TLDR: I left Nike in September and launched Just Mystic, an apparel company, with my sister, Amanda, in October. Granted, Just Mystic is hyper local and one-millionth the size of Nike, but no matter the size, the learnings have been rich, and it was my desire to accelerate my learning opportunities that drove me to leave Nike and follow an entrepreneurial path. With that, I’m sharing my learnings here and on LinkedIn.

Lastly, please follow @justmysticshop as we experiment not only with apparel, but also, eventually, taking a brand out to the bleeding edge to explore DAOs, NFTs, digital skins, and that which we have yet to discover. Hyper local for sure, but never parochial. 

Let’s jump in.

#1 Metabook and Google are the new Comcast of customer service

Pain. That’s the first word that comes to mind when I think about our relationship with Meta and Google. I love the web3 concept already, simply because it may diffuse power across the masses, thus taking the bite out of FAANG, making them invest more in people, especially people to actually answer help questions. Have you ever tried to reach a human at one of these places?  

#2 Barriers to entry for starting a new business have never been lower

As much as I loathe Meta, Google and some other tech titans for their poor customer support, they have made it easy to start a business. With Shopify in particular, barriers to starting a new business are probably the lowest they’ve ever been. And I have to assume that Shopify is absorbing many of the ripples of the Great Resignation. I anticipate that there will be few niches left to fill in web2 by the end of 2022. 

#3 Do the right thing from day one

“Do the right thing” is one of five maxims at Nike, but it’s also about as universal as thou shalt not kill. And it’s something we’re taking seriously from day one. So this may be more of a hypothesis than an insight, but for us, doing the right thing from day one means choosing sustainable materials for apparel and shipping. It also means executing a giving strategy from day one by supporting 1% for the Planet, GreenWave, and other nonprofits that we’ll announce soon. While it’s a big decision to commit to giving back before we’re even a month old, it’s our hypothesis that the longer we wait, the harder it becomes.

📸 : Viktor Talshuk

CONGRATULATIONS! You found the very beginning of this blog. We should connect. Email me at burns.nelson@gmail.com.