The Beginning
Founders Billy Buckles and Tram Pham entered eCommerce in 2011 through a side venture while focused on other careers.
They went into business together shortly after beginning to date. Tram ran the day-to-day of their enterprise while Billy provided strategies. The couple's first brand was called Infinity Jars, an extensive line of airtight ultraviolet glass jars, bottles, and apothecary containers. The early success and the fulfillment from having full control over their time, ideas, and resources paved the way for the couple to invest more time into their venture.
Billy was the top executive under the CEOs for tech marketing giant Centerfield from 2012-2015. Tram was attending acupuncture school full-time from 2010-2014.
Infinity Jars - A line of airtight, ultraviolet glass jars to help preserve fresh goods for up to 6+ months.
Infinity Jars - A line of airtight, ultraviolet glass jars to help preserve fresh goods for up to 6+ months.
Taking a Fork in the Trail
In late 2015, Tram transitioned out to focus on establishing herself as a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist in Los Angeles. Billy assumed the daily operations of the business after Centerfield, a marketing technology company that he helped scale, sold in a nine-figure private equity deal.
In 2016, they relocated to Santa Barbara. Billy helped Tram acquire a prominent Chinese Medicine practice called the Santa Barbara Herb Clinic. It relaunched on May 1, 2017, and Tram spent 2017-2021 solely focused on scaling her Clinic.
Tram on her first day at the Santa Barbara Herb Clinic - May 1st, 2017
Finding Our Pride
With Billy at the helm, Alpha Lion was ready to add fresh talent to join our ranks and create exciting new brands. Billy wanted to offer what he hoped would be life-changing career opportunities to hungry, junior people in Vietnam (Tram’s birth country) and other developing countries.
By the end of 2018, Alpha Lion had added a four-person, full-time remote global team from Vietnam, the Philippines, and Bangladesh. Together with Billy, they managed the online side of Alpha Lion brands including product, branding and creative, web development, digital advertising, and content.
Alpha Lion’s first full-time remote global team from Vietnam, the Philippines, and Bangladesh.
Expanding Our Territory
The synergy from scaling out our team helped lead to the launch and success of Engineer Warehouse (launched late 2018) and Rainforest Bowls (April 2020).
In late 2020, "The Shop Doctors" was incubated by Alpha Lion to create apps for eCommerce companies and quickly grew into a leading Shopify app developer before breaking off into a standalone company.
In 2021, Alpha Lion acquired a majority interest in Gold Palace, a leading 22k gold jewelry seller.
After selling the Santa Barbara Herb Clinic in 2021, Tram came back into the fold with Alpha Lion. She led the creation of Five Elements Remedies in 2022, an all natural herbal remedy brand.
In 2023, Brainy Advisors was incubated to offer online bookkeeping and accounting services to small and medium-sized businesses. Patricia Bautista, CPA and Head of Accounting for Alpha Lion, co-founded the company with Billy and runs the accounting side of the business.
On the Horizon
2024 was a year of major change as Billy and Tram sought to scale back the subsidiary count. Infinity Jars the flagship brand of Alpha Lion, was sold in May 2024. Later that same month, Rainforest Bowls was sold. And finally, after significant growth, Gold Palace was sold in June 2024.
Shop Doctors is now a standalone app development firm with its own dedicated team spread across the USA, Europe, and Asia.
Brainy Advisors is off to a fast start, scaling its client list and headcount quickly, and will soon follow Shop Doctors' path by becoming a standalone entity.
Engineer Warehouse continues to operate as a popular supplier of engineering and architectural supplies.
And Tram is working to establish Five Elements Remedies as a solution to address the needs of patients and customers seeking natural healing.
