Ian W.

Background

About Ian W.

Perfection is a myth. Many leaders want perfection and consider anything less a failure. My belief is that "perfection is the enemy of progress", and I am living proof that imperfection is not only a more realistic expectation, but is an essential compass that will guide us toward unexpected successes - provided we pay attention and work smart. I was unofficially hired at Yada Yada Telecom in October 2008. The company was running a small eBay store to liquidate leftover inventory from a recent acquisition. Refurbished business telephone systems was the game, and they needed help with inventory control and listing management after the owner had continued purchasing from existing vendor relationships. Despite my complete lack of background in any of this, I jumped in head-first. Within 6 months of my official hire in late 2008, the owner began working remotely leaving me to handle daily operations with 2 employees. By mid-2011, our growing staff and bursting shelves necessitated more space, so the owner purchased a sq ft commercial building which became our very imperfect home for the next 8 years. Over the course of those 8 years, I dove deep into every conceivable aspect of e-commerce, Refurbishing (“recommerce”) operations, and product knowledge on what can only be described as a “shoestring” budget. I educated myself on telecom and became a trusted resource for local techs who would stop in and seek my help with the esoteric nature of telecom; most of our competitors specialized in 2-3 brands, our mix topped 50 and included nearly every telephone-adjacent category. The business grew into a multi-channel fulfillment and refurb center with 10 employees; by 2016 we enjoyed robust selling performance on eBay, Amazon, Newegg, our own webstore, and dozens of direct and drop-ship selling relationships with businesses and individuals across the country. I assumed minority ownership in late 2018, and in early 2019 our biggest wholesale customer approached us to explore an acquisition. The CEO and CFO of Gogotech, based in New York, flew to Tucson and met with us; by May the contracts were signed, and by August I had designed, built out and executed a move into our new imperfect home: a sq ft warehouse across town, all while being trained (and training Tucson staff) on the fundamentals of the Gogotech software and process ecosystem, which was a far cry from the systems I had built around the imperfections of Yada Yada Telecom. Gogotech Tucson was now official, and the journey had just begun.