Kyle Hency started Chubbies in 2011 with three Stanford friends as a fun, weekend‑and‑beer‑vibe shorts brand.
The irreverent direct-to-consumer clothing brand—one popular item was a tear-away pair of shorts with a speedo-style bathing suit underneath—”was objectively maybe a bad idea,” Hency says, half joking. Nevertheless, the company caught fire—revenue went from $1 million to $8 million. And when Chubbies was acquired by Solo Stove in 2021, it marked a rare retail exit just as the direct-to-consumer boom began to collapse.
After spending a few years on the sidelines, Hency is back: He cofounded Good Day in 2024 with former Chubbies CFO Dave Wardell, and the startup just raised its seed round to solve one of retail’s biggest problems: managing inventory.
It’s an area in which Hency has hard-earned, first-hand experience. Despite its ultimate success (Hency says Chubbies now does $100 million or more in sales under its new owner), Chubbies almost ran out of cash three times, and at one point managed with negative $2 million cash for 18 months. Managing inventory became critical, and Hency says he struggled with the software tools available at the time.
And in today’s market, clothing brands are under even more pressure to run a tight ship and obsess about everything below the revenue line, Hency says.
