From the Dorm Room to King of Cones with Bryan Gerber

0:01Light that spark fire nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on fire. The only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down going from dorm room to king of cones. To drop these value bombs, I brought to Brian Gerber and the EO Fire Studios. Brian is a founder and CEO of Hera Supply, which produces a billion pre-rolled cones yearly for the cannabis industry and of Hemper, the largest subscription box of smoking accessories. And today, we'll talk about starting a business while in school and where should you focus your time on finding new areas of business or strengthening your existing ones.

0:36The biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make in the early stages, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sparsing today's episode goes to Brian and our sponsors. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, high level and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. These days, your business needs total visibility from global shipments to tariff impacts to real-time cashflow. That's NetSuite by Oracle, your AI-powered business management suite trusted by over 42 ,000 businesses.

1:21Download the free ebook, Navigating Global Trade, Three Insights for Leaders at netsuite.com slash fire. Brian, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Thanks, John, for having me today. I think the answer to this one is right time and place plays a bigger role than people want to admit. Right time and place plays a bigger role than people want to admit. And Fire Nation, This is coming from the king of cones. We'll be talking about a lot of really cool things today, including maybe unpacking that comment just a little bit.

2:04And Brian, you started building a business while you were still in school. I mean, most people are focused on parties. They're focused on girls and guys and dating and maybe learning a little bit here and there. You were building a business. Tell us more. Totally. So I've always been very entrepreneurial. Even as a young kid, I was the lawnmower, dog walker, snow shoveler, paper route. So I was always keeping busy with something. I think I learned very early about, I got kind of addicted to making money in business. And so that kind of just followed along throughout college. I'm from the East Coast originally, and I went to George Washington University in DC.

2:46And I guess in my last few semesters, you know, all my friends were getting internships or jobs at all the big consulting firms. And I was over here trying to figure out, you know, what to do. And so I started brainstorming. And the concept that we landed on me and my co-founders was basically Dollar Shave Club or Birchbox for stoners. And the idea behind it was more of a discovery outlet and more of a privacy outlet. The experience going to like a smoke shop or a head shop has always been kind of odd to me. You know, the certain words that you say you're not allowed to say, and they always think you're a undercover cop or something.

3:32So it was a good segue for us into the kind of the subscription economy, which was very big in 2015. You know, Dollar Shave Club just got bought for a billion dollars. Birchbox just raised over a hundred million dollars. So it was a hot topic at the time. And instead of applying for jobs and things like that, I was building the Shopify website during class and figuring out social media and the supply chain and everything that kind of gets involved in starting a business. Yeah, that was how I kind of got there. Fire Nation, that's what I just love is that you just take one step at a time. Like Brian did not know what the end goal was going to look like, what the result was going to be.

4:19But he said, you know what? I'm going to take one step at a time. I want to figure out how to make a website and then I'll go from there. I'll figure things out along the way. And that does bring you back to that Martin Luther King quote, which is you don't have to see the whole staircase to take that first step. Now, Brian, our time is limited. Let's just be honest. It's finite. So in your opinion, where should we focus our time? On finding new areas of business or strengthening existing ones? So I think when you're a startup, you need to be dynamic and identify new areas of opportunity. But I believe that not having shiny object syndrome in the beginning is very important.

5:06So there's a fine balance between this. but for me and now that I've been doing this for a decade I'm very confident that you need multiple tentacles driving revenue to create a very successful business and you know this kind of gets back to you know I don't know if you've read Jim Collins good to great but the hedgehog concept you know it's the intersection of three circles of what are you passionate about what can you economically make money in and what can you be the best at in the world? And I think that holds a lot of weight for very specific things. And kind of getting back to the title of this podcast, the King of Cones, that was really where we hit our hedgehog model.

