Dan Fleyshman

And they had like million dollar booths next to my little $4,000 booth. But that's the magic that happened. We ended up writing $1 million in orders. Only because, well, the name was fun, but because. What was the name? Who's your daddy? Like the slogan. I own the slogan for 300 different products. So the buyers from all the major chain stores were hanging out in front of the FUBU booth.

And so they were just like, oh, what's this funny brand? You know, a bunch of high school kids working at the booth. And we just started. And then Mervin's, Kohl's, Dr. J's, Mr. Rags.

And so they were just like, oh, what's this funny brand? You know, a bunch of high school kids working at the booth. And we just started. And then Mervin's, Kohl's, Dr. J's, Mr. Rags.

yeah so we sold clothing we were doing that year we did 9.5 million sales damn and what year was this now it became the year 2000 but 1999 to 2000 i graduated high school 99 and then 2001 um we started doing like 21 22 million sales all in apparel and then wanted to launch the energy drink it took two years because we wanted to go public so we ended up going public april 1st 2005

yeah so we sold clothing we were doing that year we did 9.5 million sales damn and what year was this now it became the year 2000 but 1999 to 2000 i graduated high school 99 and then 2001 um we started doing like 21 22 million sales all in apparel and then wanted to launch the energy drink it took two years because we wanted to go public so we ended up going public april 1st 2005

And that took a lot of work. Literally two years of accounting, two years of raising money. Wild. But it was... It's a cool story. Yeah. And then 2005, 2009, I literally don't remember anything. All I do is sell. I just drove around to 55,000 stores. I didn't go to every store, but I went to every distributor multiple times, all 43 cities, and just spent all the time with them.

And that took a lot of work. Literally two years of accounting, two years of raising money. Wild. But it was... It's a cool story. Yeah. And then 2005, 2009, I literally don't remember anything. All I do is sell. I just drove around to 55,000 stores. I didn't go to every store, but I went to every distributor multiple times, all 43 cities, and just spent all the time with them.

And I would go meet with Costco and Ralph's.

And I would go meet with Costco and Ralph's.

Yeah. We were the number seven. There were 900 drinks on the market and we were number seven. And it was a battle. I had a website back then called energydrinkwars.com. And I would just post pictures and videos of us like at retail stores. And then all of our drinks were outside in the dumpster. So like another energy drink would take us and throw us away. So we'd go take all theirs.

Yeah. We were the number seven. There were 900 drinks on the market and we were number seven. And it was a battle. I had a website back then called energydrinkwars.com. And I would just post pictures and videos of us like at retail stores. And then all of our drinks were outside in the dumpster. So like another energy drink would take us and throw us away. So we'd go take all theirs.

Like Zions, the UFC had a brand. We'd take all their drinks and put it outside and we'd put our drinks in there. It was like a, it was a war. Funny. It was war because there's only so much shell space. There's an old saying.

Like Zions, the UFC had a brand. We'd take all their drinks and put it outside and we'd put our drinks in there. It was like a, it was a war. Funny. It was war because there's only so much shell space. There's an old saying.

eye level is by level so if you go to a cooler and you open up that cooler or you go to a shelf when you're walking by if you're not above the above the waist is what we call it if you're not above the waist no one's buying your product no one like if you could i could literally attach a hundred dollar bill to this five dollar package or ten dollar package i could put a hundred dollar bill on it but if i put on the bottom shelf no one's buying it they won't pay ten bucks for a hundred dollar bill because they can't see it when you look at the data it's wild the velocity difference between the bottom shelf versus the middle

eye level is by level so if you go to a cooler and you open up that cooler or you go to a shelf when you're walking by if you're not above the above the waist is what we call it if you're not above the waist no one's buying your product no one like if you could i could literally attach a hundred dollar bill to this five dollar package or ten dollar package i could put a hundred dollar bill on it but if i put on the bottom shelf no one's buying it they won't pay ten bucks for a hundred dollar bill because they can't see it when you look at the data it's wild the velocity difference between the bottom shelf versus the middle

i i literally will turn down a retailer same i won't be in it because i'm not going to do well yep what's the point i love you whole foods i love you costco if you're going to give me a shot like you need you need to give me an eye level shot yes i need to be above the waist otherwise there's no point yeah because it's expensive going in a retailer on the bottom shelf and then getting discontinued because the product did not sell right yeah and then now when you talk to other retailers they're like oh how'd you do over at whole foods like well

i i literally will turn down a retailer same i won't be in it because i'm not going to do well yep what's the point i love you whole foods i love you costco if you're going to give me a shot like you need you need to give me an eye level shot yes i need to be above the waist otherwise there's no point yeah because it's expensive going in a retailer on the bottom shelf and then getting discontinued because the product did not sell right yeah and then now when you talk to other retailers they're like oh how'd you do over at whole foods like well

You don't want to explain it because then they're like, oh, now she's going to talk bad about me and my chain store. I'm not going to take that.

You don't want to explain it because then they're like, oh, now she's going to talk bad about me and my chain store. I'm not going to take that.

So talk about team. Like when someone's first getting going, a lot of times they're just doing everything. They're a solopreneur. Maybe they get a partner and they can help split up some of the efforts. But what about when that first hire, they go hire an executive assistant or they go hire a sales manager or they go hire a COO or they go hire that first person.