Sterios funded Manduka's first $25,000 order using 0% credit card checks
Peter Sterios · Manduka: Peter Sterios · Apr 24, 2023 · at 32:28
Peter Sterios, founder of Manduka, explains how he financed his initial 1,000-mat order from Germany in 1997 to launch the yoga brand.
0:00 / 0:35exact quote · 35.9s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And I, we were remodeling our house, 80,000 dollars in debt with credit card debt, and the way I was funding The house remodel was at a time when credit cards had these things called convenience checks, where you could get an advance of 10 to 20,000 dollars for minimum, zero interest, actually, if you paid it off in time. And so I just thought, well, shit, I'm already doing all these other credit cards. I'll just get a few more, 25,000, it's two more credit cards, and I'll just purchase it and then worry about paying the cards off when I need to worry about it.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Peter Sterios
Manduka's original yoga mat material was engineered as AstroTurf underlayment
“This mat was engineered as the backing for AstroTurf to be durable and to have a certain amount of stretch, but not too much stretch, and a certain amount of cushion, but not too Soft, not too cushiony. And in the same factory that, that the carpet underlaymen…”
Manduka operated without premium yoga mat competitors for three years
“I mean, for years, first three years, I was the only person in that space.”
Manduka's acquirers paid Sterios for two years without ever calling him
“At the end of three years, they stopped communicating with me, and the last two years of my employment with them, they paid me, and they never called me, which is the way it happens, I guess, sometimes.”
Sterios seeded Manduka's launch by gifting 75 mats to celebrity teachers
“I gave 75 mats for free to every celebrity yoga teacher I knew.”
Manduka priced its early mats at $65 against a $15 market
“You get them for like 15 bucks. And these were like 60, 65 dollars was the advertised price.”
Manduka's first Yoga Journal print ad caused weekly sales to double
“The first week that ad ran, we doubled sales, and then three weeks later, we're still doubling every week our sales, and it got to the point where that first year, I think we were on back order for three months out of 12, just because we couldn't keep up, and …”