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Do you have a great product idea but lack the initial capital to get it off the ground? Crowdfunding has become a powerful way for entrepreneurs to bring ideas to life without traditional financing. Through platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, startups can pitch ideas directly to the public, raising funds from backers who believe in the product before it even exists. This method allows for not only financial backing but also immediate feedback on product demand, helping businesses gauge interest and build early momentum.
Dan Demsky, co-founder of Unbound Merino, leveraged crowdfunding to launch his travel-focused clothing brand. An experienced entrepreneur with multiple ventures under his belt, Dan knew firsthand the challenges of launching a business from scratch. However, he’d never worked in the apparel industry, and this time, he was short on time and capital. With his entrepreneurial expertise and resourceful approach, Dan turned to crowdfunding to make his vision a reality, ultimately raising $400,000 for what would become Unbound Merino. His story offers insights and strategies for anyone considering crowdfunding as a path to launch their brand. Let’s dive in!
The Spark: Solving a Personal Pain Point
“I remember getting up to that hotel and just sweating bullets and thinking, can we look inside our bags? And let's be real, how much stuff in our suitcases are we actually using on this trip?”
Dan’s journey began with a simple but frustrating travel experience: he was tired of lugging around heavy luggage and realized he only wore a fraction of what he packed. This epiphany led him to seek clothing that was versatile, stylish, and functional, sparking his idea for Unbound Merino. After researching, he discovered merino wool, a fabric that’s antibacterial, odor-resistant, and wrinkle-free — perfect for travelers who want to pack light without sacrificing style.
Dan envisioned a clothing line that would make travel easier for people like him, a simple solution to a common problem for travelers.
Turning to Crowdfunding: A Resourceful Launch Strategy
“At the very worst, I'll have created a bunch of prototypes of a product I wanted to exist anyway. Best case scenario is it works.”
Despite his enthusiasm, Dan faced a familiar entrepreneur’s dilemma: he had little time, energy, and money to invest. His mentor even advised against launching another business, but Dan couldn’t shake his desire to bring his idea to life. He settled on crowdfunding as a low-risk, low-cost option that would allow him to test the waters without substantial upfront investment. By launching on Indiegogo, Dan could gauge customer interest, validate his product, and raise capital all in one go. His campaign ultimately raised $400,000 — ten times his initial goal.
This approach not only provided funding but also pushed Dan to develop a clear, compelling brand story, which became the foundation of Unbound Merino.
Building Momentum: Friends, Family, and Personal Connections
"I reached out to everybody. What I did is I created a video… When people get those copy paste messages, they’re ignoring you. But when they get that video, they're going to at least say something."
To get his campaign off the ground, Dan turned to his immediate network for support. He reached out to friends and family, asking if they’d help him reach his initial goal of $10,000 in the campaign’s first 24 hours. To make his pitch more personal, Dan created individual videos for each friend, asking for their support. This grassroots effort generated enough early momentum to make the campaign trend on Indiegogo, drawing in more customers and helping Unbound Merino get featured in Indiegogo’s newsletter.
This strategy created organic excitement and generated visibility for the brand, proving the value of leveraging personal connections in the early stages.
Scaling Up: Meeting Unexpected Demand
"Our problem right now is that we’re shipping 2,000 orders of product. Hey, could be worse. We could have no orders.”
With an unexpected 2,000 orders, Dan and his team faced the daunting challenge of fulfilling these orders from a small storage locker. Working with a skeleton crew, they encountered delays and backlogs, frustrating some customers. Despite this, Dan maintained transparency by sharing behind-the-scenes videos to assure customers that they were working hard to get orders out. His honesty helped retain customer trust during this critical time.
By staying genuine and communicative, Dan demonstrated the importance of transparency during the fulfillment process, even when things don’t go according to plan.
Staying True to the Brand Mission
"Our clothing helps people pack less when they travel. Cause that's what we're good at. That's the niche that we play in."
From day one, Unbound Merino’s mission has been to help travelers pack lighter. This core identity has remained consistent, even as the brand has grown. After the pandemic temporarily shifted their focus, Dan reaffirmed that Unbound Merino’s niche lies in travel. A survey of customers confirmed that most buyers valued the brand’s travel-oriented benefits, motivating Dan and his team to stay true to their original mission.
This consistency has proven essential to Unbound Merino’s success, establishing the brand as a go-to for travelers looking for practical and stylish clothing.
Bringing Your Brand to Life Through Crowdfunding
“I think the biggest thing you need to look for, the biggest indication of maybe this is something you need to start, is if you truly want that thing to exist.”
