Market Disruptor Jared Kugel: My Playbook for 11X Growth in One Year (#423)

423 Jared Kugel
===

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Jared Kugel, a Long Island native, grew up immersed in the tire industry, spending 13 years working in his family's business. In 2017, he left to pursue a bold vision, pitching his idea to a stranger on LinkedIn, who became his first investor within a week. Despite financial hardships, nearly becoming homeless, and multiple business pivots, Jared raised over $10 million dollars in investment and transformed Tire Agent into a leading online retailer.

Twice named the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the U. S. Tire agent has sold nearly 2 million tires since 2020, redefining affordability for everyday Americans. 

And before we hop into the podcast, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. We have William, a graduate of Deep Both Mastery, and he says, I didn't have the time for Deep Both Mastery, but I made the time and I'm glad I did.

What I learned goes far beyond any other executive program or coach I've ever experienced. Or how about Bruce? Bruce says, before [00:01:00] Deep Wealth Mastery, the challenge I had with most business programs, coaches, or blogs was that they were one dimensional. Through Deep Wealth Mastery, I'm part of a richer community of other successful business owners.

The idea shared forever changed the trajectory of the business and best of all, the experience was fun. And we'll round things out with Stacey. 

Stacey said, I wish I had access to the Deep Wealth Mastery before my liquidity event, as it would have been extremely helpful. Deep Wealth Mastery exceeded my expectations in terms of content and quality.

And you know what, my Deep Wealth Nation, why they're saying this is because Deep Wealth Mastery, it's the only system based on a nine figure deal. That was my deal. And as you know, I said no to a seven figure offer, and I created a system that we now call Deep Wealth Mastery that helped myself and my business partners, welcome from a different buyer, a different offer, a nine figure exit.

So if you're interested in growing your profits, preparing for a future liquidity event, if that's two years away or 20 years away, and you want to optimize your post exit life, Deep Wealth Mastery is for you. [00:02:00] Please email success at deepwealth. com. Again, that's success, S U C C E S S, at deepwealth. com. We'll send you all the information about Deep Wealth Mastery, otherwise known as Scale for Ultimate Sale. That's where you want to be. You want to be with other successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and founders just like you who are looking to create market disruptions.

And they want to lock in their financial freedom and have success and fulfillment. 

That's the 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery Program. It has your name on it. All you need to do is take the next step. Send an email to success at deepwealth. com.

Deep Wealth Nation, welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. Let me ask you a few rhetorical questions. Deep Wealth Nation, are you chasing after more success? And of course you're saying yes. Have you come into some perhaps so called challenges or even so called failures that you'd love to leverage to your next level of success?

And perhaps you're saying yes as well, but you may be asking, okay, that's all fine and good, but how do I do that? What does that look like? Well, that's exactly what we're going to be doing. We have a very special guest in the house of Deep Wealth. Jared, [00:03:00] welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, an absolute.

Pleasure to have you with us. And from one entrepreneur to another, there is always a story behind a story. Jared, you have a fascinating story. What's your story. Can you share with people nation? What brought you from where you were to where you are today?

Jared Kugel: Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for having me. Super excited to be here. So I started tire agent about technically seven years ago. Basically, I was working my family's company. Didn't really see a bright future for myself. Didn't really want to do it much more. And then one day I kind of just went on LinkedIn, pitched an idea to a complete stranger.

The stranger says, send me a deck. I didn't know what a deck was. I thought it was something in the back of a house. So then I, go online and I hire someone to take my Word document of notes and create a deck. I take the deck and I only paid maybe a hundred dollars for it. I don't even know something, not that much.

And then I send it to them. Did a few phone calls, turned out that was a venture capitalist. yeah, it was a tech [00:04:00] accelerator which is where they basically give you some money, they mentor you. And then at the end of it, you go on stage in front of maybe close to a thousand people and pitch your idea.

So I send a deck to them and keep in mind the idea back then was terrible. It was not the idea that you see today. And all of a sudden on day number seven or eight, something like that. They literally made me an offer to be my first investor and they said I had a very limited time to give them an answer.

I slept on it overnight. Next day I go in, tell my family I'm quitting and that was it. And then I went through the accelerator and we probably tried a few different businesses, completely failed. We were a mobile tire company, didn't work. We were a search engine. for tires didn't work. We also tried to do road hazard protection B2B2C, where we were trying to sell a software to the tire stores.

Couldn't really get that off the ground. But then it clicked that I wanted to go into retail and [00:05:00] so I kind of thought about the value props of what I learned being in my family's company and I had worked there for a long time. I mean, probably from the age of maybe 17, 18, all the way to the age of 31, 32, something like that.

So, I grew up in the industry. My family has been in it for decades. My friends growing up were in it. My cousins were in it. But I just knew there was not really a place for me. I kind of felt out of place and I also felt the business not really evolving. They didn't really want to take on new ideas and I felt very stagnant.

And so when I had this opportunity, I knew like I had to just jump in. So I jumped in, I go into this tech accelerator, I get this money. It still doesn't feel real. I'm kind of just like in it. But, I started failing fast, which you'll see is my philosophy. Try something, fail fast, move on.

So I failed a few different ideas. At the end of the accelerator, I go on stage and someone tells me something before I go on stage about a week prior. They got, the person comes up to me and he goes, Whatever you [00:06:00] do, do not launch your business before you go on stage. You want to build the momentum of the idea and let that kind of grow in people's minds over time.

So I go on stage, nobody wants to invest. I get 60 meetings, nothing really materializes. And then I ended up running out of money because now we're like six months in, nobody invests. I ended up having to sell my possessions. Just to get by I get a warning letter from the bank that my place is about to get foreclosed on and I have 30 days to catch up on the bills, when your bills are high, right?

