Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Razor Sharp Success: Gareth Everard on Launching Rockwell Razors | Finance Series

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Razor Sharp Success: Gareth Everard on Launching Rockwell Razors | Finance Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
• 0:07
  share their experiences so we can learn from their successes
• 0:10
  how they've overcome adversity and explore current challenges
• 0:13
  they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
• 0:18
  the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their
• 0:21
  experiences so we can learn from their successes how they've
• 0:24
  overcome adversity and explore current challenges they're
• 0:27
  facing. My name is Anthony Codispotti
• 0:29
  and today's guest is Gareth Everard, Co founder of Rockwell
• 0:33
  Razors. It's the company that Men's
• 0:36
  Health called Best Tested Safety Razor and GQ called it Real
• 0:41
  Shaving Innovation in their grooming awards.
• 0:44
  He's also the founder of Mr. Gladstone, a line of natural wax
• 0:47
  based colognes, and as someone who's geeked out on innovation,
• 0:51
  I can't wait to talk about some of the innovative projects he's
• 0:54
  worked on. He's also the former CMO of LOMI
• 0:57
  that generated over $100 million in revenue in two years and he
• 1:01
  now has a flourishing agency business where his clients get
• 1:04
  to benefit from his diverse skill sets.
• 1:07
  Now before we get into all the good stuff about Gareth, today's
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  Now back to the good stuff, our guest today.
• 1:47
  Garrett, thanks for joining us. Appreciate you making the time.
• 1:50
  Hey, yeah, great to connect. So let's go back to the
• 1:54
  beginning of your career. You graduated university and did
• 1:58
  you immediately start Rockwell? Did you have a job in between or
• 2:02
  how did that come about? Yeah, actually Rockwell started
• 2:05
  before I graduated university, so the the kind of quick version
• 2:10
  of the story. Was I was doing.
• 2:12
  An environmental science degree with like a business minor.
• 2:16
  And so I was taking this business course one day.
• 2:18
  This and we did. A class on advertising.
• 2:21
  If you remember the Dollar Shave Club ad, it was basically it was
• 2:24
  like 2 hour business class that we spent the entire class
• 2:27
  celebrating. This Dollar Shave Club ad that
• 2:30
  that, you know, the big one, The big famous kind of viral ad.
• 2:34
  And broke it down and and how it.
• 2:35
  Was such a wonderful ad in all these ways and how the video
• 2:38
  went viral. And and then in my very.
• 2:41
  Next class Which? Is more of an environmental.
• 2:44
  Science class. That entire class was on the
• 2:47
  incredible damage to wildlife that cartridge.
• 2:51
  Razors going into landfills caused.
• 2:53
  And there are all these pictures of, you know, birds.
• 2:55
  Bleeding out and choking. To death on razor blades.
• 2:58
  Not to open up the. Podcast too.
• 3:00
  On too sunny a note. But yeah, that, that.
• 3:04
  That was definitely a bit of a conflicting.
• 3:06
  Moment for me. So I was having trouble
• 3:09
  reconciling those two things that I just spent two hours
• 3:12
  celebrating, learning about advertising that, it turned out,
• 3:16
  was actually doing some pretty meaningful environmental harm.
• 3:20
  So I looked into the space. And and I remembered.
• 3:23
  That there were these razors. Kind of old tiny razors that
• 3:26
  used fully recyclable razor blades.
• 3:28
  That don't go into landfill. But that people had stopped
• 3:31
  using those razors because it had been marketed that they were
• 3:35
  not easy to use. And that was the perception.
• 3:38
  So, Long story short. While I was still in 3rd and
• 3:41
  then. 4th year university of my business partner and I kind of.
• 3:46
  Invented a. Easier to use double edged
• 3:49
  safety razor, which is like the old timey safety razor, not the
• 3:51
  straight razor, not like The Sweeney Todd.
• 3:53
  Kind but between. That and Kercher, Drizor.
• 3:56
  And that ended up being. Rockwell so we did a
• 3:59
  Kickstarter. Campaign that raised a.
• 4:02
  $150,000. Back in 2014, which was?
• 4:05
  At that time, quite a lot on Kickstarter.
• 4:08
  And we made. All sorts of manufacturing
• 4:10
  mistakes. And I had to.
• 4:13
  Actually, our first manufacturer based in Milwaukee went
• 4:17
  bankrupt. Right in the middle.
• 4:18
  Of US manufacturing that first. Run and we had to.
• 4:23
  Yeah, Pivot pretty quickly that the many with the product that
• 4:27
  they had made was also not very good.
• 4:29
  So I actually had to go pretty deeply into personal.
• 4:32
  Debt to find a new. Factory We ended up making
• 4:36
  razors in a gun. Factory in Medina, OH, and I was
• 4:41
  sleeping on on the under the conference table at night
• 4:46
  because I had no money for hotels and I was still doing.
• 4:48
  4th year university, but like at this point.
• 4:50
  Remotely, obviously, to to just. Get these razors quality
• 4:56
  controlled. And checked and ultimately ship
• 4:59
  those out and and those that second round of product.
• 5:01
  Was really well received. And and since then, you know
• 5:04
  everyone else from my environmental science program.
• 5:07
  Turns out the job offers you get from that from that degree is
• 5:11
  actually oil and gas jobs which done.
• 5:14
  I'm a I'm a little bit of a tree hugger, so.
• 5:16
  That that wasn't, that wasn't fully resonating with me.
• 5:18
  So I went full time on Rockwell and I've been been a founder.
• 5:22
  Ever since. So what was the big innovation
• 5:24
  that you guys introduced to these old timey straight razors?
• 5:27
  And I I remember these razors because this was the kind I saw
• 5:30
  my dad and my grandfather shaving with.
• 5:32
  And so it's, you know, it's a thin piece of metal that screws
• 5:35
  into kind of a a metal handle that that opens up in the
• 5:39
  middle. What what was the innovation
• 5:42
  that you guys brought to this old style?
• 5:44
  Product Super simple. There's, there's.
• 5:46
  Two elements. Of a of a razor that sort of
• 5:49
  affect what sort of hair thickness it can shave.
• 5:52
  And how smooth? Like how?
• 5:54
  Easy to use, how careful you need to be when you're using
• 5:56
  that razor and then the double edged safety razor space that's
• 6:00
  called like the aggressiveness of your shave, so up to.
• 6:04
  Kind of in the. Early 2000s, there were a couple
• 6:08
  predominantly German manufacturers who were kind of
• 6:10
  the main players in the space and they all made this very
• 6:13
  standard razor, which was kind of just in the middle of
• 6:18
  aggressiveness. So you have to be a little bit
• 6:21
  careful using it because they're the blade gap as in the space
• 6:24
  between the. Blade and the plate.
• 6:27
  So the thing that actually pulls on your skin and hair so that
• 6:31
  gap was medium wide. And and the blade angle.
• 6:37
  Was fixed at a a blade angle that was somewhat difficult to
• 6:41
  to shave with if you didn't know what you were doing.
• 6:43
  So we innovative. On a razor where the blade gap
• 6:46
  was adjustable. And and.
• 6:48
  Therefore, so was the blade angle.
• 6:51
  So you could kind of. Switch from a setting that was
• 6:54
  for. Sensitive skin all the way.
• 6:56
  To if you wanted to try to shave this this burly beard of mine at
• 7:00
  the moment. So I actually own some of your
• 7:03
  products and I think I might have an earlier version of the
• 7:06
  razor where, correct me if I'm wrong, the the earlier version
• 7:11
  they had plates that you you removed depending on that gap
• 7:15
  that you wanted and then eventually you guys progress to
• 7:20
  a dial. Am I remembering that?
• 7:22
  Correctly so those are. Those are just two different
• 7:24
  kinds of models, so we. Have the the Rockwell Model T
• 7:27
  which is the the dial Model T is in turn turn the dial and then
• 7:32
  we have the Rockwell 6 series. So that's like the six.
• 7:35
  S, which is in stainless steel and the six.
• 7:38
  C which is in chromed Chrome zinc alloy.
• 7:42
  Which is just the. Same razor, but one is made with
• 7:45
  slightly more affordable materials.
• 7:48
  So yeah, those are the differences.
• 7:49
  So some people actually prefer the plate system that you have
• 7:53
  just because it's got a little bit more inherently like the
• 7:55
  balance of it is different because it has no internal
• 7:58
  components, but of course the. The dial 1 has internal
• 8:01
  components so the weighting. Of the razor is a little
• 8:04
  different. And that's one thing I was going
• 8:06
  to comment on is when you pick it up, there's a nice weight,
• 8:09
  like a nice heft to it. You're like, oh, this, this just
• 8:12
  feels like good. It feels very quality and it's
• 8:16
  the the lines on it and the finishing on it's beautiful.
• 8:19
  But what really struck me actually was the, the shaving
• 8:23
  cream. Do you call it cream 'cause it's
• 8:25
  in the little container. Is is that the right?
• 8:28
  Term Oh yeah, the shaving. Soap.
• 8:30
  Shaving soap. Yeah, yeah.
• 8:32
  And the the luxurious feel of it, it was like kind of reminds
• 8:38
  me of the Seinfeld episode with George.
• 8:40
  And he wanted to be ensconced in velvet.
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  And I just, I wanted to be ensconced in this, this shaving
• 8:46
  soap because it's just unlike anything I'd ever felt before.
• 8:49
  But yeah, beautiful quality product.
• 8:53
  Thank you. I feel privileged to have.
• 8:55
  Indirectly ensconced you in. Velvet I've never.
• 8:57
  I've never. Heard that compliment.
• 8:59
  But it's going, it's going in the lexicon.
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  I want to dive into some of these manufacturing mistakes
• 9:05
  that you talked about because these are the kinds of things
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  that can kill a young company, especially for somebody still in
• 9:12
  college not making money going into.
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  Like, these are the kinds of things even for experienced
• 9:18
  business people where, you know, they could be like, I'm that's
• 9:21
  enough. Like I'm going to walk away.
• 9:23
  So first, let's let's go into a little bit of detail about what
• 9:26
  was one or more of these problems and why were you so
• 9:31
  convinced that this was worth working through.
• 9:35
  Great question. So the the, the problems are
• 9:40
  easy to talk through, not easy to remember but or or to revisit
• 9:46
  I should say. But basically there are two
• 9:49
  different ways. You could hypothetically
• 9:52
  manufacture or. That we perceived you could
• 9:54
  hypothetically manufacture at scale A.
• 9:58
  Fully metal, fully stainless steel product and that is.
• 10:02
  Through there's either. Investment casting, which is
• 10:07
  cheaper and has a smaller minimum run and.
• 10:12
  Less slightly less precise tolerances, which is just the
• 10:16
  the exact measurements that you would get as you put them
• 10:19
  together. And by the way, still very
• 10:21
  precise, but like slightly less precise than the alternative
• 10:24
  which is. Metal injection molding, which
• 10:27
  is much more expensive to set up you.
• 10:28
  Have to set up molds, which for stainless steel which was our
• 10:33
  first product. Is made out of stainless.
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  Steel. Very, very expensive.
• 10:37
  To to set up those. Molds.
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  So we chose being. 19 year old first time founders.
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  We thought. That investment casting.
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  Would be appropriate. And that was the factor I
• 10:49
  mentioned. In Milwaukee, that did not, did
• 10:53
  not survive and the tolerance is just simply we're not good
• 10:57
  enough. We we we should not.
• 10:59
  Have chosen that manufacturing method we did not consult.
• 11:02
  Enough engineers and we should. Have had better quality control
• 11:06
  procedures in place because about half the razors were
• 11:09
  actually great. They were a little ugly, you.
• 11:12
  Know first run of of a new product maybe you.
• 11:15
  Could forgive that it's a little ugly.
• 11:17
  Sorry to interrupt, but just to clarify, when you're talking
• 11:19
  about the razor, are you talking about the handle or the blades?
• 11:22
  Which which one were you having? Trouble.
• 11:23
  Oh, sorry. So the the the top part, so the
• 11:26
  the handle was always made through machining.
• 11:28
  So that's just like taking bar stock and running that through.
• 11:32
  A machine which which turns it into the kind of this neural.
• 11:34
  Handle. It's the the part that needs.
• 11:37
  Precision and thanks for clarifying.
• 11:39
  It's the the part that needs the the.
• 11:40
  Precision is the cap and. The base plates, so everything.
• 11:43
  That isn't the handle. And yeah, so then what we
• 11:48
  basically. Had to do is consulted after
• 11:51
  after only about half the razors were good.
• 11:54
  We went back and consulted. With engineers much more deeply,
• 11:59
  ultimately decided that we had to go.
• 12:02
  The Metal Injection molding route.
• 12:03
  There simply are not. Very many metal injection
• 12:07
  molders in the United States. So we didn't have a ton of of
• 12:10
  options and and there was one. That would talk to us.
• 12:13
  And so we we worked with them and yeah, and then it took.
• 12:18
  It took quite a lot of work and I I actually.
• 12:20
  Hand. Check hand QC personally every
• 12:23
  single one of the 1st 5000 razors.
• 12:27
  That came off the line. We had to reship, so I, at my
• 12:30
  own cost, reshipped 2. 1500 razors to.
• 12:34
  The people who had first ordered, and whether they were
• 12:37
  happy or not with the first raise of the investment cast
• 12:40
  razor that we had shipped them, I took it upon myself to to
• 12:44
  personally finance and quality. Control and then ship. 2500
• 12:50
  replacement razors. Which was not.
• 12:52
  Cheap, but it did allow us to prove to do, I think, the
• 12:57
  customer. Base in in.
• 12:59
  This segment of the market that we were committed to.
• 13:02
  Making. Great products.
• 13:05
  And certainly making it right with anyone who was not.
• 13:07
  Who was understandably not stoked about the first brand of
• 13:10
  product so. Yeah.
• 13:12
  And now that was it. It was.
• 13:14
  It was like 5000 products times 5000 pieces.
• 13:18
  Sorry, times 5 pieces. So 25,000 total pieces that I
• 13:22
  had to. Individually quality control
• 13:24
  while also doing my final year of university and.
• 13:28
  Writing honors thesis on like the profitability of wind
• 13:33
  turbine projects. Anyways, that's a whole other
• 13:35
  story. It was it was a it was a crazy
• 13:37
  report there. How does a still in college
• 13:41
  student come up with the funds to do the initial product run,
• 13:46
  then fire engineers, then to do another production run and ship
• 13:52
  customers a whole another set? I mean, you got some money
• 13:55
  through the Kickstarter, but I have to imagine with all the
• 13:59
  product rework that you were doing that you're still going in
• 14:02
  the hole. Yeah, we did.
• 14:05
  So there's a lot of debt there was.
• 14:07
  So there's like a little bit of traditional bank.
• 14:10
  Debt there are banks in. Canada.
• 14:14
  Where I'm from and and where Rockwell.
• 14:15
  Is based the do. Small loans to to startups.
• 14:20
  So we tapped every single one of those.
• 14:22
  Programs. And then we did.
• 14:24
  We did fortunately get some vendor advances.
• 14:26
  Because this was, this is a. It still is a very novel product
• 14:31
  and so there. Were a lot of wholesalers.
• 14:33
  In the space too. We're interested in stocking
• 14:36
  Rockwell and we kind of reached out to them and well, they
• 14:38
  reached out to us and we said, hey, that's great that you're
• 14:40
  interested. If you do want this, we're just
• 14:42
  going to need to take a deposit. On your on your order.
• 14:45
  And so we collected. Quite a lot of those actually
• 14:48
  were really fortunate that I. Think there's so much demand?
• 14:52
  For Rockwell, for the success specifically that.
• 14:57
  Yeah, between the Kickstarter funds, the small loans, and the.
• 15:01
  Vendor advances it was, we were able to to make it work, just
• 15:06
  barely. And where did the razor blades
• 15:09
  get manufactured? The razor blades are
• 15:12
  manufactured. In China, so we import Swedish
• 15:14
  stainless. Steel to a dedicated facility in
• 15:18
  in China and they're made there. There are very few razor blade
• 15:23
  factories left in the world like the old timing razor blades.
• 15:26
  I think there's like. One in Turkey, one in Egypt, one
• 15:28
  in. Russia, I believe there might.
• 15:31
  Be one in the US. But it's actually.
• 15:32
  It's a. It's it only.
• 15:33
  Works with one. Company that will remain
• 15:36
  nameless on this podcast, but then there.
• 15:38
  Are a couple options in. China we didn't.
• 15:41
  Really love any of the options, but we felt that we had figured.
• 15:46
  Out how to make? A very good razor blade by
• 15:48
  importing a specific kind of stainless steel from Sweden.
• 15:53
  Into China and having them make. The razor blades out of that
• 15:57
  steel instead of kind of the regular off the shelf steel.
• 16:02
  The other thing I wanted to hear about because this sounds like a
• 16:04
  good story, how did you end up spending the night on the floor
• 16:08
  of the gun factory? How did you end up with a gun
• 16:11
  factory to manufacture your razors?
• 16:16
  Yeah, it was not just one night like I I couldn't afford a
• 16:18
  hotel. Like on the weekends, like the
• 16:21
  Motel 6 or whatever was like that was my luxury.
• 16:26
  So yeah, no, I couldn't afford anything.
• 16:29
  So they they were very kind and let me sleep under the the
• 16:31
  conference table. And the gun factory?
• 16:36
  Honestly, it was. So we'd looked around for like
• 16:38
  metal injection molding facilities and found one that.
• 16:43
  Very clearly marketed that like it predominantly made.
• 16:46
  Stainless steel gun components and in my mind I was like, OK,
• 16:51
  if you can make components for guns, I imagine that like.
• 16:56
  Those tolerances, those tolerance requirements, like we
• 17:00
  also translate over into what I'd need for razors.
• 17:04
  So there's a lot of work that had to go into actually getting
• 17:08
  the appearance of the razor. Rate, like the finishing, took a
• 17:11
  lot of trial and error. To get correct, there's
• 17:14
  something you deal with. In metal injection molding.
• 17:16
  Called elephant skin. If the if the moisture levels in
• 17:20
  the. Facility aren't perfectly right.
• 17:23
  Your product will end up. Because there's no coating.
• 17:26
  On our razors it's just it's it's just a a bead blasting
• 17:29
  Polish of a of stainless steel. But if the if the.
• 17:35
  The moisture levels and temperatures and a whole bunch
• 17:37
  of. Other settings are not right.
• 17:38
  You actually end up with, well, it looks exactly like elephant
• 17:41
  skin. It just looks.
• 17:41
  Like kind of this. This crackling type appearance
• 17:45
  on the top. And it it.
• 17:46
  Doesn't look great. So it took a lot of trial in her
• 17:49
  to to get that right. So I'm looking at your website
• 17:53
  heregetrockwell.com. It's beautiful site, very clean
• 17:56
  navigation. Is this this looks like direct
• 18:00
  to consumer kind of a brand. Is that your your only channel
• 18:03
  is online through your site? Maybe some Amazon?
• 18:08
  Yeah, interestingly enough, no. We're we're probably just under.
• 18:13
  50% direct to consumer if you include kind of Shopify and
• 18:16
  Amazon. It's actually, it's
• 18:18
  predominantly wholesale. And more than half of.
• 18:21
  Our wholesale is through international distributors, so
• 18:24
  like we sell. To a distributor anywhere from.
• 18:27
  Australia to Brazil to. Spain to Sweden and then they'll
• 18:31
  sell. On to Barber shops or.
• 18:33
  Men's clothing. Stores or what have you and
• 18:37
  their local territory, it's just it's a, it's a very niche market
• 18:40
  but a very global niche market. So we've been pretty successful
• 18:44
  differentiating through through international wholesale.
• 18:48
  How did you come up with those accounts?
• 18:50
  How, how was it that you found these distributors?
• 18:53
  I I wish I could. Tell you that it was some sort
• 18:55
  of, like, brilliant insight, but it wasn't.
• 18:58
  It was them. Reaching out to us.
• 19:00
  So because I think. Rockwell.
• 19:01
  Launched on a on. Like a global visibility
• 19:07
  platform like Kickstarter? And that was like in 2014 the.
• 19:10
  Numbers you would raise on Kickstarter weren't necessarily
• 19:12
  huge, but the visibility you would get was actually pretty
• 19:16
  meaningful. So I think people.
• 19:18
  Would look at Kickstarter a lot. And not buy so you you'd get
• 19:22
  kind of some some buzz and the other thing is we went.
• 19:26
  Our Kickstarter because it was the 1st.
• 19:27
  Shaving. Kickstarter.
• 19:29
  There's a subreddit called Wicked.
• 19:30
  Edge which is kind of where. People who are.
• 19:33
  Traditional or classic shaving enthusiasts?
• 19:36
  Hang out. And they were talking.
• 19:39
  Quite a lot about our product launch.
• 19:41
  And so I think distributors. Were likely looking at those
• 19:44
  places because distributors. Might be, in fact organic.
• 19:47
  Members of those communities, So I think they were looking.
• 19:51
  They reached out and then once. Enough folks.
• 19:53
  Had reached out through through that.
• 19:55
  We're like, OK, hold on, So if. We've heard from someone in
• 19:58
  Sweden, someone in Greece. Someone in Australia?
• 20:01
  Maybe we should start proactively Googling for more of
• 20:05
  these. And we found out that.
• 20:07
  Almost every country or territory or region has a.
• 20:10
  Small like a. Boutique Classic Shaving product
• 20:13
  distributor. And now many of them.
• 20:15
  Are our customers. And so here we are almost 10
• 20:19
  years later from the initial launch of the product.
• 20:21
  And have you had other people come in and try to mimic what
• 20:24
  you're doing? No, the 11.
• 20:29
  The fairly strong piece of advice we did get early.
• 20:33
  On sorry, not the only one, but a.
• 20:35
  Strong piece of advice was. To invest in an intellectual.
• 20:39
  Property portfolio, which I always thought was a little.
• 20:41
  High and mighty, it seemed a. Little bit like overkill.
• 20:44
  Because my understanding now is even having utility patents.
• 20:50
  Which is what we've. Filed for instead of just design
• 20:52
  patents. Which are fairly fairly loose.
• 20:55
  They're not very strong intellectual property because
• 20:57
  someone can just make a slight change to your design and you're
• 21:01
  no longer. Protected, but we actually we
• 21:03
  were able to globally patent the the utility of this flippable
• 21:08
  place base plate which provides that adjustability that we're
• 21:12
  talking about. So the so the exact flippable
• 21:15
  base plate designed to provide adjustability for like the
• 21:18
  Rockwell success and succeed is we've got the global.
• 21:22
  Patent it's It's the most niche patent.
• 21:24
  I never thought that I'd have a patent on something quite so
• 21:26
  niche, but. Here we are.
• 21:28
  It's it's meant that. Rockwell has had the.
• 21:30
  Opportunity to kind of. I guess go global with a a very
• 21:36
  a very. Niche.
• 21:36
  Product but was also appreciated by. 10s of thousands, if not
• 21:40
  hundreds of thousands of people around the world, which has been
• 21:43
  really rewarding. I've got a little bit of
• 21:45
  experience in patents myself. I'm curious the sort of Arc that
• 21:49
  you went on here. So did you file first in the US
• 21:53
  and get that patent awarded and then use that to apply in Europe
• 21:59
  and Asia? Do you remember sort of the
• 22:02
  flow? Yeah.
• 22:02
  So we did the. We did the US patent filing.
• 22:04
  And we were granted it, but we had also filed for the PCT, so
• 22:08
  the Paris Convention Treaty. In parallel with the with the US
• 22:13
  patent and then when the US patent was granted that kind of
• 22:16
  unlocked following. Through with the PCT.
• 22:20
  And so then we just filed through the Paris Convention
• 22:23
  treaty in any. Countries that we were seeking.
• 22:27
  Distribution in and I'm no, I'm no international.
• 22:31
  Intellectual property expert, but the.
• 22:33
  The, the, the, my understanding in a very condensed time version
• 22:37
  of of the PCT of the Paris. Convention treaty is it's
• 22:40
  basically an agreement that almost every.
• 22:43
  Country in the world has signed to recognize.
• 22:45
  A patent filed in. Any one of those countries that
• 22:49
  you don't have to like? Pay for all the.
• 22:51
  Translations and do individual filings.
• 22:54
  Solo in every country but. You can at a.
• 22:56
  Cheaper rate after you filed a let's say US.
• 23:00
  Patent then filed. For your PCT and being.
• 23:04
  Granted both, then it's. Much more affordable to file.
• 23:07
  In any one of hundreds. Of countries.
• 23:11
  That's terrific. So Rockwell razors alive and
• 23:15
  well. Still today, still picking up
• 23:17
  steam, it sounds like. Tell me about Mr. Gladstone.
• 23:21
  This is solid. Men's fragrances.
• 23:25
  What? What is?
• 23:26
  It's a product that I'm not familiar with.
• 23:29
  Yeah, so like I said I. Started Rockwell with a business
• 23:33
  partner and we kind of agreed that anything in in men.
• 23:36
  'S grooming we would do through through Rockwell razors.
• 23:41
  But then that's important. Thinking our interests.
• 23:43
  And and all that diverge over time and I'm just, I'm a bit of
• 23:47
  like a fragrance nerd and at one point.
• 23:50
  We kind of figured out hey wouldn't make.
• 23:52
  A lot of sense to. Make like a Rockwell Razors
• 23:54
  solid Cologne. Like that's a very.
• 23:56
  It's very. Confusing kind of branding.
• 23:59
  So we just agreed on carving out a couple of product categories.
• 24:03
  That each of us. That were kind of.
• 24:05
  Uniquely more interested in that?
• 24:06
  Product category saying, hey, we're going to do Rockwell
• 24:09
  together, but there are certain places that were in.
• 24:13
  Within kind of the confines? Of men's grooming that we're
• 24:16
  acknowledging one person. Should have the opportunity to.
• 24:19
  Explore without necessarily being tied to the other person.
• 24:23
  So that's been nice for the partnership that we can.
• 24:25
  Continue to kind of have that that relationship while
• 24:28
  exploring. Other things so so.
• 24:30
  Cologne was one of those those things and and Rockwell does
• 24:32
  sell quite a lot in. Barber shops.
• 24:35
  And at the end of, believe it or not, Anthony, back in the day I
• 24:38
  did have a full head of hair and you know at the.
• 24:40
  End of those those services they I would I would have.
• 24:44
  Kind of like palmade or a gel put in my hair.
• 24:46
  And then more often than not, I would find myself being up sold.
• 24:50
  That whatever product had. Just been put into my hair and I
• 24:54
  would find myself. Purchasing it and.
• 24:55
  When I was kind of sitting there thinking like, well.
• 24:57
  I'm surprised that because, you know, they'll apply some sort of
• 25:00
  like aftershave. At the end, but that's not.
• 25:03
  Really something that's so easy to like, sell, and.
• 25:05
  Take home with you. It's also quite strong.
• 25:08
  It really stinks up the shop, so I don't think every Barber does
• 25:11
  that. You're not going to spray
• 25:12
  Cologne, so I was. Looking around and realizing
• 25:14
  I've got all this. Network in.
• 25:16
  Barber. Shops.
• 25:17
  I could make a less invasive Cologne smell.
• 25:20
  So I partnered up. With the designer, A local
• 25:23
  designer in Toronto, Canada and made this what?
• 25:26
  I believe to be like just a really beautiful.
• 25:28
  Not only branding, but kind of positioning.
• 25:31
  So we made this specific tin display case for these $20 very
• 25:37
  affordable. But beautiful smelling colognes.
• 25:40
  So yeah, now carried in hundreds of Barber shops.
• 25:42
  Around the world and really just kind of intended to.
• 25:45
  Be we give the we give a couple samples away to each Barber
• 25:48
  shop. And then they can.
• 25:49
  Purchase the the display case and.
• 25:52
  Offer it at the end of. Service to their.
• 25:54
  Their clients so that their clients smell great.
• 25:56
  And then? It's a great new revenue source
• 25:58
  for for barbers as well. Yeah, the site is Mr. Gladstone,
• 26:02
  as in mrgladstone.com. The styling is really cool for
• 26:06
  today's unflappable gentleman, but is this so help me out.
• 26:11
  Is this a product category that you basically invented?
• 26:14
  Are there other products like this?
• 26:16
  OK, this is. Something I'm not familiar with.
• 26:18
  Yeah, there were a couple, I think.
• 26:20
  What? What?
• 26:21
  We took a different kind of approach on WAS.
• 26:23
  Really focusing on barbers? And men's hair.
• 26:26
  Stylists, I think. Everyone else is kind of looking
• 26:28
  at it. Maybe through a purely direct
• 26:31
  consumer lens or or through? Gift shops and conventional
• 26:34
  retail. Not that.
• 26:35
  Not that I'm. Opposed to Mr. Gladstone being
• 26:37
  in conventional. Retail.
• 26:38
  It actually is carried in a lot of.
• 26:39
  Just kind of gift stores and wonderful customers
• 26:42
  predominantly around North America, but what we really
• 26:45
  focused in on was. The merchandising to be a friend
• 26:48
  that you'll even see if there's you'll see a picture of the the
• 26:51
  display tin. Likely on the on the Gladstone
• 26:54
  site and it's. Actually was very specifically
• 26:57
  measured. Dimensionally to fit into the.
• 26:59
  Little in between, space in. Between all the the stations at
• 27:03
  a barbershop. So we just made sure that it.
• 27:05
  Would fit into any of. Those those stations.
• 27:08
  So really, really kind of made with barbers and men's hair
• 27:10
  stylists in mind. So if I'm a consumer of this
• 27:13
  product, a user of this product, I I take a little out.
• 27:16
  It's sort of like a gel or a wax.
• 27:17
  And am I putting it in my hair or on my skin?
• 27:21
  Then you probably typically put it.
• 27:22
  Put it on your your neck area like your.
• 27:24
  Pulse points would be would be the typical advice, so either on
• 27:27
  your wrists or. On your neck.
• 27:31
  Right. Now the, the next venture that I
• 27:35
  want to talk about is one that a lot of people probably familiar
• 27:39
  with your time at Lomi, you were the, Oh yeah, the Chief
• 27:44
  Marketing Officer and I think you helped to also like develop
• 27:48
  the physical part of the product.
• 27:50
  Is that right? Yeah, yeah.
• 27:52
  So I mean after the kind of years of doing the Rockwell.
• 27:56
  And then a couple. Years doing it just.
• 27:57
  Developing Mr. Gladstone on the side.
• 28:00
  I think I'd at that point spent. Almost six years.
• 28:03
  Pretty focused. In on, just like the men's
• 28:06
  grooming. Space and I kind of fallen in
• 28:09
  love more with the the product development.
• 28:11
  Aspects and. And I felt that I'd developed a
• 28:14
  lot of the products that I could that were that were glaringly
• 28:18
  obvious to me in. Rockwell and I'm still.
• 28:20
  I'm still. I'm still a.
• 28:21
  Partner in Rockwell and. Got a great team, that kind.
• 28:24
  Of run it day-to-day and make sure that.
• 28:25
  Our customers are are like overjoyed with the product that
• 28:29
  they get daily, but there wasn't a lot more in terms of like
• 28:32
  product development or like marketing.
• 28:34
  Innovation that I felt. Like I was.
• 28:35
  Going to be able to bring on a day-to-day basis and I've been
• 28:38
  having, you know, conversations with friends of mine, that's.
• 28:42
  As you do other. Friends in the The kind of the
• 28:44
  business. Space and a close friend who had
• 28:48
  peeler case, which is a biodegradable.
• 28:50
  Phone case company and they had kind of developed the.
• 28:53
  Various very earliest stages. Of a machine.
• 28:56
  That they had thought. Hey, we this machine could.
• 29:00
  Actually accelerate the biodegradation of our phone
• 29:04
  cases. So their idea originally.
• 29:07
  Was to maybe? Set up a facility at the very
• 29:11
  beginning. Their idea is to set up a
• 29:12
  facility that they could accelerate the compost of these
• 29:15
  biodegradable phone cases so people could ship.
• 29:17
  Them back and then you wouldn't have plastic going into landfill
• 29:20
  and then we just kind of kept kept kicking the idea around
• 29:24
  and. Ultimately realized that if you
• 29:26
  have. That technology.
• 29:28
  That technology. Could also process any organic
• 29:30
  household waste. And and then you.
• 29:33
  Could actually theoretically look into.
• 29:36
  Putting that technology in people's homes, so we developed
• 29:38
  a completely new home appliance, which is like a miniature.
• 29:43
  Home compost accelerator. So it just.
• 29:46
  Kind of creates, not, not. Dirt, but you can put all your
• 29:49
  all your organic waste from your your home.
• 29:52
  Into it. And you push a button.
• 29:54
  Overnight grounds. Yeah, bingo.
• 29:58
  Yeah. And you push a button and
• 30:00
  overnight it turns it into something that.
