Jeff Kearl: The Playbook for Iconic Brands, Stance, Skullcandy, Entrepreneurship cover art

Jeff Kearl: The Playbook for Iconic Brands, Stance, Skullcandy, Entrepreneurship

Jeff Kearl: The Playbook for Iconic Brands, Stance, Skullcandy, Entrepreneurship

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 In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, hosts John and Tyler Richards sit down with Jeff Kearl, a partner at Pelion Ventures and a legendary entrepreneur in the consumer products space. Jeff shares his incredible journey, from his early days in venture capital to co-founding iconic brands like Skullcandy and Stance. He recounts memorable moments, including a breakfast meeting with Will and Jada Smith, receiving a term sheet just minutes into a pitch with Benchmark Capital, and the lessons learned from the dot-com crash. Jeff offers deep insights into building a brand, the importance of product innovation, financing inventory for a fast-growing company, and the power of consistent effort over time.

(00:00:00) The story of pitching Stance to Will and Jada Smith's team

(00:01:38) Introducing Jeff Kearl, Partner at Pelion Ventures

(00:03:48) Most memorable pitch received: Rick Alden and Skullcandy

(00:09:07) Most memorable celebrity encounter: Breakfast with the Smith family

(00:11:22) Most memorable failure: His first company, Freeport, during the dot-com crash

(00:14:20) Parallels between the dot-com boom and the current AI hype cycle

(00:18:13) Jeff's early entrepreneurial ventures and background

(00:19:16) How Jeff broke into Venture Capital right out of college

(00:27:56) How Jeff met co-host John Richards in an elevator

(00:31:02) Co-founding Logoworks and getting funded by Benchmark Capital

(00:36:35) Joining Skullcandy and helping scale it to a public company

(00:40:33) How to finance a fast-growing consumer products business

(00:47:06) The analytical process that led to the creation of Stance socks

(00:51:51) Building Stance with the playbook learned from Skullcandy

(00:53:41) Is product or brand more important for success in consumer goods?

(00:58:40) Transitioning from CEO of Stance back to venture capital with Pelion

(01:04:15) Jeff's number one piece of advice for his younger self

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