And you quit your job and you don't have any money coming in because my parents never did me any favors. Although I know it sounds great. They work for your family, but I was being paid on commission and I, they didn't really treat me the same as other people. And I'm okay with that. Like I'm not complaining by any means.

But what happened was my bills were high cause I was living a, a good life at that time. And I'm taking no income, basically, from this new business. Well, all of a sudden, I'm running out [00:07:00] of money, my bills are stacking, my, you know, I'm charging things on my credit card to stay alive, which obviously, you know, you do what you gotta do, and it's not the best answer.

And then, I end up having to live off of crackers and jelly, because I'm so nervous that I need to save every dollar to pay for my rent, or, I literally had nothing. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a miracle happens. And people would see me on stage, A come up to me and they say, we want to put together a group to invest.

And I ended up raising then 750, 000 from that group. Then from there, I kind of like, okay, now I need to like sit down, focus. Now that you have the pressure of financial thing off of your shoulder a little bit, you can now start to focus. So I'm focusing on building the foundation for tire agent. And I spent really a year and a half building the foundation.

So people thought I was dead in the water. And I'm just barely getting by. I'm telling you, I'm making scraps at this point and I didn't go to my parents for anything because, they had their own issues [00:08:00] going on at the time. And I really just wanted to focus on helping myself. So I just started experimenting with.

business ideas. I call it micro ideas. It's not like the foundational big business you're working on, but it's like quick little features or just quick ideas that you're just like throwing against the wall and see what just works quickly. But then over time, we figured out who we were going to be.

And the hardest part of a business is understanding your identity. But then over time we grew and we ended up raising other rounds of venture money. But it was not easy for me. I mean, I got rejected. By it felt like hundreds of VCs. Nobody thought a tire company was really going to make it. In fact, I was even on a podcast where, you know, one of the people on there, it was like a shark tank style and they told me I'd never be anything more than a local tire salesman, which is fine.

That's how I grew up, right? But I was trying to really do something more than that. And it took a long time to kind of figure out what we were [00:09:00] doing and. No VCs wanted to really invest in a tire company at that time. And then what I realized was I needed to build the foundation of what the business is like good economics, a lot of startups, they come out and they focus on the idea and not the fundamentals.

So over time, we kind of figured it out. And tire agent now today is one of the larger online retailers of tires and one of the fastest growing companies. And we know exactly who we are as a company and who our demographic is.

Sorry for the long winded

Jeffrey Feldberg: I know love that. So let me get this straight and let me lay this out for people nation. And you can share Jeffrey on base or off base. So growing up your family had a tire business

Jared Kugel: Yes.

Jeffrey Feldberg: that said though you had your own ideas your own aspirations You didn't like what they were doing and really your own Determination your own grit you happen to reach out to someone and it just so happened Perhaps being at the right place at the right time.

Some people call it luck. I call it serendipity. There's no such thing as luck. In my books, everything [00:10:00] happens for a reason. You happen to reach out to a venture capitalist at the time, a private equity group at the time. You didn't realize that and pitched your idea. You'd never done any pitches before.

It was just pure grit and passion, I suspect, that you pitched the idea and obviously it must have grabbed their attention because they said, We're interested, but you have to let us know. Yeah, on the boat, you're off the boat. What's it going to be fairly quickly? And you said yes. And then from there, what I'm hearing in your story, you weren't rushing.

You're actually listening to what people were saying. It wasn't, okay, ready, fire, aim. It was, okay, ready, aim, then I'm going to fire it. So you took your time. And deep automation With what Jared was doing and Jared, you can correct me if I'm wrong. This wasn't a new industry. This wasn't a new product or service.

I mean, tires have been around my goodness for quite some time, but you came at it. With a different vision, a different outlook in what I want to say is an industry that was probably tired of the same old going on and [00:11:00] everyone's copying each other. You came at it differently and then in an incredibly short period of time, you're one of the largest, most successful in terms of what you're doing.

How am I doing with that so far, Jared?

Jared Kugel: Right on the money. So basically what I learned from my experience is you want to build a business where you're a domain expert. That's one. And I felt like I was a pretty good domain expert. I felt like I knew the industry. Pretty much inside and out from all different angles from manufacturing to wholesale to retail.

But also you want to go into an industry that's already established, right? Because then you know that the market demand is there. So when people are saying to me in the beginning, oh, there's too much competition, I'm like, I don't care. That just means the market's established. Like that to me is a good thing.

That's not a bad thing. And then the other thing is I didn't really have a choice. I mean, I felt like my family's business was kind of going downhill. Because they weren't evolving with times, they were old school and they were kind of letting the industry pass them instead of, because what you never want to do in business is you don't want to play defense.

You want to play offense. You want to make sure [00:12:00] you're always at the forefront of innovation, not at the back because by then it's too late. And the other thing is, while every other industry was focusing on the top, call it 10 percent of income earners, I wanted to go after like the average hardworking consumer that is, getting by.

Because they're the people that the rest of the world is forgetting about. That's the majority of America. The majority of America is not people who have a six figure job. Deciding what jewelry to buy or what exercise equipment to buy. Like the average hardworking consumer is someone that was what I was at my lowest point, which was just trying to get by could barely feed myself.

I could barely pay the rent. And so you hit it right on the money. And the other thing is when I got offered the opportunity, and this was very out of character for me, I was not a very like. risky person, but I was at a point where I felt like my back was against the wall [00:13:00] and I had to, and this was like, I was at a fork in the road.

I can either take a chance and say, when is another stranger who I don't even know going to write me a check or am I going to go down with the ship, and be complacent and I wasn't going to do that. I refused. And so I just. jumped on to what I felt was a life raft and an opportunity. You're a hundred percent on the money.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Jared, as we're talking about this in DeepWealth Nation, I'm going to share this with you because you may be saying, well, Jeffrey and Jared, that's all fine and good. And Jared, you seem like a nice guy. Here's the but though, but I'm not in the tire industry. I'm in a high tech industry. I'm in a manufacturing industry.

