The Comfy Cup Chronicle Part 31: Meetings and Weedings and Walmart? Oh My!
"The strongest thing you can cultivate as an entrepreneur is to not rely on luck but cultivating an ability to recognize fortunate situations when they are occurring. "
-Jack Dorsey
The Grommet launch opened a gateway to a multitude of business to business opportunities. The trick was deciphering between genuine and legitimate partnerships and people who just want a piece of your pie. The weeks following The Grommet launch were filled with conference calls. Up to this point, Kyler participated in every meeting and call, but I couldn't take him out of school everyday for meetings, so I had to do most of the meeting and weeding out on my own.
Amidst the many post-Grommet launch calls, we received a call from a happy Comfy Cup™ customer from Bentonville, Arkansas. Robert called to tell us his two boys absolutely loved their Comfy Cups™. Robert was so inspired by his sons’ enthusiasm that he offered to help us get a meeting with Walmart executives, who happen to have headquarters down the street in his hometown. We were apprehensive at first. Was this guy for real? Did we really want to approach Walmart? After an hour-long conversation with Robert, Kyler, Randy and I asked ourselves, "Is this a good learning opportunity?" We agreed that it was and decided to move forward--knowing we could always say "no thank you" if Walmart was a bite too big for us to chew. We signed a contract with Robert giving him a 5% profit of Walmart sales if, and only if, we could strike a deal with the Walmart executives.
