Work Less and Paddle More

Stephan Aarstol, founder of Tower Paddle Boards and author of "The Five-hour Workday," joins Talking Business Now host Kelly Scanlon to discuss his company's experience implementing a shortened workday. Tune in to find out why Aarstol decided to promote a 5-hour workday; the lessons he learned from it, including the ways in which it failed and succeeded; and why he reintroduced a shortened workday in 2020 with a "twist." Aarstol also shares his Shark Tank experience, how his company recovered from near bankruptcy and the loss of half its employees, and the value of creating "artificial constraints" in a business, WHAT WE SHOULD BE TALKING BUSINESS NOW ABOUT How to build an "anti-fragile" company MORE ABOUT STEPHAN AARSTOL A serial entrepreneur, Aarstol founded Tower Paddle Boards in 2010 and later founded the No Middleman Project, Tower Electric Bikes, and other companies, When Aarstol pitched on Shark Tank in 2011, Mark Cuban invested $150,000 in the company when it had lifetime sales of just $100,000. Since then, the company has achieved more than $40 million in sales. In 2014, the San Diego Business Journal named Tower Paddle Boards the fastest growing private company in San Diego. Just a year later, the company ranked on the INC 500 list of America's fastest growing companies. Tower Paddle Boards was the brand of more than 2 million third-party sellers that signed up for the pilot Amazon Exclusives program. Tower was named to Internet Retailer's 2016 "Hot 100" list of the world's most innovative e-retailers. CONNECT WITH STEPHAN AARSTOL Website: Instagram: Twitter: Facebook: RESOURCES Transcript of this episode: The Five-hour Workday book: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Work Less and Paddle More is an episode from Talking Business Now by Kelly Scanlon.

This episode is 26:06 long.

This episode was published on May 21, 2021.

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