When you Google Chase Fisher, the CEO & Founder of Blenders Eyewear, you’ll see headlines touting a guy who turned a $2,000 loan into a $90 million dollar ecommerce brand. But Chase’s story goes way beyond those headlines. In my opinion, his thinking around ad strategies, supply chain, partial acquisitions, and more are more interesting and valuable to anyone who is looking for more than just a feel-good story. Chase got into all of those topics on this episode of Up Next in Commerce, and he took us behind the scenes of his supposed Cinderella story to tell us that it was much harder than it looked. Plus, we even touched on whether we’ll be seeing some Blenders glasses in the metaverse any time soon. Enjoy the episode!
Main Takeaways:
- You Only Fail When You Stop
- Throughout the life of a business, there will be hard and humbling moments and the thought of quitting will run through your mind. But you only fail when you stop trying. If you keep moving forward and pushing toward your goal, you will find your way, even if it’s not what you expect it to be.
- Why Should DTC Brands Go Into Retail?
- According to Chase, “When you’re are an online brand, you need a living and breathing footprint. And so, I believe retail is going to be the next huge wave and I’m really excited about that.”
- Should You Make a Big Bet on TV?
- In short, the answer is probably yes. With ad performance, social platforms like Facebook diminishing, and as digital channels get more crowded, it’s becoming harder to win consistently. On TV, you can have bigger returns, but you have to be willing to plan, produce, and invest for the long-term if you go the TV route.
For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.
Key Quotes:
“I had no experience. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no business plan, but I just had a lot of confidence that I can figure it out. We needed to find someplace to make these things, a manufacturer. So I started calling places on Google, and that led me to wholesalers up in LA. They had factories overseas that spoke fluent Mandarin. So I started to learn a little bit about the manufacturing process that way. That led me to understanding, okay, how are we going to get these things made? Who are we going to work with? Et cetera. And then, when it came to designs and really validating whether Blenders is something that people actually want, we built a Facebook page and we put out designs. We had about a thousand Facebook fans before even having a product. Before we knew it, we had a lot of people commenting on the styles, like, ‘These are awesome. How much do they cost? Where are you going to sell these?’ And we’re like, ‘Okay. So this idea is validated. There’s demand for it. Let’s figure out how to bring it to life.’”
“Manufacturing is probably the biggest headache at the beginning, and it will always be a headache. It’s always a huge challenge. I knew nothing about supply chain. I knew nothing about global markets and how they functioned. I knew nothing about importing and exporting. And so, we basically found a factory and we worked very, very closely with them in terms of what we were looking for, trying to understand how these things were manufactured. I had no idea they take 120 days to produce. And so, that was a huge challenge for us to try and overcome, especially when you’re bootstrapping a business with no money. Your cash is tied up for a long time. So really leveraging that supplier, working very, very closely and trying to build that trust, because a lot of this is about trust early on and really establishing yourself as a strong client. And just going through the trials and tribulations, ordering product, getting product, and seeing the issues that come and then trying to solve those problems.”
“Blenders was built from a backpack on the beach, one pair, one style, one customer at a time. And that’s all I knew how to do. I didn’t know how to build a website, yet alone drive traffic to a website. So the early days was all about pounding the pavement and just getting product out in the real world and selling it with my own two hands.”
“I was six months in and I remember somebody telling me… I was like, “Dude, I’m going to quit. This is just too hard.” And they were like, “Chase, the only way you’re going to fail is if you stop. Just keep going.” And from that point forward, that’s when our brand motto of life in forward motion was defined.”
“When you bootstrap a business and you start it from nothing and you’re the founder, and you learn to do every role yourself, they call it the founders curse, where you become so accustomed to doing thing yourself that you fail to delegate, or you fail to hire. It’s a blessing and a curse. I think it’s a blessing in the fact that you learn what you need before you need to hire for it. But it’s a curse in the fact that you hold on for too long. And so, learning to let go is probably one of my biggest challenges, and learning how to hire and learning how to manage different people and the personalities that come with it.”
Bio
Chase Fisher is the CEO and founder of Blenders Eyewear. He started the company after the cheap sunglasses he wore when he went to see one of his favorite DJs at a San Diego Nightclub received a lot of attention. Chase recognized that the market needed a mid-priced eyewear option with the same cool factor as leading styles. He began selling glasses out of his backpack and after he gave surf lessons and has since grown the company to a valuation of more than $90 million.
Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce
—
Transcript:
Stephanie:
Chase, welcome to the podcast.
Chase:
What’s going on? Stoked to be here. Thanks for having me.
Stephanie:
Yeah, I’m really excited to have you on the show today. I was looking in your background. Of course, the title everywhere I saw was, okay, this dude takes a $2,000 loan, builds a $90 million company. That’s amazing. But before we jump into that tagline, I actually want to go way back to early days of Chase to hear, what was it like growing up? Because someone like that, I feel like, has to be a hustler, has to always have this entrepreneurial spirit. You probably were doing a lot of crazy things early on, and I was hoping we can start there to get to know you a bit.
