Steve Holmes
Founder & Chief Activity Officer, Springfree Trampoline. On 1 show, 4 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveinvestorspringfreetrampoline.com ↗
Steve Holmes is a Canadian entrepreneur who partnered with Dr. Keith Alexander to license, manufacture, and commercialize the Springfree Trampoline globally under goba Sports Group. He also serves as President and CEO of private investment firm ICL Management Inc. and previously founded mobile surveillance provider VerifEye Technologies.
1shows
4appearances
37statements
5resolved
2supported
1contradicted
40%fully supported
Everything Steve Holmes said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Glass rebar is twice as strong as steel and sold in Lowe's
“Yeah, rebar for buildings, for driveways, for, and it never rusts. It's twice as strong as steel, and it's one quarter the weight, and it's available in every Lowe's store in America.”
Goba Sports Group refuses to abandon Chinese manufacturing despite US tariffs
“Look, I'm, you know, we've invested so heavily and their family, like, I'm not running away from China. It's not that easy. We've done too much.”
Springfree's Redesign Eliminated 90% of Product-Related Trampoline Injuries
“Keith started writing research papers, and of measuring our statistics, and we were going, you know, we remove 90% of the product related injuries. So he's taken, his design has removed 90%”
Holmes: Springfree Trampoline Design Eliminates 90% of Product-Related Injuries
“Keith started writing research papers, and of measuring our statistics, and we were going, you know, we remove 90% of the product related injuries. So he's taken, his design has removed 90%”
Goba Sports Group aggressively loaded US inventory ahead of expected tariffs
“We had enough cash that we loaded the U S market with product. So much so we were bursting at the seams and everybody was saying to me, are you nuts? Do you know how much inventory we have? I said, we don't have enough. Keep shoving it in. And so we got a lot …”
Holmes: Cash-strapped businesses will become casualties of rising tariffs
“Now, those people who don't have cash and are unable to preserve cash, we will see them as casualties in this marketplace.”
Costco CEO Jim Sinegal Initially Refused to Sell Trampolines Over Safety
“The CEO of Costco was a man named Jim Senegal, and Jim said, I will not sell trampolines.”
Holmes: Springfree dropped major retailers attempting to enforce 180-day payment terms.
“So we cut out almost all of our big retailers. We had a big retailer right at the start who sent us a notice and say, we, we're in 90 day terms with them. And they sent us a note and said, we're going to a 180 day terms. And we said, have a nice day. You're no…”
Holmes: Employees only need clarity when they have motivation and competency
“If I can teach any entrepreneurs about their people, there's three things they want to know. They want to know what's my job. How does it impact the company? And minor, how do I get paid? Interestingly, if you go back to Dan Pink, you know, on what motivates p…”
Costco CEO Jim Sinegal Refused to Sell Trampolines Over Safety Concerns
“The answer was yes, and that was Costco. The CEO of Costco was a man named Jim Senegal, and Jim said, I will not sell trampolines.”
Holmes: Springfree Sold Initial Canadian Units at a Loss to Test Demand
“It was more than that. We were losing money on every product. We had to do that to find out if we could create a market.”
Goba Sports Group manufactures fiberglass rebar in a North Carolina facility
“We've built a very, very large facility in North Carolina and focused on, on Build America and Buy America, and we make rebar out of glass.”
Holmes: Consignment retail traps critical working capital in unsold inventory
“The scary part for me there was the word consignment, you know, like, cause you can get a sizing or an item. That'll sit on that shelf for a long, long time cause there's nobody moving it and you've got your, you know, your costs stuck in there.”
Former Costco CEO Jim Sinegal refused to sell trampolines over safety concerns
“Did any retailer in America believe that trampolines were dangerous, and so dangerous that they wouldn't sell them? The answer was yes, and that was Costco. The CEO of Costco was a man named Jim Senegal, and Jim said, I will not sell trampolines.”
Holmes: Springfree paused sales for a year to develop soft enclosure
“So we didn't sell any products. We didn't make any products. We just spent a year building an enclosure for the spring.”
Costco Canada Placed Springfree's First Commercial Order
“We got one important order by Costco Canada.”
Springfree Lost Money on Every Initial Unit Sold at $999
“We were losing money on every product. We had to do that to find out if we could create a market.”
Holmes: Early Springfree trampolines cost $1,450 each to manufacture in New Zealand
“They were costing about 1450 dollars. To make one.”
Holmes: Springfree kept proprietary rod manufacturing original while moving assembly to China
“Even to this day, most of the original Manufacturing components, the rods and the net material that we use, we are using the exact same manufacturing partners. They've come a long way, the whole way through the whole journey. We've never deviated from that, bu…”
Holmes: Costco placed an order for 3,265 Springfree trampolines in 2005
“Worked out to be about 3265 pieces in oh five.”
Holmes: Costco accounted for basically 90% of Springfree's Northern Hemisphere distribution
“Virtually in, in the northern hemisphere and our only. We were selling direct in places where we could, but they were basically 90% of our distribution.”
Holmes: Springfree invested $5M to build its own factory in China
“And we skipped apart guy, which is in 2008, we decided to build our own factory in China because we weren't satisfied with the quality. So I invested about five million dollars in building a Chinese factory.”
Holmes: 50% of Springfree Trampoline sales came from customer word-of-mouth
“If a spring-free customer has a spring-free trampoline, if a parent who says, well, I really don't like trampolines, they'll sell it for me to other friends and neighbors, and 50% of our sales came from our customers.”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Steve'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 | Founder & Chief Activity Officer, Springfree Trampoline | 4 | 37 | 40% 2/5 | full record on How I Built This → |