For Dan, crowdfunding was more than a fundraising tool; it was a way to build community, validate his product, and establish Unbound Merino’s brand. By committing to his vision, using his network, and staying transparent, Dan brought his brand to life in a way that resonated deeply with customers.
…Class Dismissed!
Crowdfunding can be a powerful launchpad if you’re willing to take the plunge and work through each stage, even when faced with challenges. You can use it as a means to engage with your market, test your product, and refine your brand.
Want to hear the full interview with Dan? Click here!
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Transcript
Dan: [00:00:00] The best things I've ever done in my life are when there's a gun to my head. And it's like, you committed, you're doing it. You're doing that talk. You're launching that product. You're launching this brand new business, whatever it is. And then everything works back from there. And then are you ready? No, you're never fully ready.
Kirsten: Some people expect entrepreneurship to hit like lightning. They're just going to have this massive idea. It's going to make them millions of dollars and all of their problems will be solved. But for most entrepreneurship is about solving problems. It's about finding solutions and recognizing problems everywhere that you go.
Today's guest is an example of the latter. This is Dan Demske. And he's going to share with us how he created his company Unbound Merino, which is a clothing company that solves a very specific problem for travelers. Dan, I think you're going to find some really intriguing stories and examples of how to take your ideas and some of the problems that you might be aware of and turn them into a profitable business by hearing Dan share his story.
So let's get right into it. [00:01:00] Class is in session. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today, having a conversation about your entrepreneurship journey. It's so great to have you here.
Dan: Thanks for having me.
Kirsten: Yeah. So give us a little intro. I know that you're the CEO of Unbound Marino. Tell us about that business and it's coming up story and even a little bit more about yourself as an entrepreneur and if this is the first venture you started and where it fits in your journey.
Dan: Yeah, sure. I'm one of those people that I think I've been an entrepreneur since I was born. Even when I was a little kid, it's never been about money for me, but I've always been trying. To scratch that entrepreneurial itch, even when I was a kid growing up in Canada, when snow fell, I would think people need their driveways shoveled and I'd go out with a buddy.
It'd be a fun little outdoor activity, but we'd be like, how fast can we get this house done and go to the next? And I remember coming home and looking at all the 20 bills we accumulated and thinking, this is amazing. Just realizing very young, if you can create value, you can. Sell a service or sell a product, which led me to today.
I mean, I've been an entrepreneur the whole way [00:02:00] through with various ventures. I've had businesses before, including a video production agency and a company that did socks and a company that made final skins for smartphones and laptops and all of this stuff. But I think what I'm doing now is the most authentically me.
It's the most fun I've had in my entrepreneurial journey. It's the, I guess it's the big, for sure, the most success I've enjoyed as part of this. Being part of this venture and I'm doing it with my best friends. So I don't know, that's sort of like the 40, I'm turning 40 this year. I'm getting old. My entire life as an entrepreneur, that was really, really high level summary.
But right now the business is Unbound Merino. We're an apparel brand and we make clothing that helps travelers pack light when they travel.
Kirsten: Well, as a family who loves to travel, this is definitely a priority for us. So I'm excited to hear for you, had you been obviously into traveling beforehand and saw this as a pain point similar to seeing the driveways need shoveling and somebody has got to do this.
And so you just went and solved a [00:03:00] problem that you found yourself to have.
Dan: Absolutely. I mean, I've done little road trips, like starting in high school and it was just like a big part of, or actually probably the biggest part of my life, me and my two best buds. Yeah. Would travel around all over America to see this band we were obsessed with, and that sort of was the start.
But then I did a trip to Japan about, let's say, 15 years ago. And that's where I really got the travel bug and regardless of how much money I had or how little money I had, I always found a way to just. Get myself out there in the world and yeah, this product came from that, you know, I was looking for ways to pack light.
I've learned along the way that the more stuff you take, the more you're kind of held back and that culminated on the trip that I took to Hedra, Greece, which is this small, beautiful little port town outside of Athens and it's like a huge hill. There's no roads. And for that reason, there's no cars. I remember seeing our hotel at [00:04:00] the top of this hill and thinking, that's a steep climb to take all this luggage up there.
And my then girlfriend, she had a big suitcase, I had a medium suitcase, of course, I took both of them up. I remember getting up to that hotel and just sweating bullets and thinking, can we look inside our bags? And let's be real, how much stuff in our suitcase are we actually carrying? Using on this trip.
And it was something like 30, like we must be like 30%. Most of what we were wearing was just a few key pieces. That went the extra mile and the other stuff was a lot of the just in case stuff. So that sort of propelled me to have the desire to just be a carry on traveler. So that was my mission for the next trip, wherever I'm going for however long I'm taking a carry on.
