🤠 Issue #6: The Footwear Fenom
Everything you should know about Footwear Fenom Branden Windle and Tecovas + the best new way to send gifs 🤪
💬 Welcome to issue #6 of Between the Lines
Thursday seemed to stick, so here we are on Thursday again! 🤷 If you didn’t get a chance to check out our last issue featuring an essay by MIT Ph.D. student, Dan Goodwin, you should definitely give it a peep. 👁️ This week we have another awesome Founder Spotlight with Branden Windle, co-Founder of handmade boot company Tecovas. Plus, what’s better than one Branden? Branden, AND Brendan! Check out how Brendan McDonald is re-inventing communication and bringing you a leveled-up gif game. Enjoy!
My Best, Miles
PS…..We’re on Twitter now #blessed. 🐦 If you give us a follow and we’ll enter your name to win a $1,000,000 sweepstakes!! Ok not really, but still, give us a follow.
👤 Founder Spotlight: Branden Windle
by Josh Tatum & Miles Bird
Branden Windle is a CMC graduate and is currently on the Wolf & Shepherd leadership team as it scales its market share as a footwear category leader. 🥾 Previously, Branden was the co-founder and CMO of Austin-based footwear brand Tecovas - the cowboy boot for the 21st century. Prior to Tecovas, Branden also co-founded a social mobile application called Crowdy.
Branden was kind enough to share some insights with us on his background - enjoy!
We have tracked the careers of over 170 ‘experienced’ Claremont founders (founders who have founded at least two companies). A lot of the data points to founders having more success their second time around. In that vein, what was the single most important lesson you brought from your experience founding Crowdy to subsequently founding Tecovas?
Crowdy never gained traction because it failed to provide immediate value to users in every use case. The product was very similar to Foursquare - where you could “check-in” to a location - with the added functionality of being able to communicate in real-time with other users who had checked into the same location. The issue was that in order for the product to be useful, there needed to be other users in the location - and that depended on them not only having the app but also using it at that moment. So, there were these layered contingencies to the product being useful as opposed to the user constantly gleaning value from the product with every use.
We tried to launch on college campuses where there were large concentrations of potential users in the same locations, but these layers and contingencies proved to be Crowdy’s death nail. The lesson is that it’s not enough for your product’s value proposition to be immediately discernible -- it must also be immediately useful to a single user. Without immediate value, customers won’t get on board. Immediate value matters!
I think I probably have 9 different shoe brands just in my closet, and I know there are so many more brands out there. I’m guessing it can be hard in the shoe business to separate yourself from the pack. What market insight did you and your founding team have that has most contributed to Tecovas’ growth?
I think our real unique insight was in how large the opportunity was and how it was hidden in plain sight. There was already a ton of equity built into our category which we didn’t need to create but could tap into (cowboy boots already had a storied history and plenty of passionate wearers before we ever even launched). We also realized that the cowboy boot market was much larger than just people who currently owned a pair of boots. In theory, the market size was somewhere between the number of current boot-owners and the size of the US population (almost everyone has feet at the end of the day).
If we could position our product to serve a core customer of boot enthusiasts and eventually “cross the chasm” to first-time boot wearers as well, we thought there could be a massive opportunity for us to capture. The fact that we had a more compelling value proposition and more capable team than the relatively small number of incumbents in our space cannot be discounted, but our conviction in this larger opportunity is what inspired us to race towards it and become a 9-figure revenue brand within half a decade.
Having founded two different companies, give us a hot take! What’s a contrarian view you hold strongly about consumers or businesses that you think others might not intuit?
I’m not sure how contrarian it is versus just a good business principle, but I believe entrepreneurs should always start with a customer, work backward to the right product, and then iterate to the right business model. It starts with the customer! I think in many instances the right business model cannot be known prior to first finding the right product-market fit; and in some instances, having too strong of a perspective on the product or business model prevents startups from ever finding it. But, in every case, success is always dependent on understanding your customer, so it makes sense to prioritize that above everything in the early stages. Let the customer determine what the right product is rather than forcing a preconceived notion you may have about what customers want. Customer-first!
As much as I know you love spending all your time designing a better world for our feet, what else do you do in your free time and where are you based these days?
I spend way too much time listening to podcasts and books. It’s a low-effort way for me to learn and keep my mind busy - as a dyslexic, it’s also a lot easier than reading! My fiance and I also decided to get out of the Austin heat and spend the summer in San Diego. We’re loving it thus far!
Your days in Claremont may seem like a while ago, but give us your favorite Claremont memory?
I have fond memories of going to snack at Collins Dining Hall almost every night. There’s something special about sharing a bowl of sugary cereal and good conversation in your pajamas amongst friends!
What is the best way for others in the community to be in touch or follow what you do?
I’d love to be in touch! In particular, I’m spending a lot of time thinking about functional medicine, genetics, and the ‘mommy’ customer segment - my fiancé is a pediatric nurse practitioner and I can’t seem to stop thinking about serving her patients’ needs I guess! So if you’re in that space or thinking about it it’d be great to connect, and either way you can reach out to me below!
Did the interview spark any questions or thoughts? Branden’s especially interested in conversations related to functional medicine, the ‘mommy’ customer segment, marketing, and footwear. Leave a comment below or email Branden!
🚨Claremonster Call-Out: Brendan McDonald
Big ups to CMC ‘12 grad Brendan McDonald who is now a couple of months into taking the leap and working on his startup full-time. He’s taking his design and product management skills from Intel and Intuit, and launching an iPhone app that lets you make personalized GIFs of yourself and your friends. It's crazy fun and pushes messaging to be more visual. Reach out to him to get an early beta test of the app - we can vouch for it being mad fun and he would love the community’s take on the beta! 🎁 Click here to download the app as well. Apparently, PPE alums can build real things? 🤷
Do you have an app or product you’d like to get in front of the Claremont community? Reach out to us! 🤝
💼 Who’s Hiring?:
After spending the last 4 years in the sports industry at the Golden State Warriors and Orlando Magic as a product manager, Asher Weiss (CMC’18) has founded Tixologi. Tixologi is disrupting the outdated ticketing industry, putting event organizers in control of their own ticketing experience. They provide teams with an API based on blockchain technology, which allows event organizers to unlock new revenue streams, increase security in their venues by knowing who owns their tickets at any point in time, and understand their fans on a deeper level. Currently, Asher is looking for:
Research Intern (Remote) - We are looking for an intern to help with research on the ticketing industry and event venues. This research will be central to helping us continue to improve our product, hone in on our true differentiators, and identify our best initial sales targets. The research will include an analysis of competitive ticketing providers and an overview of new business prospects from large venues to local theaters. “We'd love to hire someone from the Claremont network for this role.”
Reach out to Asher if you or anyone you know is interested!
SevenRooms is a New York-based Start-Up backed by Amazon, Comcast Ventures, and others that helps hospitality operators gain more control of their businesses and create personalized, magical experiences for diners and hotel guests. CMC grad Harry Pellicoro is the Chief of Staff to the CEO at SevenRooms and enjoys snagging hard-to-get reservations at SevenRooms clients around NYC. They are currently hiring for the following roles:
Full Stack Engineer (Remote) - looking for someone with 2-3 years of experience and a strong understanding of python.
Product Manager (Remote) - looking for someone with 2-3 years of experience with SMB and/or Enterprise SaaS applications.
RevOps Data Analyst (Remote) - looking for someone with 2-3 years of experience working with complex datasets; is an expert in Excel, SQL, Looker, and other BI platforms.
Enterprise Account Manager (New York) - looking for someone with 2-3 years of experience working with large institutions preferably within the Enterprise B2B and SaaS space.
Feel free to reach out to Harry Pellicoro if you are interested in learning more or have specific questions about the role and the company!
CMC grad and Senior Software Engineer, Henry Lyford, is hiring for a Product Designer with his team at Two Chairs. Two Chairs helps to facilitate high-quality, personalized mental health care in thoughtfully designed therapy clinics located across the SF Bay Area. 🪑 He is looking for an exceptional designer looking to grow their career in a mission-driven, fast-paced startup environment:
Hannah Lee, CMC grad and Senior User Researcher at Spotify is hiring for another experienced User Researcher to join her team! “This is an awesome opportunity to help our team build the best tools for audio creators - shaping the future of Spotify!”
If any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines! Or if you are an employer and are looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form!
🗣️ Conversations on the interwebz:
by Josh Tatum
This week’s top read 🔥
Want to have your mind blown? I still am not sure what I read, but it sounds cool and smart. Thanks, HMC Prof Francis Su! 🔮
Another day, another….bitcoin? 💰
Kyle Hill, PO grad and crypto enthusiast dropping some wisdom on crypto trends in the U.S. and some ‘mic-drop-worthy oneliners. Kyle is a 4x Founder and the current Head of Crypto at Troika!
Liam Burke, a recent CMC grad and current Founder at Paysail jumps into the crypto convo as well!
Everything else you need to know….📖
What a great perspective to have if you are an entrepreneur, courtesy of Shahram at Civilization Ventures 🤔
This is just awesome! CMC grad and Founder of Social Cipher, Vanessa Gill is creating a company that connects neurodivergent youth and their advocates in an immersive virtual world. Inspiring work, Vanessa! ❤️
Can’t get enough Between the Lines? Follow and connect with us on Twitter!
🤤 BTL Snacks:
You may not be able to get your favorites snacks at the Claremont dining halls anymore on the weekdays, but hopefully, these juicy tidbits from BTL will satisfy the hunger for now!
👶 Parenting should be in the next year’s Olympics…..luckily you have Julia Cole and Seven Starling to help you out with their health & wellness company for parents!
🪒 To shave or not to shave…is slowly not becoming a question anymore, thanks to your company requiring you to come back to the office. Daniel Curtis and Vices are here to help you with your shaving needs!
🤔 Thinking about your company values? Agni and Miriam share some of their company values to help you out!
🎉 Energy is on the rise….as well as Lydia Li’s career! Congrats to Lydia Li on her achievement of the Forbes 30 under 30!
As always, if you wanna chat, have a question for us, or have any suggestions, please hit us up! 👊🏼