What It Really Takes To Start Something From Nothing

Josh Felgoise (00:00.206)

Welcome to Guy's Set, the guy's guide to what you should be talking about. I'm Josh, I'm 23 years old, and I'm here to find all the tips, advice, and recommendations for guys in their 20s. Let's get into it.

Josh Felgoise (00:18.104)

Hi guys, welcome back to guyset, the guys guide to what should be talked about. This week I have the founder of Matt's beard bar, Matt, on to talk about his product, the beard bar. I came across the beard bar, which we'll talk about in the podcast. It's a product to help clean the beard trimmings around your sink. I came across an ad on TikTok that was just perfect. We talk about that a little bit in the podcast too, so just keep listening. And I reached out to Matt and I was like, this product is exactly what

I've been looking for for my roommate and I because it was right after I had my roommate read on and we talked about roommate grievances and one of mine was how he always shaves and leaves leaves beard trimmings everywhere and it's super fucking annoying. And I reached out to Matt and I was like, this is exactly solving the problem that we have. I'd love to have you on to hear about your journey, how you started this, why you started this, how it's going.

And I actually asked Matt to send me a beard bar before I have him on because I wanted to make sure that I liked the product and genuinely thought it worked and was good for this audience. I would never promote something that I don't think is good and I would use myself. So he sent me one of the beard bars and I used it after shaving and I genuinely thought it solved the problem so well. So then Matt came on and you're about to hear from him.

We talk a lot about Matt's entrepreneurial journey, which kind of wasn't his plan for himself or his career. And the product was just doing so well that he ended up doing this full time. And we talk about the sacrifices and the hardships and all the things that he kind of has had to endure to get to where he is now that you really don't hear founders and entrepreneurs talk about all the time. And that's my favorite part about a podcast as a medium is you really get to hear about the person or the human behind the founder or the entrepreneur that you don't see on social media. You don't see on their online presence.

So this is one of those episodes and this is that exact example of really the human side of building a business from the ground up. So without further ado, wait also, stay tuned at the end. Matt agreed to do a giveaway of some beard bars to this audience. So after this episode, go to my Instagram at thegeiset, T-H-E-G-U-Y-S-E-T for how to enter the giveaway. And now without further ado, please welcome Matt, the founder of Matt's Beard Bar, to Geiset.

Josh Felgoise (02:37.294)

Hi Matt, welcome to GuySet. Thank you for having me. Thrilled you're on. We had some trouble with my mic before this, so we're using an older mic, but we're back, we're good. So I wanna just tell you how I found your product first, and I wanna talk to you about it, because I really, love it. So I found your product, I was scrolling TikTok randomly, and an ad popped up for it, so I wanna ask you about that later, but an ad popped up for it.

I'm gonna have like a popular TikTok sound behind it. it showed your product like in action, like just cleaning all the shavings on your sink. And I was like, I need this because right before that, my roommate and I were having, I recorded an episode with him called like roommate grievances. And we were talking about like one of my biggest problems with him is that when he shaves, he leaves his shavings.

all over the sink, there's always some remnants of something on the sink, and it's so annoying. And I was talking, and that was like, we were talking about it back and forth, and then I saw your ad, and I was like, well, we need this, and as a guy, I was like, I need to look into this. So I messaged you, because I wanted to make sure it was legit and a good product and real, and I was like, this is a genius product, I need to have this. And I was like, but before I have you on here, I wanna make sure

that it's good because I wouldn't want to tell this audience anything without trying it myself and really knowing that it's a good product. So you sent me one and I have it right here. I got it. That's why if you're not watching on YouTube, watch on YouTube, but I have it right here. This is the beard bar. Matt has his as well. But now I'll shut up because I've talked about the reason I found you, but I loved the product and I'm so happy to have you on. And I think it's great.

I want to hear your story. How did you make it and why did you make it in the first place? Okay. Yeah. Great question. mean, yeah. So basically I was in your exact situation. I was living with my cousin at the time and it was like March 2020, so COVID. And it was the first time in my life I realized some guys like don't clean up their beer trimmings. I'm like, this is gross. And I was kind of like your situation or...

Josh Felgoise (05:02.254)

kind of foreshadowing, but like, like the girlfriend or the wife in this situation, cause most guys don't care. And usually the women do, but like 80 % of the people that buy my product are women for like the person that has really. Yeah. So that's like a whole kind of spin on who I'm targeting and, and who I learned had the issue. but yeah, I, I had a 3d printer at the time and I was really petty and I could be real with him. So I'm like, I'm going to make you something. Cause you say you don't.

you need a visual reminder, you don't see the toilet paper. I'm like, okay, no problem. So I did and then found some antimicrobial foam, put it together, gave it to some friends. They kind of gave me some feedback and like that summer I did some more prototyping and made it better and better. And then I started posting on TikTok. I was already on TikTok in like 2019 and I made my business account and I

posted and like third video in. I remember it was like a Friday at like 6 p.m. and like I posted it and like on the shower going like, get together or something and I get out the shower and I had like six orders. I was like, this is crazy. Like complete strangers for some of my life. I don't come from, you know, business parents. I don't come from, you know, I don't have any mentors in my life. I don't have like investors. It's all just like me just being curious and trying things and

Josh Felgoise (06:35.61)

I'm I'm screwed.

Josh Felgoise (06:54.414)

there's like a setting like, like don't sell anymore if you run out of inventory and that wasn't clicked. So it just kept going like more into the negative. And then like I get home and there's like, you have like four available and you have to fulfill 500. So I was like, yo, this is crazy. And I said, the first thing that came in mind, something that's just like part of my personality is like speak to everyone publicly. Like, so the next morning I did like,

another TikTok kind of explaining what happened. Then I emailed everyone that bought one individually and said, Hey, you can keep your place in line or I can refund you, but I'm going to take all your guys's money and invest in more equipment and supplies and make them. And everyone said like, we want to keep our place in line. And I was like, okay, that's really cool. That like says something. So

I went ahead and did all that and then November comes around, I make like a Black Friday video and I double October's orders and I'm like, yo, that was crazy. Yeah, so all of October, mind you, I got like a full-time remote job. like at 6 PM to like 11, I'm like making beard bars and then just finished that. Then November comes, I do that and it blows up. Finally get those done like early December. And then I make a stocking stuffer video and it

Doubles the Black Friday video. I'm like, okay, this is getting crazy So within like three more you putting any money behind these videos at the time or no, it's just all organic What's that was this all organic at the time or were you putting money behind the video? yeah It's always been organic and I'll get to that. Okay, cuz we don't pay for it. Yeah, cool. Cool. Cool. And then okay. Well, keep going So that really that like people were ordering it for Christmas and like we couldn't even ship them out all We finished making

like orders in early January. I'm like, okay, there's like everyone's broke. Everyone's spent all their money. There's no way it's gonna happen. So can like start making TikToks again. And in January, we double December's orders off one TikTok video. And I was like, this is nuts. So I was like- Wait, what are the numbers at this point? So it was 500, 1000, 2000, then it was 4,000 orders off of TikTok video. Holy shit, wow. In January.

Josh Felgoise (09:15.628)

And I'm like, okay, this is like starting to become like comparable income to like a year's worth of salary for me at the time. And I'm like, okay, this is not. what were you doing at the time? I was doing finished vehicle logistics. So I was, I come from my degrees in computer engineering. So I'm like a low key nerd and I like used to make mobile apps. I did like, I always had like side project type of personality where I was just kind of making things.

And then yeah, like silly, petty idea just like kind of took off. And yeah, at that point I quit in February. No, in January moved back in with my mom because I was like, I pulled all the electricity from our like rental that me and my cousin had. And then in March, I got an office of 21 and then that's kind of like nonstop since then we've sold out like, I don't know, like eight times.

And we still make them all, is, know, if Mark Cuban was watching or something, probably not a good idea. I should get that outsourced, which we're in the process of that. But like, we still like have manufacturers make like the raw parts and then we do all assembly, cleaning, quality inspection, packing and shipping out at our facility in Michigan. Whoa. So it's all still all you doing that? Yeah, I've pretty much touched like every single beard bar that has been shipped and it's like.

I think like 97,000 at this point, beard bars. Congratulations, first of all, that's really insanely impressive. How many years has this been now? So October 2020 is kind of when I started officially like Shopify and selling it. So three years in a month. Wow, well congrats, that's insane. I have so many questions about the story you just told because it's a very, very cool story and it's like...

It's the dream, right? For anybody that wants to start a product, you've done the exact dream. I think first and foremost, the timing was impeccable. It was deep in COVID. This is a problem that every couple roommates, this is a problem that faces a lot of people. And I was showing a bunch of friends your product, this, I have it right here. And I brought it out and I had one friend was like, my God, I solved it on TikTok.

Josh Felgoise (11:38.424)

And was like, I'm having Matt on guys set soon. He was like, that's insane, like really cool. And I was showing them the product and they were like, this is such a small, unique problem, but like every either guy has it or girlfriend has it. And it's like, it's not thought of yet. Like how is that not even thought of yet? So I wanna go back to the beginning of like you being petty and making the product.

your cousin use it and like what changed immediately? Like what were like the quick changes that your friends who you gave it to wanted to change to it, wanted to make to it? Yeah, for sure. mean, yeah, so starting out, the first prototype we were using and it was just kind of cumbersome. was like really, it was a lot wider. So if you imagine it was like this wide and it just didn't need to be that wide. And it was like taller. It was kind of like a

really full grip and now it's like you can just use a couple fingers. So overall it definitely got smaller. The grip got a little bit more ergonomic and that was pretty much it. So we just kind of shrunk it down, made like the grip better and we kind of ran with that. Kind of did an imprint that says beer bar on top of it. So just little things like that and that's what was going on like that summer when I was like testing it out with people.

Cool. And then during the time when you had all those orders and were still doing a full-time job, how did you manage that? Honestly, the money was the motivation. I've been doing this, like my 18th venture, and none of them were successful enough for me to do full-time. And I seen hope with this, and I was like, this is I wanted for a decade. And I was like, I'm just going to deal with it. So it was almost like...

energizing by like the, you know, the customers and like the comments and like just the community I was building was like making me go that extra mile. And it was obviously exhausting and you know, it's, it's not easy to manage all that, but like I, you know, during COVID one, there's not really much to do. And two, like hobbies, where there was like a little bit of video games with friends or this or that it was easy for me to like.

Josh Felgoise (13:58.958)

put that away and just be like, is kind of fun and interesting and like, let's just do it. But yeah, it was very, very exhausting. you know, although all that was going on, there was still a lot of doubt because it's like, this is a cool hobby, but like, is this going to be what I'm doing all the time? Like I got benefits, you know, I got like 401k, I'm just going to leave all that. So there's like that whole kind of like, like back and forth in my head every day.

