Glenalla Group’s Story
How We Scaled From $0 in Starting Capital to $2.5M 2025 Estimated Annual Revenue
A YouTube video truly changed the entire trajectory of my life.
2016: Age 13 - $500 revenue
I watched a YouTube video titled “How To Get Free Stickers (2016 UPDATED)!!”. I proceeded to email 20 companies asking for promotional stickers. A few days later, I received packages in the mail. Minutes later these stickers were listed eBay.
Just a few hours later, I got my first ever eBay sale. Arguably, the biggest day of my life.
Between ages 13 and 14, I emailed thousands of companies for bumper stickers. Day and night, I would stay up emailing to ensure my customers would be satisfied with new stickers. Eventually, I ran out of companies… and email addresses. What was next? China.
2017: Age 14 - $1,000 revenue
So, unknowingly, I turned to a popular Chinese website to purchase trademarked infringed stickers. I took all proceeds from the sales I had made and put them into an order. After about 60 days of sailing across the Pacific by the cheapest possible option.
Things were going great. Selling out was not uncommon. I thought to myself, “Finally, some scale!”. And then Red Bull’s Legal Team hit me with a cease and desist at 14. Safe to say, I had a long lesson to learn about IP law. The sticker chapter of my life closed. However, another opportunity presented itself.
2018: Age 15 - $5,000 revenue
I was introduced to limited edition footwear via one of my best childhood friends. After seeing him paying a premium on a pair of Air Jordan Retros, I started to research the market. Like stickers, I saw the opportunity. I purchased my first pair of Nikes in April 2018. Made a few dollars and continued reinvesting. By the end of 2018 I was selling five to ten pairs a month.
2019: Age 16 - $60,000 revenue
Getting my driver’s license really enabled the business to grow. I started scaling to 10-20 pairs a month and continued flipping items. I learned to negotiate, work at a bigger scale, and start making connections within the industry.
2020: Age 17 - $200,000 revenue
Like most other people, COVID shook things up. In my situation, the stimulus checks created such strong demand to where I couldn’t stay in stock. Everything was selling quickly, and better yet, a premium. I believe this was a once in a lifetime, right time, right place situation. Everyday, I’d wake up around 6AM, pack orders from the night before, ship them out. After that, go source more product. I’d do it all day until the bank account hit zero. Rinse and repeat. Over the course of that summer I really started to scale and push bigger sales volumes. At this point, I started connecting with overseas buyers and sellers to take advantage of demand discrepancies and inconsistencies in the international shoe markets. Unfortunately, school took up a lot of time and I was not fully able to take advantage of this opportunity.
2021: Age 18 - $350,000 revenue
I finished up high school selling 200-300 pairs a month. I continued to scale but when I headed off to the University of Colorado Boulder to pursue a finance degree. I was consistently selling 300-400 pairs of month by the time I left for school in August. I quickly realized that selling shoes out of my parent’s basement was not going to work anymore.
2022: Age 19 - $600,000 Revenue
A friend had gotten me involved into a warehousing space in Oregon where I could fulfill and store my products, so I had sold all the inventory at my parent’s house and started utilizing the space in Oregon. I continued selling sneakers, but this time through Amazon and a few other platforms.
2024: Age 21 - $1.2M Revenue
2024 was a great year. Scaled strongly while improving systems and adding another employee to handle purchasing and sourcing full time. I graduated college and decided to scale this as much as possible. A majority of this growth was driven through wholesale product sourcing.
2023: Age 20 - $850,000 Revenue
Glenalla Group hired the first employee in 2023. This is where we started to scale by creating unique systems. Once labor was outsourced, we could focus more on buying quality product to deliver through our Amazon store. We procured our first wholesale deal in 2023.
