Nathan Bush: Lou and Ben, welcome to the Shark Tank. I mean, ADD to Cart.
[Voiceover]: My number one thing was I'm not going to look like a fool on
Ben Stanley: tv, but if you can enable people to have an even better experience with something they already love, you're off to the races and they're going to tell everyone about it in their community.
[Voiceover]: Welcome to ADD to cart, Australia's leading e commerce podcast that express delivers all you need to know in the fast
Nathan Bush: moving world of online retail.
[Voiceover]: Here's your host, Bushy.
Nathan Bush: Welcome back to Add to cart. My name is Bushy and I am joining you today from the land of the terrible people here in Brisbane, Australia. Now I've heard a lot of origin stories from founders on this podcast, but this is the first time today that I've heard inspiration for a business from
Nathan Bush: dropping something on their baby's head.
Nathan Bush: What started as a late night scramble to keep a Kindle from dropping on a newborn to turned into a wildly successful product called Strapsicle. And you may have seen this up in lights recently because the founders of Strapsicle, Louise Rice and Ben Stanley, who join me today, were just Featured on Episode 1 Pitch 1 of Shark Tank the new season. Lou and Ben have taken their clever Kindle accessory from a clever invention to a global business. In just two years, Strapsicle has already clocked over one and a half million in revenue with a solid 300k profit. And it's just the start. These two bring serious expertise from their backgrounds in creative and project management for brands such as Commbank and Woolworths in their ad days where coincidentally they met and they're applying every bit of it to revolutionize how we hold and our devices and interact with them. Even still, what we heard today which fascinated me was some of the new use cases that they've discovered in their journey in how it's helping people with disabilities and health conditions enjoy the thing that they love. Today we hear all about their Shark Tank experience, their explosive growth on Amazon and why they think Amazon is a really healthy channel. And we talk about their plans for for expanding Strapsicles reach internationally, all while making waves on TikTok and building a dedicated community of Kindle lovers. Now, a quick reminder before we jump in, if you haven't already, I'd love to invite you to join up for my free weekly e commerce newsletter at add to cart.com au. Subscribe every week I share a key industry insight along with my five must read e commerce stories, research pieces or case studies from the past week. It's a great way to stay Informed and inspired. That's add to cart.com. subscribe now. Let's get into our episode fresh from the Shark Tank. And as always, thanks to our sponsors Shopify plus and deliver in person. Let's hear it directly from Lou Rice and Ben Stanley, founders of Strepsicle.
Nathan Bush: Lou and Ben, welcome to the Shark Tank. I mean add to cart.
[Voiceover]: My cortisol just said through you, Nathan.
Nathan Bush: Great to have you guys here.
[Voiceover]: Thank you.
Ben Stanley: Great to be here.
Nathan Bush: What a privilege. I saw you on Shark Tank last week and I was just, I was on the edge of my seat for you. Even though, you know, I didn't know what was coming, I didn't know what the outcome was be, but I had a feeling it was going to be positive. But I was just gripped. Tell me what it was like being in the middle of it because you were episode one of this season, first person shown on this season. So a lot of expectation, a lot of eyeballs. How do you describe that experience?
[Voiceover]: Like in one word? It was wild. But like overall, what a once in a lifetime experience for us. We made the entry video back in May. We found out about the deadline like a week before it was coming up. I was in Bali on an ecom retreat. So Ben was back in our office cutting the footage. I was recording the vo, sending it back to. So the whole journey has been an adrenaline rush because we went from making that video, you get the first call, then you go into. We went into weeks of preparation. Like we couldn't have been more prepared. So I think we were then just kind of waiting for the. They only tell you a week before your air date that you're going to be on that air date. So we got to I think Monday and it was going to be on next Wednesday, starting next Wednesday. We were messaging the producer. She's like, you know, we can't. Someone will be in touch. And then when we got that call on Wednesday, it was just like all hands on deck. We had a content plan, we had a PR plan, but we just like it was such a rapid, rapid paced project. It was like running at a pitch before the actual pitch. And then poor Ben was in China. Not poor Ben, but Ben was in China that week. Worse luck. So I'm here in Bali where we're now living. I'm trying to rally all the different marketing pieces. Ben's over there on the Canton fair not having a holiday by any means, but he was able to watch it on a laptop. I was able to watch it here in Bali and it was just it was just so surreal to see all that hard work actually culminate in just what, six minutes of talking be condensed
Ben Stanley: from 45 minutes into about five or six minutes.
Nathan Bush: How long are you actually in the tank for?
Nathan Bush: And like, because it does.
Nathan Bush: It's six minutes on screen. Is it that short?
[Voiceover]: No, it's about 45 minutes.
Ben Stanley: Yeah, 45 minutes.
[Voiceover]: So you literally walk into that room and you do obviously the bit of preamble filming, but you walk through those doors and you are at the behest of the Sharks for 45 minutes and there's no pleasantries. It's actually quite an intimate setting because they just start firing questions at you. They talk over the top of each other, they're throwing questions at each other. So you just kind of, you're going along for the ride. It's certainly not. Once you've done that two minute pitch, it is like a free for all. And it's great. It's great if you've done the practice, I'm sure if you haven't, if there's a question that comes up that you wouldn't know, I think it would be a bit of a moment. But we were really lucky. Practiced so much.
Ben Stanley: I feel like the perception of the Sharks is that they're really intimidating and yes, they are. But once you get through that pitch and the nerves of that you're on camera, it's quite a good rapport that you can have. And, you know, as long as you feel comfortable and confident that you've got the answers they're looking for, it's actually quite a nice exchange, to be honest. Or at least it was for us. So, yeah, I kind of had this perception that they were going to really grill you and just crush you, but they are actually really nice people and
[Voiceover]: ask really thoughtful questions to that point. Nathan, I think you were going to ask, how did you know what to practice? My number one thing was, I'm not going to look like a fool on TV at any cost. So we went back through every last episode of last season. I think, Ben, you put a whole bunch of stuff into ChatGPT.
Ben Stanley: I put all the transcripts from like Shark Tank and Dragons Dead around the world into ChatGPT and said, okay, give us 30 questions that could throw us off, you know, try and give us a deep dive into what the Sharks might ask. And yeah, then we had to sort of respond to all those questions and make sure we really tight.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, so we, we literally had about 12 pages of Q and A and then we had a fabulous Business coach. And we workshopped every answer with her, so we couldn't have been more prepared. So even though they were throwing questions at us that we might seem quite gnarly, we were comfortable. We were confident.
Nathan Bush: You looked cool, you looked calm, you looked collected. You had your shit together.
Ben Stanley: That was just very kind editing, I think.
[Voiceover]: Kind editing. And I took a couple of beta blockers, so I was pretty chilled.
Ben Stanley: I was like, there's that cat out of the bag.
[Voiceover]: Whatever.
Nathan Bush: That's the headline tomorrow. Newly invested.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: Drug addiction.
Nathan Bush: No, don't.
Ben Stanley: Actually, the other funny thing was that, like, Lou, we were on different sides. And so whenever I looked towards Lou, I could see all the cameras. So I'm freaking out. There's, like, eight cameras there. And when Lou's obviously looking at me, I'm looking at the Sharks. She can't see anything. So she's oblivious to these camera arms going up and down and people moving around. And so, yeah, I think she probably had a better seat in the house.
Nathan Bush: So, like I said, I was watching with bated breath as you were pitching and the conversations were happening, and you had all the Sharks really interested. Jane puts her hand up and says, actually, not for me. Not because I don't like the product, but just because I don't read. I'm like, okay, well, that's. That's interesting, but okay. Yep, good. But then you had four sharks who were really keen and made offers, and I just saw your faces, and it was just this moment of, oh, we didn't. It feels like we didn't plan for this scenario. When you then took that moment to turn around and have that conversation, were you talking about, how do you make a decision at that point with that much pressure?
Ben Stanley: Well, you're right. We didn't actually plan for that to be an option. Like, we. We were even just hoping to get a deal, let alone four on the table. And then having two of them want to come together as a partnership, it was just. It was quite overwhelming, to be honest. We had a very clear, I guess, objective of who we'd like if we were given the opportunity. And then when you're having four in front of you, it's, you know, you have to sort of. We went away and had a bit of a chat about pros and cons and of the different situations, what we could do. Obviously, the percentages were in play. The Sharks themselves were in play. What they could offer in terms of, you know, who we thought, because they actually, in that 45 minutes, there was a lot of back and forth happening that didn't happen in the edit. There were a lot of, like, Maxine was very enthusiastic about the products, you know, as was Nick as well. And so you kind of don't see that. And so when Maxine showed such enthusiasm, we were like, oh, gee, maybe she really is, you know, someone we want to have on board.
[Voiceover]: Yeah. But we honestly, when we turned around at that point, there's so much. And there's a bloody big camera in your face too. Right. Like it's panning past you. So I was like, I don't want them to hit. So I think we were just kind of talking with our eyes a little bit and I was doing some finger gestures and we kind of got getting across that for us. Davey and Robert were kind of our dream team. Like, how cool that we kind of landed them. But Maxine was. She was definitely one. Like, throughout the pitch, I was like, she would be amazing as a female founder, the success she's built. I just knew she would be so, so passionate. So I was kind of doing some signals. But honestly, I think Ben's right as any. Probably new business owners, we're a bit naive with money and things. And so we were just focused on, let's get the deal, let's get a deal, let's get a deal, let's get a TV moment. So all of a sudden we didn't do any scenario planning. And that would be my one piece of advice. Plan is if you're going to get the deal and plan exactly who you want and which combinations if you are going to end up with multiple.
Nathan Bush: And you said you went in there with a view on at least one investor. Did you have your priority list and can I guess who was on the top of your priority list going in?
[Voiceover]: You can guess, yes.
Nathan Bush: Was it Davey?
Ben Stanley: Do you know? It was actually Davey or Robert. They were kind of. So we were like, if either of those guys come forward, we're just going to pounce. And yeah, so then having both of them, it just kind of threw us completely.
[Voiceover]: And I mean, I know why you'd say, you know, Davey, with the huge success he's had, UDI being a one product, you know, one. One product, one store product, just the replicable learnings we would be able to pull from. But then we were heading off to New York the week after and with the US expansion is very much at the forefront of our business strategy for year three. And so just knowing Robert could open some doors there.
Nathan Bush: Did you notice when that episode went to air? So we're talking on Friday and it went to air on Monday, Is that right?
Nathan Bush: Monday.
Nathan Bush: Previous Wednesday. Wednesday. Did you notice a spike in immediate sales on the website when it went to air on Channel 10 when the
[Voiceover]: episode was airing, the traffic was. We've never seen so much traffic. I've never had a thousand people on the site at once. Like that was such an exciting moment for me. And then the sales absolutely, they surged by about 250%.
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[Voiceover]: and then for us I think so the next four or five days at least that traffic remained super high sales super high. But conversion rate was dropped as you could imagine because you've got all these people, first time visitors, a lot of sticky beakers just checking you out. They're not interested in buying. So I was actually I'm so excited that we set up instant audiences because I know he was on your podcast last week. So seeing the amount of people who have gone into those flows, I mean yeah, that's fantastic opportunity. So not only like people talk about it as maybe in Australia you might not get the sales uplift you want. You think, you think you would, but I think really it's a, it's a huge potent PR opportunity but you can maximize on that additional traffic to your site.
Nathan Bush: Amazing. So take us back to the start. For anyone who hasn't caught the Shark Tank wave, can you share what strapsicle is and how you came up with the idea?
[Voiceover]: It was 3am I was breastfeeding my newborn son Archie and I was reading my Kindle and I nodded off for a sec and dropped it on his head. Ben ran in he freaked it. We were all freaking out. And then the very next day, luckily, Ben's a creative director, and he's a problem solver at heart, and he's also a hoarder. And he will hoard just all these things around the house that are just to do with maybe solving problems. Luckily, he had a silicon mat, and he cut a strap out of it, and he stapled it together, gave it to me to use. I started using it after a couple of months. I was like, there's no way I can go back to a naked Kindle. It just feels so comfortable and so secure. And so we were so lucky. It was. We were on mat leave. We weren't. Neither of us were working at that point. It was Covid. No one's going out. So we thought, let's give it a go.
Nathan Bush: Amazing. And, you know, Ben, you're just trying to save your family from harm, really.
Ben Stanley: Well, I do what I can to try and protect my kid from even people like Lou dropping, throwing Kindles around. Yeah. Lou said, I'm a bit of a hoarder. So I did have this. I've got this, like, treasure trove of things in this little sort of garage laundry area. And it was just like, hang on, I've got something perfect for that. Cut it out, stapled it up. It looked horrendous, but it did the job. And it was. Yeah. But after a couple of months of Lou using it, she's like, I actually think. I don't. I don't use a Kindle. I've never used a Kindle. So I was just kind of like, oh, you dropped it. Okay, here's a solution for it. Off you go. Have a good time. Three months later, Lou's like, I can't live without this thing. I think people might really want it. And then you need it. And so then we did some research, which told us there's absolutely no market for it, because there wasn't a market for it. It didn't exist. And so we just kind of went slowly with it at first. We did some prototypes and got our friends to test it. Who had Kindles? We had. And then we sort of put it online. Didn't. We did some free samples in lieu of reviews and things to give us feedback. And that's how it kind of evolved. We sort of went through about three prototypes, and within six months, we had the finished product.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Nathan Bush: And were you surprised when you came up with the idea? And I'm sure you did that point where you Googled it to see if someone else has already done it, when you're thinking about making it a business or even before that, were you surprised that it didn't exist?
[Voiceover]: Yeah, on Amazon there are a couple of kind of ugly, functional looking fabric straps but as a category it didn't really exist. People weren't searching for Kindle strap, little bit of search Kindle holder. So I think it was surprising that someone hadn't kind of cornered that section of the market yet. People were using PopSockets as a way to hold their Kindle. That was probably our biggest competitor, direct competitor. So no, but we, I did remember we, we got a guy on Fiverr to do some research in terms of the category on Amazon and he came back and said don't do this. You know, there's no, there's hardly any search volume, don't bother, you know, naive inventors and I think all of us that you know, have the bit of naive optimism that because we have a solution for a problem, it's going, someone else is going to want to use it. We went ahead with it. Thank God.
Nathan Bush: That's amazing. And was it a no brainer for you to work together? So when it was kind of like, oh this could be a business, was it a no brainer that you worked together on it?
[Voiceover]: Yeah, it's weird one because we've, we've worked together for about six years. We're both in the advertising industry and so Ben's creative, he can't project manage to save himself. I'm a project manager. I don't really like being the creative, so very complimentary skill sets. And then it was really just a case of Ben came up with an idea. But because I was on mat leave and thank God Archie was a good sleeper, I had this time and because I'd had a couple of side hustles, I knew how to build a website, I knew how to create a community. I was listening to a shed load of podcasts, including yours and so I was able to kind of drive it forward. And then Ben actually went back to his full time job job. So I was really just pushing the business forward.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Ben, as a creative, did you think you'd be going around China fairs anytime soon? That seems a long way away from a creative world and ad agency.
Ben Stanley: It is so far removed. I was like so much out of my bin, so much out of my comfort zone. Because normally in agency world you have like this lovely accoutrement of people and processes and things to help you kind of steer towards the deadline or whatever project you're working on and this is kind of a lot more independent and we just got to sort of just do whatever we can to kind of get. Make it work and just dive into it. And being around, being in China, like the complexities of China, I didn't. I think there's a lot of naivety but optimism in what you're doing. Like you don't know what you don't know but you're excited to kind of take the next step. And so, you know, being in China, not knowing no one's speaking English, not knowing you can't pay with certain cards and like it was quite a struggle. This was actually my second time. I was there four weeks ago and then yeah, for Canton Fair I was back again because we're developing new products so I had to go and see the manufacturers anyway and sort of did the Canton Fair at the same time.
[Voiceover]: But very different, very different worlds. And I think what's been quite amazing for Ben is he's like an award winning creative director. We're both working on Commbank Woolies, big, big multimillion dollar brands to then come into your own realm with zero budget. And he's still able to come up with really cool creative ideas. But I think it's. It's a very different universe, the E comm marketing world and so having to adjust.
Ben Stanley: Yeah, our budgets are a bit smaller than Commbank and Woolies I think just a touch.
Nathan Bush: Oh, now you've got Davey's money.
Ben Stanley: Just combat. Totally. Yeah.
[Voiceover]: We'll go pitch in. Pitch in.
Nathan Bush: But Lou, it sounds like you had the kind of the startup bug happening before Strapsical anyway with a couple of those side projects.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, it's funny, I was talking to a girlfriend. Don't forget that you're like a 20 year success story in the making here. Because I think I always wanted to do something but I was caught in the corporate advertising world pretty early and you know, I had some life coach notes from when I was in London to open a sushi restaurant or do a dance shoot, I don't know. So I tried a couple of side hustles. They didn't work or I figured out what I didn't like. And then just landing on a product based business has just been. Yeah, the game changer. But you learn a whole lot of skills along the way, don't you?
Nathan Bush: Well, you must have learned a lot
Nathan Bush: along the way because on Shark Tank part of your pitch was that you did one and a half mil in your second year of operation, which is impressive. But the impressive part is that there's 300k in profit of that 1.5, which is phenomenal for a second year startup. What did you put in place? Firstly, from a marketing perspective to generate that revenue and then second to make
Ben Stanley: sure it was profitable.
Nathan Bush: My start with the generating that revenue to start with because that's the Kickstarter
[Voiceover]: look, I think for us, I will say from the beginning and again, this didn't come through on shark tank. 70% of our revenue still comes from organic marketing, which I think I'm really proud of. So we've always had a focus on bringing customers in through organic means. And a big part of that is building the community, building this community of Kindle obsessives that become brand advocates. So at the very beginning I fell into this world of Booktok. I'd never heard of it. For your listeners who don't know, it's probably over a billion accounts reading accounts, you know, particularly women who love their books, love showing off their books, love showing off their reading situations. And there's a huge segment of Kindle users in that. So I just went out there and I approached micro influencers. I heard that saying early on, do the things that, that don't scale. So I spent hell of a lot of time in people's inboxes saying, hey, can I give you a product? I always tried to nail the brand story. Small Aussie business, drop the Kindle on my baby's head. Can I give you a sample? If you like it, I'll give you an affiliate code. And everyone said yes because it was quite a novel product. It was a novel product, novel category. And so from there I immediately had this trust from all these influences. So their word of mouth was going to be far more powerful than me putting out a paid ad. So just focused on building that community. And then when we launched on Amazon, you've obviously got. We launched in the US and Australia at the same time because why not? And then we were able to tap into all these Amazon affiliates in the U.S. such a big thing over there. And I was able to then give them discount codes on top of their affiliate status. And so they were able to incentivize their followers to come through. And just by getting a few big ones hooked, we have been able to explode our Amazon sales again and again from this kind of, you know, they would make a TikTok about us that would go viral. And because it was, it was specifically to the Booktok community, to the Kindle top community. It was so niche, like it was Reaching our audience almost 100% of the time. So that's how we've really been able to do it.
Nathan Bush: Do you think you would have done that Amazon strategy if you had a product that wasn't closely tied to an Amazon product like Kindle is an Amazon product, Is that the connection or did you see that as the way to get in front of eyeballs regardless of what the product is?
[Voiceover]: No, it's the Kindle affiliation to Amazon. It's only relevant for us in that our ideal customer is spending. Obviously they're on Amazon buying Kindles. Why not buy some straps? But any product on Amazon. I mean, I speak to a lot of business owners who are selling scared of Amazon. They're scared of it A, from a copycat perspective or B, from the fees they take. And I think people just, they're too narrow in their, in their focus on it. Like if you think about it as a way to reach millions and millions of customers at a fraction of the cost of acquisition, that you would have to do one on one for your own store. I mean, giving up some fees that aren't as high as a wholesale margin, you know, it kind of sits to me, it sits in the middle. It's that kind of hybrid model. And I think, Nathan, you shared the latest retail report that said Amazon is or is jumping ahead again as one of the most popular retailers in Australia. So for me it's kind of like, why wouldn't you be on there?
Ben Stanley: I think I read it was like 70% of people actually start their shopping journey on the Amazon platform in the us in the US and so you're like, well, there's a, I mean, you got a hot, hot audience and that's a huge percentage of people. And so, yeah, it just seemed like a no brainer.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Ben Stanley: In hindsight.
Nathan Bush: I just want to go back to
Nathan Bush: what you were saying there about community as well. What I love about your approach there was that you went, who can I get excited about this strap and create a community around that? It was like, what does this strap mean to people? It means that people can enjoy their books, which they love. They're not going to. They'll like the strap because it allows them to love their books. So how do we get involved with the books? It's the end result, isn't it? That's the community you want to be involved in.
Ben Stanley: Well, I mean, these people already love the Kindle and love reading and all you're doing is just adding a layer of extra enjoyment on that. Because holding a Kindle holding it like the way people hold it is just silly. I mean, in time it's going to drop or you're going to get wrist pain, but if you can enable people to have an even better experience with something they already love, you're off to the races and they're going to tell everyone about it in their community.
[Voiceover]: And you're also adding a fashion aesthetic.
Nathan Bush: Ben, from continuing on that Amazon piece is like, Lou mentioned that a lot of people might be scared of Amazon because potential ripoff or Amazon creating their own product. That's a like product. How do you approach this from a design perspective? Because obviously you've got an eye on copycats around the world potentially coming in on that. How do you come up with new ways to keep this interesting and that you maintain your usp?
Ben Stanley: Yeah, well, I mean, obviously you've got to first and foremost protect what you've created. So in terms of patents and trademarks. But you're right. In various markets, there's. You can play a game of whack a mole a bit where very similar products come up and you spend costs legally trying to fight them and shut them down. So that's just a spiral we didn't want to kind of play in. We just wanted to kind of keep moving forward with the product development. And that can be everything from, you know, colors and patterns. And to go back to our community, we've got a group called the Strap Circle, which has got 700 people in Facebook and we sort of tip ideas into that group and they also come back to us with ideas. And so the community is helping us actually improve the product and evolve it and, you know, add new. New styles and colors and stuff. So there's that element and then there's. Obviously, I've got a quite a long time. Product development, I guess. Roadmap. Yes, thank you, Lou. Roadmap for the next list. Exactly. A long list of shit to do, which will mean I have to go to China at least 10 more times.
[Voiceover]: I'd rather it was six months, not 18 months.
Ben Stanley: Well, I'm sure you'll turn into six months, but my plan is to kind of develop it over the next year or so. And it's got like quite a long. I get a lot of different stages in the product development. There's my end goal and then all the steps in between, which will keep us ahead of everybody else, I believe.
[Voiceover]: But I think the other thing. And again, it didn't quite come out as it should have on Sharp Tango. I thought we did. We gave quite A comprehensive answer is it's about a product development roadmap. It's about finding ways to differentiate the product, but also building the brand and the power of brand. And that's what our community efforts have done. And I think that's now, I mean if you look at the search volume around straps and call it, you know, and the way we've actually built the category even on Amazon, I think any brand out there, that has to be your biggest focus because there's going to be competitors. Touchwood, we haven't had a direct one yet, but they're going to come. So we just need to be the name that people are asking for.