Chase:
Totally. Yeah. If we backtrack, my experience with branding came at a young age. I grew up a competitive surfer. I started surfing at age seven, and that was the first thing in life that I felt cool doing. And so, I started competing throughout high school and I would go to surf contests. I just fell in love with it. I fell in love with the industry. I fell in love with everything about it. I got sponsored and just fell in love with brands at a really young age.
Chase:
I was never good enough to go professional, but I was good enough to self market myself and work with brands and start developing relationships with brands through surfing. That’s really my background. And then I moved to San Diego for college and went to San Diego State. And then, I was a surf coach after I graduated and I was on the surf team down there. So surfing was the outlet of my life, that gave me my first passion and became the compass for everything I do, I guess you would say.
Stephanie:
That’s awesome. Are you still surfing today?
Chase:
I’m surfing all the time, as much as I can for sure. Yeah. I live two blocks from the beach, so-
Stephanie:
You have to then.
Chase:
… you betcha.
Stephanie:
You still have to find those moments. I mean, it might be tough, I’m sure, when the company growing quickly, getting partially acquired. But yeah, finding those moments to take a breath still, I’m sure, really important for you.
Chase:
Totally.
Stephanie:
What was the aha moment when it came to Blenders Eyewear? You’re in the surf scene. I mean, what was that moment that you were like, “I should make some awesome eyewear.”
Chase:
It’s funny. Every time my favorite DJ would play here in San Diego, I would go to his shows. One show he played, I wore some neon green sunglasses that I bought from Target for five bucks. Everyone in the club was coming up to me asking about my shades. And they were like, “Chase, those are sick. Where’d you get them? Let me try them on.” I was like, “What? They were only for like five bucks. I bought them from Target. They’re not that cool.”
Chase:
Like I said, I was a surf coach. I was working 8:00 to 5:00 at the beach every single day and I just started noticing the sunglasses that people were wearing and started to see a huge gap between the $5 shades and in the beater shades or the high-end shades. And so, the aha moment was really on the dance floor when I had the attention and then I validated it by saying, “Whoa, there’s not only a need for a brand between these high-end fashion sunglasses and low-end fashion sunglasses, but what better place to do this than San Diego?”
Stephanie:
Okay. A lot of people have great ideas like that, but how did you know, or how did you even have the drive to be like, “I’m going to do something about this. I’m actually going to make a company.”
Chase:
It’s funny because I was around a lot of successful entrepreneurs in college, and a couple of my friends before me started successful businesses. I saw what they were doing. It was super inspiring for me. I was really passionate about brands. I was really passionate about surfing. I knew I wanted to do something in action sports. I knew I wanted to do something around that. This was the perfect time for me to be like, “Okay, here it is. I validated it. Let’s go ahead and go forward with it.”
Chase:
I knocked on my roommate’s door and I was like, “Hey, can I borrow 2,000 bucks? I want to start a sunglasses company.” He’s like, “What?” I’m like, “Yeah, I want to start a sunglass company.” And so, just jumped in head first. No experience.
Stephanie:
Okay. What did those early days look like? You got your $2,000 from your friend, I know. What were next steps to start even trying to create a product?
Chase:
Man, that was hard. That was a lot of Googling. That was a lot of picking up the phone, Googling things, and literally just figuring it out. Like I said, I had no experience. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no business plan, but I just had a lot of confidence that I can figure it out. We needed to find someplace to make these things, a manufacturer. So I started calling places on Google, and that led me to wholesalers up in LA.
Chase:
They had factories overseas that spoke fluent Mandarin. So I started to learn a little bit about the manufacturing process that way. That led me to understanding, okay, how are we going to get these things made? Who are we going to work with? Et cetera. And then, when it came to designs and really validating, is Blenders something that people actually want, We built a Facebook page and we put out designs. We had about a thousand Facebook fans before even having a product.
Chase:
Before we knew it, we had a lot of people commenting on the styles, like, “These are awesome. How much do they cost? Where are you going to sell these?” And we’re like, “Okay. So this idea is validated. There’s demand for it. Let’s figure out how to bring it to life.”
Stephanie:
Oh, okay. I’m sure most people are now wondering, like myself, how did you even get those fans on a Facebook page? What were you guys putting on that page to have people become fans of something that didn’t exist yet?
Chase:
Basically, in San Diego, I had a very large network from college. I built a very large network of people that I knew. San Diego was very popular for just active, vibrant, fun things to do. There was a huge community in San Diego, so I tapped into that community pretty easily and I was able to leverage friends, family members, et cetera, to invite them into this Facebook page.
Chase:
It really just became our foundation to spitting out designs, seeing if there was demand, seeing what people like, what they didn’t like, and how we would basically… What was going to be our first step in terms of bringing this to life. That’s what I was able to do. Just from my surf background of networking and building relationships with people, that came natural to me.
Stephanie:
It’s funny because a couple people we’ve had on this show also mentioned having this college network and that’s how they started their company, by tapping into that. So college can still be good for things these days, mainly if you want to start and you need a good network to launch in the very early days.
