Integrated e-commerce Web site retailer of accessories for electronic devices. (El Monte)

Growth Rate 220%

Executive:

Jack Sheng, chief executive and co-founder

Early Days/Financing:

It was started in my garage with two high school buddies as a hobby. We loved technology products and wanted to capitalize on our interests. It was self-funded and grew organically, using profits from the business. When we launched the Web site, we started taking orders from across the country and Europe. We still hang out on the weekends even though we work together all week.

Big Break:

The company was founded in 1999 right before the dot-com bust. We survived, but thought that our business might die following 9/11. We had only 10 employees, but the marketplace had potential. We started investing our earnings to grow our supply chain and keep up with improving technology.

Biggest Challenge:

The average life cycle of our products on market is six months. We don’t have enough time to cultivate our market to capture the most number of clients within that period before we move onto the next hot item. We never relied on a single client or product.

Secret of Success:

You have to be proactive as an executive and learn how to solve all of the company’s problems. I thought about going to grad school, but I learn so much more as an entrepreneur. I had to do research and to solve IT and human resource problems. I had to find solutions at a much lower cost than larger competitors.

What’s Next:

We are growing in China and Europe. We opened an office in Hong Kong last year. We want to refine our supply chain so that products get shipped to Europe directly from China rather than passing through the United States. We also want to focus on the growing middle class market in China, and we can’t ignore the U.S. domestic market. The domestic market is still growing at a healthy rate even though Europe and China are growing faster.

Personnel Tip:

Initially, we hired friends from church to operate the business before it became firmly established, because we had trouble convincing other friends to join our startup.