SDSU Alums Sell Fashion and Jewelry Brand for $130M
SDSU Alums Successfully Sell Fashion Brand for $130 Million
Before Griffin Thall graduated from San Diego State University in 2010, he worked in marketing at the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center. After he graduated, he and fellow SDSU alumnus Paul Goodman co-founded a bracelet company called Pura Vida. Fast forward to 2019 and the company, now a multi-million dollar fashion and jewelry leader, boasts 1.8 million followers on Instagram. The fashion world took note.
Last month, Vera Bradley, Inc., a leading American bag and luggage company and iconic lifestyle brand, acquired a 75% interest in Pura Vida in a deal that might ultimately total $130 million. But the road to riches for Griffin and Goodman wasn’t without its potholes.
“In the first six months, we had no idea how to properly fulfill orders or manage inventory,” said Griffin. “We would constantly go out of stock for weeks or months at a time, which really hurt our sales and momentum.”
Over the years, though, the two co-founders figured out how to leverage social media to market their products, and then to ensure that those products were in stock when orders were placed. All the while, they never took a dime of outside investment.
“We never took on any investors because we started and ran the company as lean as you could,” Goodman said. “We never needed an investment because were profitable from day one and had a goal to take this company to over $100 million in valuation.”
To other aspiring entrepreneurs, the two co-founders offer this advice: “Put your head down and get to work. Don’t let other people tell you your idea is bad or not creative enough. Focus on a big market and keep your eye on the prize because you are the only one who can make your dream a reality.”
Noel Lee from Monster Cable to Speak at SDSU
When audiophile Noel Lee launched Monster Cable Products in 1979, he had no idea that the company would still be going strong four decades later. He also didn’t know that in those years, he’d revolutionize an entire industry while working with some of the world’s most beloved musical artists, including Dr. Dre, Iggy Azalea and Earth, Wind & Fire.
Forty years ago, Lee was just a young, entrepreneurial laser-fusion design engineer in San Francisco who discovered that different wires in speakers produce different levels of sound performance. What seems obvious today was epiphanous then. Lee jumped at the opportunity that presented itself, forming his now-legendary music technology company.
Next month, Lee will speak at SDSU as part of the L. Robert Payne Lecture series. Payne, a successful SDSU alumnus, built his career in real estate and development and now has been able to impact the campus through his philanthropy. His eponymous lecture series has brought a dynamic range of entrepreneurs and guest speakers — including Tony Hawk and Ralph Rubio — to help inspire the next generation of Aztecs.
Hear Lee discuss launching his company, growing his brand and maintaining his legacy over four decades of rapid tech innovation.
- What: A Discussion with Noel Lee, Founder and CEO of Monster Cable Products
- When: September 18 @ 7pm
- Where: SDSU Theater in the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union
CourseKey, founded by Lavin Entrepreneur, Gets $5 Million More in Funding
CourseKey founder and former Lavin Entrepreneur Luke Sophinos was shocked when he first arrived at SDSU and saw that, as a freshman and sophomore, he was in lecture classes of more than 400 students. He could see that students were disengaged. So, he set out to build a web and mobile phone based platform that allowed university professors to load teaching material to the web-based platform and then use an app on student’s phones to disseminate and interact with students in real time.
Now, Course Key, whose mission is to create paper-free learning environments, is gaining traction. Since founding the company in 2015, Sophinos has raised $9 million in funding, including a recent $5 million injection from venture capitalists to help grow its software business.
What started as a simple software tool to help professors take attendance digitally has morphed into an all-encompassing digital education platform that can be used for reading textbooks online and conducting quizzes or tests in real time.
The company also recently developed a data analytics platform that helps academic institutions analyze their classroom retention risks and then produce appropriate responses to raise retention rates.
Today, CourseKey has roughly 100,000 paying users and is used at more than 80 different locations.
Entrepreneurs Join SDSU’s Lavin Entrepreneurship Teaching Team
Peruse entrepreneur David Turner’s LinkedIn page and you’ll find a list of varied entrepreneurship endeavors. He has been vice president of operations for a privately-held streaming video company. He has been a founder, CEO and CTO of a software-as-a-service provider of mobile enrollment and engagement solutions. He has founded a full-service global contract research organization providing a broad range of pharmaceutical product development and data solution services.
The latest entry on Turner’s list: lecturer at San Diego State University, teaching first year Lavin Entrepreneurs in the Lavin Entrepreneur Program. The program is a two-year undergraduate commitment that encourages interdisciplinary collaboration to build the next generation of SDSU entrepreneurs.
Turner says students in his class will learn how to cultivate business ideas into something that can be started, with the right connections, contacts, processes and tools, the day after they graduate.
“I decided to take on teaching as a way to give back to the community and support it by bringing experience and knowledge of the entrepreneurship space into the classroom,” Turner said. “I want to attempt to make very capable students even more capable of being successful and promoting entrepreneurship within their own communities.” Turner isn’t the only working entrepreneur sharing knowledge with Lavin Entrepreneurs this year. But unlike Turner, this isn’t Kimberly Davis King’s first rodeo.
Since 2012, King has taught as a lecturer at SDSU while simultaneously continuing work as an entrepreneur. She has spent 17 years as a venture capitalist investing in high tech entrepreneurial companies and has been an advisor to many startups, including CourseKey, Verve Wireless, Aria.ai, Trials.ai, Swapsy, Clics, and Philometron.
King is now helping launch and serving as chief financial officer of Natal Health — an artificial intelligence/machine learning-driven maternal health app-based remote care service to help parents care for all aspects of their child’s health.
“I love working with young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial-minded students,” said King, who teaches second year Lavin Entrepreneurs. “I hope students gain insight into entrepreneurship and into develop, and gain confidence in their entrepreneurial mindset. I want them to learn skills that will last them a lifetime.”
7th Annual California Entrepreneurship Educators Conference 2020 Dates Set
The date is set! Between April 16 and 18, 2020, the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center will host its 7th annual California Entrepreneurship Educators Conference.
The theme of next year’s conference will be: Reimagine. That is, reimagining the way entrepreneurship can be taught to a new generation of students who predominantly want to be their own bosses, according to recent studies.
The conference will bring together academic leaders from across the innovation and entrepreneurship spectrum for three days of stimulating engagement. There will also be evening receptions where participants will have the opportunity to network and socialize, building cross-institutional connections. Participants will share ideas, start new collaborations, and learn about emerging practices in the evolving field of entrepreneurship education and research.
For more information, or to submit a proposal, visit: 2020 California Entrepreneurship Educators Conference