#215 – Carey Smith’s Big Ass Fan Journey
Carey Smith grew Big Ass Fans from zero to $300 million over 18 years without outside investors. He shares key parts of his story on this podcast.
It’s interesting to note that when he sold Big Ass Fans for $500 million, the company’s stock appreciation rights program paid out $50 million to more than 100 loyal employees who shared Carey’s work ethic with 15 becoming overnight millionaires.
Every year, American entrepreneurs start more than 500,000 companies, but only 200 will ever reach $100 million in revenue. Even many that succeed will later fail.
One valuable tip from Carey is that he personally called each new customer to hear first-hand what they liked about their Big Ass Fan, and more importantly, learn what they thought could be improved. Why did he do that?
Because Carey believes in a “fail-fast” approach to drive revenue quickly. He learned a valuable lesson that you can usually tell within a short time if an idea’s going to work. If it doesn't, then make the conscious decision to fail fast. Carey tells his employees, “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not working.” Growth comes only from taking risks.
Before Big Ass Fans, Carey spent more than a decade trying to grow another company, but its annual sales never rose above $1.4 million. Carey admits he ignored warning signs and thought he should persevere a bit longer.
Today, Carey leads Unorthodox Ventures, an Austin-based investment company he founded to provide everything venture capitalists lacked when they approached him near daily at Big Ass Fans. Carey’s team consists of experts who help founders become serial entrepreneurs by providing support for everything from engineering and marketing to customer service and logistics.
Join this conversation to become introduced into Carey’s success model.
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