Business School

Big Box Retailers are under fire from multiple angles. Consumers are shopping online, startups are driving up marketing costs and stealing market share, and COVID forced retail to shut down in 2020. Alexa Driansky explains how the large, traditional retailers are responding.

Ethan Song co-founded Frank & Oak in 2012 and within 12 months had 7-figure monthly sales and a team of over 70 people. Over the next 8 years, he learned that to truly disrupt the men’s fashion industry would take more than several rounds of funding – it would take time and a path that differed from his original vision. Ethan discusses his path to a successful exit in 2020 and lessons learned along the way.

Caleb Ebel discusses starting a company with his wife, creating a differentiated paint company, ignoring the competition, and he takes a guest question from a former colleague at Warby Parker.

Lee Mayer describes how patient, disciplined growth was the key to building Havenly, the only online interior design company that has not only survived where competitors failed, but also flourished.

Matt Scanlan discusses how his success as an entrepreneur stems from his ability to operate on his own terms and at his own pace. 8 years into his entrepreneurial journey, Matt is now the CEO of Naadam, Something Navy, and Thakoon.

Squire Technologies raised $93 million in 2020 and are now valued at $250 million, but it wasn’t always that easy. Songe talks about constantly scraping for funding, moving HQ to Buffalo, and all the things they had to do to keep the business alive in the early days to put themselves in the position they’re in now.

This week Stephen and Phineas sit down with Sagan Schultz, Co-Founder & CEO of WellWell, to discuss Sagan's recent decision to raise capital on Republic (ep. 5) and his strategy for growing his CPG business in a pandemic.

Link to the Republic page:

https://republic.co/wellwell

Stephen and Phineas go back through the season and give some hot takes and updates on each topic and guest.

Stephen and Phineas discuss the importance of mental health and treating co-founder relationships like romantic relationships with Narie Foster, co-founder and former COO of M.M. LaFleur.

Ryan Babenzien talks with the guys about how he utilized collaborations to hack early growth for his sneaker brand GREATS, and how he leveraged strategic relationships to ultimately sell GREATS to footwear giant Steve Madden.