Hey Outliers ☀️
How’s your week going?
I got lost in a Twitter (sorry, X) thread this week from a guy who’s built a hat brand for dads. Random, I know. But hear me out…
There are just three founders/employees and they’ve sold over 40,000 hats in just 14 months!
And the best thing about it? It’s so simple.
But simplicity is harder than it looks.
“The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life; it’s so easy to make it complex.” — Yvon Chouinard
When you’re starting a business you have limited resources so the simpler the better but as humans we do love to overcomplicate things.
So here’s how to keep it simple 👇
Here’s what to expect today:
📰 Story: How this hat brand makes $10k a day with just 3 employees
🧠 Insight: Focus on one thing for one audience
💪🏼 DIY: How to keep things simple
🔗 Good links: Follow the DadGang leader
📰 Story: How this hat brand makes $10k a day with just 3 employees
DadGang makes hats for dads. It’s that simple.
They make high-quality, caps with varying colours and the DadGang logo on them.
Like this 👇
The business is beautifully simple.
The three founders (all dads) noticed how dad culture on Instagram was all jokes and memes about the perils of being a dad rather than the good stuff.
So they decided to do the opposite, they made hats and built a culture that celebrated being a dad.
They knew their audience, they stuck to one product and they built a community around all the amazing things that come with being a dad.
In all of this, they did two things really well:
Stuck to one audience
Stuck to one simple product
Case and point 👇
By keeping things simple they were able to make sure they were offering their audience a really good product and service.
They could build a close-knit community on Instagram, start a private Facebook page and attract famous dads as customers.
They used a free Shopify theme, minimal apps, a 3PL for shipping, and just Canva + iPhone for content.
The business started with $750 and has now turned over +$1.5m.
Keep it simple ✌🏼
🧠 Insight: One thing for one audience
The more specific you are about who you’re for and what you offer them, the more focused you can be on delivering value through that lens.
People will start to recognise you for being the brand that does X and they’ll tell others because it’s easy for them to pass on the message. Hats for dads for example.
💪🏼 DIY: How to keep things simple
Know your audience really, really well. This makes it 10x easier to make important decisions. Identify them, understand them, and make all decisions with them in mind.
Stick to one product at the beginning, ideally one that you can make iterations of as you grow without needing to invest too heavily in product development e.g. hats.
Write down what you do and who you’re for. Make a pledge to avoid distractions. If someone says ‘you could sell to women too’ when what you really know is men’s skincare, don’t get distracted. Stick to what you know and do it well.
🔗 Good links
🔗 Follow DadGang’s leader Bart on Twitter (X)
🔗 How a small bikini brand got Kendall Jenner to wear their product
🔗 A copywriting cheatsheet you should save immediately
💌 Tell us what you’d like help with…
We started this newsletter for entrepreneurs just like you, and we want it to be as helpful as it possibly can. So tell us what you’d like help with and we’ll dig into it.
Or if there’s a brand you’d like to know more about, let us know and we’ll reach out to them.
Until next week…
Keep being an Outlier,
J + K