Chase:
Totally. Yeah. That’s the best thing you can take away from college. It’s the 2:00 AM conversations and the network you build.
Stephanie:
Yep. Yep. Who was the one who was actually designing the product and putting the design ideas out there to this Facebook page, to see what people liked?
Chase:
I was playing basketball with my neighbor and I told him my idea, and I was like, “Hey, I need a graphic designer who can help me with this and bring this to life.” And he’s like, “You’ve got to meet my roommate.” And so, I met his roommate. His name was Blake. He was my next door neighbor. I told him the idea. He was a graphic designer. He went to the art institute. He was the kind of guy that was able to put this on paper and bring it to life.
Chase:
So we partnered up. Within three days, we had our name. It was called Blenders because we lived on Hornblend Street, and we were putting out designs on Facebook. Sure enough, we were on our way. But we had no idea, actually, how hard it was going to be able to make these things. That was a whole nother beast we had to tackle.
Stephanie:
Yeah. I want to actually dive into that a bit because, of course, right now the world is struggling when it comes to supply chain and manufacturing and actually getting a product even here in the first place. What are things that you’re doing now that maybe are completely different than how you started out? I want to hear about some of the lessons that you learned when just trying to find manufacturers in the beginning, to what are you doing today that’s probably vastly different?
Chase:
Totally. Manufacturing is probably the biggest headache at the beginning, and it will always be a headache. It’s always a huge challenge. I knew nothing about supply chain. I knew nothing about global markets and how they functioned. I knew nothing about importing and exporting. And so, we basically found a factory and we worked very, very closely with them in terms of what we were looking for, trying to understand how these things were manufactured.
Chase:
I had no idea they take 120 days to produce. And so, that was a huge challenge for us to try and overcome, especially when you’re bootstrapping a business with no money. Your cash is tied up for a long time. So really leveraging that supplier, working very, very closely and trying to build that trust, because a lot of this is about trust early on and really establishing yourself as a strong client. And just going through the trials and tribulations, ordering product, getting product, and seeing the issues that come and then trying to solve those problems.
Chase:
And so, at the beginning we were running everything through one factory, one factory. Now the big difference is now we’ve diversified our supply chain to where we have seven to 10 different factories, all producing different things, and all specialized in different areas of our product line, that are actually experts in what they do, because some factories are really good with plastics. Some are really good with lenses. Some are really good with metals.
Chase:
At the beginning, because I found that one, I don’t want to have to do it again, I was jamming everything through one factory and then they would shut down from like a typhoon and we’d be closed for three months. I was like, “Oh my God, if they get wiped out, we have no backup.” So we’ve been able to diversify a lot better now than before.
Stephanie:
Would you advise most entrepreneurs now who start a company, and they’re looking for manufacturers, would you say, “Try and find a couple to begin with,” or, “Try and go part by part and see who’s the best in that area”? Or do you think actually starting off with one in the beginning is okay for a little bit of time until you figure out the lay of the land?
Chase:
I think if I was going to do it all over again, I would get a few and bid them against each other. I was just in a rush and I didn’t want to… I was in a rush and I was eager to start. So I was like, “Okay, I feel good about this one. I’m just going to go for it.” But I would run the gamut, get like three to five, bid them against each other, really look at what they’re good at and what they specialize in, and then go from there. I wasn’t doing any research. I was just going off of complete gut instinct of what I felt was right at the time.
Stephanie:
Yeah. Which is, hey, that’s all you had.
Chase:
Yeah.
Stephanie:
Tell me, how about when it came to attracting customers that were not from your already existing network? What does it look like today? Because the world has changed a lot over the past couple years, and how we used to be able to reach new customers, we really can’t do it the same way anymore. So what are you all doing to drive the demand that you have?
Chase:
Yeah. Blenders was built from a backpack on the beach, one pair, one style, one customer at a time. And that’s all I knew how to do. I didn’t know how to build a website, yet alone drive traffic to a website. So the early days was all about pounding the pavement and just getting product out in the real world and selling it with my own two hands. And so-
Stephanie:
How many were you selling a day when you were doing it that way?
Chase:
Well, I was giving about five to seven surf lessons a day, and I would most likely sell one pair to every person I was giving a lesson to. I’d come home with like 150 bucks and go to Wells Fargo and deposit that.
Stephanie:
Wow. That’s a fun story.
Chase:
So anytime I… Yeah. It was very, very humble beginnings for sure, starting Blenders. But that’s how the brand was built and that’s how our name started to spread, was just right here in San Diego in our own backyard. That taught me a lot. That really taught me how to sell. Really taught me how to interact with customers. It really gave me perspective on how important it is to build word of mouth, things like that.
Chase:
And then, as social media started to rise, we started to tap into Instagram, Facebook, and started to advertise online. And started to figure out how to build an online business. And from that point forward, we were gung ho on, “Let’s go 100% in direct to consumer,” and focused on our community that way.
Stephanie:
How do I think about the behind the scenes of that today? I mean, it seems like such an easy transition when you say it. It sounds so nice. Like, “Oh, yeah. I started by selling it on the beach and then I just went online.” Give me some of maybe the stories in between of what that actually looked like.
