Category: Interviews with Entrepreneurs

Guitar Compass: Teaching the World to Strum With Online Guitar Lessons Powered by WooCommerce Subscriptions

By Ali on May 3, 2017 — 16 mins read

Want to shred on the axe but don't have time to see a tutor? Guitar Compass is the answer to your dilemma, with online guitar lessons powered by WooCommerce Subscriptions. This Atlanta, USA based company has moved with the times, and we follow their entrepreneurial journey through to offering a subscription-based model of unlimited streaming lessons from their enormous catalogue of tutorials.  More

Carving out a gnarly niche as a WooCommerce entrepreneur: Supereight lands it

By Ali on September 28, 2016 — 25 mins read

Surf and skate threads have been da bomb for several decades now. Sam Culshaw is a WooCommerce entrepreneur bringing us a world of cool with Supereight, a rapidly growing lifestyle brand based in Nottingham, UK. We talked about the seasonality of ordering; how server capacity can be likened to the size of a bricks and mortar store; the importance of customer service; and the excitement of selling. More

WooCommerce, Teslas, and an MBA: the drivers of success for Drivr

By Ali on June 22, 2016 — 21 mins read

What do you get when you combine technical know-how, a love of Teslas, and an MBA? You get Brandon Beard, the founder of Drivr, a Cincinnati-based ridesharing company with a difference. You get the convenience of Uber with the luxury of a Tesla and the personalised service of a chauffeured car. 90% of this project is powered by WooCommerce and WooCommerce extensions straight out of the box. But it’s helped by a very smart investment into the 10% that “glues” those extensions together and customises them specifically for Drivr. More

Scout Books: Sustainable, Custom Notebooks, Sourced from Portland, Powered by WooCommerce

By Ali on May 6, 2016 — 13 mins read

Scout Books is a custom notebook printing company based in Portland, Oregon. Not only do they print notebooks, but they also make rather fine conference agendas (useful for WooConf 2017 maybe?) Scout Books produces such beautiful books I’m actually not sure I will be able to write in them. A love of good design, a love of real paper notebooks, and their mission for sustainability sees them doing well while doing good. More

Three65 Underwear Subscription: Never Run Out of Clean Undies Again

By Kirby Prickett on October 21, 2015 — 8 mins read

Some of the best candidates for subscription products are day-to-day necessities, like toothbrushes, toilet paper, and pet food. These items might not be the most exciting, but all (or most) of us need them on a regular basis. William Strange and some friends realised that underwear is something that you just need to buy (especially once you grow up and your parents stop buying them for you). But getting to the shops to buy them can be a hassle and expensive. Inspired by Dollar Shave Club, Will decided to launch Three65, an underwear subscription service for men. In this interview, Will reflects on the story behind Three65, his experience pitching the business on Shark Tank Australia, and some of the challenges he’s faced. More

A Subscription Box for Today’s Gentleman

By Kirby Prickett on October 7, 2015 — 12 mins read

What better way to celebrate the release of WooCommerce Subscriptions 2.0 than with a subscriptions-based entrepreneur interview? John Haji and the team at Gentleman’s Box have spent the last couple of years building a successful subscription box business for today’s gentleman. John has tirelessly pursued his vision of a carefully curated Gentleman’s Box since first conceiving the idea in 2013. In the process he’s built an impressive list of brand partners featured in each month’s box, as well as a partnership with GQ Magazine. Read on to learn more about the Gentleman’s Box business, their inspiration, advice, and plans for the future. More

Bump Boxes: A Pregnancy Subscription Box Dedicated to Safe Products

By Kirby Prickett on September 23, 2015 — 5 mins read

Pregnancy can be a confusing time, especially for first-time mums and parents. Suddenly the pregnant mumma has to be much more careful about what she eats, drinks or puts on her body! Bump Boxes is a pregnancy subscription box business that's dedicated to making it easier for expecting families to choose safe and healthy products for their growing baby. Powered by WooCommerce and WooCommerce Subscriptions, Bump Boxes offers a regular delivery of safe and healthy pregnancy samples or products. The founding parents of Bump Boxes are Christine and Leland Deehring. Christine took the time to answer some questions about the inspiration for Bump Boxes, the ins-and-outs of their business and marketing operations, and her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. More

Bullymake: A Pet Subscription Box for Power Chewers

By Kirby Prickett on September 9, 2015 — 5 mins read

Bullymake is a pet subscription box, which targets power chewing breeds (that is, dogs that destroy all of their toys). Colin Hatzmann is the founder of Bullymake and last week he was kind enough to jump on the phone with me to answer a few questions. Colin has been running Bullymake for about a year now, and it sounds like business is going very well. Read on to learn about Colin’s inspiration and processes, his experience using WooCommerce Subscriptions to run a subscription box business, and his advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs. More

A Toilet Paper Subscription Business With a Twist

By Kirby Prickett on August 26, 2015 — 9 mins read

Toilet paper. We all need it, and I expect most of us know the frustration of unexpectedly running out. It's the perfect example of an everyday item that is ideally suited to a subscription delivery model. TPFactory is making the most of this common sense business opportunity, but with a twist. Customers can select a charity partner of their choice to receive 5% of their monthly subscription fee as a donation. I had the opportunity to chat with Lee Jossel, the founder of TPFactory a couple of weeks ago. He shared his experience running this toilet paper subscription business, which is powered by WooCommerce and WooCommerce Subscriptions. More

