Mereo No.12: Tracksmith founder is in for the long run
Curated news and insights about bootstrapped entrepreneurs building real businesses and the investors who want to finance them.
Hi friends,
This week we share an interview from Matt Taylor, the CEO and founder of Tracksmith, an independent running company which designs and sells premium quality performance running gear. We also have a great analysis from Loose Thread about The RealReal S-1 file and a short profile of a media and telecom mogul. Let’s go.
Tracksmith founder is in for the long run
Founded by former Puma marketing executive Matt Taylor, Tracksmith is an independent private label which celebrates the style and the culture of competitive running. According to Pitchbook, the company raised more than $6m from investors including Lerer Hippeau, Index and Hammerstone Capital. But wait - that’s not being bootstrapped? Yes, you’re right. However, the company took a pertinent approach to growth since its founding and I wanted to share it with you. Below is an extract from Colin Nagel’s interview with Taylor about his journey building the brand.
How have you thought about developing the brand?
It’s interesting because we live in a world where instant gratification reigns supreme. Tweets, headlines, soundbites — we’ve lost our ability to go deeper and wider. But I’m a runner and running requires building a strong foundation or base. You don’t win the race on the first day. You have to accept delayed gratification. This mentality is what underscores my approach to developing a brand: Establish a strong and broad base on top of which success can eventually be realised.
From the beginning we’ve invested in building differentiated products that are rooted in running culture and supporting them with rich storytelling, photography and experiences. We made a lot of deliberate choices to ensure that the brand feels like it’s been around for a long time — from the logo, to the name, to our tone of voice. We’ve also tried to stay really disciplined and clear-eyed about what Tracksmith stands for and making choices we believe are best for the long-term, rather than chasing quick gains.
In a world where direct-to-consumers (DTC) and digital native vertical brands (DNVB) are spending all their money on paid marketing, it is refreshing to see the company is taking another path. Very similar to a runner building her endurance skill over a longer period, Tracksmith founder is building a stronger foundation for his business by growing slow but growing real. Although the company does a bit of Instagram and Facebook advertising, notice that it’s not its main focus at all - real connection with runners is how the company is growing:
You feel like a brand concerned with the long game, and not hyper scale at all costs. How do you think about growth?
I want Tracksmith to be around for 100 years. And unfortunately — or, actually, fortunately — you can’t buy authenticity or credibility. Instead, they’re earned over a long period of time with consistent, sustained efforts. So although we do spend some money on tactics that have an immediate return, we’re more committed to the little things that don’t, but that do pay dividends establishing a connection with our customers and instilling our brand values in a way that will continue to resonate. You can’t do that with a Facebook ad.
In order to establish this connection with its customers, Tracksmith has developed a direct relationship with its audience. And here again, the company philosophy feels more human than other brands in the market.
Why does print feel right for the brand? How do people engage with it differently?
First, long-form stories are hard to consume digitally. The devices themselves are fine, but our digital environment is completely overloaded with myriad stimuli, and therefore our attention is short and frequently distracted. But a print piece can be read whenever and wherever.
Second, physical artifacts hang around. An issue of Meter or one latest catalog might sit on your coffee table for weeks or months, or even years. As a brand, that’s a pretty powerful tool. Yes, the number of people who will flip through a print piece is smaller than the number of eyeballs you can put a digital ad in front of, but there’s a trade-off in there that feels right for us.
Meter Magazine, Tracksmith’s quarterly publication. Photo credits to Tracksmith.
Taylor is definitely playing the long game here. His approach to building an iconic running brand is the hard one, but the entrepreneur understands very well that many of the required trade-offs will pay out in the long run.
***READ the full interview HERE***
In other news
Examining The RealReal’s quest to build an authentic and sustainable business (article, 6min)
Luxury secondhand marketplace The RealReal is filing for IPO and Loose Thread broke down the S-1 file with a lot of good analyses - a must read for anyone active in modern luxury.
While many other articles about The RealReal’s business have focused on the company’s operating losses, which totaled almost $76 million in 2018, operating profitably is a choice and the company has decided, like many other startups, to invest in growth. […] After raising more than $334 million in capital to power its business, but only having $207 million in 2018 revenue, the company will need to show quickly that it can earn more than it has raised. Luckily for anyone watching the company, there is no better mechanism to discover whether this is true than the public markets, and it will be clear soon enough if The RealReal’s business is sustainable.
Profile of French telecom and media entrepreneur Patrick Drahi (article, 2min)
Patrick Drahi just acquired the auction house Sotheby’s for $3.7B. Very few people heard about the media and telecom mogul so I thought I would share a brief profile about the man.
While some billionaires revel in the spotlight, Patrick Drahi cultivates discretion. His investment track record, however, speaks for itself and has seen the kid from Casablanca build one of the world’s biggest media and telecommunications empires.
Monocle’s The Entrepreneurs with Tracksmith founder and CEO Matt Taylor (podcast, 30min)
Monocle’s Daniel Bach discussed with the sportswear entrepreneur about his journey building the company and the brand.
Matt Taylor is the co-founder and CEO of Tracksmith, the New England-based premium running label that celebrates the style, heritage and culture of the sport. Taylor started designing his own line after leaving sportswear giant Puma. Since launching in 2014, Tracksmith has been growing steadily and recently opened a flagship shop near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
About Mereo
Mereo is a newsletter-driven publication about entrepreneurs building real businesses and the investors who want to finance them. Mereo is written by Michel Geolier, a venture investor based in Munich, Germany.
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