What were the other failed ventures? So there was a lot of apps. Like I mentioned, I came from computer engineering. And these ventures, I call them ventures because they're not full blown LLCs where I'm working full time. Some are just like kind of hobbies. Like an entrepreneurial project, right? Yeah. it's like, honestly, that's kind of even advice I have for other people is like, if you want to just try things, kind of get your feet wet a little bit. Like I had a t-shirt company, like who

didn't do a t-shirt company. That's like everyone's first like company. Ours was at the time I was like vaping, so it was like jewel pocket shirts. So they're like, they fit that. And like if you're on the water or something, like it keeps it snug, but you can keep hitting it. And here it was also in apps, like we had the, or some of these ventures were so big that they were a four founder app company where it full LLC, like

equity share and all that for two years. And that was like an app where was just accountability. Every time you want to, let's say go to gym every day. Every day you don't go to gym, you have to donate to a charity. Or you can do it with a friend where it was like you hold yourself accountable and they'll request you donate to a charity. So we had like six charities on board. We worked with like sorties and fraternities because they do a lot of fundraising for that. So we did things with them too.

And yeah, like I said, this was by far like way simpler. I compared it like a Post-it Note. It's like super simple idea. It didn't exist. I was on Amazon trying to buy one and I was like, really? No one's like made just like a simple, like just handheld tool to like specifically clean up beer trimmings and it didn't exist. Which is great for you. Yeah. yeah. And I think that's like step zero with anything is like research if it's already out there. Cause it's going be a long uphill battle if you're trying to compete against someone who's like.

Josh Felgoise (16:24.62)

already ahead of you. But yeah, there's nothing. I want to talk about the competition that arised at one point or arose at one point, but we'll get into that to remind me if I if I forget, but I want to keep talking about the other stuff. But like, what was your kind of like support system like around this time where you were like considering leaving the other job and switch into this like full time thing that like, you know, like when you're doing something that no one else is doing, it's it's hard to know that it's going to work or

believe in yourself, so I wanna hear you talk about that a little bit. Oh, wow. So I guess it's like a two-part. think it's like the outside world versus my internal thoughts, you know? And me personally, I'm 32 at this point, and I think I have a pretty good understanding of who I am now. In my 20s, I was kind of like, am I this or am I just not that? And I think at this point, I found out that I'm pretty...

I don't know if the right word is disagreeable or stubborn, but like I do trust myself over like other people's opinions for better or worse, but it's like I have to try. And this was one of those things where it's like, I had a lot of experience of like putting in a lot of work and it wasn't working. like, like the money hit the bank account, like the money's there, like it's working, you know? So it's like.

people are giving me good reviews. was like the last thing of my whole process of like, should I quit was like that the reviews were good and that they loved it. So I'm like, okay, so word of mouth is going to be good. Like people want to talk about it. People it's working for them and they're putting their money where their mouth is, right? You know, your friends and family would say, that's a good idea. I'll support you. But like, I was very against like telling my friends and family what I was doing just because like I didn't want the false positives.

of like saying like, we'll support you. wanted like random people to like it, which was like obviously hard. Like that's what the real world's like. So the amount of help, think, especially in January, I was kind of testing and calculating like how much I would need to make this and that, you know, it's obviously not all profit. need to put it in, buy more supplies, everything, rents and labor if I have friends. So internally I felt very like,

Josh Felgoise (18:46.528)

it's gonna depend on like if people like it and if people like it, I'm gonna do it. But like I mentioned, don't come from business parents. Like my mom was very kind of hesitant, you could say, and saying like, are you doing this? Like this, that, like it's every step of the way, even when I got my place, like I'm like, mom, I'm here every day. She's like, well, you can like stay longer. I'm like, I need to get out. I need like this to be legit.

thing because at the time, there were days when I had like 14 people in my mom's basement, like all packing up beard bars. That's crazy. It was insane and it was like, guess, you know, like it's not the journey, not the destination, it's the journey. Like in that moment, I was like, I'm not like in the best place, not getting a lot of sleep, but like it was very exciting and it was as good as you could kind of imagine.

the hectic startup life, so to speak. It was totally that. yeah, so I think overall it was, even to this day, I mean, it's full of mystery, know, because we keep, we make profit and we double down and get more supplies, more everything. then so we kind of go back down to baseline of having nothing. So it's been risky every single month. And at this point, I think I'm just kind of numb to it.

Yeah, no, I mean I like what you said a lot and I think it sounds like you had a really amazing support system at that time and you said like that you don't you didn't want to have that like false positive sense but there's also the other side of like people just totally doubting you and like thinking that something like this is not gonna work and you're gonna like lose your job and then start something and like put all this money behind it and then lose that too and like it's a scary thing so it's it's cool to see that you had a really good support system and people were there to help you and you you mentioned that

like there's times that you were like not in the best place and like losing sleep and all that stuff. Can you talk about that a little bit more? Like, I feel like people when talking about their ventures and like the things that like, like this to me, like this is a product that came within a week that you sent to me that like, it seems to be going really smoothly and that's amazing. But like the time that it took to get to that position, like is crazy. And we don't talk about that a lot as, or I haven't heard a lot of like young entrepreneurs or young startups talk about.

Josh Felgoise (21:10.764)

that really hard part of the job of like sacrifice of time and like relationships and sleep. Like I want to hear more about that. that's honestly probably my favorite question because it's like it is kind of like the I don't know how to explain it but almost like the the the bad side of things with a business is is really kind of like the guts of it. You know, it's like, okay, shiny on the outside surface but underneath like what did it take? I'm

really happy you asked that and I'd love to talk more about it. So throughout the whole process it really was like that. And it's really good that I'm talking about now because let's say 10 years down the I'm not going remember what it feels like. So it just happened. And it's like still fresh in my mind and it's you even days like this like that I still have doubt lots of days where it's like holy cow things are going wrong. But the initial like there was very little I mean I bought 3D printer bought some filament.

about some phones, like maybe $500 and everything else like was just from customers. I just like kept doubling down on it. And that caused some debt, I guess instability, you I didn't have investors. it was very, it was on my mind 24 seven and like it's, I could kind of like brush over the first six months.

very quickly as I kind of did. But in those months, like I'm thinking about 24 seven and those thoughts in my head, it's excitement. It's imagining the future, how amazing it can be. It's the doubt. the, you know, it's the two comments that say we hate it. And it's the, you know, you're really honing on those. And it's like, shoot, like, yeah, 90 people loved it, but these two people don't like it. And it's like, right.

what can I do? And it's like, how much do I take that on? How much do I say, you know, not everyone's going to be happy. Some people are just, you know, always mad no matter what, is it like, do you know, do I try and take their advice and fix something? So it was a lot of that. And I think on the daily, I was really present in the moment of the whole situation and kind of trying to plan.

Josh Felgoise (23:32.654)

and just going back to like what a day would look like is like you're waking up, going to meetings and you're trying to do your work and it's just like in the back of your mind, like I need to get these orders out. And it's really, it's hectic, it's chaotic, it didn't really make a lot of sense of there's no direction, there was like the only plan was like what's next month, you what do I do once all, you know.

And at the time it's like you're just hours in of just making the beard bars. And it's like, you got to figure out, okay, how am I going to come? Where am I going to get, you know, like how, how do shipping labels work? How do I like set this up? How do taxes work? lot of learning on the go, right? It's learning on the go, learning through example and essentially, just kind of trial and error, trying to get to a position where it's like, I didn't remind myself a lot. It's like, once I set something up once like, okay, the logo or like the.

Shopify store or like my you know tax information like it's a lot of work, but like once it's done It's kind of done. So it like once I did a little bit of that there's Into 2021 is where there was a little bit more stability and that helped out a lot I'm still in the day to day of everything with my team They've taken on a lot of it, but I'm still like needed in the office If they have questions or something goes wrong

Josh Felgoise (25:26.35)

At this point, my mental health is better, my physical, I'm more in shape, I'm getting better sleep, but those early days, I fondly on now. I don't want to be in that position ever again, but now I can kind of joke about it, laugh about it, that it's been pretty intense. It's like taking that one math class you hated, and then once you're done with it, it's like, I'm glad I learned a little bit of math, but don't want to do that again.

Totally. Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned that, and I first of all appreciate you going into that because as I said, it's something that you don't hear founders talking about. You're like, they're always like, with that tough year and now we're here and we've gotten to this amazing position. But what sacrifices did you have to make to get those orders done and get to where you are now? yeah. mean, in terms of free time, I would consider myself an introvert. I get more energy when I'm alone.

And I had no personal time like just time for myself Yeah, friendships were out the way like my friends were the ones that like the people that I talked to were the ones that were like either at work or like at Massbeard bar with me there was like cut the gym out like I cut free time off like it was I Remember those times. I'm like I'm burning out like I'm physically

Mentally burning out like I'm just laughing at like nothing like I'm like I'm getting delirious or something like this is getting weird like not just not doing well, right? Yeah, like I'm just like and it's like Though and on top of it like you're in charge of all the directions This is like the first time it works like your boss isn't telling you what to do your teacher isn't telling you how to do this problem Like you have to figure it out. So there's a lot of you're on your own. Yeah, Google YouTube books

trying to figure it out, but it was I was really like deep in the deep end of like just everything is unknown and Figure it out, you know, yeah was was was there a time that like was the pivot point between you being like Alright, like I gotta get my shit together. I gotta go back to the gym I gotta get my mental health back in order from like was there like a switch or was there a moment that you were like? Alright, I can't keep going like this. I have to fix something. Yeah, so in January I had like

Josh Felgoise (27:46.862)

I think it was like, um, late November. booked a trip to Texas, uh, for January, cause I was like, obviously I'm going to be, have a little bit more free time and I need it. It was basically a hundred days, but just nonstop, like 16, 18 hour days. And I was like, I need to take a break. So that happened. And, um, yeah, when I came back, it was like doubling the December's TikTok.

So I was like, oh no, so it was back to the grind of like... Back to the grind, right. Yeah, because it's almost like on the daily you can handle this many orders because you set your equipment up to be able to do this much per day. And then you just realize you have to double. So you have to buy double everything. And that happened throughout 2021. And I remember...

that's

It was kind of like a flex. If I turned my vibrate off, it would be like cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, and you could go through orders and like, you'd be scrolling and that'd just be the last hour. And I remember that day I just went, we already had plans to go canoeing on a lake just for the day. And the whole time it's just going off, I'm like, I'll deal with it when I come back to the office. And that day,

was like over 10,000 orders in like 24 hours. And then it kept trickling over the next few days. yeah, that was like, that was surreal. at that point, I realized you can't really, you can't predict like what's gonna be the limit. eventually you can be like, I can make this many per week and like that's gonna hold us through. And it's been broken so many times, or it's just like keeps.

Josh Felgoise (30:05.61)

expanding and so like now I'm just like well we need to like figure it out and so there's a whole thing of now I'm kind of going a little bit tangent but we'll bring it back but go ahead yeah the kind of weekly which I would call like operations like every week it's kind of the same thing making orders and that and then there's like the future or development which is for the future how are we going to upgrade what we currently have so I've been in the operations side of things for so long they didn't I don't really just because when you get these orders out non-stop

even like right now we're like behind and it's even Black Friday yet. It feels like people are already Christmas shopping like it is Black Friday or December. right. I need time to like upgrade our stuff so it's like it that's always been getting delayed so after this season like I already have some good plans with some manufacturers and things like that where it will be offloaded and redesigned and

then I'll be able to focus on, you know, marketing, speaking with customers, doing all this type of thing where it's like, we're not overwhelmed with like the daily thing. of running a business, I No, it's a cool thing you said, because there, there is a, there is like a compartmentalization between the everyday and then like the future. And a lot of these types of things when you're

thinking about it, you don't think about the future. like, what can I do now to fix the now? What can I do now to work on the now? And it sounds like you're at a much better place. And it's just very cool to hear that journey. So thank you for sharing all that. Yeah, of course. Yeah, I mean, it's, I wouldn't consider myself really high in the best place, but we are getting there. The future looks bright. In a better place, in a better place. actually is pointing up, so that's cool. I always compare it to, we're on a ship and we're going like,

And like, I'm the captain, so I need to be on my telescope looking which way we need to go. But there's a lot of times where I get down under and like, I'm rowing too. And I'm like, well, who's watching it? I need to be watching it. So like, come on guys, what do we need? Hire more people? How do people are under you now? We have like about eight full time. And then there's like another like eight to 12 people that like, I'm like, hey, can you help us this week type of thing? And like a lot of it's friends and family. Got it.

Josh Felgoise (32:23.81)

How have you found being a boss of these people? Like what are my feelings about it? Yeah, like do you like being the CEO and running the place or is that not like, like what do you think about it? I definitely love choosing the people that work for me because there's been many corporate jobs that come from the corporate world where I just hate it. hate's a strong word, but like really dislike some of these people. just like, I would never, I wouldn't get a beer with you.

I don't want to talk to you, nothing. So everyone that works for me is like kind of my style. Like, let's go do it. Like quit complaining type of personality. and like job needs to get done. Like it's not like the easiest job in the world, you know? So, and we all kind of like, we have a good vibe together. Obviously things come up and whatnot, but I do like that side of it, like picking the people. I would love to be more on development side. I don't really care for the day to day.

grind of it, like I like being there. like being with my team and whatnot. And we like to like do like little happy hours, this and that sometimes like, just like, wow, we haven't done anything like in a year. Cause then it's like, it's really been a year since like our last outing. but it, it, it like, mean, specifically the people that work for me are like super sweet and they, they care for me and like they care for like, Hey, this needs to get done. And it's at a point now where a lot of times they'll

bring things to my attention. Or all of a sudden be like, hey, how do we do this? know, because they're doing it every day. So that's really cool to see. They care for the growth. They care for like the growth of the company. It's cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's important. Yeah. I definitely want to like honor that. And I think I do, whether it's like end of year bonuses or like eventually, like I don't want to say too many things, but if we get to a point where I'd love to like share equity, if it comes down to that in the future.

But it's one of those things that we have to think about in the future when it comes time to that. But yeah, they really do deserve it. And I want to honor that because it's something that, I don't know, like it really pays off, I think, to be a good person. Like this is 100%. I was thinking about this the other day. Like even if there's some person out there that's like naturally asshole, it's in their best benefit. Like life is easier running a company when you're nice, you know?

Josh Felgoise (34:51.084)

I'm not doing it like... I like to think I'm nice person. They say they love working for me or they call me the G-boat, greatest boss of all time. But it makes everything easier if people are in a good mood and stuff. But also, I just naturally do like working with them too. Yeah, for sure. You mentioned equity. How much of the company do you own? 100%. Cool. Very cool. Yeah, that's awesome.

So there's no, let's say anything, no investors, no mentors, no partners. It's all me. And in the future, we'll see how that goes. I love to keep 100 % just for the future. If the things do come up, I have all of it. It's not like I need to speak to like my partners, like, hey, can we give them some equity? So it's like all my choices. And I definitely like making all the like, kind of like, like the final choice. love to listen to everyone.

Take all the information and then say, we're going this direction. That's great. Yeah, no, and also we haven't, we've gotten like 30 minutes into it. How do we use it? Talk to the people about how do you use this product by the Yeah, of course. mean, it's pretty simple, with this, so what we're holding right now is the version two. So with the version two, there's actually one extra step that you have to use. have to wet it beforehand because it comes, the foam is very hard when it's... I learned that the hard way, by the way. really? Yeah. Yeah. I didn't wet it and I was like, what?

am I supposed to do it then? Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, there's like a little instruction manual of like how to use them, how to clean it. But essentially what you do is after you're done trimming, you're looking around at your dirty sink, you wet it with warm water and it softens up, you kind of rinse it out so there's not excess water and you just sweep around. It's got these little grooves that pick up more and more hair. And once you're done, run it under a sink or if you are scared about beard trimmings, which I had to learn a lot about.

and talk to like civil engineers that do plumbing and plumbers and whatnot. We have a holder, which has grooves on the inside specifically that you can fill up with water and it's meant to get into the grooves of this. So as you're cleaning it, it's getting rid of all the hairs on here. And then you have your dirty hair, water in a cup, the mass brew bar holder, and you dump that down the toilet and then you just put it back, put your cat back on and it's ready for next use.

Josh Felgoise (37:12.366)

You like to you should let it dry out because it is anti It's bacteria resistant and mildew resistant if it's dry So whatever bacteria was on there it dries out and then the bacteria can't grow anymore And it just dies off until next to you. So you don't want to with version 2 you don't want to keep it sealed in like a Damp area you want to let it dry out got it version 1 very similar. It's just not flexible and different foam

It doesn't need to. I was gonna mention the flexible thing, like the fact that it can go around the corners of the sink and like really that was one of the coolest parts about the product to me. Yeah, and we didn't have that with version one. So like going back to like all the criticism of people that they didn't like, I tried to sift out like just people that are just like hating their lives and they just want to project negative negativity and people that actually have good type of like feedback. And so one of them was

We added a denser foam so the hairs don't stick into it as much. And it's flexible now, which made it a lot harder to make, but we got there. those were like two major pieces of feedback that we got, and we just rolled that right into version two. And then if we do a version three, it'll kinda be the same thing, where I just kinda listen to the community and give them what they want. That's cool. If the hairs get stuck in it, what do you do?

So there's multiple ways. So I would recommend if it's like you already rinsed it out, can try it like rinse out, dump it out and do it one more time to get even more hairs out. If that doesn't work, you can always add hand soap, whether it's like a foaming one or like a gel one. And it will go in there and I would like lather it. So like you just put some on and you lather it in there. And then when you run it under water, you kind of rub it and it'll bubble up and the foam will kind of push more beard hairs out too.

Yeah, it's great. loved the, I used it the first time and I was like, all right, like done. I got to have you on like this is it was very, very helpful. I think the current solutions right now for doing this outside of the bar are like using your hands cupping water and like throwing it at the sides of the sink or using like, or wasting like a ton of like toilet paper and paper towels and stuff. And like, those are the only really other options. Speaking of other options, go ahead. I can interject. There's that beard bib where you kind of

Josh Felgoise (39:35.31)

I don't know where it came from, but it's basically like- saw it on Shark Tank, And you kind of like attach yourself to the mirror like a little baby or something and I was like there's no way to to my cousin. If you can't see toilet paper, guess toilet paper is another option. But if they don't see toilet paper, there's no way they're gonna remember to go under a sink and do that. So I need something like super simple, like typical like lazy man, you know, type thing like for them, you know? it's like super simple.

No, it's totally right. I saw the Beardbib on Shark Tank and I was like, there's no way anybody would ever use that. It's like you hook yourself up to the mirror and that's not for me, but this is. It's a quick, easy thing that I thought would work really well and I'm happy it has. But speaking of other products and ways, can you talk about the knockoffs and competition that arose after your product launched and after it became kind of successful? of course. Yeah.

It's funny, like my patent lawyer reached out to me, it's like, well, that's, you know, a achievement that everyone goes through. It's like, once you have a good product, like the knockoffs are going to come. So I was like, cool, but it still sucks. You know, like I paid for patent, I got, you know, trademarks and copyrights for a reason. Like, why are you people stealing my original idea? And at this point, there's been so many knockoffs that we'd have, we'd have to take down from Shopify, from Amazon.

at see everything and then it's it's really frustrating because they'll like just I'll take the time to make my website and they'll like copy my like even my like about Matt page and like make that so annoying and I'm like you're completely like my product descriptions like everything and we'll try to bring up everything of it. So we take them down as much as we can. Sometimes they give us more issues than that. But

In the end, it's what I learned at this point is kind of, and listening to other previous entrepreneurs before me, they always said, focus on yourself, don't get too distracted on competition, because branding is very important, and they're going to follow you because it's you, and they're connected with you, and they don't want to kind of reach out to something that they're not sure if that brand works. It's a new product, all

Josh Felgoise (41:58.126)

Like is it gonna work, is it good, I don't know. Reviews are always honestly kind of worse and that's one way you can kind of tell. to each their own, at the end of the day, if you're not infringing on my design, my usability of a product, go for it. This world's big enough for both of us. And even with beard bibs, or people would say, totally perfect, I'm like.

our goal which is still I think like ever since we started it was like our mission is to clean up every sink it's not for every sink to have a beard bar I just think it's the best option you know so I mean I made some yeah I was happy with and I'm like a picky guy so I like made the best thing and or at least I like to think so right and then so if people want to use beard bibs people I use toilet paper no problem but don't infringe on our intellectual property because

We'll use all legal power we can to the fullest extent. So we've been pretty good. think we've had 20 knockoffs and I'm like, got that chip on my shoulder where it's like, I'll screenshot everything. So at this point, my folder of copycats is pretty big. And I'm happy to say we take almost all of them down pretty quickly. That's great. Yeah. Can you talk about the

patent and trademark process and what that cost? Is that okay to talk about? Yeah, of course. So patent is the most detailed and the most work. Trademark is just for anyone in your audience that doesn't know, it's usually for something that makes your brand recognizable. So your name plus the font and your logo, that's your trademark.

Copyright is usually... I trademarked guyset. That's what I know about trademarking, but I don't know about patenting at all. that's... I'm super interested to hear about it. Yeah. we'll get to patent. Copyright is mainly just like description, like, you know, product descriptions or like my About Me page would be copyright. But that's kind of like... The meat and potatoes is like the patent, right? So that's a utility patent and a design patent. Those are like kind of the new main types. It's something that like...

Josh Felgoise (44:18.508)

you can like patent a design of a product or I guess it'd be just products. And then a utility patent is like the utility of how it's used. So I went with version one, I did a design patent because during the process, you don't know if you're going to get accepted. So you have to pay upfront and you have to submit it. What does that cost? So anywhere between and it ranges. for me specifically, like a simple product like this, like

Two to 10,000, I think mine was about like 4,000. And there's like two ways to do it. You can either do it yourself, you can pay like a lawyer fee plus the fees for that you need to send to the USPTO, US- Yeah, that's right, that's Trademark office. So all in all, I just know the overall number. I wanted professional help because I didn't want to wait two years and then come back and like, you did this wrong.

like declined. So I'm like, I'd pay upfront, get it done properly. And along the way, get advice about like, what should I think about? What should I consider? What advice, know, what things do I not know that you can tell me? So I had an original patent lawyer and he was okay. He did what I asked him to, but he never was like, well, this is a better way of doing it. Or like, you should think about doing this because your end goal is this, right? And so he just kind of...

