Building a moat around your startup – with KC Holiday (QALO)

When KC Holiday and his business partner founded [QALO](https://qalo.com/) with the simple idea of producing fashionable silicone wedding rings for situations such as sports, exercise and manual labour, they realised that it was a business that would be fairly easy for others to copy.

With this in mind, they came up with a range of strategies to make sure once the rubber wedding ring market existed, they would be the undisputed champions in the space.

Fast forward a few years and QALO is making $30m per year in revenue, distributed online and throughout major US retail stores such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Home Depot and REI, and promoted by sporting celebrities such as Lebron James & Stephen Curry.

QALO was acquired by private equity in 2020.

So how did they do it and what were the key lessons along the way?

Amazingly, KC Holiday is now based in Perth and keen to share all this and more with the Perth startup community.

So come along and start the day inspired!

**About KC Holiday**

KC Holiday has walked a non-traditional path to entrepreneurship and wouldn’t have it any other way. A decade ago he took a shot at starting a company called QALO from a garage and fell in love with the fast-paced problem-solving nature of building a business.

Since selling QALO in early 2020, KC has moved to his wife’s home town of Perth and has turned his attention to helping founders become effective leaders of companies as they scale.

He does this as an innovation strategist with [BetterLabs](https://www.betterlabsventures.com.au/) in Perth, Australia and [Solving Hollow](https://www.solvinghollow.com/), his online course and direct coaching for entrepreneurs.

Sponsors:

Thanks to Ammo Marketing (ammo.marketing), and Beacham Group (beachamgroup.com) for their support of Morning Startup and the Perth startup community! If you need help with marketing and growth or hiring awesome people check them out and tell them Morning Startup sent you!