Mike Tecku final appeared on this podcast in 2019. He spoke as an knowledgeable Amazon vendor in our “Constructing an Ecommerce Enterprise” sequence. He’s again, having bought 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 just lately mentioned his journey — promoting his firms, setting priorities, launching Momentum, and extra.
The complete audio of our dialog is embedded beneath. The transcript is edited for readability and size.
Eric Bandholz: Why begin a dietary shake firm?
Mike Tecku: I bought my Amazon firms in 2019 and did nicely sufficient to begin a enterprise fund and put money into some stuff. I retired, purchased land within the nation, and rapidly obtained bored. I spent the following 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 straight with the producers. I put every thing into one shake to make it simple. I wished 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 best 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 wished no advertising fluff, solely the perfect elements.
We went with this unbelievable grass-fed whey protein from Eire. It’s 5 instances costlier than another protein. Eire is the one place that may develop that grass year-round. And it’s the one place you possibly can certify that one thing is really grass-fed. It makes for a premium product.
Some people like protein from peas, the vegetable, but it surely accommodates heavy metals and pesticides and 30% fewer important amino acids. I wasn’t prepared to compromise simply because it was well-liked.
Not utilizing synthetic flavors is insanely costly. Each bag we now have has about $2 value of chocolate in it. We spend extra on chocolate than most opponents spend on their complete 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 high of a market as a result of few are prepared 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 will likely be so good we received’t need to spend as a lot on advertising due to phrase of mouth. We received’t have as a lot churn. In idea, people will keep subscribers longer.
I’m not concerned about something that may’t scale. Momentum may very simply do $100 million a yr. To get to that degree, 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 important 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 are going to finally. Customers are very value delicate on Amazon, which requires training. 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 give attention to issues like this podcast to assist customers perceive what it’s about.
Bandholz: I’d hesitate to pay $75 per bag.
Tecku: It’s my job to speak that in case you have been to purchase all these elements individually, it’d be about $400 a month. And that by eradicating the intermediary on 20 elements, I can cost $75 a bag. And the margins aren’t really that nice for me. So it’ll take some training.
Vitamin is difficult. I constructed Momentum Shake across the idea that the majority 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 capsules or medicine. It’s simply the issues that our our bodies want on daily basis. Of us don’t wish to take a gazillion capsules.
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.