KC Co-Founder of Qalo, built a new category of product from scratch, silicone wedding rings. What started as a way to wear a wedding ring at the gym quickly turned into an online business generating millions in revenue which was up to $125 million when he sold it.
The tipping point? KC knew he was onto something when a Qalo ring ended up on an NFL player’s finger on a TV showed which aired for millions across the US. Although KC didn’t get results from that initially, what followed was just as amazing. Listen in to hear how you can access great resources, education, knowledge and experience from KC himself. What he is all about, setting realistic expectations, responding to your community and challenging what you think it means to go online.
In this episode he gives some great advice on how to build an online store that thrives. Here are the main links from the episode.
Silicon wedding rings
https://qalo.com/ and more on KC’s story at Starter Story
Uncomfortable metal wedding rings
Firefighters, Athletes, Military
Validate your solution as soon as you can and lean into who it’s validated with. Find the people that are a ‘hell yes.’
Obsessively focus on your customers.
Operate in a way that focuses on profitability.
If you don’t know your numbers, you don’t know your business. What gets measured gets managed.
You need to tell people you exist because if you don’t no one else will.
Believe that you’re capable of learning everything you need to grow your company.
You never know what sending your product to someone who might be an end user is going to lead to.
(0:00) – Introduction
(1:59) – The business KC would start if he was starting over: Cutting out the noise with Solving Hollow
(3:55) – The beginning of Qalo: Solving their own problem
(8:20) – How Qalo found their first customers: Identifying use cases with similar pain points
(11:50) – Scaling-up through seeding: Providing the product with no expectations and ending up on national television for an NFL show
(19:30) – The benefit of sharing your product with no expectations: Awareness is valuable
(22:50) – How KC jumped in with two feet to scale-up: You must commit to one thing otherwise it will never fulfil the potential that it has
(25:23) – How Qalo leveraged paid media (Facebook) to connect with their dream customers
(27:08) – Customers are either proactively searching for a solution to the problem you’re solving, or you need to interrupt their information flow and introduce a new concept to them because they’re unaware a solution exists
(29:00) – The inflection point: Building something bigger and the importance of having a vision
(31:30) – How Qalo built a competitive moat: Building a brand through storytelling, product innovation, expanding through retail locations to gain a first-mover advantage, and expanding internationally
(33:30) – The eCommerce and retail split
(35:19) – The full-time job of selling your company
(38:24) – KC’s advice to founders
(42:06) – What drives KC to help other founders through Solving Hollow
(44:05) – Tools and frameworks KC recommends for building a company: Story Brand
(47:55) – BetterLabs Ventures and RAC
(50:05) – KC’s first impression of Perth: Australia’s version of San Diego
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