and seeing something that could get big, and starting to offer solutions around it to give deeper data insights for that. How did you realize that was a problem for companies back then, when I doubt a lot of companies were like, "We need access to the data, we need to do more with it."? I mean, now it seems obvious, but back then were you getting customers who were looking for help around that? Chad: Not really, it's just what we felt through our business, we had felt the revenue impact. We didn't have a wholesale channel set up or a physical in-store, so whenever something changed online we had to be on top of it to figure out what was going to happen next, and as social was kind of coming online we saw it as an opportunity. So, it wasn't a stroke of genius, it was we had to to survive, and that was the main reason that we focused so intently on it. Stephanie: Very cool. So, what does AddShoppers look like today? How has it evolved? Chad: Yeah so, similar to the early days of search marketing, Google kind of won the market, and then same thing happened with Facebook, Facebook won the market. At the time when we started it there were probably about 20 different social networks that we were kind of tracking, and figuring out how to drive influence on, but once Facebook became the clear winner it was obvious that the same things were going to start happening, Facebook was going to make changes, that was going to impact people the same way that search did for our business. So, we decided to look into other channels, and more specifically we wanted to looking into channels that don't change often. Chad: The ones that don't change often are usually kind of the baseline architecture of the internet, it's the open protocols, basically email, or SNTP, being able to send a message to someone has been around since the internet started, and as much as people have tried to kill it, it's still one of the top channels, and it's one of the few things that a brand can really own and be able to have that direct communication with a client without having to ... or with a customer without having to pay some sort of an ad tax, or CPM to really get in front of those people. So, today our solutions are really focused on creating ways for brands to tap into those open protocols a little more of like email, and being able to message a customer directly without having to go through the big guys. Stephanie: Got it. So, how do you get those emails? Is it something that a brand could already access, or what does that look like? What problems or pain points do the brands have when they come to you? Chad: Yeah so, most digital commerce brands realize the value of email today, especially whenever it comes to retention and lifetime value. So, the conversations are a little bit easier now because they understand that it is a really strong channel, and it's one that they have to defend, but most brands can only tap into what's considered first party data. So, first party data is data that the brand captured themselves. So, a lot of people build up emails from popups, or they capture it during the checkout process or things like that, but that usually ends up being anywhere from like three to 5% of their traffic that they've spent a lot of money to get to their site that they're actually able to capture, and be able to continue creating that relationship with them. So, the problem that we help solve today is tapping into that other 95% of people that are on the website, people that haven't given them their email address yet, but they're still showing a lot of engagement, and they probably still want to try to get those people to be their customers. Stephanie: Got it, so the people who are just casually browsing, or maybe added something to the cart and then left, the people like that who didn't directly give the brand their email, but maybe seemed kind of interested. Chad: Yep, exactly. Stephanie: Very cool. So, one thing I've read a bit about is that you said brands have been over-reliant on Facebook and Google when it comes to customer acquisition. How do you envision sellers getting around those two giants? If that's a main channel like you mentioned, like they're dominating the market, how should a brand find customers if they're not going to rely on those two areas? Chad: Yeah, I don't think they should neglect those. I think they need to figure out how they can push as much volume on those as possible profitably, but as a lot of D-to-C companies have seen more recently, as everyone starts to do that, it gets more expensive for everyone, because it's an option. So, it's more about creating diversity in the revenue streams, and it's more about just creating a closer relationship to the customer, and the ways to do that is through one-to-one channels, or really any kind of open protocol. So, if email is an example, another example is SMS, push notifications, direct mail, really anything that can kind of get you one-to-one with that customer and really build the relationship. Those are the things that should be valued a little bit more. There's ways to do it where it's not scary, and you can track the revenue quite easily. So yeah, I would say that diversification of the revenue is really the big thing, it's not just about avoiding working with the big guys, but only using them as much as you need to. Stephanie: Got it, that makes sense. So, what are some maybe, not a case study, but an example of a brand who came to you and diversified their channels to start maybe using ... texting is one thing that a lot of people have come on here saying they're thinking about or they are experimenting with sending texts to customers or potential customers, but they're not always really sure how to check that or how to measure the results. What are some maybe examples where you've seen that work well, or other channels that have worked well that maybe a brand normally wouldn't have explored? Chad: Yeah, I think the one that comes to mind it's a pretty big omnichannel retailer, they have about 50 locations and they sell sporting goods. I don't know if I can share the name, but basically- Stephanie: That's all right. Chad: ... they did a lot with the traditional advertising, so they ran local TV commercials, they ran local radio ads, and then they did a bit on Facebook and Google mostly around retargeting. They didn't really see those things as kind of top of the funnel activities, and because of that they basically relied on it for retargeting for the most part. So, they were basically spending on these offline channels, and then they were using digital as a way to retarget and try to convert those people, because it was the only way they could tie together the conversion of, "Hey, this person is on the website, and they just bought something.", and they could pretty much always get like a 10 to one return on ad spend. Chad: So, for them, they were kind of stuck in this omnichannel box where they couldn't do additional things for branding or impressions, because they didn't have a great way to track it, so whenever they started working with us, we helped them expand out into these other channels where they were still able to get a guaranteed 10 to one return on ad spend, because we were using things where we didn't have to buy media, like email and some onsite personalization things that we did for them. Today we don't have an SMS product, it is on the roadmap, along with push and a few other products, but really the email is still one of the biggest revenue drivers that we found for clients. Stephanie: Very cool, and do you help with looking into the data after you start these campaigns for the different brands and whatnot, because I know before we were recording you mentioned that you're really big into data and you love diving into that, so how do you incorporate that into the product, and with your clients? Chad: Yeah so, for us, there's two kind of chunks of data. There's the first party data, which you'll see in like Google Analytics, or if they have a CDP they can kind of analyze what their specific customer base is doing. The data that gets us really excited is network data, what's happening across a huge chunk of people. Our network sees about 200 million people each month, and kind of what they do throughout that purchase cycle, and then what they're actually responding to. So, whenever we think about data it's more about the overall trends and how you can change a visitor's behavior by creating a nudge, or creating some sort of incentive or offer to actually get the person to come back and convert. Stephanie: Got it, how do you have that big of a network, and how are you able to kind of see what people are doing? Chad: Yeah, so there's kind of two data sources that we have. One is a blind co-op, which I would say half of our clients are participating in that, and the blind co-op is the brands submitting data into it in exchange for being able to use the data that comes out of it to activate the campaigns. We don't sync data, we don't actually put data into another system, it's all self-contained within our system, but about half of the volume that we see comes from that co-op of data. And then the other half comes from publisher relationships that we have where we license the data, and again, we don't sell data, or we don't push data out of it so that users can still control all their data, but it gives us additional scale so that we can start to match who these people are. Stephanie: That's awesome. Was there any hesitancy with the brands sharing their data initially, or is it a little bit easier once they heard that other brands you were working with were already doing that? Chad: Yeah, we offer both. If they want access to the co-op data, they have to be part of it, so they have to submit to get access to it, that's basically what makes it the co-op. So, they can still work with us, and they can still tap into that publisher data, and a lot of the enterprise brands that we work with will never submit any data to any other system including us, and it's just off the table, it's not going to get through legal. We can still work with those brands, we just do it through our licensed publisher data. But the thing that gets us really excited is that idea of the co-op, and the brands being able to work together to do more together. Stephanie: Yeah, that's really cool. What's some of the most interesting things that brands have seen when they utilize the co-op data where they're like, "Oh, I never realized this or that."? Have you heard any underlying themes from these brands where they're getting access to something that maybe they never even knew to look into before, or had enough data to see that trend? Chad: Yeah so, we're still pretty early on the insight side of this and being able to open up things that they haven't been able to learn on their own. I would say we're a lot further along on the activation side of the data, so being able to actually perform a campaign that drives incremental results. So, just as an example, whenever we send out browse abandon or cart abandon emails, we end up sending about five to 10 times more emails than they're able to send internally. So, if a brand is sending out like 10 cart abandon emails a day right now, we'll probably send 50 to 100 of those by leveraging the data that we're tapped into, and then the benefit of that is revenue and less cart abandonment. Stephanie: Yeah, that's really cool. How do you guys identify shoppers that maybe were unknown before? Like if a brand couldn't identify them before, how are you all able to identify that shopper more easily? Chad: Yeah, so the core technology that this is built on is called deterministic identity resolution. It's a little bit of a mouthful, but Facebook has the biggest identity graph which uses deterministic identity resolution, and the way that it works is pretty simple. You, as a user, you've signed into Facebook on your phone, tablet, laptop, all of these various sources, and as you've done that, Facebook has given you an identifier, your Facebook ID, and then it's linked that to the different devices that you've done it on. So, our system works the same way, if you go to a publishers site, and you use an email address, our system encrypts the email and hashes it, and then we link that to the device that you do it on. Chad: As you do that across a network of devices and different publishers, that's how we're able to link an individual, or a hashed email, back to the actual devices that belong to that person. Once you have that link, then you're able to perform different types of marketing campaigns. So, what we're doing is actually no different than what Facebook and Google are already doing, except we activate the campaigns differently. Those guys, you can only get access to that identifier if you buy media through them and if you show an ad on Facebook, or across Google's display network. Ours lets you do the same thing, but we're doing it across open protocols like email, and SMS, and other channels. Stephanie: Ah, got it, and are you able to create like a shopper profile once you have all that data to then know how to maybe personalize your messaging to them, or really cater to that buyer who left? Chad: Yeah so, we don't append a lot of data to the actual identifier currently, mostly it's just the actual product that someone looked at, just so that we can dynamically include that product inside of the email, or anywhere else that we want to kind of push that product data to. So, we don't include anything like gender data, or demographic data, anything like that, right now it's just the email to the identifier. But as we continue to grow the dataset then that starts to get more interesting, and that's what's going to enable opening up insights and things like that. But today, we're really just heavily focused on the use case of kind of winning back those lost people using this unique dataset, and then from there we can start to append additional data to it as we go. Stephanie: Got it. It seems like there'd be a lot of new customers coming to you with this new D-to-C movement and a lot of people getting online really quickly now, especially with everything with the pandemic going on, have you seen a surge of customers coming to you and saying like, "Chad, help me. We have a bunch of people now visiting our site, and we actually don't know where they're coming from, and how to bring them back."? Chad: Yeah, most of our business is still driven through word of mouth, or through our agency partnerships. So, it's definitely been an influx this year, we're growing probably 20 to 30% month over month right now, just given- Stephanie: Wow, nice. Chad: ... everything that's been going on. So, it's a pretty exciting time, and it's awesome to see people looking outside of just Facebook and Google to figure out other ways to monetize. Stephanie: Yeah, that's awesome, congrats, that's great numbers, of course. When these brands are coming to you, are there any blind spots that you're like, "You obviously are missing this.", that a lot of larger brands just haven't looked into before? Chad: So, larger brands have a harder time kind of doing the up and coming things. Obviously they have a lot more things like infosec and legal that they have to go through. So, my only criticism of big brands is just that they don't test enough or fast enough, it's more about just speed of iteration. The space that we're in, digital commerce, it changes so fast, and by the time you're doing something that everyone else is doing you have to pay a premium for it. If the bigger brands could just get a little bit earlier in the adoption cycles of things, then they would be able to capture more market share and more of a customer base, and not have to worry so much about the D-to-C guys. Chad: But that's really the biggest difference between the big brands and why D-to-C's continue to capture more market shares, because they iterate so much faster and they test so much faster. So, my only feedback to big brands would be to figure out how to do it faster given all the internal constraints, and if you can figure that out it's not about finding one silver bullet, it's just getting through those iterations a lot faster. Stephanie: Yep, yeah, I definitely have seen that in practice before with having to go through a million approvals just to get one website, or one bug fix, or whatever the case may be. I'm thinking though right now might be a great time where brands have kind of broken down some of those barriers, because they had to move fast because of everything with the pandemic going on, they had to quickly stop campaigns, start different ones. I mean, so much has gone on over the past couple months, have you seen that on your end where it's shifting needs, and shifting a pace that maybe they weren't ever acting at before? Chad: Yeah, there's really kind of three camps that we're seeing play out. One is sort of the travel camp, which is at a halt, nothing's going on, and then at the other end of that is food delivery services, or really any kind of online education, which is just exploding, 400 to 600% over what they were before, and they're just getting hit so hard that they can't take on any additional projects for lack of resources, they're just trying to keep up with what they have. But then there's kind of this sweet spot in the middle of brands that are growing, maybe they're growing like 20 to 100% over where they were last year, and they're starting to hit kind of those Black Friday levels that they were at in Q4. They weren't really ready for it, but after the first couple months of this, I think people have started to realize this is probably going to maintain, and those are the brands that are really kind of what I see is capturing a bulk of the D-to-C movement right now. Chad: The guys at the other end of the spectrum where they're just getting hit so hard, yeah, they're winners but all the other competitors are also winners. So, we don't really know who the winner is out of all the winners yet, but in kind of that middle range, those guys that are competing in the middle, and still getting pretty reasonable growth rates, the ones that are getting another 10 or another 50% growth because they are able to iterate a little faster, those are the ones that are going to come out the big winners in their categories. Stephanie: Yep, yeah, completely agree. It'll definitely be very interesting to see who sticks around, because it seems like a lot of these trends, and I know it's been debated for the past maybe month of like what's going to stick, what's not going to, I think the data's coming in now that quite a bit of it seems like it's going to be here for the longterm. Do you have any thoughts on what's going to last trends wise, and what's going to maybe revert back to how it was a few months ago? Chad: Yeah, I think the ... we've just been kind of playing it out month to month. I think we're assuming that half of all the growth is probably going to stick. So, if you were doing $100 last month, and you're at $200 this month, then your new normal's probably 150. Maybe that's conservative or completely wrong, but I don't know how else you'd model out in this world. I think it's definitely inflated right now, but I don't think it's going to go back to where it was, so we just kind of picked the middle of the road there, and assume that half of it's probably going to stick. Stephanie: Yeah, no, that's probably a good initial methodology to use. I think one thing that's always interesting is looking at what's happening in China. I think I was reading about the Starbucks app how maybe it went to 85% usage from maybe 10% or something like that, and then it dropped back to, I think, like 33%. So, it showed that, like you said, it was inflated at a certain point, but now it was a huge channel shift to more people never probably going back to waiting in line, and ordering at the kiosk, or whatever it may be. Same with Philz here, I ordered online, or through the app a few times, and I'm like, "Why have I never done this before? Why do I walk up and stand in line?" It feels silly now. So yeah, I agree, that's probably still a bit inflated, but there would be quite a bit of a large shift that maybe not everyone's anticipating. Chad: Yeah, and the lifetime value approach to this, or figuring out how to get retention right is really going to determine the winners out of it. I think a lot of people are doing it now because they have to, so they're getting exposed to different things like an app, or they're buying something online for the first time, but if the experience is better than what they did before, they're going to keep doing it and then you can create the new behavior. But if the experience is worse, then they're going to sour on it, and then if it's not any better than what they were doing, they're going to go back to it. Chad: So, part of the onus is on the brand to really own that, and this is definitely a window of opportunity for every brand to get in front of more customers, and to acquire a customer for a little bit less, but the more that they can just focus on creating that great experience the easier it's going to be. A perfect example, we ordered a couch from Costco, like some outdoor furniture, and they shipped the complete wrong set to us, and it's still in our driveway after three weeks, and they haven't replied yet- Stephanie: Oh, my gosh. Chad: ... so it doesn't make me want to buy from Costco online- Stephanie: Oh, no. Chad: ... instead of just going to Costco. But yeah, any time that those kind of scenarios play out to the customer, they sour to that experience from that brand. Stephanie: Yeah, I'm trying to think of ways of how brands can rise above the noise, because I think through all the push notifications I'm getting right now, and some of them are helpful to keep them top of mind, I think it's like Uber Eats, and DoorDash, they're sending me coupons, and I'm always seeing notifications pop up that kind of remind me like, "Hey, you did this once, don't forget about us." But then a few other brands it seems like they're silent, and they haven't thought about maybe how to actually keep me engaged and retain me after all this dies down. How do you think about keeping a customer who maybe wasn't on that channel before retained to come back for the long haul? Chad: Yeah, I think it comes down to trying to create that personal experience and letting them know that you're always going to have their best interest at heart. I think that's probably where most people are under-investing right now, they're over-investing in supply chain or logistics because they have to have those things, but if they really go above and beyond on the customer support side and try to find those ways to have a conversation, it doesn't always have to be phone, it can be chat, it can just be a really responsive email team, but that's really where you can separate is ... most people kind of understand right now that things are going to be a little bit delayed, and shipments might take a little bit longer, but if you can't get back to a person in time, and if you're not letting them know that you're going to bust down walls to do what's best for them, then you're risking losing that person. And I think that's been proven with Zappos, Amazon, pretty much any one-to-one ecommerce, Chewy, it's all about the customer experience, and customer support is really what drives lifetime value. Stephanie: Yeah, completely agree. It seems like right now is a really good time too where you have the customer is a little empathetic to, like you said, things being delayed. I know I ordered something off Etsy, and it's like three weeks delayed. However, the person who is selling it has been constantly keeping me updated of like, "Here it's in San Francisco, here it's ... I see it on the map, I'm so sorry it's delayed." But I feel actually okay with it being delayed because she's been so open about where it is and why it's delayed and all of that. I think that's a good point of if a brand gives a good customer experience, even if something's not going well, that customer could still walk away with feeling good about it and having a good relationship with the brand just because they knew what was happening throughout the whole process. Stephanie: So, you've been in the world of ecommerce for a really long time, so I feel like it's good to kind of make sure you answer some high level ecommerce questions since you seem to be a good expert to ask. What's one thing that you wish online sellers would either start or stop doing? Chad: Yeah, I think starting's probably going go back to just iterations and testing faster. I think it's ... Most ecommerce teams, and the VP of ecommerce and CMOs, they'll usually set a KPI of like, "Let's hit 200,000 next month in sales.", or whatever it is. What they don't really set is tests, how many tests are we going to run next month, and whether those tests are successful or unsuccessful, being able to really emphasize that, and get through those cycles faster, that's the fastest way to really kind of have a process that lasts a long time in this space, because everything else is going to change. The channels are going to change, the way we market is going to change. Chad: So, the thing I would say do less of is kind of trying to squeeze a little more out of the lemons that you've already squeezed. So, if you've already done a lot through Google shopping, and you kind of optimized AdWords, then yes, there's always room for improvement, but if you try to get in front of that next thing that happens, it's going to pay dividends down the road. So, I would say do more testing and more iterations, and a little bit less optimization on all the things that have already worked once you're comfortable with those. Stephanie: Ooh, I like that, that's a good answer. It seems like brands right now are pretty hesitant to either do a lot of iterations just because of everything going on, or market in general. Have you also noticed that trend? Chad: Yeah, I think that's starting to loosen up a little bit now. I think a lot of brands just didn't know what to think early on, and for better or worse it was a great reason for them to go back and renegotiate a lot of things with a lot of people. So, I think they've kind of gone through that, probably cut some costs, and now they're realizing, "Oh, we might not have had to do that, but that was good to do. So now what are we going to do with all this extra stuff that we have?" So, I think people are starting to be a little more open to it now. Marketing budgets, any time there's a downturn, is always a thing that gets hit pretty hard. But ecommerce is definitely kind of in its own bubble, in its own world right now, so I think it's going to get a lot more attention that it didn't get before, and I think it's going to get a lot more emphasis on growth than it did before. Stephanie: Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. Is there anyone that you watch in the field ... not in the field, but I guess in the industry that you're like, "This is a good brand to watch.", where they stay ahead of trends, they're always kind of one step ahead of everyone else? Chad: I think wish.com is one that probably doesn't get talked about a whole lot- Stephanie: No. Chad: ... but they do a lot of really interesting things. I think when people think about D-to-C they end up leaning more towards the actual brands like Allbirds and those guys, which do a great job, but I think it's really interesting to watch the guys like wish.com, and even some of the stuff that Pinterest is doing right now is starting to get pretty interesting, more of kind of the marketplace approach. So, if I'm a D-to-C brand and I'm selling shirts, those are the guys that I'm trying to work with a little bit more. Stephanie: Got it. So, what is Wish doing, because I haven't kept up with them. I downloaded the app back in the day, and it wasn't the type of things that I would want to maybe buy quality wise, but I heard it has gotten better, so what kind of things are they doing, or Pinterest, that you got your eye on? Chad: think they're realizing that discovery is becoming more of a thing, especially on mobile devices and mobile apps. So, Wish does a lot with kind of endgame ads, and driving media buys directly from publishers. They don't do a whole lot on Facebook and Google, because it just gets too expensive, but they've gotten really good at running kind of the remnant ads, and driving downloads, which they can kind of funnel all the way through to a conversion. Chad: So, their conversion path is a little more complicated than just like, "Here's a Facebook ad, and did they buy a shirt?" But the way that they're able to monetize that is because they're focused on a little bit higher funnel conversions like an app download, and they know if they can get the app download, let's just say half the people are going to end up buying something for $1, because most of the stuff on Wish is $1, and then after that maybe they'll start to buy more expensive things on there. Chad: It kind of goes back to the ... there's a psychology study about a guy that was running as a candidate, and he wanted to get people to put these big signs in front of their yards. So, he went to half the houses and gave them a huge sign and said, "Will you put this in your yard?", and then he went to the other half of houses and asked them if they would put a small sign, but then he went back a week later and said, "Can I replace that small sign with a big sign?" Stephanie: That's good. Chad: Half the people would let him upgrade to the big sign after they got the small sign in place instead of asking for the big thing upfront. So, I think the brands that are really doing a good job right now are focusing more on those type of tactics where you have a small ask for the consumer, and then you sort of build on that over time instead of just asking them to buy a $1,000 mattress. Stephanie: Yeah, I like that story about the signs, I'm going to have to use that one in future episodes. Do you think it's ... Is there any reason to be nervous around relying on marketplaces like Wish, or Pinterest, or even Amazon? Chad: When they get too much market share that's when it becomes a problem, because then they can kind of control the ocean. It's best if there's a lot of players, usually five plus players, because then you've got options and you, as a brand, have a little more negotiating ability, and you've got some more leverage. So, this is what happens in the world, everything kind of gets consolidated, and then it starts to break apart again, or it gets unbundled. So, I think we just kind of keep going through those cycles, and then as you can, as a brand, capitalize on those cycles and try to do enough testing where you can figure out what that next shift is going to be, that's when you really start to hit your strides. Chad: A lot of the D-to-C brands that we look at today, and we're like, "Hey, these guys are awesome.", it was because they were early on Facebook Ads, and then they diversified outside of that. So, they really got their momentum by finding that market opportunity where there wasn't a lot of competition, and then capitalizing on it as fast and as hard as they could until it became too competitive, and then they expended it out, now they run TV, and they're basically a traditional brand like everyone else. So, if you want to be a successful D-to-C brand you have to find one of those market opportunities where you think that a wave is going to happen, and then you just ride the wave as long as you can. Stephanie: I like it. So, are there any platforms that you're paying attention to right now, or that you've heard some of your brands are looking into that are maybe more early? Chad: TikTok's probably the biggest one [crosstalk 00:38:46]- Stephanie: Yep. A lot of people have brought that up. Chad: Yeah. Stephanie: But tell me your thoughts on TikTok. Chad: So, they still have a lot to figure out with TikTok's ad platform, but this is always how it happens, they have a huge group of customers, and they're getting a ton of impressions, but they don't necessarily have all the data that they need to be able to get the highest CPMs for those impressions. So, right now it's sort of a ... they're just kind of running brands one-off, and you can get CPMs for pennies and just hope that it does something. TikTok doesn't have a very robust attribution system as far as like, "When they saw this did they actually convert?" Chad: But that's always how it works. If you can find something that really resonates then it's going to ... you can just maximize it, you can just push it as far as it'll go, and as far as your supply chain can handle it. So, there's no clear, "Do this on TikTok and you get this.", and that's what makes it appealing. If you can get into a platform like that, run a ton of experiments, and figure it out before the next guy figures it out, then you get the cheapest CPMs, and you get a huge growth rate from it. Stephanie: Got it, yeah, that's really interesting. It's funny how many people are starting to look into that, but no one's fully explained it how you did about why you want to find a platform, like you said, that it's not a, "Do this, and then you will get this result.", because if it's like that it's probably everyone already knows how to do it, and there's a lot of competition, and it's expensive. Chad: Yeah, I think Gary Vee probably said it best, but marketers kill everything. Once you figure out something works, then every other marketer's going to do it, and then it's going to stop working. Stephanie: Oh, he is heavy on TikTok, so he's- Chad: Yep. Stephanie: Yeah, I've gone on there a couple times and seen him all over the place on there. Are there any other platforms like that that you're looking into? Chad: I've heard retargeting on Snapchat's pretty good depending on the audience that you have, if they're under about age 40 then you can usually get pretty good results on there, who knows what that's going to keep growing into. There are some D-to-C companies that get pretty good traction on Twitter. I don't know if either one of those are really kind of growth channels anymore, they're more like optimization channels either for retargeting, or just figuring out how to get a little bit lower CPM, maybe it's half the rate of Facebook, but it could still work pretty well. Chad: I think what's going to happen next is that a lot of the publishers are going to start creating their own ad systems for this stuff. I think a lot of the publishers are sitting on a lot of data, and being able to target that data with them directly is going to be enabled by CDPs, or customer data platforms. So, a lot of these guys are starting to build those out now so that they're less reliant on Facebook and Google's ad systems for all the ad buys. So, I think that's where the unbundling is probably going to happen, it's probably going to happen with the publishers as they start to pull inventory from those guys, and start to figure out their own ad system. And if they can start to figure out lookalike models that work on the publishers sites, then you can cut out some of the middle guys, and then drive down the rates, which makes it more appealing to the D-to-C guys. Stephanie: Yeah, ooh, that's interesting. That'll definitely be fun to watch, because yeah, I've seen a lot of posts right now around people going to the more expensive platforms, maybe like LinkedIn where everyone's like, "It is not efficient budget wise to try and run ads on maybe LinkedIn.", but if you run a small subset on there, and then you retarget on Snapchat, that is way cheaper. That's how a lot of companies seem to be trying to get around the more expensive platforms right now. So, it'll be fun if more open up that aren't like that, or you don't have to go through that many steps to actually find your audience. Chad: Yeah, definitely, and I think another one is Tabula, if you haven't tried Tabula, you probably should, they've got lookalike models now and some retargeting, and the CPMs are still pretty low, so they're definitely one to keep an eye on. Stephanie: Oh, I haven't heard over time that, I'll have to check that out. So, is there anything that you want to share before I move into the lightning round where I ask a couple questions, and you have to have a quick question answer? Anything around ecommerce, or AddShoppers that's top of mind that we missed? Chad: So, we deal a lot in customer data, so sort of the elephant in the room with us is always upcoming regulations, and how do customers actually want to use their data, or how do we create an environment where we can have trust in the marketing world without violating someone's personal data. So, we as a company, we launched a brand called SafeOpt, it's S-A-F-E-O-P-T.com, and SafeOpt is basically the endpoint for shoppers so that they can tap into our data. A lot of companies have created things for CCPA, and GDPR that are limited to just California or just Europe, but we've created the SafeOpt brand to be exposed worldwide to anybody that ever wants to get access to their data, and I think that's how we, as marketers, build trust with consumers is by making everything transparent. Chad: I know like my grandparents and in-laws and things like that, they sometimes think if they're near an Alexa and they say something, Alexa's picking up on it, and all of a sudden they're going to start to see ads for those things. As a marketing technologist I know that the amount of data they would have to ingest to do that is pretty much near impossible, and that they're probably not going to do that. But it's little things like that, that create this perception of marketing being a bad thing, or marketing being a thing that is like this black box of it knows everything about me. So, I think that we, as marketers, have to continue to push towards versions that create transparency, and versions that give control to people that want control. Stephanie: Yeah, that's great. So, for the brands that are just optimizing for the California or European rules, what could you see happening for people who aren't thinking more holistically? Could they lose access to ... maybe if they had a whole customer subset dataset where maybe if they didn't do things correctly from like a privacy protection area, would they lose that whole entire dataset and couldn't use it in the future, or what do you see happening if they don't get ahead of this? Chad: I think a lot of it's more hyped up than what customers actually want to do. We get very few CCPA requests, or GDPR requests. Most people are just curious, they want to know what's in there. They don't necessarily want it to go away as long as there's some sort of benefit for them. Some people do, and you want to purge those people as easily as you can, because you don't want to violate their trust either. If they want to be completely anonymous that's up to them, but I would say that's probably less than one to 5% of all people, and it's probably the group of people that isn't the highest lifetime value. But yeah, I would say just focus on creating a ... It's one thing to just do what the regulation requires you to do, and it's a completely nother thing to do something that creates a good customer experience while accommodating the regulation. Stephanie: Yep, yeah, I love that. Cool, all right. Well, with the last couple minutes I was going to move into the lightening round, brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud, are you ready, Chad? Chad: Let's do it. Stephanie: All right. What's up next on your podcast list? Chad: Ooh, I like Joe Rogan. Stephanie: Yep. Chad: I think he's pretty much just constant. Stephanie: But now you got to go to Spotify for him, right? Chad: Yeah, pretty much. Stephanie: Yeah, I like him, too. What's up next on your reading list? Chad: I'm reading Great by Choice from Jim Collins right now. Stephanie: Mm-hmm (affirmative), awesome. You'll have to go to our Mission Daily podcast, we are having Jim Collins ... we had him on the show, but we haven't published his episode yet, so I think it's coming out in a couple weeks. Chad: That's awesome. Stephanie: So, you'll have to go over there afterwards. What's up next on your Netflix queue? Chad: I've got a eight-year-old and a four-year-old, so I don't really get a Netflix queue right now. By the time nighttime comes around I'm ready to go to sleep, so I've got nothing. Stephanie: All right, I like it. What's up next on your travel destinations when you can travel again? Chad: Yeah, we go to Maine every year, this is going to be the first year we missed it in probably like 14 years- Stephanie: Oh, no. Chad: ... so we want to get back to the Maine beach as fast as we can. Stephanie: Oh, that sounds fun. Yeah, Maine seems really pretty, I need to check that out. All right, and the last, slightly harder question, what's one thing that will have the biggest impact on ecommerce in the next year? Chad: All right, that's a trick question. One thing with the biggest impact ... I think it's probably going to be the unbundling of Facebook. Stephanie: Tell me more. Chad: I think that ... So, Facebook is ... I would guess that they've hit their prime, and that micro-networks are going to start to grab users away from Facebook and push them over to their platforms, and all the various iterations that that's going to happen in. Mark's done a great job of kind of buying all the scale and everything that Facebook has now, but I think that without them continuing to innovate there, and with all the things that are happening inside of Facebook right now, I think they kind of hit their peak. I could be totally wrong, people said the same thing about Microsoft and a lot of other brands, but I think that's probably what's going to happen next. And then that's going to drive, for ecommerce, new opportunities like we were just talking about where if you're early enough on those you're going to be able to drive huge brand awareness and a lot of sales. Stephanie: Cool. Yeah, that's a great answer. All right, Chad, well this has been a blast, where can people find out more about you and AddShoppers? Chad: Yeah, so AddShoppers is A-D-D Shoppers.com, and I'm on Twitter @ChadLedford. Stephanie: Awesome. Well, thanks for coming on the show, and we'll see you next time. Chad: All right, thanks, Stephanie.  

With coronavirus restrictions taking place throughout the country, Philz Coffee needed to adapt its business model, and find a way to serve customers safely. Fortunately, Philz was already ahead of the curve with their mobile app, e-commerce store and strong online presence. CEO, Jacob Jaber, emphasizes the importance of encouraging a mobile-first mindset and investing in digital technology. Jacob also shares how Philz will be working to safely create a sense of community in every store once restrictions are lifted. Learn all this and more in this episode of Back to Business: COVID-19 & You.

In this episode, Bruce talks with three people that he barely knows, but is sure they are awesome because they all work at Philz Coffee, Bruce's favorite coffee experience. After Bruce fanboys a bit about Philz (Seriously, where are the stock options?) they talk coffee, nerdy things, politics, music, and how the vote was 3-1 that last season of Game of Thrones sucked.Bonus points to Amanda for knowing Bruce's drink and shoutout to Emily for asking if he was okay after his third cup in a day.Be sure to connect with and follow — Philz Coffee: https://www.instagram.com/philzcoffee/Philz Middlefield: https://www.instagram.com/philzmiddlefieldrd/Amanda: https://www.instagram.com/amandazaragosa/Edward: https://www.instagram.com/edward_the_fourth_bright/Steven's Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/better-men-podcast/id1457426427Listen to all of Bruce's Podcast tomfoolery on Spreakerhttps://www.spreaker.com/user/breyeschowSupport Bruce's podcast-making over on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/breyeschowConnect with Bruce Reyes-ChowWebsite: http://www.reyes-chow.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/breyeschowInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/breyeschowFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/breyeschowBruce's dogs would be very happy if you subscribed to and rated this podcast and they would over the moon if you followed, liked, tagged, and shared this podcast on —Twitter: https://twitter.com/brcandfriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/brcandfriendsFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/brcandfriendsSpreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/show/brc

Welcome to the Pour Over podcast, join us as we “Pour Over” our thoughts on TV and talk our highs and lows in the coffee-brewing world. This week we are discussing Black Mirror, White Bear.Black Mirror - White BearDeeper Roots Coffee - Kiangoi | KenyaHario V60 Drip ScaleOak Cliff Coffee - Biftu GudinaYes Plz CoffeePhilz CoffeeBlack Mirror: BandersnatchRate us on Apple Podcasts & follow us on Instagram!

In this episode, I sit down with Alison Wood from Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and The Young Adult Volunteer program. Alison drops much knowledge about accompaniment. We also touch upon our common love of the puppies, how awesome Philz is, pottery as a discipline, and a common enneagram kinship. Listen to all of Bruce's Podcast tomfoolery on Spreakerhttps://www.spreaker.com/user/breyeschowSupport Bruce's podcast making over on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/breyeschowBe sure to connect with Alison on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/alison.michal/Connect and Support with Presbyterian Peace Fellowship —Website: https://www.presbypeacefellowship.orgTwitter: https://twitter.com/presbypeaceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/presbypeaceFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/presbypeaceConnect with Bruce Reyes-Chow —Website: http://www.reyes-chow.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/breyeschowInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/breyeschowFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/breyeschowBruce's dogs would be very happy if you subscribed to and rated this podcast and they would over the moon if you followed, liked, tagged, and shared this podcast on —Twitter: https://twitter.com/brcandfriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/brcandfriendsFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/brcandfriendsSpreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/show/brc

The corner dive bar is endangered! Government regulation, property taxes and lazy apple users are driving the dive bar to jump from the top of the Sears Tower. Into this environment enter two hipsters saving a Bucktown neighborhood pub. Should we be thankful or does Chicago need another Philz coffee chain store across from Starbucks?

Pumpkin spice, changing leaves, and fresh apple pie...C + D talk all things fall in this backwards episode—starting with a baked treat and ending with the TV shows they’re #currentlyobsessed with. Put Obsessed to the (Taste) Test: For this episode, C + D decided to do things out of order and started with a taste test of Biscoff cookies from Lotus, claiming to be “the same cookies you fell in love with in-flight.” They tried them alongside their pour-over vietnamese coffee from this episode, and found the cookies are a perfect companion treat. Links To Give You Life: Load up on cozy drinks like the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, an iced Gingersnap from Philz, or at-home brews from the Starbucks Fall Coffee Collection Shop til you drop for autumnal snacks, beverages, and more at Trader Joe’s Whether by train, flying car, portkey, or floo powder, get yourself back to Hogwarts by rereading or rewatching all things Harry Potter Enjoy all the festivities fall has to offer and get your butt to a local pumpkin patch, corn maze, or haunted house—some of which can be found at Knott’s if you’re in SoCal Laugh yourself silly at these videos of Ellen’s producer Andy going through Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights with Chrissy Tiegen and the Dracula Untold maze with his assistant Jacqueline Visit the apple orchards in Julian for fresh apple pie and go apple-picking in Oak Glen, not to mention enjoy some scrumptious apple cider donuts Catch up with “The 100” on Netflix and binge through the newest season (Season 6) Marathon the whole “Gilmore Girls” series on Netflix, which is equal parts smart, hilarious, and downright weird Episode Guide: (03:41) C + D put Lotus Biscoff cookies to a taste test (10:02) C + D talk PSLs and other cozy drinks for fall (16:32) C talks shopping autumnal snacks at Trader Joe’s (18:20) D talks going back to Hogwarts with Harry Potter (20:11) C talks enjoying soup time and home-cooked meals (22:16) D talks sitting in nature as the weather cools (24:08) C + D talk fall festivals and event-triggered #shortpeopleproblems (34:27) C talks apple-picking and apple cider donuts (39:58) C talks her obsession with “The 100” (47:38) D talks her obsession with “Gilmore Girls”

Philz Coffee is no ordinary coffee shop. It's all about flavor and caffeine popping pour-overs -- there's no need for an espresso machine here! You get to choose from over 15 unique coffee blends, and the barista prepares your cup to perfection for you (including milks and sweeteners). It's no wonder they call their coffee "cups of love"! We chat with GINA GLENBOWSKI, store leader of the Hollywood, CA café, to talk all about this unique approach to coffee, and how it took Phil (yes, there really is a "Phil") 7 years to create the perfect coffee bean blend, which started it all. She also gives us some inside info on some amazing SECRET MENU options. But don't worry, if you love lattes, sweet coffee drinks or just black coffee that seem as strong as espresso, Philz has you covered with something you may like even more! From the perfect pour over creation to cold coffees (including their popular Mojito coffee, which is out of this world delicious), they have something for everyone in a inviting, family-feel cafe. And while we're tasting several of their blends and are highly caffeinated, it's the perfect time to talk about our week! Myles rips a page out of a Jack Black movie and is on the "case of the missing dog poop". He describes how he used his fatherly skills to solve the mystery. And Jason's son asks for an axe -- what could go wrong with that?  We're in Hollywood, but there are over 51 Philz cafes throughout the country! Join us for several cups of incredibly tastey coffees at Philz!  PHILZ COFFEEwww.philzcoffee.com6430 Sunset Blvd,  Los Angeles, CA

Jacob Jaber is the CEO of Philz Coffee, an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain based in San Francisco, CA. Phil Jaber turned his corner grocery store into Philz as a way to give back to the community through every cup of coffee made with love. Jacob took over the business in 2005 after realizing school just was not that interesting to him. Philz now has about 60 locations all around the US and is continuing to grow while still staying true to the company's core values--Put the customer experience first, Be quality driven and progress focused, Be kind and keep it real.   ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Find the Podcast on all platforms: ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YQE02jPOboQrltVoAD8bp ➢Listen on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/markbellspowerproject  FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

Special episode alert! Techcrunch reporter Kate Clark sent a tweet out about how she hates Philz Coffee. We decided to bring her on the show with Philz CEO Jacob Jaber to convince her otherwise. Hilarity ensued. Kate's tweet said she 'hated Philz more than Starbucks'. Co-host Sunil decided to reach out on the thread since he is a Philz fan and tag the official Philz corporate account along with CEO Jacob Jaber. Jaber agreed to join Sunil, Jascha and Kate for a special edition of the show. Jacob served Kate, Sunil and Jascha special drinks before the show to convince Kate that she just had a bad experience in the past. To begin with, Kate shares her thoughts about the drinks she tasted, and compares them to her favorite coffee beverage at Starbucks (iced vanilla latte). She also talks about her pre-disposition to love Starbucks because of its brand. Clark talks about her journey from Seattle to San Francisco and her relatively recent arrival to San Francisco. While Jaber talks about how he was born in South San Francisco and can't envision living in another region. Jaber explains the number of varities of Philz drinks that are possible. The guests talk about different regions, their favorite Twitter accounts, and whether they are optimistic about the future of San Francisco. The answers will likely surprise you. Jaber essentially plays customer service rep as Kate talks about her frustration around the Philz queuing system. This is a hilarious special edition of the podcast that you don't want to miss.

In this episode, we sit down with Annie Coakley. Annie is the executive director of Downtown Evanston, which was created in 1987, and provides marketing and management services to the downtown Evanston, Illinois district and is a 501(c)(6) non-profit corporation for business. Annie Coakley previously worked for the City of Chicago's Department of Planning and Development for over 14 years, managing and coordinating a wide range of programs to attract, retain and support the growth of businesses throughout Chicago. The episode walks us through what the Downtown Organization is, what it does, and why it exists, and why it is so important. She talks about the additional services it provides like advertising, landscaping and a multitude of events throughout the year. Annie talks about the new projects that are being talked about in Downtown Evanston, and what is currently being constructed. For more information you can click here. She also talks about all of the new coffee shops coming to town like Philz and Newport Coffee House. We also talk about many of the current coffee shops in Downtown Evanston like Unicorn Cafe, Other Brother, and Starbucks, Annie talk about her wishes for Evanston like an entertainment venue like Northlight Theatre; more money for public art like the Art Encounter EMAP program. More information can be found here: a pie in the sky wish for a bike route along the Metra line all the way from Evanston down to Elston similar to the 606. Reach out to Alderman Don Wilson for more information on this idea; and more landscaping similar to Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Downtown Evanston and all of their events like the Hygge Fest, which is a Danish based social winter festival which starts on February 16th at Bookends and Beginnings can be found at http://downtownevanston.org/, on Facebook at @downtownevanston, Instagram at @downtownevanston, and on Twitter at @DowntwnEvanston. I’d like to thank several people for help with today’s show. This includes my real estate brokerage, Dreamtown Realty in Evanston for helping me with my graphics for the show. I’d like to thank Industrious in Evanston for use of their space to record follow them on Instagram at @industriousevanston. And if listening to this podcast gave you the bug to buy or sell real estate, give me call or go to my real estate website at http://www.aaronmasliansky.com And don’t forget to subscribe! Thank you.

