Throwback: From Zero to Six Brands - The E-Commerce Journey of Kelcey Lehrich

In this episode, the host interviews Kelcey Lehrich, founder of 365 Holdings and co-founder of the HoldCo Conference. Kelcey shares her journey from traditional business to e-commerce, the growth of 365 Holdings, and the challenges of acquiring and integrating multiple brands. He discusses the purpose of the Holdco Conference for multi-business entrepreneurs, strategies for stable acquisitions, and the realities of shared services. The episode offers practical advice on self-awareness, focusing on key business levers, and learning from experience in scaling and managing holding companies.

Chapters:

Introduction to Kelcey Lehrich and Holdco Conference (00:00:00)
Kelsey introduces himself and explains the origin and purpose of the Holdco Conference for multi-business entrepreneurs.

Kelcey's Journey into E-commerce and 365 Holdings (00:02:22)
Kelcey shares how he and his partner entered e-commerce, acquired their first businesses, and built 365 Holdings.

365 Holdings’ Structure and Focus (00:03:30)
Discussion of 365 Holdings’ current scale, vertical integration, and future focus on food, baby, and consumable brands.

Growth Strategies: Product Launches and Acquisitions (00:04:28)
Comparison of launching new products versus acquiring businesses, and the importance of consistent experimentation.

What to Avoid When Acquiring Businesses (00:05:52)
Kelcey outlines lessons learned and what to avoid when evaluating acquisition opportunities.

365 Holdings’ Core Strengths and Incremental Improvements (00:07:04)
Exploration of the company’s strengths, vertical integration, and focus on small, compounding operational improvements.

The Reality of Shared Services in a Holdco (00:09:54)
Kelcey discusses the challenges and realities of sharing services across multiple brands in a holding company.

Three Actionable Takeaways for Entrepreneurs (00:11:44)
Host summarizes three key lessons: self-awareness, vision and action, and learning through experience in M&A.

Kelcey’s Book Recommendation (00:14:03)
Kelcey recommends "The Hard Thing About Hard Things" by Ben Horowitz for entrepreneurs managing growing teams.

Favorite Productivity Tool (00:14:40)
Kelcey shares Superhuman as his favorite email productivity tool.

Influential Figures in E-commerce (00:15:25)
Kelcey discusses the many people who have influenced him, mentioning Gary Vee, Roland Frazier, and others.

How to Connect with Kelcey and Learn More (00:16:59)
Kelcey provides ways to connect with him and learn more about Holdco Conference and 365 Holdings.

Links and Mentions:

Tools and Resources
Superhuman

Websites
Holdco Conference
365 Holdings

Books
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz on Amazon

Influential Figures
Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee)
Roland Frasier

Transcript:

Josh 00:00:00  Today I'm super excited to introduce you to Kelcey Lehrich. Welcome to the podcast, Kelcey.

Kelcey 00:00:05  Thank you for having me. Great to be here.

Josh 00:00:06  Kelcey I attended Holdco conference. You did a fantastic job. That was your first ever Holdco conference. Tell our guests a little bit more about this Holdco conference, because I think it's really unique. And you're kind of one of the first to kind of come up with this type of holding company conference.

Kelcey 00:00:24  Yeah. So I appreciate your kind words and glad you could come. And we'll see you there next year. date's coming soon. so I have a friend in town named John Wilson. you can find him on the internet. He's pretty public. he and I met, and we both have, 50 to 100 employees, multiple tens of millions of revenue, and we have multiple businesses. And we knew a few other people that had similar circumstances. And there really was no event, no conference, no, kind of home base or hangout place for people like us.

Kelcey 00:00:56  And one day I'm like, hey, like, why don't we go ahead and we'll host the party. and so John and I partnered on that project, and, from January, when it was kind of hatched with the tweet to July, it was a bit of a wild ride, but it was a lot of fun. We're really proud of the first year. And, yeah, it's meant to be the place that multi business entrepreneurs called the holding company, meet, learn, scale and grow. But the kind of niche there is that if you're in software and you're venture backed, there's a conference for you. If you are in real estate, there's a conference for you. If you are in insert any industry, sales, metal stamping, mobile home parks, whatever it is, there's a conference for you. If you're a Holdco entrepreneur, there really wasn't a place to call your own. And our vision for Holdco is to be kind of that home base for people like us.

Josh 00:01:43  Yeah, I love that.

Josh 00:01:44  I love what you guys have started there. And I think we'll dive into that a little bit in more detail later in this podcast. But Kelcey, you've got a vast experience in e-commerce. Obviously you have a holding company that has multiple brands. You've acquired multiple e-commerce brands, you've grown them, you've scaled them. So you have a wealth of knowledge. And for our listeners that have established businesses, they're looking to take things to the next level. I think they're going to be able to learn a lot from you. So why don't we rewind the tapes a little bit? Kelcey? And why don't you tell us a little bit about how you got into the e-commerce world to begin with, and then what led to the formation of 365 holdings?

Kelcey 00:02:22  So six years ago, my partner and I, his name is Justin. I'm kind of the ideas guy, and he's kind of the executor. She's familiar with iOS. I've got the kind of visionary CEO role and he's kind of the integrator or CFO, and he and I have worked there for a long time.

Kelcey 00:02:37  And prior to e-commerce, it was kind of like, the same idea. However, instead of ideas and strategy and like execution, it was like I was the sales guy and he was like the ops guy and all of our prior businesses, but we weren't online. We've never, never run ads, never shipped products. But we had sold a business for just enough money to make a down payment on an SBA loan. We had sold a business for $100,000, which was a lot of money. We did not hold any of it aside for taxes. We put all 100 grand down on the $900,000 loan to buy the million dollar first business. That was how we got started. 60 days later, we drained the checking account and maxed out the line of credit and bought another one. And thus begins the compounding. So, Yeah, six years ago. by by two that that, spring and summer, we had always had a vision of back to the old topic, wanting to run many businesses. We wanted to have diversity.

Kelcey 00:03:30  I guess that's like, hey, what if you focused? What if you just did one thing? Could it be bigger? And my answer is like, I don't know, probably. But this is the business I want to have. I want to do many things. one of the things financially from a diversification perspective. two, I think it's fun. It's like what I want. So like, yes, this is what I'm doing. I'm sure it's like slightly less optimal than, I don't know. but six years have elapsed and today we've got 80 some employees. Six brands. we're in Akron, Ohio, and heavily vertically integrated. So we do in-house customer service, in-house ...