September 24, 2024 • 42 mins
Can childhood friendships transform into successful business ventures? Tune in as we chat with Ryan Lane and Xander Chase, the dynamic founders of FTL Bags, who turned their bond from high school wrestling practices into a booming handbag brand. Their journey, from initial career paths in finance to a pivotal phone call that marked the beginning of their entrepreneurial adventure, is inspirational. Discover how their complementary skills and history have shaped their venture into a brand loved by young professionals.
Ryan and Xander walk us through their meticulous process of building FTL Bags step by step. From brainstorming in a New York apartment to overcoming the hurdles of finding the right manufacturer, their story is a testament to persistence. They share valuable insights into creating a product from scratch, even without a background in design, and how they navigated the complexities of sourcing materials and managing R&D amid a global pandemic. Their experience highlights the importance of setting and achieving specific, measurable goals at each stage of the journey.
The episode also delves into the strategic decisions that have fueled their brand's growth. Learn how Ryan and Xander expanded their product line while maintaining a consistent aesthetic, managed co-founder relationships, and opted for bootstrapping over equity funding. Their approach to financial discipline and viral social media success offers actionable lessons for both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned business owners. Don't miss out on their compelling story, filled with practical advice and inspiration for anyone looking to make their mark in the world of fashion.
Connect with FTL Bags:
https://www.instagram.com/ftlbags/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi and welcome to the Handbag Designer 101 podcast
with your host, emily Blumenthal, handbag designer expert and
handbag fairy godmother, wherewe cover everything about
handbags from making, marketing,designing and talking to
handbag designers and industryexperts about what it takes to
make a successful handbag.
Welcome to another episode ofHandbag Designer 101.
(00:27):
I am with the very, veryinteresting Ryan Lane and Xander
Chase of FTL Handbags.
Is it FTL Bags or FTL Handbags?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
FTL Bags.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
FTL Bags.
Okay, I'm saying interestingbecause this is a.
I don't know if I'veinterviewed anybody who started
in investment banking and thenwent to handbags, let alone that
were men.
I've had that with women butnot with men.
So we're going to go to the wayback, because Ryan was telling
me, xander, that the two of youwere childhood friends because
(01:02):
your parents were friends and hecouldn't figure out if it was a
sibling thing or your parentsknew each other or like.
What was the connection?
Do you know?
Challenging you on this that'sa good question.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
You're digging deep into the, the anus of chase lane
history.
I would say that our parentsmet because my sister and his
brother were in the samepreschool class or elementary
class and then they became muchbetter friends and sort of then
brought the family together.
So I think initial connectionwas siblings.
Where the deep connection wasmade was through parents, and
(01:37):
then that came down a generationto us now.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
But you're, ryan is a year older than you, xander,
correct?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
And wiser, yes.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
That too, More facial hair.
It looks like that's a skill.
So yeah, that's a good nod, butwhen you grow up with someone
you don't really, especially ifyou grow up in the city.
You're not really making thatconnection, even being a year
apart, until high school highschool, right, because middle
school things are still wacky.
Did you guys really connect asfriends in high school?
(02:08):
Is that where it really started, like, oh, our parents are
friends, we see each other atkids birthdays, but was that
really where it clicked?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
yeah, ryan and I.
I think it was my freshman yearof high school, ryan's
sophomore year of high school wehad bio together and we were
both on the wrestling teamtogether, so that was the first
time really.
We're seeing each other on adaily basis in science.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
So wait, were you advanced bio or was he generic
bio?
What's the story?
Why were you in the same class?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Match with sophomores and freshmen.
Xander was in advanced, I wasin behind Advanced bio senior
year.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
No comment, no comment.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So you met in bio.
That's really where it cametogether.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
And wrestling practice more.
We spent a lot of eveningstogether in the winter rolling
around on a mat together tryingto cut weight together.
So I'd say that's really whereit went from.
Hey, we're family, friends,friends to like.
We have our own greatindependent relationship, and so
kicked off when meaningfullywhen I guess I was like 15 and
you were 16 yeah, so almost 15years ago yeah, I would say
(03:16):
Xander.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Actually he has an older brother who I'm in between
, and we were friendly also andthen Xander kind of swooped in
and grabbed me and then we would, you know, we'd travel together
and kind of over high schooljust developed a close bond with
lots of shared interests and Ithink that ultimately, you know,
help inspired where we ended uptoday.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
So, xander, you're one of three.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, I'm a middle child.
I have a younger sister and anolder brother.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
And Ryan, it's just you and your sister, you and
your brother.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Sister and a brother.
And Ryan, it's just you andyour sister, you and your
brother.
Sister and a brother.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I'm the oldest of three.
I have a middle brother and ayounger sister.
Oh wow, that's trauma bonding.
So that's so.
You know, I'm a professor.
I teach entrepreneurship at FITand one of the questions I ask
my students in first class iswhat number child you are,
because birth order reallydictates who you are and I bet
that's really interesting interms of how your
responsibilities are a segmentright.
(04:10):
So I could say Xander, you'reprobably the one who's the risk
taker and Ryan, you're the onewho keeps things organized.
Just step from that alone.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Organized for sure.
I'm definitely the OCD one ofthe group.
I think risk taking yeah, Ithink that's exactly right yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, Look at that.
So you guys go to college, Doyou keep in touch?
Is it like, oh, when you comehome for school breaks and then
you know, were you both like, oh, we're both.
Was it assumed you'd go intofinance just by default?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I don't think so.
So we went off to college.
We stayed friends, of course,but we didn't really keep in
touch on a day-to-day basis.
After college I moved back toNew York.
Xander was in DC at the time.
We both had majors that weresimilar to what we're doing now,
but, frankly, I never thought Iwould use anything I learned in
that major and I just didbusiness and went into real
estate and you yeah, I studiedengineering and did a minor in
(05:03):
entrepreneurship and I thinkdeep down I always wanted to be
an entrepreneur and take thispath.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
But graduating college just sort of followed
the path of a lot of myclassmates, went work for a bank
in New York and thought, hey,you know, this will be good
training, no matter what I do.
And I guess a year and a halfinto us working in the
professional world, brian calledme with this idea and I was
like, yeah, I would love to dosomething entrepreneurial, let's
get started on this.
(05:27):
I didn't think it would take inmy naive mind.
I was like, yeah, this soundslike a great idea.
I could probably leave my jobin six months and do this whole
time Like tomorrow.
Yeah, exactly, it took aboutfive years, but I think for both
of us like doing somethingentrepreneurial was something we
wanted to to do but was reallyhard to know up until pretty
recently whether it was like adream we could actually see
(05:49):
through to fruition do either ofyour parents have their own
companies, their own businesses?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
mine don't.
Well, my dad now does.
He's been in the music industryhis whole life and he's kind of
had.
He's worked for companies buthas has been entrepreneurial.
Your family yes.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Yeah, my dad ran a small business when I was
growing up.
It was a candy manufacturer,importer, exporter, which is
really cool.
A lot of candy in my housegrowing up, so definitely my dad
was an entrepreneur throughoutmy childhood.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Because, you know, another case study is that most
people don't have the balls orthe courage to do it unless
they've seen someone else do it,to know that if it doesn't work
out, there's always a recoveryright, especially with what
you've done.
So you know, the interestingthing about starting your own
business which I'm sure you knowis that it doesn't even seem
like a risk when you do it.
(06:39):
It just seems organic and thisis just the natural progression.
Like okay, this is what we'regoing to do now, and that's it.
Organic and this is just thenatural progression.
Like, okay, this is what we'regoing to do now and that's it.
And I think you need to seesomeone else do it in your
family, without you know.
There's some kind ofsubconscious validation, like
it's okay, I know I can do this,and if it doesn't work out,
figure it out next.
There's got to be that likefear component that's pulled out
.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Absolutely.
I think that's spot on and Ithink for us, that's exactly
what we saw.
It's just like this was alwaysthe dream.
We wanted to make sure we werein an okay place personally,
that you know, we could giveourselves six 12 months of
runway along with the fact thatwe saw something in the company
that was like, okay, there'ssomething here, but we need to
give it our full time, and itkind of really felt like the
time was now, I think, you know,with my family, when I spoke to
(07:22):
my parents and just kind ofmentioned it here and there off
the bat, they're just likeyou're crazy, you're not, you're
not going to leave your job,like why would you do that and
that.
Until I sat them down and taughtthem through everything, at
which point, like I knew they'dbe supportive, but I think they
really saw what we're seeing itand they had that exact same
realization.
Despite not going through itthemselves, they said, okay,
this by not going through itthemselves, they said, okay, if
(07:42):
this doesn't work, you canhopefully go back to a job in
real estate or pay it orwhatever.
I think your conversation maybewas a little bit different with
your dad, who's gone through it.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yeah, my dad, who, you know, at age 31 or right
around my age, also left a jobon Wall Street to go and do his
own business, I think, was soexcited to hear I wanted to do
it and was like such a supporterand said the same thing like,
hey, I think and believe andhope this will work out, but if
it doesn't, you'll learn so much.
(08:12):
And he said not every week isgoing to be a good week, but
that's the name of the game ofbeing an entrepreneur.
And he loved hisentrepreneurial journey so much
and, like, was very supportiveof hey, go, go give it, go give
it a shot.
So it's definitely helpful whenyou have parents who are in
your corner, who have made itout on the other side.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So, ryan, this concept was yours for this said
bag.
So what was your aha moment?
Because typically, at leastwith handbag designers, it's the
.
I'm looking for this product, Ican't find this product.
And then it's the wouldn't itbe great if I could, if someone
made this product?
And then it's like, well, whatwould this product look like?
And then it turns out it endsup being me.
(08:52):
So how did all this come topass?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Sure, I think I mean first and foremost, the idea
when I called Xander was waydifferent than it is now, so I
can't take the idea as it standstoday.
But I did find myself working inNew York City, basically waking
up and trying to have my mostproductive days get up early,
try to go to the gym, go fromthe gym to my corporate office,
maybe go from the office to ahappy hour or a date or dinner,
(09:16):
whatever it was and I justconstantly found myself with two
to three bags a garment bag, abriefcase, any combination
thereof, or a backpack or abackpack Any day.
Two to three bags that not onlyfunctionally didn't really serve
each destination butaesthetically just didn't look
great.
I would have to bring mybriefcase to the gym, I'd have
to take my backpack to theoffice, and there has to be a
(09:37):
better way or a better bag outthere that functionally and
aesthetically can serve me onthose best days.
And looking around on thesubway every day, I saw tons of
people looking like they weredealing with the same problem.
So that, paired with just anentrepreneurial itch and desire
to do something creative, led meto call Xander, who we've
always, really since high school, I've seen eye to eye on a lot
(09:58):
of this stuff and I knew he'd bea great person to talk to about
it and he was sold, I think.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
So did you try shopping for said product first?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
We definitely did a lot of research.
We were like, okay, first step,let's see if there's anything
out there.
I think in trying to find a bagfor me, I just was searching
day to day for something thatwould fit and, functionally,
aesthetically.
I just couldn't find anythingand we said let's put our heads
together.
The next week, xander was inNew York and we were sitting
down in his apartment mappingthings out and figuring out a
(10:29):
path to making it happen.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So you didn't do anything on your own.
You got an idea and then youstraight up called him like hey,
I got this idea.
What do you think?
Does this happen for you too?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Exactly, and for me the problem immediately
resonated.
Every morning I was waking uppacking my gym bag, packing my
briefcase, packing a backpack.
You had a proper briefcase likeold school bag and I had a
(11:05):
backpack and I also would do alot of one night, overnight
trips.
I was living in DC at the timebut down to either Richmond,
virginia or up to New York.
So a lot of one day trips, twoday trips and like these three
bags were just chasing meeverywhere I went and so
immediately resonated with thisand with this problem Ryan was
talking about.
I was like yeah, there's got tobe something.
And I think as we dug into it alittle bit we kind of realized
like hey, there's a productmissing in this space, but it
(11:25):
also feels like there isn'treally a brand that's speaking
directly to us as consumers.
There were things that felt verymuch like this is a product I
would have in high school ormiddle school.
Things that felt like superexpensive and targeted towards
like an older demographic anddidn't see anything that felt
like it was speaking to us asright sort of professional but
(11:45):
still youthful people who wantedto look good and wanted to live
a certain life.
So it felt like there was anopportunity for a product, but
also like a broader brand withcertain values that we wanted to
try to create so did it startwith like a paper sketch, like,
okay, it would look like this,and then a post-it note on my
desk, which, of course, we haveit.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Okay, we will send you a picture after this.
But that's exactly what it wasa sticky note with a sketch of
what the concept was, and it nowlooks pretty close to that
obviously five years and about15 prototypes in between, but
the concept was still there soyou get this idea.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I I'm so curious, considering your backgrounds
again, like I said, are funnilyenough so non-traditional to
moving into this space.
Did you immediately LLC, get abrand name trademark immediately
, or were you like, hold on,let's figure out the concept and
we'll take care of all thatafter.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah, it's a great question and for us it was
really just one step at a time.
We had never started a company,we had never built a product or
a bag, and it was always justwhat's the next milestone?
So the first thing was likelet's get our thoughts and
sketch it out on paper to thebest of our ability.
The next step was let's go findsomebody who has done something
similar that we can rely on.
Let's research, let's figureout how to take this note, this
(13:02):
sticky note, and build an actual, tangible product.
We probably won't be able tosell it right away, but let's
actually get that in our hands.
And from there it was just likeI said, two steps forward, one
step backwards, building thisproduct into a product that we
felt confident taking to market.
And then, once we had that,we're like okay, let's you know,
we had been taking marketingphotos and learning from who we
(13:23):
thought our customer was and allthat.
So we were ready to go withwhat we envisioned the brand to
be.
But then it was time to buildour website, open a bank account
, file an LLC and become alegitimate company.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, I think that the way that we approached it in
retrospect was hugely helpfulto us.
There's this concept of SMARTgoals, which stands for specific
, measurable, actual, realistic,and I don't think we knew what
that acronym was, but we kind ofinto having really specific
goals, and the first one waslet's create a product that we
(13:56):
can touch and feel and that welike.
And I think for the first yeara year and a half it was just
about creating one bag.
So a lot of the other stuff wasout of mind and it was like,
hey, if we can create oneproduct, one sample, we'll have
learned so much, we'll feel good, like that will be a W.
And so we were just reallyfocused on let's create one
sample.
And we did that and we were soproud and happy and it was like,
(14:18):
okay, well, now what and whydidn't you create two?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Because both of you needed to take it for a test
drive.
Yeah, we did.
We did, okay.
So where did you and how didyou find someone to make your
brand back?
Did you look in New York City?
Because to get sample makingand that is a harsh lesson in
finance to learn how much, atleast domestically, people can
charge you to make a firstsample.
And it's not that I agree ordisagree with how these sample
makers run their businesses, assomeone who's worked with
(14:52):
hundreds, with a Z ofindependent new designers.
There's the learning curve cost, and that is well how I've
explained it to people.
They're in a position to chargeyou so much because you don't
know what you're doing.
So the time, value of money ittakes them to educate you, to
show you to do this they havelearned over time that they're
not even going to bothereducating you because at some
point you're probably not goingto come back.
(15:14):
So how did you go through thisprocess to find said person to
make a sample for you?
Because a Google search willget you people, but they may not
be the people you want.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
That is all so spot on.
We kind of looked through everynook and cranny to find
somebody that would do this fora reasonable cost.
We were directed by a friend,allie Kamineski, shout out
Modern Picnic to some factoriesin New York that she had
experience with, but, like yousaid, to make a sample.
It was gonna be I think it was$7,000.
(15:44):
And we had concept.
We didn't have money to spendlike that.
We're going to go askingfriends and family for money
before we had even tested thisand we're just like.
It seems like a little bit of acop out for us to just take the
first one that we know existed.
Let's use Google researcharound, see who we can get in
contact with.
Everything.
So much comes from overseas andwe're like let's at least start
there because it's going to bea little reasonable.
(16:06):
So I think we just started coldoutreach to any factories email
we could find, hoping for aresponse.
I think we probably sent over ahundred emails and I think
maybe we got like two or threeback.
But one factory was willing tobuild a prototype for us and
they send us back our two firstsamples, which we still have
(16:27):
China.
Okay, we still have thosesamples today and I hold them
very near and dear to my heart.
However, that was the lastsample they'd make for us,
because they said your productis too complicated.
Yeah, we're just not workingwith you guys anymore.
So we're like all right back tosquare one, but we had our
product.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah.
So what did you do then?
Then you're like, okay, go back.
And did you say okay, is this asign that we shouldn't work in
China, or is this a sign?
And what were your feelings?
Like leather, non-leather, Wereyou both like this is who we
are.
What do we think?
I mean, what kind of thoughtprocess did you think about
materials?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Yes, we got that material we knew was going to be
huge for us.
We always said, oh, we're goingto have this awesome, modern,
sleek material that's superunique.
And people would be like, oh,it sounds super cool, what is it
?
And we'd say, oh, we don't knowyet, we haven't figured that
out.
So our first couple of sampleswere just made out of like nylon
, because we really wanted tojust get the dimensions down,
the functionality down, and sothat first sample we didn't want
(17:24):
to hold it up while we lookedfor material.
So we sort of parallel path, abunch of material exploration
with constructing the bag,figuring we could swap the
material out later, when thatfactory said, hey, we can't work
with you anymore, and we werekind of back in square one.
That wasn't the last time thatwould have happened because we
did a lot of this through COVID.
(17:45):
So we then found anotherfactory.
Luckily we talked to a bunch ofpeople in our network who
worked in manufacturing.
Someone said, hey, there's amaterial fair that's going on or
a manufacturing fair that'sgoing on in New York City.
You can look into getting somepasses.
We went there.
We made some connections there,found a new factory.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Premier Class or Linea Pele.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
The convention.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, which one was it for materials?
I think it was called Hexworldoh that was the third one I was
going to say.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Jabbit Center.
Jabbit Center.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
So we got some connections there.
We did a couple more sampleswith two factories that we had
gone and connected with throughthere and then COVID hit and
they both said, hey, we can onlyreally support existing clients
that are putting in orders withus.
(18:36):
We can't renew R&D and so onceagain we found ourselves in a
position of we don't have a towork with and once again we just
started kind of emailing,calling anyone who might have a
connection to someone who mighthave a connection to someone who
knows manufacturing, and weluckily got connected with a
sourcing agent who was basedoverseas, who had a lot of
experience in bags andmanufacturing and leather goods,
(18:56):
and once we brought him onboard it really helped things in
a big way because he had a bignetwork of factories, he was
really experienced in R&D and hesort of became the third point
of our team and really helped usexpedite a lot of the steps of
the rest of the research anddevelopment process.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So you came to the final conclusion.
In terms of materials, you werelike that's it.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
So that's a funny story.
