Mike Tecku final appeared on this podcast in 2019. He spoke as an skilled Amazon vendor in our “Constructing an Ecommerce Enterprise” collection. 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 not too long ago mentioned his journey — promoting his corporations, setting priorities, launching Momentum, and extra.

Your entire 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 properly 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 following two years figuring myself out and researching longevity.

I got here up with this product based mostly on the premium variations of the dietary supplements I used to be taking. I linked instantly with the producers. I put every little thing into one shake to make it simple. I needed 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 trustworthy 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 needs to name tremendous. I name it pixie mud when corporations add hint quantities of one thing to make it sound wholesome. I needed no advertising fluff, solely the most effective elements.

We went with this unbelievable grass-fed whey protein from Eire. It’s 5 occasions costlier than another protein. Eire is the one place that may develop that grass year-round. And it’s the one place you’ll be able to certify that one thing is actually grass-fed. It makes for a premium product.

Some of us like protein from peas, the vegetable, but it surely incorporates heavy metals and pesticides and 30% fewer important amino acids. I wasn’t prepared to compromise simply because it was in style.

Not utilizing synthetic flavors is insanely costly. Each bag we’ve got has about $2 value 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 high of a market as a result of few are prepared to do it.

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

I’m not taken with something that may’t scale. Momentum may very simply do $100 million a 12 months. To get to that stage, I want about 60,000 subscribers. That’s 60,000 gross sales over 5 years — 12,000 a 12 months. That’s doable with an excellent product and the correct 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 finally. Shoppers are very worth delicate on Amazon, which requires schooling. As soon as of us acknowledge the model Momentum and look to purchase it on Amazon, we’ll have it on the market there. However for now, I’ll concentrate on issues like this podcast to assist shoppers 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 elements individually, it’d be about $400 a month. And that by eradicating the intermediary on 20 elements, I can cost $75 a bag. And the margins aren’t truly that nice for me. So it’ll take some schooling.

Vitamin is tough. 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 now have no secret capsules or medicine. It’s simply the issues that our our bodies want day by day. People don’t wish to take a gazillion capsules.

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 really like mentoring, by the best way.