The Idea:
Steven Sashen took up sprinting at 45 after a 30-year break, and spent the next two years getting injured over and over. His CV was already eclectic: he'd built Scriptware, a word processor for film and TV writers, and worked as a professional stand-up comedian. Then a friend handed him a copy of Born to Run, Christopher McDougall's book, back before it became a bestseller. Sashen found the Boulder Barefoot Running Club, took off his shoes, and his injuries disappeared.
There was one problem. You can't walk into most places barefoot, and his wife, Lena Phoenix, really wanted him to put something on his feet. So Sashen made his own huarache sandals from high-tech sole rubber and cord, then made more for his running club. The first pair went to Lena. Phoenix, a fourth-generation entrepreneur, had already founded and sold a mortgage company. Together they realised they had a business. Four years later, they'd be pitching it on Shark Tank.
This was the beginning of Xero Shoes.
The Execution:
- November 2009: Sashen and Phoenix launched Invisible Shoes with one product: a $20 DIY sandal kit. The two founders were the only staff for the first couple of years.
- January 2013: Renamed Xero Shoes, the couple went on Shark Tank asking for $400,000 for 8%. Kevin O'Leary offered the same money for 50%. They walked. Lifetime sales up to that point were around $670,000, and the month after the episode aired they did $250,000.
- 2014: The hangover. The Shark Tank bump faded and revenue came in at just $772,000.
- 2017: Xero moved beyond DIY kits into closed-toe running and casual shoes, and revenue doubled to $5.5M. A Reg A+ equity crowdfund raised over $1M from fans, run without a broker-dealer network.
- September 2019: The trade war hit footwear for the first time. A 15% tariff landed on every pair Xero made, all of them in China, and the company joined around 200 footwear brands lobbying the White House against it.
- December 2020: After 11 years of bootstrapping, the founders sold $12.5M in equity to private equity firm TZP Group for a minority stake. Lockdown pushed customers online and an REI rollout landed that spring, making it one of Xero's best years.
- 2021: Revenue grew 46% to $33.6M, and a second office opened in Prague to serve Europe.
- 2023: Revenue reached $64.6M, a 61% compound annual growth rate since 2015, with the equivalent of 98 full-time staff.
- 2024: The wobble. Revenue rose just 5% to $67.6M, but a Q4 clearance sale, with some pairs sold at or below cost, tipped Xero into a $764,000 net loss. Cash fell from $5.7M to $2M. In November, the founders moved to the board and former Merrell president Sue Rechner took over as CEO.
- Today: In March 2025, TZP put in another $5M for short-term liquidity. Xero now employs around 100 people and sold 512,000 pairs direct to consumers in 2024.
The lesson? On Shark Tank, Kevin O'Leary looked at a $20 kit of rubber and string and wanted half the company for $400,000. Sashen and Phoenix said no, bootstrapped for 11 years, and only sold a minority stake once revenue passed $20M. That's how you keep your upside. But 2024 is the footnote worth reading: heavy discounting, a cash pile cut by two-thirds, and the founders handing over the CEO title. Walking away from a shark buys you control. Keeping it means never letting your inventory run the company.