This is the wild story of how I made $1,036,175 during the COVID lockdowns by rapidly creating a new physical product in 7 days.
In April 2020, during the lockdowns I created 2 things that changed my life:
- 1. – I launched Shepherd (renamed Somewhere.com). 4 years later we sold it for $52,000,000.
- 2. – I created a new physical product that made us $1,036,175 in 67 days.
This is the untold story of #2.
The world shut down March 2020 in a panic. My wife and I had just found out she was pregnant with our first child. Now all of a sudden I was worried about my e-commerce and hotel business surviving the lock downs.
These were the businesses I used to support my family. All of a sudden everything was uncertain. As a soon-to-be father, I was scared.
Instead of sitting on my hands, I got busy creating.
While most people were watching Netflix in their PJs, I was working more than I ever had before. I look back on that time as the most creative period of my career.
The Product
During COVID lockdowns I had an idea for a product that I named The Touch Tool — it was a brass keychain hook, specifically for the new COVID world we lived in.
It allowed you to pull open doors, press buttons at the gas station, etc without touching those things with your hands… ultimately to avoid germs.
The Highlights
- Idea to final design in 2.5 days
- Went into production on day 5 in China
- Launched on our website day 7
- $50k in sales by the end of day 7 and passed $100k 2 days after launching (the 8th day)
- By Day 67 we crossed $1,036,175 by selling 27,227 units of the Touch Tool
The Crazy 7 Day Timeline
Day 1:
On the morning of April 3rd, 2020 I had the idea for it. Here’s the first rough sketch in my notebook from that morning.
I immediately texted an industrial designer I knew named Jordan Westerberg.
He confirmed he was available and could help design it in 3 days or ~20 hrs of time at $80/hr. He got started immediately.
I also I emailed a factory rep I used in China named Nerressa.
I prompted her with a rough description of it, knowing a factory versed in making brass keychains would be the ideal type of factory to use.
Day 2:
Jordan sent first mockups the very next day. We went through a ton of rapid iterations that day.
We went back and forth over iMessage and settled on 2-3 final shapes to 3D print.
Day 3:
Jordan 3D printed a few prototypes and tested them out. He sent me videos of it in use at a grocery store, an elevator, a gas station, etc. We knew it worked.
Day 4:
I chose the final design and sent the CAD file to the factory in China for final pricing.
Day 5:
Using the CAD file, Nerressa got final pricing from the factory. I stayed up late chatting with her to finalize a few details.
By the end of the night I had placed the order with the factory for 1,000 units at $4.50 per piece before packaging and freight.
They would be machined out of a solid piece of brass.
Here's some of my emails with her.
Day 6:
While the factory got going, I got some renderings made by an animator to use on the website.
I wired a 25% production deposit to the factory in China.
The factory sent initial sample photos that Nerressa viewed in person for me.
Day 7:
Using the renderings as our product images, I launched the product on Peel’s website. I made sure to note to customers that they wouldn’t ship for a couple weeks.
We emailed Peel’s customer list announcing the product and shared it on our socials.
Things immediately went nuts! By the end of the launch day, we had sold over $40k of Touch Tools and had a nice overall boost to sales, reaching a total of $50k.
Given the high demand, I went back to the factory that night and increased our initial order.
Before it shipped I also had to quickly develop the packaging design. We created a simple pull out box design where the touch tool was set into foam.
...Day 67:
60 days after the launch (day 67) and we had sold 27,227 units generating $1,036,175 of new product sales!
This was top line revenue. We had 80% gross margins on them, but then we also spent money on advertising, website, credit card fees, etc.
Still, we had healthy profit margins given a $1m launch primarily from word of mouth.
The Numbers
25 hours of industrial designer time @ $80/hr = $2,000
80% gross margin on the product (not including other costs like advertising)
Here’s how the gross margins broke out. This is before factoring in credit card fees, website costs, and eventually advertising costs.
Where Did Sales Come From?
- Peel was an existing brand with customers and an email list. We had a basis to launch to. That said, this was our biggest launch ever. It totally surprised me.
- The initial launch to our list is what got the word out.. then things snowballed from there. Usually a product launch has a 1 day spike and then things die down.
- Press! The New York Times, GQ, Yahoo!, Forbes, Glamour, and many more wrote about the product.
- Once there was clear momentum, we also started advertising it on Facebook and Instagram ads.
Why It Worked
It was a novel product for a new problem the entire world had together. The market for it was massive.
Perfect timing to meet a massive market demand.
Things eventually died down. It wasn’t an evergreen product, but it certainly helped the company thrive during COVID.
Lessons Learned
You can move faster than you think. Looking back at the timeline I’m still surprised by how quickly we did it.
When the world gets scary, get busy.
Some of the world’s best company’s were all started during recessions and times of uncertainty.
As they say… “Desperation is the mother of invention”
