Mike Tecku final appeared on this podcast in 2019. He spoke as an skilled Amazon vendor in our “Constructing an Ecommerce Enterprise” collection. He’s again, having bought these Amazon shops, retired, and skilled boredom.
His newest enterprise is Momentum, a maker of premium dietary shakes, which he describes as “the Rolex of dietary supplements.”
He and I lately mentioned his journey — promoting his corporations, setting priorities, launching Momentum, and extra.
The whole 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 bought my Amazon corporations in 2019 and did effectively sufficient to start out a enterprise fund and spend money on some stuff. I retired, purchased land within the nation, and shortly received 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 instantly with the producers. I put all the things into one shake to make it straightforward. 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 desires to name tremendous. I name it pixie mud when corporations add hint quantities of one thing to make it sound wholesome. I needed no advertising fluff, solely the most effective substances.
We went with this unbelievable 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 may certify that one thing is really grass-fed. It makes for a premium product.
Some people like protein from peas, the vegetable, however it comprises 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 have now has about $2 value of chocolate in it. We spend extra on chocolate than most opponents spend on their whole 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 imagine the product will likely be so good we received’t must spend as a lot on advertising due to phrase of mouth. We received’t have as a lot churn. In principle, people will keep subscribers longer.
I’m not excited by something that may’t scale. Momentum may very simply do $100 million a 12 months. To get to that stage, I would like about 60,000 subscribers. That’s 60,000 gross sales over 5 years — 12,000 a 12 months. That’s doable with an awesome product and the appropriate worth and message. I don’t need to do something with a ceiling on it.
Bandholz: Are you promoting on Amazon?
Tecku: No, however we’ll finally. Shoppers are very worth 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 when you have 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 truly that nice for me. So it’ll take some schooling.
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 have now no secret capsules or medication. It’s simply the issues that our our bodies want day by day. Of us don’t need to take a gazillion capsules.
Bandholz: The place can listeners discover you?
Tecku: They’ll purchase our product at MomentumShake.com. I’m on LinkedIn and e mail at mike@momentumshake.com. I really like mentoring, by the best way.
