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$0 to almost $9M in under 5 years

evanwebb

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Here's a little inspiration. Goruck is a company started by an ex-special forces guy. He took the company from $0 to almost $9M in under 5 years...selling backpacks. But the lesson here is that the company doesn't just sell backpacks. They sell great backpacks (and have expanded into other related items). But more than that, they sell the culture, camaraderie, and experience. They also host events where people pay them to basically be physically punished all night. All of this works together to build the brand. This reminds me somewhat of what Yeti did with coolers (that's another case study worth researching) or Saddleback did with leather goods.

So the lesson seems to be: find a tired or boring industry without much innovation or where all of the competition is resting on their laurels, build a high quality premium product where the higher price is justified, and cultivate the culture and cult following.

To what other industries can you apply this model?

Opportunities abound.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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To what other industries can you apply this model?

Publishing.

The Publisher > Distributor > Bookstore model is atrociously inefficient and broken. Under this model, I rarely get paid and when I do, its like pulling teeth with payment cycles approaching a year.

The Publisher > Direct to Consumer model ... I get paid less than 45 days, sometimes, in days.
 

evanwebb

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Publishing

Funny you should mention this. I am currently researching (doing @JackEdwards 90-day process) two opportunities and one of them is a real need in a specific niche of publishing that I discovered when I started looking to publish my second and third children's books.
 
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SerpKing

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So the lesson seems to be: find a tired or boring industry without much innovation or where all of the competition is resting on their laurels, build a high quality premium product where the higher price is justified, and cultivate the culture and cult following.
To what other industries can you apply this model?

So many - Taking advantage of this right now.

High value, quality product D to C > lower value product Fed through traditional distribution.
 
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Eskil

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Great example, thanks for sharing.

I know one example that is 'ripe for rapin' (tm) is the import food industry. As a foreigner moving here (and having known many people in my shoes), I know how hard it can be trying to find certain foods, dried goods, candies, etc. from my home country here in the states.

There are a few mom and pop type shops here and there, and also some specialty shops on the internet, but 99% of them suck at marketing themselves and end up being obscure niche sites that aren't really "out there" unless you go digging.

MANY nationalities live here in the U.S. and many of them wish they could get ahold of some of their favorite treats from back home.

If someone ran with this and filled the big need - perhaps made a one-stop shop for foreign foods (primarily items with long shelf life and laxed import regulations), a fresh design, good branding, etc. I think they could do very well.

I'm willing to pay the higher prices just for the convenience, and to avoid waiting for my parents to send me a box of goodies once in a while :)
 

MJ DeMarco

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MANY nationalities live here in the U.S. and many of them wish they could get ahold of some of their favorite treats from back home.

My cousin visited from Australia this year and she was complaining that should couldn't find Tim Tams... I was like WTF are Tim Tams?
 
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PHD

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My day job is in food retail and we often have specials days where we stock favourite items from different countries (British day, south African day etc) and we will sell out of stock in less then a day.

Ex-pats actually hang out for the few days a year that we do it.
 

Yankee427

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MANY nationalities live here in the U.S. and many of them wish they could get ahold of some of their favorite treats from back home.

My neighbor is Irish and his wife is Colombian and they are here in the USA. Her father runs a corporate farm in Colombia. They were trying to import some fruit but import regulations were just so much on a native fruit they couldn't do it.

That could go both ways where extremely high barrier to entry as much paperwork would need to be done. On the other hand, sometimes you just can't beat the government.
 
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nzerinto

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My cousin visited from Australia this year and she was complaining that should couldn't find Tim Tams... I was like WTF are Tim Tams?

Oooooh Tim Tams. Sooooo nice. Interestingly enough they are easily available in most shops in Toronto....perhaps because of the expats?
 

chrischapman

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My cousin visited from Australia this year and she was complaining that should couldn't find Tim Tams... I was like WTF are Tim Tams?

I had two tim tams before breakfast this morning. it's a shame you haven't tried them before. would definitely pay a premium to have them when I'm overseas, they're goood hahaha.
 

RogueInnovation

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They are two layers of chocolate biscuit centered with a softer chocolate and covered in chocolate :p

Kinda like icecream sandwiches meets brownies, but more crisp and chocolatey like a kitkat


Its like wrapping sausages in bacon and deep frying it, insta-diabetes
 
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Boo Blizzi

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They are two layers of chocolate biscuit centered with a softer chocolate and covered in chocolate :p

Kinda like icecream sandwiches meets brownies, but more crisp and chocolatey like a kitkat


Its like wrapping sausages in bacon and deep frying it, insta-diabetes
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
 

James Turchetto

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They are two layers of chocolate biscuit centered with a softer chocolate and covered in chocolate :p

Kinda like icecream sandwiches meets brownies, but more crisp and chocolatey like a kitkat


Its like wrapping sausages in bacon and deep frying it, insta-diabetes
Penguin bar in the UK :)
 
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