Hunter Durham is a man of resilience: In eight years, he went from college graduate to Facebook employee to company owner to bankruptcy.
Luckily, he was happy to share his experience, making it a useful case study in debt, navigating the e-commerce boom, and reliance on a single customer.
The full audio of my conversation with Dahan is embedded below. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Eric Bandholz: Tell us about your journey.
Hunter Durham: I filed for bankruptcy late last year. Since then, I’ve been helping a friend here in Puerto Rico start up a cocoa business. We raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding, but ultimately decided the timing wasn’t right. So, I’m now looking for my next job.
I’ve held multiple roles in e-commerce and marketing. During college, I interned at Red Bull and then worked at Dell in Austin. My first full-time job was at Microsoft during my senior year of college. I graduated in 2017 and joined Facebook that same year, working on the ads team managing our e-commerce accounts.
It was a lot of fun. My clients included Johnsonville (sausages), Pacific Life (insurance), and about 50 other ecommerce brands. Back then, everything was pretty open on Facebook. You could see your sales, ad spend, and margins. I did that for about 3 years, then in 2019 I joined one of my biggest clients, a Canadian dropshipper, who is now out of business.
After about seven months there, the COVID pandemic hit and e-commerce boomed. My experience was in high demand. I served as a consultant for grocery wholesaler Sunpearls. That position became my agency, Impact Industry Marketing, which has grown rapidly over the next few years.
During that time I acquired three companies in the furniture industry, two in the transportation industry, and we Delivery Service It was a loan for a furniture retailer. And then last August, our largest client went out of business. They owed us six figures in revenue. So I was forced to file for bankruptcy. Due to bankruptcy Late last year.
So we were back to square one.
Bandholz: You lost your biggest customer. Tell us about that.
Durham: The company was Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, a large luxury furniture manufacturer that had sales of $180 million the year before it filed for bankruptcy. It had been in business for 25 years and had about 60 retail stores and an online presence.
when Bought Of the two shipping companies, Mitchell Gold accounted for 15% of our revenues, but by the time it closed its revenues had increased to 60% or approximately $3 million per year. We handled approximately 33% of Mitchell Gold’s total traffic. When Mitchell Gold closed, our business disappeared.
In addition to unpaid operating expenses, SBA Loans We were unable to repay the loans we took out to buy the shipping company, which I had personally guaranteed, and we ended up filing for bankruptcy.
Bandholz: Can you tell me about bankruptcy?
Durham: I had to learn a lot fast. I had no idea. When I stopped getting paid, I started calling bankruptcy lawyers. It was a crash course.
Mitchell Gold began delaying payments starting in June 2023 and ceased operations in August. I was in crisis mode all summer as it became clear payments were not going to be made.
It was a matter of going step by step, firing employees, hiring lawyers and starting bankruptcy proceedings.
Bankruptcy is an orderly process that clears out a lot of bad stuff. Chapter 11 is a restructuring. Ironically, it costs a lot of money. For example, my bankruptcy lawyer asked for a $250,000 retainer. Bankruptcy lawyers get paid first.
Then the debtor (my company) pays the expenses but hires a bank mandated restructuring advisor. Chapter 7 is a liquidation. It is much cheaper than Chapter 11.
I had a few months’ worth of savings when I realized I had to file for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is a snapshot in time. When you file and what you file matters. A bankruptcy attorney understands that.
Bandholz: Now that all of this is over, what’s next?
Durham: I Still exploringI may return to running an agency and focus on creative and business strategies for my clients. Combining artificial intelligence with branded content seems promising.
Bandholz: We look forward to seeing your next move, where can people follow or contact you?
Durham: I am in X, @huntercdurham.