And the next trip was a good challenge because it was three weeks in Southeast Asia. How am I going to do this with just a carry on? And I started Googling and roaming around on Reddit. And [00:05:00] I found this post that said, when I travel overseas, I pack Merino wool clothing because it's antibacterial, it's odor resistant, it's wrinkle resistant.
So it serves my travel needs because I can wear these shirts multiple times, multiple days in a row. And even if I sweat through them, they're antibacterial. They'll never smell. They stay clean and fresh. So I'll pack three t shirts instead of two. 12 t shirts. And for that reason, I can always travel to carry on.
I thought, aha, that's it. This is fantastic. So I then learned that I need to pack Marina wool shirts when I travel. And that's how I'm going to pack light. So I went looking for Marina wool t shirts and I found them. I found a lot of brands that made them. But the problem with them was they were made more for a different purpose.
They were made for the people that were going outdoors. They were doing camping trips and portaging. There were some active wear stuff. But it wasn't the kind of stuff that you'd want to wear out at a nice cocktail [00:06:00] bar.
Kirsten: You know, it was
Dan: the had the performance, but it didn't have the aesthetic that had the versatility I needed for travel.
And I looked everywhere for it. And I ended up finding a couple of t shirts that they were base layers. They were designed to be worn under your other layers to keep you warm. And I found a couple outdoors shirts. And I remember being in this cool cocktail bar in Hong Kong and feeling really out of place.
And then I looked at a picture of me in that cocktail bar and I'm like, ah, I get why I felt that a place. I kind of look like a bum. Like I look, I look great. If I was out on a hike, it would make perfect sense. But being in that environment. It wasn't right, so I was thinking, why are there not brands that are using this material, which by the way, I fell in love with, it was like a complete miracle fabric.
Why aren't people using this fabric to make shirts that I can dress up a little bit, I'll put on a nice pair of pants, I'll wear a nice watch, and that same shirt that I went on a hike on, because it has the [00:07:00] performance to do so, I can kind of look nice in a different environment. And I couldn't find it and I thought in that moment, I'm like, by the way, at this point in my life, I'm so tired from my other business.
I was working, I felt like a prisoner. I was working 14 hours a day, pretty much every day and I saw no end in sight and we were doing kind of well, but I wasn't doing well and I was looking for something else to do. I was constantly thinking, what's my next thing? I want to create a product. I don't want to sell service anymore.
So I went to my two best friends and I said, I have this idea. It's a Merino wool clothing company. And it's going to be for this purpose for the kind of trip I just took. And they were like, sounds great. Let's do it. But the problem was I didn't have any money. I didn't have extra capital to invest in this thing.
I didn't have any energy. I didn't have any time. I was running another business and I didn't know anything about the clothing business. So like all the odds were stacked against me, but I just had this gnawing feeling I need to do this. And I remember [00:08:00] going to one of my top mentors. And I pitched this whole idea to him and he said, I get it.
I love it. It's a fantastic idea, but you're not the guy to do it. I'm like, what? And he said all the things that I just said before. I was trying to do two businesses at the time. I was totally drained. He's like, if you spread yourself too thin, you're not gonna do anything well. And I just, I remember feeling like I couldn't sleep at night.
Like I've just, I never, and by the way, I can sleep. I'm a sleeper. You can tell by how much I talk at the end of the night, I'm drained. And I was up at night just thinking like, if I don't take this shot, I'll probably regret this. Like, I feel like it's such a good idea. And the way I solve for being able to deal with all those objections that were being served to me about my lack of time and money and energy and all that stuff is I thought I should do a crowdfunding campaign because then I only have to put minimal money and I could launch this thing in half a year, a year, a year and a half, however long it takes, [00:09:00] and it will force me to create the whole brand and the brand promise and pictures and all this stuff.
If I can do that, if it doesn't work, okay. It doesn't work. And at the very worst, I'll have created a bunch of prototypes of a product I wanted to exist anyway. So I'll have a box of t shirts. That's the worst case scenario. Best case scenario is it works. And we have our dream business and we've found that product market fit and it's a hit.
And that's what we did every Friday night for a year and a half. Me and my two buds, we got together when one of my business partners had young children at the time, babies. And when those kids went to bed, we started working and it took us a year and a half to spin up a crowdfunding campaign, which included all everything about the brand, including having sourced and created prototypes.
There's And we tried to sell 30, 000 in pre orders and in the first month. And that would be enough for us to sort of get a little bit of inventory and get the thing started, but we sold 400, 000 and I was like, [00:10:00] we did it. That's all the proof I need. This thing is going to work. I left my other business. I went full time into this and it's been growing steadily since.
And this December will be eight years.
