I spent $20K to open a store in NYC — now my business hosts pop-ups around the world
A business owner who started with $20K to open a store in NYC evolved from hosting small brand pop-ups to partnering with major brands like LLBAN. The business now operates through multiple revenue streams including events, storefront sales, and wholesale.
Summary
The speaker describes the evolution of their NYC store from humble beginnings hosting small brand pop-ups and creating basic designs to landing a major partnership with LLBAN. Initially skeptical when LLBAN reached out via email, thinking it was spam, they eventually collaborated on a popup where they provided live embroidery services directly onto LLBAN bags. The partnership transformed their entire store into what the speaker describes as an 'LLB forest cabin dreamland' that was completely unrecognizable from their original setup. The event's success was evident from the massive customer response, with lines stretching down the block and wait times exceeding 4 hours. This success helped reshape their business model into three main revenue streams: events (comprising about 25% of current business), which primarily involve traveling to client locations for on-site embroidery services; their physical storefront operations (around 20% or slightly less of revenue); and wholesale and bulk orders, which appears to make up the remaining portion of their business.
Key Insights
- The speaker initially thought the LLBAN email was spam when the major brand first reached out to propose a collaboration
- LLBAN completely transformed their store into an unrecognizable 'LLB forest cabin dreamland' for the popup event
- The LLBAN popup created such high demand that customers waited over 4 hours in a line that stretched down the block
- Events now constitute around 25% of their business, mostly involving traveling to client locations for on-site embroidery services
- Their physical storefront represents only about 20% or less of their total business revenue
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] We would host small brands, do little pop-ups, make some designs for them, but it was really nothing crazy and nothing really huge. And [music] then we got an email to us that was from LLBAN, and we were like, "This must be spam." So, they decided to reach out to us and ask us to host an LLBAN adabode popup where we were embroidering directly onto their bags. They had taken over our entire store and [0:30] turned it into [music] this LLB forest cabin dreamland. It was unrecognizable. And we had a line down the block. I think people were waiting for over 4 hours to get their bag. [1:02] around 25% of the business right now…
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