Lucas Cao is the President and CEO of Squid Industries, an American manufacturing company with a focus on the butterfly knife and trainer industry.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

• [00:49] Intro
• [01:48] Getting interested with the idea of balisong
• [03:00] Becoming a collector & joining the community
• [03:57] Seeing the barriers for interested newcomers
• [04:44] Trying to make a balisong trainer
• [05:37] Discovering the popularity of balisong
• [06:30] Testing the waters and the success rate
• [07:37] Gaining traction bit by bit
• [09:03] Planning things ahead and investing on manpower
• [10:27] Running the business remotely
• [11:15] Purchasing their first manufacturing equipment
• [12:29] Continuing the business full time
• [13:09] Vertical integration and quality control
• [13:53] An unexpected success in hindsight
• [14:32] The meticulous process of picking a brand name
• [17:26] Investing on passion and in the community
• [18:34] The goal is to make the best product possible
• [20:05] Sporadic growth, full of highs and lows
• [21:26] A shift on the velocity of production
• [22:18] Leveraging the resources available to you
• [22:52] Episode sponsors
• [26:17] The challenge in manufacturing and prototyping
• [27:46] The importance of versatility
• [28:50] Maximizing influencer marketing
• [30:20] Standing out from the competition
• [30:54] Trying different avenues of advertising
• [31:39] Effectively conveying your idea to manufacturers
• [34:05] Talk to manufacturers with different processes
• [35:14] Where to find Squid Industries Co.

Resources:

• Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
• High performance and community-driven balisongs squidindustries.co/  
• Follow Lucas Cao linkedin.com/in/lucas-cao-6a3412b1/
• Schedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connect
• Take your retail business to the next level today https://shopify.com/honest
  Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period
• Schedule your free consultation with a Sendlane expert sendlane.com/honest

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