Kirsten: What a cool story. I love it. And I love that you described that sleepless night. And I think every genuine entrepreneur has had that moment where like you cannot stop thinking about something cause it is meant to be yours. And no matter how tired you are, you are just excited and you see all the possibilities and your brain is just swimming with all of the ideas and the ownership over that.
And you know, like I feel like when that happens, it's more than just, Oh, shiny object syndrome. That's a cool idea. When you have those sleepless nights that are usually consecutive, that's a pretty good indication that you're onto something and that needs to be pursued. So it's cool to hear how the odds are completely stacked against you.
And yet you're sitting in front of me today with a very successful brand that is blessing so many lives. So I want to hear a little bit more about that journey because you specifically use crowdfunding. Is [00:11:00] that what you would recommend to most people? If they find themselves in a situation where. Where the odds are stacked against them, or most people are coming at this with very little experience in their industry or very little capital.
Is that what you would advise?
Dan: Yeah. I saw a really funny tweet a little while ago where it said, here are the numbers I use to win the lottery. And then is it. That was in quotations and it said entrepreneurs giving other entrepreneurs advice. I thought it was brilliant because I could tell you what we did and you can go and do it too.
And it might work for you because we're not the first people that crowdfundings work for. In fact, we're not even one of the biggest campaigns. But that was also eight years ago. So. Is it the secret to success? No, but it might be for you. I think the biggest thing you need to look for, the biggest indication of maybe this is something you need to start is if you truly want that thing to exist, like I said before, like I really want it like I wanted this product to exist.
In fact, if this brand existed when I was looking for it, I would just be a [00:12:00] customer who loved the product. I wouldn't go and create it because I have it, but it's like there are sandwiches in my city that I love. And I'm like, I don't feel like there's a missing sandwich that I need to go create. Like, if you feel truly like you want this thing to exist, I think that's the best sign that you should make.
Maybe you're the one to create it, but the way in which you actually bring it to market, there's a million ways. Crowdfunding is an incredible, incredible thing. I think it's incredible for not just the fact that you find product market fit and it validates the product market fit and not just the fact that you're getting pre sales and that gives you money to start your business without having to go get outside.
Investment and give up a piece, but it's also kind of like the ultimate business plan in a way, like your pricing models included, the brand name is created all of the best sales copy. Like even if you weren't doing a crowdfunding campaign, if you were creating a new brand, I think it's probably a cool exercise to [00:13:00] create a crowdfunding campaign because everything you need to launch your business is in it.
The way it's formatted is it has a headline. So what is the one line that best hooks a customer to what your product is? Like you're forced to do that. And then there's a couple sentences you can put underneath. So what's the little bit of copy after that? If you cook them with that, they'll read this.
And then there's a video. And the video is like, you push play and it's on the back of a really good script. If it's done well, it has good video clips that you can then use later for other, those assets are valuable. It has photography. It has your pricing. Everything that your brand and product offering is fits in a crowdfunding campaign.
So once we did that, we had a brand, the brand was pretty tight because everything that our brand is today is not dissimilar to that crowdfunding campaign we made eight years ago. But when we switched to our own e commerce [00:14:00] store, because we knew once we had a successful crowdfunding campaign, we knew that we found product market fit, but we also knew.
We didn't have a business yet. We had a start, we did a bunch of green flags waving saying you have a good business that you might be able to start now, but until people are going on our website, that's not a business until they're going on our website and buying from us, it's not a business. And we went on Shopify and we found a template.
That we really, really liked and that was our first website. It was just like a nice Shopify template that we literally dragged and dropped stuff out of our crowdfunding campaign. It was the same writing. It was the same, but it was all there. We were able to take it from here. And put it in its new box.
And then there was a website. That's how we sort of created the brand. So I think to answer your question about should people do crowdfunding campaigns? I think so. I think it's a good idea. It might not be the path we're at to actually run a crowdfunding campaign. All that matters is can you get attention?
[00:15:00] However, it is that you get it, that might be buying ads that might be getting your friends to post about it. It might be a trade show. It could be there's a zillion ways that you get attention. And will people look at your thing and feel? Yeah, I want that and I'll pay for it. That's it. It's quite simple at the core.
How you get there. You have to think about what. Makes the most sense and how can you find the best audience for us? The crowdfunding campaign was just like the only option that made any sense at the time.
Kirsten: Yeah. So even with that, I mean, crowdfunding is only as effective as the marketing and like the traffic and attention and awareness that you're driving to it.
So to have the outcome that you had, what were some of the ways that you were leveraging? Was it social media? I mean, you said the company's eight years old. So social media was pretty different even eight to 10 years ago. So what was the main driver to bring a lot of awareness to the brand?
