Love Sac Woes?

Walking down my street toward my mailbox (which happens to be in one of the new fangled community mailbox deals, what happened to the good old days when my mail was delivered to my house or even better through a slot in the wall going directly in my house.) I see this huge stretched hummer. I could tell that this was not some rich senior who blew all his savings on the prom… This was a corporate truck. As I stood their like a child at a parade hoping briefly that somebody might throw candy out the window, I noticed the "“Love Sac"” insignia. This was Shawn Fanning'’s ride, CEO of Love Sac. I must admit for a brief moment I was impressed, then my better sense kicked in and I thought "“he must be compensating for something."” Now I have nothing against the corporate ego as I have been a fan of successful people like Shawn for sometime. They fascinate me with their confidence and candor. As a matter of fact, I am currently reading Jack Welch'’s new book "“Winning"”. This is a great example of a CEO with a HUGE ego, but the results to back it up. Back to Love Sac... As a bystander, Love Sac has been an interesting company. Risky start-up, moderate success, and then boom in the big leagues. With this comes the inevitable publicity and media attention. Unfortunately, Love Sac has just filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. Now, instead of blatant swagger and confidence, it seems that Shawn and Love Sac are swallowing a different pill.

While I am not shallow enough to believe that Love Sac will dwindle away, certainly the swagger time must be at least partially over. Now, hopefully for them, its time to get back to basics. I have followed Shawn Blog for a few months and I know that he has been on a tour of every Love Sac store in the country. I say good for him. Clearly bankruptcy has been in the works for awhile, and Shawn knew it. So what does he do, he travels the country and rallies his troops. I would guess his presentation did not cover the current financial status of the company, but that's the benefit of a private company; he can keep that under his hat.

I don't know what the status of Love Sac will be in a year from now, but if it were me, I would say its time to sell the Hummer and take the 80K and plan a gig in Vegas for all your loyal troops. Rally the troops! They are your most valuable asset (no pun intended.)

Web resources:
www.lovesac.com
http://www.shawndnelson.com/rebelShawn/
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=158290&nid=148