Big Change at Revzilla

Looks like Anthony is stepping down as CEO.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/...evzilla-will-replace-him-with-a-pro-CEO-.html

 

There's a rumor he will be joining the Trump administration selling "Make America Great" caps and "Hump with Trump" Tshirts.

 

This isn't uncommon. A lot of startup guys are not happy or as good at running a large organization, so when they go through a merger or get angels or whatever, a more stodgy CEO with certain skills comes in.

Usually those skills involve knowing what it means to take a company public, or to sell it to a larger conglomerate (in the tech world, at least) and that really is a special kind of skill set. You have to do your books like you're public even when you're private, and you have to prove your intellectual property has value in some way, and that your capital is genuine. It is genuinely different than growing a startup, especially for companies with brick and mortar and inventory.

If it really was Anthony choosing to step down, they're setting themselves up for either massive growth or an IPO or other investment.

 

Most likely it'll be status quo. Personally I think the service and support they provide is top notch but how it effects their bottom line may be something the money people might want to change. The company I used to work for provided hardware and most of the hardware required some sort of programming to make it work. Many times a "defective" product wasn't actually defective but rather not programmed correctly, but before things could be figured out, you'd already have an RMA in hand a new replacement on its way to you. Tech support was told to make the customer happy, but never said at what cost.

Before I worked there, I had a project where one of their touch screen remote controls wouldn't boot up, before I knew it, they were actually sending one counter to counter that same day, so that I could get the project wrapped up and be on my way. I would imagine this sort of thing would eventually cost them more than they make on a product and probably wasn't the only time they did something like this.

Although this was great customer service and created a very loyal customer base, it did hurt their bottom line and along with other mismanaging, almost made them have to close their doors. Ultimately they brought in a group to help resurrect them and they made all sorts of changes, one being qualifying defective components before issuing RMAs, another was eliminating the bottom end dealers who cost them more to support than they were buying! Eventually the group they brought in were able to bring them back from the brink and was even able to sell the company.

I do hope that their customer service and the way they treat their customers doesn't change, unless they make it even better, as they are by far the my favorite place to shop online. As cheesy as they might be, I do hope that Anthony keeps making the videos, as he seems to be a very good pitch man. Unless that Trump thing works out better for him. :wink:

 

True, they did make good deals and the service was top notch.

 

In the medium term, this is not going to be good for anyone but the new CEO and the private equity firm that bought Reveilla IF they'e lucky. Not good, but lucky.

I've led a private equity firm one time and will never do it again. If anyone doesn't know how private equity firms work, just let it suffice that they will suck the blood out of this company (anyone REALLY like Cycle Gear?) and make room for new, good people to fill in the space they eventually vacate through greed. Vendors to Revilla better start looking for new customers to fill their inevitable gaps. If you don't believe in this, educate yourself about how private equity firms work.

 

Ducati seems to have survived TPG...

Ciao,

 

So far so has Dainese too.

 

Another person leaves RevZilla

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20161222_Second_RevZilla_exec_to_leave.html?mobi=true

 

Revzilla is not Ducati. Wait and see.

 

What is hilarious is that the dudes who started this outfit are probably all bailing oot with mucho pesos.

Once upon a time back in the dark ages in Seattle a major department store shut its gates and there were folks actually crying about it.

Now we got the "insiders" who are no more on the inside of the deal than anyone else, second guessing and hoping that somebody will buy their stories. Shit!!

 

Take the cash and go ride, sounds like the American dream actually.