Please, introduce yourself and your business.
My name is AJ Reid. My company GloTrim is a specialty lighting supplier/ contract upholstery company. (At this point in the conversation people smile and then look confused) I would take my phone out and show you photos of vehicle interiors or motorcycle seats that have flexible glass fiber optic light pipes sewn into the seat upholstery.
We give our clients and their customers the ability to not only light up their seats, but to do so using low power LEDs and a very advanced German glass technology.
This technology was unavailable to the aftermarket for years, only sold directly to Major OEMs and their respective tier 1 suppliers… until I got my hands on it!
Inside the light pipe is about 800 micro-strands of the highest quality drawn glass in the world (Each strand is 1/10th the size of a human hair). In auto OEM design circles this ambient light guide is considered #1 and why you generally only see it on luxury vehicles / trim levels like the latest Cadillac Escalade platform- dash and front door panels
How did you start your business?
GloTrim was born out of an automotive upholstery business that a partner and I started in 2016. One day a guy walked in who worked at the German Glass company (that we now use in our fiber optic light pipe welts) He was working on a Ford Lincoln program, and they needed a solution to integrate their glass light pipes into a 30-way ambient light "wow" seat.
The problem was that they needed to control the light pipe when putting it inside the seat, due to the outer sheathing of the light pipe nothing would stick to it. They also tried routing out a piece of plastic so you could pop it in a channel, but they really didn't want to interfere with the established manufacturing process. We ended up coming up with the "Welt" solution, wrap it in a clear plastic and use the plastic tail or tab to put in between then they could heat stake it together. That program opened my world, and I honestly couldn't get enough of it. There are really cool technologies at the OEM Level that the aftermarket just doesn't have access to.
I was amazed at the quality of this German company's glass optical fiber light pipe and made it a mission to be able to access their technology. I kept working on the welt idea and started sewing it into upholstery like it was piping (even though Ford's instruction on the seat was your fire if we see the light pipe, they wanted it buried inside the seat and the back panel)- I was pretty sure I was onto something. and big companies were noticing and loved it like the lead design team at Mercedes Benz—>(This story is below)
How much revenue was your best year?
100K
When did you notice traction when building your business? The “Oh S**t!” moment, what did that feel like?
We ended up selling a few of our seats that lit up back to our German glass manufacturers marketing team. During the Future auto interiors summit in Stuttgart, (look at uploaded pictures) the marketing team was showing the seats off for the first time, and the designers from Mercedes Benz walked in and loved them so much they asked to borrow them. MB uses a different lighting supplier for their ambient lighting, so the marketing team thought it was a way into working with them.
A few months later I heard back that they took them to their lighting supplier and disassembled them for reverse engineering then destroyed the seats.
From that point on MB went forward with a bunch of lighting programs that revolved around light pipes into soft trim seating and came out with a few prototype vehicles like the AVTR (which James Cameron got the credit for the lighting inspiration...) and now MB is the first luxury auto manufacturer that has sewn in fiber optic light pipes in the S-class.
I've always been a fan of their engineering, so it was humbling to know they liked our seats that much. Was also a good tell that I was on the right track with this idea of lighting up upholstery. oh and James Cameron can suck it :)
What was your childhood like? Were you slinging candy on the playground?
I didn't have a very good hand dealt to me. A lot of yelling, drugs, and drinking. stuff kids shouldn't really be around. But I also had angels around like my grandma who was always there for me and my older sister and I would make things like bracelets and sell them on the corner.
I hated being in my home as I grew up and on my 14th birthday, I went to work at a pizza restaurant and spent a lot of time there. In high school and a few years after I was a drug dealer (and heavy user) so I guess I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit!
I bottomed out when I was 23 and chose to go to an inpatient rehab facility for 5 months. Fast forward to today and my life is opposite to where I started. I have a beautiful angel of a wife who I swear saved my life.
After rehab was tough, when my brain was resetting, I felt like I had lost parts of myself, and she patiently helped me find myself. I love my wife, and our cats, and now I know what a home truly is.
What has been your best marketing marketing channel?
Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn I go to some shows like SEMA in Vegas is the biggest aftermarket car & accessories show in the world. was a great way to introduce our GloTrim lit up seating to other exhibitors & show-goers. I recently went to Mama Tried Harley Davidson moto show here in Milwaukee.
One of my GloTrimmers came in from Utah and I helped set up her exhibit that featured a GloTrim seat and everyone who saw it went nuts, loved it and had to touch it. one guy grabbed me and said, " HOW COME I DON'T SEE THIS EVERYHWERE?!" ha I'm trying buddy!
How many attempts at building something did you make before you found what you’re working on now? Did you always have an entrepreneurial drive?
Upholstery is weird to just make a normal car seat. There is a good possibility the first try won't be good enough for you so you end up ripping it apart and sewing again and again until it's good. I feel like most customers won't ever see or complain about the things that we rip it up over but in the long run I think that may make a difference in the type of shop you own.
Nothings perfect but if you take the same thing apart and put it back together your understanding of all of it will get pretty close to perfect.
What is your biggest overhead expense?
I mostly work out of my home office; I don't have any employees, but I work closely with sewing contractors or design partners. If I am doing a collaboration project then I tend to go wherever the easiest place to work together is.
What’s the most important skill you’ve learned?
Selling and leading presentations. Growing up I never wanted to be perceived as a "salesperson". It always seemed like the Devil lived in the mouths of people who were selling things they didn't necessarily believe in. I really enjoy being in the obscure upholstery/lighting field. When you can sell something that can function to make someone's life or products look better.
I remember almost crapping myself in high school when I had to do a public speech in front of peers. But I was just asked to come and speak about lighting up upholstery to 9 leads at the biggest motorcycle company in the world a few months ago and as long as I look at it through the scope of "wanting to help" and knowledgeable about the product it's pretty easy to discuss things!
What do you spend the majority of your time doing, in a given week?
I spend time fulfilling GloTrim lighting kit orders sending them out all over the world to interested makers and companies. I try to stay active in the online upholstery community.
I learn new things all the time by talking with other shop owners. This coming month I was asked to teach a GloTrim lighting integration class. I will be sewing a cover up and talking about LEDs and other materials I work with like light transmissive vinyl.
I always do a lot of prep work when I teach or go to meetings to show off our technology. I look for new customers or companies who could benefit from using our tech.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when first starting your business?
My idea of what success is has changed a lot throughout the years. I've seen successful people & businesses crumble because they got too stuck on chasing a specific dream. It's okay to question yourself, always listen to your heart and your customers.
Try and play the tape forward. where do you want to be in 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years and don't lose sight of goals you set. Make sure to celebrate when you hit those marks you set.
What’s a big problem you’ve faced as a business owner and what were the emotions behind it?
This is a big one. I have been burned more times that I want to admit. A few years ago, we did a bunch of really cool proof -builds for a Canadian company who loved what we were doing with lighting soft-trim integration. I had worked with the program lead for a few years while she was at a different tier 1 plastics supplier, and we had always wowed and impressed her bosses. I considered her a good friend.
The Canadian company wanted us to join up and make a USA base for cut/sew lighting integration, basically what we were already doing but on a much larger scale. My partner at the upholstery company wanted it really bad and I did not. I was worried that I was going to be put in a position between what I know is the right course of action and what the bosses who are out of the country are telling me to do. The VP of the company talked with me for hours on the phone and I finally gave in.
Within the first month of being employed they wanted to strip me of all my contacts and customers. I felt like I was constantly being yelled at and talked down to for going above and beyond trying to get things done. They just had me sit in my house and be in meetings all day revolving around yachts and 3d scanning furniture. Then they killed the lighting agenda and only wanted to focus on yachts. In 30 days, I went from being told this was going to be my dream gig to utterly depressed and feeling like a failure for giving up on something that I enjoyed and built. I told the Canadian bosses "Thank you for the opportunity but sorry this isn't what I signed up for.
Feel free to hit me up if you want to continue down the lighting upholstery road, happily do builds like used too." and they said, "we have 7 lawyers on staff, if you want to quit you will give us 10K now or we will come after you for corporate espionage". ..........
wtf!
I had never felt so trapped, lied too, taken advantage of, and pissed off in my life. Just remembering it now and typing this I can feel my blood start to boil. Those people were pure evil, and, in my opinion, they should be locked up and the key should get lost. Anyways, that company folded soon after I left but I am still here.
What is your best advice for someone who wants to start a business but feels completely stuck?
I remember that feeling. It is not a good one to have. But if you take it as a sign that you're just not happy with what you're doing now.
By default, you have to try something else. try to find something you're passionate about and proud to make/do. Something you enjoy spending your time doing and make it into a business. WORK HARD good things will come.
Check out Glotrim & Aj at,
His website: www.GloTrim.com
Instagram: @glotrim
Facebook: @glotrim
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe-pehv1ZVYK0Lk3I3z1EHQ
Or email him: AJ@glotrim.com
