- John McPheters and Jed Stiller are the founders of Stadium Goods, a luxury resale sneaker marketplace. They share key tips for entrepreneurs who want to build a business in a niche marketplace.
- Having a good partner with complementary skills is key to launching a successful business, the pair said.
- Building a culture of trust is important to getting (and keeping) customers.
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If you ask John McPheters and Jed Stiller their best advice for entrepreneurs looking to grow a successful business, they would say that the key is finding a good partner.
McPheters and Stiller have known each other for 20 years and have worked on a number of professional projects together. Their most well known is sneaker resale marketplace Stadium Goods — and they partially credit their company's success to their partnership.
"I don't know how anyone goes at this alone," Stiller told Business Insider. "A lot of the magic of what we have together — the success of Stadium Goods — [is that] we're super at finding someone that's very complementary and pushes you. You have to constantly push each other."
The pair opened their first Stadium Goods store in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City in 2015 at about the same time as their online store. In 2018, McPheters and Stiller sold Stadium Goods to online luxury fashion retailer Farfetch for $250 million. The company is now planning to open a second store in Chicago in the second quarter of 2020.
But Stadium Goods is far from the only player in the online sneaker resale market. There are a number of popular sneaker resellers including Flight Club, GOAT, and Sole Supremacy. The global resale sneaker market is expected to reach $6 billion by 2025, according to a Cowen & Co. analysis.
You can find popular brands like Nike, Jordan, and Yeezy (rapper Kanye West's brand) on most of the sites, and sneakers have sold for as much as $18,000.
Here's McPheters and Stiller's best advice for entrepreneurs looking to grow a business in a niche (and competitive) marketplace.
Finding a good cofounder
Before you launch any business, McPheters and Stiller recommend finding a good cofounder.
"The idea, market positioning, the business you want to go after, the market cap you want to reach is secondary to having a good partner," Stiller said.
McPheters and Stiller have known each other for 20 years. Before starting Stadium Goods, the pair cofounded Swarm Mobile, an in-store marketing and analytics tool that sold to Groupon in 2014. After selling Swarm Mobile, the pair saw an opportunity in the sneaker and streetwear market that they wanted to capitalize on, which led to the launch of Stadium Goods.
"We knew each other before we were professional together," Stiller told Business Insider. "We both worked really hard and really smart, which is what attracted us to each other."
It's important to select a cofounder that pushes you and has complementary skills. For example, if you're a good social media marketer, seek out a partner who is a whiz with numbers.
If you're too similar to a business partner, you may end up getting in each other's way, the pair said.
Building a culture of trust
Stiller and McPheters told Business Insider the company authenticates every pair of shoes they receive before posting them on the site. And in an industry where sneakers often go for several hundred to thousands of dollars, customers need to trust that they are getting what they're paying for, they said.
"They need to know who they're interacting with, what the brand's story is, and why they should buy from Stadium Goods," McPheters said.
Although the sneaker resale market is growing, it's still a relatively new space, and there was a time when buying aftermarket shoes seemed questionable, McPheters said. But that mindset has shifted significantly.
"Every year we've been in business we've seen that mindset shift in people buying aftermarket goods," he said.
For an entrepreneur looking to grow in an emerging space, creating a good customer experience should be one of your first priorities, they said. To grow and build trust, Stadium Goods used social media for live sneaker unboxings, which also helped connect them with customers. Once the customers were enticed to buy, the company worked hard to ensure they received high-quality, authentic shoes.
"We've proven ourselves to be the luxury premium player in the space," McPheters said. "They know we hold the customer ahead of everything else. We've done a lot to build and nurture that."
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