Tom Shipley is a serial entrepreneur, eCommerce investor, strategic advisor, and speaker who has become one of the leading experts in omnichannel brand building.
in 2005, Tom and his partner launched Atlantic Coast Brands and grew it into one of America’s largest direct-to-consumer multi-brand companies. They generated over $2 billion in sales before successfully exiting in 2021.
More recently, Tom co-founded two other companies, including Foundry, an e-commerce and Amazon brand aggregator, and AVA, which aims to acquire and scale 30 advertising agencies annually.
In this episode, Tom shares his entrepreneurial journey and his process for building successful businesses. We dig into his mental frameworks and how shifting his operating assumptions and everything he thought he knew about growing a company led to him raising $100M in 18 months.
You’ll also discover why some companies never scale despite having the full potential and how to think like a billion-dollar brand builder, so you can reach levels of success you never imagined were possible.
Tweetables
“Whenever you think that you’re at the end, there are no other options and you’re as low as it gets, it’s never that bad. There’s always solutions that are out there.” – Tom Shipley
“Momentum is really difficult for all businesses. So, if you can buy one that already has it and you know how to operate it better, that’s where the magic comes in.” – Tom Shipley
“You’ll never have the resources, you just have to be fucking creative.” – Tom Shipley
“Take off limitations, redo your operating assumptions and develop something magic. Just because everyone else is doing a certain way, doesn’t mean you should. I like to use proven frameworks, but they don’t have to be the proven framework from this industry. Take proven frameworks from other industries, and let’s plug it in here.” – Tom Shipley