• 30:02
  That looks a lot like dirt that you can kind of.
• 30:04
  It's very nutrient rich, so you can sprinkle it on top of plants
• 30:07
  or the garden. And then those nutrients return
• 30:10
  to soil instead of going into an anaerobic environment in in
• 30:15
  landfill. So, yeah, so we launched.
• 30:18
  That and I think because it was. Kind of being spun out of the
• 30:22
  peeler case. Company There were already quite
• 30:24
  a lot of customers. That we knew were interested in
• 30:26
  the. Environmental, environmentally
• 30:28
  friendly aspects of the products.
• 30:30
  So it was able to jump out quite a lot.
• 30:33
  So, so I was. I was there for the kind of.
• 30:35
  Co founding of the company or the brand I should say.
• 30:39
  And yeah, I was. Fortunately able to scale it.
• 30:41
  To to just tremendous like far more revenue than I was I was
• 30:45
  expecting and that was that was. Fairly early exposure to me of
• 30:48
  like. The venture.
• 30:49
  Capital World as well. Which is interesting.
• 30:53
  I think I learned a lot. And learned a lot about like.
• 30:56
  Different different ways to run businesses and scale them and
• 30:59
  kind of be able to take away from that some things that I
• 31:01
  think I want to take into my future endeavors and some stuff
• 31:03
  that I'm I'm happy to have learned and.
• 31:05
  And left behind. But yeah, did that.
• 31:07
  For for a couple years. Kind of like invested your Co
• 31:11
  founding stock because that's that's how it works in VC world
• 31:15
  and yeah it's still in great shape today but yeah just.
• 31:19
  It was time for me to to go. Start some new things.
• 31:22
  So I want to dive into a little bit of the details because what
• 31:26
  you did there, you know, collectively as a team, but
• 31:29
  you're the Chief Marketing Officer, was incredibly
• 31:32
  impressive. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you
• 31:33
  guys had the biggest crowdfunding raise ever in any
• 31:38
  product category. Is that accurate?
• 31:41
  I don't know if that's. Accurate, I think.
• 31:42
  It. Was the largest The largest?
• 31:45
  What they called like a clean. Tech crowdfunding campaign, so I
• 31:48
  think it was about like $10 million in in like 2 months.
• 31:52
  So I don't. Think it was the largest.
• 31:54
  Crowdfund. Ever.
• 31:56
  Also like depends on. There's a bunch of different
• 31:58
  kinds of crowdfunds, right? You have.
• 32:00
  Your. Product crowdfunding.
• 32:01
  And then there's something called equity crowdfunding.
• 32:03
  I've never done that, but I know it's a thing.
• 32:06
  And then depending on who you. Ask like IC OS.
• 32:10
  I've also never done those, but like if you remember.
• 32:11
  Initial coin offerings. Those were those are technically
• 32:14
  considered a crowdfund as well. I don't know.
• 32:16
  Anything about crypto. But yeah, so there's a bunch of
• 32:20
  different kinds of crowdfunds. But I think, I think Lomi was
• 32:23
  the top clean tech crowdfund ever at the time.
• 32:27
  I haven't kept close tabs on it, but.
• 32:29
  It was. It was.
• 32:30
  It was an exciting two months, yeah.
• 32:33
  What for people who might be interested in running their own
• 32:35
  crowdfunding campaign, what are maybe just two or three, like
• 32:40
  make sure you do these, like got to check this box.
• 32:44
  I mean you've you've been through it multiple times.
• 32:47
  You know, first with Rockwell, I think with another product
• 32:49
  called Keto we haven't touched on and then with Lomi, you've
• 32:55
  obviously learned some things along the way.
• 32:57
  What can you share with? Us.
• 32:59
  Yeah, Yeah, for sure, I think. The the main thing is.
• 33:03
  Almost all the work to have a successful product.
• 33:06
  Launch crowdfunding campaign has done before the launch so.
• 33:11
  Building up your list of all both.
• 33:12
  Indiegogo and. Kickstarter kind of the main.
• 33:14
  Product crowdfunding platforms and what they do is is.
• 33:19
  Is effectively boost your organic visibility.
• 33:21
  As in people who are just going to the homepage of Kickstarter,
• 33:24
  Indiegogo. You will get more eyeballs on
• 33:28
  your product basically. The more.
• 33:31
  Customers that you drive like more.
• 33:33
  Transactions. That you drive through your
• 33:35
  campaign in the 1st 72 hours. So if you're for example able to
• 33:39
  build up a big list. E-mail List, SMS, Facebook
• 33:43
  Community. Instagram following TikTok
• 33:45
  doesn't. Really matter and that that
• 33:48
  community is able to. Drive a lot of traffic to to
• 33:52
  your. Campaign in the first.
• 33:53
  Kind of 4872 hours. That's considered.
• 33:56
  Like a very positive signal from Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
• 33:59
  And so you'll get more organic visibility.
• 34:02
  On their platform and then. It's kind of a flywheel from
• 34:05
  there. Build the list in advance and
• 34:08
  then get as many people from that list to purchase as soon as
• 34:11
  the campaign goes live. That is really a big.
• 34:14
  Lever to pull. So you decided that it was time
• 34:17
  to move on from LOMI and move on to some other ventures.
• 34:21
  So tell us, what are you working on now?
• 34:24
  Yeah, super briefly. It's just I kind of realized
• 34:27
  that I I. I've gotten.
• 34:29
  Accidentally quite good at at. Starting companies.
• 34:34
  And at the same time after low me.
• 34:35
  As you very kindly pointed out, it did.
