Are you following the New Rules of Business? Jen Rubio and Steph Korey are, and they’ve used them to grow their 4-year-old startup, Away Luggage, into a $1.4 billion business. With these 3 rules, you can turn your company from ordinary to extraordinary -

𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲 #𝟭 - 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁

In 2015, when Jen’s suitcase broke at Zurich Airport, and she couldn't find a replacement suitcase she loved, she and her friend Steph decided to start their own luggage company - one that the world’s travellers and adventure seekers would love to love.

The only problem? Neither had any experience in the luggage industry. Steph remembers travelling to China to look for a factory to make their luggage: “I went from my last class of business school to JFK to Asia” where she finished her exams in a hotel room while visiting factories.

They found a factory but needed cash, which meant selling the suitcases before they had them.

So what did they do? Instead of selling a suitcase they didn’t have, they created a beautiful travel book and sold that, giving a suitcase away with every book.

Korey says they asked themselves “How do we put our story out in the universe in a way that people will repeat it? Jen had this idea of launching with a book. We interviewed 40 really interesting people from the creative community - writers, artists, photographers.”

Each had their own Instagram following, and spread the word.

Korey says “It was a beautiful hardcover book. We called it 'The Places We Return To’. We didn't pay contributors, but we gave them a gift card for a suitcase. In November 2015, we sold the book with a gift card that was redeemable for a suitcase in February. It was essentially a preorder with a complimentary book.”

The result? They launched with $12 million in sales in the first year, by focusing at building the community first, and promoting their product second.

𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲 #𝟮 - 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘀

Jen and Steph continued shining a light on their community of travellers and their love of travel. They launched their own travel magazine “Here” and podcast “Airplane mode” that “explores the reasons we travel and places we find ourselves.”

Jen says they knew they were succeeding by the calls they were getting: “We’d created a brand that was so synonymous with better travel that customers were calling us to get our thoughts on way more than just luggage – they were reaching out to our customer service line asking for tips and recommendations ahead of upcoming trips!”

Away put the story of the traveller ahead of the specifications of the suitcase. As Jen says:

“When we looked at the luggage industry as a whole, brands were talking about the features of their products, but none were talking about travel."

"We’re curating stories that don’t exist elsewhere, and from a point of view that feels like a familiar friend to a wide range of people. I think that combination is where the magic happens.”

𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲 #𝟯 - 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗕𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿

As Away grew, Jen and Steph took the time on the small things. Jen says they shared every one of their customers’ instagram photos: “Even when we had 500 to 1,000 followers on Instagram, we were sharing their own photos. We’ve ingrained and embedded this behavior of sharing with our community.”

They ran giveaways and contests every month on social media and collaborated with over 1,000 Instagram followers, appealing to each of their tribes and growing through trusted word-of-mouth.

As for the suitcases, instead of competing with the mass production of their rivals, they took the opposite path and asked how they could let each customer customise their suitcase. Korey says “Instead of offering traditional monogramming, Jen came up with this awesome idea to partner with a few hand-lettering artists.”

“Each came up with a custom alphabet for Away. We took these custom alphabets, put them on our website, and gave customers the option to pick their style, and have artists hand-paint their initials on the suitcase.”

By caring about what the customer cares about, and shining a light on their community instead of their company, Away has sold over 1 million suitcases in the last 4 years. This week, they raised $100 million at a $1.4 billion valuation.

Jen and Steph have used technology and social media to add a digital layer to a traditional product, turning it into an exponential business. This is Japan’s concept of Society 5.0 and the concept of Entrepreneur 5.0, where hi-tech and hi-touch connect together to create a new Humanity 5.0.

In this new world, we will be seeing many entrepreneurs use these new rules to turn ordinary products into extraordinary new ways for us to connect.

As Steph says: “You don't push your product. You create things that are fun to talk about, to write about, to share.”

Are you using these New Rules of Business in your business?

If you were to, where could they take you?

As the quote in Away’s store says:

“𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁.”