MONMOUTH, ILLINOIS (February 6, 2025) — Along with his Sigma Phi Epsilon brothers, Joe Stefani ('04) showed his entrepreneurial spirit while he was a Monmouth College student, operating Mr Nice Guy Pizza. The fraternity sold "hundreds and hundreds" of pizzas on Wednesday nights, then pumped the profits back into Monmouth student organizations.
Stefani's entrepreneurial spirit continued on campus with another venture, as he sold what business professor Mike Connell called "fraternity and sorority bling" out of his dorm room. Today, that bling business of licensed products - including such items as keychains, magnets, lanyards, patches, and posters — is known as Desert Cactus, and Stefani is the company's founder and president.
He was back at his alma mater in early February to speak to the business class "Midwest Entrepreneurs" and share what's he learned as his side hustle from twenty years ago has grown into a company with $20 million in sales in 2024. Among related non-apparel licensed products companies, Desert Cactus has moved into the N° 9 position nationally, trailing, among others, Topps, and the N° 7 company on the list, Fanatics.
Advice for entrepreneurs
"Staying disciplined is the big thing, and cash flow is king," Stefani advised the students, who had plenty of inquiries for the alum during the Q&A portion of his talk.
He also shared that entrepreneurs need to be prepared for a rollercoaster ride, with the statements, "It's working!" and "I messed up" often being made in quick succession. "I like my job about 300 days a year, and the other 65, I'm like, 'Sell it. I'm done,'" he said.
Stefani doled out more advice through a cautionary tale of a young entrepreneur hoping for his investment.
"His financials included three company cars, an assistant, and an office space that's as big as what we have now," after a pair of upgrades, said Stefani. "I didn't have an assistant for many years. . . Too many people overspend and go for the flashy stuff that doesn't make a difference. You need to have a proof of concept. Too many people jump in without that."
(One investor query that Stefani did accept was to back the upcoming Broadway production of Othello, starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal. "We're trying to grow our network," explained Stefani, adding that similar productions, such as Wicked, "own their own merchandise," which caught his attention.)
The growth of Desert Cactus, which incorporated in 2012, has been steady, reflecting some of the aforementioned discipline. Prior to that year, the company, which also includes his husband, 2010 Monmouth grad Josh Van Swol, operated as a sole proprietor, but Stefani realized, "We have to start doing this the right way." There are now 23 full-time employees, including seventeen in the US.
When Desert Cactus eased out of Greek life products and broke through into professional sports in 2019, its sales curve, which had never ceased being on an upward trajectory, really took off, even continuing to rise during the pandemic.
"Now, we have people coming to us, because we know what the hell we're doing," said Stefani, who doesn't mind being the face of the company. "At the end of the day, people want to deal with the owner. That's why I'm out there, kissing babies," which is something that sets him apart.
His Monmouth origin story
Stefani said a simple reason he chose Monmouth was, "I got in." He came to the college from suburban Cary, Illinois. The distance was right, and Monmouth proved to be a good fit for the first-generation student. He faced plenty of academic challenges, but it toughened him up for his post-Monmouth experiences.
"I went on to get my Master's degree, and it was a cakewalk," he said. "We had so many presentations at Monmouth, so I was very prepared."
Stefani's goal was to use his advanced degree in recreational sports and tourism to become a park district manager, but he also stuck with the Greek life merchandising and saw that it continued to do well.
Along the way, he also got involved with baseball, helping to start a summer league in Chicago for college players so they wouldn't have to travel all the way out east to compete in the Cape Cod League.
"Those types of leagues typically focus on either revenue generation or player development, but we focused on both, and we had tons of kids drafted," said Stefani, who named All-Star Paul DeJong as perhaps the league's most recognizable player. DeJong smashed twenty homers in 69 summer league games, then parlayed that success into a multi-million-dollar contract with the St Louis Cardinals.
A sense for what sells
Today, Stefani deals with even bigger stars than that, such as a pair of reigning top rookies in their respective leagues — Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawks and the Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark.
"We sell so much Caitlin Clark stuff, it's freaking crazy," he said, before answering a question from Connell. "We pay the [WNBA's] players association for the rights. Caitlin sees that money, but everybody gets it."
Clark merchandise might've been one of the easier calls for Stefani, who noted, "I'm freakishly good at predicting what products will do well. It's all about patterns — seeing patterns and trying to match it up, making educated, business-based decisions. I have guardrails, but I do what is the best possible choice for the company."
After all, licensed products are a $365 billion (with a "b") business, and Stefani, who knows a thing or two about slices from his Mr Nice Guy days, is definitely getting his piece of the pie through Desert Cactus.
