Smith: Cotopaxi was inspired by Warby Parker and TOMS
Davis Smith · Cotopaxi: Davis Smith · May 4, 2020 · at 37:48
Davis Smith, founder of Cotopaxi, discusses the direct business inspirations that led him to create a mission-driven gear company.
0:00 / 0:07exact quote · 8.0s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“It was, I was inspired by Warby Parker, my classmates in school. I was inspired by Tom's shoes and I thought, you know, this is a way I can make a meaningful impact in the world.”
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 Davis Smith
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 reached profitability in 2020 and grew revenue 90% in 2022
“We ended up having our first profitable year in 2020, and it was significantly profitable. And it allowed us to pay those bonuses to our team. And then in 20, 21, we grew a little over 60%. And then in 20, 22, we grew over 90, about 90%.”
Smith: Cotopaxi decided to transition to remote-first forever in August 2020
“And all of a sudden, you know, in August of twenty-twenty, we made the decision, we're remote first forever.”
Smith: Cotopaxi no longer needs to raise venture capital
“Over the last two years, our focus has really been on becoming sustainable and profitable, and we've made some amazing progress, and we're finally to the point where we don't have to raise more venture capital moving forward.”
Davis Smith: Cotopaxi can become a billion-dollar business
“I believe we can go build a billion dollar business.”
Cotopaxi avoided 2020 layoffs via temporary pay cuts repaid with bonuses
“Instead of doing layoffs, we decided to cut our executive salaries in a pretty significant way, and we cut everyone's pay by 10% for three months, and then we cut it down to five percent for the rest of the year, and then by the end of the year, we ended up gi…”