The Exchanges

Q solving the problem of how to get, you know, people access to a wide selection of these products that were available in big cities, but to make them available to people all over, all over the place. I mean, that's really what motivated you. Do you have any advice for people watching who are thinking about starting something now and how to seek out the right business opportunities for them?

A The thing I would say to entrepreneurs right now is that there are a lot of very traditional things that people, you may love, like maybe you love furniture, you know, we're obviously in that industry. Maybe you love cars, maybe you love racing, maybe you love biking, maybe whatever it is. I think we're at a point in inflection right now where you could likely start a restaurant today And do very well with it because you're going to be forced to operate within the constraints of today. And they're very different than a lot of your competitive set is. And so if you love cooking, now could be a great time to actually go into that industry. Even though on the surface, it seems like it could be a terrible time. Same thing with a lot of the different industries that are under stress. I think, you know, and entrepreneurs a lot of times get mired in trying to come up with a great big new idea and missing that actually their hard work and effort on something that, that is kind of in front of them can oftentimes make the biggest difference and can really lead to success.

AI assessment note: “The thing I would say to entrepreneurs right now is that there are a lot”

Q quarter of this year was the first time you got to profitability. I mean, your, your stock price over the last year has also dramatically increased. I mean, in a way it seems counterintuitive, right? That so many of us assume that the retail sector in its entirety would be, you know, really crushed. I mean, did either of you ever think that that was going to happen to Wayfair?

A Guy, you know, it's very interesting in March. I mean, I think we were definitely as a leadership and as a company worried about the business. It was a surreal sort of experience to go from feeling like we have to worry about this thing going to zero to, oh my gosh, real one of the beneficiaries. So what's our responsibility there? How do we help support, you know, the team? How do we support their family? How do we support the local communities? How do we make sure that we're giving back? And quickly you start to realize like why you're having success because obviously everyone's in their homes. They're Spending on their homes. They're thinking about their homes. Their travel budgets are no longer there. And so they have discretionary money to spend. And then obviously the government stimulus comes along and that's, you know, another positive impact to consumers wallets. And, um, it's been fascinating. And as you said, we went from pretty normal runway to basically all of a sudden you're, you're running at these peak promotional day levels day in and day in and day in, and you're kind of not sure if you can keep up with it, if you can handle it, you know, if the team is going to be able to function well. Um, and so you're navigating and kind of, you know, whatever on a daily basis. I mean, that kind of helped us all gel, I think, as we went work from home, because it was very …

AI assessment note: “feeling like we have to worry about this thing going to zero”

Q When you would meet, when you guys would go and meet with clients, did you ever get a feeling from any of them that they would look at you and think, wait, these guys are the ones who are fired?

A This is like a twenty-two-year-old kid, like, what am I doing here? Um, you know, we, we did, we were both, we're both pretty good sales guys, so I don't, I don't remember that being, smacking me too hard. I mean, I, I think that, you know, the prices we're charging versus, like, what they would be looking at for consultancies, I think a lot of these bigger shops looked at it as, like, Play money, where they're kind of like, well, whatever, how bad can it go with a couple of college students here doing this for us? If it works out, phenomenal. If it doesn't work out, you know, whatever, we haven't really, we haven't really lost a lot.

AI assessment note: “I don't remember that being, smacking me too hard.”

Q I mean, is this the new normal, Steve? I mean, are companies and businesses going to have to prepare to contend with these insane conspiracy theories? I mean, is, is this Par for the course now?

A You know, when we started this business, the thought of saying, Hey, you know, we're trying to build a beloved brand for home decor and furniture and more, and you're going to get pulled into things like this or targeted for various things. There's part of me wonders if you're building a great brand, is this just part of the journey? And if you look back at other great brands have been built in the U S over the years, they certainly go through periods of good press, bad press, different things, right? We are certainly in a period today where these things can be amplified quicker than they ever have been. And so There's a concern I have there. And there's a concern of how long does it take us as a civilization to really start to digest how these new channels of communication should be handled. Um, and we're certainly in the middle of that. And so I think, yeah, I mean, anyone who's building a big brand is going to have to be aware that their brand can be used to amplify messages. And that is going to be something they have to contend with and think about and learn how to navigate. Um, it's been fascinating for us to learn how to navigate that and figure it out.

AI assessment note: “I think, yeah, I mean, anyone who's building a big brand is going to have to be aware”

Q Was that rejection hard for you to handle? Was it humiliating? Um, did it just, like, eat away at you after a while?

A Not too bad. I mean, it's not, not a lot of fun. I remember, I remember my, my dad gave me some advice. He was a, he was a stockbroker for years, and he, he said, look, when you're, when you're going in and calling through the Yellow Pages, he's like, the thing you have to do is set yourself a goal. And he's like, your goal needs to be, when you get 30 rejections, you can leave. And he's like, because that way, if you look at it, every rejection's a good thing, because it gets you closer to your goal. And so it keeps you motivated to working at it. You learn a lot more from when things are going bad than when things are going well, so I think we sort of, we both, like, went out and started thinking about just getting a job, and like, I remember interviewing at a few places and sort of, you know, thinking, hey, maybe I should go the more traditional career route. Did that for, I think we both did that to some extent for a little while, and then, I don't know, we just loved being entrepreneurs.

AI assessment note: “Not too bad. I mean, it's not, not a lot of fun.”

Q was intended for migrant children. And you had to deal with this. I mean, you had employees who were making demands of the two of you. They were saying, we demand our company be better. So how did that affect the way you think of leadership and the way that you run the company? I mean, first of all, When, when this came to your attention, what did you do?

A Yeah, you know, that was, it was an interesting period to navigate. I think the core thing we really did, and the core thing that led to was better communication with the team. You know, we have a very thoughtful team, and we have a huge diversity of viewpoints inside the organization as well. Looking back on that period, we did a much better job of figuring out, okay, issues that people care deeply about, how do we raise them in a way where we can actually have a constructive outcome And we can have a dialogue about it and can make changes that the team feels, feels good about. And so coming out of that, I mean, we created an orders perspective group and we've, we've really did a lot of soul searching as a company to really think about, okay, how do we think about who do we sell to? How do we, you know, you don't want to get in the business of judging the morality of your customers necessarily, but there's clearly lines that you want to hold firm on as a company. And so, you know, that spurred some really good dialogue inside our organization that has made us a lot more thoughtful about how we communicate and how we, Make change inside, you know, the company and, and talk to each other about it.

AI assessment note: “we created an orders perspective group and we've, we've really did a lot of soul searching”