This Is Not How This Ends
Her sales are down. Her customers are aging. Her lease is up. What should Jaime Echt do? We put that question to an all-star group of entrepreneurs in our latest 21 Hats Podcast episode.
Good Morning!
Here are today’s highlights:
Shopify is offering its merchants an AI assistant.
Those mail-order pharmacies aren’t saving employers money.
LGBTQ business owners talk about what it means to come out.
A software entrepreneur says bootstrappers have the luxury of answering to no one.
THE 21 HATS PODCAST
This week, we bring you what we’re calling an Entrepreneurial Fish Bowl with Chris Hutchinson: As you may remember, we recorded one of these at our 21 Hats Live event in Fort Worth, where I shared some of my challenges trying to build 21 Hats and got feedback from the group. Then we turned the conversation into a podcast episode. This time, we’re doing the same thing except it is Jaime Echt, founder and CEO of The Crafters Workshop, who explains her challenges to a virtual group of 21 Hats entrepreneurs. As you’ll hear, Jaime’s challenges are real: Her sales are down. Her customers are aging. Her lease is up. And she’s not sure what she should do next. We’re going to see if a group of 21 Hats Founding Members can offer some support and advice.
You can subscribe to the 21 Hats Podcast wherever you get podcasts.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Shopify has introduced an AI assistant for business owners: “Plans for Sidekick were announced last year, prompting sellers to sign up for its waitlist; a select few gained access to its earliest renditions. As of June 24, the new tool is officially operating in early access for thousands of merchants who were on the waitlist. Business owners that host their e-commerce stores on Shopify can use Sidekick to ask questions on Shopify-related topics like how to navigate the Admin tab or what marketing campaigns are available.”
“With that, Shopify has also expanded its campaign feature to allow Shopify Plus sellers to buy advertisements on Google, Instagram, and Facebook for a pay-per-conversion rate set by individual sellers.”
“Shopify's investment in AI extends to customer service as well, with Shopify Magic, which will create suggested replies for sellers to respond to customer questions using data from the seller profile. It also will make suggestions on product categories to tag, such as color, size, or material, to increase an item's discoverability when a customer makes a search.” READ MORE
HOME REPAIR
It turns out even plumbers and electricians can work remotely: “The cost of home-repair service visits has risen in recent years, just as more Americans have grown accustomed to video calls. Enter virtual plumbers and electricians: a small but growing crop of tradespeople offering their services to those interested in DIY fixes at cheaper rates. It’s a new take on an old craft—one with perks, including less physical strain—as well as some of the same Zoom hiccups familiar to any white-collar worker. A technician for home-maintenance company Frontdoor, [Allyson] Saling enjoys the work-life balance afforded by the remote role, especially living in a rural area with a young son and five cats and dogs. She previously endured a 90-minute commute to her electrician job at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.”
“Customers occasionally dial in with complex tasks: Saling once helped someone install a service panel for a Jacuzzi over nine calls, including a run to Lowe’s, where she helped him pick out parts. Frontdoor, which started offering virtual visits last spring and charges a $25 flat annual fee, says its employees work to ensure safety, including by making sure power is off during jobs.”
“Jason Bauder, of Twin Lake, Mich., who launched VideoChataPro.com in 2022, says typical calls last less than 15 minutes, though some run over two hours. As a plumber, he advises customers against trying to change piping themselves or jackhammering their flooring. Given the abundant YouTube tutorials out there, though, ‘it’s hard to draw a line on what a customer can and can’t do,’ he says.”
“Shane Stuart, a virtual appliance repairman with VideoChataPro.com, recently helped a woman get her washing-machine door open after she couldn’t find the release knob. ‘I’ve had plenty of calls when something wasn’t plugged in or the water wasn’t even turned on,’ says Stuart, who does virtual visits for $3 a minute, cheaper than the $100 he’d charge in person.” READ MORE
HUMAN RESOURCES
Employers are finding that mail-order pharmacies do not in fact save them money on drugs: “The pharmacies promised to sell medicines to employees at lower prices than their bricks-and-mortar rivals by buying larger quantities from drugmakers and providing 90-day supplies. Instead, the opposite is happening. Drugs ordered through the mail-order pharmacies are costing more, raising employers’ spending. That is partly because of price markups on prescriptions filled by mail-order pharmacies—especially those owned by the pharmacy-benefit managers, or PBMs, themselves—according to employers and consultants who have reviewed businesses’ drug spending.”
“Unity Care NW, a nonprofit health clinic in Washington state, forecasts the cost of medical and drug benefits for its 365 employees and their family members will increase this year by 25 percent to more than $3 million. A big reason: Drugs delivered by mail are costing multiples more than those picked up at a store counter.”
“One employee’s three-month supply of a prescription for a generic antidepressant, fluoxetine, cost Unity Care about $100, more than twice the average price that retail pharmacies paid for the drug. The same fluoxetine prescription could be purchased from the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug pharmacy for about $12.”
“‘You’ve got to ask yourself, why would a PBM push mail order as hard as they are? And it’s revenue,’ said Matt Lund, chief executive of Fortune Management, which helps companies, including Unity Care, set up health plans. ‘It’s another source of revenue where they’re not having to pay or negotiate with a local pharmacy.’” READ MORE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
LGBTQ entrepreneurs talk about what it means to come out: “When it comes to being an entrepreneur, Andrew Nicol says his identity as a gay man has been a boon rather than a hindrance. ‘I feel very grateful that's the case,’ says the founder and CEO of Element Brooklyn, a sustainable candle company based in New York. ‘I know it's not always the case for everyone.’ Navigating the business world as a member of the LGBTQ community is not easy for many. As longtime LGBTQ rights advocate and business leader Brian Ellner notes, fewer than half of LGBTQ folks are out at work, and fewer than 1 percent of Fortune 500 companies have an LGBTQ board member. But many LGBTQ business leaders and entrepreneurs believe that despite the challenges of coming out—and the cyclical backlash around DEI initiatives—visibility is incredibly important when it comes to finding success in business.”
“Marc Coleman, founder and CEO of the Tactile Group, an Inc. 5000 honoree, notes that as a Black and gay man, he's had trouble accessing networks, raising funds, and feeling like he can be his authentic self in certain workplaces and environments. He says the solution has been ‘to live loud and proud,’ and to build a culture within his own company that prioritizes equity and visibility.”
“Vyra Scher, founder of Lechery, a sustainable hosiery company: "I don't believe my identity as a transwoman has significantly impacted my career, either positively or negatively. During the initial years of Lechery, I wasn't open about being trans, and no one asked me about it. It was only when I witnessed the increasing negativity in the news toward the transgender community that I decided to come out.”
“Jake Szymanski, founder of J.M. Szymanski Furniture and Interiors, a design firm: "If you are not out at work, you will undoubtedly feel imposter syndrome. But when the time is right for you to come out, this will be the first step in defeating imposter syndrome. It can be a slow road to confidence, but the joy and pride you will feel in the end is everything! And being an out, gay entrepreneur, gives you an entirely different perspective than the rest of your peers. This unique perspective, leveraged properly, is incredibly valuable to a business." READ MORE
POLICY
Lack of child care is preventing businesses from growing: “During her nearly eight years in business, Dawn Kelly watched again and again as staff left their jobs at The Nourish Spot, the smoothie joints she owns in Queens and Brooklyn, because they couldn’t find good child care. Sometimes it was because the care was too expensive, or parents thought there were no quality options for their kids. Whatever the reason, it created retention issues for the small business — issues that Kelly has had to ponder as she considers expanding.”
“In a new survey published Thursday, more than a third of small business owners say that the lack of child care in their communities is preventing them from operating or expanding their business. The survey was produced by Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses Voices program, which advocates for small business owners. The data was first shared exclusively with The 19th.”
“Most of her staff of 10 are single parents who are managing the chaos of a child care system in disrepair, where costs are too high for most. Kelly empathizes: Years ago she was a single mom in corporate America, grateful for an employer that provided care on-site. But as a small business owner, it’s not something she has the capital to afford.”
