The Underdog: From Dead Broke to $30,000,000
Starter Story
Mar 3, 2024
This is the story of how KC Holiday went from being a waiter in a restaurant to emptying his entire savings account and building a $30M company.
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All
right
Casey
what's
your
story
I
used
to
not
look
at
my
bank
account
because
I
didn't
want
to
know
how
much
was
in
there
That's
the
position
that
I
was
in
This
is
Casey
a
normal
guy
who
had
never
started
a
business
in
his
life
But
one
day
that
all
changed
We
had
emptied
our
savings
accounts
We
made
the
decision
to
move
in
with
my
mom
and
I
quit
the
restaurant
That
moment
changed
my
life
forever
Then
after
a
few
months
of
work
the
idea
was
ready
So
we
get
the
inventory
we
get
the
website
launch
hit
go
And
guess
what
happened
Nothing
Nobody
came
nobody
bought
one
But
in
his
darkest
moments
Casey
experienced
a
miracle
The
next
day
we
did
three
or
four
X
sales
And
I
remember
like
dancing
in
my
living
room
right
Like
this
is
it
this
is
the
moment
But
what
goes
up
must
come
down
We
didn't
know
what
the
heck
we
were
doing
We
had
no
money
for
marketing
And
I
said
well
emailing
people's
free
And
from
that
moment
everything
changed
This
is
a
story
of
how
Casey
Holiday
went
from
working
a
restaurant
to
selling
over
a
hundred
million
dollars
worth
of
silicone
wedding
rings
from
his
mom's
living
room
Welcome
to
Starter
Story
Casey
grew
up
like
most
normal
kids
He
wasn't
building
businesses
He
was
playing
sports
and
chasing
his
dreams
One
of
those
dreams
was
to
move
to
L
A
and
become
an
actor
actor
But
those
plans
all
changed
when
he
met
his
eventual
business
partner
Ted
He
also
managed
a
restaurant
in
Beverly
Hills
at
the
time
And
he
said
why
don't
you
come
work
at
the
restaurant
So
I
then
started
working
at
this
restaurant
in
Beverly
Hills
And
Ted
managed
the
place
And
I
bartended
and
and
waited
tables
A
few
months
later
both
Casey
and
Ted
get
married
And
one
day
while
they're
bussing
tables
at
the
restaurant
they
realize
they're
both
experiencing
the
same
problem
It's
like
hey
man
you
get
married
You
know
awesome
Congratulations
Like
are
you
wearing
a
ring
And
I
was
like
yeah
I'm
wearing
one
But
it's
been
a
pain
You
know
every
time
I
go
work
out
I
go
play
golf
I
do
whatever
I
take
it
off
And
I'm
a
super
forgetful
person
I
was
excited
to
wear
one
but
I
was
always
losing
it
It
also
didn't
make
sense
You
don't
wear
a
Rolex
to
the
gym
You
don't
wear
dress
shoes
to
run
a
triathlon
Like
people
have
very
specific
accessories
for
very
specific
things
that
they're
doing
And
then
both
of
us
said
well
let's
just
see
if
anything
else
exists
like
this
must
be
out
there
And
I
remember
Ted
going
I'm
just
gonna
go
buy
one
And
him
coming
back
and
going
it
doesn't
exist
Like
it's
not
out
there
I
couldn't
find
anything
So
Ted
and
I
are
there
and
the
light
bulb
goes
off
for
me
of
like
what
if
we
did
this
Despite
having
no
business
experience
and
trying
to
make
it
as
actors
the
boys
were
excited
to
start
building
their
own
thing
something
that
had
more
potential
than
clocking
in
and
out
at
the
restaurant
They
decide
to
give
this
business
thing
a
shot
It
was
this
really
cool
agreement
between
two
dudes
of
I
don't
have
a
kid
I
don't
have
as
much
life
overhead
as
you
do
I
have
time
and
energy
and
effort
but
you
have
savings
And
can
we
just
handshake
deal
that
we're
both
going
to
put
what
we
have
into
this
with
what
our
life
can
afford
at
this
time
Yeah
let's
do
that
And
so
my
goal
was
to
replace
a
two
thousand
dollar
a
month
month
income
at
the
restaurant
We
didn't
call
it
finding
product
market
fit
We
didn't
call
it
bootstrapping
In
our
minds
it
was
a
couple
of
broke
dudes
trying
to
figure
out
ways
to
get
people
to
wear
and
buy
our
product
And
I
think
there's
something
really
interesting
where
when
you
are
starting
anything
you
have
an
idea
for
a
business
You
don't
really
know
what
you
don't
know
You
know
you
don't
know
things
but
you
actually
don't
know
what
it
is
And
the
best
way
to
learn
what
you
don't
know
is
to
talk
to
people
that
know
what
you
you
don't
And
so
when
I
think
about
Starter
Story
why
I
fell
in
love
with
it
it
is
a
library
of
inspiration
practical
advice
stories
that
you
can
learn
from
and
apply
to
your
own
situation
So
whether
you're
looking
for
a
product
that
you
want
to
be
inspired
inspired
to
try
and
launch
yourself
or
you
just
want
to
find
about
rad
entrepreneurs
that
started
where
you
are
so
you
can
see
yourselves
in
them
I
think
Starter
Story
solves
all
of
those
problems
So
if
you
want
to
check
out
Starter
Story
and
learn
from
people
just
a
couple
of
steps
ahead
of
you
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
But
let's
get
back
to
the
story
Casey
and
Ted
are
excited
and
they
even
come
up
with
a
name
for
their
brand
Kalo
I'm
one
of
the
co
founders
of
Kalo
so
I'm
the
president
of
Kalo
currently
But
there's
a
small
problem
They
still
have
no
idea
where
to
even
start
And
Ted
had
this
idea
of
well
he
was
like
I
have
a
friend
who
has
a
manufacturer
in
town
town
What
if
we
crashed
the
meeting
at
this
fancy
hotel
in
L
A
I
was
like
sure
man
let's
go
for
it
We
We
got
nothing
to
lose
So
sure
enough
we
did
We
showed
up
We
had
bought
a
couple
of
rings
from
I
think
the
local
Marshall's
as
just
an
example
of
you
know
metal
rings
sat
down
with
the
manufacturer
and
said
can
you
just
make
these
out
of
silicone
And
he
said
yeah
sure
Why
not
Ted
had
very
little
in
his
savings
and
I
had
even
less
We
combined
them
and
said
let's
just
put
everything
we
have
toward
buying
this
first
batch
of
inventory
I
used
to
not
look
at
my
bank
account
because
I
didn't
want
to
know
how
much
was
in
there
I
just
wanted
to
trust
the
fact
that
my
rent
check
wasn't
going
to
bounce
That's
the
position
that
I
was
in
And
Ted
Ted
had
a
kid
at
the
time
He
was
a
bit
older
than
I
was
He
was
risking
more
than
I
was
initially
to
get
started
But
we
had
emptied
our
savings
accounts
Casey
is
three
months
into
his
marriage
and
realizes
he's
dead
broke
He's
not
sure
if
he'll
even
be
able
to
make
his
own
rent
So
my
wife
and
I
we
made
the
decision
to
move
in
with
my
mom
to
focus
on
being
able
to
build
the
company
I
would
still
commute
five
days
a
week
to
work
in
the
restaurant
I
would
take
the
7
a
m
shift
and
my
wife
worked
there
too
She
would
have
the
11
a
m
shift
She
would
sleep
in
our
little
red
Fiat
in
the
back
lot
of
the
restaurant
in
the
morning
until
her
shift
started
Bless
her
So
our
homes
became
our
offices
Our
dining
room
tables
became
where
we
developed
our
website
and
his
garage
became
our
inventory
management
location
Despite
all
the
personal
and
financial
troubles
Casey
and
Ted
were
going
through
there
still
was
a
light
at
the
end
of
the
tunnel
These
rings
were
the
ticket
to
their
freedom
And
after
months
of
working
and
waiting
the
first
batch
of
inventory
finally
arrived
The
rings
were
sitting
in
the
garage
and
the
boxes
were
stacked
to
the
ceiling
lined
along
Ted's
garage
When
I
opened
up
one
of
these
boxes
so
excited
to
see
the
first
halo
ring
that
had
been
manufactured
to
realize
the
product
quality
was
awful
Each
ring
was
unsellable
So
you
had
just
emptied
all
of
your
savings
accounts
put
all
of
this
time
energy
effort
into
getting
these
rings
The
first
batch
of
ring
shows
up
and
they're
unsellable
but
we
need
to
make
them
sellable
because
we
don't
have
any
money
left
to
buy
more
Casey
and
Ted
realized
they
just
made
the
biggest
financial
mistake
of
their
lives
They
just
thrown
tens
of
thousands
of
dollars
down
the
toilet
and
emptied
their
bank
accounts
Now
they
had
two
options
shut
down
the
company
or
find
a
way
to
fix
the
product
What
happened
is
a
ring
would
show
up
It
would
be
uneven
edges
It
just
was
nobody
wanted
to
wear
that
And
I
remember
stumbling
like
going
through
my
mom's
bathroom
and
finding
this
tiny
little
pair
of
scissors
that
I
didn't
even
know
existed
in
the
world
Turns
out
it
was
a
pair
of
eyebrow
scissors
And
so
I
remember
rushing
out
to
my
wife
grabbing
a
tiny
little
ring
and
fingers
in
these
little
scissors
and
just
twisting
this
ring
around
while
I
just
sort
of
trimmed
the
edges
of
it
And
sure
enough
there
is
a
ring
that
was
sellable
They
found
a
solution
And
the
goal
was
now
clear
Hand
trim
50
000
half
inch
silicone
rings
with
eyebrow
scissors
But
the
days
ahead
were
anything
but
exciting
My
wife
and
I
watched
all
six
seasons
of
Lost
while
laying
in
bed
trimming
rings
It
was
completely
immersed
in
our
life
And
I
remember
I'd
wake
up
in
the
middle
of
the
night
and
grab
a
drink
of
water
and
I
would
step
over
piles
of
rings
because
we
had
no
place
to
put
them
and
they
were
just
laid
out
And
we
would
have
ring
shavings
all
over
our
house
stuck
to
our
cat
on
our
tables
in
our
cushions
in
our
bed
Like
you'd
get
out
of
bed
in
the
morning
and
you'd
have
like
shavings
like
stuck
to
your
back
because
you
were
just
trimming
rings
in
bed
That
was
our
life
And
then
up
in
L
A
it
was
the
same
for
Ted
The
mission
was
finished
And
after
getting
a
couple
thousand
rings
ready
to
go
it
was
time
to
conquer
the
next
challenge
finding
customers
The
thinking
was
the
only
thing
that's
stopping
us
from
selling
a
ton
of
these
rings
is
a
website
I
remember
toiling
over
whether
or
not
we
were
going
to
buy
a
ninety
nine
dollar
theme
I
remember
stressing
out
so
much
about
whether
or
not
we
could
afford
this
ninety
nine
dollar
theme
or
if
we
should
just
go
with
the
baseline
model
that
Shopify
gives
you
out
the
box
So
Ted
and
I
had
spent
months
We
finally
built
this
thing
We
put
the
effort
and
we
put
the
time
in
and
the
money
I
remember
just
just
hitting
publish
Website
is
live
Ted
and
I
are
fired
up
texting
each
other
And
then
about
noon
the
next
day
it
was
like
the
text
message
tone
changed
from
we're
launched
to
any
visitors
Like
is
anybody
coming
to
this
thing
Have
you
told
anyone
bro
bro
have
you
told
anyone
Turns
out
people
won't
magically
find
the
website
you've
built
So
with
close
to
zero
dollars
in
their
pockets
and
over
50
000
rings
sitting
in
their
garage
Casey
and
Ted
needed
to
figure
out
a
way
to
put
Calo
out
there
without
spending
a
penny
on
ads
I
thought
who
are
people
of
influence