Nathan Bush: And when you talk about brand, what do you mean by that? Because obviously we've got community there. So you mean something to your community. Is there anything else that goes into building brand that is kind of creates a moat around your product?
Ben Stanley: Absolutely. That's kind of our background is building brands and protecting brands and so everything from obviously the customer experience. The customer is always at the center of what we do. And so we make sure we've got a really like, you know, good communication network with them if there's problems and things like that. So there's, they have a good experience with the brand. There's quality obviously in that as well. And then there's, you know, just the promotion and the, the actual marketing that adds that layer of emotional connection to our product. I think it's, it is a practical product, but I think people connect with it more emotionally first and then rationalize almost the practicality of it going. I'd love to get that thing, that accessory for my Kindle. It looks great. It also does this, you know, great thing of not dropping the device. So I think we've got that on our side in terms of some strengths in terms of our experience.
[Voiceover]: And I think too, especially as a smaller business, the founder story and the kind of behind the scenes ness of the founder story, I think that just really helps bolster and that also helps differentiate us hugely from those other products like all them on Amazon. You know, they don't have that, that richness to their story. So I think just brands that can play on that and play that up as much as possible is going to give you an advantage as well.
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Nathan Bush: You guys do such an amazing job of that on TikTok and LinkedIn of taking people behind the scenes in the real life of what you're doing. Whether it's, you know, you guys sitting down at a table at a restaurant at 8pm still working through emails or in the warehouse. You seem to do a really good job of taking people on this journey with you. Is that important for you?
Ben Stanley: Yeah, it used to wind me up no end. Lou, like right in the early stages, Lou is filming things and showing things. What are you doing? We're trying to get stuff done. And to a credit she knew where that ability to connect with customers behind the scenes was really important and that we had to kind of that people will come behind the curtain and see what we were doing and come on the journey with us because then they become advocates when they kind of see what you're doing, what it takes and they.
[Voiceover]: So yeah, but I think we're in.
Nathan Bush: We're in.
[Voiceover]: It's a two pronged thing now. Right. And someone like Anita Sarka does it so well. It's just, it's the story of your product business and then it's the story of you as the brand and the founders and people just are hungry for that information. I was when I was starting out and that's why I think it's while that I'm now sitting here talking to you because I was listening to you like interviewing people and I was like, they're amazing. So I think the more you. I've always been like, I love to spray a message anywhere. If I find something exciting, I love to tell everyone about it and it always lands for someone. So that's always been my modus operanda.
Nathan Bush: That's cool. I was reading something the other day, I can't remember what it was, but it was a founder and they said something around what's, you know, something that you regret around your journey. And he's like, I actually regret not taking more photos and videos in the early scrappy stages for us to look back on and enjoy now because at the time it didn't seem Exciting didn't seem interesting. But if I look back to how we were doing things back then, I would be fascinated by that now and be amazed at how far we've come.
[Voiceover]: Yeah. And so we for Shark Tank, part of our marketing plan, I guess, promotion plan was creating a whole bunch of organic reels and videos that told the story, the founder story. So that forced us to go back into the archives, pull everything out, get it organized. So I think absolutely, any founder out there, that's the number one thing I would say don't scrimp on that because that stuff, you'll look back and go, oh, oh.
Ben Stanley: I wouldn't say that's the number one thing. Certainly up there, I'd probably make sure not product market fit.
[Voiceover]: I'm all about storytelling.
Nathan Bush: All that stuff sorts itself out. Ben, just take good video on your phone. I want to talk about that profitability figure because I know this is just the start of your journey and you've got much bigger goals and it's only going to grow from here. But that is an incredible achievement for year two. Were there any rules or boundaries that you set yourself when you were establishing strapsical to make sure that it was set up for profit from the get go?
[Voiceover]: None whatsoever. We are so green with numbers. And Suzanne, our business coach is incredible and she's like the xclubbish with numbers. But she. I mean, we've had to be coached hardcore. But I think, look, the thing for us is we have a product. As you could imagine, it's relatively low cost to produce. It's easy to ship. We were both working our jobs, so we had income coming in through year one and through half of year two. So I finished up February this year. So I think that helped. We didn't have to obviously, you know, business expenses were minimal. We weren't paying ourselves a wage. And then as I said, we ran this really lean operation. I mean, I was doing this two days a week, working my corporate job three days a week, doing this two days a week and on weekends, any waking hours I could get. Ben was working full time looking after Archie. We had nannies in and out of the house all the time. But I think lean operation in terms of team and then lean in terms of marketing channels. We weren't pouring money into ads, which I think a lot of new businesses do. We've been quite scrappy with our marketing efforts. And then we had Amazon and actually I was quite nervous going into Shark Tank. I had to get over this kind of thought of what, oh, they'll just see us as an Amazon business. And I had to work through that with a couple of coaches. But actually it's actually created a really, a lot of success for us because to grow on Amazon and to be successful on Amazon, you actually have to. It's very little effort relative to building your marketing channels for your website. And so if you can scale successfully on Amazon, make a lot of money through Amazon, you can then bring that money back through to the rest of your business. So in a way, we were able to almost create a business that didn't require a huge amount of effort. We very much focused on Amazon with the limited time we had. So building that up successfully to now, once we go full time, we can now focus on these other sales channels.
Nathan Bush: And I saw that you have recently spent some time overseas, especially in the US going to trade shows and really immersing yourself in the e commerce industry. Over there. Is a lot of that Amazon talk coming from what you're hearing, what you're seeing and how E commerce is, is done in the US versus how we view it here in Australia.
[Voiceover]: That's a really good point. I think we found being at, we went to New York now as a trade fair and we found over there, buyers and retailers, if they knew you're on Amazon, for them, that was validation. That was like, tech great, you're successful. All right, let's get you in my store.
Ben Stanley: If you can make it there, their head is like, if you can make it there, you can make it into retail, into Brixton, more stores. Because you're in this platform where people can just literally move the arrow left and right and change and get something different. Right. It's just, you know, and impulse decisions and a pivot can be from a star rating to go and look another product. So it's actually quite difficult to make it on Amazon's. So yeah, a lot of the American companies were like, well, you got Amazon's choice. Hey, you're good in my book.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Any tricks that you found to being more successful on Amazon in your journey so far?
