YFS Magazine: What advice would you give an entrepreneur with plans to launch an e-commerce store?

JG: I primarily look at things from a business operational perspective, while Jess [can speak to the creative and tech]. From my perspective when you’re building an e-commerce business, you should try to fill a need that nobody else is [meeting]. Solve a problem for the everyday person.

JR: I look at it from a customer perspective – you want to identify yourself with that person. I want to identify with whatever that brand is … I think they’re cool because I want to be that person to some degree. It’s really identifying your user base and your audience – building that person, or character, that people want to associate with …

YFS Magazine: How can brands build online credibility and industry authority?

JG: When you’re new to the game, you have to have an opinion on what other people are doing. You’re not always pushing your own product or brand through social media; it’s just talking about things you think are relevant. As long as you’re giving your own opinion, naturally you can integrate that into your own brand and presence online.

JR: It is a systematic approach. For example, with social media our conversations are segmented into relevant news stories we’re commenting on and a majority of the time, showing someone’s work or products is the smallest percentage [of content]. It sounds crazy, but if people trust your opinions, you can organically integrate your products or work at any given time. We lay out our content over an upcoming month and break it down o a micro day-to-day approach.

Best Success Story

JG: I think internally, our greatest success is the excitement we both feel about where we are at right now and the things we are about to go do. We feel we’ve really built a solid service-based company, and we’re at a huge turning point.

Another great success was launching the John Wall website. We were written up in the Sports Agent Blog and The Washington Post wrote an article about it being one of the most transcendent sports athletes’ website out there. ESPN Radio did a segment on it as well. As a big sports enthusiast, with a sports agency background, to get that kind of validation is exciting.

JR: Everyone here, now, has grown into their roles and they are extremely talented at what they do. It is an internal success, that everybody now knows what we have, and we’re ready to move into this next step of launching really cool things together.

Biggest Startup Challenge

JG: I’d have to say being able to convince employees that it’s okay to make mistakes and that you are going to trust them. When you grow a startup without much capital, you have to invest in your people and let them fill roles; while there are more senior people out there. But we are now receiving the dividends of putting trust in people we thought were talented, early on. For me it was understanding that you have to let go, and there will be mistakes in the beginning, but in the long-term you’ll be okay.

JR: When we first started, I had to do all of the design and development. But you have to let that go and have faith in your own systems. One of my biggest challenges, which may sound silly, was allowing different creative people to work together in a team. Turning them from individual creatives (working from home) into professionals, working in a team environment; now seeing them flourish is priceless. We’ve let them lead their own way and they’ve excelled.

#1 Tip for Entrepreneurs

JR: You have to work. Most people don’t understand how hard it is. Justin and I work 24 hours a day, and we never have a day off.  I come into the office on a Monday and someone’s like, “Oh, it’s a Monday,” and I’m like “I don’t know what a weekend is.” I think a lot of times people don’t understand how hard it actually is.

JG: Especially when you come from the digital and creative side, a lot of people think that you do you work to a certain point, then some people come in to fund you, and it is all cake from there. No. You have to work and you have to lead your people to show them that you are putting in the hours too. You’re going to put in the hours and the dedication and hopefully your team picks up on it and follows suit.

Also from a “Silicon Beach” perspective, a lot of these tech companies think “stuff” is just going to magically happen. You have to work.

JR: You have to always focus on what you are doing and do the hard parts first and let other things naturally evolve. You can’t look past roadblocks; figure them out now. I can’t stress it enough – you have to work. Even with our success in two years, there is still so much work needed to move forward.

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This interview has been edited and condensed. Interview conducted by Katherine Burks.