Almost every episode on 2X eCommerce to date has focused business success but today’s episode breaks the mould by talking about a product failure and lessons you can learn from it.
Tyler Benedict started a sports drink business because of his personal interest in nutrition and cycling. He felt that cyclists needed an energy drink that they did not have to dilute with water to lessen the taste and effect like Gatorade, so he came up with Propel.
Later on he launched an energy drink he called BURN but still didn’t get the success he wanted. Until he decided to close the company and launch his own blog BikeRumor.com and a .
We reflect with Tyler on this episode, as to why he didn’t see traction and how he would have done things differently.
He now takes the lessons learned to inspire entrepreneurs to launch their startups on The Build Cycle.
He plans to continue bikerumor.com and at the same time launch a podcast that interviews people about how they started to help future entrepreneurs.
The full time people he has now just called or emailed him out of the blue saying they’d love to write for him. He has put up a writing post in the past, but haven’t been successful in getting writers there.
You have to make your product matter, because if you don’t it will just be another product in the market.
Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris
(9:40) It is so much easier to promote products now compared to when there is no social media as we know it today.
(16:08) It pays to have someone who understands the industry that you are entering help you.
(31:55) Tyler thinks that they failed because they couldn’t afford to compete. To do so, they would have needed to shell out several thousand dollar, which they didn’t have. That is the reason why their products never got “there.”
(34:00) It not about having the most unique product that gets your name out there. You can have the unique product but then you still have to be “cool.”
(36:10) In addition to being cool, you have to make sure that your product matters.
(42.50) Before getting into anything business-wise, you have to understand what you are getting yourself into.