Cotopaxi: Davis Smith

Stephen Starr didn’t plan to get into the restaurant business.He set out to be a radio DJ. Then a nightclub owner. Then a music promoter.Along the way, he booked a young Jerry Seinfeld for $75, promoted shows for U2 and Madonna, and spent years pretending to be more successful th ...  Show more

Today’s callers: Daisy in the United Kingdom looks to grow her barefoot shoe brand across the pond in the United States. Then Rachel in Pennsylvania considers private labeling for her protein-packed sprinkles. And Andrew in California wonders whether he should seek investment for ...  Show more

Davis Smith is the Founder and Chairman of Cotopaxi, an outdoor brand with a humanitarian mission. The company has assisted over 4 million people living in poverty. The company has been profitable for the la ...

After a disastrous start, FedEx needs to change its sales pitch or it will run out of money before it even has a chance to take off. Smith resorts to surprising means to raise the money to keep his fledgling company going.UPS is convinced FedEx will be out of business in a matter ...  Show more

It’s the early 1970s, and 27-year-old Fred Smith has an idea for a new kind of package delivery service, one that uses its own planes to deliver packages in under 24 hours. Skeptics tell him the start-up costs are too high and the demand too low, but Smith thinks he’s found a way ...  Show more

From losing his job in the 2008 financial crash, to a billion dollar idea.We speak to Mohit Lad, who teamed up with his old college friend Ricardo to trawl through the trash cans of shuttered businesses in Silicon Valley to get the first server for their tech start-up, ThousandEy ...  Show more