GSI Commerce Inc. chief executive and founder Michael Rubin made his first business deal before he could shave, at 12, and owned a chain of ski stores by the time he graduated high school in 1990.
Then he really got to work. Skipping a college degree, Rubin, raised in Lafayette Hill, started KPR Sports International Inc. (his parents initials), a maker of off-priced athletic footwear and apparel. He grew it into a $100 million publicly traded company, renamed it Global Sports, sold off the sportswear side, then renamed it again to GSI Commerce at the height of the dot-com bubble.
Shares in his King of Prussia, Pa.-based company that designs, builds and runs Web sites for retailers closed at an eight-year high last October, but since have slipped on concerns about the economy. Its clients have included Toys "R" US, the NFL and Gordon's Jewelers. It employs about 3,500 in nine states, Spain and the U.K. Last week, it announced a deal to acquire e-mail-based marketing firm e-Dialog Inc. of Lexington, Mass., for $157 million.
Q: You started a ski store at age 12. How did you persuade your parents to support you?
A: I always had a passion for both business and skiing. For me it was a natural. ... (My mother) said it wasn't the best idea (she) ever heard. So, I went to my father, who said he would be supportive as long as I did well in school.
Q: Did you run into issues because of your age?
A: Certainly for the first 10 years of my career, age was an issue. ... There was a banker that I owed $50 million to. ... He almost had a heart attack when I invited him to my twenty-first birthday party.
Q: What about college?
A: I only went to Villanova for one semester. It was actually a stretch to call it a semester because I didn’t make it a whole semester.
Q: Did you have your share of ups and downs?
A: It didn’t snow one year. That does not make for a successful year in the ski business.
Q: Were you worried?
A: When you are 16, you are not very stressed. ... The last couple of years for GSI have been filled with high points for us.
Q: How do you balance your work and family life?
A: I have been working non-stop since I was 12, 13 years old. There have always been things outside of work that were important to me (like family).
Q: Are you working as hard now as you did when you were younger?
A: First of all, I really enjoy working. ... I am generally on the road a few days a week (and) work six to seven days a week. I have got an unbelievable senior management team.
Q: Shares of your company, like many in the tech sector, have slumped this year. GSI’s shares are still down about 12 percent so far this year
A: I don’t want to talk about stock price but certainly, it’s a difficult stock market overall. People have a lot of concerns about the retail sector in general. ... While overall retail will be challenging, in reality, ecommerce is going to continue to prosper.
Q: Is there anything more that local officials could be doing to make the Philadelphia more attractive to high-tech businesses?
A: The state of Pennsylvania \[which has supported GSI\] could step up and do a lot more in terms of incentives. We’re going through our next growth evolution. We are deciding whether we do it in the state of Pennsylvania or outside of the state of Pennsylvania. It’s a decision that we will make in the next 12 to 24 months.
