Interview with owner and CEO of Run-Tiger Jure Markič for the newspaper Nedelo, from the daily newspaper DELO, which is a highly regarded media outlet an active co-creator of the Slovenian public space for over 60 years.
At the age of 25 he fled from the family farm and lived in his car for a good while. He experienced bankruptcy on two seperate occasions. The banks laughed in his face when he presented the business idea for Run-Chicken. Today, at the age of 31, he runs a successful company and generates millions. This is not a Hollywood movie scenario, but the life story of Jure Markič from Zgornja Jevnica, who was the first to patent automatic electric coop doors for chickens.
How did the story of electric doors for chicken coops even begin? Did you have chickens at home that liked to escape?
Whatever I had at home, whether it was a cactus or another plant, everything withered. Even with goldfish, it wasn’t much better. I simply couldn’t remember to feed them once a day or change the water once a month. I spent the first 25 years of my life with my parents on the farm in Zgornja Jevnica near Litija, and there was quite a generation gap between us. My parents liked to do everything the old-fashioned way, and until I was fifteen, I had to hold the basket for raking grass. I was also responsible for bringing the chickens back to the coop, sometimes I forgot and there was chaos. I was eager to improve and modernize things on the farm. Technology always seemed useful to me, not an additional burden. Then I went to college, I am a mechanical engineer by education, had various jobs. I never thought I would be an entrepreneur.
Are automatic doors, which are not your first patent, suitable only for chickens or maybe also for ducks, geese…?
Yes, it’s true, I’ve developed two patents at the company that makes doors where I was employed, but when I stopped working there, the patent remained with the company. Currently, these doors are even used for mini goats, and just a few days ago we entered the market with larger doors, which are also suitable for turkeys.
Your path to success reportedly wasn’t entirely smooth.
On the fourth of February, I turned 31, and it’s been exactly six years since I escaped from my parents with a suitcase over the balcony, as my room was on the first floor. I left my girlfriend, I left my job, and went abroad, to Tenerife. I stayed there for only four days, it was enough for me to decide that I no longer want to work from seven to three, but I want something completely different. I wanted to create something that I would consider worth dying for someday. My working hours are now, of course, much longer than from seven to three, I’m a workaholic, but because I enjoy what I do, I don’t find it difficult to work all day.
How did you finally come up with the idea for chicken coop doors?
In school, we were taught that it’s smart to first check which products are bestsellers on Amazon. Among thousands of product, I saw chicken coop doors, which was a first for me. I thought to myself, I could make them cheaper and better. In the world of e-commerce, besides the added value, the size of the product is the most important. The competition had large packages, which means high costs, but I made the doors fold into themselves, making my packages three times smaller.
The other aspect was the function of the doors. We are one of few who sell doors that close automatically in the evening. You purchase this option so you don’t have to close the chicken coop yourself. The difference is whether you buy the chicken coop door for 50 or 150 euros, which is the price of ours. Typically doors for 50 euros break after three, five, or seven months, which can cause a lot of damage to the chicken coop. So, you’re really not saving on anything. This is how we present it to customers and insist on the price. When customers try cheap Chinese products, most of them return to us.
You’re currently having problems because your product is being counterfeited?
Counterfeits have been a problem for us since the beginning, but the difference is that our doors work and have a three-year warranty, theirs don’t. The point of our doors is to have them for ten years and they still look like you bought them yesterday. They operate on batteries or solar cells. The latter are 20 euros more expensive, but you don’t have any worry with them for at least five years.
We constantly update the product, last year alone we made 164 updates, although it looks the same on the outside as it did three years ago. The doors are now faster, work better in different weather conditions, even in ice… I enjoy development, but the most valuable to me are the feedback we get from customers. These guide me in improvements.
The doors are available in several colors. Is the design also your work?
Yes, I designed them myself. People mostly opt for the gray color, but red is the most successful in advertising because it stands out the most. We also have doors with the image of former US President Donald Trump. When we released them on the market, we had a lot of fun reading comments from his supporters and opponents arguing with each other, while the comments had nothing to do with the doors themselves.
