Secret Academy Episode - Matt DecellesAs a serial entrepreneur since he was a kid starting a wine bottle recycling company, Matt DeCelles has launched, failed, and scaled numerous businesses. While he may not have always been an expert on the industry he was breaking into, he utilized his strategic vision followed up with rapid implementation and action to make big things happen when launching his companies. In true entrepreneurial fashion, when he’s not sporting the shades from his brand of designer sunglasses (that also happen to double as beer bottle openers), Matt and his partners have been finding innovative solutions that could majorly disrupt the customer service model of the eCommerce industry. Aligned perfectly with the core message of his brand William Painter - a brand which he says, "is built to inspire people to be more, with each pair having something unique about it," - Matt is definitely inspiring us to think more outside of the box, find unique solutions to solve simple problems, and grow further as entrepreneurs.
- How his failures in previous businesses became stepping stones to giving him a competitive advantage in his current ventures
- How they launched the William Painter brand on Kickstarter with no knowledge of the industry and only one prototype and managed to raise $27,000 in 42 days
- Why they chose the online business model vs. going the retail route and how William Painter sunglasses are competing with big brands like Oakley
- How he met his outsourcing and manufacturing contact through Elance
- Why money doesn’t matter when you’re outsourcing to China, and why it’s imperative you actually physically get on a plane go over to visit if you’re manufacturing there
- How they navigated the design process without any design background or engineering background
- How they overcame being sued 23 days after launching and had to shut down and relaunch the entire brand
- The thing you need to know about kickstarter and it’s community if you want it to work for you
- The two most important numbers for an eCommerce business to know
- What it means to be a vertically integrated brand
- The 3 major problems with eCommerce
- How the microchip Here Now Technologies developed can potentially disrupt customer service within the eCommerce industry
- The importance of immediately acting on your ideas and testing things quickly
