White-labeling off-the-shelf products offers zero competitive defensibility
Spencer Jan · Solo Stove: Spencer and Jeff Jan · Aug 14, 2023 · at 23:42
Solo Stove co-founder Spencer Jan explains why they chose to design a custom product instead of sourcing existing camping stoves from Chinese suppliers.
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“And if we were able to buy it off the shelf at some manufacturer and they're selling it to other people as well, it would be that, that much, just as easy for the next guy to buy it.”
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Solo Stove generated about $500,000 in its first year
“The first year was about half a million dollars. In the first year of putting it out there.”
Solo Stove operated at roughly 80% margins in its early days
“The margins were really high. You know, we were in the 80, 80% margins.”
The founders' side brand Fox Outfitters initially outsold Solo Stove
“And we sold more of that than Solo did all the way. I mean, I don't want to say, I mean, I don't remember when we stopped selling Fox, but probably about We were selling more on Fox than we were for Solo. Millions and millions of dollars of Fox stuff.”
Solo Stove and Fox Outfitters reached $3M to $4M revenue by 2016
“I mean, we probably all together, by the time we got to about 2000 16, I mean, just with those two brands, we were probably doing like three, four million dollars with.”
Solo Stove generated up to $10M in revenue as a two-person operation
“Revenue at that time I think was, I mean, between Fox and Solo, I was probably close to about, I want to say like seven-ish million bucks, Jeff.
Is that, do you think that's about right?
Yeah, probably.
Yeah, seven to 10 or somewhere around there.”
Custom machinery gave Solo Stove high barriers to entry against copycats
“It was hard to gauge, and then the second part of it, it's a very difficult product to
Create.
Because we had invested a lot into custom machinery with our manufacturers and so the barrier to entry was much higher than any other Me Too product that somebody co…”