Building a Subscription E-Commerce Business from Switzerland: Samy Liechti, CEO of Blacksocks (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Is anything else interesting in your story? I find it fascinating. It’s great that you did this from Switzerland. It’s a very interesting angle that you figured out very early on in the history of the Internet. It’s wonderful to see that.

Samy Liechti: I think I have a message to all new and future entrepreneurs. I saw so many very nice detailed business plans. I think the most important thing is to start a business. The second message is it will be hard, but it’s worth it.

Sramana Mitra: You have chosen to bootstrap this company right? Right now, you’re at what level of revenue?

Samy Liechti: Now we’re at about $6 million.

Sramana Mitra: Do you ever think of taking financing to grow faster or is that not of interest to you?

Samy Liechti: I want to be independent. I want to decide. I want to do. I hate reporting. I didn’t become an entrepreneur with all the hassles and all the risks just to be questioned by an investor why we only grew 12.5% and not 14%. For the time being, I’m not considering it. We have a very special situation. Whenever we grow, we have a negative working capital because the money is coming in fast and we need to send out goods. Therefore, we’re able to finance our growth. Due to the Internet hype, I had phone calls where people wanted to invest for 10% of the company. It was ridiculous. I wondered, “If I have more money to spend, what would I do differently?”

I knew building a company is a learning process. If you do more marketing, it doesn’t mean that they buy faster. For example, e-commerce had to develop. The other day, I had this statistics. When we started, about 4% of population ordered online. Now, it’s 80%. The market is ready now. If we would have had more money to spend at the very beginning, it would probably be a waste.

Sramana Mitra: That’s absolutely right. Sometimes, there’s not a financial lever that you can push to grow that much faster. In your case, you could possibly advertise and do a lot more marketing and intensify the brand marketing process. It’s not like you can’t push any financial lever, but there are a lot of businesses where you actually cannot push a financial lever to grow much faster.

I fully appreciate your desire to remain independent. You put in all this work to get to a point where things are moving well and you have good cash flow and profits. Why give that up? This is a very reasonable position. I think a lot of entrepreneurs do become entrepreneurs because they want that kind of independence. I fully understand that.

Samy Liechti: I have a company in which I can work from wherever I want and whenever I want. I was earlier in a job where I was selling hours as a consultant when they wanted. It was not me deciding. Now I’m completely ahead about my agenda. I think that’s a huge luxury.

Sramana Mitra: It’s absolutely awesome. Congratulations! It’s been a pleasure talking to you. I’m thrilled to see what’s happening and how well you’re doing. Good luck going forward.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Building a Subscription E-Commerce Business from Switzerland: Samy Liechti, CEO of Blacksocks
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