“Currently, the federal government allows businesses to get up to $150,000 back on their taxes for providing child care for their employees. But owners surveyed said they’d support increasing that amount to $500,000 — a proposal currently on the table in Congress. That bipartisan bill, known as the Child Care Investment Act, would expand the tax credit for the first time since 2001.”
“The way the credit currently works, a business has to spend $1 million to get the maximum $150,000 tax credit. Under the new bill, the refund would rise as high as $500,000. A small business would get back even more — up to $600,000. Businesses that spend less than $1 million would get more money back as well, a refund of up to 60 percent instead of 25 percent.” READ MORE
FINANCE
Aytekin Tank, founder of Jotform, makes the case for bootstrapping: “Bootstrapping may sound scrappy, but in many respects, it’s a luxury. As a bootstrapper, you have the luxury of focusing obsessively on your product and answering to no one. When I first founded my company, I loved our initial product, online forms, because I saw its potential to make people’s lives easier. That factor—ease of use—was my principal concern, hence our original tagline ‘The Easiest Form Builder.’ I loved the product so much, and I got so much joy from seeing people using it, that I gave it away for free (while clocking 9-5 at my day job). From February 2006 to March 2007, we didn’t have a paid version of our product. Nonetheless, this was a pivotal period for the company.”
“Why? Because I listened to early users and received invaluable feedback on how they were using our product and how I could improve it. I refined and iterated before I ever released a paid version. Because people genuinely saw the value in our product, we grew our customer base before spending a dime on marketing.”
“If I had investors who required me to meet arbitrary KPIs, I would have been spending my early days mastering PR and sales. I wasn’t an expert in either of those fields, nor did I enjoy them. I’m certain the company wouldn’t have taken off if I’d been forced to focus exclusively on those aspects of the business.”
“Recent reports show that in 2024, VC-funding hit a six-year low. This may have sent shudders across the startup landscape, but it shouldn’t. Bootstrapping is a safer, more reliable route. And perhaps most importantly for your company, it creates the optimal environment for developing a better product for your customers.” READ MORE
STARTUPS
A bunch of startups are promising to tweak the chemistry of oceans so they do more to absorb carbon and cool the world: “It is a radical idea that has yet to be proven on a commercial scale and causes some to worry about potential risks. But at least a dozen young companies are embarking on the world’s first major projects to get oceans to soak up more carbon dioxide, encouraged by billions of dollars in federal and corporate funding for efforts that remove the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.”
“A startup that uses an electrochemical method to remove carbon from seawater is building its first commercial-scale plants in Singapore and Quebec. Removing the carbon boosts the ocean’s ability to soak up more from the atmosphere. The U.S. government recently awarded it and a competitor with a similar approach some of the first federal funding for carbon removal.”
“Another startup is set to pour about 9,000 tons of sand mixed with a yellow-green mineral called olivine near the waters off North Carolina’s Outer Banks. When the sand dissolves in water, it triggers a series of chemical reactions that drive carbon removal. ‘The ocean basically does the work for us,’ said Tom Green, chief executive of Vesta, which is embarking on the North Carolina project.”
“Already, oceans absorb about 30 percent of Earth’s atmospheric carbon. Scientists say nascent technologies employing the ocean could eventually remove at least 1 million metric tons more in coming years. That would be nearly four times as much as the entire carbon-removal industry has delivered so far; a million metric tons is roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 200,000 gasoline-powered passenger cars.” READ MORE
THE 21 HATS PODCAST: DASHBOARD
Yes, Of Course, AI Will Eliminate Jobs: Companies don’t like to admit it, says Gene Marks, but eliminating jobs is kind of the point. So far, it’s mostly big companies with millions to spend that have been able to replace humans with bots, but he believes smaller businesses will soon be doing the same thing. Should we be worried about the number of jobs lost? He doesn’t think so. Plus: Why a lot of businesses still don’t offer 401(k) plans. And if job candidates want to bring a parent along to an interview, Gene says he’s fine with that.
You can subscribe to the 21 Hats Podcast wherever you get podcasts.
Thanks for reading, everyone. — Loren