Creative Boys to CRYB: Ecommerce Growth Lessons

Arturo Lemmen spent eight years running his brand almost entirely on his own.

No employees. Answering emails under different names to make the operation look like a team. Designing, packing, and managing social media himself. For years, the business did not generate enough to cover his own rent, and he thought its sales ceiling might simply be the best he could achieve.

Today, that brand is CRYB. In our conversation, Arturo described competing with much larger players—and ten years of work behind what can look like an overnight success.

Arturo joined Getmore's August webinar to share the full story, including the parts founders often leave out.

Eight years of doing everything himself

The idea began at a hackathon at Tec de Monterrey: T-shirts featuring designs created by other people. When the event ended, the rest of the team moved on. Arturo turned the idea into a business with artwork inspired by children's drawings and a sweatshirt donation for every purchase, following the model he had read about in the TOMS founder's book.

The launch aimed straight at the United States, with prices in dollars and the assumption that online selling removed geographic barriers. Prelaunch registrations were high, but many came from India, where advertising traffic was cheaper. Arturo expected inventory to sell out within an hour.

The store went two months without a sale.

The first customer who was neither a friend nor a family member was evidence that the business could work. But making a sale and building a profitable company are different things. It took Arturo years to understand the difference.

He described it as a business trying to operate like a foundation, without either charitable donations or enough commercial income.

Every peso coming in felt like money that should be donated instead of used to run the company. Arturo went without a salary for years. His first hire was driven as much by emotional strain as workload: he needed help handling customer complaints because each negative message felt personal.

The mistake of designing for the wrong customer

For the first six years, Arturo could not comfortably wear his own brand. Its fit was designed around slim bodies because his market references came from the social accounts he followed rather than the people actually buying.

The shift came when he stopped designing for an imagined customer and began addressing his own needs: clothes that fit him, straighter cuts, and proportions for men who had struggled to find comfortable options in the existing market.

Selling something he believed in and wore himself proved easier than promoting clothing he could not use.

The experiences that changed the direction

Around his thirtieth birthday, Arturo described going through a difficult period of depression. He spoke about a personal experience with ayahuasca in Tepoztlán and associated that period with a change in how he saw himself, including his fear of appearing on camera. This is his account of his experience, not a treatment recommendation.

That became part of the starting point for El Arturito: candid content with a voice separate from the brand's social-cause messaging. Keeping those identities distinct helped him feel more authentic on camera.

A later trip to Peru helped define the product direction. There, the team found the fabric that became Inca Cloud. Arturo linked it to a stronger repeat-purchase pattern: customers returned for another color, then another product. A year after introducing it, he decided to remove products made from other fabrics from the catalog.

The ad nobody planned

Before Inca Cloud and before the rebrand, Arturo and his cousin filmed an unplanned conversation in La Paz about body insecurities. No polished production or elaborate script.

Arturo reported that sales, which had been flat for years, tripled almost overnight after that breakthrough.

It was the first strong signal that video could connect in a way static images had not. He hired someone experienced with TikTok content and began testing several videos and angles a day. Food reviews eventually became a successful format, after roughly two months of consistent experimentation.

According to Arturo, the brand has kept paid advertising running since 2017, with one exception: a three-hour pause when the new CRYB store launched.

When the business outgrew its name

The name change did not happen overnight. At events and business meetings, Arturo kept hearing the same question: why Creative Boys if the brand now sells everyday basics? What did the name tell customers about the product?

The question bothered him because it was fair. The name reflected the brand's 2017 identity rather than the business it had become. Months of internal work and experiments with the original letters led to CRYB, preserving some of the original identity without carrying the old promise.

For Arturo, the change became more than a branding exercise.

He described it as an opportunity to start again and feel like an entrepreneur all over again.

Mistakes worth talking about

Running two brands without enough support

For years, Arturo carried responsibilities across both CRYB and his personal presence as Arturito: creative direction, media buying, customer service, and much more.

The challenge was not just time. Both identities demanded attention. A content-led business cannot always pause for a month without consequences for its audience and distribution.

Delegating before defining the work

Arturo said he spent years trying to hire leaders before understanding what each area needed. His lesson was to build enough working knowledge of a function to define its responsibilities and success measures before handing it over. Founders do not need to become experts in everything, but they do need to know what outcome they are asking someone to own.

Where the business stood at the interview

CRYB now operates with a compact team and uses AI tools to automate work before adding headcount. Arturo's focus is fixed costs: sales alone cannot protect a business if its operating structure costs more than it can sustain.

His annual ambition is to double the previous year's sales. Pursuing that goal has involved unconventional choices, including preorders to manage inventory cash flow, even when the model creates questions for customers who are not used to buying that way.

For 2027, Arturo described a plan to enter the United States through Spanish-speaking customers. The approach would build on Arturito and the brand's existing marketing capabilities rather than launching a generic campaign into the English-speaking market.

He remains cautious about raising outside capital, preferring a slower, self-funded path to accepting growth targets set by investors. That is his choice for CRYB, rather than a rule that applies to every ecommerce business.

Frequently asked questions

How can a business have sales without being profitable?

Sales can hide missing costs. If the model works only because the founder takes no salary, personal and business accounts are mixed, or necessary operating costs are excluded, the apparent profit may not be sustainable. Review gross margin, fulfillment, acquisition costs, overhead, and cash flow before treating revenue growth as business health.

Is borrowing sensible for a business that has not taken off?

Borrowing needs a credible repayment plan and a specific use that improves the business. It may fund inventory or a validated opportunity, but debt does not fix weak demand or negative unit economics by itself. Compare the payment schedule with realistic cash-flow scenarios before committing.

Why would an established brand change its name?

A name can stop reflecting the product, customer, or value proposition as a business evolves. CRYB's story shows how a rebrand can align identity with the offer customers actually buy. The change needs a rollout across the store, communications, and customer journey—not just a new logo.

How do you find the right content format for a brand?

Test clear creative hypotheses consistently and observe audience response, qualified traffic, and sales. Arturo found his format through repeated experiments rather than predicting a winner in advance. Volume helps generate learning only when the team records what it is testing and why a result matters.

Should an ecommerce brand raise outside capital to scale?

The right choice depends on margins, cash needs, growth opportunities, and the founder's goals. Equity can fund expansion but also brings dilution, governance, and investor expectations. CRYB chose a largely self-funded route. Evaluate both paths against the actual operating model rather than assuming faster growth is always better.

Should a small ecommerce business automate before hiring?

Automate repetitive work where the process is understood and quality can be checked. That helps reveal whether a new role is needed and protects the business from unnecessary fixed costs. Getmore helps brands connect Shopify workflows with a stronger storefront experience, so operational improvements support customers as well as the team.

Want more lessons from real Shopify brands?

The original webinar video is in Spanish.

Planning a Shopify redesign or rebrand? Getmore can help align your storefront with the business you are building, from product discovery and conversion-focused design to development and a controlled launch.

From Creative Boys to CRYB: Ten Years Behind an Overnight Success