Solving Hangover problem → $200K/Month

🏖️ Creative Entrepreneur fun one-liner:

Why is the entrepreneur also a good chef? Because he knew the best recipe for success.

Onto Today’s story….

Eddie Huai accidentally discovered a fast acting alcohol hang over cure.

He built a business around this and is making $200k/month

Here is how he did it.

Eddie was a senior at NYU, when a trip to Japan in 2015 sparked the idea for his company Flyby.

During a night out in Tokyo with friends, Eddie was introduced to a hangover remedy, that had been used for centuries in Japan.

Despite drinking heavily, Eddie woke up feeling great the next morning.

Intrigued, he researched the magical ingredient.

He found out it was the substance called DHM found in the Japanese raisin tree.

His research showed that DHM, could be highly effective at preventing hangovers,

especially for Asian people who lack enzymes to break down alcohol byproducts.

He found that the Japanese market alone for alcohol recovery products was about $200M, with an alcohol market of $33B.

The market in the US was 7X the size of Japan’s, but no one had introduced an effective solution.

Sensing a big opportunity, he decided to test if his idea would work.

He designed a quick landing page with an email sign up form.

Eddie then tested demand by spending $100 on Facebook ads, targeting alcohol purchasers.

300-400 visitors came to his landing page, with more than 30 people signing up.

This 10% conversion rate to his simple landing page gave him the confidence, that there was demand for his hangover cure,

and he knew people were interested.

He did not have any experience running a business or in manufacturing, or operations in the supplement industry.

Yet he decided to learn.

He contacted manufacturers.

Most of them requested a $2k-3k R&D fee to create the samples, but he was tight on cash.

He kept looking and finally found a manufacturer, who ended up producing around 100 samples for free.

By this time he graduated from college.

He then used these samples and relentlessly product tested on friends to validate Flyby's effectiveness.

It worked well for them and they loved it.

With samples proving successful, Eddie invested almost his entire savings of $15K into the initial inventory order.

While waiting 8-10 weeks for his orders to arrive, he taught himself Photoshop and also created Flyby's Shopify website.

This approach helped him save on startup costs, because Eddie knew he could always hire someone,

to refresh the branding/website down the line.

For his launch, he posted Flyby on Product Hunt.

This was a big break, bringing tens of thousands of visitors, to his website.

Lacking capital, Eddie operated Flyby from his parents' home, for a year before it gained momentum.

He focused on cost-effective marketing through social media influencers, and affiliates driving traffic to Flyby's website.

A press mention ended up driving over 100,000 visitors.

They ended up making $20K revenue in just 2 months.

They then started doing Facebook, IG and Google ads.

Eddie initially spent $15-30 daily, conducting A/B tests on various audience demographics with various photos, videos and phrases.

After a week or two, he refined his strategy based on the results.

Flyby also used FB/IG Dynamic ads for retargeting website visitors.

By tracking user actions, they could serve targeted ads such as a free trial, or discount code to customers, who've abandoned their carts.

He found that retargeting ads, leveraging existing purchase intent, are more cost-effective for conversions than converting cold traffic.

He discovered that the source where the content came from mattered more than its content.

Since his product naturally invited skepticism, he began using third-party Facebook pages with millions of followers,

to write neutral sounding posts and also ran ads on these pages.

He paid the admins of these pages, a percentage of the sales.

This strategy got him more customers.

As word spread, email subscribers grew to 70K allowing more targeted promotions.

They sent out emails that provided value, such as blog posts, that explained how to use their product effectively,

and tips on how to feel better after a night out.

He then started selling from Amazon too.

They grew from doing a $3k/mo on Amazon, to over $100K/mo in less than a year.

After collecting data from all the Ads,

Eddie was shocked to learn Flyby's core base was not college students,but busy professionals in their late twenties to forties.

Time was very valuable for them and,they were not buying this product to party harder,

but instead to be more productive the next day.

So after realizing that,they pivoted into really focusing on that angle in order to target the right audience.

He also launched another product called Flyby Fuel, a sports drinks made from natural ingredients.

Sales started to grow.

They now do $200K/Month between their website and Amazon.

Eddie says…

“You honestly learn by doing and having some failures along the way. So just go out there and build something!.”

7 reasons why they succeeded.

1. Validated business idea

• Eddie made a simple landing page and ran $100 Facebook ads targeting alcohol buyers

• He got 300-400 visitors and over 30 signups, showing demand for his hangover cure

• This 10% conversion gave him confidence people wanted his product before investing more

2. Initially he did all the work

• While waiting for inventory to arrive,

• Eddie taught himself Photoshop and website building.

• He then created Flyby's website, and branding himself.

• This saved money compared to hiring a designer from the start.

3. Utilized other platform’s reach

• Eddie launched Flyby on Product Hunt

• This resulted in tens of thousands of visitors to his site

• Gave major boost early on with little personal marketing needed

4. Conserved cash in the initial days

• Lacking capital, Eddie operated Flyby from his parents' home for a year

• He focused on digital marketing until the business gained momentum

• Saved significant overhead costs in the vulnerable early days

5. Uses zero-cost marketing methods

• Eddie used social media influencers and affiliates to market Flyby

• They drove traffic and sales.

• Much cheaper than conventional advertising for a new unknown brand

6. Provided value before selling

• Flyby built a subscriber list of 70k by providing value first.

• He then sent blog posts and tips focused on the reader.

• Later he promoted products and offers after establishing trust

7. Doubled down after discovering actual target customer

• Eddie assumed college kids were his core buyers

• but his analytics showed it was busy professionals aged late 20s-40s

• He pivoted messaging and targeting to focus on these real customers

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

Keep Zoooming!

Yours “Making you Win” Vijay Peduru