Technology should feel effortless. Like magic. At comcast, its my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. My name is mike, im in Product Development at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. Good morning. Coming up on msnbcs your business his father fired him 20 years ago, but now hes back running his family owned model airplane business. Well tell you what hes done to move the company forward. Kiersten becomes a Business Owner by turning her love for whisky into a brand. And shopify tries to turnBusiness Owners into selling their brands. Msnbc your business is sponsored by american express. Dont do business without it. Your business is sponsored by american express. Dont do business without it. Hi there, everyone. Im j. J. Ramburg and welcome to your business, the show dedicated to helping your growing business. This weeks biz star is more than a triple threat. She doesnt just write, act, produce on the cbs hit drama Criminal Minds shes also a partner in the blinking owl Distill Larry in santa ana, california. Artistry, friendship and fun. The blinking owl is a business built with her longtime Friends Brian and Robin Christian son
and their mutual affection for craftsmanship. She makes a mean moscow mule and if you happen to be there on the day that shes in the house, a tasting virtually guarantees you wont be walking out empty handed. On tv shes the bespeckled fbi analyst on the cbs drama series Criminal Minds. Are you okay . I dont think so. In real life shes the uber creative, artistic part owner of the blinking owl Distill Larry in santa ana, california. What youve got to do, youve got to spank the mint. She was intrigued when her long time friends told her they were going to chase a dream and open the first Distill Larry in Orange County. Its beautiful. It participates in the economy in a fair way where people are
getting paid to do something theyre good at and were not cutting corners. I feel like thats the reason why people love Criminal Minds. Because we all genuinely get along. Youre watching a show about people who Work Together made by people who Work Together. People can smell that so i feel like in this you can smell it and you can taste it in the stuff we make. So were doing stuff that were conscious about. Were conscious about how were treating the environment, our employees, how it looks, how it tastes. I feel like an end if youre looking for a good metric of what keeps you happy, sane, calm, yeah, you make money, this is perfect. Known for its Vodka Gin Whisky and aqua vie the blinking owl and its owners made a decision early on to do things the long way, making their booze from scratch using santa anas Award Winning water along with locally sourced grain and botanicals. A lot of our philosophy here evolves around being as local as possible. Were committed to using organic grown grain, as much California Base as possible and thats really important to us because of the impact it has on the local farming is massive. So, for example, one of our busiest months last year we used 15,000 pounds of grain. That could keep a small farmer in business for an entire season. And the products we make aqua vie is a really cool scandinavian spirit. It has caraway, cardemum, we use high Business Cuss and fennel. It was one of our favorite nerd out spirits. Its become big and popular now. Its a bartenders favorite. Its our best seller. A lot of people dont know what it is. We make an Orange County orange vodka. We use local oranges. Its amazing what happens when
you make a brand with really good products in, really good products out. They built it with three objectives, artistry, friendship and fun. Kiersten excels at the fun part. I can get a person to buy a bottle of vodka so fast. Ive made a whole group of ladies who have like 25 year long subscriptions to pbs, i have made them buy booze that theyre never going to drink because i did a good tasting. And while she still has her day job, kierstens title in the company is creative muse wizard owl. Leading the charge as Brand Ambassador and number one cheerleader for the blinking owl. Kiersten is like a best friend and best, best business partner. Just so encouraging. Constantly listening. Extremely generous. Constantly looking out for blinking owl and like a little
guardian of the business. One day youre going to leave your company. It is a fact. And so Succession Planning long before you need it is a must. The owners of a model Airplane Company in florida had given some thought to the future, but they didnt have a formal plan in place. For a while it looked like they might have to sell, but much to their delight after years of saying no, their son finally decided to join them. Now everyone is working together to traps form the brand and make sure that sales take off. This company today is a lot different than it was 20 years ago. Its a lot better. Its ready for that next step. Hes made some high flying changes in his professional life. My idea coming in was, yeah, it was going to be challenging, tough, but what it really is is more of that. Early mornings, late nights and lots of weekends have become part of his new normal. You just jump in and did you. You take your lumps along the way, right . After being fired from his familys business as a teenager two decades ago, the man who goes by his middle name, lee, has landed back at atlantic models. The Company MakesHigh Quality Model airplanes of all shapes and sizes including commercial and military jets. Its a lot to juggle at the same time. Making Model Airplanes was a passion of mine. It was hard for me to get excited about making Model Airplanes until i started seeing the bigger picture. His parents, roger and carol, have run the Miami FloridaCompany Since they bought it in 1995. Our most important goal is making sure that someone has a model that they love. Every model is a story and its very personal, from a pilot if theyre in a bad weather situation and have a hairy trip and they safely land, theyre bonded to that plane. Roger was always wondering about lees involvement in the
business. Theyve had some other famous customers along the way as well. Ive always had an interest in the Succession Planning, both not only for us management wise but also within the shop. Lees take on it was clear from the start. In the very beginning id asked him if hed have any interest, hed say no. Through the years, i asked him, he said, no, he said, i dont want to be rogers son all the time which was admirable. Carol never wanted lee to feel any pressure either. She believed he would know if and when the time was right. I encouraged him not to come into the business. I wanted him to make sure ds his decision. It is important that somebody come in and have the energy level but the passion has to be there. Eventually that moment came. Roger talked about retiring or coming up with a plan b and lee was listening. I needed to nudge him. I said, either youre going to do it or im going to find somebody. Thats all it took. It wasnt a big deal but it was
to show him i was anxious. In my mind it solidified me, ive got to come over here. Its such a special place. It cant change plans. Lee joined his sister betsy who had already been working for atlantic as the general manager. She welcomed his decision to join the company. Its so surprising to really get an idea how much he was paying attention, but the more i think he came through here and saw us working and saw what app interesting business this was, i think we kind of hooked him. Lee was never a stranger to the operation, but his arrival set the wheels of change in motion. I dont feel like an outsider. Ive come in and it is a transition because most of these employees have known me since i was 10, 12 years old. Now coming in as their boss per se its a little bit different interaction. There have been some strategic adjustments to the business model. Roger used to run the company more like it was a hobby. Lee now focuses on fine tuning production and the money making
potential. We have some orders that have taken too long to fill. This is new and shiny, lets go do that. It was more the fun of it, right, is what the motivating factor was not the business part of it, where, look, weve got bills to pay. And communication is crucial to everything. While his parents are open to new ideas, there are certainly times when not everyone agrees. We butt heads on some of it but we can explain our points openly and honestly and put the feelings aside and weve said it a couple of times where you can remove the ego, focus on the facts and you can get a lot done. There have been many bumps in the road. Lee has had to remind his father that the leadership has had to change. There is a new hierarchy to follow. I was talking to one of the fellas here about a project and he pulled me aside and he said, look, i dont mind you talking to the employees, but you need to let me know not to mess me up. Im thinking, geez, hes been here a week. Hes been observing a lot better
than i ever gave him credit for. Okay. Do your thing. Lee toyed with the idea of starting with a clean slate, but roger and carol know a lot about the business and hes still just learning. I know the different boeings, airbuss, all of that cool stuff, but i dont know how many times ive put a model in or done something, roger said, no, wait a second. In 1972 this model had this transition. Im like, what are you talking about . If it was just up to me a lot of people would have gotten the wrong model or an airplane not quite right. Though theres been a change in control, a lot of customers dont know theres a difference between father and son. When people call on the phone and they ask for roger, which roger . Theres only one roger. What are you talking about . Its roger. Make no mistake about it, this shift carries a heavy burden for everyone. They want to get this transition right. When you have a business of your own, you never lose sight of the fact that you we in
our particular case, we have 25 families who are depending upon us for their livelihood and thats important. Despite the ups and downs along the way, roger and carol are ecstatic to see the business passing through the hands of their children. Its the world to me. I think that the idea that what you started is of enough interest to them to carry it on is really gratifying. For todays Elevator Pitch weve done something pretty special. We have partnered with shopify. One of the worlds leading commerce platforms. They work with more than 600,000 merchants. They know what were talking about. Were here in los angeles where theyve opened up a permanent space where theyre going to help merchants grow their businesses. Our Elevator Pitcher if she wins is going to get two prizes. The first is shell get her product placed in a Shopify Store and the second, this is the part im excited about, is
shes going to get mentorship from someone at shopify. Lets meet our pitcher. Todays Elevator Pitch is a family affair. Good to see you guys. Hi. Thanks. You are wellbranded on your tshirts here. How do you say the name of your company . Allu. This is my niece and god daughter. Got it. You Work Together . Yes, we do. She helped create all of the branding for ayllu. How is it working together . Great. Have you pitched together before . We havent. This is our first time. Whos going to be doing the pitching. Both of us. Youre going to learn from the master because you are quite good at this. Youve had another company whampt will it mean if you win this Elevator Pitch . Shopify is such a great Global Company and with their resources it will be a game changer for us. It will take this brand and idea
and move it to a whole issue. First you will speak with the coo of shopify. The second person is Michelle Cordero grant. Shes like you guys. Shes a founder and a ceo, started something from nothing and her company is lively. Shes been incredibly successful. Lets see how you do on your first one. Great. Great. Hi. Hello. Let me tell you about ayllu. Ayllu is a word that means family, community and acceptance and now ayllu is an iconic symbol that unites us through love, luck and this comes from my multicultural background. The design is two hearts that represents the love we share. The Infinity Sign represents
unity. Forming a clover for luck. Together this creates the Iconic Symbol Ayllu which has the power to transform and inspire. My generation is defined by the peace sign. And now my generation will be defined by ayllu calling on the Global Community to stand together in solidarity. You can find the ayllu collection at www. Ayllu. Me. We have pending opportunities at bloomingdales, nordstroms and zales. We were looking for shopify to help us with mentorship as well as im throwing you off. Thats okay. You did a great job. By the way, youve done this a thousand times. This is your first time. Fantastic. I was very, very impressed. Do you guys have any questions before you are going to go off and deliberate . No, ready to go. Great pitch. Appreciate you telling us about your company. You can go talk to each other
for one second. You can decide what you think. Ive got to say how much did you practice this . Oh, a little bit. A little bit. You are a good mentor. I think this is really beautiful stuff. Right. This is not your first go round at starting a company . No, its not. What i want to get across this isnt a jewelry collection, this is a movement. We want people to join in with this movement. We want them to wear it. We want them to paint it. You dont have to buy the jewelry, just go out there and really inspire the community. All right. Were going to bring them back in and see if youre going to get this chance. Okay. Come back in. Thank you so much for that pitch. It was really great. We want to sort of understand, you know, a little bit more about the business. I know there ace a charitable component to the business. Id like to learn about that. 25 cents for every piece that we sell goes to a global charity. Right now we are donating to global citizens which is a big event hang in new york. So were excited about that. I think you have to lean into that a little bit more. The jewelry is beautiful, your story is incredible but the charitable Component Diff differentiates you guys. I think you have to push that a little bit stronger. Im going to get to The Moment Of Truth here. Are you ready . Yes, were ready. And yeah thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. We really appreciate t. Thank you so much for the opportunity he. We know that shopify are going to put us on the map. Thank you for the opportunity. And mentorship. Dont forget the mentorship. Thats everything. All their resources. Thank you, guys. Well done. In 2015 jenn rubio and stef started their company away. Today theyve sold more than half a million pieces of luggage and raised more than 80 million in funding including Comcast Ventures which is part of our parent company. And most interesting they are profitable. We are here at shop. Org in las
vegas. I have the chance to meet and talk to jenn rubio. First of all, congratulations. The profitable part is whats most exciting. Its not very traditional for a Venture Backed Company to reach profitability at this stage but its something weve been very conscious of since the beginning and were very proud of it. Im particularly interested in how you built a brand because ultimately you sell luggage and you sell other Travel Materials but you sell luggage. Youve created a company that feels like much more than that. And how did you kind of go through the push pull of do we talk about the features or do we talk about this world of travel . From the beginning we knew we wanted to be much more than just a Luggage Brand so we always talked about away being a travel brand. I think that even influenced the way we designed the luggage. In the beginning we didnt know anything about luggage. We surveyed 800 would be
customers about their travel pain points, what they needed and used those insights to design our first suitcase. Thats how were thinking about travel and the company at large. That changes things. Were not a Luggage Brand, were a travel brand. That changes the way you think about what you do. It changes the way we think about it and other people talk about it. No one wants to go home and talk about a Luggage Brand over drinks. Weve looked at this is everything we do as a company is something worth talking about to one of your friends. That i think is the best. This is another point i want to talk about. Repeat that again. Everything everything you do as a company should be something that people want to talk about with their friends over drinks. So you do not want to talk about the great material on the wheels on my piece of luggage. No, people want to talk about their experiences. People want to talk about how this piece of luggage fits into their life, the trip they took it on, how it made their experience better. We looked at all of our marketing and branding and communications through that lens. Was there any discussion
about, no, we need to focus on the features, no, we need to talk ab