You started making doors in 2019. At that time, you sold one a day, last year around 40,000. Were you surprised by such demand?
Very. Already at the beginning, it was a big challenge to get initial capital, so I also slept in the office, later for 14 months on shared beds, so that I could invest every euro back into inventory. The current value of our inventory on Amazon is 1.5 million, and we must constantly keep it at this level. Getting there without loans and credits is terribly difficult.
I sold the product on Amazon for a year, but only two of those months I had enough inventory on stock, before that everything was sold out in a moment. I visited many banks, the first obstacle was when they asked me where I work. In 2020, they didn’t even know about e-commerce, today maybe because of the pandemic, they know it a bit better. Meanwhile, they also started to tax things correctly, meaning that the tax is paid to the country where the product goes.
The other obstacle was when I said that we make doors for chickens. Mostly they would just start laughing, and I would walk away without money (laughter).
We often hear about how the state encourages entrepreneurship. Did you encounter more understanding from here than at banks?
First, let me say that if I were in their shoes, I would have acted the same way, so I can’t blame them. The idea sounded crazy, and if someone had told me three years ago that we would reach ten million in revenue, I would have thought they were crazy. As far as the government is concerned, it has the ability and opportunities to support businesses, but it’s too slow to react. Companies need help immediately, but the government takes its time, as we saw with the recent catastrophic floods. People don’t need money in a few years; they need it now.
In e-commerce, things move even faster than in traditional businesses. A lot can happen in three months, sometimes a lot happens in just one hour. That’s why we rely heavily on our internal resources and reinvest ninety percent of our earnings back into the company.
Which location accounts for the highest sales of your doors?
The USA, where we sell 80 percent of them, while the share here is negligible. America is 180 times bigger than Slovenia, and e-commerce in Europe operates differently or has never really blossomed. People in the USA trust online stores more, especially a giant like Amazon.
Do you only sell your products through this online retailer?
This year we are planning a major change and expanding to other platforms. We decided to do this because we are tired of all the attacks and attempts to exploit our name. On January 21st, we experienced the worst abuse attempt so far, and even though we have everything legally regulated, someone stole our name and logo to sell cheap counterfeits under our name. We estimate that the breach cost us 100,000 euros, so someone invested that much money just to mimic our product, and we suffered twice as much damage. Dealing with Amazon takes a long time and requires a lot of energy.
It’s similar to someone stealing your car in Ljubljana, driving it all over Slovenia, and then being stopped by the police in Koper. If the policeman didn’t stop you, you could continue driving unhindered. The problem is that counterfeiters are not stopped. We don’t have a ‘policeman’ to maintain order on Amazon, so we have to deal with these problems ourselves.
In addition, we receive threats via the website, email, and phone to withdraw from Amazon. We reported these incidents to the Slovenian police and CISO, the American organization for online security, but the people who attacked us are likely operating from China, and law enforcement can’t touch them.
How do you cope with all this?
We try to cope in every possible way, but at the same time, we believe in innovation, goodwill, and finding solutions. It’s like driving a fast car on a racetrack; you don’t focus on the wall you might hit but on the turn. And that’s what we’re doing now.
You mentioned the first bankruptcy. Did another one follow?
Yes, the second bankruptcy was imminent when no bank wanted to approve a loan, and I spent a lot of time in the office again to avoid losing the company. Encouraging messages from customers kept me going. I really appreciate that Americans will scold you when you do something wrong but also know how to praise you. I haven’t experienced that in Slovenia yet.
Do you remember the moment you sold your first door?
Of course, I will never forget that December 8th. The first buyer was a lady from America.
Last year you also started making feeders that provide enough food for seven chickens for ten days, so they can be left unattended for that long. Don’t they miss human company?