Chase:
Let’s just give you perspective here. This is how confident I was on day one of launching Blenders. I was like, “Okay.” I had enough money to buy 300 pairs, and we launched on March 13th, 2012 at the San Diego State Entrepreneur Fair. I was so confident I was going to knock this out of the park. I brought all 300 pairs with me thinking I was going to sell 300 pairs. I walked away selling 10 pairs. That was the most humbling experience in my life, was that first moment of like, “Okay, this is going to be really, really hard, a lot harder than I thought.”
Chase:
And so, from that point forward, it was like things were difficult. We ran out of money and it was scary. I didn’t know what I was doing, and trying to just fight one day at a time. That’s when I really tapped into my network. That’s when I really just started to build the brand locally and just do whatever I could. I just get our name out there and get product out there. And so, those in-betweens were really challenging.
Chase:
Obviously, we had some wins, we had some losses. But it’s all about momentum him, and it’s all about trying to learn those hard lessons in between, that really train you for the harder days to come and give you that strong grit that you’re really going to need to last. Because I almost quit many times-
Stephanie:
I was going to ask-
Chase:
Many times I was like, “This is too hard.”
Stephanie:
How did you convince yourself not to? I mean, I bet a lot of people would go to fair like that and be like, “Obviously, the demand’s not here. Obviously, the big incumbents in this space are already winning. I’m not going to compete against the Oakleys of the world or whatever. How did you convince yourself that, okay, we can get through this?
Chase:
It was a defining moment in my life where literally I was six months in and I remember somebody telling me… I was like, “Dude, I’m going to quit. This is just too hard.” And they were like, “Chase, the only way you’re going to fail is if you stop. Just keep going.” And from that point forward, that’s when our brand motto of life in forward motion was defined.
Stephanie:
Such a good brand motto.
Chase:
That’s what this is. This brand’s about moving forward. This brand’s about getting better. This brand’s about being fresh. Alls I’ve got to do is just focus on one day at a time and that’s my mantra. And so, that advice is critical and that’s what our brand motto was found. It came at a time where I literally almost quit. So, yeah, you have a lot of those moments for sure.
Stephanie:
Yep. Did you have a team at that point or was it still just you?
Chase:
It was just me and my business partner, two guys, two MacBooks, and some six packs of Coors Light and California burritos.
Stephanie:
Coors Light.
Chase:
[inaudible].Stephanie:
Yeah. Wow. Okay. So then fast forward to today, maybe what are some platforms that you’re most bullish on? Are you tapping into YouTube and influencers or Instagram still, or are you trying something completely outside the box? What are you most excited about?
Chase:
Yeah. That’s a great question because there’s so many changes going on in the world right now with just how we interact and how we communicate and how we buy products. One thing we’ve done really well over the years was figure out how to sell through Facebook and Instagram, and we’ve become so conditioned to that platform that it’s become our main driving force. That platform’s not as effective as it used to be.
Chase:
As of April of 2021, this new iOS system rolled out, that’s having a very huge challenge on brands, trying to interact with customers. We’re going some big pivots. We’re trying to off board from Facebook. We’re experimenting with TV coming up in March, which we’re going to launch commercials. We’ve launched our first retail store in 2019 and we have plans to open six more stores this year. That’s really exciting because I think retail is the coolest thing you can do as a brand owner and it’s very experiential.
Chase:
When you’re are an online brand, you need a living and breathing footprint. And so, I believe retail is going to be the next huge wave and I’m really excited about that. We just launched internationally as well. We’re trying to diversify our reach. We launch a new geos like Canada and Australia and we’re focused on prescription as well, which is another big category that we’re trying to tap into. Yeah, a lot of exciting things that we’re doing at the moment.
Stephanie:
Okay. That’s a lot. Wow. Okay. I actually want to go back all the way first… Well, first let’s start with retail, then I want to get into TV. But for retail, I mean, I have heard so many mixed opinions on that, on this show so far. Every guest, some are pro retail, some are like, “No, why would I even get into that. That’s a lot of risk.” Some are doing partnership models where they’re like, “I don’t have to own this fully. I’m just going to partner with their brands.” So tell me why you’re betting so big on that and why it’s so important going forward.
Chase:
Yeah. I mean, sunglasses, by nature, are experiential. I think as a brand owner, as a brand, it’s super important that you are where your customers are. I think retail is going to be the next big way for that. It really allows you to open up a platform to show the heart and soul of your brand. And so, when we look at the world’s transition from 2020 to now, it’s like brands that are betting bigger in retail I think are going to win because online is becoming so expensive and so competitive and so saturated, that retail gives you that diversity.
Chase:
It gives you that living and breathing footprint. It shows the heart and soul of your brand. It brings the customer to life. There’s so many aspects of it that I think are super beneficial. Is it risky? Absolutely. It’s very risky. It’s expensive. It’s a five to 10-year commitment. It takes a lot of time. But the long-term play-out, and you’re seeing it in bigger brands like Lululemon, the Warby Parkers are betting big on retail because leases are cheap right now. I believe the brands that are willing to take that risk are going to get the reward if done right.
