Ep 189 Nathan Rothstein, the co-founder at Project Repat, a custom quilt blanket design shop. Listen as Nathan and Nathan talk about not only the latter’s business numbers but also how they’re affecting American manufacturing.
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3 Key Points:
- Without the help of a big company like Groupon it’s a mystery whether Project Repat would have nearly as much success as they do today. They were able to be featured for less cost because they were a social good company.
- The market for repurposed t-shirts as quilt already existed, but Project Repat excels because they have affordable pricing and has more ad spend.
- Nathan uses the online tool Klaviyo to more effectively use his email list to reach new customers.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show
- 01:39 – Rothstein joins the show.
- 03:01 – Rothstein’s business partner was in Nairobi where Project Repat was inspired.
- 04:09 – Project Repat makes money by repurposing old t-shirts into keepsake quilt blankets. 04:38 – Depending on the size, each quilt costs from 75 to 250$.
- 05:25 – After expenses, Project Repat clears about 35-45% margin on each quilt.
- 06:05 – They’ve made about 1,000 quilts per week in 2016.
- 07:10 – Project Repat’s goal is 7.5 million in topline revenue.
- 08:22 – Project Repat was part of a social good accelerator called Better Ventures in 2012 – they’ve contributed to the revival of the textile industry in the U.S..
- 09:33 – It was difficult to get investment money for a quilt business. Rothstein and his partner had to sleep in the office at times.
- 10:21 – They ran into a big boon when they Groupon featured them without taking a percentage because they were a social good business.
- 12:02 – In 2012-2013, Project Repat acquired a lot of customers through flash sales.
- 13:17 – Project Repat spent about 750K on Facebook advertising last year.
- 14:00 – Repurposing t-shirts into quilts isn’t a new idea, but Project Repat expanded the market by making their products more affordable and visible through advertisements.
- 15:00 – Rothstein spends from 5-7$ to get a new email. Last year they got about 50K emails and 7.5K customers from their list.
- 15:32 – Project Repat uses Klaviyo to expand their email marketing list.
- 17:36 – Find out what Nathan’s doing after selling his business Heyo at nathanlatka.com/whatsnext on February 4th.
- 18:37 – Famous Five
Famous 5
- Favorite Book? – Do the Kind Thing
- What CEO do you follow?— Howard Schultz and Hamdi Ulukaya
- What is your favorite online tool?— Klaviyo
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
- If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Be more open to different stages of life – everyone’s going through their own thing. Throughout the course of your life you’ll be doing different things.
Resources Mentioned:
- Edgar – Nathan uses Edgar instead of other scheduling tools for Twitter because Edgar cycles through content over and over (buffer/others you have to re-input content over and over – time consuming). In the last several months, Edgar has driven Nathan over 3728 clicks that he didn’t have to work or pay for.
- Project Repat – Nathan’s business
- Howard Schultz and Hamdi Ulukaya – CEO’s Nathan follows
- Do the Kind Thing – Nathan’s favorite book
- Klaviyo – Build your email list, Nathan’s favorite online tool.
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