Based on a simple premise – one pair purchased equals one pair donated – Dave Heath co-founded Bombas. After going to the Shark Tank and growing his business, he gave us some sage advice for entrepreneurs.
I started Bombas because …
I learned that socks are the #1 most requested clothing item at homeless shelters, and I wanted to help solve that problem.
Bombas gives back by…
Donating a pair of specially-designed socks to those in need for every pair we sell. In our two years since launching, we’ve donated more than 900,000 pairs.
In 5 years Bombas will…
Have donated more than 10 million pairs of socks and will have a big impact on raising awareness and implanting change around homelessness in the United States.
What we learned from our Indiegogo campaign…
If you tell your story right, early supporters will continue to be your best advocates. We have supporters who have been with us from the beginning and continue to not only support Bombas through their purchases but more importantly, by spreading the word about our brand and our mission.
Ways we prepared for Shark Tank…
Months of internal meetings, going over every possible scenario and question.
Best advice Daymond John has given Bombas…
Focus on what you do well. We considered expanding into different product and distribution channels, and he was a real advocate for us sticking with what we do best – socks.
What we would do differently if on Shark Tank again…
The first time our episode aired, our website crashed due to the high volume of traffic, since then our episode has re-aired and we made the necessary changes to ensure our website stayed up the whole time.
We started “lean” in a WeWork space because…
The community of WeWork is incredible. It not only provides a very flexible work environment with a number of amazing services, but also really fosters strong connections with other start-ups and entrepreneurs.
My advice For managing partnershipS…
Make sure the partnering brand is aligned with what your brand stands for. The thing that we deemed most successful from our partnership with the Gap is how they adopted our one-pair-purchased equals 0ne-pair-donated mission. Together, we were able to donate 1 million pairs of socks to the homeless community.
3 tips for taking your product to market…
- Never compromise on quality.
- Make your story easy to understand, engaging and sharable.
- Create the best customer experience possible.
Our College Ambassador program allows us to…
Empower students around the country in order to further our mission and make an impact on their individual communities.
Ways we continue to innovate at Bombas…
We listen to everyone’s ideas and suggestions. Sometimes the best ideas come from our most junior employees, so we take the time to meet as a full team on a regular basis and cultivate an environment in which everyone feels comfortable sharing their opinion.
We use customer feedback to…
Do just about everything. We take customer happiness very seriously, so we spend a lot of time communicating with our customers and incorporating their feedback into everything we do here at Bombas.
E-commerce trends I am excited about are…
Dynamic content, allowing us to customize the online shopping experience based on our individual customers’ demographics, profile and shopping habits.
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