#146 - Interview with Kelcey Lehrich, CEO of 365 Holdings

PODCAST

This week, we spoke with Kelcey Lehrich about buying, building, and operating e-commerce brands. Kelcey is the CEO of 365 Holdings and in our conversation, we covered the following topics:

- Branding 101 for e-commerce businesses

- Economics of 3PL

- Business models in the e-commerce space

- 365 Holdings' org setup

- The first 90 days post-close playbook

- The EOS framework for operating businesses

Listen: iTunes, Spotify

FRAMEWORK

The Bubble Ultimatum

"Unfortunately for the aggressive ones, economies are cyclical, much like nature. Trees don't grow to the sky in nature or business. There are feedback mechanisms which create cycles, limits, and reversions to the mean. There’s an ebb and flow that’s woven into the very fabric of capitalism. People who forget cyclicality are bound to be hurt by the bust, whereas we were able to benefit. Every bubble forces you to make a choice: do you want to look like a fool during the build up as you’re missing out? Or would you rather look like a fool after it bursts? There’s no getting around looking foolish. But you do get to decide the time frame." - The Rebel Allocator by Jacob Taylor

In the current world of multi-trillion dollar stimulus packages, historically low interest rates, SPACs, NFTs, and the meteoric rise of cryptocurrencies, it's easy to feel like you're missing out while everyone else is making easy money. The long slog of building a debt-light, self-sustaining business in a slow-growth industry can at times make you wonder if you're playing the wrong game, or worse yet, not even playing the game at all.

So maybe now is as good a time as ever to remember that boom is followed by bust as sure as day is followed by night. Like many of our listeners and readers, we prefer defensive businesses and strategies that may not double year-over-year but will be sure to survive for the next ten and hopefully more, all the while reaping the (painfully slow) rewards of compounding returns that come from little more than sustained efforts over long periods of time. Further, we believe in patient, permanent capital that allows us to capitalize on well-priced opportunities when the time is right.

For now, we're more eager to spectate than participate.

LINKS

Selection criteria to consider when acquiring a small business (A.J. Wasserstein)

A twitter thread on 20+ urban revitalization stories across the country (Link)

The 25-year-old billionaire building the future of self-driving cars (Verge)

Vertical farms nailed tiny salads. Now they need to feed the world (Wired)