• 34:38
  It did go quite well. So there are a lot of people who
• 34:40
  are reaching out saying, hey Derek, could you, could you
• 34:42
  replicate that for for my product, Could you do some?
• 34:45
  Consulting and consulting was never.
• 34:48
  Never something that really. Called to me.
• 34:50
  Specifically I just I struggle with like the the pure.
• 34:54
  Economics of it like trading time for money.
• 34:56
  I think they're just a lot of. Pursuits I'm interested in
• 35:00
  outside of business and if I put myself in a.
• 35:02
  In a life system where I'm always thinking of my hours.
• 35:05
  Having a specific kind of value to them, I just knew that I
• 35:08
  would find that constraining and I just found collaboration with
• 35:12
  business partners. To be really intellectually
• 35:14
  stimulating. So I had a fairly robust network
• 35:19
  of of people I'd worked with over the years.
• 35:22
  And so when? Who were who were excellent at
• 35:24
  these very specific skills and elements of marketing?
• 35:28
  So when? People were reaching out to me
• 35:30
  saying, Gareth, could you help? Us with our Facebook ads Could
• 35:32
  you help us? With our e-mail marketing,
• 35:34
  designing landing pages. Writing video ad scripts.
• 35:39
  Growing our Amazon presence like those are all things.
• 35:41
  Ostensibly. I can do.
• 35:43
  I have done. But I also know people who are.
• 35:46
  Excellent at those things and had.
• 35:47
  Expressed to me recently. That they wanted to go start
• 35:51
  their own businesses, so. Long story short, kind of put
• 35:54
  together a good leadership team across a couple couple different
• 35:59
  agencies and kind of handpicked. Some.
• 36:02
  People who I just thought would be the best leaders for
• 36:05
  different different elements of marketing and.
• 36:09
  Collaborated with them to build some some simple business
• 36:12
  systems to. Deliver these very like vertical
• 36:15
  specific services. And then it just give me an
• 36:17
  outlet to kind of point. People who are asking me to do.
• 36:20
  Consulting work. And they could.
• 36:21
  Actually then collaborate with my my.
• 36:23
  Business partner, so it takes. Small equity stakes in these
• 36:26
  these service businesses. So I spent the last.
• 36:28
  Year exploring that also moving from Canada.
• 36:33
  To the UK, which is. Quite an endeavor, so.
• 36:36
  Just kind of. Taking a little bit of time to
• 36:38
  live life a little bit more and and yeah create a couple more
• 36:42
  partnerships and. Got a couple other things that
• 36:44
  are cooking on. What's something that I'm?
• 36:47
  Personally going to fully sink. My teeth into.
• 36:50
  But yeah, details. Coming on that soon.
• 36:53
  OK, For the agency businesses that you have now, who would be
• 36:58
  your ideal client if somebody is listening and they say, oh, this
• 37:01
  Gareth guy, he seems pretty smart, he's got a track record.
• 37:06
  I wonder if he could help my brand.
• 37:07
  What what would that brand look like?
• 37:10
  Well. That's very kind of you.
• 37:11
  To ask, I think. The ones that I'm I'm spending
• 37:14
  the most time on now are. They've got a a.
• 37:17
  Small kind of media buy and landing page.
• 37:20
  Boutique. Agency called Bake Shop.
• 37:23
  That was led by a guy I've worked with.
• 37:26
  Forever named Greg Budenkov. He's brilliant and and just.
• 37:30
  Especially a. Genius when it comes to
• 37:33
  e-commerce brands for kind of like sub 10 million.
• 37:36
  Dollars or like really aggressively ramping towards
• 37:39
  that, that 8 figure mark. So anyone who is kind of on the
• 37:43
  the smaller side. But looking to grow quickly.
• 37:45
  He's done. Just does great work there.
• 37:47
  And then got a really brilliant team making making video ads low
• 37:55
  May. Was actually built on the back
• 37:56
  of video advertising and and great distribution.
• 38:00
  On on YouTube. So we've kind of.
• 38:02
  Productized that video ad making.
• 38:05
  Methodology so Zale and Tess. Who are who are leading that
• 38:09
  are? Absolutely brilliant and and
• 38:11
  they're. Really a better fit for brands.
• 38:13
  That are kind of in. That like that are.
• 38:14
  Over 10 million in revenue. But like, not so big that they
• 38:18
  have a. Full in house creative team if
• 38:21
  you have. A full in house creative team.
• 38:23
  Congrats like you're. Living the dream, but we're kind
• 38:25
  of in that. Sweet spot for brands that have
• 38:28
  big, high growth aspirations. But not.
• 38:31
  Quite at the the point where they're able to build a a full.
• 38:33
  In house creative team. Right.
• 38:37
  Gareth, how can people get in touch with you?
• 38:39
  They're listening to this. Gareth is an interesting guy.
• 38:41
  I would like to contact him and discuss more.
• 38:44
  What's the best way for them to find you?
• 38:46
  Yeah, I think my my email's just on my my website.
• 38:48
  Which is very simple. It's just myname.com.
• 38:51
  Likegaretheverard.com. I don't know what myname.com is
• 38:54
  that that must be a different. Website
• 38:56
  butyeahgaretheverard.com. Feel free to put a link in the
• 38:59
  in the description. Is that what people say on
• 39:01
  podcasts? I think.
• 39:03
  So yeah, that's. Put it in the show notes.
• 39:06
  I'll put it in the show notes. Gareth Everard.
• 39:09
  EVERARD No H we learned earlier. OK, Gareth, thanks so much for
• 39:16
  making the time today. This was great.
• 39:18
  That's a wrap on another episode of Inspired Stories.
• 39:21
  Thanks everyone for learning with me today.