EP 462: $8.8M 2015 Sales of iPhone Repair Parts with CEO Chris Koerner

Chris Koerner, founder and CEO of LCDcycle – a company that recycles broken iPhone screens and supplies wireless repair shop with wholesale electronic parts. Aside from being a motivational speaker and winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year award, Chris is a guy who appreciates the haters.
Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Delivering Happiness
• What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk

• Favorite online tool? — Flipboard
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I try but I don’t
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Tell myself to appreciate the haters”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:46 – Nathan introduces Chris to the show
• 02:31 – LCDcycle was founded in 2013
• 02:43 – Chris opened a smartphone repair shop in college in 2010
• • 02:51 – Sold it for $ 30,000
• 03:50 – They started in Alabama
• 04:10 – They got more customers in the Texas market
• 04:45 – The supply parts to repair shop
• 04:58 – First year revenue
• • 05:08 – Did $ 2.1 million for the first full year
• 05:13 – For 2014, they did $ 4.8 million and $ 8.8 million in 2015
• 05:36 – They are doing cold-calling to get customers
• 05:57 – Uses a lead generation tool to scrape the repair shops details
• 06:25 – Gross margin average is 31%
• 06:55 – Team size is 12
• 07:08 – They are self-funded
• • 07:31 – Started with $ 30,000
  • 07:41 – Chris asked his family and friends for a loan
• 08:16 – Total volume of parts shipped
• • 08:27 – About million parts
• 08:45 – Most of their shipments are iPhone screens
• 08:53 – Average price point for the shops
• 09:17 – Spending $ 23 for raw material
• 10:15 – 8% net margin
• 10:30 – Supplies are coming from China
• 10:49 – LCDcycle sells new screens and buying the broken screens from the repair shops
• • 11:05- Broken screens are being sent to China
• 11:27 – Their revenue is shrinking this year to $ 6.5 million
• 11:41 – There’s a shortage in supplies last year so there was a spike in sales
• 12:25 – They’re supplying to 700-800 unique shops
• 12:36 – Reorder rate
• 13:45 – Chris raised money last year
• 14:21 – Chris would sell to a bigger company
• 15:20 – Connect with Chris through his Facebook
• 17:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• You have a good chance of developing a great company—you just need to be willing to navigate through the failures. Believe in yourself.
• Expansion—even in the face of risk—is worth it.
• Always appreciate the haters.

Resources Mentioned:

• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal  for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal  developers.
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
• Facebook – Chris’ personal Facebook account.
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives