The Ledger
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Domestic mask production capabilities cost $5 million to build, Armbrust says
“I'm pretty sure for like five million dollars, you could make the capability of making that many masks.”
Medical supply chains remain entrenched with 3M and overseas providers
“We really tried to get traction with hospitals and governments, but those existing supply chains, like, they already exist. The relationships are with three M or with overseas providers. That's kind of, it's very entrenched. It was, we still haven't broken int…”
Armbrust relies on Japanese robotics and pneumatics despite domestic manufacturing goals
“Even though we are sort of like supply chain proof, and that's something we talk about a lot, we're not really because of some of our parts, like our robotics, like our pneumatics are all Japanese. So what happens if we can't get our Japanese parts? Like they …”
Armbrust generated $320,000 in direct-to-consumer Shopify sales on day one
“I signed up for Shopify at seven a.m. And we did 320,000 dollars in sales that day.”
Armbrust American laid off approximately 70 workers before the Delta wave
“I mean, the last, before the last Delta wave, we had to lay off like 70 people.”
Armbrust's Austin facility eventually scaled to produce one million masks daily
“We actually eventually were able to produce a million masks a day in that facility.”
Armbrust American pivoted to home HVAC air filters using mask technology
“And so that's one of the reasons why we, we're taking our actual same technology and we're launching an air filter business for home HVAC unit, because that's something that everybody needs.”
FDA rapidly granted Armbrust American an Emergency Use Authorization for masks
“The FDA actually did this thing called the emergency use authorization for. For masks, and they let us in that right away. And then we Actually, like I said, we did a lot of things, and we got lucky, and the batch of masks that we had created lined up, and we …”
Armbrust raised $3 million in one weekend using a seven-minute deck
“And so we raised, I actually raised three million dollars in a weekend. I did the worst PowerPoint presentation of my life. I recorded a voiceover, seven minutes long. I sent it to all these people, and yeah, we closed about three million dollars based on that…”
Armbrust paid $100,000 for American-made meltblown fabric during early pandemic
“And so we paid a 100,000 dollars for this actually made in America milk loan.”
Armbrust kept mask prices flat despite surges and higher domestic costs
“And we haven't changed our price since. In fact, during Delta and Omicron Amazon went really high on their prices. People were complaining, but we have stayed exactly the same, but it is expensive because it costs more money to make it here.”
Armbrust recruited its initial factory staff almost entirely from Texas nail salons
“And so our entire staff was almost wholly coming from this the local nail salon industry.”
Armbrust American built a fully operational mask production line in six weeks
“Yeah, we did get it up In, in six weeks.”