Notes from Chris

Episode 572

We’ve all been there—bad breath can rear its ugly, bacteria coated head in the most inconvenient of times. Mike Bracciale found himself in one of those moments while cramming for a big Organic Chemistry test. As most college students do, he was pulling an all-nighter, which meant copious amounts of coffee and food that should only be consumed with caution after age 25.

He could have braved the storm. But as fate would have it, in walked his crush and fellow O. Chem. classmate, and since tables are often in short supply around midterms and finals, she opted to share his. At any other time, Mike would have welcomed such an opportunity, but with a weapon of mass relationship destruction brewing, things were just a little too close for comfort.

Feigning a desperate need to head back to his place just off of campus, Mike dashed home to freshen up a bit and then headed back to the library.

We may never know how he fared on that O. Chem. test, but what we do know is that while Mike didn’t end up getting the girl, he might have walked away with something even better: an idea. Around this time, students all over campus were walking around with these small bottles of MiO, a concentrated flavored liquid that you could use to spruce up water—or perhaps vodka, this is a no judgment zone. While the bottle contained roughly 1.62 fl oz, it contained enough concentrated flavor to add to 24 8 oz. servings of water.

And with the struggles of bad breath fresh in his mind, Mike couldn’t help but wonder why no one had thought to do the same with mouthwash.

Being on a pre-med track with several terms of chemistry under his belt, he knew that the bulk of your everyday bottle of mouthwash was mostly water. If he could find a way to take the water out of mouthwash, he could create a product that didn’t yet exist on the market.

Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither is an innovative mouthwash empire!

While Mike felt confident in his abilities, he had no desire to go into this alone. Enter Nick Telford—Mike’s fraternity brother and fellow mouthwash enthusiast. Nick was one of the people Mike had approached for feedback back in his rampant fraternity days. He loved the concept and was on board with helping Mike go from idea to action. They divided responsibilities, with Nick working on financing and brand development, while Mike focused on the product itself. As Mike said, “You never have to feel like you have to do anything on your own! It’s okay to have strengths and weaknesses—find someone with skills that complement your own.”

After months of testing, tasting, and revising, the duo ended up with a concentrated formula that actively fought bacteria, plaque, and tartar for up to 8 hours, would be able to pack 60 uses into a single 1.62 oz bottle, and of course, tasted fantastic.

Since they were transforming oral care by making it accessible on the fly, they decided to call their product Fly Mouthwash. The name is also a nod to the fact that it’s a TSA approved product and perfect for those who fly often.

They started out on Amazon but soon moved over to their own website. And by the time of this episode, they’ve sold more than half of their stock of 7,000 bottles of Fly Mouthwash… all within their first six months!

These days, Mike and Nick are looking to move away from marketing Fly Mouthwash as merely a “portable” option and are instead looking to replace your traditional mouthwash entirely. They recently secured funding from an outside investor interested in their product. While mouthwash greatness seems to be inevitable, they’re also content for the time being restoring confidence and freshening up the world, one mouth at a time.

 

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  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Fly Mouthwash: Fresh breath is no longer impossible on the go—snag your first bottle of Fly Mouthwash over on Mike and Nick's website!

• Wordpress & WooCommerce: The platforms that Mike used to create his website and payment process for Fly Mouthwash

SEE ALSO:

• Brand Strategist and Dentist Team Up To Sell Coconut Oil Mouthwash: Two friends draw on their combined skills and understanding of an ancient Ayurvedic practice to launch a natural mouthwash product, building a $7,000/month side hustle
• Sweet-Toothed Dentist Creates Sugar-Free Caramel Company: A pediatric dentist joins forces with her husband to sell sugar-free caramels. Starting from a goal of selling 100 bags at a local market, they go on to earn $100,000 in 2017
• Luxury Toothbrush Hustle Produces Polished Profits: Introducing the high-end toothbrush with low startup costs: this man earns $1,000 a month on the side. Total startup costs were just $760!

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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