I Was On a Podcast! Watch & Listen to It Here

Chubbies Shorts co-founder Tom Montgomery and I were on the Chew On This podcast with Ronak Shah and Ashvin Melwani. It was so fun to spend time with them and go deep on so many things we don't normally get to talk about publicly.

Disclaimer:

• Sometimes, podcasts can be a bunch of fluff...or a "puff piece" if you will. This is not one of them.
• Now that we're no longer working there, and now that we've had time to separate our egos from being in the operating seat, we're able to talk about stuff at a level of depth, transparency, objectivity, and clarity that wouldn't have been possible before.
• It might challenge strongly-held beliefs you might have around how to grow a business, define and measure success, and build a brand for long term profit growth. You might disagree, and that's also good. There are infinite paths to success.
• When we were operating, we wish we would have had this kind of content to help us navigate the challenges we all face going from $0 - $100M. This is in direct conflict with most of the information we'd find where it was all sunshine and unicorns. This is the opposite.
• It's chock-full of honest, no-BS lessons, stories, tactics, and advice that only comes from having been there and living the experience first-hand.
• Ideally, by taking this approach of not coming across like we had it all figured out, you can get the benefits of our hard-earned, and all-too-painful lessons without having to go through it yourself.

Play this in the background today while you do your boozy brunch, GTL (gym, tan, laundry), mow the lawn, or change poopy diapers (we're all in different seasons).

Topics covered:

?? The Chubbies Shorts founding and scaling story to >$100M

How we got started. How we got our first customers and rose above the noise with no money to spend. How we created content in the early days that resonated and drove engagement.

?? Everything we learned:

We made all the mistakes navigating all the challenges all brands face (yes, you too) that ultimately led to an acquisition >$100M and being part of an >$1B IPO.

?? Prioritizing organic content:

How we approached and built a community organically through email and social media, relying on user-generated content (UGC) for authentic and engaging marketing.

?? The importance of long-term profit:

Instead of focusing solely on driving short term revenue, we get to dig into how we shifted the strategy to prioritize long-term profitability as much as short term revenue goals.

?? Data-driven decisions:

How we learned the value of having real-time data across all business units, which allowed us to measure progress towards short and long term contribution profit goals. And, how to tactically implement this in an actual company (easier said than done).

?? Building asset value:

Chubbies’ exit was driven by a combination of profitable growth, brand recognition, and a desire to seek new challenges. Here's everything we learned about what truly drove the acquisition valuation...and it's not revenue growth.

?? How we built Brand in a performance-marketing way:

Preston and Tom are working on a SaaS platform to help businesses measure brand performance more effectively, allowing them to better understand the impact of brand-building initiatives on profitability.

Chapters (with timestamp links to that time in the YouTube video)

0:00 - Intro

1:36 - Building a community over 10 years

3:04 - Creating a brand that resonates with consumers

4:12 - Challenges after college in 2008

6:05 - Early days of Chubbies

11:03 - Starting with organic marketing

14:01 - Engaging customers through storytelling and community building

19:00 - The evolution of marketing strategies

24:11 - The shift in content value and audience targeting in marketing

30:00 - Challenges of growth and market competition 31:16 - The emotional roller coaster of entrepreneurship

32:10 - The joy of improving customers' lives

34:02 - Optimizing marketing strategies with data

39:12 - Managing cash flow for long-term planning

41:14 - Challened of inventory management and cash allocation

45:05 - Pandemic's impact on business growth

46:22 - Building brand value

51:04 - Balancing short-term and long-term marketing strategies

56:05 - Focusing on consistent performance over spikes

59:45 - Fixed costs as a percentage of total revenue

Thanks for checking this out, and let me know if we should do more long-form podcasts like this and we'll try to make that happen.

Lovingly,

Preston & Tom