We were trying to figure outwhat our material was, and this
was something that wasconstantly on our minds.
And I was at a museum in NewYork one day and I saw someone
like 50 yards down the hall infront of me wearing this rain
jacket that I just thoughtlooked so cool and such a sleek
material and I was like that'sit.
And so I sort of tracked thisguy down and I was like, hey,
(19:41):
I'm so sorry to bother you, butI love your rain jacket.
Where's it from?
It was a Scandinavian brandthat had been doing really high
end, sort of like rubberizedvegan leather rain jackets for a
while.
And so then we talked with thesourcing guy and said, hey,
we're looking for something likethis leather or this PU leather
, and he helped us get it.
(20:02):
And that was the firstiteration of it, and we've now
met with a lot of suppliers,given them specifications, and
have been able to go from likean off the shelf version of this
product to a product that hassomething like the width and the
finish and the colors are allto our brand specifications.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
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(21:55):
So you know so many questions,obviously.
So the two of you being men andbanker men, and you know was
your lens?
Always let's stick to darkcolors.
Let's stick to dark, neutralcolors, and you know khaki is
black.
How did you determine yourpalette?
Because, again, for a new brand, your unique selling point is
(22:16):
more than the bag itself.
Right, the name is one thing,whatever, it's really the
product that's going to be thehero.
So how did you determine yourcolor palette and say we have to
stand out, but we can't standout because we don't want to
alienate who our potentialcustomer is?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think we knew we wanted to doa black bag, because we just
thought that was going to be themost basic, neutral.
Well, we envisioned the brandand like to think today that the
brand is unisex and obviously,you know, we're building a
mission that should resonatewith men and women, with two
guys designing the bag.
Inherently it came out moremasculine and we said, okay,
(22:54):
this is a masculine bag rightnow.
Hopefully we will build outproducts for women, but right
now we want to focus on our onehero customer, which is that
male in there, anywhere frommaybe post college, like early
20s, 40s, 50s, somebody who's onthe road, somebody who works in
a city with a packed day kindof like we alluded to or just
travels weekenders, overnights,et cetera.
(23:15):
So black was pretty muchautomatic.
And then we wanted to have somevariety.
But while doing this kind ofside of desk, we weren't able to
really go and test a bunch ofdifferent colors and spend all
this money for different samples, because we just didn't have
the time or money.
So we kind of took our bestguess at what would be two good
alternatives we went with navy,which I love, and we went with a
(23:37):
kind of a forest green which Ithink Xander really liked too At
least on the shirt.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And we went to Marquee with that and started to
learn and have success.
But we're super excited becausewe just actually were overseas
for the first time, visiting ourpartners and factories, and in
a few weeks we were able toaccomplish, I think, what would
have taken probably four to sixmonths sitting at our desks at
home.
Really, just in colors anddifferent cues and stuff, we
were able to mix and match andsee tons of different stuff and
(24:06):
combinations and get a reallygood sense.
So we've got a gray that we'regoing to come out with later
this year, hopefully some othercolor variations that will
attract a whole wide audience.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Are you sticking with this one hero silhouette before
you start really trying to pushforward, like, make this the
biggest and the best and thengoing from there?
Because my experience, you knowand I was just interviewed for
the Wall Street Journal and Ispoke about this actually I had
one sentence, or my dialoguewith the, with the writer, whom
(24:38):
I love.
We had this conversation backand forth, but my case study is
always the Balenciaga motorcyclebag or city bag, because that
is the hero as far as the mostrecognizable one back within.
You know, any assortment wouldstand out and the clever thing
about that bag, amongst others,is that any bag that comes from
(25:00):
it looks like it's related.
It's definitely not.
You know, the cousin's, uncle's,sister's knee is twice removed,
it's.
You know the bag's a littlesmaller, the bag's a little
bigger, there's a little extrahardware, there's a little less
hardware.
It's in a different color, butyou know they're all the same.
You know they're related.
Is that how you see yourassortment growing?
(25:21):
Kind of keeping it within thefamily, or you want to like?
That's it.
We worked so hard on developingthis one bag.
Now we're going to pivot and doa totally new bag.
What's your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Yeah, it's a great question, Definitely taking the
Balenciaga approach.
So we've gotten a ton of greatfeedback on this bag and
customers who really, reallylove it.
And there are two things thatwe heard a lot.
One was there are some dayswhere I just don't need this
much space and I love material,I love the profile, I love the
aesthetic, but sometimes justdon't need something this big.
(25:54):
And then other times where wehear customers saying all the
same, but hey, I just needsomething with a little bit more
room to pack.
So we have two new versions thatare coming out in November.
So one is going to be a smallerversion of the bag.
Again, the profile looks verysame, the aesthetic is very
similar, but it's going to besized down.
And then we have anotherversion of the bag, also in
(26:15):
November, where the constructionof it and kind of how the
different compartments andpockets are laid out is
different to be more useful indifferent scenarios, but again,
the aesthetic.
Like you said, it's very clearthat these products are siblings
, not second cousins.
So that's, at least for thenear term, variations of the
(26:35):
Hero product.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
The one thing I'll just quickly add is I think,
even as we get farther into thefuture, hopefully, we'll no
matter what product kind of webring to market and no matter
who that's for, if it's for men,if it's for women, older,
younger, use cases, et cetera.
I think what we really will,you know, try to hold true to,
like Xander said in the formerapproach, the blends, yoga
approaches, where the brand isgoing to be similar, like the
(26:58):
brand's going to be the same,the materials are probably going
to be similar.
Obviously we'll have somevariation, but at the end of the
day it's going to be a bag thatyou can tell just based on the
aesthetic, based on the materialthis is FTL and the
functionality might be a littlebit different.
The bag might be a little bitof a different shape.
By the end of the day, thevalues will stay the same.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Who came up with the name?
That's a great question.
There's so many great questions.
Was it someone's mom?
Speaker 3 (27:22):
No, no, it was you, ryan, was it I?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
think so.
So we had a couple names thatwe don't need to dive into, just
because I feel like people gothrough that all the time.
But essentially we had one namethat we ended up diverting from
because just with COVID,there's so many companies
popping up that every singlename we looked at through like
the trademark system was takenand we're just like and now it's
getting to the point where it'sholding us up.
(27:46):
We couldn't design a logo.
The bag was ready but wecouldn't start building our
brand because we couldn't find aname that we loved and
essentially, we started justpiecing words and letters
together that we liked andeventually we were trying to
talk to each other what doesthis brand really stand for?
When we think about this, whenpeople are holding our bag, what
(28:07):
do we kind of evoke?
And I think we came to theconclusion this is kind of what
we, what's our mission now is.
This is a product that helpsyou have great days and this is
a brand that really celebratesthose best days.
So we're like okay, this isreally just about for the love
of whatever you're doing, sopeople.
So we said, for the love.
Love was just a great phrasethat we loved and we're like
(28:27):
let's name this company FTL.
So a lot of times people saywhat does FTL stand for?
And we say for the love.
And they say for the love ofwhat?
And we say that's really up toyou for you to decide.
So sometimes it's a littlecliche, but we really believe it
and stand by it.
It's just whatever makes youtick.
We're just about helping youcelebrate those great days and
here's a bag just to help youget there.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
You never thought about Chase and Lane.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
We did, yeah, we did think about that.
That was brought up to us abunch, but I think for us that
made the brand very much aboutus, and we didn't want this
brand to be about us at all.
It was about our customers andthe people with the product.
And so we kind of said, okay,what's something that really
makes the hero of this brand notus at all but the consumers?
(29:13):
And I think that's what broughtus from the Chase and Lane
school of thought over to theFTL school of thought.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
You know it's funny that you brought up the
trademark search because theUSPTO is a friend and I think a
lot of people don't realize thatit is an amazing resource to
just constantly search names andso forth and like who has it
and what categories and whatclassifications.
And can I do my trademarkmyself?
(29:40):
Because I kind of can, becauseyou know I can kind of figure it
out.
It is an incredibly helpfulresource and from someone who's
done multiple trademarks ontheir own, it's really
fascinating to learn, especiallyfor the love, that you
obviously couldn't trademark anyof those words on their own.
It had to be together.
You had to throw in adisclaimer.
(30:01):
And is it trademarked for thelove or is it FTL?
Which one is the brand?
Speaker 3 (30:07):
So it depends on the class, but we have FTL in some
classes we have for the love.
Or is it FTL?
Which one is the brand?
So it depends on the class, butwe have FTL in some classes, we
have for the love.
In other classes we have FTLcolon for the love in other
classes.
So it sort of depends.
I forget, I can't remember theclass codes, but we have
different coverage in differentareas depending on kind of how
competitive or hard it is to geta trademark in that specific
class and how much protection weneed in that specific class.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
You know I'll share a fun fact with you and I don't
know how much you guys have putinto motion for your brand at
this point, but I had a brand abillion years ago called Yasmina
.
Don't ask about the origin, Ithought it sounded amazing,
global, international.
It could get translatedda-da-da-da-da.
You know, everybody comes withan idea and they think they're
(30:51):
best thing that's ever.
It's splitting the atom, right.
And I had patents.
I designed patents on mysilhouettes.
Again, don't ask how I came upwith the idea for that.
I just said, oh, I think theseneed to be protected.
That was my gateway intogetting licensing.
I decided fun fact to knockmyself off before anyone else
did and as a result of that, Icame up with the Yazzie bag.
(31:13):
So I had my Yasmina, which wasmy high end, and the Yazzie,
which was the low end.
I would reserve one of thosefor something for the shelf for
the future, because I think inbuilding brand equity, put all
your money in one and save theother.
Just my opinion.
Something to think about,because it's confusing for
someone to say which one is it?
(31:33):
Just something to think about.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yeah, I'm good with that.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah, Because at some point, whatever you're at,
you're going to want to eithergo up here, go higher, or want
to go lower for somethingdiffusion, because it's really
hard when you're starting abrand, obviously, to get to
scale right.
Economies of scale it's tricky,but once you're in that
position, that could cannibalizethis beautiful brand equity you
(31:59):
created.
So you don't want it to be thesame name Something to think
about.
But I'm good for that.
Last question, Actually lasttwo questions when have you guys
butted heads?
Or you never had that?
If I'm good for that lastquestion, actually, last two
questions where have you guysbutted heads?
Or you never had that?
Because I'm sure, like, how doyou deal with conflict?
I've heard so many differentways that people have.
Like there are a couple offounders that I've heard that
(32:20):
it's like is it a one for youand a 10 for me?
So for this matter, if it's a10 for you, I'll go with that.
Like, how do you handleconflict for things?
Because, again, what you findwith a work partner ends up you
end up spending more time withthem and having deeper
conversations than perhaps yourmarital partner or you know
person with whom you end updating, living with.
(32:41):
So there's got to be a seamlessway that you guys have figured
out how to work through conflict.
So what is your secret sauce todate?
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Usually I just bring you some food.
Are we really only gettingconflicts when Xander's hungry
or tired?
No, that's not true.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Well, it's a really good question.
I was like reflecting on it andthinking about it deeply,
because we really don't buttheads that much and I'm curious
your answer.
But there's two things I thinkthat really help with that.
The first it is for so manyyears we have talked so at depth
about really fundamental thingsof like what is this brand,
(33:19):
what do we want out of this andwhen.
Because I think we're soaligned on like the the deepest
here, it makes decision makingreally easy.
If there's a question on, itcould be something around
inventory or a design decisionor how to handle a customer
issue, because I think we're soaligned at the mission and value
(33:43):
level, it becomes really easyto be like here's the right
answer, because we'veestablished that we see eye to
eye on the really core thing.
So I think that's one thingthat helps a lot.
But when there is a differenceof opinion between two things,
very quickly one of us will saylike this is not a hill I need
to die on, and it becomes clearthat you seem to care a lot
(34:06):
about this, or this is somethingthat falls more into your
domain.
I have complete faith.
Like here's what I think, butyou make the decision.
I really can't think of many,if any, situations where we had
differing views and we both feltreally really strongly about it
and weren't willing to defer tothe other.
So that's kind of what I think,but I'm super curious to hear
(34:26):
your answer to the other.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
So that's kind of what I think, but I'm super
curious to hear your answer.
I defer to Ryan on that Echothat I think from the deep kind
of big questions we have toanswer, we have really discussed
this and aligned on this for somany years that, like Xander
said, we usually can come to anagreement or one person can kind
of say, at least on the surfacelevel issues.
If that's the case, one personcan kind of say, all right, I'm
(34:50):
not going to die on this hill,and I think that's also in that,
like we've been working on thisfor five years and I think a
lot of people would get fatigueWe've certainly been very close,
both at the same time, atdifferent times, but at the end
of the day, I think from day one, we really had a vision for
where we want this to be and weknew it was going to take a long
time.
So even if one person wasn'tfeeling it one day, the other
(35:10):
person kind of picks up theslack and vice versa.
But at the end of the day, inthe long run, we've been both
very committed and I thinkthat's the number one thing.
And I think it's very hard to bea solo founder I can't even
imagine.
But it's also hard to beco-founders because you have to
be perfectly kind of in lockstepon the long-term vision.
But in those really more soday-to-day little obstacles, I
(35:31):
think it's really about justcoming to the table, having
respect for one another and eachother's opinions, a foundation
of really great trust.
And obviously there are horrorstories that hopefully, god
forbid, won't happen.
But at the end of the day Ithink it's just a relationship
built on trust and kind of along-term vision, and I think
that's what's helped us havesuccess today.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Are you looking to raise money?
Do you think you're good?
Do you want to avoid that?
Are you willing to give awaypieces of the pie?
I mean both of you beingfinance people.
I feel like the default is oh,we need to raise money, we need
other people's money, butfashion and handbags it's a
different ballgame in terms ofperception and risk and
(36:12):
inventory.
It's not the same responseyou'd get if you were developing
a tech app for real estate andpeople with good beards like
yourself.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yeah, it's a great question and I'll let Xander
dive in as well.
The only thing I'll say is thatI think we've been in an
interesting position, which Ithink has been helpful.
I think we haven't foundourselves today and this might
very well change but in a placewhere we need to go out and
raise like a large amount ofcapital and give up equity.
Instead, you know, webootstrapped everything from the
(36:44):
beginning and then, as soon aswe had to write a check for
inventory, we went out tofriends and family after we ran
a Kickstarter.
So we had real data and a realcase study that we could point
to and say hey, this is aproduct, market fit, there's a
need for this.
Our friends were going to justhand over whatever money just to
support us.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
How did you decide for the Kickstarter what people
would get for this $50?
You get this.
How did you decide that with abrand that you were trying to
raise money for?
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yeah, that was a lot of price discovery and that was
part of the Kickstarterintention for us figure out
where this product was going tosell and if we could grow it.
So we picked a price that wethought was reasonable.
We did a friends and family atone price, and that wasn't to
make money, just get the baginto the hands of the people we
know and get some capital in thedoor.
And then we took that price andwe improved the bag and we
(37:33):
improved materials.
And then we went to Kickstarterwith a price point and we said,
okay, here's our price point.
These people are pre-orderingit.
They're going to have to waitsix months.
They're taking on risk.
So if they're willing to buythis at this price point, then
if it's a success when we go tomarket outside of Kickstarter,
there's a pretty significantincrease that we can tack on,
just because now you'reoperating like a real company.
(37:54):
They're not first risk takers,et cetera.
So that was great for us.
And then to kind of go back tothe first question, it's because
we haven't done equity andwe've just raised debt from
friends and family thus far.
It's put us in a position wherewe can't just spending money
and seeing what works.
Every sale has to be profitableso we can pay back our
(38:14):
investors.
And I think that's Zaner and I,very, very, very careful and
strategic and I think sometimeswe wish we could move faster.
But I think it's a blessing indisguise that we've kind of been
built and being risk aversebecause-.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
It stops you from overhead.
It stops you from stupidmarketing decisions.
It stops you from Facebook adsthat you may or may not like.
Hey, wouldn't it be fun if andlet's do that, if and everything
, every penny spent has toanswer a why, and I think that's
, you know, case study buildingright there.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Yeah, couldn't agree more.
It's every penny needs a why.
It's one of those situationswhere constraints is to your
benefit and it makes us spendand operate in a much more
focused and lean way.
So I think it is really to ourbenefit and something we'll try
to do for as long as possible.
There probably will be a pointat some point maybe it's a year,
(39:04):
maybe it's two years where wedo need capital, because at a
certain point you need money togrow, but we're trying to wait
until again.
It's a burning need for us andthere's clearly things we need
to invest in, not to raise moneyjust to say, hey, we raised
money.
We want to wait until it's likethere's a very obvious reason
for why we need to take onexternal capital.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, okay, guys.
How can people follow you?
Learn more, learn about thenon-chase and lane FTL bag.
How can we find, follow andpurchase your amazing hero bag?
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah Well, thank you again.
This has been so fun chattingwith.
For FTL.
We're on Instagram at FTLbags.
You can find us online,ftlbagscom.
Subscribe to our email list onthere to get all the updates,
everything we're up to.
We do a lot about the bag, buta lot of stories too, about
people we're working withathletes and musicians and just
people that we think really like, resonate with the brand and
(39:59):
that we're proud of to have asas customers of of ftl anywhere
I missed we got some funnytiktok videos.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
You can check us out on tiktok too, but yeah,
instagram do you enjoy?
Speaker 1 (40:09):
do you enjoy doing the tiktoks?
Speaker 2 (40:12):
sometimes I really like filming them.
The editing process it's notlike you know everything we do,
but we've learned and it is alsoI will say we did have.
This was crazy.
We had one TikTok about a yearor two ago go fully viral, and
you know that's always the goalof TikTok.
You're like let's get viral,let's go viral, let's get this
brand out into the world.
And it just so happened weposted a few and they weren't
(40:33):
hitting.
I'm like heck, I thought thiswas gonna be easy.
Like it was all about the storyand the brand and how we all
these people are carrying twobags and we're like one bag to
replace the rest.
And all of a sudden, I likecheck our Instagram and we've
got like 400 new followers andI'm like, oh my god, oh my god,
something's happening.
And Xander, of course, happensto be on like a 12 hour flight
at the time, so I got no one totalk to about this.
(40:53):
I'm like talking to my parents.
They're like what are youtalking?
Speaker 1 (40:56):
about.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Whatever, what does that even mean?
And I'm fully freaking out.
And then I go to TikTok and Isee that one of our videos has
now surpassed like 50,000 viewsand I'm like, oh my God, it's
happening.
Comments everything from allthe great things to the internet
trolls, which made me extremelyangry.
But you know, you learned that?
Speaker 1 (41:14):
what was the tick tock, what made it?
What was the unique angle of it?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
It was really our story.
It was just about us and wherethis problem you know came from
and our desire to solve it, andjust the journey of building
this bag and it ended upsurpassing about 2 million views
, which was insane andunthinkable.
