10 Questions Questions 10

ohn Machacek, Chief Innovation Officer for the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation, has worked with countless startups throughout our community over the years. He knows their ups, and their downs, but most of all, he knows the questions to ask them. Here are John Machacek’s 10 questions for Tucker Richardson, Head of Product & Operations, GEMSHO.

By John Machacek

Will you please tell us your GEMSHO elevator pitch?

I’ve always gotten a chuckle out of this question because, in my opinion, every business should have the same answer. That is, we aim to serve our customers by providing valuable, high-quality products at the best possible price. We do this with the greatest degree of focus we can manage, and we execute within the capabilities of our team.

That said, our mission for the next three years is to become the preferred e-commerce supplier in the “golfthemed barware gifts for men” hyperniche. That mission doesn’t represent all of the things we’ve done in the past but it does represent our plans for the future. So that’s probably the closest thing to an elevator pitch we will ever have. I know this sounds like a sidestep, and it probably is, but no matter what your business’s “thing” is, it is always beholden to a changing landscape of customer wants, their definition of value, and your team’s ability to execute in response. If/when that landscape changes, your business must manage an identity crisis before it can respond, then it could spell your demise. So, we don’t subscribe to that thought process. We’re customer-focused, not identityfocused.

02

“What We Do.” Can you tell me more about this process that you list on it?

I could probably write an entire novel on this subject but, in general, what’s written here is our attempt at defining all the things that have made GEMSHO successful in the past in relationship to each other such that they can be simply understood and leveraged for the future. The result is a process aimed at identifying opportunities with limited investment, massive upside, low competition, organic traffic, and a bias toward action. This allows us to limit our risk and get to market quickly so our customers can decide what should live, what shouldn’t, and what needs to be changed. Since this was written on the LinkedIn page, I would probably add something to this about focusing to the greatest degree we can manage. That’s a lesson from the last year that has really hit home for me. The less we focus, the less effective we are at executing for our customers.

What has been your favorite product to date OR sales that have surprised you?

Our golf ball whiskey glass set is a product that was very surprising for me. It was our first sustained success as a business and, to be honest, it’s a product I would never buy. We put our own tastes aside and designed that product because we could see the potential for success in the data we had gathered, and it worked! So, it was surprising to me in that this was the first product I’ve ever developed that I didn’t personally care for, yet it is by far the most successful. This is counterintuitive to how most people analyze opportunities.

They tend to make decisions solely on their impression and experiences. This product taught me to focus on the array of thought processes the product is likely to encounter and to mostly ignore my own bias.

From a process perspective, we identify our suppliers through Alibaba.com and we also process our international transactions through them. Alibaba is an incredible tool because, not only do they connect you with thousands of suppliers,

WHAT IS GEMSHO?

GEMSHO is a company that identifies, designs, and sources simple products with upside and low entry investment.