I'm in this industry. People nation, I got to tell you, as I'm sitting here with Jared and I promise you, the two of us never spoke until now, but Jared, as we're talking, you're actually taking me back to the very early days when I began to formulate what we now call a deep both mastery system, where I was deliberately speaking with other entrepreneurs and not in my industry.

Finding out what worked, what didn't work because I didn't want that group think. I didn't want that same old, [00:14:00] same old to speak to other people in my industry. Firstly, my competitors wouldn't speak to me, but I wanted to create that market disruption, which you did, and I also did, but it sounds like we came at it from very similar vantage points.

Okay, let me try what actually hasn't been tried before. And so with that in mind, Jared, as you look back, you created a market disruption. You set your company apart. And again, for Deep Wealth Nation, to remind you, Jared was just getting going. It wasn't as though he, this was his third, fourth, fifth company.

This was his first go round, granted it was a family business, but you took the helm from a very different vantage point and I'm going to make a guess, and you can tell me Jeffrey on base, off base, you likely didn't have a lot of resources. Sure, you had some backing behind you, but I would imagine it's nothing that you could have retired off of and yet to prove yourself with that.

So. What was going through your mind as you now go into literally the unknown against your family wishes, I'd suspect you're probably being called [00:15:00] crazy, but you have this vision, you have the backing, you have this P. E. or VC money behind you, and now you're doing it, so what's your mindset like?

Jared Kugel: Yeah. So I would first start by saying once again you're, spot on. Everyone called me crazy. My parents, my siblings, my friends. The girl I was dating at the time, her parents, nobody believed in me. It was, imagine being in a world where nobody has faith in you. Maybe the one person wrote you a check at the time, but basically other than that, everyone pretty much wrote me off.

I didn't go to a really fancy school. I went to a good school, but nothing like crazy. this was my really first business that I was running. Didn't really have any experience. I had operational experience in terms of running a traditional business because I was helping my family, but like I didn't have any real experience.

I also didn't have the luxury of going back to my parents because at a certain point in time, their business actually went under over time. So I really was on my own. [00:16:00] Okay. And what I would say is that yes, I had VC funding, that didn't come until later because the first several months I had a hundred thousand, but you know, when you're building.

business, right? You have engineering, you have legal fees, which stack up. I couldn't even tell you where I spent the first few hundred thousand dollars. You're experimenting, you're trying all different types of businesses and you're throwing money everywhere to see what works.

But when you're in that mode, you're in kind of two modes at the same time. You're in scramble mode because you're trying to move quick because you don't want to go out of business, but then you're also in survival mode. So you're scared to spend. Money at the same time and it's like this weird balance that you're trying to do And it's easy to stand on a soapbox and tell people what you did when you're at a high point where you maybe you were rich at one time you're spending on you know a fragment of money when you have a lot or When you've made it, but you've only had it easy.

I have had it anything but easy And I didn't really have resources up [00:17:00] until two years into it Because the first hundred thousand goes super quick when you're trying to experiment with tons of different methods of advertising, different businesses. I I said, told you, we pivoted like three, four times and every time we pivoted, we killed like 50 to a hundred thousand dollars, something like that.

I don't know the exact number, but it was a high number. And that's part of the journey when you're in startup life. And then once you figure out what you want to do. You got to hire, other people around you to do the job because also when you're growing really quick, you need to make sure you control the growth, not that the growth controls you.

And that was really important for me to learn when we went from doing 3 million to 33 million in a matter of 1 year. So that 12 month period when we had that huge jump, I was trying to like, not spend a lot of money. And so my resources, I was kind of like. Penny pinching anywhere I can in the beginning, because I didn't want to have that fear of going out of [00:18:00] business and we had not raised the millions of dollars at that point.

And so for me, I've always been under the mindset of you build a business with good economic fundamentals and you spend money when you can afford it in the beginning. I, yes, I raised venture money, but there's also two different types of businesses that you can build, right? You can build a lifestyle business.

you probably talk about this with a lot of people, but I saw business when you build like a good sized business, you're making, a living for yourself, we can build a venture backed business, right? And a venture backed businesses, high growth, a lot of risk. And I kind of like fall somewhere in the middle.

I've heard the term camel before, and that's kind of how I go. I like to do a nice controlled growth where I can stack my resources as I'm building cash flow. As opposed to spending ahead and then hoping that you catch up. So I hope that kind of answered it, but I didn't have a lot of resources beginning.

It was scrappy and we had to make it work with what we had.

Jeffrey Feldberg: You're speaking my language, Jared, I bootstrapped it, you bootstrapped it, sure, you had a little bit of seed money [00:19:00] going into it, but let's face it, a hundred thousand really isn't a lot of money in the scheme of things. And Jared, to your credit and deep automation, did you pick up on that in a one year period of time, Jared did an 11 X.

So you 11 times your revenues from 3 million to 33 million and Jared, we're all about that here at deep wealth. We say 10 X, you went up to us, you did the 11 X, which is amazing. So many entrepreneurs don't think it's possible. Yeah, sure. I could do a 10 X, but give me five years to do it or give me seven years to do it.

And like you were saying, well. Why not do it in a year? Why do you have to wait so long? What's going on here? Let's really break through all of that. So in your particular case, when you did an 11 X on the business, what were some of the tried and true things that you saw that worked for you that you could share with us?

Jared Kugel: Yeah. I just did a deep breath because I got like PTSD thinking about well for one thing is. I was not prepared for the growth at all. We had grown really quick and I was trying to adjust and we were in an office that almost [00:20:00] looked like a boiler of stockbrokers where people would, I had a hardline phone, didn't have the voice IP system that we have today, right?

