4 builders who never spoke to each other · contested
Do not expect a bigger company to sell it for you
Incumbents are committed to the definition of the category you are attacking, and retailers keep their shelves for high-margin brands they already know. Whether a partner can open a market for you at all is contested.
Where this splits
Two founders could not get established manufacturers or retailers interested and moved to selling direct, while others licensed to a national retailer and gave a local agent equity to open a foreign market, in both cases profitably.
side 01 · 3 claims
Sell direct, incumbents will not carry your product
Jason Cohen · Matthew Griffin · Turner Osler
- 1Do not plan on the category leaders taking your product to market for you. Incumbents are committed to the definition you are attacking.
- 2Sell direct to the consumer and stop pursuing retail. Retailers keep their shelves for high margin incumbents, so getting in is slow, costly and thin, and they will approach you once demand exists.
- 3Sell direct rather than through a distribution partner when you need control of both the price and the buying experience.
side 02 · 2 claims
License or hand equity to a partner with distribution
Failory
- 1License the invention to a large retailer or manufacturer instead of trying to build your own distribution. Their shelves are the thing you cannot buy.
- 2Open a foreign market by giving a local agent a small equity stake rather than waiting for capital to fund the expansion yourself.
What it returned
- 100,000
One Dragon called the Aquatina collapsible bottle a terrible invention and threw it across the studio. It sold more than 100,000 units after the show, was licensed by Marks & Spencer and is now on sale in 15 countries. Marks & Spencer also licensed the single serve Cup-a-Wine for its own Le Froglet label.
The founder assumed a large office chair maker would handle manufacturing and distribution, and could not get Steelcase, Herman Miller or their peers interested at all.
The founder names focusing on retail as something he would not repeat, citing five years of consumers moving online and retailers hurt by it taking only small risks on new brands.
In his reconstruction of Tesla's plan, bypassing the dealership model is one of the main activities.
Sources
- Quarterly strategic planning using the fairytale structureJason Cohen · longform.asmartbear.com · Full Example: Tesla · 2023-11-26
- The 13 Biggest Dragons’ Den Failures That Made MillionsFailory · failory.com · 11) Aquatina Water Bottle · undated · dissenting
- Leaving the Army & Starting a +$350K/month eCommerceMatthew Griffin · failory.com · If you had the chance of doing only one thing differently, what would it be? · undated
- Making $100k/Mo Designing and Building an Active ChairTurner Osler · failory.com · What were the biggest obstacles you overcame? What were your worst mistakes? · undated
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
More in sales
- Charge for it before it exists6 unconnected
- Book the buyer calls before you write any code6 unconnected
- Package more of what you own into sellable slots6 unconnected
- Interview customers when sales stall, not buy traffic5 unconnected
- Borrow credibility from the customers you have5 unconnected
- Keep a named list of dream accounts and work it5 unconnected