Adam Lee, cofounder and CEO of Bohemian Guitars. The business sells guitars made out of recyclable materials, and the majority of its sales in through the website bohemianguitars.com. Nathan and his brother are now making over $1 million per year, and their initial marketing strategy focused on crowdfunding. Their marketing strategy has found the secret to making money through these crowdfunding sites.

Famous 5:

Favorite Business Book? – Tribes by Seth Godin
What CEO do you follow? — Nick Woodman
Favorite online tool? —

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Definitely not
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — I wish I wasn’t caught up in saving for the future

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:16 – Nathan introduces Adam Lee, cofounder and CEO of Bohemian Guitars
01:40 – The company is a retail brand and manufacturer, with guitars made out of recyclable materials
2:20 – A guitar costs about $250, with $50 cost to produce
02:48 – Most sales go through the website
03:05 – They started in 2012 and have over 100 skews, for all custom guitars
03:22 - They have partners in China and a facility in Atlanta
04:07 – The first year, their revenue was $16000
04:55 – Their 2015 revenue was just under $1 million, due in part to success with a ukulele
05:58 – There are a lot of players, and they are new to the space, so they try to draw people in with accessories.
06:55 – They do a lot of crowdfunding to raise funds and test the crowd
07:31 – Kickstarter and Indiegogo were both used, and are fairly comparable
08:24 – They did a soft launch on Indiegogo with a party and low price initiative as well as an official launch online the next day
10:39 – Their campaign was run for 30 days, with a goal to manufacture 1000 guitars.
12:04 – An online campaign requires a lot of work and preparation—you need a story to tell.
13:03 – You can pressure people to still buy after reaching the Kickstart goal by adding incentives.
14:00 – When you agree to purchase, Indiegogo and the company will email you, and you will be invited to an exclusive online community.
14:44 – They will now try to run a campaign on their own website.
15:21 – Follow Adam on Twitter
17:19 – Adam does the Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Nathan and his brother came up with a unique idea and are now making over $1 million per year.
Bohemian Guitars focused a lot on crowdfunding, and is continuing to try out new online marketing methods.
The company gets buys with incentives that have short deadlines.

Resources Mentioned:

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.

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 356: $1M In Guitar Sales From CrowdFunding, Whats Next? With Adam Lee

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders