I enjoy reading about various start-ups on Techcrunch or Mashable, and am always jealous of my friends that leave the cushy workforce to start a cool new company. Many of my HBS classmates have chosen the road less taken and are running their own show at start-ups like Rent the Runway, ThredUp, LearnBoost, and Triangulate. I know the CEOs of all of these companies personally, and I am convinced that they are passionate about their products and literally jump out of bed every morning itching to change the world. It inspires me, frankly.
One of my former colleagues, Greg Pope, started up a company called eRelyx, that will eventually be a place where users can buy and sell used watches online. One of my entrepreneurship professors at school taught us that venture capitalists often invest in the person more than the idea - if this is the case with eRelyx, I have no doubts that Greg is going to get gobs of money. I have never met a guy more obsessed with luxury watches than Greg, and the guy's a walking encyclopedia.
I have taken to testing him. I sent him this picture of White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, and asked him to identify what watch he was wearing.
Greg responded within about five minutes with a link to the black ceramic J12 by Chanel. Amazing.
The best thing about Greg's start-up, though, is following the blog he has been keeping. The guy rarely misses a day without a post, and his posts are usually funny, well-written, and most importantly, they make me want to buy expensive watches. Seriously, I was never a watch guy (picture of my current watch below), but now that I'm reading Greg's blog, I'm starting to get into them. I blame my future bankruptcy on him.
But, by reading his blog, I have no doubt that Greg is absolutely 1,000% committed to eRelyx, and to luxury watches. I have no doubt that luxury watches are probably the first thing he thinks about when he wakes up in the morning, and the last thing he thinks about when he goes to sleep at night. He's a walking, talking luxury watch machine. And that's why I would invest in him.
So entrepreneurs, if you want a tip to impress potential customers? Write a blog. Put something up there every day that makes me realize that you love your product. Even if I'm not a customer, maybe I'll like your blog so much that I'll become one. That's what Greg has done, and that's what more people should do.
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