We had a hardline phone, we didn't have slack or teams or any of that back then we weren't using any type of messenger. So a customer would call in. I would literally write it down on a piece of paper, I would hold it over my head and I'd be like who's helping so and so, you know, and someone's like, I did, I did.

And then you're like running over to them. And it was kind of like haphazard. Cause we didn't expect that growth. And then we went through this point where we didn't have a ticket support system. I don't care what business you're in. I don't care if you're a plumber, electrician, tech company, you have got to have a ticket support system.

It doesn't even matter which one it is. So we were not using any of that. Everything was off of memory and email and paper. Awful methodology to have at that type of growth mode. Because I sat down with my team and I said, Look, this is going to be very painful, but we are going to build a training system, [00:21:00] and we're going to build a support ticketing system.

And I mean, we happen to work with one of the bigger ones that are out there, which has been a great one for us, but it took time, right? it took us six months to build a training system and the knowledge base of a ticket support system, and that skyrocketed are basically customer experience. I've always prided myself on caring about the customer.

And. I don't ever want to lose that. And I didn't want to lose that back then, but I knew I had to struggle a little bit to build out a better future, not just for us, but for our future customers and it worked.

Jeffrey Feldberg: You know, I'm going to share something with you. A lot of people have disagreed with me on this. I still stand by it, particularly when you're bootstrapping. When I look at companies that have private equity behind them or they get a big check written, they're out there, they're buying the big bucks on the CRM systems of fancy offices, [00:22:00] all the accolades that go along with that.

They have a built in chef in the office doing all these kinds of things. Whereas I ran my companies, Hey, we're going to grow the company until it's about to burst, and then we'll see where the pain points, let's begin to address that as opposed to trying to guess. Where it's going to be and granted that at least in my experience, yeah, there were some rough patches there and some stressful days and weeks that came out of that.

But by and large, instead of spending for the sake of spending, so in other words, just because we could write the check didn't mean that we should or that we even did. And so in your case, it sounds like something similar was going on here. What's your take on that for starters?

Jared Kugel: You have no idea how similar we really are. So, I'll tell you a really funny story because it's exactly what you're asking. So, our first office space, I was too cheap to get my own office, so I rented desks from someone else's office. Then even though we had warehousing space, we, thankfully I knew the people before, they worked at a great deal with me and they would help me out.

And we were [00:23:00] basically using a 3PL for the warehousing. And that's because we want to make sure we handle returns correctly and warranties correctly and stuff like that. But more importantly, I was also using. Then eventually I moved into a, like a shared office space. So I'm no longer renting desk. I'm renting, like I'm renting like a micro office, right?

We were using our office spaces also like a warehouse. And one day I want to say 200 tires arrived at the co working space and it took over. The entire basically the floor and we had tires everywhere in the co working space and we had to and then we started wrapping it and saying that people are getting pissed us because we're blocking some of the doorways and I'm like, I'm trying my best.

And then eventually at that point, I had to, expand out and move on. But we didn't really have, I would say, nice office space. I would say maybe year number five, right? The first several years. I mean, we were just doing the best we can with what we [00:24:00] had.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure. And so you're out there and you're really stretching the dollars. You're saying, where is the system going to break or has it broken now? Let's fix this. Really respect that. Let me ask you though. So inside, it may have been pandemonium at times and lots of stress going on from the customer facing side.

So from a customer looking from the outside in. Would they have seen any of this or was it just, Hey, this is a great company. I'm getting my tires on time and love dealing with these guys. Great service, great value added, great pricing, all that other good stuff.

Jared Kugel: yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I would say for two months, I was really upset with the way things were going because I was trying to restructure and I was trying to do the best I can to give the customer the best experience and unfortunately there was a time that was hard to manage.

Now we always made good I don't think customers knew what was going on on the inside, but. But, my expectation is very high for the customer, like anything below what I [00:25:00] would consider great by my standards, not acceptable. So we had a rough patch, but we always made sure we called the customer.

We talked them through it in those times. And I'm proud to say that even though it was rough and those customers may not have had an optimal experience, I bet you it was still probably a better experience with us than it was probably with other people. But that's still not what I would say is to my bar.

And so now when we go through structures, we do it gradual, right? And so this way customers don't feel that transition when we do things. And we also talk to customers to like, well, sometimes call customers and asking for their feedback because I think that's important. But unfortunately, every business goes through growing pains and sometimes You have to sacrifice a little bit to help the bigger audience after that's something that was very hard for me to understand at that time.

Today, we don't do that today. I make little tweaks here and there, and I make sure that customers are always getting great [00:26:00] experiences when I can help it. But back then it was hard because we just didn't have the technology to do. And we didn't also have the resources to do it today. We'll spend a little bit of extra money.

To do the proper restructuring internally without affecting the customer.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so you're doing this behind the scenes. You're clearly under the radar from some of the bigger players, I would imagine.

And I would suspect that for the first while you were getting away with that, but you're starting to get some success. You're likely winning business away from some of the other bigger players that are there.

So what was the competitive response like once you became a known entity of, okay, seeing these guys time and time again, there's something going on here. Never heard of them before, but they're definitely doing something. It's hurting our business. So what was going on from that side?

Jared Kugel: Well, I don't really consider other companies competitors and I'll explain that, but it's more so the fact that customers love us. Like we have a really high repeat purchase rate right now. I told you I am a stickler for like great [00:27:00] customer service. And so. I think we got known for having a very loyal customer base right now, which I'm really proud of.

And although some of the competitors, so I've been in the industry a long time as I said, I've known actually a lot of the competitors personally. So I have a really good rapport with a lot of them. The ones that don't like me that are maybe because they think I'm competition or whatever.

I think it's very silly to be honest, because it's almost like saying Joe's tire shop in New York is a competitor to. Alex's tire shop in California. The internet is a massive place and there's room for so many people. And you're talking about a market. 30 billion a year. There's plenty of room to go around.

