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As part of Endeavor’s mission of helping entrepreneurs develop as leaders of their companies, we create opportunities for them to learn from successful founders and business leaders. The Founders’ Round Table is a recurring event that brings together Endeavor Entrepreneurs and mentors from our global and local networks. The most recent installment was with the co-founder and former CEO of Moosejaw and CrowdRise, Robert Wolfe. Having started and scaled an online business nearly 20 years ago – Robert is a true pioneer in his industry.
Robert Wolfe
Robert, along with his siblings Jeffrey and Julie, founded the outdoor clothing and equipment company Moosejaw in 1999 and grew the company’s online sales and retail store network until the company was acquired by Walmart in February 2017. In 2010, the Wolfe brothers took the lessons from their first venture and their desire to make an impact to co-found Crowdrise, a crowdfunding platform for charitable causes. They grew the company to become the industry leader and were acquired by GoFundMe in January 2017. After building, scaling, and selling these two companies, Robert shared knowledge and lessons he learned along the way:
“We wanted to make sure that our partners loved us.”
Growing a new company is a daunting task for any entrepreneur, but Robert’s vision kept him focused. He always valued customer service and partner relationships, and he built the company brand around these values. “There was a lot of stuff I didn’t care about, but I cared about the brand, deeply”, Robert said when referring to his early days at Moosejaw. Through his experience building a bold new company in the established retail industry, Robert found that strong vendor relationships were critical. He flipped the traditional buyer-vendor relationship on its head by constantly asking, “What can I (as the buyer), do for you (the vendor)?”. To answer this question, they applied the spirit of their fun and creative brand to their corporate relationships, and Robert often turned to pizza as his tool of choice. He would send surprise deliveries of hundreds of pizzas and Moosejaw brand t-shirts to suppliers, creating an impromptu party and generating lots of goodwill. “We used pizza to pay for our vendor partnerships,” he joked.
Robert shared that one of the keys to his companies’ success was that they realized the importance of getting their brands out there. “Be notable and maximize your marketing,” he stated. This can be done through paid channels, but he also shared that his companies were very effective in building their brand by strategically driving word-of-mouth awareness. He emphasized that data-driven systems should be everyone’s priority: “Even though we talked crazy, we were super data-driven.” He attributes his brands’ success, especially early on, to having data drive the creative marketing strategies.