Steven Mazur, co-founder and CEO of Ash & Anvil, a clothing company for short guys. Steven co-founded the company last year and he’s excited about how many dedicated customers their store already has. Tune in to hear how Steven’s getting inventory orders right; the importance of connecting with the entrepreneurs around you; and why everything always takes longer than you think. 

 

Famous 5:

 

• Favorite Book? – How To Win Friends And Influence People
• What CEO do you follow? — Andy Dunn
• Favorite online tool? — Wunderlist

• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Everything takes longer than you think it will

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:20 – Nathan’s introduction
• 01:51 – Welcoming Steven to the show
• 02:06 – “I’m 5’ 6”, my business partner’s 5’ 8” - we decided to be the ones to make clothes for shorter guys”
• 02:56 – Started with an IndieGoGo campaign with a $10k goal, and ended up generating $26k in pre-orders
• 03:40 – The bestseller is their blue gingham shirt
• 04:55 – The price of the shirt is $69 - what are the margins on that?
• 05:20 – Base unit cost at a low volume is around $25
• 05:35 – Around a 55% gross margin at this point
• 06:00 – First run of shirts was 1000 units
• 06:35 – Steven doesn’t have a figure for net margin at this point
• 07:30 – How do you handle the challenge of ordering the right amount of inventory?
• 07:50 – The company is self-funded
• 08:31 – “It always takes longer than you think to order”
• 08:53 – Founded in 2015
• 09:11 – The team is currently just Steven and his co-founder Eric
• 09:37 – The most important metrics for them are revenue, number of customers, and re-order rate
• 10:50 – Close to having 1000 unique customers at the moment
• 11:24 – The next order is 1,250 shirts
• 12:10 – Average customer buys 1.5 shirts
• 12:32 – Total revenue in 2015 was $50k
• 13:30 – What’s Venture For America?
• 14:00 – It’s a startup program that places entrepreneurs in struggling American cities, like Detroit, and helps them connect with investors and other start-ups
• 16:03 – “It’s been a big part of our story”
• 10:45 – Connect with Steven at Ash & Anvil

• 18:40 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

• It takes 10 years to build an overnight success: focus on the long-term and be patient
• Engage with the smart people around you. Be part of your community and your ecosystem
• Start the company that you want to exist - but check that other people want it too

Resources Mentioned:

• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.

 

• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives