A proven brand builder and entrepreneur with deep experience in innovative media ventures and consumer products, John Tabis is Founder and Chairman of The Bouqs Company. In 2012, along with co-founder Juan Pablo Montúfar, John launched the Marina del Rey, California-based company, now an industry leader in the online floral space that delivers flowers and plants fresh from eco-friendly, sustainable farms around the world to doorsteps nationwide. Prior to launching Bouqs, John worked in corporate brand strategy for Disney and ShoeDazzle and advised Fortune 100 clients at Bain & Company.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Andy Dunn founder of Bonobos Inc
When business started difficulties overcame:
“In the early days any start-up is hard. I think for us because we were doing it part-time and we hadn’t raised any capital at the beginning and at the time honestly e-commerce was not in favour in the Los Angeles start-ups seen. There had been a number of e-commerce companies that had not done well. It wasn’t easy to raise money and so trying to do it on such limited resources was such an amazing challenge. So, begging, borrowing and anything short of stealing was how we got this thing off the ground. And it was friends and friends of friends and family pitching in whatever they possibly could. And doing that while we had just bought a home in Venice Beach here, not supercheap”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Radical Candor: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean Book by Kim ScottFavourite Quote:
“be better today than yesterday” John Tabis’s Father
Recommended Online Resources:
Crunchbase is the leading destination for company insights from early stage startups to the Fortune 1000. Get insights into your competition. Uncover startup trends, get company funding data. Find new prospects, beat competitors and quotas
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“really set milestones and drive to towards those milestones in a disciplined way. At any given time especially at the beginning there are a million things to do. Every founder has a million things to do from day one. And the number of things does not shrink. As you hire people, as you get customers the number of items on your list will expand. And the key thing is understanding what milestones do I have to hit to move this company forward? Where am I versus those milestones? And what are the things that will get me to that milestone? And being very disciplined about operating against those milestones along the way”…[Listen for More]
More About John Tabis:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.” Denis Waitley
Other Quotes From the Chat with John Tabis:
- “one of the things that hard for a venture backed founder for the first time is that venture backed financing in the start-up world is a game and there’s lots of other folks who have played it before and are playing it for a second, third, fourth, fifth time. And that the investors have played hundreds and potentially thousands of times depending on how long their fund has been around. And so, the nuance of financing, fundraising, how to pitch, when to pitch, how to raise, how much to raise, at which terms, all these things are things you learn through reps. And so, there are a bunch of hacks and ways to approach financing that are very sophisticated experienced operator, founder or investor will know whereas a first-time entrepreneur just won’t”
- “I think success is relative. If it’s about success of being a founder I think there’s a couple of things that separate those that make it from those that don’t. One of them is a level of stamina and grit that is in some ways unhealthy and is definitely not all that common. The journey for a founder to success in a start-up is never a straight line, it is extremely up and down, there are big swings on the highs all the way down to the lowest of lows. And being a person that is obstinate that refuses to give up, that has to see it all the way through is absolutely required. If you are not somebody who deals well with adversity, who won’t push through the hard times this is absolutely not going to work for you as an individual. And so, I think that level of dedication is a big one. The second one is a level of comfort with ambiguity and with constant change where it is not frustrating for you as an individual, where you have the ability to wade your way through it and lead your team through those moments as well. And then I think the third one is a very clear vision. Clarity on where you are headed, why you are headed there and that’s important to you as an individual but it is really important for your investors, for your employees, for your stakeholders to see that there is a clear path and a place where you are headed long term. And so, for entrepreneurial success all three of those are critical”
- “we can’t really skip ahead; we can’t jump to the end. It’s all about incremental improvement and I think it applies to life as an entrepreneur, it applies to life in general. But just finding a way to rather than to skip to the end. It’s all about incremental improvement and I think it applies to life as an entrepreneur, it applies to life in general. But just finding a way to rather than try to skip steps or cheat our way to the end really focus on incremental improvement. In the start-up life that could be in financing, it could be in building the business, it could be in your metrics…”
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