Jerry Wilmink, a recovering bio-engineer turned entrepreneur and CEO and founder of Wisewear.com. Listen how Jerry fuses fashion and technology to keep people safe.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – Startup CEO
- What CEO do you follow? – N/A
- Favorite online tool? — Strategyzer
- Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
- If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Go for it. Don’t be scared”
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:13 – Nathan introduces Jerry to the show
- 01:33 – Jerry was connected with Nathan through Twitter
- 01:51 – Jerry is a startup junkie
- 02:16 – What is Wisewear and how it generates revenue
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- 02:29 – Wisewear is a propriety smart jewelry product that allows women to stay safe
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- 02:41 – A fusion wearable product
- 03:00 – Develop a jewelry product that transmits Bluetooth through metal
- 03:15 – Iris Apfel is the designer of Wisewear
- 03:35 – Each piece is priced at $ 295 - $ 345 depending on the collection
- 03:59 – Currently sold online but will be available at Saks
- 04:05 – Wisewear was founded in 2013
- 04:15 – They just started selling this year
- 04:20 – Current sales is close to $ 4 million this year
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- 05:04 – Started shipping late March
- 05:19 – No problems with P.O
- 05:55 – There’s more risk in international market with P.Os
- 06:00 – Wisewear demands 30% upfront payment for bulk P.Os
- 06:22 – Average number of devices sold
- 07:40 – They are initially bootstrapped but raised a little over $ 5 million from friends and families
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- 08:03 – Note from friends and families and they’re doing equity now
- 08:15 – Raising $ 10 million from equity
- 08:40 – Fashion brand is not a traditional tech-play
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- 09:05 – Retailers that can potentially pull down the brand
- 09:49 – Expenses per piece of jewelry is quite expensive
- 10:55 – Retailers are selling the jewelries at the same price with them
- 11:05 – Distributor price
- 11:25 – 8 people in the team from San Antonio and New York City
- 11:45 – They can track online orders easily
- 12:08 – Goal for 2016 revenue
- 12:34 – They have multiple products
- 12:48 – The initial product was a medical device
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- 12:56 – Jerry’s grandfather was suffering from a type of dementia
- 13:13 – When Jerry’s grandfather passed away, that’s when he started Wisewear
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- 13:15 – Developed a hearing aid device
- 13:50 – 65% of their sales is from college women
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- 14:35 – Biggest market is 20 – 35-year old women
- 14:49 – There’s a lot of burglary and sexual violence on college campuses
- 14:58 – There’s a panic button on the jewelry
- 15:14 – There’s a big market on realtors too
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- 15:25 – Most realtors show homes and there’s a safety concern
- 15:51 – Connect with Wisewear through Instagram and Facebook. Jerry is more active on Twitter
- 17:15 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- You can take inspirations from the people around you.
- Fashion retail brand is not a traditional tech-play.
- Choose your business partners wisely.
Resources Mentioned:
- Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
- Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
- Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
- Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
- Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
- @Wisewear – Jerry’s business Instagram account
- Facebook – Jerry’s business Facebook account
- @GeraldJWilmink – Jerry’s twitter handle
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives