One Million Chocolate Bars In 20 Months 🍫
How Mid-Day Squares proved their idea was worth betting on
Hello,
Hope you’re having a good week 👌
It’s been a busy few days for us and we’ve got some news.
Firstly, thanks to those of you who have reached out and let us know what you love/would change about the newsletter, it’s super helpful. We’ve also had in-person (zoom) chats with a few of you now too and we LOVE hearing about what you’re working on.
Secondly… we’re launching a community 🥳
BUT we’re doing it slowly.
Because good things take time.
So we’re on the lookout for 10-15 founding members who can help us shape The Outliers Community into a space where the value exchange is priceless for anyone building a business on the internet.
Building things is hard. Building things on your own in a silo? Even harder.
So — would you find a community of people building businesses at the £0 - £5M revenue stage useful?
Share struggles, challenges and wins.
Get valuable feedback on stuff like landing pages, pricing etc.
Share tech recommendations and more.
Want to be one of our founding community members?
Now, onto today’s story…
If someone asked you to invest in their idea to start a chocolate company, what would you say?
‘What’s the product?’
‘How do you know it’s a good idea?’
‘Aren’t there too many big competitors?’
Plus a gazillion others, all suggesting it’s a risky idea and that you’re not convinced you can part with your hard-earned cash.
Some businesses need more upfront investment than others and FMCG brands are notoriously expensive to start. Especially when you have a unique product that’s not easy to manufacture.
But spending millions on a manufacturing plant is out of the question and no investor is going to back the idea before there’s proof it’s a strong market contender.
You need evidence that you’ve got what it takes to compete.
So go and get it.
Here’s how Mid-Day Squares got theirs 👇
Here’s what to expect today:
📰 Story: How Mid-Day Squares proved their idea was worth betting on
🧠 Insight: Prove your idea is worth betting on
💪🏼 DIY: How to prove your idea is worth betting on
🔗 Good links: A founder interview, ideas for testing your product idea and, hidden at the bottom, a link to Shopify’s founding story
📰 Story: How Mid-Day Squares proved their idea was worth betting on
Sweet snack brand, Mid-Day Squares took an engineering approach to the chocolate market when they started back in 2017.
They found where they wanted to be, who they were competing with and then worked backwards to work out what they needed to do to get there.
Then they told as many as people as possible what they planned to do so they’d be held accountable — including potential investors.
They gave themselves a deadline (12 months) and got started.
A year later, the product and brand were ready. They had something to go to market with.
The next step was to start fundraising and find a way to start making products at scale.
But it was an expensive journey and no one wanted to take on the risk.
They went to 26 contract manufacturers and no one could give them the product they needed.
So they had two options:
Kill the idea
Spend a small fortune on their own manufacturing plant
This was a big inflection point for the team.
They either gave up on their dream or found a way to make it happen.
They decided giving up wasn’t an option but that they also needed to de-risk the next steps.
They could go out and find investment, but investment wasn’t going to come easily — it’s hard to ask investors to part with their cash when you have no idea if your idea has legs.
So firstly, they figured if they could make the product themselves in their apartment and get to £1m in revenue, then they’d be able to prove that their idea has real traction.
Secondly, they decided they would get to £1m in revenue but without using Facebook ads. It had to be organic growth through social media content or word of mouth. This would show investors that they’d gained significant traction without pulling every single lever available to them.
So they went all in on content and treated their Instagram like a reality TV show. Think Shark Tank, The Kardashians and Elon Musk’s build-in-public strategy combined.
By showing people behind the scenes they created intrigue, people wanted to know what they were building. Those people then turned into paying customers and word spread quickly.
They sold over 1 million bars in 20 months and now they’ve sold over 12 million bars to date.
They proved they had traction and have raised significant investment since, including enough to build their own manufacturing facility.
🧠 Insight: Prove you’re worth betting on
Getting investment is no easy task right now. It’s even harder with no proof. So the best way to show investors the potential of your business is to get evidence and lots of it.
P.S. Finding traction in the least risky way possible is just as important for bootstrapped businesses. You are your own investor and you don’t want to waste your time and money either.
💪🏼 DIY: How to prove you’re worth betting on
Forget about being the gigantic brand you know you will be one day and focus on the now. Ask yourself: ‘What’s the simplest way I can test the market’s demand for my product?’
A few examples:
Markets: take an MVP or prototype to a market and gauge people’s reactions, go back regularly and see if you get repeat customers
If you have an existing audience on social media or something similar, send out a questionnaire and gauge interest
Create a landing page and spend a bit of money on Facebook ads to drive sign-ups for your product pre-launch
Launch with pre-orders and make it clear that you’ll only make them if you get enough interest
🔗 Good links
🔗 Nick, Founder of Mid-Day Squares talks to Shopify 🎧
🔗 How to test your business idea before blowing a fortune
🔗 How to quickly validate your product idea (mostly for B2B tech but still some good and relevant lessons for all businesses)
And of course, find out more about Mid-Day Squares 🍫
P.S. This is the inspiring story of how Shopify got started >
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Keep being an Outlier,
J + K