Try Things, Fail Fast, and Take Responsibility

As founder and CEO of RepSpark Systems, Meghann Butcher focuses on understanding the impact the company’s solutions will have on both its customers and its customers’ customers. “Then, I have to understand how this could affect our long-term vision, which is to be the most effective partner for our customers and their customers,” Butcher says.

RepSpark’s wholesale ecommerce platform enables brands, many of which are apparel companies, to connect with buyers and transact business, offering online order entry, digital marketing materials, and automated accounts receivable, among other capabilities.

Butcher grew up in the apparel business, as her dad owned about six apparel brands. He had the initial idea for RepSpark. As demand for the solution expanded, he asked Butcher and another employee to take over.

Butcher and her colleague have worked on identifying customers’ pain points and then offering the capabilities that can address them. Since its launch in 2007, RepSpark has grown to about 40 employees, along with a handful of outsourced engineers. Butcher discusses the challenges she’s tackled while leading RepSpark, the lessons she’s learned, and the value of humble confidence and grit.

IL: What have been some of the most significant lessons you’ve learned as you’ve grown RepSpark Systems?

One is that you can’t do it all yourself. You do become the bottleneck at some point, and need to bring on strong, trusted team members. Most of the time they can handle the job better, and love taking it on.

Another is the value of communication, especially as your organization grows. If the five people around a table are not aligned at the beginning of a meeting, they typically are by the end. You can decide what you’re going to tackle and tackle it.

At 10 people, you have other opinions. At 20, now half the people aren’t even in the room when you make decisions. You need to put in processes so everybody understands not just what to do, but why it’s important, and how each role maps back to our goals.

It has been a learning curve. I remember stopping a few years ago and asking, ‘Why isn’t everybody getting this?’ That was a kind of reset; recognizing that everybody needs to understand the ‘why’ and then buy into it.

IL: As RepSpark has grown, what tactics have you used to maintain clear, effective communication?

We run on an operating framework, the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), and have a leadership meeting every week, at the same day and time, and with the same agenda. The subjects we discuss cascade down to each department, which has a similar weekly meeting. The issues discussed in these meetings, such as deadlines, cascade up and down to all departments.

Every other week we also do an all-hands-on-deck meeting. At one meeting, we’ll report on what we did the previous month, along with department and industry updates. The next meeting is looking forward at what we’ll be doing the next month.

In addition, we have two ‘product office hours’ each month. These help everybody understand not just what we’re rolling out, but why, and the impact the product is having on our customers’ operations.

Annually, we hold a two-day planning session, as well as quarterly planning sessions. These help ensure we understand the one-year goal and how we’re tracking against it.

IL: How would you describe your leadership style?

It’s definitely not micromanaging. We’re open to trying things, failing fast, and taking responsibility.

One quote says, ‘It’s better to have 80% of something done today, rather than ruminate on it for a month, start, and only get to 80%.” While some issues need to be pushed to long-term decisions, we tend to iterate pretty quickly.

IL: How do you know when you have enough information to make a decision?

It’s more of an art than a science. Part of it is knowing what data I need, whether it’s financial or market research or the return on investment of new software. Then it’s combining the numbers and my experience and judgment on the value an investment will bring. You have to trust your gut on some things, and say, ‘This feels right,” or ‘Something’s off.’

You also have to look at how many people in the organization a decision will touch. If it will affect the entire organization, usually I’ll take a little more time to make sure it’s the right move, because change management is often the hardest part of implementing a new idea.

IL: What supply chain initiatives are at the top of your agenda?

We are focused on providing real-time inventory visibility where our solution touches our customers’ supply chains, so that as their supply chains change, they can communicate that to their end buyers. For example, we added a line item in our software so retailers can see the impact of tariffs on prices. We also want to make sure that as information such as the country of origin changes, our brands can give retailers the visibility they need.

Moving forward, we’re looking at how we can help our brands be even more transparent with their buyers. One example is helping them alert their customers if an order is delayed.

Also, we’re finishing several AI projects. These will use information on market, ordering and other trends, based on data already in RepSpark, to help our brands better understand, for instance, the profit margins on different sales and to better handle demand planning.

IL: What challenges keep you up at night?

There are so many initiatives I would love to kick off, which I’m sure is a cliché for every CEO entrepreneur. But how do I pick which ones are the most important and the most impactful?

When the tariffs were newly implemented, they were really a distraction to our customers, who were figuring out sourcing diversification and how it was going to affect their profit margins. Projects were paused. Trying to figure out if the tariff situation was long or short term, and how to handle it, kept me up at night.

IL: What attributes do you see as key for effective leadership?

Along with communication, one is what I call being ‘humbly confident.’ That is, knowing that you can make a decision, and if it’s right, it’s going to be great, and if it’s wrong, you can move on from it.

It’s also having the grit to keep persevering and pushing forward when something goes wrong. If you don’t have grit, I don’t think you can lead a company.

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Litigation Lesson

“Jury selection for large trials is very psychologically driven,” notes Meghann Butcher of RepSpark Systems, who worked as a litigation consultant early in her career. “I learned to understand where someone was coming from whether they were applauding or booing an idea. Learning early in my career about different viewpoints and how people could look at a trial so differently has helped in leading a company.”

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