Lets go make some money. [ horn honking ] ive traveled the country trying to fix the people. And you do 1 million a year. You should be proud of it. Man 2 but we dont know how to keep any of it. Lemonis fix the process. See . It is flimsy. Dont ever make these again. You dont sell them. And create a few products. Woman it reduces anxiety and depression. Lemonis i kinda like it. I spend countless days working on these companies. Man 3 [laughs] how much money did you burn through . Man 4 650,000. Lemonis but we cant always fit everything im thinking into the show. [ musical powerdown ] so tonight, were gonna take an inside look at an episode from season 4, flex watches, a business with purpose. Travis each color represented a different charity that we partnered with to give back 10 . Lemonis it was essentially a social mission and it used a rubber watch as the vehicle. Over the next hour, im gonna take you behind the scenes to share with you what i was actually thinking during filming. Why wouldnt the box speak to the charities . Wheres the story . Amber youre still upset about this packaging. Lemonis honestly . [ laughter ] amber oh, my god. Lemonis . Share some secrets. I mean, honestly, if you had not told me the story about why you guys created it and how you got inspired, i wouldve been like, i dont need you guys. This particular moment was the instant that i knew that i did not want to invest in the watch business. I was investing in them. Brad and this is the moment we thought we lost a deal. Travis yeah. Lemonis . And give you an honest assessment of my decisions. My offer would total about 400,000, for 40 of the business. The money that i put into the business was essentially buying a team. My name is marcus lemonis, and this is an inside look at the profit. So tonight, we have travis and brad, the founders of flex watches. They started a social Outreach Company that happens to use watches. Amber and also, these two guys are lifelong friends, business partners, doing all of your businesses right now. Lemonis theyre in a lot of em. Amber i remember actually cause, through the casting, you didnt love the business, but you loved them. Brad you told us that at the deal table. Lemonis i did . Brad yeah. That you were investing lemonis oh. Lemonis brad, youre gonna talk tonight . cause you didnt talk much in the episode. Amber hes been talking more. Travis i positioned him perfectly. Lemonis do you think we should just watch the episode . Amber well, no. I think we should talk about it. Whatever. Alright. Lets lemonis lets watch the episode. Amber lets watch it. Lemonis ive been looking for an accessories business to pair with my fashion brands and flexs social mission just increases its appeal. I was fat. If i can get these guys back on track, we should be making money, and a difference, in no time. Hi, guys. Brad hey. Hows it going . Lemonis im marcus. Brad brad. Nice to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. Trevor trevor. Lemonis and trevor nice to meet you. Travis nice to meet you. Lemonis how are you . What are you guys doing . You were fat, too. Travis me too. All of us. [ laughter ] lemonis were losing time. Okay. Are those the watches . Travis yeah. So we basically started with a interchangeable watch, so the face pops out of the band. Yeah. Pull back. Pop up. Lemonis its a cool watch. What does a watch like that sell for . Travis 35. Lemonis these are nicelookin watches at a great price point. Trevor we wanted to do an accessory that was bright, that could match with all Different Things hats, shoes. Lemonis pause. Right now, everybody at home is wondering why theres two of you, when, on the episode, there was three of you. Amber i mean, we have to address that. Wheres trevor . Travis trevors still a good friend of mine lemonis great friend of yours. Travis i was in his wedding, best man. After about a year, i think he just kinda wanted to do his own thing and he ended up getting a creative director job with a big health company. Lemonis hes a good dude. This is a comfortable watch. Travis its lightweight. Lemonis yeah. Travis its durable. Initially, we had 10 colors. Each color represented a different charity that we partnered with to give back 10 . Lemonis thats pretty slick. Travis yeah, right . Trevor we wanted to do Something Different and no one was doing charity in the watch space, so, we started partnering with charities and people loved it. Amber how important to you was it that flex had a social message . Lemonis that was the only reason i was there. I mean, there was no reason for me to be there, other than that because, candidly, the watch that you guys made, i mean, theres no barrier to entry to make one. Travis and brad