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Chris Koerner, founder and CEO of LCDcycle \u2013 a company that recycles broken iPhone screens and supplies wireless repair shop with wholesale electronic parts. Aside from being a motivational speaker and winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year award, Chris is a guy who appreciates the haters.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 Delivering Happiness
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013 Elon Musk

• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Flipboard
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 I try but I don\u2019t
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? \u2013 \u201cTell myself to appreciate the haters\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:46 \u2013 Nathan introduces Chris to the show
• 02:31 \u2013 LCDcycle was founded in 2013
• 02:43 \u2013 Chris opened a smartphone repair shop in college in 2010
• • 02:51 \u2013 Sold it for $ 30,000
• 03:50 \u2013 They started in Alabama
• 04:10 \u2013 They got more customers in the Texas market
• 04:45 \u2013 The supply parts to repair shop
• 04:58 \u2013 First year revenue
• • 05:08 \u2013 Did $ 2.1 million for the first full year
• 05:13 \u2013 For 2014, they did $ 4.8 million and $ 8.8 million in 2015
• 05:36 \u2013 They are doing cold-calling to get customers
• 05:57 \u2013 Uses a lead generation tool to scrape the repair shops details
• 06:25 \u2013 Gross margin average is 31%
• 06:55 \u2013 Team size is 12
• 07:08 \u2013 They are self-funded
• • 07:31 \u2013 Started with $ 30,000
  • 07:41 \u2013 Chris asked his family and friends for a loan
• 08:16 \u2013 Total volume of parts shipped
• • 08:27 \u2013 About million parts
• 08:45 \u2013 Most of their shipments are iPhone screens
• 08:53 \u2013 Average price point for the shops
• 09:17 \u2013 Spending $ 23 for raw material
• 10:15 \u2013 8% net margin
• 10:30 \u2013 Supplies are coming from China
• 10:49 \u2013 LCDcycle sells new screens and buying the broken screens from the repair shops
• • 11:05- Broken screens are being sent to China
• 11:27 \u2013 Their revenue is shrinking this year to $ 6.5 million
• 11:41 \u2013 There\u2019s a shortage in supplies last year so there was a spike in sales
• 12:25 \u2013 They\u2019re supplying to 700-800 unique shops
• 12:36 \u2013 Reorder rate
• 13:45 \u2013 Chris raised money last year
• 14:21 \u2013 Chris would sell to a bigger company
• 15:20 \u2013 Connect with Chris through his Facebook
• 17:30 \u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• You have a good chance of developing a great company\u2014you just need to be willing to navigate through the failures. Believe in yourself.
• Expansion\u2014even in the face of risk\u2014is worth it.
• Always appreciate the haters.

Resources Mentioned:

• Toptal\xa0\u2013 Nathan found his development team using Toptal\xa0 for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn\u2019t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal\xa0 developers.
• Host Gator\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages\xa0 \u2013 The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible\xa0\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• Assistant.to \u2013 The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
• Facebook \u2013 Chris\u2019 personal Facebook account.
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives