Logan Wooley sold his beauty company for $50M to $100M after 12 years, starting by selling his Honda Accord to fund it. He quit multiple times before pushing through, then taught entrepreneurship and rewrote the curriculum to match real practice instead of theory.
Questions this video answers
About 12 years.
More than $50 million and less than $100 million.
A Honda Accord.
Yes — he volunteered as an adjunct professor teaching entrepreneurship (and asked to create his own curriculum).
Zach is a former student and filmmaker who follows Logan with a camera; he was described as sleeping out of his car to attend school.
Chapters
Logan Woolley went from selling his car to start a company to selling that company for over $50 million and is here to grab a quick bite and dish out some fantastic bite sized business tips. That's right now on business and burger sliders.
Logan, thanks for joining us. I appreciate it.
Yes.
So I want to hear your life story in an elevator pitch like one minute because you've got a marvelous story.
I knew I loved entrepreneurship from a very young age. That you, you know, back when my family went on vacation to San Diego SeaWorld, I was all about buying the friendship bracelets in Tijuana and didn't even want to go in and see the fish. I wanted to sell the bracelets outside the park. So Fast forward about 10 years and I started my own company and it was in the beauty industry. After about 12 years this last June, I sold the company.
Can you tell how much for?
I don't know if the private equity firm cares or not, but I'll give you a window. It was more than 50 million, less than 100.
Wow.
So it was, it was a journey, you know, to say the least. But I love, love entrepreneurship and I'm here today starting another.
Let me ask you a question. You had to take a big risk selling your car to finance your company.
And a Honda Accord.
That's right.
That was like one real, you know, critical point for you. Were there any points between there and. And the time that you sold within that big window where you just wanted to throw the towel and give it up?
Oh, yeah. A hundred, A thousand times. Are you kidding? Yeah. Two years into it. 0605, you know, when everybody was into real estate, right? Everybody was an expert. And I was watching my friends flipping these houses and they were making a hundred thousand dollars in one house. And I told my dad, I said, I got to get out of this place business. It's like too hard, you know, I'm having to add one customer at a time and I'm going to these trade shows. And I said, look at all these other people. And he gave me the best advice that I'd ever gotten, which was, Logan, like, that's what I regret in my own life. Stay focused. I jumped around too much and for that reason, I have nothing to show at the end, you know, but if I would have stayed focused, that you think about all the successful people, you know, and they stick to it. And so absolutely. Why don't you give up?
Here it is again. It keeps rising up in my life. Consistency over intensity. And I love it. I don't know why. Just staying the course. And you did that. And look how it netted you, this tremendous new life. Now what are you doing with it?
So after selling the company, or actually even prior to selling the company, I was asked to go and volunteer some of my time as an adjunct professor teaching entrepreneurship at a university. I got there, and they gave me this syllabus and some textbooks, and I started to read it, and I literally fell asleep reading this. And I thought, I can't teach this because it's not what I used in the real world. This is not a you.
And a hundred million students fell asleep, right?
Yeah. And I said, I don't want to be that professor. I had them right there. I went back to them. I said, look, I know you can't fire me because I'm a volunteer, but I have to be able to create my own curriculum here. Will you give me the permission to do that? And they said, yes. And so that's exactly what I did. And I did my absolute best to try and bring the real world into the classroom, but it was frustrating for me, even trying to get these students to, again, bring the real world into the classroom. So I said, right then and there, there's got to be a better way. And I said, if I ever start a company again, I'm going to document the entire thing, just show it to the world.
So is that why that guy's got a camera over my shoulder?
Yeah, Zach there. He follows me.
Bring Zach in.
Bring Zach.
So we want to show that this is real.
I'm over here, Zach.
Yeah, Come here, Zach.
So why are you doing that?
So, Zach, I'll tell you. Zach was actually one of my students, and I love this kid because he was sleeping out of his car to go to school. And anyway, in one of the classes, he came and he stood up, and I said, does anybody have anything to share? We'd have this sharing time of successes they've had in life. And he tells the entire class that he's decided to drop out of school because of me.
Oh, nice. Yeah.
Good job, Professor. He gets, like, a standing ovation. Everybody was going crazy. And I'm like, what have I done? I hope this doesn't get back to the university. So anyway, he's an incredible filmmaker, and he follows me around with the camera to help document because we're trying to not create. I'm sharing the good, the bad, the ugly. Right. Even I feel very vulnerable now because I could very easily fail. I mean, it's no easier the second time than it was the first. I have more money, but it's all the same problems, all the same things that I'm having to face again. So, you know, when we talk about very fundamental things, like should I do an S chord burn, an llc? Why? What's the difference? Should I spend the money and trademark my name or not? You know, those kinds of things. So start with the real basics.
Money can be your biggest enemy because you can buy your way out of problems that you should have solved as an entrepreneur.
I totally agree.
One final question. If you were to give advice. So you have students. You have students all over the world who are watching the show today.
What are two or three things, two or three pieces of advice you'd give them as they get started?
One of the things, I'm usually a very optimistic person, and I would be the first one to say, hey, if I can do it, then anybody can do it. But the truth is, I've learned that entrepreneurs, they have this crazy gene, you know, and you have to figure out and really ask yourself that hard question, do I have what it takes? I find everybody wants kind of my end result. Right. I've made that mistake. I see successful people, and I think I want what they've got. I mean, it happened pretty quickly, I bet, and it doesn't. And the journey is so brutal and so long. And so you have to ask yourself, do you have what it takes when you want to quit? Are you going to stick it out?
Yeah.
And by the way, he has the crazy gene. I've got fancy pants. And you were in the business of human hair.
That's right. That's right.
Can we do something about this?
Yeah. I was thinking a mullet right down the back.
Exactly. Thank you.
I'll tell you what. I respect you, and I can't wait to see what you do next.
Hey, thank you so much for having me. I love what you guys are doing. Yeah, awesome.
