(Ep 32) KENNY FLOWERS -> From IBM consultant to Hawaiian shirt mogul 🩳

Kenny Haisfield | Founder & CEO

Nov 24, 2020

Hey friends,

Back again with another edition of The Founder Recap - this is Episode 32. If you’re new here, my goal is to give you a quick synopsis of what got me thinking from this week’s episode of The Founder Podcast in 5 minutes or less.

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Mission control:

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And who am I?

I’m Kallaway - a future founder trying to get some answers before I jump in the ball pit myself.

Let’s get it.

This Week’s Episode (Ep 32) 🩳

Guest -> Kenny Haisfield, Founder and CEO of Kenny Flowers

Mission -> Kenny Flowers is on a mission to make everyday a vacation with modern resort wear

Discount -> Use code “Founder15” for 15% off all Kenny Flowers apparel

Episode available on -> Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Website

In this episode we talk with Kenny about…

✈️ Quitting his job, moving to Bali and figuring out how to make Hawaiian shirts

💡 How to start an ecommerce business from anywhere in the world

🏅 What makes Kenny Flowers shirts so much better than the competition

🎸 How Jimmy Buffet ended up on stage in a Kenny Flowers shirt

⭐ How Kenny’s Covid response got the brand featured in GQ and Esquire

Summary 🔍

What is Kenny Flowers and how did Kenny get started?

Kenny grew up in Florida with the sounds of Jimmy Buffet music ringing through the yard.

After studying economics and international relations in college, he ended up working as a customer experience consultant at IBM, traveling across the northeast to serve his clients.

One day, after wearing his dad’s vintage Hawaiian shirt for the millionth time, he wondered why no one had modernized it for the current day consumer. He realized that as social media began to grow in popularity and people were taking more and more pictures on the weekends, guys couldn’t get away with having the same old shirt in every photo.

When he saw that tropical and floral prints started to regain popularity, he knew that his calling was to reimagine island wear for the modern consumer.

That’s when he went all-in to start Kenny Flowers.

Today at Kenny Flowers, Kenny and his team are on a mission to help you embrace that feeling of vacation each and every day.

What started out as a floral printed short-sleeve button down shirt has quickly turned into a full line of his and hers modern resort wear. Their product line ranges from Hawaiian shirts and swim trunks to women’s swim suits and cover-ups and even matching couple’s sets.

And the devil is in the details when it comes to their design - each of their flagship shirts are made in Bali with stitched lay-down collars, coconut buttons and a sunglasses loop in the front pocket to keep your shades secured.

Kenny Flowers has been at it for the last 6 years and sees nothing but smooth sailing and high growth ahead.

If you want to support Kenny and grab some resort wear swag for an upcoming trip to break the Covid lock-in, using code “Founder15” will get you 15% off!

Here’s why I’m a fan and excited about the future for Kenny Flowers:

Kenny is one of those founders that fully embodies the brand. During our conversation, he said that when he thought of this idea in 2015 (pre-Hawaiian shirts getting mega-popular), he immediately knew it was his calling. Anytime you have someone who is eager to authentically build something for themselves (regardless of if it scales), you’re likely going to have a high quality product and a committed founder to keep going.
Kenny’s fiance Christina (@jetsetChristina) happens to be a luxury travel blogger. Yeah, I know…they’re winning the game of life. Not only does she take Kenny on her sponsored trips to the most luxury tropical destinations in the world, but also, she built out a women’s line for Kenny Flowers called Watercolors. What started out as just a mens line focused on Hawaiian shirts and swim suits has turned into a full scale modern resort wear brand
Kenny’s background (pre-Hawaiian shirt kingpin) is in customer experience consulting. If there’s anyone that knows how to build the optimal digital experience, it’s him

Kenny’s Startup Manifesto 📜

What’s a Startup Manifesto?

At the end of every episode, I ask all of my founder guests the same question:

If you had to write a Startup Manifesto with 5 of the most important key lessons or pitfalls to avoid when starting out, what would they be?

Here’s what Kenny had to say:

Make sure you’re passionate enough to 100% commit to what you’re doing for 10 or more years before you start it. A lot of people think, “hey, I have this great idea, within a year it’s going to be off the charts and I can sell it in two years.” That’s not the right mentality. You need to be willing to make it your life for 10+ years.
Don’t wait for the perfect business plan to be ready – it’s more important to get your hands in the weeds and try to figure it out on your own. That experimentation will guide the future business planning.
For the first couple years, focus on making an amazing product and building a brand. There’s always business tweaks you can make, but the first two years should be focused almost exclusively on the product/brand.
Make a list of what you love doing and also what you don’t like and can’t stand doing. Those are the skills/roles you should be hiring to fill.
Document whatever you can from the process – even if it’s extra work. It’s interesting hearing how people went about starting their business and to see that look behind the scenes. It could be what separates you from the competition and the rest of the market.

What Got Me Thinking From the Episode 🤔

After reflecting on my conversation with Kenny, here’s something that really got my wheels spinning:

“Doing good” is becoming table stakes for companies 👍🏽

First off, Kenny is an absolute gem and I could tell right away we would be friends in the real world.

Towards the end of the conversation, Kenny shared his perspective on a couple of emerging trends that he’s excited about as a consumer and/or investor.

The big two things he mentioned were a shift to sustainability and the emphasis from customers on understanding the “charitable good” that a business is doing.

On the sustainability front, he talked about how more and more companies are experimenting with either making their operations more sustainable (e.g., less waste, more equitable partnerships, investing in local suppliers, etc.) and/or rethinking the fabrics they’re using (e.g., shifting to recycled/eco-friendly materials).

He emphasized that it’s super important as a consumer to be aware that not all sustainable fabrics are good. Just because a company says they’re using recycled material, doesn’t ensure you’re going to get a quality product. Striking that balance of conscious sustainability while maintaining quality and a consistent brand experience is important.

His other emerging trend was “charitable good” and that customers are starting to hold brands more accountable for doing their part. I say “charitable good” in quotation marks because there’s a lot that can fall under this category.

Donating money to charity, creating jobs in the local community, or providing time/service/thought leadership to help local businesses thrive and grow are all examples of charitable good.

For Kenny, he actually doesn’t like when businesses offer a “buy x and we’ll donate y” proposition (e.g., buy a pair of socks and we’ll plant a tree, etc.).

When consumers buy from companies that make those types offers it becomes difficult to discern if they are purchasing for the donation or because they actually love the underlying product.

He also doesn’t believe in doing charitable work as a means to advertise it on his site/social channels so that it adds to his value prop.

He wants to create a brand and products that people love on their own and then have his customers trust that his company is doing the right thing behind the scenes.

For Kenny Flowers, Kenny has spent a considerable amount of time and money helping to build schools in Bali. You can tell from the conversation that he is taking several steps to promote widespread charitable good in the local community.

In the past, he hasn’t advertised this heavily, but as Covid began to spread across the world, his customers began to reach out and ask what he planned to do to help.

It’s fascinating to me that customers would take the time to reach out directly to hold him and other businesses accountable.

These days, if you don’t have a plan for charitable good as a brand, you’re likely well behind the eight ball.

I agree with Kenny’s sentiment above on both perspectives. I believe that the ideal scenario is to have customers buy your products and services solely based on the value they offer to them. All companies should step up and ensure they are supporting the local community - customers shouldn’t need to use that as a differentiator when deciding where to buy.

If the core product value prop is misaligned, the “buy for social cause” is only adding a bandaid on a product-market fit problem that you’ll eventually need to solve.

Where do you fall on it?

Wrapping it Up 📕

I hope you found this interesting and inspiring! If so and you want to help support my journey to bring The Founder to millions of people across the world, here’s a couple things that would be really valuable to me and the show:

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Till next time ✌️

Kallaway