I know, I felt like drop the ball. And then I went to my friend who is also my accountant, his firm works with another patent firm and I went with them and he's very proactive and looks out for me. He's like, just tell me what's your end goal and then I'll give you all the options and then we can kind of go from there. So that's been cool.

Yeah, I felt the same way about trademarking. was like, I know I could probably do this on my own, but I just don't want to do it wrong and get like declined and mess up. And like, it just felt like the better avenue to take the legal way, because that's like, you don't want to, you don't want to mess with that stuff. Like there's no reason to. That's what I'm saying. And I mean, like looking back, like it was not that much money in terms of like, what could have went wrong if I did it wrong. Like it was actually the cheaper option is to do it right. But if you know, to everyone's got different things. Some people have

Josh Felgoise (46:38.016)

endless time and like no money. You can go ahead, learn it all, do it yourself. I will break totally. got the money coming in. I got customers like I got the man like I just don't have time. So it's like you got to see which one which boat you're in. Yeah. So switching gears a bit you talked about marketing you don't pay for any marketing promo on tik tok like what what do do beside tik tok or is that your main revenue source or yeah, go into that.

and they're our biggest driver and almost our only driver. I worked with an ad agency which honestly was like a failure. Like they pretty much suck just to kind of be blunt. But they would charge me like I think $1,000 a month and charge me for the ads that they were running and like I was getting no like...

sales from it. I'm like, this is pointless. And I was in a contract and I had a breach early. But yeah, social media is our biggest thing. It's me. Cool. I edit, I talk, I make the scripts. If you want to call them that sometimes it's just on a whim making TikToks. And it's been organically like it's hard to do now because the algorithm has changed so much that it's like all TikTok shop right now.

and we could have this conversation three months and it's be something else. And like three months before this, like there was multiple changes throughout. So I got in early where there was like little people creating, but there was already a lot of people watching TikToks, but now everyone's creating and like everyone's on it. So it's like so saturated. And they obviously like, we don't know for sure, but it's always changing, but they obviously boost certain things.

Um, but if something starts getting traction and people like it, it's going to go more and more viral. I study that a lot too. Obviously there's times where it's like, made it a buttload and then I'm okay, hang on. Why are these tech tax films? So I always try to keep an eye on, um, what worked. And for me and my product, the most important thing is to show it being used. Um, cause it's almost totally, you don't really even need to say anything. You just see something picking up your

Josh Felgoise (48:54.786)

People understand what beard trimmings are. People understand it's annoying. this is, I'm showing it cleaning and then wiping off the beard bars. that showing it in use is super important for our marketing. Cause we even worry about like, you just see this on a store front with just a, you know, the, just the packaging, you might not even really understand it unless you've seen it somewhere being used.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. our social media and videos and then I usually do like a voiceover or trending sound or something. But yeah, we don't, I mean, I've probably posted like two TikToks in like the last like five months just because like there's so much word of mouth I think at this point that we don't even need it. And then TikTok Shop came around and they were boosting those videos and organic. so you're being boosted by them. You're not even paying for that.

No, no. it gets even better. It gets crazier too. So one, if your video had a tag of like you added a product, it was boosted. And then on top of that, I authorized TikTok. It was like, TikTok, do you allow TikTok to use your videos as ads? And then I like read the fine print. I'm like, am I getting charged for this or what? They're like, no, they're covering all the costs. And then I was like, whoa.

Yeah, so now my videos are being shown up as ads and I'm not paying for those either, TikTok is. And I did the math. If I were to, because I don't know if you ever ran ads, but it's like for $10 you reach this many people for 20, you reach this many blah blah blah. So I seen how much reach I got, like millions, like tens of millions of views, maybe a hundred million views. I'm not sure. I haven't checked in a while. But I did the math to like reverse how much it would cost me. And it was like, what like...

I think at this point, like over 200K that they like did. Holy shit. Yeah. So it's like, that's, that's insane. So congrats for the algorithm in that sense. That's insane for you. And that's how I TikTok. Like I got my own manager and everything and it's, it's real. And like now the landscape is like forever changing, you know, and TikTok was such a big, like we haven't seen a social media like this, like entered the realm like since a while, but like, yeah, it really was like,

Josh Felgoise (51:16.642)

I'm looking at all this and I'm like, a lot of people don't really talk about it just because there's no incentive for them to talk about it. Like why spill the beans on like what's working for me? Just so like, like for example, if my copycats are watching and they try to do this too, like it's detrimental to me. Like, so I understand now, like in my position, I understand why people don't give all the secrets out because it would help 99 % of people, but it doesn't matter if like that 1 %

uses against you. So it's a weird mind trick that like I kind of understand now. But um, but a lot of the stuff I'm saying now is already outdated. So I'm comfortable talking. Yeah. Well, so what recommendations do you have for somebody that's maybe in their 20s early 30s, that is interested in either starting their own thing or kind of taking the jump or leap from one company to the next? what what's your advice? Oh, wow. I mean, I could

I get, I'm not trying to be arrogant or something, but like my friends ask me a lot, right? So it's like, I'm sure they do, right? No, it's not an arrogant thing. It's like a success thing, right? Yeah. And I, it's, I, I kind of break it down into like kind of stages, like where you're at, cause I would give different advice to people that have already, you know, founded a company, this and that, or if, if someone has, have you even tried like different things or have you just always had like a corporate job or nine to five, so to speak.

