Mike Tecku final appeared on this podcast in 2019. He spoke as an knowledgeable Amazon vendor in our “Constructing an Ecommerce Enterprise” collection. He’s again, having offered these Amazon shops, retiring, and turning into bored.
His newest enterprise is Momentum, a maker of premium dietary shakes, which he describes as “the Rolex of dietary supplements.”
He and I not too long ago mentioned his journey — promoting his firms, setting priorities, launching Momentum, and extra.
Your complete audio of our dialog is embedded under. The transcript is edited for readability and size.
Eric Bandholz: Why begin a dietary shake firm?
Mike Tecku: I offered my Amazon firms in 2019 and did nicely sufficient to start out a enterprise fund and put money into some stuff. I retired, purchased land within the nation, and rapidly received bored. I spent the subsequent two years figuring myself out and researching longevity.
I got here up with this product based mostly on the premium variations of the dietary supplements I used to be taking. I linked immediately with the producers. I put the whole lot into one shake to make it simple. I needed to make the Rolex of dietary supplements and make it tremendous easy and superior. I named the corporate Momentum.
Bandholz: It’s a crowded market, dietary supplements.
Tecku: There’s a distinction between being efficient, true, and sincere versus fashionable. There’s an enormous debate between plant-based and whey protein — which is healthier and whether or not so as to add superfoods. A superfood is something a marketer needs to name tremendous. I name it pixie mud when firms add hint quantities of one thing to make it sound wholesome. I needed no advertising and marketing fluff, solely the very best substances.
We went with this unimaginable grass-fed whey protein from Eire. It’s 5 occasions costlier than another protein. Eire is the one place that may develop that grass year-round. And it’s the one place you’ll be able to certify that one thing is actually grass-fed. It makes for a premium product.
Some people like protein from peas, the vegetable, but it surely comprises heavy metals and pesticides and 30% fewer important amino acids. I wasn’t keen to compromise simply because it was standard.
Not utilizing synthetic flavors is insanely costly. Each bag we have now has about $2 value of chocolate in it. We spend extra on chocolate than most opponents spend on their total product. So a 30-day provide of a Tremendous Greens drink may cost $2 to $3 to make. A month-to-month provide of ours prices us $60. My philosophy is it’s a lot simpler to compete on the prime of a market as a result of few are keen to do it.
The problem is promoting a bag for $75 if it prices $60 to make. How can we pay for advertisements? I consider the product might be so good we received’t need to spend as a lot on advertising and marketing due to phrase of mouth. We received’t have as a lot churn. In concept, people will keep subscribers longer.
I’m not considering something that may’t scale. Momentum may very simply do $100 million a yr. To get to that stage, I would like about 60,000 subscribers. That’s 60,000 gross sales over 5 years — 12,000 a yr. That’s doable with an incredible product and the proper value and message. I don’t wish to do something with a ceiling on it.
Bandholz: Are you promoting on Amazon?
Tecku: No, however we’ll ultimately. Customers are very value delicate on Amazon, which requires schooling. As soon as people acknowledge the model Momentum and look to purchase it on Amazon, we’ll have it on the market there. However for now, I’ll concentrate on issues like this podcast to assist shoppers perceive what it’s about.
Bandholz: I’d hesitate to pay $75 per bag.
Tecku: It’s my job to speak that if you happen to had been to purchase all these substances individually, it’d be about $400 a month. And that by eradicating the intermediary on 20 substances, I can cost $75 a bag. And the margins aren’t really that nice for me. So it’ll take some schooling.
Vitamin is difficult. I constructed Momentum Shake across the idea that almost all people are poor of their diets. Our our bodies decline as we age. Momentum replaces the issues we lose over time.
We’ve got no secret tablets or medicine. It’s simply the issues that our our bodies want each day. People don’t wish to take a gazillion tablets.
Bandholz: The place can listeners discover you?
Tecku: They will purchase our product at MomentumShake.com. I’m on LinkedIn and electronic mail at mike@momentumshake.com. I really like mentoring, by the best way.