Hey friend,

Juliana here. I’m sitting here reflecting on the past week, post-launch. It’s gotten me thinking about why we often launch startups: MONEY 💰

I’m not afraid to say, that’s why I launched my first startup back in the day too.

You know, running away from a past of not having enough of it.

Short term gains.

But, after a while you realize (and NO I’m not about to say “Money’s not important…are you kidding me? Are we living on the same planet?),

You begin to realize challenging yourself is kind of addictive.

In fact, the more challenges you accomplish and the more you work on yourself, the more money you make too…huh.

Interesting.

Then, you begin to think bigger and bigger to the point it’s no longer just about your own financial gains (yes it’s still important),

But it’s about the type of person you become and how many people you can reach while you’re at it.

You can come from whatever circumstances you had, and STILL surpass those MBA graduates.

It is my genuine belief, that most founders are built on the STREETS, not in the boardroom…

So, you’ve already got everything you need as long as you keep learning.

Speaking of, here’s what we learned this week…

Iris was just 21 years old and studying interior architecture at university when she got fed up with trying to draw on her eyeliner.

I mean, what a mess right?

You draw it on. It’s not symmetrical. You go to fix it. It all gets smudged.

She simply took a photo of her eye and used that to trace a design of what the perfect eyeliner stamp shape would be.

With the design in mind she went to a manufacturer already making eyeliner pens and got them to replace the end with a felt tip stamp & Quick Flick was born.

Shortly after launching:

Something to note here is that Iris was specifically taking two UNLIKELY ideas and pairing them together to solve problems (stamp + eyeliner).

Not only was the product unusual, instead of taking 15 minutes to draw, mess up, fix and redraw eyeliner, you could stamp in one go. Boom!

This means producing content around the product would lead to a:

Meaning, she could sell the product without selling it, every time she made content.

One of the key growth levers aside from Iris’s viral videos has been her,

Gap fill method for retail, which includes:

Ultimately, buyers want to make sure their customers are purchasing more, not choosing one product over the other without increasing their cart value.

She knew given her products were something that consumers would likely want to try and then buy, retail and making sure she creates virality to send people to stores, has been her strategy all along.

Quick Flick is now estimated to be making $20M per year in revenue & can be found globally in major retailers across Australia, United States and the United Kingdom.

Iris has:

When I asked Iris this, she didn’t give me another strategy.

Instead she said, “every time there is a problem in your business, that is a you problem”.

Meaning, being a founder is more about the person you need to become.

Each time there is a hurdle, that is something you need to work through internally to help your company grow as more often than not, you are actually your biggest obstacle.

Thanks for reading!

The whole purpose of what we’re doing is to bring you a no-BS version of the MBA.

Meaning, all the strategies, minus the jargon and a whole lot of what it actually takes

Hit reply: Let me know the best or worst part of the newsletter. We’re here to learn.

See you in my inbox,

J