pRIDE
2017
ESTABLISHED 1868
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PrOGRESS A SPECIAL EDITION OF THE GILROY DISPATCH
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gilroydispatch.com
ECONOMIC & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Brad Kava
HOSE GOES The last thing Chad Brownfield wanted to do was get into the family vacuum business, but he saw an opening
on the Internet and found ways to gross millions of sales with vacuumcleanermarket.com
Vacuum business cleans up online GILROY MAN MODERNIZED OLD SCHOOL VACUUM SALES AND MADE MILLIONS
W By Brad Kava
➝ Vacuums, 2
Brad Kava
hen he got out of San Jose State University with a degree in Criminal Justice six years ago, Chad Brownfield, 33, like too many millennials, was jobless and sleeping on his parents’ couch. He was playing a lot of golf, hoping, maybe, to turn that passion into a career, but it wasn’t going anywhere. Then, the idea came. Yes, it was in the one business he swore he wouldn’t get into, but it was just sitting there, the proverbial lowhanging fruit. He could sell vacuums, something his grandfather did door to door and his parents did in two separate shops, one in Morgan Hill and one in Gilroy. Like many kids, he had no interest in the family business. But he saw a huge hole and in the way vacuums were sold and marketed and a solid opportunity to fill it. Vacuum companies weren’t yet selling a lot online and vacuum store owners, many in their 60s, were some of the least
Internet savvy people on Earth, he said. “There was a big weak spot,” he said. “If I had tried to sell DSLR cameras it wouldn’t have worked. I would have needed to be huge and have huge funding and there would have been so much competition from people already doing it. But there was this big weak spot.” He pulled out his laptop and listed 10 vacuum parts for sale on Amazon and after a day, he sold one, a Kirby belt, on which he lost 50 cents in the transaction. He had a lot to learn. Then, something happened. He started to gain traction selling more items. People wanted to replace vacuum parts online through Amazon instead of driving to a store. He partnered with vacuum stores that were getting the parts cheaply from manufacturers and before long he was grossing $3 million a year. But, in the tradition of every startup, there was a failure that pushed him further. Suddenly, vacuum manufacturers realized they were missing out and began selling on Amazon. His vacuum sales went from $3 million in sales a year to $300,000 in the blink of an eye. Selling on Amazon wasn’t enough. “We had one of the top 500 sites on the Web and they crushed us,” said Brownfield. So he and a lifelong friend who became a business partner, Kevin Noto,
ROWS AND ROWS Unlike Amazon, the owners of vacuumcleanermarket.com don’t have robots filling orders. They all pitch in at the Gilroy warehouse.
More students, more tech at GUSD Flores spells out the latest on the three R’s and then some. (That’s Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic for you millennials.
By Bryce Stoepfel
Q: What is new this school year? A: During the recession years the budget was cut so significantly that the funds that were used to buy new textbooks and materials were cut. We are very excited that funding was restored to
Reporter
Math for kindergarten, focus on technology, solar power and new English materials are some of the highlights to students at the Gilroy Unified School District this year. Superintendent Deborah
the budget last year, so we have adopted new math material for kindergarten through twelfth grade. We had outdated math material everywhere because of that funding issue. The new math material is very modern with a strong emphasis on technology. This year we have adopted new English language arts material. We had language materials that were up to
12 years old, so to have brand new material is very exciting. In addition to that, over the last couple of years teachers have been given a lot of training how to use these materials. It's been great to go to classrooms with board members to see the evidence of these new adoptions. In an elementary school, we saw the new Go Math ➝ Schools, 4
Bryce Stoepfel
AFTER A DECADE IN THE JOB DEBORAH FLORES, HAS REACHED SOME BIG GOALS
SOLAR FLARE Gilroy High’s parking lot provides shade for
cars and electricity for the building. It’s made parking faster at the school, like unloading a 747 in 10 minutes said one official.