And the comments are brutal.
There's many good comments.
There's also a couple bad,which I'm texting Sam.
(41:38):
I'm like I'm going to answerthis guy.
He's like Ryan put your phonedown.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Ironically, he was telling you to stop.
So there you go, go figure.
Guys, this has been absolutelyamazing.
Thank you so much for joiningand looking forward to seeing
more of FTL.
Go, big, go, big, go, big, bigThanks so much guys.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah, this has been awesome, Really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Thanks for listening.
Don't forget to rate and review, and follow us on every single
platform at Handbag Designer.
Thanks so much.
See you next time.
Hi and welcome to the Handbag Designer 101 podcast
with your host, emily Blumenthal, handbag designer expert and
handbag fairy godmother, wherewe cover everything about
handbags from making, marketing,designing and talking to
handbag designers and industryexperts about what it takes to
make a successful handbag.
Welcome to another episode ofHandbag Designer 101.
(00:27):
I am with the very, veryinteresting Ryan Lane and Xander
Chase of FTL Handbags.
Is it FTL Bags or FTL Handbags?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
FTL Bags.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
FTL Bags.
Okay, I'm saying interestingbecause this is a.
I don't know if I'veinterviewed anybody who started
in investment banking and thenwent to handbags, let alone that
were men.
I've had that with women butnot with men.
So we're going to go to the wayback, because Ryan was telling
me, xander, that the two of youwere childhood friends because
(01:02):
your parents were friends and hecouldn't figure out if it was a
sibling thing or your parentsknew each other or like.
What was the connection?
Do you know?
Challenging you on this that'sa good question.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
You're digging deep into the, the anus of chase lane
history.
I would say that our parentsmet because my sister and his
brother were in the samepreschool class or elementary
class and then they became muchbetter friends and sort of then
brought the family together.
So I think initial connectionwas siblings.
Where the deep connection wasmade was through parents, and
(01:37):
then that came down a generationto us now.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
But you're, ryan is a year older than you, xander,
correct?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
And wiser, yes.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
That too, More facial hair.
It looks like that's a skill.
So yeah, that's a good nod, butwhen you grow up with someone
you don't really, especially ifyou grow up in the city.
You're not really making thatconnection, even being a year
apart, until high school highschool, right, because middle
school things are still wacky.
Did you guys really connect asfriends in high school?
(02:08):
Is that where it really started, like, oh, our parents are
friends, we see each other atkids birthdays, but was that
really where it clicked?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
yeah, ryan and I.
I think it was my freshman yearof high school, ryan's
sophomore year of high school wehad bio together and we were
both on the wrestling teamtogether, so that was the first
time really.
We're seeing each other on adaily basis in science.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
So wait, were you advanced bio or was he generic
bio?
What's the story?
Why were you in the same class?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Match with sophomores and freshmen.
Xander was in advanced, I wasin behind Advanced bio senior
year.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
No comment, no comment.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So you met in bio.
That's really where it cametogether.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
And wrestling practice more.
We spent a lot of eveningstogether in the winter rolling
around on a mat together tryingto cut weight together.
So I'd say that's really whereit went from.
Hey, we're family, friends,friends to like.
We have our own greatindependent relationship, and so
kicked off when meaningfullywhen I guess I was like 15 and
you were 16 yeah, so almost 15years ago yeah, I would say
(03:16):
Xander.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Actually he has an older brother who I'm in between
, and we were friendly also andthen Xander kind of swooped in
and grabbed me and then we would, you know, we'd travel together
and kind of over high schooljust developed a close bond with
lots of shared interests and Ithink that ultimately, you know,
help inspired where we ended uptoday.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
So, xander, you're one of three.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, I'm a middle child.
I have a younger sister and anolder brother.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
And Ryan, it's just you and your sister, you and
your brother.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Sister and a brother.
And Ryan, it's just you andyour sister, you and your
brother.
Sister and a brother.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I'm the oldest of three.
I have a middle brother and ayounger sister.
Oh wow, that's trauma bonding.
So that's so.
You know, I'm a professor.
I teach entrepreneurship at FITand one of the questions I ask
my students in first class iswhat number child you are,
because birth order reallydictates who you are and I bet
that's really interesting interms of how your
responsibilities are a segmentright.
(04:10):
So I could say Xander, you'reprobably the one who's the risk
taker and Ryan, you're the onewho keeps things organized.
Just step from that alone.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Organized for sure.
I'm definitely the OCD one ofthe group.
I think risk taking yeah, Ithink that's exactly right yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, Look at that.
So you guys go to college, Doyou keep in touch?
Is it like, oh, when you comehome for school breaks and then
you know, were you both like, oh, we're both.
Was it assumed you'd go intofinance just by default?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I don't think so.
So we went off to college.
We stayed friends, of course,but we didn't really keep in
touch on a day-to-day basis.
After college I moved back toNew York.
Xander was in DC at the time.
We both had majors that weresimilar to what we're doing now,
but, frankly, I never thought Iwould use anything I learned in
that major and I just didbusiness and went into real
estate and you yeah, I studiedengineering and did a minor in
(05:03):
entrepreneurship and I thinkdeep down I always wanted to be
an entrepreneur and take thispath.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
But graduating college just sort of followed
the path of a lot of myclassmates, went work for a bank
in New York and thought, hey,you know, this will be good
training, no matter what I do.
And I guess a year and a halfinto us working in the
professional world, brian calledme with this idea and I was
like, yeah, I would love to dosomething entrepreneurial, let's
get started on this.
(05:27):
I didn't think it would take inmy naive mind.
I was like, yeah, this soundslike a great idea.
I could probably leave my jobin six months and do this whole
time Like tomorrow.
Yeah, exactly, it took aboutfive years, but I think for both
of us like doing somethingentrepreneurial was something we
wanted to to do but was reallyhard to know up until pretty
recently whether it was like adream we could actually see
(05:49):
through to fruition do either ofyour parents have their own
companies, their own businesses?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
mine don't.
Well, my dad now does.
He's been in the music industryhis whole life and he's kind of
had.
He's worked for companies buthas has been entrepreneurial.
Your family yes.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Yeah, my dad ran a small business when I was
growing up.
It was a candy manufacturer,importer, exporter, which is
really cool.
A lot of candy in my housegrowing up, so definitely my dad
was an entrepreneur throughoutmy childhood.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Because, you know, another case study is that most
people don't have the balls orthe courage to do it unless
they've seen someone else do it,to know that if it doesn't work
out, there's always a recoveryright, especially with what
you've done.
So you know, the interestingthing about starting your own
business which I'm sure you knowis that it doesn't even seem
like a risk when you do it.
(06:39):
It just seems organic and thisis just the natural progression.
Like okay, this is what we'regoing to do now, and that's it.
Organic and this is just thenatural progression.
Like, okay, this is what we'regoing to do now and that's it.
And I think you need to seesomeone else do it in your
family, without you know.
There's some kind ofsubconscious validation, like
it's okay, I know I can do this,and if it doesn't work out,
figure it out next.
There's got to be that likefear component that's pulled out
.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Absolutely.
I think that's spot on and Ithink for us, that's exactly
what we saw.
It's just like this was alwaysthe dream.
We wanted to make sure we werein an okay place personally,
that you know, we could giveourselves six 12 months of
runway along with the fact thatwe saw something in the company
that was like, okay, there'ssomething here, but we need to
give it our full time, and itkind of really felt like the
time was now, I think, you know,with my family, when I spoke to
(07:22):
my parents and just kind ofmentioned it here and there off
the bat, they're just likeyou're crazy, you're not, you're
not going to leave your job,like why would you do that and
that.
Until I sat them down and taughtthem through everything, at
which point, like I knew they'dbe supportive, but I think they
really saw what we're seeing itand they had that exact same
realization.
Despite not going through itthemselves, they said, okay,
this by not going through itthemselves, they said, okay, if
(07:42):
this doesn't work, you canhopefully go back to a job in
real estate or pay it orwhatever.
I think your conversation maybewas a little bit different with
your dad, who's gone through it.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yeah, my dad, who, you know, at age 31 or right
around my age, also left a jobon Wall Street to go and do his
own business, I think, was soexcited to hear I wanted to do
it and was like such a supporterand said the same thing like,
hey, I think and believe andhope this will work out, but if
it doesn't, you'll learn so much.
(08:12):
And he said not every week isgoing to be a good week, but
that's the name of the game ofbeing an entrepreneur.
And he loved hisentrepreneurial journey so much
and, like, was very supportiveof hey, go, go give it, go give
it a shot.
So it's definitely helpful whenyou have parents who are in
your corner, who have made itout on the other side.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So, ryan, this concept was yours for this said
bag.
So what was your aha moment?
Because typically, at leastwith handbag designers, it's the
.
I'm looking for this product, Ican't find this product.
And then it's the wouldn't itbe great if I could, if someone
made this product?
And then it's like, well, whatwould this product look like?
And then it turns out it endsup being me.
(08:52):
So how did all this come topass?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Sure, I think I mean first and foremost, the idea
when I called Xander was waydifferent than it is now, so I
can't take the idea as it standstoday.
But I did find myself working inNew York City, basically waking
up and trying to have my mostproductive days get up early,
try to go to the gym, go fromthe gym to my corporate office,
maybe go from the office to ahappy hour or a date or dinner,
(09:16):
whatever it was and I justconstantly found myself with two
to three bags a garment bag, abriefcase, any combination
thereof, or a backpack or abackpack Any day.
