Rob Kessler is the inventor and co-founder of Million Dollar Collar and goTIELESS, a relatively simple solution to fix what his company dubs “Placketitis” The sinking, wrinkling, and folding of the placket of a casually worn dress shirt.
Prior to Million Dollar Collar, Rob built a screen printing and embroidery business from a spare bedroom in his house to over $1,000,000 in revenue before selling the company. Rob, along with his Stuntwomen wife Linda, recently started, grew, and sold a yacht charter business in Los Angeles just after it hit $800,000 in revenue in just 4 years.
Rob’s sales experience in a number of high-dollar industries including Diamonds, Real Estate, and Automotive Sales provided a unique blend of backgrounds to transition him into the fashion world. His ability to look at the world through a different set of lenses than most people lead to his success in every sales job and with both of his own businesses.
Company: goTIELESS
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company
Rob Kessler: Out-of-the-box thinking grounded in exceptional customer service, is how I would describe my business path. I’ve started and sold several businesses in several different industries. I’m always looking for a niche in the market. My latest venture is disrupting the dress shirt industry.
goTIELESS is redefining the dress shirt market with its innovative approach. As Business Casual attire became more prevalent, traditional dress shirts seemed to fall short. My own experience with a disappointing shirt at my beach wedding highlighted the need for change. The photos from Jamaica, marred by my shirt’s unruly collar, motivated me to find a solution.
Inspired, I developed a unique collar stay-like product, extending it to 9 inches and integrating it into the shirt’s placket, hidden between its layers. This “placket stay” remains permanently in place, enhancing collar structure throughout the shirt’s lifespan. It took three years and the sacrifice of 100 shirts to perfect the material and design.
After selling over 500,000 placket stays, we decided to create a shirt that showcased this technology. After several iterations, we perfected our new shirt featuring Wrinkle-Resistant Bamboo-Stretch fabric, a versatile convertible cuff, and the Million Dollar Collar already built in, all for a competitive price of $80. The result is a shirt that marries style, comfort, and functionality.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Rob Kessler: You know when you wear a dress shirt without a tie and the front sags?? Don’t you hate that? I did too, so I fixed it. I gave structure to the front of the shirt so you’ll always look amazing, even without a tie.
$20B will be spent on Dress Shirts in the US this year and we have the only innovative product, that can be marketed to the vast majority of shirt wearers. UNTUCKit created a category of shirts no one knew they needed, with nothing proprietary, and now do $250M/year. I’m convinced we have a better product with a wider appeal, and a roadmap to follow.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, is an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Rob Kessler: When I was 16 years old, I got a job at a local soccer store. Being a high-level player, I was in heaven. But, Timm, the owner made sure I felt needed. On day one, he handed me a key to the store and an alarm code and said, this is yours now too. He made me feel like I mattered in all aspects of the business right out of the gate. I would have worked there for free and almost dropped out of college because I loved it so much.
I think that is the key to keeping people engaged and inspired. If they have a stake in the success and have a business mindset, they are sure to be an exceptional part of the team. When they feel heard, they are more open to sharing ideas and helping improve the business from the inside out. I worked for a new home builder, and they couldn’t care less what I thought, even though there were blatantly obvious deficiencies. I never felt like I mattered, “come on, we need a few more homes to hit our goal!”
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Rob Kessler: We are mostly online at these early stages. Being the customer-focused guy that I am, we try to give our online customers as much of a personal touch as possible. Handwritten notes on every packing slip, natural-sounding email responses, and lots of energy on the phone. Making customers feel special, is just as important as making employees feel special. There is a lot of noise in the marketplace and more and more scam products on social media for sale. Having authentic, support of your brand to defend you on these platforms is key. And by making them feel like they matter to the brand, they are more likely to do so organically.
We reinvest most of our profits into paid media and are expanding our reach every day. It is key to getting people to try us. Eventually, that will turn more into awareness as the customer-base becomes more familiar with the brand.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Rob Kessler: Our biggest challenge at the moment is inventory management. We are growing so fast, after years of struggle to get all the details right, that it is very hard to predict the needs of the inventory without overdoing it. Our lead time is 4 months so, the planning is exceptionally challenging. On top of that, cash flow then becomes an interesting problem, as we need to pre-pay for the inventory as the quantities get larger and larger, and the loans get bigger. We used to get 3 colors in trying to hit minimums, but now we are doubling that with one color. Good Problems! We will figure them out and look back on what a crazy time it was, hoping it would continue forever.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Rob Kessler: I deal with the logistics and the back end of the business. To my partners and coach, it seems relatively easy, but it is far from that.
I have spreadsheets and multiple programs running. Constantly rotating inventory to be accessible for shipments and making sure the oldest inventory is sold first. Then throw in the returns and exchanges, making sure the inventory is spot on so we never oversell, or undersell for that matter.
We’re overgrowing our space, so finding the room to operate without going crazy is also an issue. I’ve always tried to run as lean as possible so this is nothing new.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Rob Kessler: My weakness is the details. I wish I was more organized with some of the details. I could be more self-reliant. But, I guess at least I am aware of that fact and can address it properly. My wife is exceptional at it, so in the businesses we have done together, she handles that and I work to my strengths. When we divide and conquer like that, we are really successful. I recognize that it is a weakness for me, and when I focus on it, I am better, but it takes work to do it.
What does “success” in 2024 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision
Rob Kessler: We are on pace to 4X last year. The goal is to continue that pace next year as well. That becomes life-changing for us and 10 years in, right on schedule, I’ll be an overnight success. Personally, my wife and I are spending more quality time together and working on growing our strong marriage.
