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20: How Serial Entrepreneur Davis Smith Built "Gear For Good" Apparel & Experience Brand, Cotopaxi
Manage episode 219621199 series 2397233
In episode 20 of The Stokecast, Emily and Jonathan recap the joys and pains of their recent experience running the Trapp Lodge Mountain Marathon in Stowe, Vermont. After, they have a deep conversation about building businesses with social impact with Cotopaxi Founder and CEO, Davis Smith.
Also on the show, learn:
14:32 - How Davis runs his business AND his family by defining values and building an organizational culture
16:00 - When and why Davis learned to embrace his entrepreneurial spirit
18:45 - How Davis started and scaled his first business, going digitally native and selling pool tables online
24:20 - Why you shouldn't hire your closest friends first or at all
29:35 - How to identify ideas that are going to work and stick with it
34:38 - How to compete in a crowded market
41:14 - Why he started an adventure race series called Questival and hired two llamas off Craigslist to launch Cotopaxi
49:31 - How Cotopaxi is empowering creativity within their manufacturing facility in the Philippines
53:55 - What is a Benefit Corporation and how does it work?
56:33 - The benefits of bootstrapping vs. raising capital
58:29 - Davis' work to promote gender equality with GirlUp and Women's Leadership Institute
1:05:00 - How he balances professional and personal life by managing both like a business
1:11:06 - What Cotopaxi is doing to aid the refugee crisis and one incredible story of the impact made
For the show notes from this episode, visit: https://exploreinspired.com/davis-smith
112 episodes
Manage episode 219621199 series 2397233
In episode 20 of The Stokecast, Emily and Jonathan recap the joys and pains of their recent experience running the Trapp Lodge Mountain Marathon in Stowe, Vermont. After, they have a deep conversation about building businesses with social impact with Cotopaxi Founder and CEO, Davis Smith.
Also on the show, learn:
14:32 - How Davis runs his business AND his family by defining values and building an organizational culture
16:00 - When and why Davis learned to embrace his entrepreneurial spirit
18:45 - How Davis started and scaled his first business, going digitally native and selling pool tables online
24:20 - Why you shouldn't hire your closest friends first or at all
29:35 - How to identify ideas that are going to work and stick with it
34:38 - How to compete in a crowded market
41:14 - Why he started an adventure race series called Questival and hired two llamas off Craigslist to launch Cotopaxi
49:31 - How Cotopaxi is empowering creativity within their manufacturing facility in the Philippines
53:55 - What is a Benefit Corporation and how does it work?
56:33 - The benefits of bootstrapping vs. raising capital
58:29 - Davis' work to promote gender equality with GirlUp and Women's Leadership Institute
1:05:00 - How he balances professional and personal life by managing both like a business
1:11:06 - What Cotopaxi is doing to aid the refugee crisis and one incredible story of the impact made
For the show notes from this episode, visit: https://exploreinspired.com/davis-smith
112 episodes
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