Randy Goldberg and David Heath’s certified B-Corp apparel company Bombas is one of the biggest-ever brands to appear on Shark Tank.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00I think on our first two days, we ended up doing like $300,000 in sales.
00:05Mind you, our business up until this point in the first year had done about $900,000.
00:09So we did a third of our business in two days than what we had done in the first year.
00:14Our website crashed.
00:15Horrible.
00:16We had all these really challenging experiences for what was at the time
00:20was the biggest moment in our company's history.
00:24Hi, I'm Dave Heath.
00:25I'm the co-founder and CEO of Bombas.
00:27I'm Randy Goldberg.
00:28I'm the co-founder and chief brand officer of Bombas.
00:31And this is the secret to our success.
00:33Going back to 2011, scrolling on Facebook, I came across a quote that said that socks
00:39were the number one most requested clothing item at homeless shelters.
00:42And it kind of stopped me in my tracks.
00:44I took a step back and was like, wow, here's an item of clothing that I don't really spend
00:49more than a few seconds a day thinking about.
00:51And yet it's being perceived as a luxury item for over 600,000 people living here in the U.S.
00:56I remember I shared this fact with Randy, and he had kind of a similar reaction that I had.
01:01And we started asking ourselves if there was anything we could do to solve this problem.
01:05And I think naturally, both being interested in entrepreneurship, I think our brains went to,
01:11you know, is there a way to incorporate business to help solve this problem at scale?
01:15Took a lot of inspiration from brands like Tom's Shoes that kind of pioneered the buy one,
01:20give one model.
01:21And then I think we asked the question to ourselves, like, could we create a sock company
01:25that donates a pair for every pair that it's sold to have some small impact on this problem
01:31facing a community here in our own backyard?
01:34And having no experience in retail or manufacturing or apparel outside of, I think,
01:40a three-month job that I had at The Gap, we went to the whiteboard and we started concepting
01:44and thinking to ourselves, like, how can we differentiate a product in the marketplace?
01:48We spent two years developing this product and ended up putting it out into the world,
01:52and people really loved it.
01:54We were obsessed in that moment with making something that was going to blow people's minds
01:59just because we had started to get obsessed with the idea of what a pair of socks could do for you
02:05in terms of your comfort.
02:06When you put on a good pair of socks in the morning, it changes the way you feel for the day.
02:11It's small, but it has a big impact on how you feel.
02:14So we decided to launch the business on Indiegogo, the crowdfunding platform.
02:18We launched that in August of 2013, and in 30 days, we had sold $150,000 worth of product.
02:26And at the end of that, we were like, wow, okay, I feel like we have something here,
02:30built a website, placed our first production run, and then started shipping orders.
02:34At that point, we were like, whoa, we can't really even keep up with the demand.
02:38We were selling out of the product long before we were able to replenish it.
02:42So we did decide to go out and raise some capital.
02:45We ended up raising a million dollars from Angel Investors.
02:48And then in June of 2014, we got a call from Shark Tank to see if we wanted to audition
02:55to be on the show.
02:56Obviously, we said yes.
02:58When you walk down that hallway in Shark Tank, you're kind of thinking,
03:01oh, this looks like that TV show Shark Tank.
03:03And then you sort of realize, wait, we're on the show.
03:05This is really happening.
03:06And the one thing you can control is that pitch in the beginning.
03:10So we were really focused on making sure we got that right.
03:12You know, you're on national TV, and you say the wrong thing, and millions of people
03:16are going to see it.
03:17So there's definitely a lot of pressure that comes along with that.
03:19The thing that's within as much of our control is whether or not we are prepared enough to
03:25not necessarily look like idiots on national television.
03:29So we ended up creating a spreadsheet of 200 of the most commonly asked questions from
03:34watching previous episodes.
03:36And we had an answer written out for every single one of those questions.
03:39We had also run through scenarios of like, well, what if this shark goes out first, and
03:43then these sharks are remaining?
03:45We had kind of played out every single scenario so that we went into it as prepared as possible
03:50for almost every outcome.
03:52And I think that helped us feel a little bit more confident going into it, knowing that
03:57we had an answer for almost every question we knew that they were going to ask us.
04:01Fast forward a few months.
04:02They ended up airing our episode on the season premiere in September of that year.
04:07And we got a deal with Damon John.
04:09And then we get a call from Shark Tank about two weeks before Black Friday, letting us
04:14know that they were going to re-air our episode on Black Friday, biggest shopping day in the
04:20U.S.
04:20And we ended up getting another big gangbusters day.
04:23Our website crashed again.
04:25Before Christmas of that year, we had completely sold out of all of our inventory.
04:30I think from the moment we aired on Shark Tank to that moment where we completely sold
04:36out, I think we did about $2 million in revenue.
04:38And that's really kind of where we feel like the business took off.
04:46It's a success beyond what we imagined.
04:49And the impact that we've had proving out the original thesis of the business through
04:54donations, through making amazing products, it's been incredible.
04:58It's way beyond what we thought.
05:00And we enjoy it every day.
05:02Most days.
05:02We enjoy it every day.
05:04Almost every day.
05:06Some days.
05:07Some days.