This
is
before
influencers
who
are
people
of
influence
that
I
could
send
my
product
to
that
would
maybe
supercharge
our
growth
or
get
more
exposure
for
us
And
one
of
them
was
Andy
Dalton
And
Andy
Dalton
was
the
quarterback
of
the
Cincinnati
Bengals
at
the
time
And
I'd
gone
to
TCU
and
I
was
good
buddies
with
his
wife
there
I
thought
well
I'm
going
to
send
Jordan
his
wife
a
Facebook
message
Hey
congratulations
on
getting
married
We
just
started
this
company
I
thought
Andy
might
like
one
Would
he
be
interesting
Could
I
send
it
to
you
as
a
wedding
gift
Sure
enough
a
couple
months
later
she
responded
said
hey
Andy
would
love
to
give
one
a
shot
And
I
remember
like
dancing
in
my
living
room
right
Like
this
is
a
moment
So
I
sent
it
to
him
and
I
got
a
thanks
And
that
was
about
it
Nothing
else
really
happened
Fast
forward
to
a
couple
of
months
from
then
there's
a
show
called
Hard
Knocks
on
HBO
The
first
episode
aired
Ten
minutes
of
the
episode
was
about
Andy
wearing
a
rubber
wedding
ring
and
they
interviewed
him
in
the
interview
He
was
like
oh
I
just
think
it's
really
cool
I
can
wear
it
no
matter
what
it
is
that
I'm
doing
I
can
wear
it
out
on
the
field
and
it
represents
the
commitment
that
I
made
to
my
wife
which
is
super
important
to
me
but
also
represents
what
I
do
for
a
living
which
is
we
could
not
have
sent
him
a
script
that
was
a
better
way
of
articulating
exactly
what
our
positioning
was
as
a
company
The
next
day
I
think
we
did
three
or
four
interviews
We
would
line
up
the
envelopes
and
put
the
labels
on
of
the
customers
And
this
was
the
first
time
that
it
went
all
the
way
to
the
end
of
the
house
and
we
had
more
orders
This
was
this
moment
for
us
of
this
is
real
And
watching
orders
laid
out
all
over
my
mom's
house
with
trash
bags
of
rings
that
we
were
yet
to
cut
with
eyebrow
scissors
littered
everywhere
So
it
was
very
much
this
moment
in
time
where
there
was
validation
there
was
an
uptick
in
sales
there
was
engagement
and
people
were
talking
But
two
days
later
everybody
goes
back
to
living
their
lives
lives
And
it's
what
you
do
with
that
attention
in
between
your
next
venture
to
try
and
get
more
attention
or
have
another
moment
that
ultimately
matters
the
most
So
this
moment
with
Andy
felt
like
affirmation
which
was
really
cool
But
it
also
was
terrifying
because
you
realize
oh
this
thing
could
become
something
And
now
I
actually
have
to
build
it
I
started
to
wear
a
K
Lo
ring
several
years
ago
K
Lo
wedding
rings
K
Lo
K
Lo
K
Lo
ring
K
Lo
ring
Casey
realizes
that
K
Lo
has
outgrown
being
a
side
hustle
at
his
mom's
house
At
this
point
he's
got
to
make
a
decision
if
he's
ready
to
go
all
in
and
quit
his
job
at
the
restaurant
So
that
was
I
think
the
inflection
point
of
now
we're
going
for
this
So
now
we
behave
differently
And
I
was
coming
to
Ted
going
hey
I
think
I
should
quit
working
in
this
restaurant
and
go
full
time
into
K
Lo
And
he's
like
we
can't
afford
for
you
to
go
full
time
He's
right
And
I
was
like
but
I
think
we
need
to
like
there's
something
here
I
think
I'm
gonna
do
it
I'm
gonna
take
a
risk
I'm
gonna
go
for
it
He
was
like
OK
all
right
fine
Go
for
it
And
I
quit
the
restaurant
That
moment
changed
my
life
forever
Now
it
was
make
it
or
break
it
Casey
and
Ted
went
all
in
and
there
was
no
going
back
from
that
point
on
It
was
a
ruthless
game
of
business
A
big
part
of
our
early
strategy
at
K
Lo
was
the
recognition