Dan: It was all within the crowdfunding campaigns.
I'll tell you a little trick that we did when we did our crowdfunding campaign. We did it with Indiegogo and I really, really worked hard to [00:16:00] build a personal connection with the account people there and try to figure out what marketing support. And I heard this from a friend that they'll help you with some newsletter marketing and things like that.
So I really worked hard to try and make sure we can lock in some newsletter placements, which would be valuable for us. Turns out they're very, very valuable. And they said, if you get, I might be butchering the numbers, but I think it was like 33 percent of your funding goal within the first day, we're going to guarantee you a newsletter placement.
Right. So I knew that, yeah, that was the numbers I knew. Remember I, we, I needed to get 10, 000 in sales in the first day. And I'll do anything to make that happen. How can I make that happen? And I felt, I think I can just do that with friends and family. If I bother enough friends and get them, Hey, I put a year and a half into this thing and I'm trying to build my dream business here.
Can I, and totally okay. If it's not good timing, you don't want it. For [00:17:00] any reason, don't even feel in the need to reply to me, but can I get you to buy like a product off me to support me in my start? Like it's the thing is happening in like a month from now and they said, yeah, sure. Or they ignored me or they said, I can't.
It's not good timing from whatever it was right. And I, we made sure that on our crowdfunding campaign, we didn't have any of those like support options, like support the campaign for five bucks. It's like, no, it was like a t shirt minimum. You're actually buying a real product. And at the time it was like 55 bucks, whatever it is that we were charging.
So it was real purchases. And I reached out to everybody. I know everyone, I went to someone I haven't spoken to in high since high school. It didn't matter. I said, I'm, I'm, I'm, Sorry, I haven't spoken in a while. I'm like, will you do this? Totally annoying thing. A lot of people ignoring it, but for the people who said yes, they said yes.
I remembered that I remind them for everyone else. What I did is I created a video where I literally just said, like, Hey, [00:18:00] Kirsten, it's so long time. I haven't seen you. I want to let you know, I'm doing a crowdfunding campaign for a product. I spent so much time and energy to launch this thing. And I really, really just want to ask and totally okay if you can't, but will you buy a t shirt to support?
And I sent it to them in a Facebook messenger message. So they see my face with a little play button. And the video will be like kirsten. mpeg, whatever it's called. They're going to push play and they're going to respond. When you get those copy paste messages. These people are ignoring you, but when you get that video, they're going to at least say something.
And I got so many people to say yes. And then I collected all their emails. And then when the product launched, I said, Hey, remember you said you buy that t shirt it's live, please do that today. It would mean so much. I'm really need some momentum today. And we hit that 10. So I remember seeing the orders.
It was like my brother, Brian first. And then my business partners, cousins, Sandy, like I recognize every name [00:19:00] coming in, boom, all our friends and family, all supporting us. And we got to 10, 000 pretty fast. But before we got to 10, 000, I started seeing names. Of people I didn't recognize because what happened was Indiegogo perceived our campaign as hot and we were into the trending thing.
So now Indiegogo seeing all these people that are perusing the website and they're like, Oh, this is kind of a hot campaign. It just launched. It's already at 30 percent and it's only been live for an hour. So then they feel like, okay, what is it that people like about this? They buy it too. And then we continue to trend.
And then we locked the newsletter. And the newsletter was fire for us. And that's sort of like the little hack that we did. It's like, we just started the momentum with friends and family. We forced that momentum and that made us trend and people kind of like, if we didn't have anyone buying our stuff at first, it's that person from germ.
I remember the first guy who bought, they didn't recognize some guy in Germany. I forgot his name. Would [00:20:00] he buy if no one else bought? Probably not. But because. There was like this, like hype around it. A lot of people felt like, I want to be a part of this hype too. So we sort of manufactured that momentum a little bit and that sort of got it going, which is kind of like anything, you know, when a new like Nintendo system comes out, it's always sold out and then you have to line up at the toy store or whatever, and like it's always sold out and there's a, they're releasing little batches at a time.
I wonder if that's actually limited supply or if they're just. Manufacturing demand. I think they're manufacturing demand and we got a little taste of that. And that was sort of like the start for us. We bred, we sort of manufactured a little bit of that excitement. And from there we got three newsletters and it just kept growing and growing and growing.
And we got our first 2000 customers.
Kirsten: Amazing. Remind me again what the total revenue was from that crowdfunding.
Dan: It was like 400, 000.
Kirsten: Okay. That's what I thought. I didn't want to downplay it at 40, 000 cause you hit 10, 000 in the first day. I was like, [00:21:00] that's crazy. That's amazing that you had that benchmark that you were able to hit within the first, cause how long was the crowdfunding live?
What was the time period for that 400, 000?
Dan: It's a month. And then we, at the last day, we were, they allow you to extend it. So we extend it for 30 days to keep it going.
Kirsten: Cool. Wow. So what had you done? I know you mentioned you'd been working on it for a year and a half at that point. Cause I know typically crowdfunding is like, you're going to see the demand and you're going to actually have the capital to go and manufacture.
So you didn't have product on hand. What was the timeframe from when you secured all of that and the turnaround time for orders and everything? And did you run into any. Massive headaches as you went into the next stage of business.
Dan: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Well, it was, everything was timed so poorly and I remember Indiegogo wasn't going to release the funds for a specific date and I thought, Oh no, our, our suppliers need us to put a deposit.
It was a lot of money. It was like a hundred thousand dollars or something. And I had a friend who is a very, very, he was actually one of the inspirations for why I wanted to start this thing, [00:22:00] because I saw how him building a product business, how he became very successful. And I, I called them up and I'm like, I need to call in a very huge favor and it's very uncomfortable for what I'm about to ask for, but I need a hundred thousand dollars.
It's like, what? I'm like, I need to put a deposit on this inventory and I'm not going to get my payout from Indiegogo. He knew, obviously knew the whole back story of what I was doing until this date. So when I get it, I'll pay you back. But if you do loan me this money, I could put my deposit down and you're going to save me weeks.
And I'm already made a promise to deliver this product to these people. He's like, what's the date you'll pay me back? All right. I'm going to wire you the money right now. Thank you. So that's gave us a little bit of a headstart that we absolutely needed because what we didn't anticipate is how long it was going to take to fulfill 2000 orders.
You know, our first warehouse was a little storage locker down the street from where I lived and we hired this one guy that we knew who's still with [00:23:00] us. He's our warehouse manager now, and he's. We love this guy. He's like almost like part of my family, but like Alfred, I'm like a part time job. I'm like, I don't know how long this thing is going to last a month.
Just help me fulfill it. Like pack these boxes. And we were in our storage locker packing the orders, but it took, I think I don't remember the exact timing, but I think I timed like five orders and then average divided by five. And I think it was taking us 12 minutes per box because medium t shirt.
Medium underwear, two pairs of socks, one box, foldable, you know, a nice box, packaged nicely, put some little materials in there about like how to take care of it, all this stuff, print the shipping label, all this stuff. It was a lot of work. I'm like, okay, we have to do that 2000 times. And now we said that we're going to be delivering by, I don't remember, it was October, November, whatever the date we said, we're going to start delivering and people are like emailing and they're upset.
Of course, they start commenting. This is a scam. I'm like, I swear [00:24:00] it's not. I had to do a video in the warehouse saying, Hey, here's all the orders. We're shipping them. We'll get them out. And the people who we prioritize, obviously we're the angriest, I think people know the angrier you are, the more attention you're going to get.
It's like just putting out the little fires, but it was like months to get them all out because it was just like, it was just me and one guy, you know, Andrew and Dima are my business partners would come in too, but we try our best. To sort of figure out how to surmount this order mountain. And yeah, it was everything took longer than we expected, but you know, we tried our best to just communicate and show people and spotlight the people who received theirs.
So other people would feel like, okay, it is coming. But the more we did that, the more other people wanted theirs now. So, you know what? It was tough, but we had a smile on our faces. It's like. That's not the worst problem. Our problem right now is we're shipping 2000 orders of product. That came out incredibly.
We're so excited for people to receive it. So, [00:25:00] Hey, could be worse. We could have no orders.
Kirsten: Yeah, absolutely. So how did we get from that point eight years now into the future has a lot of the marketing and a lot of the branding remained the same. I'm sure pricing has scaled and everything with demand and with.
popularity, but have you pretty much held to the same initial stance that you had when you introduced the brand?
Dan: Yeah, and our messaging. I mean, we pivoted in. At one point, a travel product, we help our clothing helps people pack less when they travel. That's what we are. The one time where we stopped using that messaging was when there was a global travel ban when the COVID, all this stuff we worked so hard to really, really refine the messaging on it was.
And that was a whole thing. But aside from that, as soon as that was over, we went right back to our messaging. Cause that's what we're good at. That's the niche that we play in. And recently we just did a test to see like, is that actually what people care [00:26:00] about? Like maybe we should be more universal.
Like we go beyond travel and people can wear our stuff and they do, they wear it every day. It's not just for travel. It's really high quality, great everyday clothing. Maybe we can get past this whole travel thing. And I did a post purchase survey with our customers to see how important is the travel aspect of our clothing really like for when you were making this purchase and from a scale of one to 10.
It was like 80 percent of people rated eight, nine or 10. Like it was like two people buy our stuff for traveling. It's exactly what our place in the apparel niches. And that's where, so it's funny if you look at some of our best performing ads today, they're not too dissimilar to the crowdfunding. It's been completely consistent.
And that's how we think about product from a product design standpoint. It's like, you know, if this. Thing starts [00:27:00] to get to be a heavier material. It gets less significance in our product assortment. Like our stuff is designed to go into your carry on.
Kirsten: Yeah. That's really cool. I love that. And it's a really revolutionary approach and it's cool that you saw that this didn't exist.
You created it something I would have wanted to buy. I want to speak to something that you did that a lot of entrepreneurs Really hold back on, and that is getting out and just selling. I love that you were hitting up at least that warm market right at the beginning and that that was able to roll into more customers, more awareness for the brand.
I think a lot of us have a tendency to have the idea and to do all of this backend work where we're just like building the business. And you said that you spent a good amount of time until you were ready to launch this and take it the next step. But do you have any advice for those who are sitting on the idea and And they're afraid to take those first steps or there may be like building the business in their mind and they're trying to get it perfect.
And just for you, it sounds like you were willing to take action at every single level of building this business. [00:28:00]
Dan: Yeah. It's just what you have to do. And I don't know if I had this moment where I overcame like this resistance. Like, I mean, there's a little bit of anxiety around putting yourself out there and having a big flop, but I think if you're building something at one point, you just have to put a date when you're going to launch and how.
Like right now, I'm working on a backpack. It's the first time we're ever doing an accessory. I'm obsessed with this thing that we've been creating. I love it. I have no idea if it's going to work because I don't, it's different than what our core offering is. It does make sense. A backpack, it's a travel bag.
It makes sense. We sell stuff to travelers. I'm back at that feeling. Look, I don't know if this thing is going to work, but it could be great. It could be huge. And I'm tinkering with it. And I've been manufacturing and going into designing for a long, long period of time. But we're about to get the fourth version of the prototype, which we think will be photograph ready.
And the [00:29:00] second that's in my hand, I'm like going, sitting with the team. And it's like, let's pick the launch date and just work everything back. At one point you have to just say, let's pick the date and you commit to that. And I think the best work I've ever done in my life was when I had that sort of feeling of there's like a gun to my head.
Sometimes I don't do a lot of. Public speaking, but I've done it a few times and it always made me like really anxious. And I actually hate doing it. The feeling of doing it all the way until it's done. And when I finally get up on that state and I do the thing and I pretend that I'm more confident than I am and I fools people into thinking I'm confident and I deliver that message that I practiced at the end of it, I feel great.
I feel like it's so rewarding. But if I didn't have the date booked, I wouldn't do it, but I wouldn't live through that. Like, Oh my God, what if I look like an idiot? I'm going to forget that I have to memorize this speech. I have to do this presentation. I have to do these slides. The best things I've ever done in my life are when there's [00:30:00] a gun to my head.
And it's like, you committed, you're doing it. You're doing that talk. You're launching that product. You're launching this brand new business, whatever it is. And then everything works back from there. And then are you ready? Now you're never fully ready. But it gets out there and you learn so many more things from getting it out then.
You do from just rifling through what could happen in your head. So yeah, that's it. You know, I think that's like one of the big secrets too, is just put the gun to your head and make it happen. And you're not going to feel comfortable. Just get it out. Anyway.
Kirsten: Yeah, I've definitely felt that. And sometimes it's the more I've invested.
It's a little bit easier to keep going towards that deadline and when you don't have that bigger picture and you don't have the commitment, then it's so much easier to drag it out and the exact same way I have to have a deadline. I have to make some kind of skin in the game with that deadline.
Otherwise I'll be wishy washy about it. But https: otter. [00:31:00] ai It's helpful for us to get out of our own way and recognize this as part of the journey. It's part of the rollercoaster of building a business. None of it was like comfy cozy, but it was fun. It's exhilarating. We do it because there's a challenge there.
And then on the other side of that challenge and that work is something super rewarding and it's worth every single uncomfortable moment when you had to keep riding the ride. Right?
Dan: Absolutely. And you know what? It's always fun in hindsight. It's weird, like, you know, I talk about like a keynote and like, again, it's not really something I really do, but I've done a few random talks and when I look back at them, I only remember how fun it was to do the thing and all the great conversations that I had afterward because I got up in front of people and people wanted to talk to me after and I made cool connections and had cool dinners and all the fun stuff, you remember, and you kind of forget it.
