From $3,000 To $250 Million: Friends' T-Shirt Venture Becomes A Massive Success Story

Ryan Bartlett and his friends Nick Ventura and Matthew Winnick combined their resources in 2019 with a modest $3,000 investment to establish the men's apparel brand True Classic.

The company made more than $26,000 in revenue within its very first month of operation, Bartlett told CNBC.

A setback arose in 2021 when Bartlett miscalculated the demand for their products, leading to an overestimation of the required inventory. This misjudgment nearly pushed True Classic to the brink of collapse.

Reflecting on this critical error, Bartlett said, "It was the stupidest decision we ever made because it took us a good year-and-a-half to dig ourselves out of that hole."

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In their efforts to navigate the crisis, they decreased their company's profit margins and incurred over a million dollars in extra interest payments to vendors. They even secured financing from a third party in exchange for a portion of their future revenue.

Bartlett said he's learned from his past mistakes, so he no longer relies only on his gut for financial decisions.

Despite these challenges, True Classic regained its competitive stance against direct-to-consumer contenders such as Everlane and Vuori and industry giants Nike Inc NKE and Ralph Lauren Corp RL.

According to Bartlett, the company is poised to achieve $250 million in revenue during 2023, which remarkably matches its cumulative lifetime sales figures within a year.

Bartlett said that he dreams of turning True Classic into a billion-dollar company.

"Rival startup Vuori is valued at $4 billion and is profitable, too. Ralph Lauren, a more established competitor, currently has a market cap of $8.02 billion and reported $522.7 million in profits last year," he said.

"Now, when we make bets, everything is super methodical, and it goes through a huge process. We don't bet on the upside like that anymore; we bet somewhere in the middle to on the lower end," he said.

"If we sell out, we sell out. That's the worst that happens versus going out of business. So we learned our lesson."

This story is part of a new series of features on the subject of success, Benzinga Inspire.

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Photo: True Classic