A simple silicone wedding Rings idea → $500k/month Biz

🏖️ Creative Entrepreneur fun one-liner:

Why did the entrepreneur take up yoga? To stay 'flexible' with their business plans!

Onto Today’s story….

KC Holiday and Ted Baker, never had any idea that they would start a business.

They had a problem with their metal wedding rings and decided to start a business,

and disrupted a $16 Billion wedding ring business.

Here is how they evolved qalo from a garage operation to a $500k/month business.

Here we gooo.

KC was a waiter at PF Chang’s restaurant to make ends meet.

They both were living in Los Angeles pursuing a career in film and television.

They both met by chance through an acting class.

Both were working in restaurants.

Later KC got a job at the same restaurant, where Ted worked.

As struggling artists, they bonded over shared careers and frustrations.

Traditional wedding rings did not suit their active lifestyles, often causing them to remove them.

This, they felt, undermined their commitment to their wives.

In 2013, KC and Ted saw an opportunity to address this issue.

They set out to create stylish, functional wedding bands, that would withstand not only the activities they loved,

but also the tests of daily wear and tear from manual labor jobs.

The concept was simple but the solution didn’t exist, until the duo decided to launch QALO,

a men’s wedding band made of soft, flexible and durable silicone.

The material met their needs for comfort and functionality,so they could represent commitments to their wives.

Little did they expect this passion project would become successful.

Neither KC nor Ted had any experience in consumer goods or e-commerce.

Still, they emptied their bank accounts and invested their eager savings into the idea with nothing to lose.

Neither of them had any background in manufacturing or building eCommerce websites, but that wasn't going to stop them.

They spent the next six months getting rings produced, creating all brand assets, and building a website.

None of them were anything close to perfect, they were actually pretty terrible.

But they were way more concerned with determining, whether or not this idea would work or not.

They started by purchasing metal bands with simple,but popular designs to provide style inspiration for their products.

KC and Ted decided to use silicone as the material of choice for the rings.

Next KC built a basic Shopify website to sell direct-to-consumer, while Ted took care of operational details like shipping and inventory.

With a meager $60k in sales during the first year, they pressed onward…,

…driven solely by their obsession and hustle, without any outside funding.

Initially, all of their investment dollars went towards creating the inventory.

They shot their own content, including their first video.

KC taught himself photography and video making.

The site was launched on March 1, 2013, and they immediately began looking for evidence, that the idea would work.

They had solved a problem for themselves, but they wondered if others shared the same frustration.

The first order of QALO bands took nearly six months to arrive, but there was a problem.

They were riddled with flaws, imperfections and terrible craftsmanship.

Since they didn’t have enough money to get new ones, KC decided to fix them by himself.

He trimmed excess silicone off each individual ring, with a pair of small eyebrow scissors.

They changed their manufacturer after this.

First-time QALO customers overlooked the amateur finishing touches, because the bands delivered on comfort and functionality.

Early sales provided confirmation that their idea could work.

They reinvested every dollar of early revenue, to improve design and quality.

They targeted niche communities, that could benefit from their product.

They identified that those niche communities were military, firefighters, CrossFit athletes, and professional athletes.

KC and Ted distributed free rings,to micro-influencers within those communities,

who shared values around family commitments and active lifestyles.

One pivotal moment arrived unexpectedly by way of major national exposure.

They reached out to Andy Dalton, the NFL quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals.

He was also a newlywed and, asked him if he’d be interested in wearing the ring.

He agreed.

Fortunately, the Cincinnati Bengals were on HBO’s Hard Knocks that year,

and in an outlier type moment, they did a full segment on Andy wearing QALO in the first episode.

It was an epic moment.

“Get your product on people, you never know when moments like that will happen.” KC says.

When they saw that a few visitors came to their website,

through a Google search for 'rubber wedding ring' after that episode,

they knew they had something real.

Soon search traffic and sales exploded.

They also did Facebook ads and sales grew.

All this while, they were operating from KC’s home.

They were storing and shipping from his home.

Revenue the second year soared to $250k/month, thanks to the power of social media and targeted digital Ads.

They also started collecting emails of their customers and, regularly sent them emails.

They also created more products like head bands, towels, hats and socks.

It all started with a very simple idea.

KC says…

“If you are looking to disrupt a category, don’t feel the need to revolutionize the space,

assess what has been proven and reliable, and make some tweaks to improve it.”

This is what KC and Ted did to the $16B wedding ring industry.

They just made some tweaks replacing metal with silicone.

Now they make more than $500k/Month.

KC says…

“People lesser than you have accomplished amazing things.

You are more than capable.

Go for it.”

9 Reasons why they succeeded

1. Personal frustration

KC and Ted were frustrated,

with having to remove their metal wedding bands for athletic activities.

They saw an opportunity to create comfortable,

functional rings to solve this problem

They also validated the demand by selling a few directly to consumers,

who shared this frustration

2.Their obsession drove them.

Neither founder had experience in manufacturing or e-commerce.

They learnt as they went.

3. Used sweat equity when money was low

Had no initial money so exchanged equity, a stake in the company for key services.

They got legal, marketing and branding help through sweat equity.

Allowed them to launch without significant initial money.

4. Made improvements with feedback

The initial product samples had some flaws.

But customers didn't mind the flaws,

because they loved the product.

They kept improving their product,

from the feedback they received from customers.

5. Targeted the right target audience.

Identified specific online target communities:

military personnel, firefighters and athletes

They then gave free product samples,

to small influencers in those groups

This generated natural interest among their target audience.

6. Doubled down on what worked

They noticed traffic come to their website,

from searches like "rubber wedding ring" and other keywords after a TV exposure.

This indicated interest in their product.

They immediately started doing SEO and digital ads,

Which brought in more customers and sales.

7. Expanded Products

They started with wedding bands as their initial product.

They then looked to see, what else their customers needed and they provided them.

They added products like shorts, hoodies and T-shirts.

8. Piggybacked on an already big market.

They did not make big changes to already popular wedding rings.

They just used silicone instead of metal.

They even copied some of the designs from the metal rings!.

9. Operated Lean

KC started by storing items and sending orders from his home.

He put the profits back into buying inventory and online ads,

instead of an expensive office.

Hope you enjoyed the story and KC’s success tactics.

Let the good times roll for you!.

Yours “No-Risk-business-building” Vijay