Those who love chickens will take care of them anyway. Those who have them for eggs just have them for eggs, which they still have to collect every day. If there are more chickens, they have company, but if there is only one, it’s often a disaster already because it gets cold in winter and it can’t cuddle up anywhere.
I think people spend a lot of time with chickens, cats, and dogs. The problem arises when you want to go on vacation for two days, but the animals need care. With our products, you don’t need to worry about that, so you also avoid situations where a mother-in-law snoops around when you’re not home (laughs).
So, chickens aren’t like guinea pigs that would eat all the food in one go and then starve for the next few days?
Those accustomed only to being fed by humans behave more rationally. Those that also feed outside could indeed eat everything to outcompete others.
Are you careful to buy free-range eggs?
I pay attention to that in the store, but I rarely buy eggs because I get them from my parents. There is a big difference between homegrown and store-bought eggs, which is evident from the color of the yolk.
We want to encourage people to raise chickens and get homegrown eggs. Eggs from battery cages have fewer proteins because the chickens don’t get worms and grass from the garden, which they should get.
I’ve climbed Triglav many times, at least eighty times, I’ve gone up and down. If I ate two homegrown eggs in the morning and had a jar of jam with me, I would make it to the top. If I bought eggs at the store, it wouldn’t work.
You also offer hatcheries that are very aesthetic and resemble shelves from a well-known Scandinavian furniture store.
We strive to make our products unusual and modern. We’re trying to bring modernity to the chicken coop. I remember how messy the chicken coops of my youth were. As a result there were lice… Our hatchery and others products are made of powder-coated aluminium, which means they can be very well to clean. In addition, this metal is eight times stronger than the one they use for cars.
You currently have 39 employees. What kind of staff do you employ?
We have our own marketing, finance, human resources, development and production departments. Twenty-five people are full-time employees, and a large number are outsourced contractors that we work with on a regular basis.
So you manufacture your products in Slovenia. Will it stay that way or will you start to look for cheaper labour?
They are all made in Slovenia. We do a lot of production an development and we are proving that it is possible to do it all here. We are also able to use the knowledge that we have from our development, so we can make high-quality and affordable products.
What about your parents, do they now use your doors?
After the 40,000 pieces I have sold America, I managed to convince them to to install them. Now they are delighted and they’re telling all their neighbours that it’s something you just must have.
Is the installation complicated?
No, we thought of everything. All you need is to fix six screws in the already made holes and the thing works. The device also does not need any programming and knows exactly what it has to do. The door can be programmed with a phone or a button, and soon a Bluetooth connectivity will also allow us to see whether it is open or closed.
When it gets dark outside, do the chickens return to coop on their own. But what if one stays out for too long?
For that, it’s appropriate for them to receive fair punishment (smile). Customers usually tell us that sometimes a rooster stays outside, acting as a security guard. This usually happens because there is a light on outside. When it’s turned off during the hour when the chickens go to sleep, there are no more problems. The majority of people who have trouble with chickens are those who lack experience, and they chose them precisely because they discovered our automatic doors. Last year, we made six videos that very simply explain to beginners how to handle chickens.
Your company is called Run Tiger, and you sell products under the brand Run Chicken, which could be translated as “Run, Chicken” or “Chicken’s Escape,” and the products also feature the outline of Slovenia, which is ideal for your business.
I didn’t spend more than a minute registering the company and product names because I didn’t want to waste time. I always think of the group Bijelo dugme, which translates to White Button. They once said that if you’re good, you can also be called a white button. Since Slovenia has the shape of a chicken, I naturally included that as well. Americans initially don’t know what it is, and they think a child drew it, but when we explain it to them, they find it fascinating and can’t believe it.
Your products seem to me what five-star hotels are to humans. Are you planning anything new, maybe massage chairs for ducks?
Currently, we are more focused on nutritional supplements for chickens, which have been talked about a lot lately. However, imagination knows no bounds, and we will surely surprise with something else. Our products were created to provide people with more freedom and, at the same time, encourage people who are increasingly pressed for time to have their own food at home, along with a solar power plant.
