Founders liquidated Fox Outfitters for pennies to focus entirely on Solo Stove
Spencer Jan · Solo Stove: Spencer and Jeff Jan · Aug 14, 2023 · at 43:47
Spencer Jan, co-founder of Solo Stove, explains how the founders liquidated their previous outdoor brand, Fox Outfitters, to focus all resources on scaling Solo Stove.
0:00 / 0:18exact quote · 18.8s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Pennies on the dollar is what we did. We really just said, here's the inventory. We'll give it to you for pennies on the dollar. We got introduced to some good guys in Houston who wanted to have a stab at e-commerce. And we said, Hey, you know, this is an opportunity you can go with and run with and kind of get your feet wet. Here's take it for pennies on the dollar and let's just clean up our books.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Spencer Jan
White-labeling off-the-shelf products offers zero competitive defensibility
“And if we were able to buy it off the shelf at some manufacturer and they're selling it to other people as well, it would be that, that much, just as easy for the next guy to buy it.”
Solo Stove generated about $500,000 in its first year
“The first year was about half a million dollars. In the first year of putting it out there.”
Solo Stove operated at roughly 80% margins in its early days
“The margins were really high. You know, we were in the 80, 80% margins.”
The founders' side brand Fox Outfitters initially outsold Solo Stove
“And we sold more of that than Solo did all the way. I mean, I don't want to say, I mean, I don't remember when we stopped selling Fox, but probably about We were selling more on Fox than we were for Solo. Millions and millions of dollars of Fox stuff.”
Solo Stove and Fox Outfitters reached $3M to $4M revenue by 2016
“I mean, we probably all together, by the time we got to about 2000 16, I mean, just with those two brands, we were probably doing like three, four million dollars with.”
Solo Stove generated up to $10M in revenue as a two-person operation
“Revenue at that time I think was, I mean, between Fox and Solo, I was probably close to about, I want to say like seven-ish million bucks, Jeff.
Is that, do you think that's about right?
Yeah, probably.
Yeah, seven to 10 or somewhere around there.”