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Home > NewsRelease > Real 4-Hour Workweek Case Studies — How to Generate 8-Figure Revenue at Age 21 (Or Any Age) (#354)
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Real 4-Hour Workweek Case Studies — How to Generate 8-Figure Revenue at Age 21 (Or Any Age) (#354)
From:
Tim Ferriss - Productivity, Digital Lifestyles and Entrepreneurship Tim Ferriss - Productivity, Digital Lifestyles and Entrepreneurship
For Immediate Release:
Dateline: San Francisco, CA
Thursday, December 27, 2018

 

“I think the role of the entrepreneur in the world is to find ways to do things better or more efficiently and then try to do that as many times over with the help of other people.” — Santiago Nestares

Benedict Dohmen and Santiago Nestares of Benitago Group, both 21, met as computer science students at Dartmouth College. Both worked very long hours in the library and suffered from back pain. They began collaborating on a prototype for a product that ended up being called the Supportiback, gathering feedback from members of the Dartmouth community, including a local hospital president and professors and students studying engineering and medicine.

They launched the product on Amazon in the UK, and when it seemed their first small order was in danger of selling out quickly, they arranged financing from their supplier and were off and running. Since then, they’ve entered the US market on Amazon, and are on track for nine-figure revenue in 2019. They have introduced 120 consumer products, and are trying to become an alternative to big consumer products companies through a strategy of applying their successful scale-up strategies to brands they acquire.

Also joining us in this special episode is Elaine Pofeldt (@elainepofeldt), an independent journalist and speaker who specializes in careers and entrepreneurship. She is the author of The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business: Make Great Money. Work the Way You Like. Have the Life You Want, in which she looks at how entrepreneurs are scaling to $1 million in revenue prior to hiring employees.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

Want to hear another case study episode? — Listen to my conversation with SpyGuy’s Allen Walton and learn how he made the switch from overworked and under-appreciated employee to seven-figure entrepreneur. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

  • Connect with Benedict Dohmen and Santiago Nestares:

Benitago Group | Benedict at LinkedIn | Santiago at LinkedIn

  • Connect with Elaine Pofeldt:

Website | Twitter

SHOW NOTES

  • How did Benedict Dohmen and Santiago Nestares become a team? [09:24]
  • At what point did Ben and Santi go from complaining about the common problem they were experiencing to creating a business centered around relieving it? [11:20]
  • Getting started in the world of manufacturing with a budget of (just under) $2,000. [14:10]
  • Entrepreneurship and copywriting preparations Ben and Santi made during the 30 days they waited for their first shipment to arrive. [16:09]
  • How did Ben and Santi divide their skills and labor to optimize the time spent on getting the business off the ground? [20:27]
  • Ben and Santi describe what happened when the product finally arrived — and they sold a quarter of their inventory on day one. [23:33]
  • How did Ben and Santi adapt to the situation once it became clear they were going to sell out of the product on hand? What did they do right — and wrong? [25:05]
  • Using the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) method to turn otherwise disheartening and often business-killing failure into feedback. [27:38]
  • Third-party tools Ben and Santi have used to gauge metrics, track sales, and split test while selling on Amazon. [30:59]
  • Why did Ben and Santi choose Amazon as their first entrepreneurial platform? [34:13]
  • Aside from MVP, how else do Ben and Santi generate actionable feedback from an online audience resistant to interaction? [36:14]
  • Have Ben and Santi found the information gathered in the European market (where they began) directly relevant to the US market? Looking back, would it have been easier to start in the US? [41:20]
  • Santi says he and Ben went into business with the “mentality of removing obstacles rather than coming up with obstacles” — how has this translated into solving real problems? [46:01]
  • Santi talks about negotiating credit terms when it was time to place the bigger second order. [46:57]
  • Where did Ben and Santi learn how to negotiate? [50:51]
  • The important decisions — both good and bad — that shaped how business was done after this first success. [51:34]
  • How do the lessons of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger inform Ben and Santi’s partnership? [54:41]
  • Rewinding the story a bit, how did Ben and Santi evaluate the feedback they got from Supportiback prototype users at Dartmouth — and how did this feedback modify the development of what became their three key products? [59:36]
  • How did Ben and Santi vet their manufacturer? [1:04:58]
  • As full-time college students at the time, how did Ben and Santi find the time to do all of this research and development? [1:09:08]
  • What catalyzed Ben and Santi’s development of products beyond their initial offerings? How did they decide on the number of products they planned on launching? [1:16:34]
  • Does emotion ever intervene in Ben and Santi’s business decisions? [1:18:08]
  • Where do Ben and Santi hire help when they can’t do everything on their own, how do they coordinate their efforts, and how do they vet this help? [1:19:41]
  • The process of scaling up by taking cues from the Austin Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) community. [1:31:23]
  • Weighing the pros and cons of acquiring profitable products and building new ones from scratch — and points in between. [1:35:43]
  • What motivates Ben and Santi’s entrepreneurial ambitions, and what do they hope to see their company doing in the future? [1:38:22]
  • Personal entrepreneurial heroes. [1:42:58]
  • Books and resources currently in rotation. [1:44:56]
  • What advice would Ben and Santi give listeners who want to follow their lead but don’t have a similar background in mathematics or computer science? [1:49:17]
  • Parting thoughts. [1:50:57]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Posted on: December 27, 2018.

Please check out Tribe of Mentors, my newest book, which shares short, tactical life advice from 100+ world-class performers. Many of the world's most famous entrepreneurs, athletes, investors, poker players, and artists are part of the book. The tips and strategies in Tribe of Mentors have already changed my life, and I hope the same for you. Click here for a sample chapter and full details. Roughly 90% of the guests have never appeared on my podcast.

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News Media Interview Contact
Name: Tim Ferriss
Title: Author, Princeton University Guest Lecturer
Group: Random House/Crown Publishing
Dateline: San Francisco, CA United States
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