How does authenticity drive success? Philz Coffee CEO Jacob Jaber and Neighborhood Restaurant Group Beverage Director Greg Engert join Debbie and Billy Shore to discuss good coffee, craft beer and how to build businesses that are part of the fabric of their communities. Both guests cite authenticity - in the people they hire, the products they serve, and the experiences they provide for guests - as the basis for the success of their organizations. “The best service is when it’s done from the heart and authentic,” Jaber believes. Engert thinks that just having craft beer on the menu is not enough. “The hard part is echoing the passion of the producer through service and product knowledge,” he says. “The flavors become more vibrant when you wed the intellectual to the more visceral pleasures of drink.” Both guests built their businesses with community in mind. Jaber’s father started Philz out of his grocery store in San Francisco and now they have 48 stores and growing. “If you want to do it right, you have to not worry about scalability and just focus on excellence,” says Jaber. Engert agrees. “[They] are places for people who live near each other to get together, share food and drink and get to know each other and learn from each other,” says Engert of Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s 19 establishments. Tune in to this conversation and hear the passion that these two guests bring to their crafts, their customers and their communities.

For our second episode, we sit down with the CEO of Philz Coffee, Jacob Jaber to talk about the power of authenticity, Philz' vision for the future of coffee and the importance of relationships --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/hypergrowth/support

Philz has great theatre which renders an enjoyable experience. 

Today we speak with Jacob Jaber, CEO of Philz Coffee in San Francisco. Jacob took the reigns from his dad Phil at only 18 years of age and grew the business from a single store to national scale over the past decade. Philz’ “one cup at a time” approach to coffee helped define a “third wave” of coffee culture in America. Listen to the episode to hear Jacob’s thoughts on the importance of a personalized experience and the challenges of scaling nationally while retaining a strong focus on culture, quality, and community. Jacob also reveals his favorite cup, and it’s not what you’d think!

On this episode, James talks to Philz Coffee CEO Jacob Jaber. He's the CEO behind our favorite cup of coffee Jacob is the son of, you guessed it Phil. My love for Philz started when I tasted their iced mint mojito in San Francisco. There’s just something special about the way they do business.From its humble beginnings in the Bay area, Philz has grown from one store to over 40, catching the eye of Venture Capitalists and raising over $75 Million to help propel their growth.What I learned from Jacob is that it doesn’t matter if it’s a cup of coffee or some new whiz-bang technology, curiosity and attention to detail, go a long way. But don’t take it from me, enjoy my far-ranging conversation with Philz Coffee CEO, Jacob Jaber.

On this episode, James talks to Philz Coffee CEO Jacob Jaber. He's the CEO behind our favorite cup of coffee Jacob is the son of, you guessed it Phil. My love for Philz started when I tasted their iced mint mojito in San Francisco. There’s just something special about the way they do business.From its humble beginnings in the Bay area, Philz has grown from one store to over 40, catching the eye of Venture Capitalists and raising over $75 Million to help propel their growth.What I learned from Jacob is that it doesn’t matter if it’s a cup of coffee or some new whiz-bang technology, curiosity and attention to detail, go a long way. But don’t take it from me, enjoy my far-ranging conversation with Philz Coffee CEO, Jacob Jaber.

JB & JR sit down with the fellas from "Contrary to the Belief" Podcast and discuss their mission and their perspective on the Ball in the Family webisodes, entrepreneurship, and more.

You don't have to be a Buddhist monk to live intentionally.   And examples of people living intentionally are all around us if we we open our eyes to them. Such is the case with Alex Longoria, a General Manager at Philz Coffee in Encinitas. I've know Alex a few months now from going into Philz and getting my green tea (with extra mint) every day.  We've always chatted about sports, the weather or whatever and he always seemed in a genuinely good mood. One day I asked him what he liked most about working there.  I was blown away by his response.   He said he loved working at Philz because it gave him a chance to positively impact dozens of people's lives every single day. He had an opportunity to make someone's life better with every order based on how he treated them.  It wasn't just what he said, it was the way he said it.  You could tell he truly meant it and he was 100% focused on making his customers as happy as possible. So I invited him on the podcast to talk about living intentionally. We talk about mindfulness and why loving what you do daily is so important.  We also talk about Philz Coffee and GoodOnYa and how they've managed to create a thriving business by focusing on employee & customer happiness first and profit second.  Here's what you'll learn on the podcast:  What you should never do in a coffee shop (you'll be surprised) Why faith and confidence are the biggest keys to an epic life How intentional living translates into love Why watching make-up tutorials could be the best relationship advice to follow if you're a guy Why I hate hockey and how we both define ‘hipsters' Check it out and I hope you enjoy the episode. LINKS  https://www.facebook.com/philzcoffee (Philz Coffee) https://www.facebook.com/jacob.jaber (Jacob Jaber CEO - Philz) https://www.facebook.com/GOODONYAorganic/ (GoodOnYa Cafe)

Sanjiv Chopra: This week on the Game of Life we have the absolute blessing to hear from one of the wisest, most motivational, truly genuine and authentic person - Sanjiv Chopra...   In the next 40 minutes you will understand how to find the purpose of your life and 5 things you can do every day that are very simple and extremely effective for personal growth - both physically, mentally, and spiritually.   You'll find out the truth about coffee and how important it is for you, the ideal amount of cups to drink daily (this made me feel really good about my personal coffee addiction!), the importance of incorporating mediation into your daily routine, and how to live each day with a purpose - not in the eyes of the world's success but in a way that will help you find fulfillment and joy in each day.  In a nutshell, Sanjiv's outlook on life that he will share with you just makes-a-ton of sense.      SPONSOR: Whoop  "WHOOP is a biometric device and analytics platform designed for the best athletes in the world. Measuring the stress your body takes on, the sleep you get, and how well recovered you are." Whoop has signed a deal with NFL, MLB, and the NBA is coming soon. Literally players are wearing them under their wristbands. And I allowed to say that? Not sure.  Whoop  ---https://whoop.com/ NURSE   $125  OFF   ---------------------------------   BREAK: Bulletpoint takeaways from the 1st half:  Mark Twain - the two most important days of your life: the day you were born and the day you figured out why...   Live for a purpose  The Big 5:  Coffee, Exercise, Vitamin D (sunshine), nuts, meditation  2-4 cups of coffee a day. (Maybe not 63) Handful of nuts before lunch to curb appetite  Aspirin --- take baby aspirin --could save your life mediterranean diet Easy way to increase our telomeres --- live longer! and with higher quality   LEAVE A REVIEW AND WIN NBA TICKETS TO GAME OF YOUR CHOICE! All right, so here is what I need you all to do - leave a review in iTunes with a question you want to be read and discussed on the live Q&A episode coming soon. You will automatically be entered to win NBA tickets to the game of your choice in the upcoming season as well.  And as always, any feedback/advice/suggestions on who you want me to bring on the podcast is always greatly appreciated.  Let's keep growing together, learning together, and becoming the best version of ourselves together every single day. Life is just so much more fulfilling when we know we are living for a purpose but even more so when we are spending our time actually living out that purpose    BACK TO THE PODCAST   Coming up: Sanjiv's daily routine The most effective ways to live life - Focus on these 4 things:Friends, Forgiveness, For Others, Gratitude  Rapid Fire Questions  Sanjiv's Invitation to Happiness  Affirmations in the morning and Affirmations before bed (the most powerful!) Brain figures out things when we sleep:  I expand in abundance, success, happiness and love everyday and inspire others to do the same     3 POINTERS My Top 3 Coffee Spots!    3. Kimura Koffee - https://kimerakoffee.com amazing artisan high-altitude coffee with powerful vitamins proven to boost cognitive function.   2. Bulletproof Coffee - Santa Monica  http://www.bulletproof.com It’s a high-performance drink that has a massive impact on your energy and cognitive function. Suppressed Hunger, steady lasting energy, mental clarity through the combination of MCT (medium chain tryglicoriedes mixed with grass fed butter or ghee) That's the premise of bulletproof and I'll be honest, it tastes REALLY good.      1. Philz Coffee - http://www.philzcoffee.com/our-coffee Philz brews every cup “One Cup at a Time", crafting a perfect cup to every individual customer’s taste. You won’t find any lattes, cappuccinos, espressos, or pre-brews. Instead, you'll find over 20 customized blends made from high quality beans from around the world.    Oh, and if you were wondering - I have been to the coffee shop in Adelaide Sanjiv was speaking about with the 5g of caffeine 'kick ass coffee'  Viscous Coffee. That's what it's called. The name speaks for itself obviously.      FINISH: So grateful to Sanjiv Chopra for coming on The Game of Life and dropping very applicable life knowledge on us. I'll be honest, I have listened to this podcast 4 times already just to make sure I soak up all the tips, tricks, and life hacks Sanjiv talked about.  Here is how we can apply it to our lives - Sanjiv's 5 simple things to do every single day: drink coffee, mediate, movement/exercise, eat nuts, and get vitamin sunlight.  Sanjiv was doing that all before 7am!  Simple. And think, if you do that every day, your life with positively improve every day.   I think the underlying theme that Sanjiv teaches us is to really embrace the moment and soak it all in. Soak in every little morsale that life provides in the moment. I think that is so key to do, but so hard to do as society tells us we ALWAYS need to be concerned about 'getting ahead' or 'whats coming next'   Enjoy the moment with the ones you love, slow down your pace in life, and realize you are in the place you are right now currently at this moment in your life for a reason, for a purpose.  Thank you Sanjiv, you are truly an inspiration to myself and I know to all the listeners as well.        Everything from this week's episode will be linked in the show notes. Follow and support all that Sanjiv is doing.  Have a wonderful, safe, family filled 4th of July week! David Nurse, Game of Life. Singing off.    Follow Everything Sanjiv  http://sanjivchopra.com/books/ http://sanjivchopra.com/about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjiv_Chopra   Charities/Foundations http://www.papajaime.com/nosotros http://maestrocares.org  

Cup by cup, custom-crafted coffee is dripped for the customer at Philz. Hear from CEO Jacob Jaber who with his father Phil, transitioned their grocery store business to a coffee shop. Now that coffee shop is a chain of almost forty stores and growing.

Philip Tadros is a true serial entrepreneur and restauranteur. He is the founder of Doejo, a digital agency, Dollop Coffee, a cafe and bakery, Bow Truss Coffee, a coffee roastery and cafe, The Budlong, a hot chicken restaurant chain, SPACE, a co-working space, and Aquanaut Brewing, a craft brewery. He opened his first coffee shop at 19 after dropping out of college and now runs the largest network of independently owned coffee shops in Chicago.  Crain's recently ran a special report questioning some of Phil's business practices titled "One of Chicago's most connected entrepreneurs has made more than a few enemies". We dive into what really happened in the second half of this episode and what he's learned from the experience. listen on iTunes listen on google play In This Episode You Will Learn: How Phil got his start as an entrepreneur after dropping out of college The differences between the beer and coffee community How he differentiates himself in the competitive food industry  Phil's side of the story on the Crain's special report What he’s learned from the experience How he and his team handled the bad press Selected Links From The Episode: IDEO 37signals 3 Floyds Brewing Co.  Intelligentsia Coffee Funded Foods Favorite Books:  The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien 

In this episode Guy Kawasaki talks to us about the state of live-streaming, gives us some advice, and cracks a few jokes :) Check out Canva here : https://www.canva.com/ Episode music: https://soundcloud.com/aka-dj-quads/go-with-me-vlog-music Los's Minute Vlogger series: https://instagram.com/losmontoya DevTips: https://youtube.com/devtipsfordesigners

In today's episode we talk about what's happening in the animal rights community, Robin’s recent adventures in the kitchen, and the Bay Area’s Vegan prom on March 5.   Ask Ashley 30,000+ cows died in storm in Texas and New Mexico. http://www.abqjournal.com/699253/news/cows-lost-to-snowstorm-likely-to-top-30000.html Ringling Bros. retiring their elephants from the circus early. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/12/us/ringling-circus-elephants-take-early-retirement-to-florida.html?_r=0 Queens cow ‘Freddie’ completes slaughterhouse escape thanks to NJ animal lover http://pix11.com/2016/01/22/runaway-queens-cow-freddie-completes-escape-wins-lifetime-pardon/ Maxine’s Dash For Freedom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S6imKY5QRY Abe’s “Jessica’s” Market http://www.abesmarket.com/natural-products/food-and-drink/vegan-food.html   Dinner at the Dollhouse   eatsa in San Francisco veganburg in San Francisco The CheeseBoard in Berkeley yogurt taste test: https://vegandollhouse.com/blog/vegan-yogurt-tasting/  christmas in paradise / wolf sanctuary / little pine / kitchen mouse / donut friend: https://vegandollhouse.com/blog/christmas-in-paradise/  pizza rolls: https://vegandollhouse.com/recipes/pizza-pinwheels/  cinnamoroll donuts / dessert cafe zine / happiness cafe: https://vegandollhouse.com/recipes/cinnamoroll-donuts/  fancy food show BetterHalf: the new half and half by Califia (Cal-i-fyuh) Color Kitchen - all natural food coloring Miyoko’s new mozarella Jen’s Zen chocolate sauce   Top 10 Reasons not to miss the SF Vegan Prom It will be better that your high school prom (if you even went). The theme is Alice in Vegan Wonderland The PIC are known for organizing other awesome vegan events in the area. There will be a free photo booth We will be accepting song requests in advance through social media from anyone who has purchased a ticket. The event is cruelty-free, eco-friendly, and LGBT friendly Tickets are only $30 and it includes drinks, food, and a raffle ticket Food is being prepared by the best vegan chefs in the SF bay area: S+M Vegan, The Butcher’s Son, AstigVegan, and Taqueria LaVeganza All the proceeds are going directly to The Humane League. Raffle items will include things like Go Max Go candy bars, Philz coffee, cookbooks, and tons more! You can see the sponsors on the website at bayareasoiree.com   Gently stalk us https://www.dollsanddoughnuts.com/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dolls-doughnuts/id1054747608 YouTube: dolls & doughnuts (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnK9ShI0B4IBEsRK865sgQQ) Twitter: @dolls_doughnuts (https://twitter.com/dolls_doughnuts)   IG: @dollsanddoughnuts (https://www.instagram.com/dollsanddoughnuts/) Email: dollsanddoughnuts@gmail.com   Dolls & Doughnuts is a vegan centered podcast covering everything from animals rights to delicious vegan food. With your hosts! Ashley - http://www.theveganadventure.com/ Robin - https://vegandollhouse.com/