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Bonus Episode: Scaling Beloved Brands By Buying Them with Kyle Widrick from Win Brands Group

Honest Ecommerce
Honest Ecommerce
Episode • Aug 25, 2022 • 28m

Kyle is the founder and CEO of Win Brands Group, an omnichannel retail platform that buys and builds category-defining brands. 

Win’s enviable stable of brands includes Homesick (scented candles and home fragrance), QALO (silicone wedding rings and accessories), Gravity (the original weighted blanket), and Love Your Melon (mission-driven outerwear). 

Kyle has spent over a decade honing the art of consumer-focused venture capital and brand building, raising millions of dollars, and building businesses responsible for employing hundreds of people in the process. 

His background includes working side-by-side with billionaire serial entrepreneur and branding guru J. Christopher Burch, as well as founding multiple best-in-class investment and marketing operations in the US and abroad. 

Kyle holds a B.S. degree in accounting and finance from the School of Management at Syracuse University. 

He and his wife split their time between New York and Sag Harbor, with their young sons, and beloved dog Gibson. 

In This Conversation We Discuss: 

  • [00:00] Intro
  • [01:11] What led Kyle into Ecommerce
  • [02:19] How Win Brands Group work
  • [03:21] Having a holdco approach to produce scale
  • [04:20] Combining great use of resources and talent
  • [05:58] The first brand that Win Brands Group acquired
  • [07:15] The stories of other brands acquired by WBG
  • [09:49] It’s hard to create a good team
  • [10:04] People are the Win Brands Group’s business
  • [11:17] Success is getting more and more specific
  • [12:05] Why Amazon is a part of the omnichannel strategy
  • [14:40] How to make Shopify stores appealing to WBG
  • [16:24] Startup strategies vs scaling strategies
  • [18:34] The entrepreneurial behavior
  • [19:00] Delegation tips from Kyle
  • [20:43] Don’t cheap out on talent
  • [23:17] Just keep swinging
  • [24:42] Focus on your “superpower”
  • [26:15] Shouting out WBG brands
  • [27:45] Where to find Kyle

Resources:

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