Mike Tecku final appeared on this podcast in 2019. He spoke as an skilled Amazon vendor in our “Constructing an Ecommerce Enterprise” sequence. He’s again, having offered 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.

All the 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 offered 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 acquired bored. I spent the subsequent two years figuring myself out and researching longevity.

I got here up with this product primarily based on the premium variations of the dietary supplements I used to be taking. I related immediately with the producers. I put every thing into one shake to make it straightforward. 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 desires to name tremendous. I name it pixie mud when corporations add hint quantities of one thing to make it sound wholesome. I wished no advertising and marketing fluff, solely the perfect substances.

We went with this unimaginable grass-fed whey protein from Eire. It’s 5 instances dearer than every other 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 actually grass-fed. It makes for a premium product.

Some people like protein from peas, the vegetable, however it incorporates heavy metals and pesticides and 30% fewer important amino acids. I wasn’t keen to compromise simply because it was common.

Not utilizing synthetic flavors is insanely costly. Each bag we’ve got has about $2 price of chocolate in it. We spend extra on chocolate than most rivals spend on their total product. So a 30-day provide of a Tremendous Greens drink may cost a little $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 prime of a market as a result of few are keen to do it.

The problem is promoting a bag for $75 if it prices $60 to make. How can we pay for adverts? I consider the product might be so good we received’t need to spend as a lot on advertising and marketing due to phrase of mouth. We received’t have as a lot churn. In concept, people will keep subscribers longer.

I’m not considering something that may’t scale. Momentum might very simply do $100 million a 12 months. To get to that degree, I want about 60,000 subscribers. That’s 60,000 gross sales over 5 years — 12,000 a 12 months. That’s doable with a fantastic product and the fitting worth and message. I don’t wish to do something with a ceiling on it.

Bandholz: Are you promoting on Amazon?

Tecku: No, however we’ll ultimately. Customers are very worth 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 would hesitate to pay $75 per bag.

Tecku: It’s my job to speak that if you happen to had 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 really that nice for me. So it’ll take some training.

Vitamin is difficult. I constructed Momentum Shake across the idea that almost all 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 tablets or medicine. It’s simply the issues that our our bodies want day-after-day. People don’t wish to take a gazillion tablets.

Bandholz: The place can listeners discover you?

Tecku: They will purchase our product at MomentumShake.com. I’m on LinkedIn and e-mail at mike@momentumshake.com. I like mentoring, by the best way.