Spotlight on Ryan Stephens, CEO

Today as our CEO Ryan Stephens celebrates his birthday, we here at IL would like to wish him a very happy and joy-filled day and share a little bit about him and what makes him special. Happy Birthday Boss!!

Ryan co-founded and launched InventoryLab in 2015 with one basic premise: how to make the experience of the average Amazon seller better, faster, and easier. As an experienced seller himself, Ryan was all too aware of the challenges that sellers faced and the lack of resources available to help with sales tracking, sourcing, listing, shipping, and managing inventory. As CEO, Ryan is responsible for day-to-day overseeing of product and feature development, managing team members, and providing direction and guidance to the entire IL team.

Ryan’s Official IL Biography:

“Before InventoryLab, I was a full time eBay and Amazon seller, spending too much time on logistics and day to day repetitive tasks while selling online. I started InventoryLab for my own needs and soon realized how many others would benefit from its ideas. When I’m not engaged in developing new features for users, you will find me rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs, plotting fantasy football domination, and spending as much time as possible with my three children.”

5 Questions For Ryan

1.)  What do you do at InventoryLab?

I’m InventoryLab’s co-founder and CEO. I’ve been an Amazon seller since 2010. I got my start on FBA selling used books and fell in love with the treasure hunt of sourcing profitable product. In 2012 I grew tired of tracking my costs through a spreadsheet and decided to embark on what is now a 6-year journey into InventoryLab. Currently, I oversee most things with IL and still help shape the product to this day.

2.)  If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go first?
I would love to visit Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia to see the Angkor Wat. I would also love to visit Thailand and Vietnam. I’ve heard wonderful things about this region from travelers and want to experience it for myself.

3.)  What is something about you that would surprise people?
I don’t eat sugar and only eat less than 30 grams of carbohydrates each day. In January of 2018, I decided to start a strict keto diet after learning about the healthy benefits including focus and the increased energy that ketosis affords. For me, it wasn’t about losing weight. I started paying attention to what was going into my body. I learned how damaging sugar is to our bodies, how it fuels cancer cells, and is linked to many diseases. Since being keto, my focus has increased, I don’t find myself getting “hangry” or crashing, and overall I feel much better.

4.)  What was your first job?

Like a lot of young kids working their first job, I started out at McDonald’s. 😀

It was a high school job, and it was actually more challenging than you may think. This was before most of the automation that they have now, so it involved a lot of multitasking (which admittedly is not a strength of mine). I worked there for two years and learned every position. It taught me a lot about work ethic and dealing with the general public. I think I only made a little more than $5 an hour, which was just enough for a car payment/insurance and a little bit of spending money.

5.)  What is your favorite movie?

Forrest Gump would be my all-time favorite. Any movie that can make you laugh, cry, plus has a wonderful message about acceptance and diversity, is my kind of movie.

We think we have a pretty great staff here at InventoryLab, and we’d love for you to see some of the faces and personalities behind the scenes. To that end, we’ve created our IL Staff Spotlight Series. Each post in the series will include five questions and answers about the employee so that you can get to know them a little better. We’ll include a photo, each employee’s official IL bio, and information on some of the things they’ve created and achieved in their time here. Maybe the rest of us at IL will even find out some things we didn’t know before about our teammates!