I get 500 to 600 e-mails daily. Most are from customers, the rest from brands, designers, business partners, and other entrepreneurs. Lauren triages them: If it's a business decision, she'll flag it. If it's something someone else in the company can answer, she forwards it. She generally keeps on top of everything and keeps me posted on what's going on. The ones from customers are my priority. We have 45 people working in customer service. I'll often go down and pick up the phone to hear what customers have to say and to see what we can do to make things smoother. Every once in a while, I send out a personal e-mail to all of our customers—to promote a great sale or a new brand on the site. I always include my cell-phone number, and people do call it. I specifically say, No pitches. I'm happy to shoot the breeze, but if people start pitching, I hang up.
Many of our employees have their own clothing lines, which we'll sell if it's the right fit. We encourage people to do that—but we don't do any favors. We'll look at their stuff because they're here, but that doesn't mean we'll buy it. For example, Hollins manages the merchandising department and also has his own clothing line called All Day. Part of the fun of working at Karmaloop is that employees have creative outlets. But it can't affect their job performance. That's one of the things I drill into people: If you're not doing your job, you can't stay.
Right now, I'm focused on making sure everything we have going gets up on its feet. TV, for instance, has a long way to go, so I'm focused on that. I talk with KarmaloopTV's president, Katie McEnroe, at least several times a week. That office is based in New York City, so I also spend as much as two weeks in a month there, and at least one day a week. I'll hop on a plane in the morning and then come back in the afternoon. We talk about programming-we have created two shows that we pitched to Comedy Central and IFC, and have a premium YouTube channel. There's always activity in the office-photo shoots, people visiting, celebrities doing interviews. From time to time, I jump in and do an interview, but we have dedicated staff for that.
I also travel to Los Angeles once a month. United Talent Agency is an investor, so I go meet with its head, Jeremy Zimmer, as well as meet with people for potential KTV projects. I go to the trade shows in New York City and in Las Vegas. We threw a two-day party at the Magic convention, which I hosted with the hip-hop artist and producer Pharrell, who signed on as KTV's creative director in 2011. I actively cultivate relationships with celebrities, like Pharrell, who is a hero to our audience and now a close friend. In the beginning, I would pitch Karmaloop to celebrities. Now they're calling us.
Every day, I talk about verge culture, the audience we sell to—to press people, entrepreneurs, corporations, basically anyone who wants to know. These kids are so often misunderstood because of the way they dress or look. People say they're lazy, disrespectful, or disinterested. But the opposite is true. The whole idea of verge culture is the convergence of many different cultures. These kids mix Indian bhangra music with hip-hop; they like Japanese anime, blaxploitation, and Steve McQueen. They are interested in art and social causes. They're a minority, but there are a lot of them. And they're global.
I went to Japan, the epicenter of verge culture, twice last year. I met with designers and brands and just soaked up the street culture. We recently did a deal with Xiu.com, the largest luxury retailer in China, to build a Chinese version of Karmaloop. And we also bought a company in Copenhagen called Streetammo that was doing exactly what we do in Europe. It will become Karmaloop Europe.
As a retailer, we manage our goods as any department store would. I learned the importance of this from Sam Gerson, who used to be chairman of Filene's Basement. He was the father-in-law of a friend and met me early on. He took one look at my business plan and said, "You have no clue what you're doing." But he liked me and became my mentor. Sam taught me not to be afraid to take markdowns. He said, "Clothing is like ice cream—it loses value as soon as you serve it." Basically, his mantra is, Sell shit fast. It's become mine, too. We love our brands, but I'll take the gloves off to succeed. The sooner the goods are on the site, the more money you make. Fashion has an expiration date, and you want to beat your competition. So I make sure my sales team is on top of that all the time-call the brands, yell if necessary: "Where are the goods?"
I leave the office anywhere between 7 and 9:30. We have an 18-month-old daughter, who the nanny brings to the office every afternoon at around 4 for a visit. My wife and I usually go home after work to say good night to our daughter, and then eat out. Oftentimes, we'll invite people from the office, usually the executives. Besides a few friends I keep in touch with from high school, my entire social life is tied up in Karmaloop.
I just took the first vacation in years. We went to Palm Beach. And the last four days there, we did a summit for the MissKL site. Five employees flew down for it. I've never taken a vacation in which I don't work. We usually tack vacations onto work: We recently went to Shanghai before some business meetings in Hong Kong. And last winter, we spent six weeks in L.A. working on KarmaloopTV. My days were swamped with back-to-back meetings—with actors, musicians, style bloggers, and brands. But at least it was warm. In one sense, my life is stressful. In another, it is a vacation, because I love what I'm doing. Work is my fun.
