Transforming Back hair Embarrassment → $500K/Month Empire

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🏖️ Creative Entrepreneur fun one-liner:

Why do entrepreneurs prefer puzzles over paintings? Because they love solving the big picture piece by piece!

Onto Today’s story….

Matt had a personal problem of too much hair on his back.

Removing it was a pain and they couldn’t find good products, so they got this wild idea to creating a product by themselves.

He and his wife Angelina started BAKblade and now are making more than $500k/Month.

Let us see how they did it.

In 2008, Matt was working full-time for a food and pharmaceutical machinery company, when the economic downturn hit.

He saw lots of people losing jobs.

He and wife Angelina starting talking about this situation and,

that is when the thought of starting their own business entered their mind.

They wanted more control and independence in their life.

They started brainstorming ideas, based on problems and annoyances they had personally faced.

That is when the subject of Matt's back hair came up.

Matt had lots of hair on his back.

Many a times, when it grew longer, Angelina would grudgingly shave his back to avoid him looking like a "gorilla at the beach."

They purchased most of the options that were available on the market to solve this problem,

only to realize that most of them didn't work or perform the way they had hoped.

Not to mention that laser hair removal and waxing were both very expensive, painful,

and booking appointments was something that most men hated doing.

That is when they realized that this was likely a common issue for many couples and they decided to start a business around it.

They invested $5,000 from a credit card debt to create their first aluminum mold and created their original BAKblade 1.0 model.

They had zero experience in the field of health and personal care, nor did they have any experience with building razors.

The only thing they knew for certain was that they had drive and tenacity and,they were determined to figure this out one way or another.

Initially, they created a few quantities and started selling them online.

Since Matt was still working, he was able to support himself through his day job.

He started getting feedback from customers on what could be improved.

With this information, he kept tweaking and improving the product.

The first version was very “bare-bones” since they didn't have much money to produce all the “bells & whistles” that they wanted.

Matt says “The process was scary because we had no idea what we were doing but we did take it a step at a time with some deep breaths along the way.“

Next they decided to release Version 2.0 of their BakBlade.

So, Matt and Angelina decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund and promote their new BAKblade 2.0 model.

By this time, they also narrowed down on who their target audience was.

Their largest market was millennials, who are considered to be the most self-conscious generation to date.

As many millennials were highly self-conscious, they often preferred to avoid embarrassing,

expensive solutions and instead opt for a less costly and quick solution that can be managed privately.

That is where BakBlade fits in.

Since Matt had no experience building a business, he kept learning new things like web site design, Social media marketing and PR.

Matt says…“I found myself learning more each day about a subject that was ultimately foreign to me.”

They started the Kickstarter campaign to gain more public exposure to their brand and validate if there was demand.

For the campaign, they shot a funny video.

This hilarious video depicted a couple in marriage counseling,

with the wife complaining about her husband's back hair while the husband was portrayed by a loud, angry 800-pound gorilla.

The video instantly went viral after being shared by major publishers like Business Insider.

It amassed an incredible 30 million views in just 72 hours, eventually reaching over 240 million people.

This viral video resulted in over $1 million raised on Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

It gave Bakblade massive exposure and publicity, including an appearance on the Today show.

Almost overnight, Bakblade made its mark thanks to Matt and Angelina's creative video.

The video showcased the exact embarrassing problem their product aimed to solve.

The Bakblade 2.0 offered the most economical, easy-to-use and pain-free solution to manage back hair.

Matt says he knew his wife Angelina would have a large influence over the brand.

Angelina has always understood the power of branding and why certain brands stand out over others.

She explained to Matt early on that a superior brand can sell an average product.

Since they both knew they had a superior product,

they understood that a superior brand would only enhance their company even more.

They also started posting content on Social media on a daily basis.

Matt says, their content is a good mix of "practical solutions to real problems" with a hint of "humor and playfulness".

He adds “We know the problem is something that we and our customers can have fun with and so we make sure we don’t lose that.”

Since revenue started coming in, they started to spend money on Facebook and Instagram Ads.

He also quit his job at this time, since he was confident he could support himself with the sales.

They also started a weekly newsletter which included relevant content on helping their customers with their problems.

They also included a rewards program that would include loyalty discounts for their customers.

Customers loved the newsletter and the discounts.

They also launched a subscription program where they ship blades to their customer’s home every 2 months without any hassle.

Customers loved this too and they got predictable sales.

They then launched their products on Amazon and their sales doubled.

They continued to optimize their flagship back shaver line based on customer feedback.

They also expanded into additional grooming products like blade replacement packs, liquid shower soap & travel cases.

Matt says “creating and developing grooming products is not a “once and done” task. Rather, it’s listening to your customers and continuing to make things better. “

Bakblade now generates over 500k/month.

With a memorable personal story and personal problem, Matt and Angelina built an empire by boldly addressing an embarrassing but universal problem.

Matt says… “if you are truly passionate about what it is you are doing, you will not rest until you are completely satisfied with the performance of your product”

He adds… “Your current emotional perspective is what drags you down or gets you in a “funk”. Keep going.”

7 reasons why he succeeded

1. Personal Problem

• Matt's excessive back hair was an embarrassment for him and his wife

• Shaving his back was awkward and there were no good products.

• They realized it's a common issue for couples and made back hair removal into a business.

2. Building small batches and improving

• They invested just $5k first to create an minimum viable product

• Matt tested the first products himself and also got user feedback to refine it

• He then enhanced Bakblade based on user feedback.

3. Used humor and playfulness

• Their video used a big loud gorilla to depict Matt's back hair issue rather than showing a human.

• Made the embarrassed wife central to their funny & viral marketing video

• Got incredible exposure from major publishers

4. Focused on solving real problems for people.

• Developed products to resolve back hair embarrassment for many men.

• Men wanted to do this privately, and they addressed this problem.

5. Send a weekly newsletter to engage customers.

• Bakblade newsletter had content on solving real customer problems

• Occasionally, they also sent special discounts in the newsletter.

• This kept customers engaged and earned their Trust.

6. Persisted through self-doubt and keep improving.

• Had no experience in consumer products or razors

• Pushed past fears and lack of knowledge to build their biz.

• Matt learned new skills like marketing and web design

7. Took a step-by-step approach to build his biz.

• Started very small with minimum features for his first version of his product due to little funding

• As sales grew, he slowly ramped up production and added features and new products.

• Gradually expanded marketing and spending money on ads.

Hope you liked the story and the strategies which made them successful.

Keep Zoooming!

Yours “Making you Win” Vijay Peduru