Sramana Mitra: At what point did you introduce alternate channels like eBay and Amazon? Katie Echeverry: I brought eBay into the mix in 2003. We were doing so well in 2006 to 2007 that I stopped, because I couldn’t manage two platforms. This was before there were a lot of connector tools that can keep
Sramana Mitra: Do you remember what your revenue level was in 2007? Katie Echeverry: About $100,000. Sramana Mitra: For the year? Katie Echeverry: Maybe a little bit more. We got our first space to accommodate the Internet business, but people were coming in off the street wanting to shop. We made a little showroom. Within six months,
Sramana Mitra: What happened in year one and year two? What kind of numbers did you do in year one and year two? Katie Echeverry: I think I did about $3,000 in my first year, and then $6,000 the next year. Every year, I doubled. Sramana Mitra: In year three, you still have your pharmaceutical job,
If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping course and the Investor Introductions page. Katie had a pharmaceutical sales job that she used to bootstrap with a paycheck for 5 years, before quitting to go full-time with her business, Unique Vintage. More stories like this can be found in my Bootstrapping With A Paycheck book.
Sramana Mitra: Talk to me a bit about where your revenues are today. We are getting to the end of 2015. What number are you going to close at this year? Steve Acree: In 2012, Amazon approached us. They wanted to purchase directly from us. That has beefed up the revenue this year. Last year,
Sramana Mitra: How much was your total revenue line in 2009 when you had six employees? Steve Acree: In the neighborhood of $2.5 million to $3 million. Sramana Mitra: What’s the next major inflection point in the business after 2009? Steve Acree: It started to get cumbersome. It was three dashboards. You had to plug
Sramana Mitra: In 2007 when you introduced this new channel, how much did Amazon do? Steve Acree: Amazon, at the get-go, didn’t do a whole lot. In the first month, it sold about 10 items. By the six-month mark, it was doing about $10,000 a month in sales. After about 12 months, it was doing about
Sramana Mitra: What really clicked in gear in 2003? If you look 12 years back when you decided that this was where you’re going to spend your time, what clicked in gear? Steve Acree: Just the idea that everybody is moving to the Internet. They’re interested in eBay and Amazon. I had really good success