Two to three bags that not onlyfunctionally didn't really serve
each destination butaesthetically just didn't look
great.
I would have to bring mybriefcase to the gym, I'd have
to take my backpack to theoffice, and there has to be a
(09:37):
better way or a better bag outthere that functionally and
aesthetically can serve me onthose best days.
And looking around on thesubway every day, I saw tons of
people looking like they weredealing with the same problem.
So that, paired with just anentrepreneurial itch and desire
to do something creative, led meto call Xander, who we've
always, really since high school, I've seen eye to eye on a lot
(09:58):
of this stuff and I knew he'd bea great person to talk to about
it and he was sold, I think.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
So did you try shopping for said product first?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
We definitely did a lot of research.
We were like, okay, first step,let's see if there's anything
out there.
I think in trying to find a bagfor me, I just was searching
day to day for something thatwould fit and, functionally,
aesthetically.
I just couldn't find anythingand we said let's put our heads
together.
The next week, xander was inNew York and we were sitting
down in his apartment mappingthings out and figuring out a
(10:29):
path to making it happen.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So you didn't do anything on your own.
You got an idea and then youstraight up called him like hey,
I got this idea.
What do you think?
Does this happen for you too?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Exactly, and for me the problem immediately
resonated.
Every morning I was waking uppacking my gym bag, packing my
briefcase, packing a backpack.
You had a proper briefcase likeold school bag and I had a
(11:05):
backpack and I also would do alot of one night, overnight
trips.
I was living in DC at the timebut down to either Richmond,
virginia or up to New York.
So a lot of one day trips, twoday trips and like these three
bags were just chasing meeverywhere I went and so
immediately resonated with thisand with this problem Ryan was
talking about.
I was like yeah, there's got tobe something.
And I think as we dug into it alittle bit we kind of realized
like hey, there's a productmissing in this space, but it
(11:25):
also feels like there isn'treally a brand that's speaking
directly to us as consumers.
There were things that felt verymuch like this is a product I
would have in high school ormiddle school.
Things that felt like superexpensive and targeted towards
like an older demographic anddidn't see anything that felt
like it was speaking to us asright sort of professional but
(11:45):
still youthful people who wantedto look good and wanted to live
a certain life.
So it felt like there was anopportunity for a product, but
also like a broader brand withcertain values that we wanted to
try to create so did it startwith like a paper sketch, like,
okay, it would look like this,and then a post-it note on my
desk, which, of course, we haveit.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Okay, we will send you a picture after this.
But that's exactly what it wasa sticky note with a sketch of
what the concept was, and it nowlooks pretty close to that
obviously five years and about15 prototypes in between, but
the concept was still there soyou get this idea.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I I'm so curious, considering your backgrounds
again, like I said, are funnilyenough so non-traditional to
moving into this space.
Did you immediately LLC, get abrand name trademark immediately
, or were you like, hold on,let's figure out the concept and
we'll take care of all thatafter.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah, it's a great question and for us it was
really just one step at a time.
We had never started a company,we had never built a product or
a bag, and it was always justwhat's the next milestone?
So the first thing was likelet's get our thoughts and
sketch it out on paper to thebest of our ability.
The next step was let's go findsomebody who has done something
similar that we can rely on.
Let's research, let's figureout how to take this note, this
(13:02):
sticky note, and build an actual, tangible product.
We probably won't be able tosell it right away, but let's
actually get that in our hands.
And from there it was just likeI said, two steps forward, one
step backwards, building thisproduct into a product that we
felt confident taking to market.
And then, once we had that,we're like okay, let's you know,
we had been taking marketingphotos and learning from who we
(13:23):
thought our customer was and allthat.
So we were ready to go withwhat we envisioned the brand to
be.
But then it was time to buildour website, open a bank account
, file an LLC and become alegitimate company.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, I think that the way that we approached it in
retrospect was hugely helpfulto us.
There's this concept of SMARTgoals, which stands for specific
, measurable, actual, realistic,and I don't think we knew what
that acronym was, but we kind ofinto having really specific
goals, and the first one waslet's create a product that we
(13:56):
can touch and feel and that welike.
And I think for the first yeara year and a half it was just
about creating one bag.
So a lot of the other stuff wasout of mind and it was like,
hey, if we can create oneproduct, one sample, we'll have
learned so much, we'll feel good, like that will be a W.
And so we were just reallyfocused on let's create one
sample.
And we did that and we were soproud and happy and it was like,
(14:18):
okay, well, now what and whydidn't you create two?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Because both of you needed to take it for a test
drive.
Yeah, we did.
We did, okay.
So where did you and how didyou find someone to make your
brand back?
Did you look in New York City?
Because to get sample makingand that is a harsh lesson in
finance to learn how much, atleast domestically, people can
charge you to make a firstsample.
And it's not that I agree ordisagree with how these sample
makers run their businesses, assomeone who's worked with
(14:52):
hundreds, with a Z ofindependent new designers.
There's the learning curve cost, and that is well how I've
explained it to people.
They're in a position to chargeyou so much because you don't
know what you're doing.
So the time, value of money ittakes them to educate you, to
show you to do this they havelearned over time that they're
not even going to bothereducating you because at some
point you're probably not goingto come back.
(15:14):
So how did you go through thisprocess to find said person to
make a sample for you?
Because a Google search willget you people, but they may not
be the people you want.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
That is all so spot on.
We kind of looked through everynook and cranny to find
somebody that would do this fora reasonable cost.
We were directed by a friend,allie Kamineski, shout out
Modern Picnic to some factoriesin New York that she had
experience with, but, like yousaid, to make a sample.
It was gonna be I think it was$7,000.
(15:44):
And we had concept.
We didn't have money to spendlike that.
We're going to go askingfriends and family for money
before we had even tested thisand we're just like.
It seems like a little bit of acop out for us to just take the
first one that we know existed.
Let's use Google researcharound, see who we can get in
contact with.
Everything.
So much comes from overseas andwe're like let's at least start
there because it's going to bea little reasonable.
(16:06):
So I think we just started coldoutreach to any factories email
we could find, hoping for aresponse.
I think we probably sent over ahundred emails and I think
maybe we got like two or threeback.
But one factory was willing tobuild a prototype for us and
they send us back our two firstsamples, which we still have
(16:27):
China.
Okay, we still have thosesamples today and I hold them
very near and dear to my heart.
However, that was the lastsample they'd make for us,
because they said your productis too complicated.
Yeah, we're just not workingwith you guys anymore.
So we're like all right back tosquare one, but we had our
product.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah.
So what did you do then?
Then you're like, okay, go back.
And did you say okay, is this asign that we shouldn't work in
China, or is this a sign?
And what were your feelings?
Like leather, non-leather, Wereyou both like this is who we
are.
What do we think?
I mean, what kind of thoughtprocess did you think about
materials?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Yes, we got that material we knew was going to be
huge for us.
We always said, oh, we're goingto have this awesome, modern,
sleek material that's superunique.
And people would be like, oh,it sounds super cool, what is it
?
And we'd say, oh, we don't knowyet, we haven't figured that
out.
So our first couple of sampleswere just made out of like nylon
, because we really wanted tojust get the dimensions down,
the functionality down, and sothat first sample we didn't want
(17:24):
to hold it up while we lookedfor material.
So we sort of parallel path, abunch of material exploration
with constructing the bag,figuring we could swap the
material out later, when thatfactory said, hey, we can't work
with you anymore, and we werekind of back in square one.
That wasn't the last time thatwould have happened because we
did a lot of this through COVID.
(17:45):
So we then found anotherfactory.
Luckily we talked to a bunch ofpeople in our network who
worked in manufacturing.
Someone said, hey, there's amaterial fair that's going on or
a manufacturing fair that'sgoing on in New York City.
You can look into getting somepasses.
We went there.
We made some connections there,found a new factory.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Premier Class or Linea Pele.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
The convention.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, which one was it for materials?
I think it was called Hexworldoh that was the third one I was
going to say.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Jabbit Center.
Jabbit Center.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
So we got some connections there.
We did a couple more sampleswith two factories that we had
gone and connected with throughthere and then COVID hit and
they both said, hey, we can onlyreally support existing clients
that are putting in orders withus.
(18:36):
We can't renew R&D and so onceagain we found ourselves in a
position of we don't have a towork with and once again we just
started kind of emailing,calling anyone who might have a
connection to someone who mighthave a connection to someone who
knows manufacturing, and weluckily got connected with a
sourcing agent who was basedoverseas, who had a lot of
experience in bags andmanufacturing and leather goods,
(18:56):
and once we brought him onboard it really helped things in
a big way because he had a bignetwork of factories, he was
really experienced in R&D and hesort of became the third point
of our team and really helped usexpedite a lot of the steps of
the rest of the research anddevelopment process.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So you came to the final conclusion.
In terms of materials, you werelike that's it.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
So that's a funny story.
We were trying to figure outwhat our material was, and this
was something that wasconstantly on our minds.
And I was at a museum in NewYork one day and I saw someone
like 50 yards down the hall infront of me wearing this rain
jacket that I just thoughtlooked so cool and such a sleek
material and I was like that'sit.
And so I sort of tracked thisguy down and I was like, hey,
(19:41):
I'm so sorry to bother you, butI love your rain jacket.
Where's it from?
It was a Scandinavian brandthat had been doing really high
end, sort of like rubberizedvegan leather rain jackets for a
while.
And so then we talked with thesourcing guy and said, hey,
we're looking for something likethis leather or this PU leather
, and he helped us get it.
