Nathan interviews Tanner Larsson, co-founder of 80/20 Media, CEO of e-commerce brand incubator BuildGrowsSale.com. He’s also the founder and facilitator of an exclusive e-commerce syndicate called Black Label – composed of the best and brightest marketers, CEOs, and entrepreneurs in the e-commerce space. He recently published his first book called Ecommerce Evolved which offers readers a box view of how successful e-commerce brands build, grow, and scale.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Rocket Fuel
What CEO do you follow? – Ed O’Keefe

Favorite online tool? —FastStone Capture
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Not even close
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “You don’t have to fund everything out of your own pocket, there are other options available”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:27 – Nathan introduces Tanner to the show
02:15 – Tanner’s ecommerce world started in 2001
- 02:20 – Started in eBay and Tanner became a powerseller
- - 02:31 – Tanner was doing $ 50,000 - $ 100,000 a month in eBay
03:00 – “There’s no reason not to sell a physical product”
03:25 – Tanner and his team have a number of e-commerce brands
- 03:36 – 2 main brands have done $6.5 million in a year
03:48 – They had a problem in production
- 04:06 – “We’ve had different bottlenecks that prevented us from growing at the rate we could have grown”
04:30 – The flashlight market
- 04:38 – Tanner doesn’t want to sell what everybody is selling
- 04:47 – The gap they saw is between the lower price entry level flashlight and high-end flashlight
- 05:03 – Tanner and his team develop their own flashlight and a kit
- 05:17 – Truegunner.com
- 05:25 – The flashlight is in a sales funnel
- - 05:34 – The funnel path
06:02 – The bestseller flashlight is the M600 tactical utility flashlight
- 06:07 - $22 manufactured price from China
- 06:32 – They had a much higher per unit cost and much lower profit margin on the first order
- - 06:43 - First order was at a minimum which is a thousand
  - 07:03 – Total is $30,000 tied up which equals to $3 per unit price
- 07:52 – It took 7 months before the first order started production
- 07:58 – The back and forth from the manufacturing county took time
- - 08:05 – Shipping takes a week which includes the revises that needed on the product
- 08:30 – “If you’re building your product from the ground, there’s a whole back and forth with the manufacturer”
- 09:00 – Started selling on November 2015
- - 09:05 – Sold about 4400 units for 12 months
  - 09:21 – Total money in from this product is around $ 150,000 - $ 160, 000
- 09:50 – 99% of the funds came from Tanner
- 10:12 – The downside is some raw materials are specialized
- - 10:27 – They have to buy raw materials in advance to prevent going out of stock
11:28 – Most of their sales are funnel driven
11:43 – They were using ultracart but shifted back to infusionsoft
12:09 – They are also using Hotjar records visitor interaction. Like heat mapping
12:43 – They spend $13 per user acquisition on the front end
- 13:03 – They breakeven in the funnel
13:30 – They also have subscription plans
14:01 – They have 7000 paying user
14:36 – They also have drop-off rates
16:00 – Connect with Tanner through his website
18:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Look for alternative funding. Don’t shoulder everything.
If you don’t know something, that doesn’t mean you can’t explore.
Sourcing from manufacturers abroad takes patience and a lot of research.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
BuildGrowScale.com – Tanner’s website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 481: 4400 Flashlights Sold, $79 Price, $23 COGS, 55% Net Margin with TrueGunner CEO Tanner Larsson

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders