From Drug Dealer to $100M Brand: The BruMate Success Story

1. What’s your background and what business did you start?

Hi, I am Dylan Jacob, founder of $100M brand BruMate. Brumate is an insulated tumbler, drinkware, and Beer cooler brand, BruMate, that was founded in 2016 to shake the drinkware industry.

Since childhood, my mind has been full of ideas. I somehow wanted to earn money at a young age. Due to my bad friends circle, I ended up selling drugs to my school friends to earn money. One day I got caught at my school washroom and was sent for 2 months of juvenile during my Christmas vacation.

This was the turning point of my life. After returning from detention, I cleared out my old friend’s group and started focusing on myself. After graduating from high school, I started working at my grandfather’s TV repair shop. I began to fix the broken screen glasses. Soon I got the idea and started selling high-quality iPhone replacement screens. With time, I tied up with the 100+ mobile repair shops and started selling my screens. Later I sold my business for $100k. I also started a home renovation and Tiles design company and earned a lot of profit from it.

2. How did you develop this idea and what market research did you do?

I turned 21 and during my birthday, I was at the local brewery, Sun King. The brewery only used to sell 16 oz beer cans. I hated it when the last quarter of the beer became warm. I searched online and could not find any koozie that would fit my 16 oz cans in it.

I came back home and did my research for the insulated drinkware industry. I studied all the brands and noted down what they were selling and who their target audience was. I found out that there were only two largest brands Yeti and Hydro Flask who were selling water bottles, tumblers, and coffee mugs, and that too to the retail store. They did not have a strong direct-to-consumer presence.

I realized that there is a huge opportunity to sell drinkware direct-to-consumer. I also noticed that these brands were selling their product to the older consumers who were focused on Hydration. I thought to sell to the younger consumer who consumes alcoholic beverages.

3. How did you build your first product for your business? Explain.

I made a rough pencil sketch of the 16oz drinkware and hired someone on Upwork to create the CAD mockup design. I took the design to the manufacturer and after suggesting some changes, they agreed to manufacture it. I named the company Kryo Hopsulator, short for hops insulator.

The original Indiegogo compaign

The first launch was a total failure. I ran an Indiegogo campaign aiming to raise $5000 in April 2016. Instead, I managed to grab only $1025 which was not enough for me. So I decided to create my website on Shopify. I had a good knowledge of Facebook and Google Ads so I thought to run an ads campaign for my products.

4. What is the process you followed to launch your business?

I created the one-page landing page and paid the freelancer to photoshop the CAD design which I had and quickly launched the website and drove the traffic to my website through Facebook and Google. I did not take preorders but just captured emails and realized that people were interested in my product.

I went to the brewery, Sun King where I got this idea and asked the owner if I could sell the Hopsulator on the showroom floor. Sun King gave me a small order of 200 units with their logo on it.

My first purchase order was of 1000 units out of which 200 went to Sun King and the rest were sold on social media. While I was getting ready for the launch of Hopsulator on the beach in Florida, I got the idea for my second product that is Winesulator, a 25oz insulated container in the shape of a wine bottle that will hold the entire wine bottle.

I followed the same approach to launch my second product, created a CAD drawing, and created the product landing page for the new product. I got positive responses for the Winesulator, collected around 7000 emails, and got $270k worth of preorders.

BruMate Official Website

5. What strategies have you found effective in attracting and retaining customers?

Though there were several strategies but few strategies worked tremendously well for me.

i) Unique approach in the untouched market: I was able to recognize the growing market when I launched my first product in 2016. I did not invent the Insulated drinkware market but just followed a unique approach to capture the market. I focused on creating a direct-to-consumer brand from the very beginning as no one was focused on D2C in the Drinkware industry.

ii) Differentiate from your competitors: I differentiated from my competitors as I launched the 16oz koozie and 25oz wine bottle-shaped drinkware container as it did not exist at that time. I also launched my products in different colors which makes it unique in the eyes of the consumer.

iii) Experiment and Adapt: When my Indiegogo campaign failed, I quickly created the product landing page and started running Facebook Ads which proved to be a huge customer acquisition channel for my brand. I also didn’t wait until my product was perfect and launched immediately when it was ready.

iv) Listen to your customer: I have always read the feedback given by the customers and innovated my product according to the customer’s needs. I noticed that 95% of the customers who are ordering Winesulator are women. Then I launched several other colors that women love the most and I started getting more positive responses from them.

v) Outsource when necessary: One thing I realized is that we should always outsource a few things in which we don’t have expertise. I hired a Facebook Ads expert who will run a successful Ads campaign to get more sales for my business. I also hired a few more people and the Shipmonk team who will help me in warehouse-related tasks and will help me in shipping the order.

6. How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

In August 2017, my business hit the first $1M in sales. Soon after that, I get a hit with $100k lawsuit for trademark infringement for using the name Kryo. I quickly changed my name to BruMate.

The company went from $1M in sales in 2017 to $2M in 2018. I also listed my product on Amazon. Around 97% of sales were direct-to-consumer and 3% were wholesale. In 2019, 50% of sales were DTC, 30% were from Amazon and 20% were wholesale which sums up to $33M in annual sales. In 2020, Our company hit $100M in annual sales and we raised $20M from the San Francisco Equity partners. In 2022, we raised another $25M.

7. What platforms/tools do you use for your business?

E-commerce: Shopify

Email: Klaviyo

Domain: GoDaddy

Attribution: Elevar

SMS Marketing: Attentive

App: TapCart

Reviews: Okendo

Heatmaps and post-Purchase Survey: Hotjar

Subscription: Recharge

Content Management System: Contentful

3PL: Shipmonk

Data Enrichment: AtData

A/B Testing: Visual Website Optimizer

Site Searching and Filtering: SearchSpring

Customer Service: Gorgias

Marketing Automation: LiveRamp

Loyalty: Smile.io

8.Which books, podcasts, or other resources have been the most influential for you?

Building a story brand by Donald Miller

Never lose a customer again by Joey Coleman

Zero to One by Peter Thiel

9. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs who are just starting or looking to get started?

Opportunities are everywhere. Don’t be afraid to work on the idea which you genuinely think will work out. Also don’t wait for perfection to launch your business. Improve your products and services by listening to your customers.