20VC: From a $1.1M Acquisition to $1.4BN in Revenues; The Meteoric Rise of Hoka Running with Deckers CEO, Dave Powers
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2023
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dave Powers serves as President and CEO of Deckers Brands, a global footwear and apparel company where he focuses on the company’s five high-performing brands: UGG®, Teva®, Sanuk®, HOKA One One® and Koolaburra®. Prior to Deckers, he held executive leadership roles at Converse and Timberland, where he led worldwide retail merchandising, marketing, visual and store design as well as the creation of a sustainable line of footwear and apparel.
In Today's Episode with Dave Powers:
1. The Unlikely CEO of a Global Footwear Company:
- How did Dave make his way into the world of consumer and fashion from the ground up?
- Why did Dave never think he was the type of person to be a CEO?
- What does Dave know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career?
2. From $1.1M Acquisition to $1.4BN Revenues: The Hoka Story:
- Why did Deckers acquire Hoka for $1.1M? What did they see in this, at the time, futuristic running shoe that no one else saw?
- Was the growth of Hoka linear or were there needle-moving moments that propelled the brand?
- What did they do so right that led to their success?
- What would Dave have done differently in the Hoka journey if he had his time again?
3. From $14.7BN Acquisition to Oprah's Favourite: The UGG Journey:
- How much of a needle mover was it for UGG when Oprah added it to her list of favourite items?
- Why did UGG go through a tough period? What did they do wrong?
- What does it take to resurrect a brand? How can they bring UGG back to life and make it cool?
4. From Abercrombie to LVMH: An Analysis of the Industry:
- How does Dave analyse the rise and fall of Abercrombie and Hollister? Where did it go wrong?
- What does Dave believe LVMH are the best in the world at? What does he learn from them?
- How important is it for consumer companies to have a hero product?
- How can consumer companies scale to mass markets without losing their core audience?
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The DDC model is hard to keep sustained because you're spending so much on marketing. |
| 0:05.0 | 30% of your revenue you're putting back into marketing to fuel the sales. |
| 0:09.7 | The minute you pull that marketing away to make profit, your sales lines drops like a rock. |
| 0:15.6 | And if you don't have wholesale, if you don't have other sources of revenue, your e-com site quickly goes from high growth to just drop in like a rock from both top line and bottom line. |
| 0:26.6 | This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I'm so excited for the show today as we feature what must be one of the greatest consumer acquisitions of all time, Hoka. |
| 0:34.6 | Hoka started by two French entrepreneurs in 2009. Now check this out. |
| 0:39.8 | Four years later, they sell the company for $1.1 million, but 10 years after that sale, |
| 0:46.0 | the company is set to do a reported $1.4 billion in revenue. This is a story unlike any other, |
| 0:52.0 | and we're joined by Decker's CEO, Dave Powers, |
| 0:54.7 | Decker's owns five core brands, Hoka and Ug being two of their main assets. |
| 0:59.6 | But before we dive into the show today, there is no shortage of helpful AI tools out there, |
| 1:04.4 | but using them mean switching back and forth between yet another digital tool. |
| 1:08.6 | What was supposed to simplify your workflow just made it way more complicated, |
| 1:12.6 | unless, of course, you're in Notion. |
| 1:14.6 | Notion combines your notes, docks and projects into one space |
| 1:18.6 | that's simple and beautifully designed, |
| 1:20.6 | and you can leverage the power of AI, |
| 1:22.6 | right inside Notion, across all your notes and docks, |
| 1:25.6 | without jumping between your work and with a separate |
| 1:28.6 | AI-powered tool, automate the tedious tasks like summarizing meeting notes or finding next |
| 1:34.0 | steps, freeing you up to do the deep work. It allows you to save time and write faster by letting |
| 1:39.0 | Notion AI handle the first draft, jumpstart a brainstorm, or turn your messy notes into something polished. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Twenty Minute VC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Twenty Minute VC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.