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The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

287: How July Founder Richard Li Grew His Luggage Company From $0 to $5 Million in 1 Year

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 662 Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2020

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Richard Li puts customer service above all when it comes to his luggage company, July. This unfaltering commitment is why he personally makes house calls to address complaints and why he recently hand-delivered packages after realizing that some customers wouldn’t receive the luggage they ordered in time for the holidays. But this high level of service is only a small piece of Li’s success story with July. Li, who has previous entrepreneurial experience from his furniture company Brosa, has also figured out a “magic” formula for manufacturing, marketing, and selling physical products. He used this knowledge to grow July from $0 to $5 million in revenue in just a year. And now he’s looking forward to opening up additional retail stores, introducing more products, allowing for more luggage personalization, and expanding into international markets in 2020. If you want to learn more about what it takes to launch and scale a business that revolves around a physical product, be sure to give our interview a listen! Also be sure to check out our latest online course, Ecommerce Masters, where Richard Li is one of the five instructors teaching advanced ecommerce skills. ATTENTION: We're excited to announce that Richard Li has partnered with Foundr to teach one of the modules in our course, Ecommerce Masters. Get on the Free VIP Waitlist to be notified when we open enrollment! Get a FREE Lesson from Our Course: Ecommerce Masters! Learn the FASTEST Path to a Million-Dollar Store Key Takeaways The opportunity Li saw in Australia’s furniture market that led him to launch Brosa Why he stepped back from Brosa after five years to focus completely on his new direct-to-consumer luggage company, July An overview of July’s funding journey, go-to-market strategy, and first sale The journey from $0 to $5 million in one year How to find a manufacturer that can grow with your company Why Li offers July customers a 100-day trial and lifetime warranty The rules of product development that Li follows Why Li decided to follow the direct-to-consumer trend of opening up a physical store July’s four growth pillars for 2020 Li’s best advice for entrepreneurs building a business around a physical product

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is episode number 287 with Richard Lee of the Founder Podcast.

0:07.2

What you need is thirst.

0:08.9

You need to be a thirsty human who is intent on learning.

0:13.0

It's a really fascinating exploration of human potential.

0:18.7

The Founder Podcast.

0:21.8

Even the greatest entrepreneurs had help.

0:24.8

If you want to learn from the most successful founders on the planet,

0:28.2

you are in the right place.

0:30.4

Branson, Mark Cuban, Tony Robbins, Tim Ferriss, Arianna Humphington,

0:33.4

Steve Case, Gary V.

0:34.9

Sophia Amorosa, Barbara Corcoran, Damon, John.

0:41.8

Learn from the greatest minds in business today with interviews hosted by Nathan Chan.

0:47.3

This is not your average entrepreneur podcast. The Founder Podcast.

1:13.3

Hey guys, thank you so much for tuning in. Before we start today's episode, I just want to let you know that our goal at founder is to help entrepreneurs succeed however we can by giving away high quality content in the form of interviews, blog posts, podcasts, YouTube videos, you name it. We put out so much content to help you.

1:18.5

And another interesting project that we're working on right now is partnering with world-class founders like Damon John, Alexa von Tobel, Greta Van Riel, and so many more to teach crucial skills

1:25.1

like negotiation, finance, e-commerce and so much more.

1:30.3

So if you'd like to get access to these free trainings with founders like this,

1:35.6

which is 100% free, just go to founder.com forward slash free. Okay, so now let's talk about

1:42.9

today's episode. What's going on, Founder Fam, Nathan Chan here,

1:47.5

C-On Publisher of Founder Magazine, and welcome to the Founder Podcast. Now, today we have an

1:55.6

incredible guest. His name is Richard Lee, and funnily enough, I just come back from having dinner with him

2:03.0

here in Melbourne, Australia, extremely successful founder. He's created two successful companies.

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