Fred Mossler, founder of Honus Capital and one of the Co-founders at Zappos, talks about taking risks in life, the future of fashion and how to build a unique culture. Fred also shares his early days of Zappos with Tony Hsieh and his advice for young entrepreneurs.
Amidst a successful career at Nordstrom, Fred Mossler took a huge leap of faith to join a small startup that worked on drop-shipping shoes. The company eventually became the predecessor to Zappos. Throughout his time at Zappos, Fred worked in various senior leadership positions at Zappos, including Senior Vice President of Merchandising and helped Zappos grow into a company with more than $1 billion in gross merchandise sales before it was bought by Amazon in 2009. Since leaving Zappos, Fred has worked on numerous ventures including founding Honus Capital LLC and co-founding Ross & Snow.
In this interview, you will learn
What made Fred take the leap of faith to give a traditional stable job for a infant stage startup? When should you take the leap of faith in your career?
What was the early days of Zappos like? How did Zappos survive the internet bubble and scrape by. How did you, Tony and the team stay motivated?
What is corporate culture? How to build culture in a company that emulates Zappos?
What is the future of the retail industry?
This full interview is dedicated to the Goodie Two Shoes Foundation. The Goodie Two Shoes Foundation provides disadvantaged children with new shoes and socks, as well as other items deemed essential for good health and positive development. (https://goodietwoshoes.org/)
"...those early days it took everything... It was a very arduous process. And you felt like you were kind of walking in cement every day with how slow things move. But when you're small and you're resource constraint, that's how it starts."
Interview Transcript
Stay tuned for a published transcript
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