Stephanie:
Yep. I mean, I love that perspective. It’s also such a different world today, thinking about comparing online, acquiring a customer that way, actually becoming more expensive than you maybe can interact with them in the real world. I mean, go back couple years-
Chase:
Totally.
Stephanie:
If you were to say that, people would be like, “You’re crazy. Retail’s way more expensive and you can’t even track it, blah, blah, blah, all the reasons. But we’re living in such different times. I mean, did you actually go and come up with your, I would say, maybe the cost of what you think it would take to acquire a customer in retail and the LTV of that customer over time, and all the other things you get access to with that person being in person, compared to your online activities? Did you go into that level of detail or is it a bigger, just higher-level-
Chase:
Yes.
Stephanie:
… thought process?
Chase:
For sure. It’s both. I think it’s from a consumer experience level. There’s a level of experience that your customers want to have, and there’s a level of relationship. And there’s only a certain amount of emotion that you can convey online than you can in person. Our conversion rate in person is like 40 to 50% versus online, which is 4%. So it’s like we get people in our store and they leave and they’re like, “I’m not shopping anywhere else but with these guys.” That’s the goal.
Chase:
And so, that’s the kind of experience that we want to have. We want to have the coolest sunglass stores in the world. And so, I believe that we’re definitely willing to take the risk. It’s scary, and it’s a large rollout. But I believe the LTV on retail is far stronger than it is online.
Stephanie:
How do you go about picking where you want your stores to be? I mean, is it all just based off foot traffic? Are you also experimenting outside, just the big hubs of cities?
Chase:
Yeah. We look at our online data, right? The online data’s really the metrics that we’re using to look at specific cities, look at specific areas that we want to be in. Retail’s way different than online. Like online, you can’t just put your website next to Vans and piggyback on their traffic. But retail, you can open up a store next to a popular restaurant or a coffee shop or another big, big brand store, department store, and piggyback off their traffic.
Chase:
So locations are extremely important with retail. It’s the most important thing. And so, we’re really looking at what cities are our hotspots, what are our top 10 to 15 cities, what are the best locations in those cities? And can we get leases that make sense in those cities? And what do those look like in terms of a commitment and a build out and what does that look like? That’s our process. Obviously, there’s more to it, but that’s our roadmap.
Stephanie:
Yep. Yeah. It was interesting. I was just in downtown Detroit and I was looking at this retail partnership model between, I think they’re called Shinola. They’re a leather company. Yeah. And then they had a coffee shop inside of there. I went in for the coffee because I was like, “I want some tea.” Then I’m in there, I’m like, “Oh, this is cool stuff,” wandering around. Then they also had a partnership with Crate & Barrel, and it was just interesting seeing how they’re all taking these big bets and also just thinking of, how do you create an experience in different ways, but also betting big on retail?
Stephanie:
So it’s just cool to think where the world is headed and how people are just thinking about it a bit differently now, if they’re willing to experiment and get back in and play. Some people, I think, have been burned too much though. They’re nervous to get back into this world.
Chase:
For sure. I think a lot of the old like legacy brands are very resistant to retail and other crack. But the new direct to consumer’s a little bit more fierce, fast, furious, willing take those risks and really bet big. That’s where I think the landscape is really shifting, is the brands that are willing to spend big and bet big are the ones that are going to be winning in the next few years.
Stephanie:
How did you shift your mindset, starting out from selling out of your backpack to then like, “Okay, now we’re selling to a community of people that I know,” now online, and then now getting into retail. How do you go about thinking about hiring and finding the right people to even get advice from? It seems like it’s such a different area, that a lot of founders, I think, struggle to find the right networking team to support them in that next level of launch.
Chase:
Totally. That’s been a big work in progress for me, honestly. I think when you bootstrap a business and you start it from nothing and you’re the founder, and you learn to do every role yourself, they call it the founders curse, where you become so accustomed to doing thing yourself that you fail to delegate, or you fail to hire. It’s a blessing and a curse. I think it’s a blessing in the fact that you learn what you need before you need to hire for it.
Chase:
But it’s a curse in the fact that you hold on for too long. And so, learning to let go is probably one of my biggest challenges, and learning how to hire and learning how to manage different people and the personalities that come with it. So, for us, it’s really about finding the right people with a quality that’s super important to us. We want self starters. We want people that are able to think about things and get them done.
Chase:
And we want all of our departments to be self reliant, to not be reliant on other departments to like do their job. Last year, we went through a huge reorg, I guess you would call it, where we hired a lot of new people. It’s been a big adjustment for me personally, being normally an activator and a guy on the ground floor as a doer, to now being more of a strategy visionary thought leader. And so, I’m still having to catch myself on like, “Okay, I need to delegate this, versus do it myself,” or work with the team.
Chase:
That’s been hard for me, you know what I mean? But hiring people, the way that I look at it now, it’s like you need to hire before you need this position. Really understand what you need and why you need it. And then make sure you spend the time carefully to hire the right people and not rush into it, because it’s expensive. It’s it takes a lot of time, and it’s bad for morale if you’re hiring and letting people go and hiring and letting people go. You want to do it strategically and carefully.
Stephanie:
Yep. I was just listening to a show with the founder of this platform called Titan. It’s this new investment hedge fund style thing. He had really interesting thoughts around how to hire people. The two that I remember was, one, you need to hire an employee who has this war time mentality, like, “What happens when you’re in a crisis? What happens when things actually go really bad? How do you react?” And so, I’ve been thinking about like, how do you craft questions in an interview to figure out how this person handles something bad or a crisis? Because that was one of the things he said.
Stephanie:
The other one was around, does this person have the ability and drive for self growth? Because I can’t pull you along with me the entire way. Do you actually want to do better? Do you have that drive and initiative to also grow yourself within this company? There was a third one, but I can’t remember the third one. But either way, I was like, “These are great tips for hiring. Wow.”
Chase:
No, they’re good. And you’ve got to understand loyalty is dead right now. It’s very hard to find loyalty. If you want loyalty, hire a dog. You know what I mean?
Stephanie:
Yep.
Chase:
People are very unloyal right now and it is a employee’s market where people are exploring all options. They want new things, and they don’t want to be committed, and they want flexibility. So we’re just in an interesting time currently and growth means a lot of different things for a lot of different people. It’s not a one size fits all. So learning those nuances and learning how to manage the personalities that come with it, I think, is the biggest lesson to learn, for sure.
Stephanie:
Yep. Okay. Next piece I wanted to touch on was TV. This is also a topic, especially in the past just three episodes, where everyone’s very bullish on TV, Shoppable TV, getting ads on Roku. This is definitely a very new thing that I’ve been hearing over the past couple months. I was not hearing this last year when I was interviewing people. And so, I want to hear how you guys are exploring this and why you’re bullish on trying it out.
Chase:
Right. When we look at Blenders and our marketing strategy currently in our base, when you start to look at Facebook as your main driving source where 80% of our spend goes to Facebook, well, we’re at a level where it’s so big now. The only other channels that can be significant are channels that have the scale. And the next big channel that has that scale is TV. And so, that’s our next big bet.
Chase:
How we’re looking at TV, it’s like we’re looking at it, just like you said, we’re going to start with connected TV first. I’m actually treating it very similarly to Facebook where it’s like we’re going to three different commercials and we’re going to have 15-second cuts and 30-second cuts, and we’re just going to test a ton of different things. Alls we need is one to hit.
Chase:
And so, what we could do with connected TV is we have a lot of the data that we can actually pull from Facebook, which is helpful and it’s a lot more trackable. So we’ll start to launch in certain regions and see if we see a lift with our performance on Facebook in hopes that we do, and then scale the spend that way. And then, if that works, we’ll look at linear TV, which is cable.
Chase:
So I think this is the next big channel. Is it going to work as well as Facebook? I don’t think anything will ever work as good as Facebook personally, but it’s something that I think can help, you know what I mean? And that’s what we’re trying to do, is do whatever we can to get off of Facebook and not be so reliable on Facebook.
Stephanie:
Yep. Yeah. The only thing that I wonder is like, is the barrier to entry too high in TV. I keep hearing this $50,000 number thrown around, like you need to make a $50,000 minimum test to even know if it’s working or not, because it’s still a little bit hard to track. It’s like, “Man, I don’t know if a lot of brands can just drop 50 grand right away.” So, yeah. Is that what you’re saying too?
Chase:
Yeah. It’s interesting you say that because it’s so true. It’s like Facebook, alls you need is a photographer and a product, and you can go outside and shoot a Facebook ad and launch it within the same day. It’s like TV, you need storytelling. You need a whole creative production team. You need equipment. You need editing. You’re editing a high quality commercial. That takes a lot of work and a lot of time. I mean, it’s taken us three to five months-
Stephanie:
Oh, wow.
Chase:
… to get our commercials even shot. We shot them last week and now we have a month to edit them. So it’s a long time. I mean, you’ve got to commit to it really. Then the spend and the agency that you have to sign with too. It’s definitely a commitment. You shouldn’t just do TV to like, “Oh, I think we’re going to give it a shot.” You’re like, “No, we’re going to spend big in TV. We’re going to bet big. We’re going to spend the money to do a good commercial. We’re going to do enough commercials that we really give it a solid crack, and see what happens.”
Stephanie:
Yep. Are there other brands or friends in the space that you tapped into to ask for best practices or any advice before just jumping into it?
Chase:
Totally. Yeah. There was a few brands that I’ve reached out to, and that’s usually our best way to learn about the success of TV, is talking to other brands that have done it, getting their perspective on it, and then talking to the agencies and talking to their clients and seeing what worked for them and what didn’t. I’m sure it’s different for everyone, but there’s a common theme that most brands are trying to achieve. I think if you can align around that and put your best foot forward, it’s really helpful to get that type of advice and hear from other brands too.
Stephanie:
Yep. Okay. Now I’ll ask a question that’s a little further out there. Are you exploring any of the new trends, like NFTs or getting in the metaverse, selling your glasses in the metaverse? Have you been thinking about any of this or is that a little too far out there?