HDPiano: Bootstrapping a Successful Video Subscription Business

By Kirby Prickett on August 5, 2015 — 15 mins read

HDPiano is different to many of the other subscription businesses we've spoken to as part of this interview series. Because their product is a video subscription business—a membership to view videos of piano lessons—HDPiano don’t have to worry about shipping, inventory or many of the other hassles that consistently plague eCommerce entrepreneurs. Another distinguishing fact about HDPiano is that YouTube is their top lead generator. Founder Sean Lee, told me that to date they haven't spent anything on paid advertising to build HDPiano's audience. Read on to find out how Sean was able to build HDPiano from humble beginnings with a $500 personal investment with no programming skills. You'll also learn a little bit about Sean's digital nomad lifestyle in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and how Tim Ferriss's The Four Hour Work Week influenced his approach.  More

Proper Socks for the Modern Gentleman: An Interview with Bertrand’s

By Kirby Prickett on June 24, 2015 — 9 mins read

This week we have another eCommerce interview out of the UK, this time with Bertrand’s Proper Socks. Bertrand's Proper Socks is using WooCommerce and WooCommerce Subscriptions to sell funky, high-quality men's socks to the discerning online customer. I spoke with Founder Xixi Zhu over Skype about the origins of Bertrand’s Proper Socks, what they’ve been up to recently and their plans for the future. More

What’s Life Without Risks? Our Interview with Snaps

By Kirby Prickett on May 27, 2015 — 12 mins read

Josh Gare is the founder of Snaps, an eCommerce retailer of high-quality, yet affordable, sunglasses in the UK. We were excited when Josh reached out to us about Snaps, and jumped at the chance to hear more of his story. You see Josh isn't your typical entrepreneur (if there's such a thing). He's currently finishing his final exams for his economics degree at the University of Bristol. He's also had a number of successes building iOS apps, something he's been doing since he was 16 years old. Read on to hear more about how Snaps has used clever partnerships to overcome early marketing challenges, the process they went through to find suppliers, and their plans for the future.  More

Renting Out Clothes With WooCommerce

By Kirby Prickett on April 1, 2015 — 6 mins read

Clothing rental subscriptions make a lot of sense. Customers are happy, because they receive regular deliveries of new items to wear. They also get to benefit from the expertise of professional stylists. When a customer gets tired of a particular item, they can easily send it back for somebody else to enjoy. That means less waste and fewer items sitting forgotten in the back of cupboards. I recently spoke to one such business owner, Vladimir Paniouchkine, the CEO and Co-Founder of The Mr Collection, a clothing rental subscription business for men. Vladimir gave me some great insights into the origins and experience of running The Mr Collection and its sister business The Ms Collection. More

WooCommerce and the Chocolate Factory

By Kirby Prickett on March 25, 2015 — 11 mins read

With WooCommerce businesses scattered all over the world, it’s not often I get to do an interview in person. But this is an entrepreneur story that could only come from San Francisco. Last week I spoke Dandelion Chocolate founder Todd Masonis, at their factory location in San Francisco’s Mission District. After selling their consumer internet business to Comcast in 2008, Todd and business partner Cameron went down a path of experimentation and discovery that eventually led them into the business of fine, small batch chocolate making. Read on to learn more of Dandelion Chocolate's unique story.  More

WooCommerce, Subscriptions and Good Karma: the Story of Alpha Dog Food

By Kirby Prickett on March 4, 2015 — 13 mins read

Royce Reed has taken his passion for healthy pets and harnessed the power of WooCommerce to build his pet food subscription business, Alpha Dog Food. I had the pleasure of chatting to Royce last week about his experience starting and running Alpha Dog Food. Some of the highlights include: how they’ve implemented their Ambassador (affiliate) program, which benefits Alpha Dog Food and many of their clients, including great animal charities like the Humane Society of Atlantic City;
 Royce’s seven favourite things about WooCommerce (we agree Royce, it’s so hard to choose!); and
 how Alpha Dog Food wound up accepting Bitcoin payments, and Royce's experience with that so far. 
 I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as I enjoyed doing it! More

Using WooCommerce to Build a SaaS in 3 Days

By Kirby Prickett on February 4, 2015 — 11 mins read

Bryce Adams is a WooThemes ninja who—in his spare time—built a handy little SaaS (Software as a Service) business called Nomad SMS. Nomad SMS allows you to easily create a local phone number in over 15 countries and receive SMS messages to that number in your inbox and online. Anybody who’s had the frustrating experience of being locked out of their bank account while traveling or overseas will see the benefit of this simple idea. Bryce got some love from WooThemes and others on Twitter for Nomad SMS, but when it was featured on the hot product aggregation site Product Hunt, traffic to Bryce’s little side project really took off. Bryce was kind enough to talk to me about the whirlwind experience of building Nomad SMS in three days—using WooCommerce and Subscriptions—and releasing it to the world. More