354: Designing a Business for Yourself and the Market with Mo Elliott

Summary On this episode of Startup Junkies, hosts Jeff Amerine and Victoria Dickerson are joined by entrepreneur Mo Elliott. Mo founded Fayettechill while he was a student at the University of Arkansas and served as the CEO for thirteen years before eventually selling the outdoor lifestyle brand in 2022. After a successful exit from Fayettechill, Mo pivoted to real estate, flipping houses and eventually purchasing and operating multiple Airbnb properties in Santa Fe, New Mexico with the Pecos Group, which he founded. Throughout the episode, Mo, Jeff, and Victoria discuss Mo’s transition from retail to real estate, why he chose Santa Fe, and what’s next for Mo and the Pecos Group.   Show Notes (0:36) Introducing Mo Elliot and His Origin Story (6:14) Leaving Retail for Real Estate (10:27) The Magic of Santa Fe (13:26) Establishing Fayettechill as a Northwest Arkansas Staple (15:44) What’s Next for Mo? (21:00) Staying Connected to Fayetteville (22:06) Advice to the Younger Self (24:21) Closing Thoughts   Links Jeff Amerine Victoria Dickerson Mo Elliott Dos Hermanas Compound Tesuque Outpost   The Pecos Group Fayettechill      Quotes “What I love about real estate is you make the purchase and it’s a tangible asset in front of you and you can control everything. With manufacturing, it’s rough. We’re buying 50,000 units twelve months in advance. We have data to understand what we sold last season, but it’s such a question mark with manufacturing, and it’s always changing.” - Mo Elliott, (6:42)   “I built [Fayettechill] with all the ideals of a little Patagonia. And so having a north star of our ideals and then eventually creating products that I wanted to use outside. And then the employees that worked for us, we were our own test dummies on the products that we wanted. So it wasn’t like we were designing for another core market that we weren’t a part of.” - Mo Elliott, (14:30)