Jerry Wilmink, a recovering bio-engineer turned entrepreneur and CEO and founder of Wisewear.com. Listen how Jerry fuses fashion and technology to keep people safe.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Startup CEO
What CEO do you follow? – N/A

Favorite online tool? — Strategyzer
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Go for it. Don’t be scared”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:13 – Nathan introduces Jerry to the show
01:33 – Jerry was connected with Nathan through Twitter
01:51 – Jerry is a startup junkie
02:16 – What is Wisewear and how it generates revenue
- 02:29 – Wisewear is a propriety smart jewelry product that allows women to stay safe
- - 02:41 – A fusion wearable product
  - 03:00 – Develop a jewelry product that transmits Bluetooth through metal
  - 03:15 – Iris Apfel is the designer of Wisewear
  - 03:35 – Each piece is priced at $ 295 - $ 345 depending on the collection
  - 03:59 – Currently sold online but will be available at Saks
04:05 – Wisewear was founded in 2013
04:15 – They just started selling this year
04:20 – Current sales is close to $ 4 million this year
- 05:04 – Started shipping late March
05:19 – No problems with P.O
05:55 – There’s more risk in international market with P.Os
06:00 – Wisewear demands 30% upfront payment for bulk P.Os
06:22 – Average number of devices sold
07:40 – They are initially bootstrapped but raised a little over $ 5 million from friends and families
- 08:03 – Note from friends and families and they’re doing equity now
- 08:15 – Raising $ 10 million from equity
08:40 – Fashion brand is not a traditional tech-play
- 09:05 – Retailers that can potentially pull down the brand
09:49 – Expenses per piece of jewelry is quite expensive
10:55 – Retailers are selling the jewelries at the same price with them
11:05 – Distributor price
11:25 – 8 people in the team from San Antonio and New York City
11:45 – They can track online orders easily
12:08 – Goal for 2016 revenue
12:34 – They have multiple products
12:48 – The initial product was a medical device
- 12:56 – Jerry’s grandfather was suffering from a type of dementia
- 13:13 – When Jerry’s grandfather passed away, that’s when he started Wisewear
- - 13:15 – Developed a hearing aid device
13:50 – 65% of their sales is from college women
- 14:35 – Biggest market is 20 – 35-year old women
- 14:49 – There’s a lot of burglary and sexual violence on college campuses
- 14:58 – There’s a panic button on the jewelry
15:14 – There’s a big market on realtors too
- 15:25 – Most realtors show homes and there’s a safety concern
15:51 – Connect with Wisewear through Instagram and Facebook. Jerry is more active on Twitter
17:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

You can take inspirations from the people around you.
Fashion retail brand is not a traditional tech-play.
Choose your business partners wisely.

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 quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for 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.
@Wisewear – Jerry’s business Instagram account
Facebook – Jerry’s business Facebook account
@GeraldJWilmink – Jerry’s twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 451: 5000 Smart Jewelry Units Sold, $5.1M Raised with WiseWear CEO Jerry Wilmink

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders