Screw It Just DO It with Alex Chisnall Master of Scale with Cornerstone's Ollie Bridge
Dec 26, 2018
45:23
"So I phoned them up and said that I would like to buy some razors. He said the minimum order was 100,000 units. I thought "This is the end of the business, I can't do it, I can't get the money."
But then I said 'How's this as a concept..I come to your front door tomorrow with 5,000 Euros in unmarked bills in a bag, would you go for it? "I was just joking...
But he said "if you're crazy enough to come from London to East Germany overnight to give me 5,000 Euros you're on. I'll see you tomorrow morning." I phoned my dad and said "What are you doing tonight"? He said "Nothing" so I said "Get the car we're going to Dover".
We stopped at Barclays UK on the way down and got 5,000 Euros in cash, drove through the night to East Germany, got there with ten minutes to spare and this guy nearly fell over when he saw us in the morning. It was incredible. He was true to his word and gave us the stock. He gave us a couple of thousand razors and said 'Now that we've supplied you, we might as well keep on supplying you". And that was the start of a great relationship. It was just one of those crazy #Screwitjustdoit moments."
Happy Christmas and welcome to episode #101 in which I welcome Cornerstone's Ollie Bridge to the show via itunes https://apple.co/2RhgBSG Or Spotify https://spoti.fi/2GJ9NJD
Cornerstone started back in 2014 as a razorblade subscription startup. Ollie had some savings and took out a startup loan and since then has gone on to raise in excess of £8 million. He now has hundreds of thousands of subscribers and in this podcast is going to tell you how he went about doing that. It wasn't an easy journey, he's had his ups and downs but has recently launched vitamin tablets and other male grooming products and his eyes are firmly set on the health and beauty market.
He has a goal that by 2020 he'll have 500,000 customers with Amazon-like predicted Tech for orders and to broaden the product range beyond shaving-related products.
The whole journey started with him having to leave work and stand in a queue at Boots in his lunchtime to get a razor and thus wasting his lunchtime, when he could be doing something else. His whole mission is that customers will never have to go to Boots again - they will send you everything you need and go on to predict what you need for the month ahead.
Let's find out how he's going to set about doing this...
Let's StartUp!