This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Sometimes on this show, you might happen to hear about how providing solutions to problems is a great way to think of side hustle ideas. So let me give you some practical examples because hey, today's story is very practical. Before you think of solutions, think of problems themselves or actually notice them. Notice problems and inefficiencies as you go about your daily life. Look around your house, look around your office or work site.
We had a story a while back about an IBM employee in India who was really good using Microsoft Excel, ended up building Excel courses for his colleagues. He quit his job and now does that full time. Learning to use spreadsheet software efficiently for a lot of workers is a great solution because a lot of people spend a lot of time using those programs and anything you can do to make someone's life better is a potential side hustle. Now listen, you're not gonna find a solution to every problem. In fact, you won't find solutions to most of them.
That's why they're problems. You also won't be able to act on every proposed solution you find because you can only try out so many things. But by identifying problems and asking yourself what if, you'll develop more of the side hustle mentality and you just might end up with a big idea. So with that in mind, welcome to side hustle school. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
Today's story follows this model precisely. A guy who is a husband and father of two girls keeps finding a lot of hair in the shower. He invents a special tool called the tub shroom to keep the hair out of sight until it can be cleaned up. He then produces and launches it with a business partner and they go on to make seven figures in profits. That is correct, seven figures in profits from a little tool to keep hair out of the drain.
Of course, there's more to it. That's why the point of these stories is to break down the how. But in essence, it follows that concept of provide a solution to a problem, provide a simple solution to a practical problem. Stay tuned for the story. [Music]
Sergei Carnegie is an inventor.
Just like Thomas Edison before him, he has a knack for coming up with novel ways to solve difficult problems. His friend Solomon Najimi is a business whiz. He has a wealth of experience in retail distribution and manufacturing. Together, these guys have created a highly successful side hustle, now a full-time business, with a one-of-a-kind product. Let's start with the beginning of their partnership.
10 years ago, Sergei and Solomon met when they were both working for an energy drink company. They realized they were kindred spirits. Each enjoyed brainstorming product ideas, and they had skills that were different but complimentary. Sergei had more of an inventor's touch, whereas Solomon was all about getting ideas out to market. Sergei's first attempt at invention fell short.
He put a lot of work into something that just didn't work. In fact, you could say it went down the drain because drains are what came next. Great inventors rarely strike gold the first time. When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, it didn't happen right away. In fact, when he spoke of the process, he said, "I didn't fail 1,000 times.
The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps." So in the spirit of Edison, Sergei continued to invent. And that's where that practical problem I spoke of came in. As a husband and father of two girls, he noticed a lot of long strands of hair scattered throughout his home. Day after day, hair kept clogging up the drains. So he created a small mushroom-shaped drain plug.
It was filled with holes so the water could flow freely, but it also caught any excess hair and kept it out of sight. He called it the tub shroom. He took the concept of Solomon, and they decided to partner up. Sergei would be the inventor and Solomon the business mind who would take the idea to market. Since they already had a prototype, they decided to launch the product on Kickstarter before spending too much money.
They learned from previous mistakes and marketed the listing in message boards. Starting with a modest goal of $12,000, they ended up raising $59,000 from 2,000 backers. That's when they knew they had a winner on their hands. So Solomon used his experience in distribution to build on that traction. He approached Bed Bath & Beyond and convinced them to give the product a trial.
Why would they say yes so quickly? Because they'd seen the Kickstarter success and knew the product had market validation. Still, production and manufacturing would have to happen quickly, and while the Kickstarter funds were great, they weren't going to be enough. Between the friends, they had $50,000 in savings, and due to the kindness of friends and family, managed to scrape together another $100,000. That money helped them move quickly on manufacturing, enabling them to produce enough tub shrooms to fulfill their Kickstarter promise and get the shrooms in Bed Bath & Beyond across the country.