(20:02):
And that was the firstiteration of it, and we've now
met with a lot of suppliers,given them specifications, and
have been able to go from likean off the shelf version of this
product to a product that hassomething like the width and the
finish and the colors are allto our brand specifications.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
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(21:55):
So you know so many questions,obviously.
So the two of you being men andbanker men, and you know was
your lens?
Always let's stick to darkcolors.
Let's stick to dark, neutralcolors, and you know khaki is
black.
How did you determine yourpalette?
Because, again, for a new brand, your unique selling point is
(22:16):
more than the bag itself.
Right, the name is one thing,whatever, it's really the
product that's going to be thehero.
So how did you determine yourcolor palette and say we have to
stand out, but we can't standout because we don't want to
alienate who our potentialcustomer is?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think we knew we wanted to doa black bag, because we just
thought that was going to be themost basic, neutral.
Well, we envisioned the brandand like to think today that the
brand is unisex and obviously,you know, we're building a
mission that should resonatewith men and women, with two
guys designing the bag.
Inherently it came out moremasculine and we said, okay,
(22:54):
this is a masculine bag rightnow.
Hopefully we will build outproducts for women, but right
now we want to focus on our onehero customer, which is that
male in there, anywhere frommaybe post college, like early
20s, 40s, 50s, somebody who's onthe road, somebody who works in
a city with a packed day kindof like we alluded to or just
travels weekenders, overnights,et cetera.
(23:15):
So black was pretty muchautomatic.
And then we wanted to have somevariety.
But while doing this kind ofside of desk, we weren't able to
really go and test a bunch ofdifferent colors and spend all
this money for different samples, because we just didn't have
the time or money.
So we kind of took our bestguess at what would be two good
alternatives we went with navy,which I love, and we went with a
(23:37):
kind of a forest green which Ithink Xander really liked too At
least on the shirt.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And we went to Marquee with that and started to
learn and have success.
But we're super excited becausewe just actually were overseas
for the first time, visiting ourpartners and factories, and in
a few weeks we were able toaccomplish, I think, what would
have taken probably four to sixmonths sitting at our desks at
home.
Really, just in colors anddifferent cues and stuff, we
were able to mix and match andsee tons of different stuff and
(24:06):
combinations and get a reallygood sense.
So we've got a gray that we'regoing to come out with later
this year, hopefully some othercolor variations that will
attract a whole wide audience.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Are you sticking with this one hero silhouette before
you start really trying to pushforward, like, make this the
biggest and the best and thengoing from there?
Because my experience, you knowand I was just interviewed for
the Wall Street Journal and Ispoke about this actually I had
one sentence, or my dialoguewith the, with the writer, whom
(24:38):
I love.
We had this conversation backand forth, but my case study is
always the Balenciaga motorcyclebag or city bag, because that
is the hero as far as the mostrecognizable one back within.
You know, any assortment wouldstand out and the clever thing
about that bag, amongst others,is that any bag that comes from
(25:00):
it looks like it's related.
It's definitely not.
You know, the cousin's, uncle's,sister's knee is twice removed,
it's.
You know the bag's a littlesmaller, the bag's a little
bigger, there's a little extrahardware, there's a little less
hardware.
It's in a different color, butyou know they're all the same.
You know they're related.
Is that how you see yourassortment growing?
(25:21):
Kind of keeping it within thefamily, or you want to like?
That's it.
We worked so hard on developingthis one bag.
Now we're going to pivot and doa totally new bag.
What's your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Yeah, it's a great question, Definitely taking the
Balenciaga approach.
So we've gotten a ton of greatfeedback on this bag and
customers who really, reallylove it.
And there are two things thatwe heard a lot.
One was there are some dayswhere I just don't need this
much space and I love material,I love the profile, I love the
aesthetic, but sometimes justdon't need something this big.
(25:54):
And then other times where wehear customers saying all the
same, but hey, I just needsomething with a little bit more
room to pack.
So we have two new versions thatare coming out in November.
So one is going to be a smallerversion of the bag.
Again, the profile looks verysame, the aesthetic is very
similar, but it's going to besized down.
And then we have anotherversion of the bag, also in
(26:15):
November, where the constructionof it and kind of how the
different compartments andpockets are laid out is
different to be more useful indifferent scenarios, but again,
the aesthetic.
Like you said, it's very clearthat these products are siblings
, not second cousins.
So that's, at least for thenear term, variations of the
(26:35):
Hero product.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
The one thing I'll just quickly add is I think,
even as we get farther into thefuture, hopefully, we'll no
matter what product kind of webring to market and no matter
who that's for, if it's for men,if it's for women, older,
younger, use cases, et cetera.
I think what we really will,you know, try to hold true to,
like Xander said in the formerapproach, the blends, yoga
approaches, where the brand isgoing to be similar, like the
(26:58):
brand's going to be the same,the materials are probably going
to be similar.
Obviously we'll have somevariation, but at the end of the
day it's going to be a bag thatyou can tell just based on the
aesthetic, based on the materialthis is FTL and the
functionality might be a littlebit different.
The bag might be a little bitof a different shape.
By the end of the day, thevalues will stay the same.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Who came up with the name?
That's a great question.
There's so many great questions.
Was it someone's mom?
Speaker 3 (27:22):
No, no, it was you, ryan, was it I?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
think so.
So we had a couple names thatwe don't need to dive into, just
because I feel like people gothrough that all the time.
But essentially we had one namethat we ended up diverting from
because just with COVID,there's so many companies
popping up that every singlename we looked at through like
the trademark system was takenand we're just like and now it's
getting to the point where it'sholding us up.
(27:46):
We couldn't design a logo.
The bag was ready but wecouldn't start building our
brand because we couldn't find aname that we loved and
essentially, we started justpiecing words and letters
together that we liked andeventually we were trying to
talk to each other what doesthis brand really stand for?
When we think about this, whenpeople are holding our bag, what
(28:07):
do we kind of evoke?
And I think we came to theconclusion this is kind of what
we, what's our mission now is.
This is a product that helpsyou have great days and this is
a brand that really celebratesthose best days.
So we're like okay, this isreally just about for the love
of whatever you're doing, sopeople.
So we said, for the love.
Love was just a great phrasethat we loved and we're like
(28:27):
let's name this company FTL.
So a lot of times people saywhat does FTL stand for?
And we say for the love.
And they say for the love ofwhat?
And we say that's really up toyou for you to decide.
So sometimes it's a littlecliche, but we really believe it
and stand by it.
It's just whatever makes youtick.
We're just about helping youcelebrate those great days and
here's a bag just to help youget there.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
You never thought about Chase and Lane.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
We did, yeah, we did think about that.
That was brought up to us abunch, but I think for us that
made the brand very much aboutus, and we didn't want this
brand to be about us at all.
It was about our customers andthe people with the product.
And so we kind of said, okay,what's something that really
makes the hero of this brand notus at all but the consumers?
(29:13):
And I think that's what broughtus from the Chase and Lane
school of thought over to theFTL school of thought.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
You know it's funny that you brought up the
trademark search because theUSPTO is a friend and I think a
lot of people don't realize thatit is an amazing resource to
just constantly search names andso forth and like who has it
and what categories and whatclassifications.
And can I do my trademarkmyself?
(29:40):
Because I kind of can, becauseyou know I can kind of figure it
out.
It is an incredibly helpfulresource and from someone who's
done multiple trademarks ontheir own, it's really
fascinating to learn, especiallyfor the love, that you
obviously couldn't trademark anyof those words on their own.
It had to be together.
You had to throw in adisclaimer.
(30:01):
And is it trademarked for thelove or is it FTL?
Which one is the brand?
Speaker 3 (30:07):
So it depends on the class, but we have FTL in some
classes we have for the love.
Or is it FTL?
Which one is the brand?
So it depends on the class, butwe have FTL in some classes, we
have for the love.
In other classes we have FTLcolon for the love in other
classes.
So it sort of depends.
I forget, I can't remember theclass codes, but we have
different coverage in differentareas depending on kind of how
competitive or hard it is to geta trademark in that specific
class and how much protection weneed in that specific class.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
You know I'll share a fun fact with you and I don't
know how much you guys have putinto motion for your brand at
this point, but I had a brand abillion years ago called Yasmina
.
Don't ask about the origin, Ithought it sounded amazing,
global, international.
It could get translatedda-da-da-da-da.
You know, everybody comes withan idea and they think they're
(30:51):
best thing that's ever.
It's splitting the atom, right.
And I had patents.
I designed patents on mysilhouettes.
Again, don't ask how I came upwith the idea for that.
I just said, oh, I think theseneed to be protected.
That was my gateway intogetting licensing.
I decided fun fact to knockmyself off before anyone else
did and as a result of that, Icame up with the Yazzie bag.
(31:13):
So I had my Yasmina, which wasmy high end, and the Yazzie,
which was the low end.
I would reserve one of thosefor something for the shelf for
the future, because I think inbuilding brand equity, put all
your money in one and save theother.
Just my opinion.
Something to think about,because it's confusing for
someone to say which one is it?
(31:33):
Just something to think about.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yeah, I'm good with that.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah, Because at some point, whatever you're at,
you're going to want to eithergo up here, go higher, or want
to go lower for somethingdiffusion, because it's really
hard when you're starting abrand, obviously, to get to
scale right.
Economies of scale it's tricky,but once you're in that
position, that could cannibalizethis beautiful brand equity you
(31:59):
created.
So you don't want it to be thesame name Something to think
about.
But I'm good for that.
