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While I can say
that I enjoyed
the financial
services industry
and made a nice
living, I can’t say
I was passionate
about it.
Tobacco Business:
What has been the
biggest lesson you’ve learned while
launching Kristoff?
Case:
The biggest lesson learned in launching
a cigar company was truly understanding and
appreciating the artistry behind blending and
manufacturing a cigar. Quite frankly, many
of the cigars I introduced during the first 18
months failed miserably—none of which were
under the Kristoff name. It wasn’t until I intro-
duced the first Kristoff blends—–the Original
Criollo and Maduro—that [they] really start-
ed to put me “on the map.”
What was the transition like, moving
fromworking in the financial industry
to taking on Kristoff as a full-time job?
The transition was as dramatic as one could
imagine. I went from working for a $165 bil-
lion corporation—with tens of thousands of
employees, with an infrastructure filled with
a lot of politics and bureaucracy—to working
for myself in a completely unrelated industry.
Yes, the transition was significant.
What skills or lessons learned from
working in the financial industry have
you come to rely on while working
with premium cigars?
While the financial services industry is ob-
viously very different, many of the skillsets I
developed over the years were transferable to
the cigar industry. Understanding and manag-
ing profit and loss of a company, creating an
effective business plan, product and business
development, marketing and human resources
—all of these skills are essential in being able
to effectively run a company.
If you were to launch Kristoff today,
how would you do it and what would
you do differently?
Of course, hindsight is 20/20. As I mentioned
previously, it took me nearly 18 months be-
fore I launched the first Kristoff blend. Up
until that time, I had launched several other
blends under different names, and the look
and feel of the packaging lacked continuity. It
wasn’t until I launched Kristoff that I started
to rebrand the company and developed the
branding that we have today. All that being
said, I wish I could have created the Kristoff
brand from day one.
What advice would you give other start-
ups in the tobacco industry?
There are several things I would advise a new
startup to do. The first would be to never lose
sight of the quality, consistency and avail-
ability of your product. Any inconsistency in
a cigar, or any product, is a recipe for disas-
ter. Moreover, consistently short-supplying
the market is an easy way to lose support of
the retailer; they are not going let a customer
leave their store without making a purchase
just because they are out of a particular brand
or blend.
Another piece of advice is you need to be
out there selling and promoting your product.
This is a highly competitive and saturated
industry, and you need to be out visiting re-
tailers, meeting consumers and doing events to
get your cigar in people’s hands. This means a
lot of windshield time and time on planes, but
you
have
to do it. While there are several other
pieces of advice I could give, I’ll finish with
the economic and management side of the
industry. Make sure you are well-financed—
there are significant upfront costs in getting
started, as well as ongoing costs to maintain
and grow the business. I’ve seen it happen too
many times where someone gets into the in-
dustry only to fail because they did not have
the cash flow to sustain the business. Effective
profit and loss management is critical to the
viability of the business.
Lastly, this is a business, and it needs to be
managed very carefully. Here, too, I’ve seen
people get into the industry because of the
mystique and the perception that if you start a
cigar company you’ll be rich and famous over-
night. Sadly, it’s not true.
What advice do you have for other entre-
preneurs who are considering pursuing
a business opportunity in a different
industry or field of work than they are
familiar with?
Pick an industry or field that you are passion-
ate about. While I can say that I enjoyed the
financial services industry and made a nice liv-
ing, I can’t say I was passionate about it. For
me, I have a true passion for the cigar industry
and love what I do.
The second piece of advice would be to
fully understand the industry you’re going
into, including knowing industry econom-
ics, your competition, truly understanding
the product or service, devising a strategy
to differentiate yourself, and developing and
executing a well-thought-out business plan.
Finally, surround yourself with good, smart
and ethical people.
TB
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Sound Advice
Continued