David Heath
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Bombas. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveinvestorLinkedIn ↗bombas.com ↗
Heath co-founded the apparel company Bombas in 2013, scaling it into a major direct-to-consumer brand donating over 150 million items to people in need. After gaining national prominence on Shark Tank, he served as the company's CEO for over a decade before transitioning to Executive Chairman.
2shows
2appearances
26statements
5resolved
3supported
0contradicted
60%fully supported
3said about them ↓ Everything David Heath said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
David Heath: Enduring brands grow slowly, unlike VC-backed Away and Warby
“The one consistent Thing that we found in those companies that was different than our peer set of, you know, the aways and the Warby's of the world is that they didn't grow by raising hundreds of millions of dollars of capital and trying to skyrocket the highe…”
Heath: Core values account for 75% of Bombas's hiring interview process
“From day one, Our core values have been a large, it's 75% of our interview process. Every person who's interviewed is given a core value to test the person against, and so it becomes this filter of people.”
Heath: Urban Daddy had a toxic culture built on distrust
“What was a 50%, like, amazing office environment with super talented, you know, people that were doing great work with a 50%, like, pretty toxic culture that was built on a lack of transparency and a lack of trust, and I think our bond was further forged by th…”
Heath: Bombas emailed 12,000 scraped Gmail contacts to launch crowdfunding campaign
“I found a way to download my entire Gmail contact database. And I don't mean like just the people that are like in my contacts. I mean, every single person that I'd ever emailed with ever in my Gmail, you can like find a way to do this in Gmail. And I remember…”
Heath: Bombas closed $1M seed and renegotiated Daymond John deal
“And we just closed our million dollars of seed funding and basically said, look, we don't need any more cash. So, you know, can we renegotiate the deal to provide you with some upside with no kind of cash investment? And the two of us Damon and Bombas came to …”
Bombas generated $1.2M in sales within two months of Shark Tank
“In the first 13 months before Shark Tank, we did about 900,000 dollars in sales pretty organically. And then in the two months following Shark Tank, we did 1.2 million. It sold out of every single item of product that we had leading into holiday.”
Heath: Early Sock Market Was 85% Commodity and 15% Performance
“When we looked at the marketplace, we realized very quickly, 85% of all sock sales were dominated by the low cost, low quality commodity type brands. Think of 12 pairs of white socks in a plastic bag. You're going to get a Costco, Target, Walmart, TJ Maxx, wha…”
Heath: Bombas raised $150,000 in initial 30-day Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign
“We launched this Indiegogo campaign. I think we had a goal of 15,000 dollars in 30 days, 30 days. We did over 20,000 dollars in our first day. A 150,000 dollars in our first 30 days.”
Heath: Daymond John was Bombas' number one Shark Tank target
“We had a hierarchy of sharks that we thought were better fits for us than others. You know, ending up with Damon, you know, built a billion dollar apparel brand New York based obviously was our number one choice. It's who we ended up with. But we had a strateg…”
Heath: Shark Tank deals and filming do not guarantee an episode airs
“Just because you are here filming in front of the sharks and just because you get a deal does not necessarily mean that you are gonna air. So like you cannot bank At any moment, until they call you and say, two weeks out, your episode is gonna air, you have to…”
Heath: Shark Tank drove $2M in Bombas sales within two months
“We've done about 900,000 in sales. All organically bootstrapped, you know, some press here and there. And then night of, weekend of, 300,000 in sales. Two months after, collectively two million in sales.”
Heath: Bombas hit $275M in sock sales before launching underwear
“By that point we were two hundred and seventy five million of top line in socks and we were like, okay, we now feel comfortable to start planting the seeds and intentionally keeping those businesses small to begin with and not trying to make them 20% of the bu…”
Heath: Socks make up 80% and footwear 15% of Bombas revenue
“Today Sox is still like 80% of the business Funny enough, our footwear business is our second largest category, despite launching a little bit after our underwear. It's like 15% of the business”
Heath: Sold $400k of Cutco knives over four college summers
“Over the course of the next four summers, I became one of the top sales reps in the Northeast. I'd sold like 400,000 dollars worth of Cutco knives over four summers.”
Bombas early factory partner produced socks for Nike, Saucony, and Smartwool
“I mean, this is a factory that produces for Nike and, you know, Saucony and Smartwool and some of the biggest sock brands in the world.”
David Heath had $18,000 in credit card debt at Bombas's launch
“I think by the time we launched on Indiegogo, I had about, I don't know, 12 to 18,000 dollars of credit card debt.”
Top VCs including First Round and General Catalyst rejected Bombas
“I met with first round capital, general catalyst, Maveron, you know, all the names that we know today of backing up some of the biggest and best brands and companies. And Despite having connections or relationships with people, when I showed up with a deck tal…”
Bombas never raised additional primary venture capital after early rounds
“We brought in a private equity partner, but we never raised any more primary capital.”
Shark Tank airs around 100 of the 150 businesses filmed
“Cause they film something like a 150 businesses and then they air like a hundred, right? So it was a 33% chance that we weren't even going to get on air.”
Bombas achieved profitability in its first year of operation
“We were profitable in year one in year two, we made a lot of capital investments in inventory mostly”
Bombas growth dropped from 50% to -12% in March 2020 before surging
“We watched our business go from like 50% year over year in growth in that January To a -12% year over year growth in March of that year. And I'm grateful that within a matter of weeks it had rebounded and we were back at like 30% plus year over year and then 4…”
Heath: TOMS Generated Hundreds of Millions Pioneering the 1-for-1 Model
“We kind of draw the, drew the connection to Tom's shoes and like the mass. I mean, at that time, I think in the fifth year of business doing a couple hundred million of revenue. Really pioneered that buy one, give one model in December of 2010.”
Heath: Founders Validated Prototypes by Handing Them Out at Gyms
“Randy and I, we would, like, go to our local gym, and, you know, we'd be that weird, like, sock guy at the gym. Interrupt people's workouts. It'd be like, hey, take your headphones out. I saw you wearing these Nike socks. Can I give you a pair of these? Tell m…”
The other half of the tape: David Heath's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 3 times in 1 episode across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Guy Raz 3
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 3
2024 3 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens David's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Bombas | 1 | 15 | 100% 2/2 | full record on How I Built This → |
 MASTERS OF SCALELEDGER | Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Bombas | 1 | 11 | 33% 1/3 | full record on Masters of Scale → |