ABOUT ME
It was Christmas morning, a warm, shorts and flip-flops kind of day here on the east coast of Florida. I was moments away from opening one of the best presents I had received up to that point. I ripped off the bow and tore back the paper to reveal a dark brown, leather bound book. It smelled like a new car. Without opening it, I could sense the fun and wacky information I would discover inside. It was a limited edition of National Geographic's "How Things Work, Everyday Technology Explained". I popped the covers apart and landed on "How an Internal Combustion Engine Works". My eyes scanned the page as I had mile-wide smile across my face. To me, this book was epic. For a couple months, it would satisfy my craving curiosity to know how things work in our world. I sat back on the sofa and began reading while my siblings opened the rest of their presents. I was a happy 9-year-old.
My name's Steven Fox, and I'm a curious, compassionate, and optimistic geek that feels equally comfortable leading a product design meeting as I do jumping out of an airplane or talking about Right Bank Bordeaux wine. My unquenchable thirst to understand how things work has led to many things: at 12 I was asking my parents "how does the stock market work?"; at 22 I graduated at the top of my class for mechanical engineering; and now, I'm someone who is genuinely excited about startups and the world of business.
FUN FACT
In the middle of my bachelor's degree at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, one of my good friends was reminiscing about his tandem skydiving experience in Illinois. "That sounds like so much fun, man! Maybe I'll give it a try one day." Later that afternoon, he walked into the CNC machine shop where I was teaching an engineering lab and declared, "You're signed up for Level 1 AFF this weekend!" I was scared sh*tless (I'm afraid of heights), but successfully completed my first skydive 4 days after his tandem story. I followed up with 200 skydives in 2 years. I don't jump much anymore, but I'll always cherish those years of freefalling.
MY PERSONALITY
Enjoys serving others, ripping 150mph down the back straight, clicking the shutter on cameras, and learning about anything.
- I value people, my family, and the general goodness in the world.
- My brain is constantly in a state of trying to optimize outcomes.
- My greatest sense of success comes from others succeeding in their own goals.
- I strive to create value so that I can give it to others who deserve it.
- I believe in servitude leadership that develops and empowers people to achieve more than they ever imagined possible for themselves.
- I believe in data and rational decision making with a sprinkle of gut instinct.
- I have ambitious goals for my life that most would consider entirely far-fetched or ridiculous.
- I believe in short term loss for long term gain.
- I'm crazy curious about everything
- I'd prefer to have 5 incredible things over 50 mediocre ones.
- I enjoy cooking and want to open a specialty restaurant one day.
- My favorite beers are German Hefeweizens.
- I'm introverted but my wife helps me break out of my shell.
- I'm scared of the unknown but have jumped out of an airplane 200 times.
- I want to see the wonders of our world.
- I want to earn a spot on the Forbes 30 under 30 list.
Most importantly, I hope to be a good husband & father who leaves a lasting legacy that makes this world a better place after I'm gone.
EXPERIENCE
TST INDUSTRIES
- I joined the founder in 2012 to work on product engineering.
- By 2014, my responsibilities expanded beyond design and engineering to encompass everything required to go from the initial idea of a new product to launching it in the market.
- From 2015 through 2018, my weekly routine morphed from product development to running the business. We kept a loose corporate structure at TST Industries, but I essentially filled the role of our CEO/COO. For a team of our size, that means I was personally responsible for our strategies in marketing (branding, customer acquisition and experience, SEO, AdWords, email, social, etc), website development, internal software tool development, operations (purchasing, receiving, QC/QA, assembly, warehousing, fulfillment, logistics), and high level finances/budgeting. Furthermore, I worked heavily on our team culture through communication, weekly huddles, and developing our team members to become incredible assets for the company.
- During my 6 years with the bootstrapped startup:
- We did an awesome job to go from a hobby biz to a small but serious ecommerce business.
- We expanded our online catalog 10 fold and by 2017, we were shipping over 30,000lbs worth of orders to customers in a year.
- We created warehouse operational systems and proprietary software that improved assembly/fulfillment efficiency by 300%.
- We organically grew key marketing platforms, especially YouTube, into valuable awareness tools for the business. The TST YouTube channel now has 65,000 subscribers and ~18,000,000 total video views, both numbers continuing to grow rapidly every day.
- I led each member on the team with a compassionate, optimistic, employee-empowering, and "leadership multiplier" strategy (it was humbling when my team members were genuinely sad on the day I told them I would be stepping away from my daily duties at the company)
consulting & personal businesses
Founder and CEO of Husky Hideout
My wife and I own 2 huskies that we rescued as fosters. They're an incredibly interesting breed of pup, with a dangerous curiosity, a vocal personality, and their "hairy Houdini" abilities. We've decided to launch an ecommerce store and social platform where husky owners can shop a curated catalog for their 4-legged family members, and discuss various topics together through a forum. Each quarter, Husky Hideout will donate a portion of its proceeds to an audience-selected shelter or foster organization for pets.
Business consulting for The Weekend Fox
The Weekend Fox is a lifestyle and travel blog created by my sister Katherine. Together, we are:
- Creating a new product & service revenue strategy.
- Optimizing her site & content for SEO to boost page views.
- Creating Media Kits and other marketing assets for B2B contracts.