yeah. Lemonis it was essentially a Marketing Company that had a social mission and it used a rubber watch as the vehicle. Are these still made today . Travis no. Thats the first generation, five years ago. Lemonis so thats firstgeneration. What happened after that . Wheres generation two . Travis so we made a sport version, at 119. Lemonis and i look for watches that arent expensive. Like i dont like expensive watches. Why did you change your model . Travis well, we wanted to fit in with retail stores, when they said it needed to be about 100. Buying it at 15 and selling them for 35, they just werent getting the right ticket per door. They told us to make a higher price point watch. Trevor it wasnt gonna make it into the case. Lemonis at 35. Trevor no. Lemonis so you changed your whole Business Model over retailers asking you for a higher price point. Travis yeah. Lemonis so this is generation two. Travis yeah. Lemonis is there a generation three . That cheapass gold watch. Travis so thats gen three. Lemonis wheres the charity angle on this generation . Brad a lotta people dont realize we still do the Charity Aspect. Lemonis i think this is a total mess. Whos in charge of the three of you . Trevor travis and i own flex together. Travis yeah. And my brother came down and he was like the shipping center. Lemonis oh, you guys are brothers . Brad yeah. Travis we each own 41 . Lemonis okay, so 82 between the two of you . Travis yeah. Lemonis and then theres somebody else that owns 18 . Travis we have an investor. Lemonis why werent you part of the business from the beginning . Brad i was. I was doing all the daytoday, all the customer service, all the sales. Lemonis why didnt you have equity . Brad cause id never asked for it. Travis honestly, between me and him, i had discussions and i was like, youre gonna be part of this business with me. Brad its true. Travis and he never pushed and i never made paperwork. Amber so, brad, how did you feel during all the. . Did you feel that you were, you know, ignored or not treated well or. . Brad yeah. It was kinda just a hard dynamic being three of us, so i did step back a lot of the time and i definitely appreciated marcus coming on and seeing my value in the company. Lemonis i actually felt like and this is not against you, but i actually felt like brad was the most equipped to run the company, to run it. Travis for sure. Lemonis what are your guys individual roles . Trevor so im the creative. Everything you see flex, whether its a video lemonis trevor has marketing. Travis yeah. Trevor sorry. Just to jump in. And trevors visual. I source all the components and trying to work with the factory to figure out what can i get the quickest at the most affordable price . Lemonis do you literally do it like that . Travis yeah, literally. Lemonis yeah. Thats obvious. It shows. How much revenue does the business do . Travis 500,000 after we launched. Brad 2000. Lemonis thats strong. Travis yeah. 979,000 the next year. Lemonis getting stronger. Travis and then, we changed the product. Our sales dropped a half a million. Lemonis because of generation two, sales went down. Travis yeah. They dropped 50 . Lemonis im a big believer that numbers dont lie. The further they got away from their original story and the Charity Aspect and started making watches that werent fun, looked like a watch you could buy on a street corner, the worse their numbers got. What gave you guys this idea to get in the watch business . Travis so his mom ran a Breakfast Program in mexico. Lemonis okay, food program. Trevor yes. We would go down there and volunteer and so we wanted to make an impact with something that we really felt was cool and affordable. Lemonis is your mom still doing the Breakfast Program . Trevor she was until she. She got Breast Cancer eight years ago. We lost her three years ago. Lemonis she passed away. Trevor yeah. Lemonis how do you keep her momentum alive . What do you guys do to do that . Trevor nothing. We started as a purpose brand, but i think wed be more of a surfbeachy brand. Just didnt feel right, pushing a story of, this watch will provide meals for children in need. We wanted to make sure that people knew that it was still a cool watch and not just a donation piece. Lemonis the story that trevors telling me confused the heck outta me because, in one sense, hes telling me that it was about his mom and the charities, and then the next minute, hes telling me about surfing brands and cool things. I think the fact that you have that as your purpose is a very big deal. Youre driven to have this succeed because thats your connection to her. Trevor i dont think about that. I think ive pushed it out. Losing her is just i havent like dealt with it, you know . Im just bitter. But, yeah, we keep moving, for sure, cause she would love that. Lemonis i lost my mom, you know, not too long ago. Trevor i didnt know that. Lemonis yeah. You know, i appreciate your vulnerability, i mean, talking about your mom. I think thats always tough, but you gotta deal with it. You know that, right . Trevor i do. Lemonis and the way to deal with that is to have this business fulfill what she wanted you to do with it. Amber do you think its important that a person has to open up emotionally in order to push through in their business . Lemonis i think its actually important for me, with anybody, that theres full disclosure about who they are, why they do what they do, and what actually drives them. He needed to actually just peel the onion back. Alright. Lets head to the warehouse. Trevor alrighty. [ horn honks ] travis hey, guys. Naim hey. Hey. How are you . Lemonis im marcus. Nice to meet you. Naim pleasure. Nice to meet you. Lemonis how did you connect with them . Travis our office used to be two blocks away. Lemonis okay. Travis we came across this building, walked in, and said, hey. Hows it going . Within five minutes, we were creating a new watch. [ laughter ] damn it amber within five minutes. Travis theres so much good stuff in this. Wow. I was so goddamn honest. Lemonis yeah. So why did you make decisions like that . Travis i really just wanted something to happen [snapping fingers] quickly, you know . I was impatient. Lemonis as they developed new products and they would come, sit down with you, show you a sketch. I want to see that whole process. Naim yeah. Lets do a tour. So this is a familyrun business. Weve been doing this for about 15 years and all their product is here. I ship it out for them. Lemonis pause. This particular moment was the instant that i knew that i did not want to invest in the watch business. I was investing in them. Brad and this is the moment we thought we lost the deal. Travis yeah. Lemonis because i was like, what is this . Brad yeah. Lemonis it just looked like you guys were taking stuff off somebody elses shelf and slapping your label on it. Brad yeah. Lemonis who came up with the box design . Travis well, we actually were in a rush, and we lemonis it looks like that. Brad [ laughs ] this box takes the value way down. When this is at point of purchase, the packaging is gonna be more important to me than the watch itself because this is a commodity business and so you have to find ways to differentiate yourself. This is one of them. Is there anything patented about the product . Travis no. Lemonis nothing proprietary. Anybody can knock it off. Travis its just design and to get a design patent like takes years. Lemonis i was like, hmm. Amber you were like uhhuh. Travis so, ill show you the process of building a watch. We pick a shape. Step two is the band. Lemonis okay. Travis what kind of band does it go with this casing . Colors wouldnt matter. Nothing would matter, and then well pick the movement. Lemonis this feels a little on the fly. I mean, honestly, if you had not told me the story about why you guys created it and how you got inspired, i wouldve been like, i dont need you guys. You have to bring that stuff to life. What is your real story . Why do you guys care about it so much . Why do you want other people to care about it . All the charities that youre involved with, you should have things posting their events. Trevor thats an image that we try to uphold. Travis but theres no pulse. Theres no like real story. Yeah. Youve held back, and i feel like its not only a part of our story, but part of your life and like youre allowed to talk about the fact that we did charity and your mom was involved and talk more about the Breakfast Program. Brad i feel like we did that a lot more when we first started, when it was all the charities. Lemonis when you did 1 million a year. You have really two interesting dynamics happening right now. You have trevor, who wants to get as far away from the original brand story as he can; and travis, who wants to do things as fast as he can; and, when you combine those two things together, you end up with a company that makes gold watches in [audio drop] boxes. [ laughter ] travis oh, my god. Lemonis that was a little amber thats the best line, ever. Lemonis that was rude. Amber that was amazing. Travis that was so good. Lemonis so one of the things that travis doesnt like to talk about publicly, but its important to know, is that hes now working with a lotta companies who are coming to him, saying, hey, can you help me understand how to market my product . Can you help me understand how to communicate my story . And i think that, for me, is probably one of the more satisfying things and for him to be able to take how he was before and what he learned, then being able to transfer that knowledge or coach people. Amber come a long way. Travis yeah. I appreciate you guys patience with me and working with me through that. Lemonis i didnt really have a lotta patience with you, but, thats fine. Amber you never have patience. Lemonis i do, actually, but just not with travis. [ laughter ] amber alright. Lets play. Travis hey, marcus. Lemonis how are ya . Travis how you doing . Good. Lemonis so, 2011, you did 500,000 worth of business, gross profit of 129,000. 2012, 979,000 of revenue, which is a good job, by the way. 2013, the sales go to 436,000. They drop in half. You lost 200 grand. Travis that would be the year we started basically redoing the brand. Lemonis 2014, 311,000. Lost 87,000; 2015, 279,000. Lost 34 grand. Whats at stake for you guys in this business . Travis [sigh] the last five, six years of my life and my future, so, everything. Brad i moved home with my parents and my wife. Trevor the three of us have given blood, sweat, and tears into this business. Brad it broke my heart cause the whole Charity Aspect and giving back was what drove me to work so hard for the company. Lemonis and not take a pay. Brad yeah. Lemonis and move back with your wife to your parents house. Thats a big sacrifice. Brad trevor went through a tough time, obviously, after his mom passed. Trevor because of me, we just havent talked about it and discussed it as much as we should and i dont know how to tell that story. Its tough. Travis [crying] i feel bad. I feel bad for my best friend. [sniffle] thats it. I mean, no one deserves to like go through all that stuff. Just, it hurts, you know . Lemonis wow brad all those emotions came out at that table and amber marcus is gonna leave, or brad yeah. We literally thought we lost the deal with you. This is our last chance. Like if we miss this opportunity, like maybe there is no more flex. I mean, it was everything to us. Travis and like i started really like thinking like, holy jeez. Ive put so much time, effort, and energy into this thing and ive got nothing. Lemonis why is the back so plain . This thing looks like rushed and unfinished. This, to me, feels like a High School Art project. Amber in that moment, did you think marcus was gonna walk out the door . Brad mmhmm. Travis yeah. Brad we literally thought we lost the deal and i think both of us were just like, oh, [bleep]. Travis yeah. That little vent that wont stay its no big dopen. Really. Its not like the engine doesnt work. Just position the other vents so theyre aimed at you. Its no big deal. Except it is. That little vent that wont stay open. Is like a little window of your automotive happiness boarded shut. Thats why the vent is one more thing we check before a car can be a certified carmax car. Because thats the way it should be. Carmax. Somewhere youll never find. Sike we put them everywhere. Grocery stores and supermarkets, gas stations, and chiropractors offices, bowling alleys, and grocery stores, which we already mentioned. Not sorry, reeses. Tat your door, so you can get more. Feels so good feels so good target run done. And now for their service to the community, we present limu emu doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] its an honor to tell you that Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. And now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Lemonis youre emotional because you believe in what youre doing. Brad you okay . Travis i started really like thinking, ive put so much time, effort, and energy into this thing and ive got nothing, except a gold watch and a [bleep] box, so. [ laughter ] and this kid lost his mom. It almost felt like we let her down. Amber and, in that moment, did you think marcus was gonna walk out the door . Travis oh, yeah. Lemonis play. Whats the business worth today, in your mind . Trevor wed like to think that its close to about a 2 million evaluation. Lemonis business that did 279,000 last year and lost 34,000 . And its a plastic watch. My offer, in paying off the liabilities, putting 100,000 of inventory, putting 100,000 of working capital in the bank so that rent and salaries and things can get paid, and then dedicating 100,000 specifically towards Mass Marketing to the world would total. Travis shocked. Lemonis . About 400,000, for 40 of the business. Travis oh, a 1 million value. Lemonis thats what it is. Travis so, obviously, we have to discuss this. Lemonis brads brad like what . Amber brad. Brad what is there to discuss . Lemonis brads like, uh, i dont think theres much to discuss. Travis where were at, we have to dilute each 2