Phone Cleaner Will Do $5m-$10m This Year, Launched in 2012 at CES, EP 274: Jason Greenspan

Jason Greenspan, the founder and CEO of Whoosh!, a screen-cleaning product that’s on track to make over $5 million in sales this year. Listen as Jason and Nathan talk about creating a start-up with a physical product, what good margins look like, and how to convince people they have a problem. Famous 5 Favorite Book? – Purple Cow What CEO do you follow? — Kevin Plank What is your favorite online tool? — Pipedrive Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Definitely not If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — To start a business then! It’s much easier before you have responsibilities. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:20 – Nathan’s introduction 01:44 – Welcoming Jason to the show 01:54 – Whoosh! is a best-selling screen-cleaning spray and wipe 03:05 – Was on the Canadian version of Dragon’s Den 03:40 – Founded in 2009 03:50 – Pivoted in 2012 from making car-cleaning products 04:05 – Knocked a cleaning product onto his iPad by mistake 04:30 – Filled one-ounce bottles and handed them out at CES - never looked back 04:55 – Entirely self-funded and currently profitable 05:10 – Looking to raise $5 million this spring to fund growth 05:30 – Wiped over 1.5 million screens over the last year 06:30 – Total revenue in 2012 just under $1 million 06:39 – Total revenue in 2016 will be $5-10 million 07:00 – The formula is proprietary - they manage a supply chain 07:40 – The Whoosh! Go sells for $10 - what are the margins on that? 07:55 – Retailer takes a 25-50% gross margin 08:20 – A good gross margin on a physical product is 40-50% 09:02 – A good net margin is around 5% 09:35 – Spending very little on acquisitions 10:00 – We’re building through the wholesale channel - probably 90% of sales 10:24 – 10 full-time employees 10:40 – How do you value a product company? 10:50 – Valuation is on topline revenue and growth 12:30 – Whoosh! is a sticky product once people try it 13:20 – Biggest growth opportunity is convincing the market that there’s a problem 15:40 – Famous Five 3 Key Points: Grab opportunities when you see them. Whoosh! was founded by capitalising on an accident. Start your business now. Waiting longer isn’t going to make it easier. If you’re dealing with physical products, you should be making better than 5% margins. Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives