10 questions with “The Rebel Billionaire” Shawn Nelson

Shawn David Nelson is a creative, intelligent, savvy, determined entrepreneur. He’s also a crazy, impulsive, risk-taking, spike-haired rebel. It’s this dichotomy that’s helping Shawn—and his Original Oversized Sacs—defy generally accepted convention and make LoveSac the greatest brand for the world. He is establishing his name as the next-generation CEO.

First of all Shawn, I would like to thank you for taking the time to do this interview for YoungGoGetter.com.

Joey: We know you’re a “Young Go Getter”, but so our readers know, how old are you?

Shawn: 31 now. I started LoveSac, technically, when I was 18. Registered it officially as a business when I was 21.

Joey: Can you tell us the quick history on Love Sac and how it came from an idea to product?

Shawn: I thought it would be funny to make the biggest bean bag chair in the world when I was 18, and just graduated from High School. I actually got off the sofa, drove to the fabric store that day, bought 14 yards of vinyl fabric, cut out the biggest baseball pattern I could draw, and my girlfriend’s mom sewed it up. I spent 3 weeks trying to stuff it with every soft chunky thing I could find. Bean bag beads made a mess. Foam from our yellow camping mattresses worked the best. The Sac was born – and it was much better (and far larger) than a bean bag, no doubt.

Everybody wanted to buy one. Three years later, after abandoning the Sac for two years to become a missionary in Taiwan, I returned home and took the Sac out to the drive-in movies again. I had so many people trying to convince me to make them one, that I started the company, registered the name “LoveSac” in October, 1998, as the name seemed the best fit for a bean-bag like thing inspired by the love-piece-hippie generation. My friends and I made them in the basement, and sold them at home-shows, boat-shows, car-shows, and out of a van, as we finished college. We showed them at a trade show and secured and order for 12,000 small Sacs for a retailer’s Christmas merchandising. We had to build a real factory to make that many, so we credit-carded a lot of farm equipment for shredding foam, and built a factory in an old warehouse in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah.

After completing our first large order, we had spent all of the money on inefficiency in the factory. We opened our first LoveSac store in a brand new shopping mall out of desperation—luckily the mall, at that time, was just as desperate to fill empty spaces. We had to pay for this factory somehow, and the big furniture stores just weren’t willing to stock gigantic oversized Sacs from us yet. The first store, at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake City, Utah, was a huge success! We sold far more than the Sac-a-day we had hoped for to pay the rent. Ten days into it people were asking about franchise opportunities. Six weeks into it, and we had sold every single Sac our little factory could produce before going home for Christmas on Christmas Eve.

Years later, LoveSac is still small, but growing fast with 25 company owned stores in high-end shopping centers, from Los Angeles to New York City. LoveSac.com is a major part of our business now too. In 2005 I won a reality TV show on FOX Network called “The Rebel Billionaire,” where the host, Sir Richard Branson of Virgin fame, took us around the world facing business and risk taking challenges. I won $1 Million which I invested in LoveSac, and Richard became a minor investor in LoveSac as well. LoveSac has had to completely re-organize, start over, and grow again because of mistakes made along the way, but somehow, not only are we still alive, we are about to explode!

LoveSac’s newest product, the Sactionals, are a patented LoveSac invention where with just two simple pieces, Bases and Sides, one can build sofas, arm-chairs, sectionals, movie-loungers, play-pens, guest-rests, or any other furniture you can imagine in just seconds, with no tools. This “extremely modular furniture” also boasts machine washable Covers that are tailor-fit, making Sactionals by far the best looking modular, washable, changeable solution for sofas or sectionals on the market. In one year since introduction, Sactionals are nearly half of our overall sales, all of a sudden, and rising. Our patents on Sactionals are broad and fundamental, and we believe that once more of the world knows about this product, it is destined to be a staple furniture solution.

Joey: We know you are the founder of Love Sac, but I am sure there is more to you than that. What are some other things you have done prior to founding Love Sac or things you are currently working on?

Shawn: I married the cutest girl 5 years ago, who just bore my first child, Lucky Anne Nelson.

I won $1 Million on Fox’s The Rebel Billionaire with Richard Branson. I was made President of Virgin Worldwide for 4 months.

I was not a college drop-out entrepreneur. I graduated with honors with a degree in Mandarin Chinese, emphasizing business.

I bought my first ski-boat at 17 years old, and have always maintained one ever since. I absolutely love water sports and just being out on the lake.

I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. I am an Eagle Scout with 3 palms. I have a band, and still play out regularly – I’m the lead singer and play keys as well.

I have numerous other product and company ideas, but am so consumed with LoveSac, I will be lucky to actually get to execute on any of them soon – although I am trying to launch one later this year with a partner, on the side.

I’m probably just bragging too much.

Joey: What has been your biggest asset while building your business?

Shawn: People. Hard working, dedicated, loyal people, and great friends.

Joey: Adversely, what has been your biggest vice?

Shawn: Loyalty. Loyalty to people who are not necessarily up to par, or capable of helping the company get to the next level (other people).

Joey:What can we expect next from the talented “Rebel Billionaire” in the near future?

Shawn: Within 3 years, most of the U.S. will know what Sactionals are, and I bet a good percentage of practical middle-class and upper-middle-class Americans will own them!

Joey: Everyone starts to feel burn out on a project every now and then. What do you do to keep yourself motivated and focused?

Shawn: I play. I try to play every where I go, on every trip I take, and on every weekend when I’m not working straight through. I play hard, and I try to play focused (IE: when I play, I do my best to just turn off work). Then I come back to work, put my nose to the grindstone, and look forward to deleting another line on my endless to-do list (I LOVE doing that – it is kept in my task list in my Blackberry, and almost nothing pleases me more than to highlight and delete).

Joey: Can you give us three tools that you use every single day to make your life as an entrepreneur more efficient, productive, or fun?

Shawn:
My Blackberry.
My Laptop – I live on the thing. (I even use my mouse-pad and Illustrator to do graphic design).
My wife, to bounce all my crazy ideas off of.

Joey: What is your favorite quote?

Shawn: If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got. – I forgot who said it.

Joey: And last but not least, if you could give one piece of advice to fellow Young Go Getters, what would it be?

Shawn: DO something. Just make it, buy it, lease it, take it, get it, design it, or fake it, but DO something, and stop talking about it.

Thanks again, Shawn, for taking a time out with YGG this afternoon. We appreciate your input, and hopefully YGG members can take something away from this interview that will help them in the near future. For more information on Shawn Nelson, visit his site www.shawndnelson.com.