In fact, I would rather have a good relationship with my competitors because it's great to share insights. It's great to talk about things and you can grow together. You learn. So yeah, there are probably some people that don't love me because they view me as a competitor, but to me, I'm not a competition for them.

And I'm not competition for a brick and [00:28:00] mortar store. Like for me, we're bringing a new value ad. To the industry. I think we're bringing a lot of customers online that never bought tires online before. And not only that, I think we're educating the customers to get better quality tires than they would have maybe gotten before.

So, when I look at my business, I actually don't care what competitors are doing. It has no phase on me. I never chase a competitor. I go at my own pace. We do our own thing and we stay in our own lane. And yeah, I'll look at a website here and there, but I don't ever dictate my business based on them.

And honestly, if they're dictating their business based on me, then they're the ones with the issues, not me.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I love how you're positioning that. And I've got to share. I've actually been on both sides in my earlier days when I didn't know any better. I was always looking in the rear view mirror. Okay. What's the competition doing? Where are my gaps compared to them? Let me step up and close those gaps.

But it sounds like you're a whole lot smarter and you were saying, okay, Hey, this is who I am. This is my vision. This is how I want the business to be. And I'm just going to focus on that and what's going to be is going to be and whatever [00:29:00] everyone else is doing, let them do it. I'm going to play my game.

They're going to play their game. We'll see where it all goes. Let me ask you though, because of the internet and you're out there and you're dealing with so many people, the internet has really particularly for online businesses. Now it's really closed the gap pre internet. Location was important and just geography, all those kinds of things, post internet, none of that really matters now.

From my phone, from my tablet, from my computer, I can hop on and I can check out ten different offerings, similar offerings, within minutes. So from that vantage point, how are you standing out to really have someone say, Okay, never heard of these guys before, I'm gonna give them a go. Or gave them a go, liked what I saw, I'm gonna keep on going.

What's going on there?

Jared Kugel: Yeah, I think it's for me. I think, look, hopefully I come across genuinely, right? Because I love my industry. I love my job. I love the people I work with. I love my customers. And that is anyone that knows me will tell you that is who I [00:30:00] am. When I built this company, I hire people that have the same philosophy and I want that, when you've hired probably tons and tons of people, so you know, every time you hire people, you have that fear.

Is that person going to be as good as you? Are they going to translate the same passion that you have? Are they going to translate the same culture that you have in a company? We've done a great job of that. And I see on our all hands calls that people take their job personally. They love the customers.

They love talk to them. I tell all my people, do not rush a customer off the phone. I don't care if it's five minutes or two hours. Do not rush someone off the phone. If they call in because they have a question, they deserve to get it answered. Very simple. So, I think it comes down to this. There are plenty of people selling tires online, right?

There is no scarcity of that. But most of the people, the only value prop that they can hang on to is cheapest price. Okay. That's great. But what are you going to do when you have a problem with the tire? What are you going to do when you need, when you don't have the money to pay for a tire and you need, let's say payment options, [00:31:00] what are you going to do when a tire goes bad and you wish you got road hazards?

Who are you going to talk to and get advice on a tire? How are you going to learn about the tire? There are so many things. It's not about the price. It's about the experience. And how are you going to make someone choose one tire over another? We do a really great job of educating the customer.

We do a really good job of explaining the tires to customer. If you look through the site, you'll see we categorize things like superior rain and snow. That actually just means all weather. But we try to break it down so people understand. Learn So I think because people see that we're trying to resonate with the average consumer and not the enthusiast, I mean, if sure we have enthusiasts to buy from us and we love that, but the majority of our customers are everyday people and we really try to cater to that when I create a new feature, it's solely based on how do I make the experience easier?

Other websites that are [00:32:00] out there only care about price. And look, you're gonna have your customer base that does that, but I want the customer base that's going to keep coming back that knows we're taking care of them, that knows that we're doing the right thing by them and those they can call us when there is a problem with the tire.

So that's how we differentiate ourselves.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay, so it's all about the customer and you didn't quite say this way. And again, you can say Jeffrey on base off base. What I'm really hearing you say is you are after a very specific type of, I'm not even going to say customer client. You didn't want some customers. You want to turn those away. The ones that are going to go somewhere else.

If it's a penny less, you're looking for someone who fits your profile of what a customer is, and you're okay to not get every single client out there. You're going to be choosy. You're going to be picky in terms of who you're dealing with. 

Jared Kugel: The majority of people in America, the majority are more of the broad audience. And that's who we like to go after. I would say if you think about the online tire buying experience, you have price shoppers, [00:33:00] you have enthusiasts, and you have the mainstream consumer.

Now the price shopper, there may be someone who's cheaper than me, that's possible, but we do offer very competitive pricing and also that if they, if that's all they care about, then. Then there's nothing we're going to be able to do to win that customer over other than just keep lowering a price, right?

But the majority of the people in America are people that don't know anything about tires, want to know something about tires and are willing to be loyal to the companies that help them out when they need them. And it's not that I'm turning away customers. It's that we know who we are. We have a very good self identity.

And we want to attract the people that want the companies that care about them.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. So, and again, as you're describing that Jared, it sounds like in your mind, you have your avatar, some people call it, okay, this is my target market. This is what they're really looking for. This is how myself, the team is going to show up and this is who we're going to be [00:34:00] looking to work with. And so with that said, for many entrepreneurs, they're terrific at starting with a startup, getting it up to a certain point, they got the vision, they now got the formula, but they drop the ball when it comes to expanding, getting the right people on board.

Having that culture reflect what they're all about. And it sounds like from the little bit that you shared with us, your culture has your vision, your outlook, how you would approach things is what your team is doing. So what's some of the secret sauce with that? How are you firstly attracting those team members?

How are you keeping them on board? And how do you ensure that the company is going to be growing even though you're not the one who's doing everything now?

Jared Kugel: I think that is a fantastic question because I think so many people don't know how to hire. That is by far a make or break for every company. I can tell you in this company, my best friend is my CTO. I can tell you that I hang out with my controller all the time. I hang out with a lot of the people here all the time.

We're going to events together. We're going to restaurants together. We're talking all throughout the [00:35:00] night. And it's not even about work. Sometimes it's just about random stuff. We, the majority of us here, are really good friends. And that's the culture we wanted to build. We wanted to build a culture that was like a family atmosphere where people want to be around each other.

Because reality is, if you like the people you work with, You're going to want to go to work, right? You're going to want to talk to them. For me it's the interview process. You want to try to figure out who has good character and who does not. You want to figure out, do these people have the same values as you?

Like my value as an entrepreneur is customer first. If you take care of the customer, you build your name, you build your business. It's a very simple practice, but not a lot of people do it. And when we interview people, My interview processes are not long. The majority of them are very quick.

My initial interview with someone is maybe 15 minutes. And that's just to see if we jive as a person, right? Chemistry. Then the next interview is more longer. And so the more interviews I do, the more it kind of goes on. But usually I [00:36:00] interview one, two times, make a decision. And when you start out, you don't hire the skill set.

You hire the general. Because in the beginning, you're going to scramble, you're gonna be all over the place. So you need someone who's gonna have the same work ethic as you, someone who matches your intensity, your passion. And it's hard to find, but they're out there. There are people that you can sell that vision to that are going to want to work with you.

And the majority of people in our company have been with us for years at this point. Almost no one ever quits. And I can tell you that maybe about half the people that have ever quit have tried to come back.

Jeffrey Feldberg: That's amazing. So Jared, help me out here because I know I'm not alone when I share this. One of my biggest challenges when I'm bringing new talent on board, and I never like to call them employees, I always like to call them team members. There were times where I bought hook, line, and sinker, as the saying goes, into what they were saying, but sadly, their best performance was in the interview.

And then after that, it was all downhill. So how do you see through that? Are there some [00:37:00] telltale signs of, Hey, you know what? This person, they may not have the skillset. I'm going to hire on personality. Yeah, they definitely belong on the team or wow. This person talks a really good talk, but you know what?

There's no substance behind this. I am running as fast as they can in the other direction. What would be some tells here that you can share with us?

Jared Kugel: I'm laughing because that totally has happened to me too. I would say for one, you don't want to hire yesmen. You want to hire people that are going to voice their opinion. There's nothing wrong with people having a difference of opinions. Me and my CMO and my CTO, we don't always agree on every business decision.

And sometimes we get to have very intense discussions and that is totally normal and totally fine. You can never predict. Who's going to interview great and then translates to the work. But what you have to do is fire fast. You can't be like, it's going to get better, it's going to get better. It doesn't get better.

It just doesn't. If they don't have what you're looking for, and I would say maybe you give it, a month, [00:38:00] you can get a good understanding is this person a fit or not. I wouldn't say like within a day, but you got to give them a little bit of time, but you give them time. Then you make a decision.

You fire fast. Like I used to hear the saying higher, slow, fire, fast, and I didn't really understand it until I started to hire. And then I got it. And the reason is because you're only going to be when you're starting out, you're only as strong as your hires because everyone's contribution is magnified.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, I really liked that. And same higher, slow fire fast, but let me ask you. When is fast too fast and what would be the upper limit on that? Because again, myself, I've even seen people in the deep off community all excited to bring on board a new team member. It's mistake after mistake. Well, let's just give them one more chance.

And before you know it, an entire year has gone by and it's just been a lost return on investment in every sense of the word dollar money, time, morale, culture, it's costly. So when [00:39:00] is, Hey, it's been enough time we're going to. Go in a different direction here.

Jared Kugel: Well, sometimes it's not the hire. Sometimes it's you, right? Like it also comes down to really good training. So I believe in really good training and yes, you're sometimes quote unquote wasting money and time, but you know, you can't just throw someone in the fire and expect them to be great. So the person doing the hiring has to take some ownership on the success of that hire.

So I'll, for some positions, I'll train for a month. Before I even we'll even evaluate, I would say, if you're training them, usually get a good sense within a couple of weeks, like how they're going to do if there's no training needed, then you have to look at. Okay. Are they showing up on time?

Are they late? Because if they're late and they're not showing up to some days right off the bat, you do not give them a lot of slack. But if they're showing up, if they're putting in the effort, then you could be a little bit more patient. And I don't know if there's a definitive timetable per se.

Okay. Maybe it's a month, maybe it's two months, but what I would say [00:40:00] is if you're going a full quarter and that person has not turned a corner at that point, you're too late.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so Jared, when you did the 11 X on revenues with your business in a year, as you look back at that now, hindsight's always 20 20. Let me ask a question that we could easily flip it on both sides and let's do flip it on both sides. So when you 11 X the company. What would you do every day of the week, including a Sunday?

And then on the flip side, looking back, what was perhaps a tactical error, a strategic error that you definitely wouldn't do? So something that works, something that didn't work that you can share with us.

Jared Kugel: Yeah. Well, the first thing is technology didn't exist back then, right? where it is today. I mean, you have AI to make your work a little bit more efficient. you have different types of email tools that didn't really exist back then. But what I did do, which I believe wasted a lot of time, was I had the phones going 24 7.

And the reality is, you'll maybe get a couple calls at 1 in the morning, 2 in the morning, but you're better off getting [00:41:00] your sleep. Because you'll burn yourself out. I mean, I definitely had moments where I was like running on fumes, because I didn't sleep. I had the phones running 24 7. I'm trying to take every call because every sale meant something so much to me because I was getting off the ground that said, although I wasted a lot of time doing that, I don't regret it because part of being on this journey is trying things and I don't know if I'd be where I am.

