Kevin Williams is a severe, no-nonsense U.S.-based investor. He holds a graduate diploma from the celebrated Thunderbird College of Administration in Arizona. So how did he find yourself working a grooming firm referred to as Balls, centered on male non-public elements?
He informed me, “The notion of working Balls is hilarious to everybody who is aware of me. However it’s a present to a marketer to work with an edgy product.”
Balls sells razors, trimmers, and lotions. The corporate launched in 2019 within the U.Okay. Williams invested in it in 2021 and have become the CEO.
He and I not too long ago mentioned the enterprise of males’s grooming. The complete audio of our dialog is embedded beneath. The transcript is edited for readability and size.
Eric Bandholz: Inform us about your small business.
Kevin Williams: I personal a consulting and personal fairness agency referred to as KDF Aegis.
I launched the corporate in 2013. I began by shopping for or licensing mental property reminiscent of patents. Usually it could be an uncle or any individual’s boyfriend or father who would have these patents. They’d come to me seeking to promote or monetize their creations. I’d run some rapid-fire minimum-viable-product exams and see if the merchandise may convert.
Then I’d go forward and purchase or license the patent or typically type a partnership. One of many first patents I licensed was for Brush Hero, a water-powered turbine brush used for cleansing vehicles and bikes. Once we examined it on-line, there was add-to-cart charge. We went forward and licensed it.
That product grew quickly within the U.S. and internationally. We appeared on Shark Tank and ultimately bought in Costco, Walmart, Canadian Tire, and different bodily shops, in addition to our web site.
That gave rise to different ecommerce alternatives. I exited that enterprise in 2020 when it was bought by a personal fairness group that additionally owned a model referred to as Balls.co.
Bandholz: So that you moved on to Balls.
Williams: Sure. In July 2021 I invested in Balls.co and have become the working associate and CEO. The corporate was based in 2019 within the U.Okay. by Tyler Ball. It sells grooming merchandise for males’s pelvic areas. So “Balls” has a twin which means. It’s the founder’s title and an outline of the male anatomy.
The notion of working Balls is hilarious to everybody who is aware of me. However it’s a present to a marketer to work with an edgy product. In case you’re going to run a model referred to as Balls, it’s important to personal it. You possibly can’t be refined. It’s the so-called “manscaping” area of interest. We promote physique trimmers centered on males’s intimate areas.
Manscaped is one other model within the house. They’re doing a implausible job. They created an air of luxurious across the model. So we concentrate on the “lad” or “bro” area of interest — “lad” being a U.Okay. time period for a younger grownup male.
Bandholz: You’re doing enterprise internationally.
Williams: That’s proper. After I joined, the corporate ran eight Shopify shops in 4 languages and 4 currencies. My intuition was to simplify. However we ended up in a little bit of a lure with current subscribers in these international locations. We needed to proceed working the entire shops.
Plus, as an American, I didn’t have an insider’s understanding of the ramifications of Brexit till I ran Balls, once more a U.Okay. firm. Quickly after I joined, a number of the Brexit customs enforcements kicked in. We ended up with one thing like 3,500 packages caught in E.U. customs. We needed to redo our total provide chain.
The U.Okay. was our dominant market, adopted by Germany, the remainder of Europe, then France. I’ve by no means been so European-oriented. We needed to discover breakthrough advertising and marketing messages.
Bandholz: What was the breakthrough?
Williams: Humor, primarily. Social media channels, Fb specifically, wouldn’t allow us to run adverts with the phrase “balls.” We needed to get very artistic about our messaging. We leaned closely into content material advertising and marketing as an alternative of a direct response. We invested closely into our TikTok channel, which did exceptionally properly, rising in only a few months to 150 million views and 300,000 followers. That was all natural.
We examined many ideas and ultimately hit on a quasi-entertainment medium. We discovered superior standup comedians and dispatched them worldwide to interview folks on the road about their intimate grooming habits. One comic, Oliver Sotra, was implausible.
It’s a little bit of a numbers recreation once you put a wise comic on the road asking bystanders, “Do you shave your balls?” We had superior outcomes that folks needed to look at.
If it’s totally business, the message is unlikely to carry the patron’s curiosity. But when it’s all leisure, there’s no motive for them to purchase the product. Most of our TikTok followers seemingly fall into the leisure realm. The trick is to acknowledge a chance to develop organically — it’s value doing as a result of the price of model constructing by way of conventional channels is prohibitive.
Our price per thousand impressions on TikTok was within the 20-cent vary for producing this content material. I’ll do that each one day lengthy.
Bandholz: How can of us get in contact with you?
Williams: Go to Balls.co or try our YouTube channel. My Twitter is @KevinOfEdward.