Now, just a quick note about that money, $50,000 in savings and $100,000 through friends and family. I will come back and talk about that at the end. The key point is, at that point, they already had this market validation. So it's not like you're supposed to go out and spend $150,000, but more on that in a moment. The Bed Bath & Beyond trial was a huge success, which led to them stocking the tub shroom in over 1,000 stores.
Within a year, this success wasn't lost on would-be competitors, and several similar products began to show up on the market. In fact, knockoffs and counterfeiters have been their greatest challenge. As Solomon put it, "I guess imitation is the greatest form of flattery. I always tell Sergey that no one makes counterfeits of products that aren't winners." Fortunately, patent law is an area that Solomon knew a lot about. In the United States, a patent is an official way of proving that you are the one who created something.
It gives you legal protection if a competitor tries to copy anything unique to your invention. Solomon and Sergey took the time to patent the tub shroom, which helped them ward off at least some of the copycats. What started as a little invention between two friends has now turned into a thriving business, one that's allowed both Sergey and Solomon to leave their jobs and go all in with tub shroom land. What does this look like in detail? Well, in the past year, their little drain-unclogging solution has generated more than a million dollars in profits.
That is, profits, not just sales, more than a million dollars in profits in the past year. 35% of that came from retail sales and the other 65% from online sales. The online sales come through their own website, Amazon, and eBay. Like any great inventor, Sergey is always coming up with new concepts, and that's how they plan to keep their business growing. In fact, in the past year, they have launched a tub shroom for the kitchen, which is called sink shroom.
Their goal is for the tub shroom family of products to become synonymous with drain protection. They continue to tweak and improve these products to be better for their customers. Although they deal in inventing products that make people's lives easier, the profits they've unclogged through this side hustle-turned-million-dollar business could be their greatest invention of all. [Music]
Awesome, what a fun story. I've got a few different comments about it.
First of all, just a reminder about the money. The actual startup costs for this were very low. They only chose to invest the greater amount of money. They chose to spend their savings and raise more money from their family and friends after they had had that really successful Kickstarter campaign. And then they have this big order from Bed Bath and Beyond.
So at that point, even though it is a significant investment, they're not taking a huge risk. Like at that point, there is this validation behind their idea. I just want to make that really clear because I never tell people to go out and invest their life savings. In fact, even in this situation, I would suggest even though that investment helped them to scale their product, if they didn't have access to those funds, I bet they would find some other way to do it. Maybe it wouldn't have happened as quickly, you know, to get to the million-dollar point, but I bet they could have still figured something out and I bet you can too.
All right, so next comment, is the money in the idea or in the implementation? In this story with these two friends, which is an ideal partnership, both stages were critical. I don't think it would be a million-dollar product without the work that that second guy did, Solomon, in crafting the Kickstarter campaign and getting it in Bed Bath and Beyond and having the foresight to patent it in the first place to protect from competition and so on. But of course, the idea itself was really good. It was a very helpful product for lots of people.
So as I said, it seems a partnership works really well for these guys. And here's the last thing I wanted to mention. This is something that Solomon said. He said, I think people would be interested in this story because it's one where a successful product allowed two friends and partners to do work that best fits their own aptitudes. Sergey can invent full-time and I, Solomon, can help launch and grow new ideas, which is the most exciting thing for me.
Not so much the money, but the challenge is what excites me. I love that comment, I love that attitude. I often discourage people from forming partnerships unless you know what you're doing, unless you have this clear, common vision, and unless you have some pretty clearly defined roles, ideally with one person having one strength and the other person having another strength, which is exactly what you see here. So this is a perfect example of something that is a good partnership. Pretty amazing story.
One statistic I didn't mention earlier is that they have actually sold 3 million of these, 3 million of the Tubshrooms in three years since they've launched. So needless to say, a tremendous success that all began as a side hustle. Let this be a model to you. I hope you learn something from it. I hope you take something from it.
And as always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Our show notes for today, including links to the famous Tubshroom and also the Sinkshroom and any other drainage rooms we can find will be at sidehustleschool.com/657. Thank you so much for listening. You're a rockstar. I hope you'll come back tomorrow for another episode.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
