When Jake Nickell started the popular crowdsourced t-shirt design site Threadless 10 years ago, he thought he’d be holding down a job nowadays, with some creative hobbies on the side. After all, Threadless was only a hobby for Jake back then.
Threadless is an overnight success that took 10 years to build. Jake didn’t give himself a salary for 2 years. In the beginning, Jake would go to the post office during his lunch hour to ship out the shirts that people bought. When an employee needed a soundproof booth to start a podcast, Jake suggested they find an Airstream for the office on eBay (and they did).
I interviewed Jake to get some insight into how he built Threadless over the past 10 years into the success it is today, and explore some of the ups and downs along the way.
This interview is a part of Beyond The Pedway, site created by Tim Jahn dedicated to discovering what drives creative entrepreneurs.