5:48We became the largest manufacturer in the world for pre-rolled cones. We produced over a hundred million a month and it was really, again, right time and place. And I think if I wasn't open to new opportunities or, strengthening existing ones at the same time, you kind of have to do it all, right? And you have to take each opportunity or new development as a one-off and explore it, right? It may pan out to be your biggest line item, or it may pan out to be a waste of time. But unless you are open to it, then you're never going to figure that out. Now, I love that whole concept and a quote that really defines my entire book that I wrote back in 2021, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, is a simple quote, but I love it.

6:36Become the number one solution to a real problem in a growing industry. If you can accomplish those things, you're going to win on some level because winners take most. They don't take all, but they do take most. So if you can be that number one solution, you can be number one to a real problem, not just some kind of fake, you know, you know, airy fairy problem, but a real problem in a growing industry, you're going to win on some level and probably on a big level, because winners take most. Now, Brian, you've made a ton of mistakes. I've made a ton of mistakes. But you know, we learn from those mistakes, we can adjust, we can pivot.

7:16But I want you to share what you think the biggest mistakes are that entrepreneurs make in the early stages and how can our listeners avoid those? Definitely. I think one of the earliest mistakes entrepreneurs make would be one during the hiring process. I've had struggles with this myself where you have a couple interviews, you hire someone, they may not be the perfect fit. And this kind of goes back to the who, not the what. And if you start with the who first, then you can figure out what the what is. And I think having the right team, especially early on when you're building those first few, you know, positions out, you know, your first 10 employees, I think that's very important.

7:57And also figuring out who your, you know, co-founders are, right? Making sure that you have a diverse skillset, not everyone's overlapping, everyone has their own lane. And I would say that the other early mistake would be just cash management. I think that a lot of entrepreneurs, you know, I bootstrapped for the first three years and raised, you know, my third year. But I think a lot of entrepreneurs get that first cash injection and they just go crazy with it over hiring, over skewing, overdoing everything. And I think you need to come from a position of this could be the last dollar I ever raise.

8:37And if you don't take that mindset, you'll run out of money very quickly. This could be the last dollar I ever raised. I mean, if you say that to yourself, Fire Nation, you're going to treat those dollars a lot differently. Because man, what I've seen in over 4 ,655 interviews is entrepreneurs, they don't really typically run out of time. They don't typically run out of resources or energy. They run out of money. I mean, what happens. The well goes dry and that's it. It's over at that point. Like you have to be just utilizing every resource you have, every dollar you have in the best way possible.

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12:16In a nutshell, NetSuite helps you know what's stuck, what is costing you, and how to pivot fast. If our business needed a tool like this, NetSuite is what we'd use. It's one system, full control. Tame the Chaos with NetSuite. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, download the free ebook, Navigating Global Trade, Three Insights for Leaders at netsuite.com slash fire. That's netsuite.com slash fire. Brian, we're back. Let's talk strategies. Let's talk motivation. What strategies can help us stay motivated and overcome those inevitable setbacks that will happen in every entrepreneur's journey?

12:53I think that the strategies behind staying motivated, one, come from having a great support system from your co-founders. I think that if you are able to be very open, honest, transparent, you're able to really just help each other out from not just a mindset perspective, but allowing each other to really fail or improve or I always tell my co-founders, if I'm doing something wrong, call me out about it. And I think that the overcoming setbacks on the business journey are sales cures all. You take one step forward, 10 steps back. That's entrepreneurship. You work 1 ,000 hours to go an inch. But if you continue to have that momentum from the sales and revenue perspective, that's what I believe for myself gave me the juice to keep going was just more and more and more people excited about your business or excited about opportunities and putting out those tentacles right what I was saying earlier it's you know try stuff go to networking events you know see what's out there but I think sales cures all and that's really what I've focused on and what part of my role here at Hara is focusing on core enterprise sales.

14:21Now, Brian, there are opportunities out there right now that we are just simply not aware of yet. How can we prepare for those? I think you have to be a master of the domain. Whatever industry or niche you're in, you really have to start exploring what else is out there. And this is what happened with us for the cones division of our business, we were selling basic paraphernalia products, grinders, wrongs, pipes. And we were selling to a major packaging company that contact us and said, Hey, I know you're manufacturing in India, uh, you know, paraphernalia, can you make cones? And we said, well, we'll try it.