that
we
were
the
first
mover
in
the
category
and
that
if
we
didn't
go
fast
somebody
else
with
more
money
better
brand
recognition
better
operators
were
going
to
come
in
and
crush
us
Over
the
next
six
to
eight
months
we
ended
up
with
about
13
people
in
a
200
square
foot
office
When
somebody
would
call
our
customer
service
line
nobody
in
the
office
could
talk
because
everybody
could
hear
everyone
in
the
background
when
they
called
And
we
moved
to
a
new
office
We
were
hiring
on
average
about
two
to
three
people
a
month
And
I
remember
sitting
in
every
interview
building
out
systems
trying
to
figure
out
how
they're
all
going
to
talk
to
each
other
How
are
we
actually
going
to
grow
this
thing
and
operate
at
this
capacity
that
we
need
to
How
are
we
going
to
develop
culture
All
of
these
things
that
come
along
with
scaling
a
company
Casey
was
figuring
out
how
to
build
a
real
company
and
the
results
started
to
pay
off
At
that
point
we're
doing
30
million
We
had
close
to
100
employees
operating
at
a
20
percent
profit
margin
When
you
grow
a
company
that
size
and
you
grow
that
fast
you
realize
how
big
the
stakes
are
pretty
quickly
You
begin
to
learn
that
mistakes
are
costlier
at
that
stage
But
the
success
of
it
I'm
incredibly
grateful
for
And
it
was
unexpected
It
was
never
in
our
heads
We're
going
to
be
this
big
company
It
was
always
focused
on
being
better
as
a
company
not
bigger
And
then
it
was
who
are
our
customers
and
how
do
we
know
them
better
than
anyone
in
business
building
You
can't
build
it
without
incredible
people
And
looking
back
on
Kayla
that's
what
I
appreciate
the
most
for
the
people
that
I
did
it
with
And
even
though
we
didn't
do
everything
perfectly
we
had
a
lot
of
success
as
a
result
of
the
team
that
we
built
and
growing
it
You
should
be
able
to
communicate
to
anyone
as
an
entrepreneur
this
is
the
problem
that
I'm
solving
Start
there
then
determine
what
the
product
is
to
solve
that
problem
And
just
like
the
rings
even
if
they're
terrible
focus
instead
of
making
it
perfect
on
getting
it
to
customers
and
then
talking
to
as
many
of
those
customers
as
you
possibly
can
about
how
to
make
it
better
We
are
so
concerned
with
other
people's
perception
of
us
and
our
product
and
what
we're
doing
that
it
paralyzes
us
And
so
if
you
have
this
idea
for
a
business
and
you
want
to
start
it
and
you're
so
concerned
with
is
it
going
to
be
successful
What
are
people
going
to
think
of
me
Is
it
going
to
be
dumb
It's
really
freeing
to
realize
that
people
actually
aren't
thinking
about
you
at
all
All
you
need
to
do
is
go
find
people
out
there
that
have
problems
because
everybody's
got
problems
and
then
help
people
through
giving
them
your
solution
You
actually
are
being
selfish
by
not
solving
the
problem
that
you
know
people
have
What's
up
guys
I
hope
Casey's
starter
story
inspired
you
What
I
love
about
Casey's
story
is
he
found
a
painful
problem
and
created
a
solution
solution
that
the
market
needed
That's
why
he
sold
over
one
hundred
million
dollars
worth
of
silicone
rings
If
you
want
to
understand
more
about
problems
head
to
the
link
in
the
description
to
download
our
worksheet
of
ninety
nine
million
dollar
problems
worth
solving
If
you're
really
serious
about
building
something
come
join
thousands
of
founders
founders
inside
Starter
Story
All
right
See
you
in
the
next
one
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