EP 104 Insider Lessons Gained from Launching Successful Products Feat: Dale Backus

Insider Lessons Gained from Launching Successful Products   Dale Backus has a story with ups and downs, hard work and wins, and some really amazing entrepreneurial lessons. He’s won crash the doritos contest not once but twice. He used some of these earnings to help fund his startup. That startup is now doing over $20m a year in revenue. That business is  SmallHD, a camera accessories company. Big wins for a young man of 31 years old.   Khierstyn and Dale are working together on a new project and it’s really exciting. Real world experience of taking a company from nothing, self funding, and growing an impressive revenue stream.   That’s why Dale  was invited on to the podcast. To give you a chance to hear from someone who has built from ground up, from 0 to 8 figures, and is now starting at 0 again.   [04:30] 10 Year Journey in a Nutshell   Dale tells us that he had an entrepreneurial spirit from young age. When it came time to graduate high school, he wanted to take his own route. He didn’t want to follow what parent’s desired path. He knew he had skills and that it was just a matter of making money.   “It’s always a matter of money right?” Dale laughs.   He started a production company called 5 Point Productions and shares that it’s not something he would recommend. Products make more sense  and it’s inherently harder to sell services. It was like a weight bearing down. They created some car ad, but he tells us that those are the worst. Then, the super bowl contest came along and they were inspired. It was only 4 days from deadline when they saw it, but they decided to go all in.   It was the first ever consumer sourced ad content contest - and they won. It was a pretty revolutionary marketing strategy at the time. A unique concept. That was the first of 10 years they ran the contest. It was unbelievable.   “We didn’t get a lot of money but we got a lot of credibility and an increase in business.” They leveraged that for 5 Point Productions. “We had some fun making things that WEREN’T local car ads.” Eventually the fame wore down and they were back to the grind. It just wasn’t working for them anymore.     In the process of running that company, they had to keep improving quality as they were getting bigger and working on accounts.  It was during this process that they discovered a need for this display to be able to plug in their HD camera into something they could monitor with. It wasn’t out there at the time, and decided to go out and build it.   Dale loves creating physical products, likes it more than sevices, and edged everyone towards launching the product. They launched SmallHD which was building these displays.   [10:40] Meeting Sales Without Inventory   It can be tough launching  product and meeting sales needs when you don’t yet have a physical product. Dale tells us that they tackled it head on. They threw together a few prototypes and crowdfunded themselves on their own website. Kickstarter wasn’t around because crowdfunding was still a new concept. They ran a 24 hour campaign pre-order and sold 60 units which opened up the possibilities. When they got money, they ordered parts. Orders would trickle in but it was slow. Then they developed a real product, something developed as the next step.   There were many lessons learned in the process. At first, Dale tells us that they fought against MOQ (minimum order quantity) for a new board for which they couldn't afford the MOQ investment. It so happens the Doritos contest popped up again around this time, though the prizes had increased dramatically.   Against wishes and recommendations from those around them, they decided to enter again. Long story short, they created 2 ads and both were selected as finalists.  One became the second best