Davis Smith
Founder & Chairman, Cotopaxi. On 3 shows, 4 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutive@davismsmith ↗LinkedIn ↗cotopaxi.com ↗
Davis Smith is the founder and former long-time CEO of Cotopaxi, an outdoor gear and apparel brand dedicated to eradicating extreme global poverty. Earlier in his career, he founded pool table retailer PoolTables.com as well as the Brazilian e-commerce startup Baby.com.br.
3shows
4appearances
77statements
15resolved
14supported
0contradicted
93%fully supported
2said about them ↓ Everything Davis Smith said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Smith: Female investors understand purpose in business better than male investors
“I really believe that women better understood and understand purpose in business than men did.”
Smith: Founders can build great businesses without torching work-life balance
“Yes, you can have balance and you can still build an extremely efficient and great business that's doing great work. You don't have to put in a 120 hours a week, a hundred hours a week and not have any balance. And torch, you know, family relationships and eve…”
Smith: Patagonia erred by keeping all equity with founder Yvon Chouinard
“I think the one thing that I'd love to do better though than what I've seen Patagonia do and this is coming from someone with deep admiration for Yvonne Chouinard and for Patagonia. I guess if there was a criticism I'd have is why after 40 years was he the onl…”
Smith: Consumers will not buy products solely for social good
“People that's wonderful, but people are not going to buy, buy your product because you're doing good in the world. You need to first create a great product. And he was absolutely right. So I really do think that's first, like you have to go build a great produ…”
Smith relinquished Cotopaxi CEO title to recruit Damien Huang
“The only problem is he wanted to be CEO. He didn't want to be president. He didn't want to be my right hand. And I had some other options that were really great right hands that would have been happy being president forever. And at the end of the day, I did, I…”
Smith: Cotopaxi will build employee wealth rather than join a foundation
“And I actually think it's a win for Cotabaxi to, like, I don't want to give the company away to a foundation. I actually want to create something that can create wealth for many people within our organization, and that can allow them to go pass on this to thei…”
Smith: Cotopaxi needs $500M revenue and $75M EBITDA before an IPO
“But I think at the right time, let's say the, you know, let's say Cotabaxi is, you know, five hundred million in sales and has you know, 75 or eighty million dollars in EBITDA. At that point, it's like, it's stable. You know, the business is stable. I think th…”
Smith: Choose co-founders for problem-fit rather than picking family or friends
“Instead of Choosing my co-founder based on who I love and you know, who's close to me right now. Why don't I go first, try to find a great idea. And then once I have the right idea, then I should go find a co-founder that really helps me solve the problem that…”
Davis Smith: Entrepreneurship creates more societal impact than non-profit work
“And he instead convinced me that I shouldn't do that, that I should really, if I wanted to make a difference in the world, that I should become an entrepreneur.”
Smith pitched over 100 investors seeking 10-year permanent capital for Cotopaxi
“I pitched over a hundred different investors, lots of family offices.”
Smith: Very few venture investors commit to long-term 10-to-15-year timelines
“Very, very few investors are committed to that kind of timeline. They're all, everything's so short term minded”
Smith ran Cotopaxi's executive search himself against Bain Capital's advice
“And I started a process being capital gave me a handful of search firms to go talk to. I talked to four or five of them. I didn't want, I didn't hire any of them. And I decided I'm going to go run the process myself. And bank capital was like, that is a mistak…”
Smith opens Cotopaxi to public listing or M&A exit options
“I was so convinced 12 months ago that I would never take this company public, that I didn't want to sell it to anyone. I just wanted to stay independent and private forever. And I'd say I've changed my mind. I don't, I'm open to all options.”
Bain Capital tied Cotopaxi executive bonuses to social impact metrics
“The first thing that they did was they tied our bonuses, our compensation as leaders in the company to our impact work.”
Cotopaxi donates 1% of total revenue even during unprofitable years
“We donate we donate one percent of all of our revenues. Which to be clear, a lot of times is many years that was actually more than we made. We maybe weren't even making money, but we're still giving money away.”
Cotopaxi hired a Chief Impact Officer before hiring a single marketer
“We had a chief impact officer before we had a chief marketing officer. We didn't have a marketer.”
Smith: Entrepreneurs misunderstand the scale required for venture capital
“I think a lot of entrepreneurs don't understand how big and ambitious the idea needs to be to go raise venture capital.”
Davis Smith raised $4.5 million for Baby.com.br off a PowerPoint
“We raised like four and a half million dollars based on a PowerPoint.”
Davis Smith: Pick co-founders based on skill fit, not family or friends
“I tell entrepreneurs, why don't you go identify your idea? Why don't you go figure out what you want to go build and then go find the best person in the world to go help you solve that problem. It probably is not going to be your cousin. It probably isn't goin…”
Smith compensated early Cotopaxi hires with equity contingent on fundraising
“Give them a little bit of equity. And we figured out some creative structure around compensation. If we ended up fundraising, if we didn't fundraise, it was like, I didn't have to pay anything. So they were taking a little bit of risk with me, but because of t…”
Davis Smith: The Greatest Entrepreneurs Are Incredible Salespeople
“The greatest entrepreneurs are incredible salespeople. They know how to sell. They know how to sell a vision. They know how to sell an idea. They know how to sell a product. And so you're selling every single day as an entrepreneur. And I think that starts wit…”
Cotopaxi tripled revenue in two and a half years post-Bain investment
“We've more than tripled our revenue, you know, since they've invested two and a half years ago.”
Cotopaxi raised a $3M seed round at a $7M pre-money valuation
“We raised three million dollars and had a, so a seven pre, 10 post.”
The other half of the tape: Davis Smith's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 2 times in 2 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Sumeet Shah 1Guy Raz 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 1
How I Built This 1
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Davis's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Founder & Chairman, Cotopaxi | 1 | 41 | 100% 6/6 | full record on 20VC → |
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Founder & Chairman, Cotopaxi | 2 | 25 | 83% 5/6 | full record on How I Built This → |
 MASTERS OF SCALELEDGER | Founder & Chairman, Cotopaxi | 1 | 11 | 100% 3/3 | full record on Masters of Scale → |