Kyle Hency began Chubbies in 2011 with three Stanford mates as a enjoyable, weekend‑and‑beer‑vibe shorts model.
The irreverent direct-to-consumer clothes model—one common merchandise was a tear-away pair of shorts with a speedo-style bathing go well with beneath—”was objectively possibly a nasty thought,” Hency says, half joking. Nonetheless, the corporate caught hearth—income went from $1 million to $8 million. And when Chubbies was acquired by Solo Range in 2021, it marked a uncommon retail exit simply because the direct-to-consumer increase started to break down.
After spending a couple of years on the sidelines, Hency is again: He cofounded Good Day in 2024 with former Chubbies CFO Dave Wardell, and the startup simply raised its seed spherical to resolve considered one of retail’s largest issues: managing stock.
It’s an space through which Hency has hard-earned, first-hand expertise. Regardless of its final success (Hency says Chubbies now does $100 million or extra in gross sales below its new proprietor), Chubbies nearly ran out of money 3 times, and at one level managed with destructive $2 million money for 18 months. Managing stock turned crucial, and Hency says he struggled with the software program instruments accessible on the time.
And in as we speak’s market, clothes manufacturers are below much more stress to run a decent ship and obsess about all the pieces beneath the income line, Hency says.
“Each single model now has to handle income all the best way all the way down to income, as a result of these income are the one method they will fund their enterprise,” he says. “The lenders have gone out of enterprise. The VCs aren’t backing manufacturers as a lot as they have been earlier than. Should you search for how a lot VC investments into client offers have gone down since earlier than that interval, some numbers present over 90% discount.”
Good Day has raised $7 million in seed funding from present traders like Ridge Ventures, FirstMark Capital, and Flex Capital, the corporate completely informed Fortune. New traders embrace Lengthy Journey Ventures, Adverb Ventures, and Seguin Ventures. This brings the Good Day’s whole capital raised to $13.5 million and present prospects embrace Hill Home Dwelling, The Regular Model, Margaux NY, and Kenny Flowers.
Amish Jani, cofounder and associate at FirstMark, described Good Day as “AI-native, ERP-lite”—an enterprise useful resource planning system that stands other than conventional choices. He sees a possibility for startups to capitalize on the AI increase as retailers redesign their methods of file for this new period.
“If agentic options are driving actual utility and changing labor prices instantly, I count on e-commerce manufacturers to be amongst the primary adopters of those instruments,” Jani mentioned through e mail. “GoodDay is an efficient instance of this within the ERP area, however you can too see this rising in a short time in each main vertical SaaS class each in client and past.”
Whereas Hency’s newest startup could seem extra staid than the loud Chubbies shorts he as soon as flogged, the entrepreneur has not utterly left the perspective behind. An essential a part of Good Day’s model advertising and marketing is taunting established ERP opponents like Netsuite.
“Do you suppose NetSuite, created 20 years in the past by a bunch of fits, helps anyone throughout Black Friday, Cyber Monday?,” mentioned Hency.
Hency’s rhetoric isn’t an accident, it’s technique. Within the ERP jungle, he’s conscious he’s new—however he thinks he can get prospects to modify from established competitor NetSuite. There’s some proof this might maybe occur. Take Jimmy Sansone, co-owner of The Regular Model and Good Day buyer, who mentioned through e mail: “From an operational perspective, we didn’t have correct visibility into our stock balances, and our ops groups needed to depend on offline spreadsheets and guide instruments to maneuver, fulfill, purchase and obtain stock.”
Hency’s directness is a part of his philosophy about enterprise.
“I believe it’s so essential whenever you’re constructing a model to be completely different,” he mentioned. “It’s far more essential than it’s to be cool.”
