The 15-year-old company was founded by four Boyce brothers to sell basketball hoops online. Today, most of its sales come from table tennis tables as well as air hockey and billiard tables, rowing machines and fitness equipment. It recently landed a private investment for expansion. Revenues totaled $15.9 million last year. Most Popular Product: Table tennis tables. We know all the ins and outs of the market. We can develop custom tables for people. We import tables from China, Germany and Italy. Calabasas Jason Boyce TITLE: Chief Executive # ON FASTEST GROWING LIST: 12 Three-Year Growth Rate: 129% How to Compete with Amazon: There is not a simple answer. We sell a lot on (Amazon’s) platform. I was there three weeks ago and they have way more work than they can do. The average person has worked there two years, and at four years they are dinosaurs. There’s no way a person at Amazon in two years can learn as much as we know about table tennis. So just surviving for the last 15 years is how we can compete. Also, shipping a table is hard. It doesn’t go on a regular UPS van. It’s called LTL, or less than truckload. Amazon is just not good at it yet. We get better at it every year. Finding Finance: We found a private investor, a friend of a friend. We hit it off. He’s into internet marketing and services businesses, and we did a deal. Economic/Social Trends: E-commerce is growing. We sell on Amazon.com as well as Jet.com, Walmart.com, Newegg.com and Sears.com. But all those together don’t come close to Amazon. We also do well on our own site. Biggest Challenge: Last year we grew 88 percent and this year we’re at 68 percent, but we think it will go up during the holidays. One reason we can offer competitive prices is we buy and inventory the goods ourselves – we don’t drop ship. We need enough capital to sustain that. Our (investment) partner is great – that injection of capital really helped. We could slow down growth and squeak out more profit, but we need partners that understand our strategy, and finding them is a challenge. Fun on the Job: The job changes every week. E-commerce constantly throws you curveballs. My two biggest teachers are failure and Amazon. The fact is that all the logistics of how a product is listed, marketed, sold and shipped are being reinvented by the growth of e-commerce. It’s fun to be part of that rising tide. Advice: Don’t be afraid to fail. We fail, we pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and keep going. If you’re serious about being an entrepreneur, you must accept a high level of risk and failure in the beginning. If you’re not failing you’re not trying hard enough.
