935: One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure with Ryan Kugler

One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure

Ryan Kugler, APlanBe.com

– The Sharkpreneur podcast with Seth Greene Episode 935 Ryan Kugler

Ryan Kugler is the President and owner of three different companies, A5 Events, Ideal Content, and Plan B (which is one of the nation’s largest secondary wholesalers in the country). 

Born in Chicago, Ryan moved to Los Angeles at a young age where he took a strong interest in the film industry and made his way onto several studio lots. When he was 13, Ryan developed a friendship with Ted Danson while on the set of NBC’s hit TV show Cheers. At the request and urging of Danson, Ryan wrote and directed his own short film entitled “The Question.” The film was shot on the Paramount Lot and starred Ted Danson, Kirstie Alley, Woody Harrelson and George Wendt. From then on Ryan knew he wanted to work in the entertainment industry.

Ryan began working at the family business called DVA (a film distribution company), on his summer breaks while attending school. Upon finishing school, he moved to Florida to work full time at DVA in sales. It took him only a short time to learn the ropes, and he quickly moved up to Buyer, soon followed by VP of Purchasing. With his unique blend of creative and operational strengths as well as his exceptional skills in sales, Ryan founded the Wholesale Division of DVA, Inc., which would help make DVA, Inc. one of the nation’s largest video wholesalers bringing in annual sales of upwards of $20 million.

In 1998, Ryan brought his wholesale division to Los Angeles. Since then, he has developed exclusive relationships with many of the major movie studios, finding secondary homes for films and distributing to over 350 accounts including Best Buy, Target, and other major retailers (totaling over 24,000 storefronts at the time). In 2013 Ryan saw the writing on the wall (DVDs declining and people watching films on line) and thus left the family business of DVA, and started not 1, but 3 different companies (testing his wits); Plan B, which buys and sells closeouts from manufacturers, and retailers (Plan B has help moved some 500 million pieces of inventory across many different products, giving a second life to the product life cycle, with combined sales of some 500 million over the his last 30 years). Ryan also started an event company named, A5 Events which produces corporate events for large corporations and Non-Profits organizations which helps raise funds with charity events such as 5K/10K Run walks nationwide; and lastly Ryan started a marketing company called, Ideal Content which works with Fortune 500 companies producing very unique and high-end marketing material that stand apart from the others. 

As a public face for the entertainment industry, and the event industry Ryan has appeared both on national TV and in print. He has appeared on the CBS Early Show, ABC7 News, and KTLA Prime Time News and has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Fortune Magazine, the Washington Post, the LA Times, the Los Angeles Business Journal, Moviemaker Magazine, and the New York Times.

Listen to this informative Sharkpreneur episode with Ryan Kugler about how one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Here are some of the beneficial topics covered on this week’s show:

- How businesses in the liquidation industry must constantly pivot to meet new needs.

- Why its beneficial to buy products in bulk.

- How knowing what your customers want will set you up for success.

- How there are many different facets to the liquidation business.

- Why technology has made it more difficult to get ahold of companies who may want to sell or buy from you.

Connect with Ryan:

Guest Contact Info

Links Mentioned:

aplanb.com

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