Today’s Notable Young Entrepreneur is WeSell Socks Founder Kevin Lee, whose sock subscription service took off immediately and sold out within the first week of operation. Here’s what inspired his career and the advice he has for other young professionals…
Elevator Pitch: Describe your job in a nutshell.
I do everything except clean the toilets. All joking aside, I run a sock subscription where I handle orders, maintain the system, build and iterate on future versions, coordinate purchases… all in the span of a month, where in which I start that cycle all over again.
Why did you start working at your company? What was the inspiration for this career route?
I’ve always been captivated by the concept of contributing to my community and creating an impact in the world. When I was younger my dream job was working for a non-profit that made a large difference in the world. Years later, my vision has changed and grown, but the core concept hasn’t.
What is the best part of what you do on a day-to-day basis? The most challenging part?
The best part, hands down, is the smiles. Whenever I tell someone I sell socks I always see a big, open-mouthed smile and it just gets better when I tell them what I’ve accomplished as a result.
The most challenging? That’s an easy one. It’d have to be operations. It’s just not my wheelhouse and I will be forever grateful for my family’s help on that one.
What is one sign that you’ve seen over the years to suggest that your work/life balance is off?
The most obvious moments are when I’m catching up with my friends and we talk about what we did over the weekend. Where they talk about riding bikes, going on vacations and raising their children, all I talk about is how I spent the whole weekend debugging my checkout page.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Hopefully doing this or at least something similar.
What is one major challenge that you’ve had to overcome in your career? How did you overcome it?
When I was first starting out, I’d never expected the response I got in my first month. I’d ordered about 200 socks figuring I’d sell them all by the end of the year at best. I’d sold out within the first week of business. I had to suck up my pride and publicly apologize to all my subscribers that I’d be delivering their socks significantly later than expected. It was a hard pill to swallow but I’m so glad I did it. The response I got was very warm and patient – it’s from that moment on that I decided I’d write a personal note each and every month. I still do it to this day.
What does success look like to you? Does Money = Happiness?
Money can certainly equal happiness in some situations. However, success in my mind goes beyond money. Success is being able to know that you made some difference in the lives of those around you. It’s a silly and impossible dream but I aspire to be able to call everyone I meet a friend – and not one of those “business friends,” but a friend you’d have a drink with and talk profanities with.
What is the most memorable milestone in your career?
Being asked to speak in front of a group of aspiring entrepreneurs at a local high school. I don’t see myself as being worthy of the honour but I was thankful to be given the opportunity to (hopefully) inspire the next Bill Gates. I’m doing another talk in the next few weeks and I’m just bubbling with excitement about it.
Do you have any advice for other young professionals?
Do stuff. I know it’s been said time and time again, but getting things done is one of the trickiest things to do in life. There are so many reasons why you shouldn’t do this or that, but there’s usually one reason that outweighs all the cons. Find that reason and use it to overcome all those barriers.
Where is your favourite place to wine/ dine in your city and why?
Yakitori Kintori. I’m a sucker for Japanese skewers, beer and good company. I meet there every couple months with a few good friends of mine and we just laugh and eat. If that place were to ever go under or become insanely popular (to the point where I wouldn’t be able to grab myself a table), I just wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I might just drop everything and move to Japan.
When you’re not working how do you love to spend your “Me” time?
It really depends; most of my free time these days is spent listening to videos or podcasts while catching up on emails. At the moment I’m really getting into two series called “Stuff You Should Know” and “Crash Course.” I’d definitely recommend checking them out if you like learning about various subjects. I can’t count the number of times I’ve learned something from those series and did a deeper dive into the subjects only to realize I’d spent the last three hours reading about the seminal tragedy or the opium wars.
Where is your favourite place to travel? Why?
Japan. It’s infinitely fascinating to me to observe the cultural differences and similarities between our culture and theirs. It shows in their approach towards technology, media and even transit systems. I also really love Japanese skewers and fresh seafood as I’d mentioned previously, so there’s that too.
If you had to choose a theme song, what would it be?
It’s cheesy but the nerdy part of me would have to say the Pokemon theme song. You just can’t appreciate how awesome the lyrics to that song are until you hear it again a decade later.
If you weren’t doing what you’re doing, what would you be doing?
Probably working various part-time jobs. I doubt I’d have any transferrable skills if I weren’t working with computers.
Do you support any charities? If so, which one(s) and why is that important to you?
My business donates to our local homeless shelters with every pair sold. I also support many initiatives around the city that promote digital literacy (i.e. Ladies Learning Code). I feel it’s important to find ways to empower your community and that extends from those in short supply of shelter to those who want to find new opportunities that they’d otherwise may not have access to.
What to you is notable?
The human spirit. We’re such negligible blips in the universe, yet we can push past all that and accomplish amazing feats. If an alien race were to visit us one day, I imagine they’d be impressed with what we’ve been able to accomplish over the course of our existence.
Blackberry, iPhone, Android, or Other?
iPhone, Android, Motorola and Nokia. iPhone because that’s what I use day-to-day. Android because I’m infinitely fascinated by its values. Motorola and Nokia because I had used both growing up and loved them to death (I only switched to an iPhone because my RAZR gave up on me after being run over three times).
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Photo by Nick Kozak