Publication Date: 2016-10-29
Chris Koerner, founder and CEO of LCDcycle – a company that recycles broken iPhone screens and supplies wireless repair shop with wholesale electronic parts. Aside from being a motivational speaker and winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year award, Chris is a guy who appreciates the haters. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Delivering Happiness What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — Flipboard Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I try but I don’t If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Tell myself to appreciate the haters”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:46 – Nathan introduces Chris to the show 02:31 – LCDcycle was founded in 2013 02:43 – Chris opened a smartphone repair shop in college in 2010 02:51 – Sold it for $ 30,000 03:50 – They started in Alabama 04:10 – They got more customers in the Texas market 04:45 – The supply parts to repair shop 04:58 – First year revenue 05:08 – Did $ 2.1 million for the first full year 05:13 – For 2014, they did $ 4.8 million and $ 8.8 million in 2015 05:36 – They are doing cold-calling to get customers 05:57 – Uses a lead generation tool to scrape the repair shops details 06:25 – Gross margin average is 31% 06:55 – Team size is 12 07:08 – They are self-funded 07:31 – Started with $ 30,000 07:41 – Chris asked his family and friends for a loan 08:16 – Total volume of parts shipped 08:27 – About million parts 08:45 – Most of their shipments are iPhone screens 08:53 – Average price point for the shops 09:17 – Spending $ 23 for raw material 10:15 – 8% net margin 10:30 – Supplies are coming from China 10:49 – LCDcycle sells new screens and buying the broken screens from the repair shops 11:05- Broken screens are being sent to China 11:27 – Their revenue is shrinking this year to $ 6.5 million 11:41 – There’s a shortage in supplies last year so there was a spike in sales 12:25 – They’re supplying to 700-800 unique shops 12:36 – Reorder rate 13:45 – Chris raised money last year 14:21 – Chris would sell to a bigger company 15:20 – Connect with Chris through his Facebook 17:30 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: You have a good chance of developing a great company—you just need to be willing to navigate through the failures. Believe in yourself. Expansion—even in the face of risk—is worth it. Always appreciate the haters. Resources Mentioned: Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal  for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal  developers. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible. Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email. Facebook – Chris’ personal Facebook account. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
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