Take that person for me, like for this audience, take that person. The nine to five? Yeah. Okay. So first thing, I can set up like a little path right here. So don't quit your job first of all, unless like I held on for a very long time before I quit. I literally had no more time left. I was like, all right, now I need to make a choice. So don't lose your job, something stable for something that's very unstable. Kind of work against the grain I think. So that's kind of step one.

And step two is with your free time, this is the part where you have to set aside time. Everyone kind of wants to do hobbies and stuff. But make it, don't overwhelm yourself and I would say make it a little project. Something, I don't know, whether you like painting, take some time to paint or create something if you're a fiddler or you're an artist or you like to make things. You should have the mindset of it just being a project with no expectations of it.

Josh Felgoise (53:40.318)

Selling in it being your full-time job. It's a success if you learn something and you kind of Created something so like even if you're not making money on it like it still looks success like like not trying doing anything as a failure so to sum it up like try a lot of things and get low skills so like This wasn't my first Shopify store. So like once this started blowing up I could whip out Shopify because of previous things I've tried

So I tried like six different things. Like I've worked with suppliers before. So was very easy for me to, so I had like five different skills from past ventures that all failed, but with something that had demand and people liked the idea, I took all the skills from my previous things and was like, I've done this, I've done this, I've done this. I can take off. Otherwise you'd be stuck in it. So try different things and you almost have to have faith that later on in life, those skills that you learned will come back and help you.

and do like at least 10 things. I've had a podcast before, only seven episodes, but I tried it and like the multiple different things and eventually all start stacking on top of each other. There's actually, I give more in depth advice on this page on Matt's deeper cuts. It's very small, almost private, like $50. That's a cute name, yeah. But I talk about one of them is hook your future self up and it's.

Josh Felgoise (55:17.77)

totally doing different things and watch out for things that aren't beneficial. mean I love video games as a relaxation thing but it's not a hobby and I don't plan on making money on it so I had to limit it or...

going out to the bars or like restaurants, this and that. like, it's fun. And like, I understand the relaxation part of it, which I still do. I take time out of my week to do things like that, but limit the things that aren't really benefiting you and start learning skills. And whether that's through a hobby, through reading a book, through, and if you are doing that, reading stuff, like taking information in, apply it, take action on it.

I have a lot of friends that are like big YouTuber guys sending me YouTube video. I'm like, well, what'd do with it? Nothing. taking a lot of action, going back to trying things, like you have to take action and you'll learn more from your experiences than, cause your emotions are tied to your experiences. Reading a book, your emotions are tied to another person's, whoever I'm talking to, like my experiences, like I have emotions tied to them, they don't. So it's like they have to create their own experiences, own.

you sad days or, you know, trials and tribulations or successes and learn for themselves. And it's part of the, you know, kind of figuring yourself out too. Some people like sales, some people don't. You don't have to, you know, so figure yourself out and do that through trying things and taking action. So very long-winded. Hopefully that helps. Yeah, no, it's strong advice. like my favorite thing you said was when you're not feeling well, go to the gym. When you are feeling well, go to the gym. I really like that. I think it's just like...

Good advice for anybody. We also haven't talked about this, but can we do a giveaway of a beard bar to the audience? Yeah, yeah, let's do it. Okay, cool. yeah, if yeah, for anybody listening, comment your favorite part of this episode on my Instagram post that I will post on the day of this episode. Comment your favorite part of this episode and Matt and I will choose one or two people, whatever you want to do.

Josh Felgoise (57:25.134)

to get a beard bar and we'll send it to you. So yeah, that'd be awesome. Perfect timing right for Christmas. Exactly. Yeah. Anyhow, course, any holiday. But yeah, for sure. This was a great episode. I loved getting into the weeds of the entrepreneurial journey with you and hearing your story and the process behind this thing. As I said earlier, it's really cool to see this now in my hands from something that you thought of.

out of now that I know out of pity for an annoyance for your cousin. like, it's just cool to see that it's becoming something really big and it's awesome. Yeah, well, I appreciate everything. I appreciate the kind of words. I appreciate the time you reaching out and doing this with me. And I had a really good time on here. I gotta say, I think you, I think I've done like four or five podcasts now and I think you'd give really good.

questions and like good insight and I appreciate the time you took to kind of like listen into the like in-depth pieces of it all. Thanks. That's really nice advice. That's really nice to hear. So that's always the hope at when I do these. So that's great to hear. Thanks for saying that. Of course. Yeah. And we'll be be in touch. Thank you so much for listening. If you want to enter the giveaway for a beard bar, please comment your favorite part of this episode on my most recent Instagram post at the guyset.

T H E G U I S E T or on my most recent tick-tock at the guy set T H E G U I S E T as well both posts with Matt from today Tuesday November 21st So please comment your favorite part and you that will be your entry to the giveaway to get a beard bar If you like this episode, I really hope you did. Please like subscribe comment give a review give it five stars We're ever listening to this Spotify Apple podcasts anywhere else

And newsletter drops next week. I'm dropping a newsletter. So please put your email into the website guyset.com G U Y S E T dot com so you can receive the first ever edition of the guyset newsletter to your inbox next Tuesday, November 28th for the first edition. I'm really excited about that. thank you so much for listening again. I'm so excited for what's to come. I really hope you liked this one. I think it's a great one and I will see you guys next Tuesday. See you guys.