All the buildup in the end. It's a lot of it. There's a lot of anxiety and stuff, but it's like a lot of people just don't get to that things. They don't want to deal with the anxiety and the pressure, [00:32:00] but there's what's that, that quote, no pressure, no diamonds. If you're willing to just commit to that thing and.
Go through all of the, you know, you drag your ass through it. It's so rewarding in the end. And you just don't, you don't remember the struggle. You remember the feeling of the wind or if it doesn't go well. So that's a great lesson too. I remember a friend of mine was doing a TEDx talk in Toronto and TEDx Toronto was like a really big one.
There's like 1500 people or 2000 people would go. And he's like, Oh man, it's coming up this week. He was like, I love this dude. He's so smart. So interesting. He's like, if this talk goes well, it's going to be the best thing that ever happened to me. He's like, if it goes terribly, it'll still be the best thing that ever happened to me.
He's like, this is a win. And that makes perfect sense. It's like you could bomb on stage. He's going to learn a ton. At least he tried. And that mentality is great.
Kirsten: Yeah. Oh man. Such good words of wisdom. Do you have anything else that you want to leave with our aspiring entrepreneurs? Those who are in the thick of it, things [00:33:00] maybe that you wish somebody had told you or that you would tell your younger self?
Dan: No, I think we've sort of touched on the fact that it's just about just trying, if any of the listeners are like sort of young and like starting up as entrepreneurs, I look back at all of the businesses that I've started, I started them all with my best friends. And people say business and friendship.
Don't mix. I think that's insane. It makes us so well, it makes us so, so well, so long as none of you are hungry for power. It's if you're truly friends, you want the best for each other. You can have hard conversations with each other, and you can hold each other to a high standard and push each other to be great.
And with all the businesses I started with all my best friends. You know, I have three best buds. We all work together. We work together well. And I remember those early days. It wasn't like this, like, oh, we need to make a business work. And this is a struggle and how we're going to divide up equity. [00:34:00] It wasn't none of that.
It was like, we got together, had some beers and it was fun. We could have gone and watched hockey games at the local bar and it would have been fun. Or we could just brainstorm ideas and have beers. And have fun. So I'm doing fun, challenging projects with people who mean the world to me. They're like my brothers, and I think more people should do that.
I think more people should consider doing a little project. It doesn't have to be a business, some kind of project as a way of hanging out with your friends. And doing something meaningful because now what's cool about my life, and this is better than any of the success we've gotten in business. It's the best thing about the business by far is the people I spend the most time with are the people I want to spend the most time with.
They're my best friends, they're my childhood best friends, and we spend more time with the people we work with than we do with our own families. It's the, you know, you've worked, you know, and [00:35:00] this side of the world, we work long hours. So you might as well work along people that you like. I have a lot of friends who they go, they have a job here or there, and they're like, I can't stand people.
I work with them. That's so you should probably leave. It's way too much time to spend with people you don't like. If you can create a life where you work with work with your besties, you're going to live a truly unbelievable life. And it will actually just make you a lot better, especially if you're willing to have the hard conversations.
Transcribed Tell each other you suck when you suck, tell each other you're doing great and you're doing great, but it's all out of love. It's a remarkable thing. And that's probably the greatest thing I have in my life. So I'd like to share that.
Kirsten: Awesome. Well, this has been great and it's been really cool to hear the story of Unbound Marino.
So where can people. Find you obviously they can go to the site. We'll link to the shop. And I think we even have a discount code for everybody. If they want to shop the site, we probably have a lot of digital nomads who are trying to build businesses with more freedom. And we will link to that in the show notes as well.
And then where can they follow you if they want to follow you [00:36:00] specifically?
Dan: I don't really post a lot of stuff, but I'm Dan Dembski. You can find me, but I'm also sometimes on the Unbound Marino account, posting some travel stories and things like that. So find us at Unbound Marino and find me at Dan Dembski.
Kirsten: Cool. Well, thanks for coming and sharing your story with us. It's been awesome.
Dan: Thank you so much.
Kirsten: Of course. so much to Dan and Unbound Marino and our other show sponsors for today's episode. It was super cool to hear the background and the story of how Unbound Marino was created and formed. And all of the things, all of the little steps that Dan had to go through from ideation all the way to launching the crowdfunding campaign and then solving the problems that came after all of the sales happened.
And just as we discussed at the tail end of the episode, we do have a discount code for you. You can save 10 percent off your order by using code millionaire 10 over at Unbound Marino. If you guys want to hear more stories like this, make sure you're subscribed to the show and that you check out all of the 300 business ideas we have for you at millionaire university.
com. We'll see you guys on the next episode. Class [00:37:00] dismissed.
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