This year, we will sell several hundred million dollars worth of hydration products with retail partners like Target, Walmart, and Costco.

But when I co-founded Simple Modern eight years ago, I had zero experience in physical retail.

Here's what I've learned along the way: If you want to sell to a mass retail partner, the most important person is the buyer for your category.

Buyers are assigned a few categories in the store and are responsible for choosing what products will be offered on the shelf.

They are the gatekeepers.

This year, Simple Modern will sell over 100,000,000 in retail value on Amazon.

Over the last year, we have discovered a very helpful tool.

This information has helped take our business to the next level. If you sell on Amazon, here are seven ways to use it in your business: The tool can be found in the "Brand Analytics" section of Seller Central, shown in the picture below.

You are going to want to look at "Search Query Performance."

This summer, we will hire our 100th employee at Simple Modern.

We've come a long way from being a bootstrapped startup 8 years ago.

I believe the biggest driver of our success has been building an exceptional team.

Here is what we prioritize in selecting new hires: Excellence

High Bar: Their personal standard of "excellent" work is ambitious.

Self-Motivated: Don't require a lot of external motivation because they push themselves.

Track Record: Have achieved a top 1%+ of accomplishment in some area of their personal or professional life.

Last month I officiated my 13th wedding.

The ceremony was particularly special to me because I was marrying a man I have mentored for the past 4 years.

At every wedding, I share what I believe are the two most essential elements of love and a lasting marriage: 1. Lasting love isn't built on performance:

Unfortunately, we all tend to be transactional. We treat others well as long as they treat us well.

In dating, expressing love with our words and actions is easy. Every chemical in our body drives us to serve and please them.

Today I got the opportunity to learn from a legendary entrepreneur.

He turned an initial loan of $600 into a business that does billions in revenue each year.

Want to know what's crazy? The most impressive thing about him isn't his business success... He has a radical commitment to generosity.

He doesn't view the company he built as something he owns. He views it as something he is responsible for stewarding.

The difference might not seem big, but it has had profound repercussions.

Walk into a Walmart or Target with fresh eyes. It is a wonder of the modern world.

The products are from all over the globe. Millions of people have played some important role in their production or shipping.

We live better than the kings of a century ago. twitter.com/i/web/status/1… The ingredients and materials included in each product have come from almost every country. They were all miraculously coordinated to be in the same place at the same time so they could be assembled.

If you run an e-commerce brand you are likely overspending on branded search ads.

Buyers who search brand names have a very high purchase intent.

Amazon's internal numbers show when we run no ads on SM key terms we still receive 95-99% of the total clicks! If you are going to do it - use very low cost-per-click bids.

Ad systems look at this formula:

Expected Revenue = Click Through Rate (CTR) x Cost Per Click (CPC)

Because you will have a very high CTR you can still win placement with extremely low CPC bids.

This year we will sell over 100,000,000 in retail value on Amazon.

Over the past few months, Amazon released a treasure trove of data. This information has helped take our business to the next level.

If you sell on Amazon, here are seven ways to level up with a new tool: The tool can be found in the "Brand Analytics" section of Seller Central, shown in the picture below.

You are going to want to look at "Search Query Performance"

Entrepreneurship Secret:

People in well-compensated positions at large companies often focus on a single question when making decisions:

"How do I not get fired?"

An entrepreneur's mindset is focused on the question:

"How do I create value?"

These different mindsets clash. Entrepreneurs often make one faulty assumption.

"If I can prove that it creates value, it will be easy to get others to buy in."

Many times this isn't true. The reason is because of this difference in mindset.

The entrepreneur only sees the significant potential upside...

Every day, hundreds of actions and decisions are made at @simplemodernco.

Some are big and obviously noteworthy:

Hiring a new team member
Landing a big sale
Entering into a licensing relationship
Releasing a new product

But most are not... Much of the work done on a day-to-day basis is done without attention or fanfare.

Handling a challenging customer support ticket,
Routing of a shipment,
Fine-tuning a new design
Split testing a feature on the website.

I've been CEO of Simple Modern since co-founding the company in 2015. I'm consistently asked about the secret to our success.

I'm convinced our number one advantage has been our strong company culture.

Here are 12 things I have learned about building great culture: 1. The number of relationships within an organization scales exponentially as the number of people grows.

Healthy culture depends on everyone taking ownership. As an organization grows, the leaders quickly become a smaller % of the cultural interactions

I've spent most of the last 15 years leading organizations growing at 50%+ per year.

Its been an incredible and rewarding experience, but there are dangers to growth that are rarely mentioned.

Here are 10 hard truths I've learned about growing a business: 1. It's easy to believe that producing bigger numbers will make you happier. It doesn't.

2. Growth doesn't solve your problems; it magnifies them. Cracks in a foundation only widen with the pressure that comes with growth.

Why is DTC so difficult? Why is the physical retail landscape dominated by a few massive companies?

I think the reason is a dynamic I've coined "the milk problem."

If you into a Target or a Walmart the milk is in the back of the store. Why? The reason is that a huge % of the people who come to the store need to buy milk.

The store knows that people have high intention to buy milk, so they place it where you have to walk by lots of other merchandise first.

I've co-founded several businesses that have cumulative sales approaching 2 billion dollars.

I've also started several unsuccessful businesses that have lost millions.

Through these experiences, I've gained a powerful insight.

The key ingredient in successful startups: Successful new ventures benefit from great market conditions.

Great markets have these fingerprints:

Large Total Addressable Market
Clear Product/Market Fit
Quickly Growing Demand
Alignment with Big Cultural Trends
Foster Creation of Many Successful Companies

When we founded @simplemodernco, we saw an opportunity in licensed drinkware.

The problem: We had no idea where to start.

This year we will sell > $20,000,000 in licensed sales with partners like Disney and the NFL.

The epic inside story and what I've learned in the process 🧵 Getting your start in licensing is hard.

You need experience to convince licensing organizations to give you a chance, but you need a license to develop experience creating and selling licensed products.

The first step of creating a licensing business is developing credibility

I spent the first 10 years of my career working for a non-profit.

Now I am the CEO of a rapidly growing business.

The most surprising part?

I learned 10x more about being an effective CEO from my non-profit work than from my business degree.

Here are 5 lessons: 1. Storytelling

Stories are the way that we understand our lives, our purpose, and the events that happen to us each day.

Effective non-profits constantly tell stories about the wrongs they are righting and the people they are serving.

Stories engage our minds and hearts.

Retailers are slashing prices because they are drowning in inventory.

Over the last month, both Walmart and Target reported earnings results that took billions off their valuations.

If you want to know how it happened, then this thread is for you: The problem started in March 2020. When COVID began spreading in the US and led to stay-at-home directives the purchasing behavior of everyone changed.

Demand for toilet paper, masks, hand sanitizer, and other "essential supplies" skyrocketed.

Retailers had to pivot quickly.

I've co-founded companies that have generated over 1.3 billion in cumulative revenue.

Over the last 8 years, I have taught hundreds of college students about business and entrepreneurship.

Students consistently ask: "How do I get the most out of my career?"

Here's the secret: We think that we work a job for money, but what we are really trying to obtain is quality of life.

The thought process is: "If I have enough money I will be able to trade or exchange that for a higher quality of life."

This is true, but only partially...

One characteristic shared by the most successful entrepreneurs I know:

Bias to Action

A short thread on imperfection and initiative When you start a business it has zero momentum. The challenge is finding the right place to start.

You could spend effort focusing on a company name,
branding, product sourcing, customer surveys, business plan, or several other areas.

The natural question: "Where do I start?"

Want to become more productive, more intentional, and stop wasting time?

One of the most helpful models I have encountered is the Eisenhower matrix.

The matrix divides the tasks that we spend time on each day into 4 quadrants based on importance and urgency.

Here's the model: Everything we do can be placed into one of the four quadrants.

The matrix also gives direction about how we should manage each one.

Applying these principles creates a powerful amount of focus.

I helped start an e-commerce business in 2009. On Black Friday 2010 we had our first million-dollar revenue day.

Since then, I have spent my career leading quickly growing companies.

I've made countless mistakes and gained valuable insight along the way.

7 lessons on scaling: 1. You must multiply yourself

In the early days, the organization depends on your tactical excellence.

If you succeed, the company starts to grow. Now you need to simultaneously execute while training others.

Failing to effectively grow the team will strangle future growth.