If I didn't try everything to get every sale, like it's in my nature to work my butt off and make sure that I'm maximizing everything I can do. Okay. So although I know that was a waste of time and a waste of energy and I probably would have been better off getting sleep, I don't regret it because it's who I am.

And I know that I probably would not have been where I am if I didn't make those kind of mistakes. So that was one. I think the second one was I was a terrible communicator. Like my public speaking skills were awful. Me, when you're a leader, it's very important for you to translate what's in your head to everyone around you.[00:42:00] 

So they know you. What page you're on, right? Because you got to be in sync. I wasn't really great at that either in the beginning. It took time for me to kind of learn that and learn my communication style and figure out how I absorb information. So those are the things I kind of wish I would have learned sooner, but I just don't know if I would have gotten there in a different path.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. And so really my takeaway here and for DeepAuth Nation. It's not necessarily what Jarrett specifically did from a strategic or tactical side. But what I am hearing that we should all do, you went into it open minded. Okay, I'm going to try this as an experiment. Maybe it's going to work, maybe it's not.

In your case, it was okay, we're going to be 24 7. And okay, looking back on that. Yeah, sure. We had a few calls coming in, but from a health perspective, from a time money perspective, it just doesn't make sense. Let's look to change it up. So you're willing to do the experiment, but you're also willing to change it up from lessons learned.

And okay, we're going to stop doing that on a go forward basis that I'm comfortable with that because I've tried it. I know it. Let's move forward until something [00:43:00] else comes up that we're going to either pivot or keep on doing, how am I doing with that?

Jared Kugel: no, I mean it's spot on spot like people are going to make tons of mistakes along the way they're going to waste money doing some things along the way they're going to, do the wrong feature or the wrong experiment, but it's just all part of learning. I mean, it's okay to make mistakes and to have some regrets, but you can't look back and be like, I wish I did this.

I wish I did that. It's not what you're doing going forward. And if you do your job your business should have been growing year after year. Because if it's not, that means you're not learning anything and you're not making adjustments. That's the key part. You have to be so agile as an entrepreneur early on that you have to move quick with everything you do.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so let me ask you this chair, because you created a market disruption. In the process, you did an 11 X on the business. And for a lot of entrepreneurs, those were the glory days afterwards. It was all downhill. They got stuck in their success and Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We're going to stop innovating.

We're just going to keep on doing what we're doing. That [00:44:00] hasn't been the case for you. What are you doing to keep you out of trouble? Because what so many entrepreneurs don't realize, and we talk a lot about this in our default mastery program within our greatest success. Potentially are the seeds of our biggest failure

Jared Kugel: Yeah, I mean, I see it all the time, right? So I see it at the startup level. People who raise a ton of money they're riding high from the check and then they do nothing with it or they go out of business in a few years. I see it from established businesses. Where, the business has been around forever, they've been very successful, but they've been flat for a decade in revenue.

I mean, for me, I am never complacent. Ever. Ever. And I emphasize that not because I'm patting myself on the back. actually patting the people that I surround myself with on the back because they all have the same passion I have. And we just want to constantly grow. We want to be better the next year and the next year and the next year.

And for me, here's what it comes down to. You look at [00:45:00] how big the market is and you say to yourself, okay, I have X percent of the market. Well, okay, great. That means I have a wide open field that I can keep growing into. It's important that no matter how big you get, you should always want to keep improving.

Because you've seen websites from the year 2000 when they were on like GeoCities back in the day, right? Remember that? And then you look at websites today. Well, if you, if that person who had that website back in the year 2000 never changed a website, then we would have never seen the websites we have today.

And look at the advancements in cars, right? So for me, I just think of it that you never want to stop innovating. And it could be small. I mean, you don't have to take a lot of risks if you feel like you've hit your peak and you're scared to make really big moves, you can make small moves. Sometimes small moves, enough of them can propel a business forward, but it's important that you don't just sit on your reputation and [00:46:00] that you continue to improve it because at the end of the day, not that it's a game, but we're all here because we want to win.

And winning doesn't always mean money. Like for me, when customers, I always look at the NPS score. I always look at the reviews. I say I'm winning when customers are loving us. And you know what happens when customers love you? The money comes because they keep coming. And so you got to look at it from all those angles to then never be complacent.

Jeffrey Feldberg: and that's put words in your mouth. It sounds like you're chasing the passion first to let the dollars follow next, not the other way around. Like so many others do. And you're also, Hey, I'm curious. I want to take it to the next level. What does that look like? Let's keep on experimenting. And you surrounded yourself with people who think the same way.

They want to challenge themselves. They want to push the business to the next level and let's keep on trying. Let's keep on looking and is really baked into the culture. Thoughts about that?

Jared Kugel: Well, so, you mentioned the passion thing. So want to kind of [00:47:00] take a step back. So when I started and I took the very first ever, real round of investment,

The question I would always get from people is, so when do you plan on selling? And I'm like, I just got the money. What do you mean when I plan on selling?

That's not how this works for me. I actually never thought about when I started, whenever people would ask me that question, I would say, I don't know. I don't know. And the reason is because I never wanted to focus on that far down the road. I wanted to focus on the now and making sure I stay focused on building the business.

I'm incredibly passionate about what I do and I'm impassioned about the people I work with. I'm passionate about the people in the industry and I'm passionate about customer service. So for me, it was important to never lose your focus in business. And as we've grown, I'm now starting to see where the future is going to lie with us, but I don't ever say to myself, I'm going to sell because of this, or I'm going to sell because [00:48:00] this, when the opportunity comes, if it comes great, I have very open mind, love to explore it, but I'm never going to be the type of person that's going to make decisions for 10 years down the road, like you make decisions for the immediate future.