Last question, Actually lasttwo questions when have you guys
butted heads?
Or you never had that?
If I'm good for that lastquestion, actually, last two
questions where have you guysbutted heads?
Or you never had that?
Because I'm sure, like, how doyou deal with conflict?
I've heard so many differentways that people have.
Like there are a couple offounders that I've heard that
(32:20):
it's like is it a one for youand a 10 for me?
So for this matter, if it's a10 for you, I'll go with that.
Like, how do you handleconflict for things?
Because, again, what you findwith a work partner ends up you
end up spending more time withthem and having deeper
conversations than perhaps yourmarital partner or you know
person with whom you end updating, living with.
(32:41):
So there's got to be a seamlessway that you guys have figured
out how to work through conflict.
So what is your secret sauce todate?
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Usually I just bring you some food.
Are we really only gettingconflicts when Xander's hungry
or tired?
No, that's not true.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Well, it's a really good question.
I was like reflecting on it andthinking about it deeply,
because we really don't buttheads that much and I'm curious
your answer.
But there's two things I thinkthat really help with that.
The first it is for so manyyears we have talked so at depth
about really fundamental thingsof like what is this brand,
(33:19):
what do we want out of this andwhen.
Because I think we're soaligned on like the the deepest
here, it makes decision makingreally easy.
If there's a question on, itcould be something around
inventory or a design decisionor how to handle a customer
issue, because I think we're soaligned at the mission and value
(33:43):
level, it becomes really easyto be like here's the right
answer, because we'veestablished that we see eye to
eye on the really core thing.
So I think that's one thingthat helps a lot.
But when there is a differenceof opinion between two things,
very quickly one of us will saylike this is not a hill I need
to die on, and it becomes clearthat you seem to care a lot
(34:06):
about this, or this is somethingthat falls more into your
domain.
I have complete faith.
Like here's what I think, butyou make the decision.
I really can't think of many,if any, situations where we had
differing views and we both feltreally really strongly about it
and weren't willing to defer tothe other.
So that's kind of what I think,but I'm super curious to hear
(34:26):
your answer to the other.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
So that's kind of what I think, but I'm super
curious to hear your answer.
I defer to Ryan on that Echothat I think from the deep kind
of big questions we have toanswer, we have really discussed
this and aligned on this for somany years that, like Xander
said, we usually can come to anagreement or one person can kind
of say, at least on the surfacelevel issues.
If that's the case, one personcan kind of say, all right, I'm
(34:50):
not going to die on this hill,and I think that's also in that,
like we've been working on thisfor five years and I think a
lot of people would get fatigueWe've certainly been very close,
both at the same time, atdifferent times, but at the end
of the day, I think from day one, we really had a vision for
where we want this to be and weknew it was going to take a long
time.
So even if one person wasn'tfeeling it one day, the other
(35:10):
person kind of picks up theslack and vice versa.
But at the end of the day, inthe long run, we've been both
very committed and I thinkthat's the number one thing.
And I think it's very hard to bea solo founder I can't even
imagine.
But it's also hard to beco-founders because you have to
be perfectly kind of in lockstepon the long-term vision.
But in those really more soday-to-day little obstacles, I
(35:31):
think it's really about justcoming to the table, having
respect for one another and eachother's opinions, a foundation
of really great trust.
And obviously there are horrorstories that hopefully, god
forbid, won't happen.
But at the end of the day Ithink it's just a relationship
built on trust and kind of along-term vision, and I think
that's what's helped us havesuccess today.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Are you looking to raise money?
Do you think you're good?
Do you want to avoid that?
Are you willing to give awaypieces of the pie?
I mean both of you beingfinance people.
I feel like the default is oh,we need to raise money, we need
other people's money, butfashion and handbags it's a
different ballgame in terms ofperception and risk and
(36:12):
inventory.
It's not the same responseyou'd get if you were developing
a tech app for real estate andpeople with good beards like
yourself.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yeah, it's a great question and I'll let Xander
dive in as well.
The only thing I'll say is thatI think we've been in an
interesting position, which Ithink has been helpful.
I think we haven't foundourselves today and this might
very well change but in a placewhere we need to go out and
raise like a large amount ofcapital and give up equity.
Instead, you know, webootstrapped everything from the
(36:44):
beginning and then, as soon aswe had to write a check for
inventory, we went out tofriends and family after we ran
a Kickstarter.
So we had real data and a realcase study that we could point
to and say hey, this is aproduct, market fit, there's a
need for this.
Our friends were going to justhand over whatever money just to
support us.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
How did you decide for the Kickstarter what people
would get for this $50?
You get this.
How did you decide that with abrand that you were trying to
raise money for?
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yeah, that was a lot of price discovery and that was
part of the Kickstarterintention for us figure out
where this product was going tosell and if we could grow it.
So we picked a price that wethought was reasonable.
We did a friends and family atone price, and that wasn't to
make money, just get the baginto the hands of the people we
know and get some capital in thedoor.
And then we took that price andwe improved the bag and we
(37:33):
improved materials.
And then we went to Kickstarterwith a price point and we said,
okay, here's our price point.
These people are pre-orderingit.
They're going to have to waitsix months.
They're taking on risk.
So if they're willing to buythis at this price point, then
if it's a success when we go tomarket outside of Kickstarter,
there's a pretty significantincrease that we can tack on,
just because now you'reoperating like a real company.
(37:54):
They're not first risk takers,et cetera.
So that was great for us.
And then to kind of go back tothe first question, it's because
we haven't done equity andwe've just raised debt from
friends and family thus far.
It's put us in a position wherewe can't just spending money
and seeing what works.
Every sale has to be profitableso we can pay back our
(38:14):
investors.
And I think that's Zaner and I,very, very, very careful and
strategic and I think sometimeswe wish we could move faster.
But I think it's a blessing indisguise that we've kind of been
built and being risk aversebecause-.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
It stops you from overhead.
It stops you from stupidmarketing decisions.
It stops you from Facebook adsthat you may or may not like.
Hey, wouldn't it be fun if andlet's do that, if and everything
, every penny spent has toanswer a why, and I think that's
, you know, case study buildingright there.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Yeah, couldn't agree more.
It's every penny needs a why.
It's one of those situationswhere constraints is to your
benefit and it makes us spendand operate in a much more
focused and lean way.
So I think it is really to ourbenefit and something we'll try
to do for as long as possible.
There probably will be a pointat some point maybe it's a year,
(39:04):
maybe it's two years where wedo need capital, because at a
certain point you need money togrow, but we're trying to wait
until again.
It's a burning need for us andthere's clearly things we need
to invest in, not to raise moneyjust to say, hey, we raised
money.
We want to wait until it's likethere's a very obvious reason
for why we need to take onexternal capital.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, okay, guys.
How can people follow you?
Learn more, learn about thenon-chase and lane FTL bag.
How can we find, follow andpurchase your amazing hero bag?
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah Well, thank you again.
This has been so fun chattingwith.
For FTL.
We're on Instagram at FTLbags.
You can find us online,ftlbagscom.
Subscribe to our email list onthere to get all the updates,
everything we're up to.
We do a lot about the bag, buta lot of stories too, about
people we're working withathletes and musicians and just
people that we think really like, resonate with the brand and
(39:59):
that we're proud of to have asas customers of of ftl anywhere
I missed we got some funnytiktok videos.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
You can check us out on tiktok too, but yeah,
instagram do you enjoy?
Speaker 1 (40:09):
do you enjoy doing the tiktoks?
Speaker 2 (40:12):
sometimes I really like filming them.
The editing process it's notlike you know everything we do,
but we've learned and it is alsoI will say we did have.
This was crazy.
We had one TikTok about a yearor two ago go fully viral, and
you know that's always the goalof TikTok.
You're like let's get viral,let's go viral, let's get this
brand out into the world.
And it just so happened weposted a few and they weren't
(40:33):
hitting.
I'm like heck, I thought thiswas gonna be easy.
Like it was all about the storyand the brand and how we all
these people are carrying twobags and we're like one bag to
replace the rest.
And all of a sudden, I likecheck our Instagram and we've
got like 400 new followers andI'm like, oh my god, oh my god,
something's happening.
And Xander, of course, happensto be on like a 12 hour flight
at the time, so I got no one totalk to about this.
(40:53):
I'm like talking to my parents.
They're like what are youtalking?
Speaker 1 (40:56):
about.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Whatever, what does that even mean?
And I'm fully freaking out.
And then I go to TikTok and Isee that one of our videos has
now surpassed like 50,000 viewsand I'm like, oh my God, it's
happening.
Comments everything from allthe great things to the internet
trolls, which made me extremelyangry.
But you know, you learned that?
Speaker 1 (41:14):
what was the tick tock, what made it?
What was the unique angle of it?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
It was really our story.
It was just about us and wherethis problem you know came from
and our desire to solve it, andjust the journey of building
this bag and it ended upsurpassing about 2 million views
, which was insane andunthinkable.
And the comments are brutal.
There's many good comments.
There's also a couple bad,which I'm texting Sam.
(41:38):
I'm like I'm going to answerthis guy.
He's like Ryan put your phonedown.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Ironically, he was telling you to stop.
So there you go, go figure.
Guys, this has been absolutelyamazing.
Thank you so much for joiningand looking forward to seeing
more of FTL.
Go, big, go, big, go, big, bigThanks so much guys.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah, this has been awesome, Really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Thanks for listening.
Don't forget to rate and review, and follow us on every single
platform at Handbag Designer.
Thanks so much.
See you next time.
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