5 minute read
THE BUSINESS
KURJI AKIL
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INTERVIEW BY JEAN LORIS
Tell us more about your entrepreneurial path. How did you land in e-commerce and start Scalable Brands?
My entrepreneurial path started in middle school in 7th grade where I would buy candy from my dad’s gas station and resell it to my friends at school. When I got to high school I discovered eBay and Amazon. I would stay up all night and buy the new Jordan shoes and then resell them on eBay for a profit. This led to other products such as silicone wristbands and any product I could resell on eBay I would sell. In my college years I would go around to fraternities and sororities and sell custom t-shirts. After graduating college I moved back to my parents home. I came across an opportunity in 2010 where I had the ability to Sell 4g Internet. This became my first venture called Free Wire Communications. We became a national master dealer with Clearwire which was owned by Sprint. We ended up opening 20 locations nationwide in strip centers and malls and created 150 jobs and 200 independent contractors in 12 months. The company ended up growing too quickly and due to the early stages of WiMAX technology we ended up going out of business due to the network being unstable and everyone adapting LTE.
In 2011, I partnered with a friend of mine and launched a Halloween and lingerie website called Spurst.com. This is where I learned how to build a large scale e-commerce company. I ended up walking away from the partnership a year later. I failed once again.
In 2012. I bought a small laser engraver and some blank silicone wristbands from China and started to engrave custom messages on them. I launched a brand called PMGOA and started to wholesale custom wristbands, custom buttons, custom temporary tattoos to online retailers and marketing agencies. In 2013, I created my first e-commerce website called BrandNex.com and sold our products online. In 2015 I moved out from my parents garage into my first 6,000 square foot facility. In 2016 our company made the inc 500/5000 list. For the next five years we made the INC 500/5000 list and grew year-over-year. We ended up moving into a 20,000 square-foot building in 2018 and ran into some legal issues which we had to scale back. Due to the legal issues we ended up subcontracting most of our orders and ran a lean company and got out of manufacturing and focused on sales. We had a huge warehouse with machines and a limited staff. I ended up pivoting back to my old college days where I was selling custom t-shirts. This is when I pivoted into print on demand and became a contract printer for apparel. From April of 2020 to September of this year We grew from 25-180 people. I created Scalable Brands to enable other entrepreneurs to leverage my infrastructure to help them scale their businesses rapidly online by bootstrapping.
WWW.GARYVAYNERCHUK.COM
How did you come up with the SWAGIFY idea? Can you briefl y explain how you came up with the initial concept?
In 2017 I bought an old legacy system from all the profi ts I had left over from an entrepreneur who went out of business. He didn’t own a facility and had an online printing platform. Since I had my own facility I could easily be more competitive in the print on demand business. I took that system and called it Everything With Ink. We got a few large accounts which allowed us to launch our fi rst print on demand business. We are now rebranding Everything With Ink to Swagify.
What makes Swagify more appealing than the competitors?
Swagify is the fi rst transparent platform that will allow resellers online to control their own supply chain and be able to use our facility as a back up if someone drops the ball. Our proprietary routing technology is a game changer for the printing and promo industry. We have created our own proprietary software that is a game changer for our industry.
How do you see the business going in the
future? Print On Demand is still at its infancy And we have just scratched the service. With more people wanting to sell online they will need help with fulfi llment and warehouse space. eCommerce was on track to grow 300% over the next few years but due to Covid that happened in 6 months. eCommerce will continue to grow but brick and mortar stores will become more like showrooms.
As an entrepreneur, what was your most
painful failure? It is already painful being a startup entrepreneur with no funding. In 2016 I was raided by the FBI for violating the Sherman Act for conspiring to fi x prices on silicone wristbands With competitors. That was my most painful failure because I let my family down. I almost lost my company and had to pay millions in legal fees and fi nes that I did not have. I also had to serve 8 months in a federal prison for a law that I didn’t know existed. I was ignorant and it taught me a very valuable and expensive lesson.
What is your advice to others who want to start and run their own business?
The entrepreneur journey seems easy from the outside but it is one of the most diffi cult journeys in life but also the most rewarding if you focus on your passion project so it feels that you are not working for money. Find successful people and fi nd a mentor. Someone who has wisdom about structure, legal and fi nances. Don’t chase the infl uencer entrepreneur who shows the fancy cars. Find the mentor who is authentic about their struggles and can help you build a solid foundation.
Website: www.swagify.com
