The 6 Biggest Lessons From the Early Days At Chubbies

No MBA in their right mind would have started Chubbies.

Reflecting on how we got started, here are the 6 biggest lessons from the early days.

1) Aligned people are everything.

The 3 other cofounders, and every single person who joined our team, deserve all of the credit. With the cofounders, they were people I loved and respected (and still respect) the hell out of. We were all aligned on the highest level goals, so we always knew we had the best intent.

2) If you want to stand out, be the opposite of the status quo in every regard.

In our humble opinion, men's fashion was a sad state of affairs - in dire need of reinvigoration. It was serious. It was exclusionary. It celebrated a certain body type and 'look'. It was cold. It was unfriendly. Over-pocketed "shorts" hiding most of one's legs were the norm, completely disconnected from the meaning of shorts that had been established millennia before us. Rather than hiring expensive models and expensive professional photographers and doing Zoolander faces, we did the opposite. We did 'photo shoots' on a digital camera one of us already had and were the people in the photos, just doing what we'd ordinarily be doing on the weekend anyways. Differentiation is clear and salient when you're basically the opposite of what exists.

3) Being your own customer is the easiest way to break through and get your first customers.

A better fitting pair of shorts that looked great and added to the level of fun in your life was the product we wanted for ourselves more than anything else someone could make. That made it easy to have an authentic passion and exuberance for the product and for the brand to permeate and emanate from every fiber of our very beings. It was infectious.

4) You want people to be turned off by what you're doing.

Apathy is what you don't want. There has to be clarity in who you are. The best way to maximize the probability of getting lots of early customers is by knowingly turning customers away. This makes no sense on the surface, but the reality is in order to stand out in any way in people's minds, the only ideas that stand out amongst the sea of 'meh', are super clear, super strong, super singular ideas.

5) Treat your customers like an ever expanding friend group.

We tried to treat all of our communication like the communication we enjoyed most - the hilarious email chains or text threads we had going on at any given time with our closest friends. They provided a welcome mental relief from work or studying. We weren't a 'company' selling to faceless 'customers' using formal 'marketing communications'. We were friends making the best product we could for our other friends, telling them about it in a way they'd enjoy.

6) Commit to it for a decade

I did not do this, but it would have dramatically improved the quality of my decision-making if I did. That's just how long it takes, and building something requires patience and a long term view.