15:06What does the opportunity look like? And again, I think if you're just really scrappy, these opportunities, back to right time, right place, sort of fall in your lap. But it's being a master of your domain and knowing everything about every customer and every angle and every niche in that market. And I think you can start really identifying those opportunities as they're coming across or as the market's developing, especially for my industry. It was very new back in 2015 and continues day-to-day to develop, but I think that's really how you prepare for these opportunities. Can you give us an example of a time that you maybe weren't expecting something and then this opportunity came up and because you had prepared in the way that you talked about, you were able to take advantage of it?

15:56Definitely. The dispensary market, for example, there is a lack of merchandising with accessories. And it's currently about 1 % of every dispensary's revenue. And I always like to say that it's on their top five priorities, but they're stuck at top three because they just don't care about it because cannabis sales makes their bulk of their revenue. But we've been fortunate enough to, you know, through our cone division, explore a lot of merchandising opportunities with our multi-state operator clients that are vertically integrated, who have, you know, anywhere from 60 to 200 locations at retail.

16:40And we were able to help them take that 1 % up to 5 % of revenue. Now, most markets are saturated. Let's just call a spade a spade. How can we differentiate ourselves in the crowded markets? And just like you did last time, And maybe give us an example of how you did this with your companies. Situation with my industry is that there's a lot of outside companies that come in and try to repurpose stuff. And I think our positioning at Hara was, I want to be a solutions partner. Because there's no infrastructure that was really ever created for this industry. And I think when people hear the solutions partner pitch, it's, I'm not trying to sell you anything.

17:26I want to hear about your problems first, and then I can help find solutions for you. And I think that a lot of customers of mine really appreciate that, that not every time I'm talking to them is how much more can you buy or what discount can I move more product. And I think that being both customer obsessed and also product obsessed at the same time can really differentiate you because you not only know what problems your customers are facing, you have the solution ready to go. And we found this with the cones division, which was honestly, you know, over 20 years old at the time. There was a ton of people producing cones.

18:12We didn't invent it at all, but there was a massive shortage in the market. And what we really did was it wasn't a one size fits all. It was a, you know, what filling equipment are you using? How can I conform the cone to your equipment instead of you conforming your equipment to my cone? And I think a lot of people really appreciated that because they didn't have to put up any money to figure out what was going to work. I did the due diligence. I took on the R &D. And they didn't have to really do anything. I just delivered them the perfect cone that worked exactly how they wanted it to. Brian, you shared so much great content here today.

18:47If Fire Nation was just a walk away with one value bomb, with one piece of knowledge, what would that be from our chat today? Anything great takes a really long time. to achieve. I've been doing this for a decade and I still feel like I've got a ton of gas left in the tank and I still feel like there's so much more to accomplish. And just know that when you're in one year, year three or year five, it's takes a long time to get to the point of success or, you know, an ROI on what you thought was why you got into this business. And I think that the idea of I'm going to get rich or, you know, quick money, fast money.

19:31It's not really a reality. And I think people that get into entrepreneurship that think that they're going to fail very early on and have a very difficult time continuing or staying motivated. Ryan, a fire nation is really digging what you're saying and they're wanting to learn more about you, connect with you. What is your call to action for our listeners today? I would love to hear from any of the Fire Nation community. My email is brian at harasupply.com. You can add me on LinkedIn. I'd love to hear from everyone. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

20:04You've been hanging out with BG and JLD today, so keep up that heat. And for links to everything that we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Brian in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And Brian, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks for having me today, John. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Brian for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world?

20:35If yes, we are now accepting applications for entrepreneurs on fire. To learn more about becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest. And I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. These days, your business needs total visibility from global shipments to tariff impacts to real-time cashflow. That's NetSuite by Oracle, your AI-powered business management suite trusted by over 42 ,000 businesses.

21:22Download the free ebook, Navigating Global Trade, Three Insights for Leaders at netsuite.com slash fire.