Aug. 1, 2024

Victor Kottwitz had reached a decision point: Stick with his traditional corporate job, or leave it to pursue a startup that was starting to gain traction.

He went with the latter, which is how a former financial services manager now spends his days sourcing and selling new and slightly used appliances for his growing business, Spin Cycle.

“For a long time, I did this business as a side hustle,” said Kottwitz, who sold his first kitchen and laundry appliances in 2014 out of his Sioux Falls garage.

“Until I made myself so miserable I had to pick one instead of trying to do both.”

A native of Piedmont in the Black Hills who moved to Sioux Falls in 2008, he began his corporate career with an MBA and a recession-era lesson in job stability.

Working for multiple global employers in supervisory roles, “I spent my whole corporate career fearing for my job,” he said. “It was always looming.”

He and his wife, Lindsay, were newly engaged in 2014 and looking for ways to make extra money for their wedding when they began sourcing used appliances locally and reselling them.

“We did a lot on Craigslist in the beginning, which kind of transitioned into Facebook Marketplace, and then we started to build a name for ourselves and built a number of repeat customers,” he said.

One of them was Joe Painter, who was “always on the lookout for used appliances” for rental properties he owned. He met Kottwitz when the new entrepreneur had expanded from his garage into a storage unit, and Painter has purchased from him ever since.

“Now, I just flip homes, and I’m dealing with Victor usually once a month,” he said. “He’s got a really good selection of both new and used stuff, and whatever I’m in need of, he tends to find it for me. Especially if I can find used appliances that work well, there’s definitely substantial savings.”

In 2022, Spin Cycle expanded its model from repair and refurbishment to include scratch-and-dent appliances with its first location, near Benson Road and Interstate 229. The business added new appliances last year.

“The logic is by selling all three types of appliances we can give customers the most value for their money,” Kottwitz said, adding he believes he’s the only business in town selling all three categories.

“You have customers that can afford to buy new and still buy used or scratched, or they’re buying for a rental property or need a second fridge for the garage, so that’s the concept of selling all three. You can ask the customer how they’re using it and make a recommendation.”

The business also offers options for in-store or in-home servicing and repair.

“I think his ability to scale is just from having really good service, good prices, taking good care of his customers and being really personable,” Painter said.

Inadvertently, Kottwitz also was following a generations-old family legacy with his business. His great-grandfather owned an appliance repair business in Wisconsin. His father, who “could fix almost anything, encouraged us as kids to take stuff apart and put it back together,” he said. “We would spend hours taking electronics apart to see how they worked.”

Now, he’s entering a new stage of growth. A 4,400-square-foot building is under construction near Interstate 229 and Rice Street, which will serve as a showroom and warehouse when it opens later this year. Spin Cycle has five part-time employees in addition to Kottwitz working full time.

“Space-wise we’re maxed out,” he said. “We are bursting at the seams with inventory.”

The goal is to have enough appliances in house that customers don’t have to wait weeks for them to arrive, he said.

“Most customers when they walk through the door, the washing machine has been broken two weeks or the fridge went out this morning and meat is going bad,” he said. “We try to keep bestselling products on hand that can go out right away.”

As customers have become more budget-conscious, it has driven interest in lower-priced options, he added.

While he has done some social media marketing, much of the business has been driven by word of mouth, Kottwitz said.

“One of my big visions is as my kids grow up to bring them in more,” he added. “They already help at 9 and 7 and 2. The older ones help greet customers and sweep the floor, and I’ve always wanted a family business where you can labor together and work toward a common purpose.”