Inspiring Entrepreneurs

Stan Lee created an incredible universe of heroes, but what made the business a success was his ability to convince buyers they were missing out on some element of their favorite characters story line if they didn’t buy every comic published by Marvel:

To ensure that readers would keep coming back for more, Lee mastered the concept of “continuity”—the idea that different comic book titles were interconnected, all taking place within a single “Marvel Universe.” He was able to do this because, in the early 1960s, he was editing and scripting the stories of practically every Marvel character, including the Fantastic Four, Thor and Spider-Man. … But it was a business decision as well: Those interconnections—signaled by asterisked footnotes within the comics—alerted fans that they would be missing out if they didn’t buy all of Marvel’s titles. Today, the same model applies to Marvel movies, where an “Easter egg” scene in the credits might be used to tease an upcoming film or new character.

It perhaps seems obvious today with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (now led by Walt Disney Studios which acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in 2009) weaving every character together in the Avengers franchise, but it was a novel approach at the time. Follow the link for more details describing how Stan Lee built his empire.

Inspired by a busy schedule and inability to make regularly scheduled gym classes, John Foley decided to bring the elements of these classes into the consumer’s home. The idea was to develop one piece of interconnected equipment that would create a class-like feel. But investors balked at the idea that an individual or even a small team could tackle the three elements required: a high-quality bike, tablet software to connect individuals and content to keep them engaged. Eventually Foley found investors that bet more on him than the idea, and the rest is history:

Peloton currently has one million members. On average, each live class attracts 400 riders. The company—which plans to go public in 2019—recently launched a new treadmill line ($3,995), and Foley has teased a third proprietary machine. By the end of 2018, Peloton will have nearly 70 retail showrooms across the U.S., the U.K. and Canada.

Impressive for a company founded in 2012. (This article was published in the WSJ Magazine Innovator’s Issue, which had several terrific accounts.)

The meat-based snack company known as Epic Provisions was founded by two young entrepreneurs in their late twenties that had found themselves struggling with a vegan diet. The founder couple got together in college and bonded over a passion for endurance sports. When one of them started to experience health problems they reevaluated their diets and came up with the idea for Epic.

They entered Incubation Station, a local startup accelerator focused on consumer products that is now called SKU. By the time they had finished the accelerator, they were convinced they should pivot to meat. Epic, the new brand, were protein bars that substituted the powders in products like Quest bars with blended bits of meat, fruit, and nuts. An angel investor in Houston loved the idea and invested $750,000. (Forrest and Collins later raised an additional $3 million, mostly from a Colorado-based venture capital group.)

Shortly thereafter the founder couple noticed that an employee at General Mills was consistently making large orders. Concerns that the food giant was attempting to duplicate their approach subsided when an initial conversation suggested an acquisition was driving interest. Approximately three years after launching in 2013, Epic Provisions sold to conglomerate General Mills for ~$100 million.

A 15-year-old Welsh schoolgirl disrupted the publishing world while keeping her work a secret. Per a great piece in The Financial Times, Beth Reeks started writing obsessively at all hours and would hide her work or switch panes on her laptop whenever anyone approached. A 24/7 obsession eventually paid off:

By the time she had started her A-levels, Reeks’s novel (she writes under the name Beth Reekles) had garnered some 19 million “reads” and 40,000 comments; even though her book had not yet been published in the traditional sense. So while Reeks was at university studying physics, her work was turned into an ebook, then a paperback (she was offered a three-book deal by the mighty Random House) and, this year, Netflix released it as a film, which has become essential viewing for many teenage girls. 

Click on the link below for the inspiring story.

Tim Brown had his MBA professor pull him aside to say that while he did not believe his idea for woolen sport shoes was a good one, he thought he should go for it because he seemed the most committed to making it work. The launch was initiated by selling 1,000 pairs of shoes on Kickstarter, which sold out in 4 days and raised $120,000. Since then the company has enjoyed tremendous success:

Allbirds’ sales passed 1m units on the company’s second anniversary last year, helped by a strong online following. Last month it secured $50m to help fund a second hub in London, adding to 140 staff in the US. The company has not revealed revenue figures, but Mr Brown says it has been profitable since 2016.

Guy Raz has built an incredible personal brand by helping entrepreneurs tell their story via his podcast How I Built This, which happens to be a personal favorite. What I did not appreciate, and what the terrific article cited here exposed, was that he spends an extraordinary amount of time researching candidates for the show before asking them to come on. Initially his idea was to identify people who shared positive values and treated people well, and expose their deepest emotions. According to Mr. Raz, “no stories captured the human experience as much as clawing out a living.” A couple quotes from the article sum it up perfectly:

“The question from everyone was, ‘What makes this different from Bloomberg and CNBC?’” Mr. Raz said. “And the case I was making was: I’m not looking for news, I’m not interested in your fourth-quarter strategy, I’m looking to get into your heart and mind.”

…

By creating a safe space for entrepreneurs to share their stories of ascent, Mr. Raz has become one of the most popular podcasters in history. That history is short, but in this new land of aural opportunity, Mr. Raz, 44, has a claim to be king. According to NPR, where he works on contract, he is the only person to ever have three shows simultaneously in Apple’s top 20 podcasts.

The article cited is well worth the read. Click below for more.