#127 Rasmus Barfred from TheMagic5: Business Lessons From A Shark Tank Brand

Hey Budai Nation,

We’ve got a celebrity joining us for this episode of The Ecom Show!

You may recognize Rasmus Barfred and his company TheMagic5 from the huge splash they created with their show-stealing speech on the popular business reality show, Shark Tank. Their pitch threw all the sharks into a feeding frenzy, and the co-founders walked out of the tank with a deal from Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec.

He’s here with us today to share the business lessons that helped him land the deal, and of course to get candid about his experience in and beyond the tank.

Join Rasmus Barfred and our founder/podcast host Daniel Budai to learn more about:

✅ The Story Behind TheMagic5

✅ How To Prepare For Shark Tank

✅ TheMagic5’s Marketing Strategy

Let’s dive right in!

The Story Behind TheMagic5

TheMagic5 is a made-to-measure swimming eyewear brand co-founded by Bo, Niklas, and Rasmus. All three of them were swimmers that struggled with finding a good long-lasting pair of swimming goggles. United by their passion to solve this issue, the three of them set out to create a brand new technology that completely revolutionized this space.

TheMagic5 uses optimal fitting technology to map a customer's face and then creates a completely customized pair of swimming goggles. Their technology is so precise and advanced that they have a return rate of only 1%.

TheMagic5 was founded back in 2017, and soon after Rasmus moved to the USA to expand their business further. Magic5 has spent a lot of time researching and developing its product. They started out by surveying over 450 athletes, swimmers, and triathletes to understand the core issues that people faced with swimming goggles. They then purchased all the different kinds of swimming goggles available in the market to understand the design aspect better. After their primary research, they were clear that they needed a customized product to solve this issue properly, and hence put all their resources into developing the technology they needed. And all that research paid off well for them as TheMagic5 has successfully sold over 100,000 pairs of their personalized swimwear, and has two wonderful sharks as investors to help them scale their business to newer heights.

How To Prepare For Shark Tank

It’s impossible to watch Shark Tank without visualizing how you would go about pitching your business to the Sharks. Rasmus got candid about his experience on and beyond the tank. Here are some of the highlights from this episode:

Why did you decide to take your business to Shark Tank for an investment?

There were two things that drove Rasmus and his co-founders to pitch on Shark Tank. The first was awareness:

“Our customer base is everyone from top Olympic athletes, to regular swimmers that swim once a week. We wanted to reach that audience through a mass consumer television show that was super interesting.”

The second was the need for a strategic partner. The optimal technology TheMagic5 uses can be adapted to work with other products as well, but expanding to new verticals requires some strategic guidance which drove Rasmus and his partners to approach the tank. They were particularly interested in getting a deal with either Mark Cuban or Robert Herjavec for their expertise in technology, and they were fortunate enough to walk out of the tank with investments from both the sharks.

How did you prepare for the tank?

The key thing is to know your numbers. If you don’t know your numbers the sharks will see right through you. Secondly, have an explanation to justify any questions that may arise after you share your numbers.

Prepare and practice your pitch several times before you go in. Run yourself through all the different scenarios before walking in, and make sure that you discuss how low you’re willing to go during negotiations beforehand. This makes you look more decisive.

Who should go into Shark Tank and do you have any advice for them?

Shark Tank gives you access to an audience of 5 million viewers on primetime US television. All the press, tension, and visibility surrounding your business make Shark Tank the ideal show for several businesses. Especially those that have a consumer product, tangible product, something that's easy to relate to and can be easily bought online. But the tank has also worked great for transactional websites, apps, and vending machines in the past.

The key is to go in if you know your numbers, strengths, and weaknesses. You need to know your business in and out before you go in for a pitch because only the first minute of your time on Shark Tank is uninterr...

Juan Chavez From JMC Equipment: Business Secrets From an Inc.5000 Company

Hey Budai Nation,

We’re honored to share that Juan Chavez, the CEO of the successful automotive business JMC equipment, is our guest for today’s episode. JMC equipment has been holding the title of an Inc.5000 company for the past 4 years now. They have a successful B2B e-commerce store that you’ll learn more about in this episode.

Welcome to The Ecom Show! Your go-to weekly e-commerce podcast for uncovering new stories, strategies, secrets, and everything e-commerce. This podcast is sponsored by Budai Media, a retention marketing agency that’s helped 125+ e-commerce businesses generate over $35M+ in additional sales revenue.

Join Daniel Budai (our host and the founder of Budai Media) and Juan Chavez in this episode to learn more about:

✅ Juan’s Journey With Jmc Equipment

✅ A Business Lesson That Juan Learned the Hard Way

✅ Juan’s Advice for New eCommerce Owners

Let’s jump right in.

Juan’s Journey With JMC Equipment

Juan is the second generation to be leading the team at JMC Equipment. The business was founded by his father, and Juan joined in after he decided to call quits on his first venture. JMC equipment is an automotive parts distributor to repair shops and retail stores. Before Juan stepped in, his father would approach stores in New York one at a time, and find leads door to door.

Juan helped launch JMC into the world of e-commerce by setting up a website and letting customers approach them instead. JMC is a unique company because their team is based out of Medellin, Colombia, but their sales are focused entirely on the US market.

Juan E. Chavez is based out of Medellin, Colombia. He has another successful business venture as well. Juan runs his own travel and real estate company that helps clients based out of New York find their dream apartments in Colombia.

Back to the Inc.5000 company though, JMC equipment has a solid team of skilled professionals that take care of the SEO and e-commerce side of things. They’ve also invested in building a strong team of salespeople, and customer-care executives that make sure that their leads get the information and push they need to purchase.

JMC Equipment sells high-ticket products with their average orders running anywhere between $2000 and above. In order to close a deal, they’re very active with their email marketing and even go a step beyond by calling their abandoned cart to close the sale. Their paid marketing efforts include a combination of Google ads, Facebook ads, and email marketing. For organic marketing, they also have an enriched library of educational blogs.

A Business Lesson That Juan Learned the Hard Way

Juan has over a decade of business experience under his belt. We asked him what’s the hardest thing that being in business has taught him, and here’s what he had to say: “The hardest thing I’ve learned goes beyond business, it’s basically about how to pick yourself up from a failure.”

I have been in that position where I thought that I might have to shut my business down. But the resilience to push forward despite the difficulties is what helped. Every other skill is a skill that you could probably just learn, you know if you put in the work, and if you put in the hours, but actual experience of like, you know, the experience that you go through when you make a mistake, and you lose money, or whatever, maybe you're or you're thinking about quitting is not something easy to understand.

But if you stick with it, you will eventually come out the other side a lot stronger with tougher skin. So the biggest lesson is not to give up when failure is knocking on your door.

Juan’s Advice for New eCommerce Owners

The best way to start an e-commerce business is by finding a good product that you have knowledge about, and that you’re motivated to sell. Ideally, find a way to sell this product without having to start with production. Dropshipping is a great way to escape inventory management. Once you have your e-commerce storefront, and marketing taken care of you can look into expanding into starting your own production. This gives you time to focus on taking your business off. The second piece of advice would be to know your industry. Research and talk to your potential customers, it’s the best way to grow your business.

That’s all for this episode of The Ecom Show. If you enjoyed it please make sure to be back here next Thursday for a brand new episode.

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By the way, we are giving our email marketing cheatsheet for...

#142 Jeff From the Atomic Bear: How This Survival Gear Brand Built a 7-Figure Business

Hey Budai Nation,

Welcome back to The Ecom Show. I’m your host Daniel Budai, and today I’ve got serial entrepreneur Jeff from The Atomic Bear joining us for a tell-all about how he managed to bootstrap his survival brand business and scale it to a steady seven-figure money maker.

The Atomic Bear is an e-commerce store that supplies safety gear ranging from tactical pens to survival bracelets and outdoor survival tools. They specialize in creating portable safety tools that help everyday folks prepare to survive the outdoors.

If you’re new here, here’s a quick recap of The Ecom Show.

The Ecom Show is a bi-weekly e-commerce podcast hosted by Daniel Budai. Daniel Budai is also the founder of Budai Media. (The agency that sponsors The Ecom Show.) Budai Media is a retention marketing agency that helps e-commerce brands grow with personalized email and SMS marketing strategies.

In the last 4 years, Budai Media has worked with over 125+ businesses and generated over 35M+ in additional sales revenue. Budai Media is committed to helping e-commerce business owners grow in every way possible, and this podcast is one of the many initiatives by the agency to work towards this goal.

In this episode, Jeff shares what the behind-the-scenes of running a seven-figure survival gear brand looks like. Tune in to learn more about:

✅Jeff’s Decision to Shut His First Business

✅The Idea Behind Atomic Bear

✅Why Jeff Wants to Downsize His SKUs

✅Atomic Bear’s Acquisition Strategy

✅How to Educate Customers About a Product in the Survival Gear Space

✅Jeff’s Advice to eCom Entrepreneurs Looking to Scale Their 6-Figure Business

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, make sure to let me know by leaving an honest review.

Visit Atomic Bear to learn more about its products and the story behind them.

https://www.theatomicbear.com/

You can find my agency and me by clicking on any of the links below.

Find me on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/

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https://www.thebudaimedia.com/podcast

Thanks for tuning in. We’ll see you back here next Tuesday.

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#140 Jodi and Keri From Prolong Lash: The Story Behind Prolong Lash’s Global Success

Welcome to The Ecom Show - your space to discover new and exciting real-life e-com success stories. This week we’re diving deep into the world of beauty and personal wellness.

The personal wellness and beauty industry is one where the scope to go viral and create a global cult following is immense. Today, we’ve got Jodi and Keri, the CEO and founder of Prolong Lash, here with us today to talk about the story behind how they grew Prolong Lash from a small business to a global brand with a presence in over 80+ countries.

Prolong Lash is a pioneer in the world of lash care. They were the first brand to launch a lash aftercare solution that helps lash professionals maintain the quality of their lash glue. What started with one product has now developed into an extensive line of lash aftercare products. Join us in this episode as Jodi and Keri get candid about the work culture, social media strategies, and business mindset that has helped them grow their global footprint.

Before we get started, here’s a quick introduction for all the new listeners:

The Ecom Show is hosted by Daniel Budai, the founder, and CEO of Budai Media. Budai Media is a retention marketing agency that works with e-commerce businesses to help them achieve hyper-growth and better engagement. In the last four years, we’ve helped over 125+ businesses generate over 35M+ in additional sales revenue.

In this episode, we’re going to talk more about:

✅Prolong Lash’s Origin Story

✅How Prolong Lash Created a Global Network for Lash Professionals

✅Prolong Lash’s Social Media Approach to Targeting a Global Audience

✅When Should You Hire a CEO to Help You Grow Your Business?

✅Prolong Lash’s Advice to New eCom Business Owners

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, make sure to leave us a good review.

Visit the website to learn more about Prolong Lash.

https://prolonglash.com/

Also, you can stay in touch with me by following me on other social media platforms as well!

Find me on LinkedIn:

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Thanks for tuning in. We’ll see you back here next Tuesday.

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Welcome to episode 280 of The Ecom Show! Today, I’m joined by Soma Tóth, founder and CEO of Recart, a platform that’s helping Shopify brands scale their SMS marketing efforts. What began in 2016 as a tool to solve WooCommerce’s cart abandonment issues has evolved into one of the top-rated SMS marketing platforms on Shopify, boasting a 4.8-star rating and over 5000+ positive reviews.

In this episode, Soma takes us through Recart’s journey—from its early days as a small tool to its current status as the go-to SMS app for Shopify brands. We dive into the key decisions that led to the platform’s success, why they pivoted from WooCommerce to Shopify, and how AI and pop-ups are transforming SMS marketing.

Click on the link below to book a free demo with Recart:

https://recart.com/shopify-app

In this episode, we’ll cover:

✅ How Recart evolved from a WooCommerce tool into the #1 SMS platform for Shopify.

✅ Why Shopify brands are turning to SMS marketing to increase conversions.

✅ How AI-powered pop-ups are helping brands capture more leads.

✅ Strategies that the top 1000 Shopify stores use to grow their SMS lists.

✅ Soma’s journey as a founder and the key decisions that shaped Recart’s success.

Thank you for tuning into The E-Com Show! We appreciate your support, and if you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review.

Visit Budai Media’s website to learn more about us:

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/

👥 Special Offer: Running an e-commerce store with over $50,000 monthly revenue? Book a free consultation with me to get a complete audit of your performance and retention marketing strategy.

https://calendly.com/budaimedia/strategy-call-with-daniel?month=2024-09

Before you go, don’t miss our free resource – the ‘Top 100 High-Converting Emails of Budai Media.’ It’s packed with invaluable marketing strategies that can boost your ecommerce business. Click the link below to grab your copy:

https://www.thebudaimedia.com/top100-emails

Find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/

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