Chase:
I talk about this with my friends all the time. They’re always like, “Let’s get some Blenders in the metaverse.” And I’m like, “[inaudible 00:32:24].”
Stephanie:
I do think it’s the perfect product for it though. Most things, I’m like-
Chase:
I know.
Stephanie:
“No.” But I’m like, having sunglasses on your person, on your little avatar, I mean, that’s really [crosstalk].
Chase:
Yeah. I’m trying to wrap my head around… I understand the concept of it, but I’m trying to wrap my head around the actuality of it. Like how does this actually play out? You know what I mean? I think the NFT stuff is a little bit more… I can comprehend that a little easier than I can the metaverse, but it just seems so new at this point, that I’m like, “I don’t really know how to approach it.” I almost need a little bit more time to let this play out.
Chase:
But it is something I’m thinking about. It does scare me, the metaverse. I’m not a huge fan of it. I’m not a gungho like, “This is our next big thing.” I look at it as a little bit of a nightmare sort of thing. It’s a little scary, but I’m trying to keep an open mind with it too at the same time.
Stephanie:
Yeah. I mean, someone the other day had a really good point, that the metaverse has already been here. Like we’re already interacting virtually online. A lot of the things that people are saying is so brand new, we’ve actually been doing it. We’re just using different terminology. And then, yes, there’s a piece of it of like, yeah, not everyone is putting on VR headsets and going into a different world.
Stephanie:
Maybe that’s not actually what it ends up being, but a lot of the aspects are kind of already here, just with a new take on it.
Chase:
Totally.
Stephanie:
That made me feel a little better. I was like, “Okay, it’s not some completely new world that we all have to figure out.” We don’t have to.
Chase:
Yeah. No, absolutely. I think it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. I get buying land in the metaverse. That, to me, makes sense.
Stephanie:
That to you makes sense? That, to me, I still don’t… I mean, I did it with one of my friends’ companies, but I still was like, “What am I buying here? Who actually is going to value those piece of land?” I didn’t really get it.
Chase:
Yeah. It’s super arbitrary. It’s just, what value are people willing to spend for it? I don’t know. There’s a huge data pull with it. I think Facebook’s trying to really own the human consciousness, and that’s a little scary to me.
Stephanie:
Yeah. That part, no. Not into that.
Chase:
Yeah. It’s a little scary as it seems like it’s trying to make humans obsolete at the same time too, which I don’t really like. But I don’t know. We’ll see. It is fascinating.
Stephanie:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s definitely interesting to watch. Okay. What about talking about your company got acquired? Like 70% of your company got acquired by an Italian eyewear company called… Is it Safilo Group? Is that how you say it?
Chase:
Safilo.
Stephanie:
Safilo Group. Okay. I want to-
Chase:
Yeah. [crosstalk].
Stephanie:
… hear the behind the scenes on that and what it’s like having a bigger company coming in. Is it helpful? And what was that like?
Chase:
Yeah. It was a big decision. I mean, we were eight year or seven years in at that point, and we were growing at light speed. It was a big, big directional change that we had to make. For me, it’s like I never started Blenders with the intention of selling it. I started it because I loved it. I started it because I wanted to create a brand that resonated with our generation, and because I had passion for it, and because I fully believed in the vision.
Chase:
We reached a point where I was like, “Okay, is this going to become a lifestyle business that I can have fun with, or that I can grow with, or is this going to become a global powerhouse?” I started this to be the best. I started it to be the biggest, and one day be on the same level as Oakley, you know what I mean? And so, that was the real decision for partnering with Safilo, and considering their strengths and what they had to offer in terms of being the second largest strategic eyewear brand in the world.
Chase:
They were experts in product. They were experts in manufacturing. They were experts in prescription and global expansion. We were experts in direct-to-consumer marketing, social media, branding, things like that. So the relationship was really a peanut butter meets jelly sort of relationship. You know what I mean? They were looking to really transform their company and go digital, and we already had those capabilities.
Chase:
We were looking to go global and expand in our [inaudible], and expand in manufacturing, and they had those capabilities. It’s been a very pleasant and exciting relationship. It’s funny because I was like, “Okay, once this deal goes through, I should be able to take a deep breath and be a little bit more creative, and be able to do more things I want to do with the business.”
Chase:
It’s actually opposite of like, “Whoa. I have a billion-dollar company that’s spent a lot of money on me, and I don’t want to let them down.” And so, I have this new-found pressure, a new motivation, a new horsepower to really take this business to the moon. And so, it’s been exciting. I’ve learned a lot through the process. They’ve been great to work with. Nothing with the day to day has really changed. I’m still running the show, which is great.
Chase:
The culture’s still the same. We’re still in San Diego. The only thing that’s really changing is just reporting to a bigger brother, and learning how to have board meetings. It’s taught me a lot about the CEO role itself and how I could become a better CEO, and just learning from their other brands that they have. So it’s been great. I’ve really enjoyed it.
Stephanie:
That’s [inaudible].
Chase:
And I look forward to continuing on this journey with them.
Stephanie:
Yeah. That’s great. Were you actively looking for a partner, or did they just come pop up like, “Hello. Here to acquire you”?
Chase:
We were starting to run a process.
Stephanie:
Okay.
Chase:
We were in the beginning stages, and I was getting phone calls, like five to 10 phone calls a week, from people that were interested. But it was just coming out of thin air.
Stephanie:
What do you mean starting a process? What was your process? What were you actually doing?
Chase:
We hired an investment banker to help us go to market, and we didn’t even make it to market. We didn’t even finish our process when Safilo came in and said, “Hey.” The timing of this was perfect and we were just starting to get our process off the ground. And they were looking to go digital. They flew to San Diego undercover and we met and chatted about things. They came to our store and everything was super confidential. But they were like, “We like this business. We like you. We believe in this. We’re interested.”
Chase:
We were able to get the deal done quickly, but it took… 12 months of work, that was supposed to take 12 months of time, was jammed into like four months. It was a ton of due diligence. As you probably know, these deals take innumerous amounts of work in paperwork and follow-ups. It was a lot at once. A lot.
Stephanie:
Yeah. I’m sure. I’m sure the support now can also be super helpful, like you said, having this big brother, in a good way, to tap into and be like-
Chase:
Totally.
Stephanie:
“How are you all handling this right now?” Or hopping on their shipments and being like, “We’ll just on your ship or your freight,” and not have to worry about all the other problems going on, because you’re a bigger brand. I’m sure there’s a lot of good advantages.
Chase:
For sure. It all happened pre COVID. It was like this was all happening pre COVID. When COVID hit, the deal wasn’t even closed. And then, the deal got delayed six months. And so, it was really shaky, going through this. I didn’t know if it was going to be able to actually go through, with COVID and everything. A lot of these big strategics were pulling out because they wanted to hold cash. They didn’t know what was going to happen.
Chase:
But they’re a billion-dollar company and they move slower. They’re just not as fast as us in terms of certain things that we do every day. So trying to understand that and get used to the slower processes and slower speed has been an adjustment period too.
Stephanie:
Yeah. I’m sure. What is your vision, over the next couple years, for Blenders Eyewear?
Chase:
Our vision is to deliver the coolest and most affordable sunglasses in the world. That’s what we want to do. We want to be on every continent. We want to be sponsoring the world’s biggest athletes. We want to have stores in 25 cities. We want to own the face. And we want to just deliver the coolest product that we absolutely can with the absolute coolest community.
Stephanie:
That’s great.
Chase:
We want to be the new school millennial Oakley. We want to be the new school millennial Oakley. I have a ton of respect for Oakley and everything they’ve done and I really look up to them. But we want to steer more energy from Oakley than anyone. That’s cool.
Stephanie:
Yep. Coming for you. I love that. Good audacious goals. Yeah. That’s very cool. It’ll be fun to watch you guys for sure get there too. All right.
Chase:
Thank you.
Stephanie:
Well, let’s move over to the lightning round. The lightning round is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This is where I ask you a question and you have a minute or less to answer. Are you ready, Chase.
Chase:
All right. Lightning round.
Stephanie:
All right. First-
Chase:
Fire. Fire.
Stephanie:
What keeps you up at night?
Chase:
What keeps me up at night? Are we being as resourceful and are we being as efficient as possible with the business?
Stephanie:
That’s a great one. What’s one thing you don’t understand today, but you wish you did?
Chase:
The metaverse.
Stephanie:
I [inaudible] you were going to say that.
Stephanie:
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received that you think about time and time again?
Chase:
I think I already said it. The best advice I ever received was the only way you’re going to fail is if you stop. Just keep going.
Stephanie:
Yep. Who’s your biggest supporter?
Chase:
My biggest supporter, probably my family, I would say, like my friends. I have a really strong group of friends and they’re all very supportive of me. Yeah.
Stephanie:
That’s great. Last one. If you were to have a podcast, what would it be about and who would your first guest be?
Chase:
What would it be about? It would be called Cut To The Chase.
Stephanie:
That’s a good one. Catchy.
Chase:
My first guest would be Larry David.
Stephanie:
Okay. I feel like you’ve thought about this.
Chase:
If I could get him.
Stephanie:
You can get him.
Chase:
If I can get him.
Stephanie:
I couldn’t get him.
Chase:
If I can get him. I think Larry David would be very, very fun to have on.
Stephanie:
That’s great. I love that. Well, Chase, you were very fun to have on, so thanks so much for hopping on the podcast today and joining me. It was really cool to hear what you guys are up to and where you’re headed. Where can people find out more about you and Blenders Eyewear?
Chase:
Awesome. Well, yeah, you could check us out online, blenderseyewear.com, on Instagram, at Blenders Eyewear. Then you can come by our store any time you’re in San Diego. Our door is always open. We’ve got Coronas. We’ve got California burritos, and we’ve got sunglasses. You can check out me on Instagram at Chase Fisher. So thank you for having me. I’m stoked to be here.
