Sep 12, 2016 · 19m · top-founders
Ep 415: Phone Accessory Company Hits $2.5M Revenue 2015 with Noah Rasheta of iStabilizer
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of The Top, host Nathan Latka interviews iStabilizer founder Noah Rasheta to examine how the bootstrapped phone accessory brand generated $2.5 million in revenue through disciplined retail negotiations, lean operations, and tight unit economics.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 49.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 4.6 Guest teaching 1.4 Guest disagreement 0.2 Nathan pushing back 1.2
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 3:51 Pushing back against big retailers
Noah describes repeatedly telling Walmart that the deal was off when they demanded unfair terms.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 2:42 Nathan interrupts to dig into the Walmart negotiation detailsNathan cuts in to correct the timeline and insist on an exact breakdown of the retail deal cancellation.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 8:08 Noah explains wholesale reseller margins to NathanNoah educates Nathan on why conventional 60% wholesale discounts make high-ticket electronic hardware impossible to distribute via standard retail channels.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 15:19 Nathan details Shark Tank royalty debt pitfallsNathan demonstrates financial insight into how top-line royalty payback structures severely constrict hardware cash flow.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly Top Tribe Contest Winner Announcement | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Segment 1 starts with a solo sponsor read and recap before welcoming back Noah. Nathan probes into past distribution challenges with Walmart, which Noah clarifies collaboratively. | |
| CBS Innovation Nation Feature, Gimbal Spike, and 2015 Revenue | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | Nathan drills down into the economics, unit pricing, and wholesaler retail margins of Noah's new $350 gimbal product. Noah walks Nathan through the retail pricing math and margin structures. | |
| Customer Acquisition Cost, Overhead, and Team Downsizing | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Nathan inquires about customer acquisition costs, SKU counts, and headcount downsizing. Noah provides transparent unit economics and order metrics. | |
| Capital Requirements and Inventory Scaling Constraints | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Nathan and Noah discuss capital constraints in scaling physical inventory for nationwide retail distribution. Nathan offers advice and draws comparisons to Shark Tank structure models. | |
| Connecting with Noah Rasheta Online | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Nathan conducts a sponsor plug mid-segment followed by standard rapid-fire Famous Five questions. The interaction is smooth and collaborative. |
Statements from this episode (17)
Rasheta: iStabilizer is selling products in Walmart stores again
“Since then we've gone back to Walmart, so we're selling in Walmart again.”
Rasheta: iStabilizer walked away four times during Walmart retail renegotiations
“So there were three or four times when they, when I would, when I told them, okay, the deal's over. We don't want to be in Walmart. And then a day would go by and then they would come back and renegotiate. That happened four different times.”
Rasheta: iStabilizer sold nearly 1,000 $350 gimbals in 48 hours after CBS feature
“Close to a thousand.”
Rasheta: iStabilizer's $350 gimbal costs $160 landed with shipping
“All set and done with shipping, it's about a 160 dollars.”
Rasheta: Retailers like Walmart typically demand 60% off MSRP
“Cause we have to factor in like typically a reseller like Walmart, for example, takes 60% off of the top. So off of MSRP.”
Rasheta: B&H Photo buys iStabilizer's gimbal at $240 wholesale
“B&H Photo does pretty well with it, and they pay two, they pay 2:40 for it.”
Rasheta: iStabilizer spends about $30 in advertising per gimbal sale
“Yeah, we do spend money on advertising through Google AdWords and Facebook advertising, and we have it on the gimbal, for example, as the example, it costs us about 30, 30 dollars to acquire a sale.”
Rasheta: iStabilizer downsized its team from five people to three
“We have actually decreased our, let's see, last time we spoke, we had five. Now I have three.”
Rasheta: iStabilizer has expanded to close to 60 or 70 SKUs
“Cause I mean, we started with one product and right now we've got close to 60 or 70 SKUs now.”
Rasheta: iStabilizer reaches 600,000 to 700,000 customers across all channels
“Close to six or 700,000.”
Rasheta: iStabilizer website buyers average three lifetime orders
“So on our website, it takes a customer an average of three to four days before they buy it. They've been browsing three to four days, then they'll buy their first order, and then they'll end up placing an average of three orders over their lifetime.”
Rasheta: iStabilizer first-purchase average order value is $45
“On the first purchase, it's an average of 45 dollars.”
Rasheta: iStabilizer is entirely self-funded
“Yeah, it's been totally self-funded and that's honestly been the hardest part of all of it. Trying to maintain that growth, doing self-funding all of it.”
Rasheta declined an AT&T order for 2,300 stores over capital constraints
“So someone like AT&T comes and says, we want the gimbal. I have to say no at this point, because I don't have the capital to manufacture the volume that they would require. Cause they have 2300 stores. So to produce that much inventory, I just don't have the c…”