Super U Podcast | Destined to Disrupt with Aaron Luo
Today, Erik talks with the Co-Founder & CEO of Caraa, Aaron Lou. Aaron, raised in Spain, embraced fashion early, favoring Vogue over comics. With a successful career running billion-dollar businesses, he felt it was time to return to his first love: fashion. Aaron and Carmen founded Caraa, a brand designed to fit seamlessly into the modern woman’s life. He understands that life is busy, and his mission is simple: to create bags that are as versatile and resilient as the women who carry them.
Need a sneak peek? Below are the main takeaways from the episode.
Super U Podcast | Destined to Disrupt with Aaron Luo
Episode Preview:
“What’s something that you could kind of give to the audience as an entrepreneur that would be really helpful for [them] to know?”
“I’d say two things—and of course, this depends a bit on what stage you’re at as an entrepreneur. I actually have two different pieces of advice for two different stages. If you’re a little farther along, the number one thing—and you’ve probably heard this before—is learning how to hire, manage, and retain great talent. It’s incredibly important. You can’t do it alone.
You might be able to make it work up to your first million, maybe even two million in revenue. But once you reach that $2–5 million stage, you need a solid team. Managing people effectively becomes critical. We could easily spend two hours just talking about that, but in short: be smart about how you look for talent, understand what truly motivates them, and focus on how to retain them. Now, if you’re in an earlier stage and can’t really afford to hire yet—which I hear a lot, people saying, “Aaron, I just can’t hire right now; I have to do this on my own”—then my advice is to be bold enough to experiment and not be afraid of failure.
Take product design, for example. Of course, this varies by industry and by the type of founders or co-founders you have. My background is in fashion and luxury fashion, as well as gourmet CPG. Gourmet CPG is a bit different, but both still involve creating products people actually use. Coming up through corporate, I always believed you needed to be 90%—maybe 85% if you pushed me—confident in your prototype before going to market. You’d test it with friends and family and make sure it was nearly perfect before launch.
But that’s been a tough lesson for me. Because by the time you’re 85–90% done, you’ve already invested so much time, R&D, and money. And sometimes it pays off—but sometimes it doesn’t.”
About Caraa
Caraa is a lifestyle brand born in the heart of New York City, created by two driven founders—a designer and an entrepreneur—united by their love for timeless design and purposeful creation.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-luo-4055792/
IG: @caraasport
Website: caraa.co
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The Super U Podcast is hosted by #1 bestselling author and Motivational Speaker Erik Qualman.
