#376 - Kevin Lavelle - Building Mizzen+Main, Influencer Partnerships, His New Startup Harbor
Description
Kevin Lavelle is the CEO & Cofounder of Harbor. He’s also the Founder and Chairman of the Board at Mizzen+Main, where he invented the world’s first performance fabric dress shirt, ultimately driving it to hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.
He successfully raised a growth round from L Catterton and established partnerships with athletes like Phil Mickelson, JJ Watt, and dozens of others. Today, Mizzen+Main has more than ten of its own stores with 1,000 retailers also carrying its products.
We discuss:
- Starting and growing Mizzen+Main
- The intricacies of celebrity-equity deals
- The inspiration for founding Harbor
- The realities of building physical products vs. software
- Stories with Phil Mickelson and J.J. Watt
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Links:
Mizzen+Main - https://www.mizzenandmain.com/
Harbor - https://harbor.co/
Kevin on X - https://x.com/kevinslavelle
The Phil Mickelson Commercial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45xF1C76I88
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Topics:
(00:00:00 ) - Intro
(00:03:49 ) - Kevin’s early career and inspiration to found Mizzen+Main
(00:07:25 ) - Building the prototype
(00:11:38 ) - The early days of building the brand
(00:15:16 ) - The impact of sponsoring the Tim Ferriss Podcast (x)
(00:21:35 ) - Choosing the name “Mizzen+Main”
(00:23:50 ) - Inventory Management
(00:26:55 ) - Starting today, what would be your hiring order?
(00:28:32 ) - Celebrity partnership stories: J.J. Watt & Phil Mickelson
(00:48:17 ) - The inspiration for founding Harbor
(01:03:17 ) - Bringing on a Co-Founder and building hardware
(01:17:19 ) - Marketing approaches
(01:14:56 ) - How celebrity equity deals work
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