And then you let things fall into place. And so when that day comes I'll be super excited. I'll say, Hey, I've I've accomplished. I've set out to do, but I stay focused in the moment and I stay focused maybe at most a year later and that's where you have to stay in because in the tech startup world, the minute you get your check, it's okay, I plan on selling because at X it's like, dude, you still have to build a business.

What are you doing?

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And what I love to say at DeepWealth, and I really did this for myself, Jared, growing my company, had that success. I just took the mindset because it's always a common belief and there's no such thing as common sense. Oftentimes what people say is right actually isn't. It's a myth. I didn't buy into the myth.

I said, you know what? I'm going to do both things at the same time. [00:49:00] I'm going to run the company as though on the one hand, I'm keeping it forever. And on the other hand, I'm selling it tomorrow. And that tension, it created a tension, but for me, anyways, it was a healthy tension. I'm going to keep it forever, but I'm selling it tomorrow.

It kept me from being complacent. It kept me from having my head in the clouds when it shouldn't have been, and my feet on the ground doing the right things at the right time. And something to think about on that side. So Jared, before we go into wrap up mode, I know there are so many questions that I didn't have a chance to ask.

Is there a particular question I didn't ask that you want to put out there, or even a message or a topic that we haven't yet covered to the DeepWealth Nation before we go into wrap up mode?

Jared Kugel: Maybe not a question, but I think it would be important for me to tell people that are trying to start a business or that feel entrepreneurial and they're, they don't have a lot of money and they're wondering where to go from here. And the best advice I would give someone is don't be afraid to pitch yourself to strangers.

Not saying you have to be, obnoxious and in people's faces, but like here I am, I [00:50:00] just messaged a complete stranger and they took a chance on me and miracles happen. All the time. And whether you want to call it miracles, luck, being blessed, whatever. Listen, no entrepreneur has ever built a successful business by getting an easy path.

And it's hard and it's grueling and there's sacrifices. But if you do it successfully, it's incredibly rewarding and you can't be scared to put yourself out there.

Jeffrey Feldberg: That's some great advice out there and you took a chance. You didn't know, but Hey, let me ask, as my grandmother always said. Jeffrey, if you don't ask, you'll never know. So always ask. And here you were. And again, it was one of your first asks that was out there, it happened to be to the right person at the right time.

And look where it got you. But if you said, well, who am I to do this? Or why would they want to even work with me? And you shot yourself down before you even got out there, we would not be speaking right now. The lives that you've changed, the business that you've built, the difference that you've made, the market disruption that you created just would not have happened.

So absolutely love that curiosity that's come through in spades as we've been [00:51:00] speaking. So Jared, all that said, we're going to go into wrap up mode. And here in the deep of podcast is your tradition where I have the privilege and the honor to ask every guest the same question. It's a really fun question.

Let me set this up for you. When you think of the movie back to the future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time. So Jared is tomorrow morning. And this is the fun part. You look outside your window and not only is the DeLorean car curbside, the door is open. It's waiting for you to hop on in what you do, and you're now going to go to.

Any point in your past, Jared, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point it would be, what would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom or, Hey Jared, do this, but don't do that. What would that sound like?

Jared Kugel: Well, I waited till I was 31 or 32 to start this business. I actually would be very curious to know if I started it a few years earlier, would I be as successful? So like in my mid twenties and I would say, take a chance for yourself. Or did I need more experience in the industry to [00:52:00] do it? So I would want to go back into my mid twenties and really teach myself not to be, complacent.

I know I use that word a lot, but you know, in my twenties, when you're, I had everything very status quo. Didn't want to rock the boat. Everything was going good. Well, I wish I rocked the boat a little bit more in my 20s and I'd be curious to know how far along I'd be now.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure. So what I'm really hearing you saying, I love this advice. Don't wait to follow your dreams. Take a chance on yourself. Just go out there, do it, see what happens. Be curious, be hungry, just keep on going. And I think that's some terrific advice. And Jared, before we officially wrap up, someone in Deep Wealth Nation, they have a question for you.

They are inspired about what you did and the market disruption that you created and just how you look at business, how you approach that, where would be the best place online to find you?

Jared Kugel: Oh, LinkedIn. I mean, I get messages a lot from people and I love talking to people and I love helping people. And so if anyone has any questions, if they ever want to reach out to me, for sure, LinkedIn is the best place.[00:53:00] 

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Deep Wealth Nation, it doesn't get any easier. Go to the show notes. It's a point and click. It's all there for you. Well, Jared, it's official. This is a wrap. Congratulations. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.

Jared Kugel: Thank you. This has been a real honor. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? 

So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. 

Did you find this episode helpful? 

Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? 

And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

Are you ready for it? 

The dramatic pause. I'll just wait a moment. Drumroll, please. Subscribe. Please subscribe to the Deep Wealth podcast on your favorite podcast channel. When you subscribe to the Deep Wealth Podcast, you're saving yourself time. Every episode automatically comes to you, and I want you to know that we meticulously craft Every one of our episodes [00:54:00] to have impactful strategies, stories, expert insights that are designed to help you grow your profits, increase the value of your business, and yes, even optimize your post exit life and your life right now, whatever you want that to look like.

And every time you subscribe and a fellow entrepreneur subscribe, it's a testament to how together, Yes, we are. We are changing the social fabric of society. One business owner at a time, one liquidity event at a time. So don't let the momentum stop here. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast channel.

You'll never miss an episode. You'll be the first to hear from the top industry leaders, the innovators, the disruptors that are really changing and shaping the business world, and maybe you're commuting, maybe you're at the gym, maybe you're taking a well deserved break that we spoke all about on this episode.

The Deep Wealth Podcast, it's your reliable source for the next big idea that could literally revolutionize your business. So once again, please hit that subscribe button, stay connected, inspired, and ahead of the curve. And again, your next big breakthrough moment, it might just be one episode [00:55:00] away. Maybe it was even this episode.

So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. 

Thank you so much. 

God bless.