Trans World Entertainment (NASDAQ: TWMC) operated 2,000+ brick-and-mortar entertainment stores under the FYE brand — a category in structural decline. In 2016 it had acquired etailz, a Spokane e-commerce retailer, but never found synergy between the two. The board recruited me as CEO of etailz to accelerate a business that had lost its way, while the parent kept eroding in a shrinking market.
The mandate was a full 180-degree transformation: get profitable, find a defensible growth engine, and build a platform worth believing in — all under the scrutiny of public markets.
Performance Management
Get the core business profitable and build operational rigor from the ground up.
Installed new strategic and operating plans, operational controls, functional departments, and clear accountabilities.
Funded the company with both debt and equity; rebuilt the management team and organizational structure.
Divested FYE — and was named CEO of the public parent, Trans World Entertainment, reporting directly to the board.
Growth
Set a new strategy, launch new products and services, and expand distribution nationally and internationally.
Rebranded the company to Kaspien (NASDAQ: KSPN) and repositioned it as a one-stop marketplace-growth platform.
Launched three new business lines on top of the core platform — a tech-enabled agency and a new SaaS business among them.
Built new digital marketing, PR, and investor-relations functions to establish the brand.
Scale
Capitalize the balance sheet and grow organically and inorganically toward a $1B revenue vision.
Introduced 11 strategic themes mapping a path to $1B in annual revenue.
Expanded distribution across Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Target — domestically and internationally.
Built enterprise value to a level that drew multiple acquisition offers at ~20x adjusted EBITDA — validating the platform thesis even as the board weighed exit over the longer-term build.
Took the stock from a ~$2 low (end of 2019) to a $52 peak (Q1 2021), with four consecutive quarters of profitable growth.
Reversed a 28% revenue decline into 20%+ growth; took EBITDA from -3% to +3%.
Grew the business past $1B in marketplace sales — the milestone that defined the platform vision.
New businesses (tech-enabled agency + SaaS) grew to drive ~50% of total gross merchandise value.
Funded growth through a $25M debt raise and a $13.5M underwritten public equity offering.
Drove LTV:CAC to 8:1, tripled customer count, and cut churn from 10%+ to under 5%.
Built enterprise value to a level that attracted multiple acquisition offers at ~20x adjusted EBITDA, which the board elected not to pursue.
Transformed culture — attrition from 40% to <15%; Best Places to Work (Inland NW, 2020 & 2021) and Washington's Top 100.
Kaspien is public-company command under real scrutiny — chairing earnings calls, managing analyst and investor relations, executing public equity offerings and proxy work, and partnering with a board through a multi-year turnaround. It is the experience a public or pre-IPO board most wants to see, governed quarter by quarter with shareholders watching.