[Voiceover]: I think honestly working with influencers and driving Amazon rewards you for driving that off. Chat off platform traffic to Amazon. So the more traffic you're bringing there, working with influencers and those affiliate codes, email marketing. Every time I send an email, my US audience gets the chance to shop on Amazon. Why wouldn't I give them the experience they want? And all of our organic socials. We've just hired some content creators about five months ago in the US and they been blowing us up, taking US viral on TikTok and Instagram and that traffic is just all flowing through to Amazon. So the more you can drive traffic to them, the more they're going to reward you. I mean, they have a whole referral program. They give you 10% back on every sale of your using attribution links. I mean, it's a win win.
Ben Stanley: I would say though, with Amazon, don't try and do it yourself. Yes, you need to engage an agency or you will become an expert at it with a lot of videos and podcasts potentially. But we engage an agency and there's a very different way of doing Amazon than there is to kind of doing on your website or doing it anywhere else. So you need to follow the best practice in that space. And I say just don't just make a store overnight and think people are going to come.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, there is an algorithm you got to work with and there's, you know, the SEO, deliverables, et cetera. So yeah, you want to get all that right too.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Awesome. So looking forward, where does the growth come from here? I'm really interested in all aspects because you're obviously going international and expanding out small markets. You've got investment now. You've got some great partners in Davey and Robert on board. If I start from the product perspective, I was really interested on Shark Tank where you talked about licensing and the opportunities that might become available to you from that perspective. Talk me about how you even start navigating the world of licensing for Strapsicle.
Ben Stanley: Well, obviously there's the book publishers which have. So there's a lot of very passionate readers out there who are reading these trilogies and whatnot of these different book series and so connecting with the publishers and seeing if we can do a special arrangement with colors, patterns, stickers, whatever that connects with the readers. So that's sort of one avenue, I'd say.
[Voiceover]: Fashion and pop culture would be the other avenue. Definitely. Opportunities for collabs with different brands in those spaces. And then utility, I think is the other thing we're really interested in. So someone was throwing around July luggage the other day, like a collaboration with them. Stanley cups, I would love. Have you seen how they have all those little accessories that you can clip onto the car? I would love to create some kind of product that the two could work together. So I think we. We actually probably need to sit down. We have all these ideas, we've sent some emails, we are talking to a couple of people, but we need to probably strategize that quite clearly. Probably need to do someone's partnership course and work out which way, what's going to be the focus. Because as you can imagine, there's so many focuses at the moment.
Nathan Bush: Have you discovered new use cases along the way? Because obviously your story of having the Kindle late at night, you're tired, you drop the Kindle. That story is your story. But as you've been connected to your community and you've heard from your customers, have you heard other use cases for strepsicle that you weren't expecting?
[Voiceover]: Yeah. And this is what's quite wild. You know, Simon Sanak talks about find power, find your why and all this. And so when we launched this, obviously, yeah, problem solution, we found all these Kindle obsessives on TikTok. But what we started to get through the reviews were older customers who had arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, sorry, younger ones too, with nerve damage, who literally was struggling to hold books or hold their Kindles. And then all of a sudden, this happens. This product comes along, changes their reading game. I got a message and I have saved it from a woman who has cerebral palsy. And she said, I don't think you're even going to see this, but you've literally changed my life. I couldn't read anymore. And scarcely me chills now, but now I can read again and I love it so much. All because of your strats. And we had no idea we could make an impact like that. So that's a whole nother audience and marketing stream we haven't really even touched yet.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Nathan Bush: And does that then obviously the impact that has on you as an individual is huge. Knowing that you can help someone reignite their passion, you know, something that. That means a lot to them, that's. That's pretty special. But then for you, do you. Does it change how you view your business in terms of you've suddenly gone from making it comfortable for people to read books to an accessibility product? Do you start thinking about all the ways you can make other things more accessible for people?
Ben Stanley: So I think if you have a Kindle, you absolutely get what this product can do. Right. Instantly, people who don't have Kindles, they kind of look at it and they go, well, that'd be great. There were straps for an iPad or straps for a phone because, you know, then I wouldn't drop my phone or my iPad. And initially we were very much like, absolutely going to put straps on everything. But then what that starts to do is dilute your market and who you're targeting and so we're kind of in this dichotomy at the moment, which is do we stay focused on E readers or we do actually, and then add more around that experience, or do we actually start putting straps on other devices? And so we're kind of at this crossroads at the moment of that because there are complexities in iPads and phones because the buttons can get covered and things like that.
[Voiceover]: So we're close. We're close.
Ben Stanley: We're close. We're close. Yeah. So it's a good question, Nathan. We're literally in a crossroads on it. I am doing product development in that space too, just to see if we can do it and it can work. But for me, I think right now our focus needs to be on the reader audience and making sure they know about us and love us.
Nathan Bush: Do you expect that that kind of scenario, and I'm sure there'll be a big bunch of other scenarios where you are at crossroads is something that you will lean on Davey and Robert for input on. Like, what do you expect that relationship to be like?
[Voiceover]: Yeah, I think what people probably don't know is you kind of. You do the deal and then there's. There's a fair few weeks that pass. They went and they carried on filming. We went to New York, and then we come back and it's like right now it's due diligence. So we're working through the financial due diligence, but we're also working through, I guess, the value exchange as well. And we can see, though, from our early conversations, I mean, I think the ability for someone, let's say Davey, to. We have a conversation with him and he can almost accelerate a hypothesis or a way of thinking. He can give us resources to look at. He can give us people to talk to. So, yeah, absolutely. I think with anyone, an investor, like, we've got four, three coaches and two coaching programs we're in. But the losing the diamond. Sorry, it's all me. I just have always said cut a check to go faster. So I think being able to pay someone, whether it's for investment or cash, to get the answer quicker is like, hands down, it's the best thing you can do for your business.
Nathan Bush: What's been the best shortcut advice you've had so far?
Ben Stanley: I guess because there's so many different moving parts, everything from understanding finances to product development to little things that there are kind of quick wins everywhere. But there's not something that's been a huge step change, I think, where we
[Voiceover]: kind of, you know, I Think the biggest thing for me was listing on Amazon us because if we just gone Amazon Australia we wouldn't be talking to you now. We wouldn't be on Shark Tank. So I would say taking the naive risk, just not really thinking too much about implications. Just jumping in and doing that was the trajectory for the business in year two.
Ben Stanley: But that wasn't anyone who no told us like you know, sort of that experience meant oh quick. That's your quick.
[Voiceover]: I feel like there's so many things.
Ben Stanley: Yeah there are. It's funny but some of all those things right.
Nathan Bush: That speed you up.
[Voiceover]: Absolutely.
Ben Stanley: I mean we have literally we have been successful from standing on the shoulders of giants who've gone before. I must say like, like you're.
[Voiceover]: Well actually yeah, I would have to do a shout out. You know Lisa Jones Nathan and the first, yeah she calm the first three months of the business I went to the Shecom live conference and I was such this wide eyed business owner going how are all these women making six figures a month? Oh, I want that to be me. And that probably was the acceleration point. Then I went to the Bali retreat. Then this year, you know, last month I was speaking on stage with Lisa. So what a ride. But I think literally, I think at every that she community has really helped shortcut a lot of decisions for us.
Nathan Bush: But I think looking at the outside too, Lou is like I've known you just from listening and you'd email me when I sent emails out, you'd respond. We'd kind of have back and forth on LinkedIn before we even met each other. But even though you were so busy, right, like mom new business, we're still working in advertising for some of this. You made the time to be curious and to go out and be part of those communities and go to the conferences and listen to the podcast but not only consume but reach out and talk to the people that you needed to talk to, which a lot of people don't do. They just sit back and consume and wait for it to all make sense in the head. But I think you've been very proactive in it.
Ben Stanley: That's how we are the opposite. Like, like I'm, I'm so in awe of Lou's network and loose tenacity of just going out and trying to connect with people and she calls it shooting her shot.
[Voiceover]: Like oh yeah.
Ben Stanley: When we were exhibiting in New York there was the abc, the broadcasting corporation. They came by Good morning America, Good Morning America, sorry, Good Morning America team came by and Lou was like oh, they're over there. And she just. She's just straight at them and. And I. I'm always very passive. I'm kind of like, you know, holding back and just, you know, but she's just straight in there and sort of connecting with them. And that's now led to us being on a show in America. So Lou's all about shooting the shot, connecting people, connecting, you know, saying yes to things. Whereas I would have failed if I didn't have her, because I am not that person at all.
[Voiceover]: But even like Retail Fest earlier this year, right, and that was our first foray, I was full time on the business and just felt like such a fish out of water there. Just had never even been to anything like that. And I was like, oh, look at all these business owners. But you just kind of got to do a little bit of fate to map. But I shot my shot with Simon Beard after he told me this, after he spoke, went up and started waffling on about strap school, but gave him some straps. Cause he was a Kindle reader. But I think, you know, and then I've started kind of just being that stalker Ms. GM, tagging him in post, you know. But eventually it culminates in something. You get on people's radars eventually. So it's not that I want to do it. I mean, I love a bit of recognition, but I think it is just about the joy of this community and the passion everyone has. But also it just feels like it's such a natural fit for me. Sorry.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Well, it feels like you've always been a part of it. Like, yeah. The impact that you've had straight away. And like, I don't feel like you're doing it to. You know what I mean? Where there's some people, you're like, oh, they're just trying to get in people's faces. You are like, literally, you are very curious, but also giving. Like you want to hear both sides of the story. And it is a natural conversation and you've approached it in the perfect way. So I think there's a big lesson there for a lot of people that this is a space where everyone should be and should be talking and sharing ideas. Because it doesn't matter what stage you're at, everyone can learn from everyone 100%
Ben Stanley: and you cannot do it on your own. I keep thinking about this. I don't know if it's sort of a male ego thing, but men seem to almost want to try and beat people and they don't ask for help as much or at least this is my experience. They don't ask for help as much. I think what's great about the female network and female founder network is that everyone's there supporting each other and helping each other and lifting everybody up, which is wonderful to see. It's. It feels quite different to how I've seen business sort of run in the past.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: Which is why Ben's going to start Hecom. The first member, Nathan.
Ben Stanley: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: Lisa hasn't, Lisa hasn't trademarked that yet.
Ben Stanley: Send your hate mail.
Nathan Bush: What does he come involve? We must have a much dumber version of it.
Ben Stanley: Yeah, yeah, it's just a dull down version. It's. No one talks to each other.
[Voiceover]: No sequence, no pink black T shirts.
Ben Stanley: Looks black T shirts. That's right. We wear our officer uniform.
Nathan Bush: But I love that you've, you know, come in, created this community and being part of it and now you've moved to Bali. What inspired that?
[Voiceover]: Cozy living. Cozy living. We just both, we both found ourselves full time in the business. Archie's three so we don't have to think about school for a while and we just, we were a two bedroom apartment in Bondi, you know, as you can imagine, bit cramped and we thought why not go get. Carve the cost of living, live more high vibe in Bali with some nice weather. Let's get some staff. Sorry help. Because we had no family around us in Sydney. So we've come here, we've been here six weeks. We're struggling with the heat. Ben in particular I am struggling with, with the heat. But we have, you know, we've got a housekeeper six days a week, we've got a nanny 30 hours a week. So. And we're starting to learn how to game the system, starting to learn how to use that WhatsApp to get whatever you need. So.
Ben Stanley: And Archie's loving it too. Like he is just bl. Like a new kid. It's amazing.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, he's.
Ben Stanley: Yeah. So that's, it's, you know, he's really important. He's obviously the most important thing and so, you know, making sure that he's happy here is as well is really key.
[Voiceover]: So if anyone's thinking about it, it was a huge decision. I couldn't stop crying the day we left. I was just in the taxi van just wailing away. The guy probably thought I was mad. But as soon as we left, as
Nathan Bush: soon as we got here.
[Voiceover]: I haven't thought twice about Bondi. So. Yeah, it'll be a big shock but it's definitely. We're not looking back.
Nathan Bush: Well done.
Nathan Bush: You're doing it your way. I love it.
[Voiceover]: Yeah. The only challenge is the US time zone, I think.
Nathan Bush: Oh, yeah. So what US time zone is total opposite.
[Voiceover]: Yeah. 12 hours at least. So that's okay for me because I'm an early bird. So 6am 6, 30 courses. Okay to do that? Yeah.
Nathan Bush: All right. Lou and Ben, what an amazing story so far. And this is just the start. I look, I would love to do this interview again in a couple of years because it's going to be so different again. But what is next for you? Obviously you're still working through what the fallout of Shark Tank looks like in terms of finalizing that deal and your involvement with Davey and Robert, but then say for the next 12 months, what is your focus areas?
[Voiceover]: Yeah, we talked about this on the show. Our big focus is us expansion through big retail. We actually were lucky to meet Barnes and Noble buyer when we were went to New York now. So working through that, but just really growing into retail, expanding into more marketplaces with Amazon. So why not replicate that success to new new countries, even new marketplaces? We are looking at temu in the U.S. oh, look.
Ben Stanley: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: As a curated brand opportunity and then new products, right?
Ben Stanley: Yeah, Lots of new products coming.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Nathan Bush: The TEMU side of it, how does it compare in terms of seller terms to Amazon? Is it still favorable?
[Voiceover]: This is what's intriguing us. So we had the guy come up to us at Newer now. We've had a couple of calls with Ron and basically they're not concerned about profit at this stage, are they? They're just concerned about now shifting their business strategy from direct from factory to consumer to brand to consumer. So direct competition to Amazon. And so they are offering no fees and if your product starts selling well, they will support you with paid advertising on their dollar. So it's pretty compelling. Doing it by invitation only, calling it a curated brand approach. There's some big brands he shared that are on there doing it now. So we just have to kind of assess, I think, the impact it could have on our.
Ben Stanley: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: On our brand favorability from a customer perspective. But I think, you know, watch the space. I know Nathan, you've talked about team and from that retail report like watch the space in a year how that shift is going to happen in their business strategy. Be very interesting.
Nathan Bush: That's fascinating.
Ben Stanley: I love that.
Nathan Bush: So I am sure that you have
Nathan Bush: inspired so many people with your story so far. And if people want to maybe get in touch or perhaps get strapsicle for their very own Kindle what's the best way to get in touch or to learn more?
[Voiceover]: Well you can head to our website strapsicle.com and luckily we have an epic Black Friday sale about to drop. So get on that VIP list and then otherwise go follow us on Instagram or TikTok. You're going to get some great, hilarious Kindle related content, possibly with a bit of smart in there as well. So watch out for that.
Nathan Bush: What more could you want in life?
[Voiceover]: Exactly right. A little bit of light relief.
Nathan Bush: Love it. Thank you so much for joining us
Nathan Bush: on Add to Cart.
[Voiceover]: Thank you.
Ben Stanley: Thanks Nathan.
Nathan Bush: How special is that to get an insight into the Shark Tank experience just weeks after going to air and before the deal has even been completed? I love how transparent parent Lou and Ben were with that process, especially that moment that caught them off guard where they had four offers in front of them. And again, while Shark Tank seems to be the overnight success, as we heard from Lou, this is years in the making. It's a collective buildup of skills and experiences in adjacent industries and I'm so stoked to see them both having the success that they are with Strapsical. Here are my three top takeaways from this chat. Number one Pitch Presentation Lou and Ben didn't just show up to Shark Tank. They prepared for every possible question and scenario. There was no way that they were winging this. They ran mock interviews, used AI to predict shark like questions, and workshopped answers with their business coach. Their dedication obviously paid off as they they very confidently navigated the Shark Tank grilling session. It's a great example for anyone facing a make or break moment. Whether it's an important conversation that you need to have at work or a multi million dollar deal. Spend time thinking through potential scenarios and responses to get your best outcome. Don't wing it and avoid the stage fright. Number two Create community before sales Sales Rather than taking a traditional marketing route, Lou and Ben tapped Booktok, where Kindle lovers connect. See for them. They knew that the attachment to Strapsicle was via the passion for books, not the passion for their product. Lou spent time reaching out directly to micro influencers in this niche, giving products and sharing the authentic Strapsicle story. This approach has bought them dedicated customers who don't just buy, they advocate. It's a powerful reminder to find your audience first and let the sales follow from there. And number three, the Amazon advantage starting with Amazon wasn't just a sales choice for Strapsical. It wasn't like they were just chasing cash. It was a springboard for reaching international markets by launching in the US right away. They tapped into a huge, huge customer base without the heavy costs of individual acquisition. They even used Amazon's affiliate program to incentivize influencers, building both traffic and credibility quickly. Even though they had to send customers first time customers directly to Amazon. It has worked really well for brands hesitant about Amazon. Really worth listening to Lou's advice to think beyond the fees and see the reach. It's another strategy for you to consider. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you love this episode, please consider sharing it with someone who you think
Nathan Bush: would enjoy the story as well.
Nathan Bush: And don't forget to leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. As always, a huge thanks to our sponsors, Shopify plus and Deliver In Person for helping make these conversations possible. Before you go, we'd love to invite you to join our free e commerce learning platform Add to Cart Campus. Meet other professionals and learn from e commerce experts to take your business and your e commerce career to the next level. Register to join Campus at add to cart.comauforward/campus now. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure you share it with a friend or a colleague. Or even better, leave us a review on Spotify or Apple. It really, really makes a difference.
