We started Simple Modern with $200k.
In 8 years, we've sold half a billion dollars of insulated drinkware through Target, Amazon & DTC.
We're licensed with Disney, NFL & more.
Our best threads about how we did it:
We toured an Amazon Fulfillment center yesterday and… 🤯
Incredible.
• Inventory is stored on constantly moving shelves. Robots take the shelf to the pick station.
• Inventory is randomly placed on shelves, tracked by cameras (go store technology).
• They spread inventory
We toured an Amazon fulfillment center yesterday. It’s unbelievable.
Their inventory storage is counterintuitive. It’s organized randomness.
• Inventory is stored on moving shelves. Robots take shelves to the pick stations.
• Inventory is randomly placed on shelves, tracked
Simple Modern started on Amazon with $200k.
In 7 years, we sold $400,000,000 in Target, Walmart and Amazon.
We're now licensed with Disney, NFL, NBA, etc.
Our best threads about how we did it:
We are Amazon's
#1
drinkware supplier. In 2022 we will sell over 4 million tumblers and water bottles.
Over the past few years, we have spent over $10 million on Amazon ads.
This month our budget went to $0.
A thread about our change of heart with Amazon Advertising:
Parenting toddlers is exhausting.
“Terrible-Twos” and “Threenagers” are rightfully earned names.
7 essential priorities for parenting this emotional age:
As Amazon's
#1
drinkware supplier, we'll sell millions of units this year.
We’ve spent $10 million on Amazon ads since 2016.
However, in March 2022, we dropped our budget to $0.
We just finished a $1m test to check assumptions.
Here's what happened plus our new strategy:
Today, Simple Modern sells more drinkware than Yeti, Hydro Flask & Stanley on Amazon.
We started in 2015, bootstrapped.
21 unexpected learnings:
1. Privately-owned brands with no intent to sell are set best up to win long term.
@nathanbaugh27
So good. Most Americans live better than kings did 200 years ago and still want more.
We believe a lie that better circumstances will make us more happy.
The moving shelves take inventory to human pickers. Pickers remove the item in the order and place them in a bin.
Bin travel down miles of track to boxing stations.
Tracks either take the order to single unit boxing or multiple unit boxing.
Inventory is almost always moving.
In 9 years, we've sold $500 million in drinkware at Simple Modern.
These principles have been critical to scaling the business:
1. Hire missionaries, not mercenaries. Employees passionate about your company's mission.
We just launched a redesigned website!
This year we’ve done $21 million on a 6 year old website. It was time.
@TheVaanGroup
built a killer site powered by
@shopify
.
Here's the strategy behind our redesign:
1/ We have sold over $200,000,000 on Amazon over the past 6 years.
The most interesting part? We've done about half of that volume as a marketplace seller (3p) and half as a direct vendor (1p).
People will ask me the difference between the two options. This is what I tell them:
In 2015, we bootstrapped Simple Modern with $200K.
This year we’ll sell more than 6,000,000 units between Amazon, Target and Walmart.
Here are our best threads about the brand’s growth:
These are the bins on a moving shelf.
Items are randomly placed. Some even share a bin with other inventory.
Amazon’s system knows exactly where everything is all the time.
The robots moving shelves move over QR codes to track where the shelves are.
Marriage is the wisest long-term investment.
After our career is over and our kids are grown, we will have our spouse.
Compounding leads to a relationship that gets deeper as we experience life together.
Invest in Eliminating Defensiveness:
Self-protection blocks genuine connection.
It doesn’t matter who’s right.
What matters is hearing and knowing them.
Focus on hearing what they are saying instead of making your point.
We're thrilled to reach 1 million
@Shopify
orders.
Thanks
@harleyf
and
@tobi
for making this possible.
Simple Modern is an example of a native Amazon brand having success in DTC.
How we've done it without spending a ton on ads:
The Challenge:
Amazon and DTC pricing
Invest in Positivity:
Our spouses annoy, frustrate, and let us down. They’re human, and life is hard.
If we aren’t careful, we can treat the person we love most worse than the stranger serving us coffee.
Negativity has no value. It only impedes working through challenges.
As Amazon's
#1
drinkware brand, we'll sell 5 million units in 2023.
Lifetime, we've spent $14 million on Amazon ads.
Our learning? Millions were a waste.
Don’t trust Amazon ads data.
How we've learned to drive actually profitable sales:
The Problem:
Amazon ads takes credit
Invest in Their Aspirations:
Is my spouse thriving because of me or in spite of me? -
@jontyson
My wife isn't a means for me to get what I want.
My responsibility is to magnify her as a person and help her pursue her calling.
If mistakes are tuition, we’ve earned a master's degree.
These 5 mistakes have cost us millions.
But, learning these lessons propelled to national brand status:
1. Unclear Branding:
Many competitors cover bottles with big, ugly logos. Our brand's name is Simple Modern,
Invest in Studying Them:
Know how they receive love and approach conflict.
They are likely not the same ways you do.
Our spouse wants to be known and loved for who THEY are.
Packaging for single unit orders is automated with custom boxes.
Items move down a track and have a custom box built around them as they keep moving. 🤯
I wasn’t allowed to video this machine so here’s a YouTube video. The machine is the CW 1000.
We toured the BFI4 fulfillment center in Kent, Washington. They only store and fulfill items less than 25 lbs.
It’s a 850k sqft facility with 3 levels of storage and full air conditioned. It operates 24/7.
Amazon has different fulfillment centers for oversized items,
Invest in Loving Them All Day:
Only thinking about my wife while I'm with her limits depth.
Dwelling on her while apart prepares me to engage when we’re together.
Marriage isn't meant to be compartmentalized.
Invest in Hard Conversations:
We rate our marriage 1-10. Usually our scores are different.
The truth can hurt, but hard conversations are vital to lasting relationships.
This exercise can uncover major disconnects.
The "Why?" behind the score yields fruitful conversations.
Invest in Enjoying Them:
Marriages thrive when spouses want to be around each other.
Hormones fade over time, and conflicts happen. Be intentional about finding joy together.
Focus more on what’s right than what’s wrong.
Be slow to anger and quick to forgive.
We toured an Amazon Fulfillment center yesterday and… 🤯
Incredible.
• Inventory is stored on constantly moving shelves. Robots take the shelf to the pick station.
• Inventory is randomly placed on shelves, tracked by cameras (go store technology).
• They spread inventory
After items are boxed, they travel to loading stations.
Along the way boxes are weighed and given shipping labels. Boxes don’t stop moving, shipping labels are applied with air compressors to not damage boxes.
Based on the order’s destination, boxes are pushed down chutes to
2nd time founders are more successful. Why?
Starting a company provides priceless experience and knowledge.
We bootstrapped the brand Simple Modern 7 years ago. Today it’s worth 9 figures.
Here's 20 things we learned:
Parenting toddlers is exhausting.
They're called the “Terrible-Twos” and “Threenagers” for a reason.
7 essential investments for parenting these emotional years:
Solution - Product Market Fit:
Focus on product quality, selection and value has lead to the highest converting listings. Listing struggling with organic placement need improvement.
"Advertising is the price you pay for having an unremarkable product or service."
- Jeff Bezos
As a Father, my job is to equip my boys for adulthood.
Most kids in America are left to figure it out for themselves (& they often don’t).
Think about these 4 practical questions to help prepare kids for the real world:
Today I turn 36 years old. Half my race has been run.
In honor, I’m sharing wisdom that has changed my life:
1. Everyone is a few bad decisions away from their life spiraling. Don't look down on people experiencing adversity.
We embrace competition. We have to with a mass retail channel strategy.
If we can’t beat competition organically on Amazon, how can we win on a Target shelf?
Jeff Bezos famously said,
"Advertising is the price you pay for having an unremarkable product or service."
As an Amazon native brand, DTC felt impossible.
But we've broken through in the last year, having several $1m+ weeks.
This was the strategy pivot that unlocked the channel:
We stopped competing on price with Amazon and Target on our website.
There are 3 reasons this strategy
We are going old school.
Digital billboards are live all of November in OKC and Tulsa.
The goal is to grow unaided brand awareness in Oklahoma. Focusing on our home state first, then national awareness.
Thanks for investing time in my thread!
I share my experiences as a husband, father, and co-founder of Simple Modern.
If you found this thread helpful, please like and retweet the original tweet.
My guy
@mikebeckhamsm
took home the EY Entrepreneur of the Year gold.
Love celebrating Mike. Proud of who he is. He’s generous, thoughtful and full of integrity. Mike believes in people to do more than they think they can.
Congrats, friend!
We've increased website average order value from $10 to $60 in 4 years.
It's a DTC game changer. (A favorite chart of mine)
These changes made the difference:🧵👇
2. Prioritize Healthy Emotional Outlets
Teach your kids to separate emotions from actions.
"It's okay to be angry, but it's not okay to hit."
"Jealousy is natural, but it's not okay to take."
Create space for them to express emotion in a healthy way.
The Realization:
@mikebeckhamsm
made a key insight.
Advertising profitability was inflated by ads not driving sales. In other words, organic customers were using ads to shop when they were going to purchase anyway.
These were the specific problems:
Sports licensing is one of the toughest product categories.
Most of the reasons why are unexpected.
Here’s an insider look at FanShop. In 4 minutes, I bet you’ll learn something new.
For context, we sell NFL, NCAA, NBA & NHL drinkware primarily on Amazon.
1. Extreme
We launched Bluey yesterday!
Our best selling licensed DTC launch to date.
We're so excited to add Bluey to our best selling kids product lines. Perfect timing as Back to School shopping ramps up.
July marks 8 years since the idea for Simple Modern.
We've sold 26 million water bottles since.
These core ideas we could only learn by building:
1. Customer trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets.
2. The best products are rarely new inventions. They're generally
I’ve been married 12 years.
My marriage isn't perfect. No one’s is.
Because of that, it’s easy to put your energy someplace else… work, kids, or hobbies.
But making strategic investments in your marriage is critical.
Here are 7 investments I try to make daily:
DTC grew 400%+ for us this year.
Our tech stack was a big reason.
These are our partners and why you should consider using them:
Shopify Development:
@thevaangroup
, lead by
@x_armand
Our redesigned website went live in September.
Conversion rate & brand experience were a
Simple Modern has sold $250 million on Amazon.
The interesting part?
Half was in the marketplace, half as a Retail Vendor.
Here’s a behind the scenes look at Amazon Retail (1P):
My favorite Amazon saying:
Customer trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets.
It takes multiple touch points to earn loyal customers (often paid for).
One bad experience to lose them.
This is an important north star for brand operators.
We're so excited to have launched in
@WholeFoods
.
Being a top seller on Amazon didn't help us get into Whole Foods. Their buyers are autonomous from Amazon.
It has been fun to see customers posting photos from Whole Foods nationwide. These are some of them.
@carson_rock
and
We just launched my favorite product we've ever made.
It's the best travel mug out there.
Color matched ceramic interior, silicone bottom and 360 lid.🤌🏼
I'm giving one away, just tag someone with a word of encouragement to enter.
I'll choose a winner at random on 10/1!
Parenting toddlers is exhausting but it’s worth the effort.
Show your love for them by prioritizing:
• Their emotions
• Teaching healthy emotional outlets
• Making connections with consequences
• Apologizing
• Saying I love you
• Giving expectations
• Encouraging progress
We've sold over $300 million on Amazon in 7 years.
The most interesting part?
We started Simple Modern as a marketplace seller (3p) and scaled it as a retail vendor (1p).
The ultimate comparison of Amazon Marketplace vs Retail:
Yesterday I turned 35.
The theme of my 30s has been self-confidence.
It can empower or deter my ability to be who I am made to be.
Here are 5 ways I’m learning to lean into self-confidence:
Increasing Average Order Value (AOV) has been the biggest factor in our DTC growth.
How we tripled AOV in 3 years:
• Free shipping threshold: From $20 🡆 $50
• Personalization upsell
• Discounts for larger cart sizes
• Website exclusive drops on higher retail SKUs
I
1. Prioritize Their Emotions
Toddlers are emotional messes.
Anger, sadness, fear, frustration, jealousy, etc.
Labeling emotions normalizes them and builds a vocabulary.
Identifying their emotions opens the door to discuss why they feel that way.
Problems - Paying for Organic Purchases:
If our ad is
#1
and we have the
#5
organic placement, many organic customers are now buying through the ad.
These sales make the campaign look overly profitable. In reality, they are inflating ACOS and justifying more spend.
A shocking first as an Amazon vendor…
A listing of ours caught fire, we can’t keep it in stock.
Amazon has oversold it by 42k units, with a 1-2 month ship window to customers.😳
The craziest part, the inventory isn’t even PO’d by Amazon. They assume we have it coming.
Established brands aspire to be multi-category.
After emerging in drinkware, we launched big into adult backpacks… and bombed.
We’ve since become Amazon’s best seller in kid’s backpacks.
The difference? We learned how to use our advantages.
Here is how:
Brands, please stop using packaging stickers that fall apart when removed.
We’ve been guilty of this but have repented and stopped. It’s a bad experience.
The best gift I've recently given my wife:
24 hours alone with:
• Nice hotel room, bed & breakfast + late check out.
• Massage/spa.
• Ending with the Barbie movie.
For those without kids it sounds lame. For a burnt out working mom with 3 kids under 7, it is paradise.
Solution - No Advertising on Brand Keywords:
We let competitors advertise on “Simple Modern” keywords.
If we can’t win when a customer searches for us, how can we beat competition on a retail shelf or generic keyword?
We embrace competition, it makes us have the best offering.
Massive product launch today.
We brought the viral Trek tumbler craze to kids:
✅ Handle built for kids
✅ Leak-proof silicone straw
✅ Fun new designs
Our catalog lacked options for kids 5+. Not any longer.
We love making products for the whole family.
6. Prioritize Expectations
Toddlers respond well to expectations.
Give a X-minute warning before a transition, like ending play time.
Letting them know bedtime is approaching.
Consistently give (only) 1 warning before a consequence.
This is a great way to care for them.
Simple Modern started 8 years ago in the Amazon marketplace.
The last 4 years, we’ve sold as an Amazon 1P vendor.
We've been surprising to learn these things about Amazon 1P:
We just launched StoreLocators on our website. Customers can now see Simple Modern products in-stock in stores nearby.
Why I'm excited about it:
• Week Before Christmas: When DTC can't guarantee shipping, we can help customers find gifts in-store.
• Branding: Nationwide
Interesting to see Yeti expand into apparel.
It's a continuation of them building a brand around the idea of outdoor living. They aren't limiting themselves to the product category they're most known for.
It's smart because they're growing LTVs by making more things their
We don't pay for any Amazon data. Amazon gives everything you need for free.
The SQP report tells sellers search volume, impressions, clicks and purchases for their top 1k keywords.
How we use this report to understand what drives our Amazon business (+ a great free tool):
Amazon branded ads have the highest efficiency.
However, it's misleading because most of those sales would've happened without ads.
We tested exactly how additive branded ads are. Here are the results:
Why Are Branded Ads Misleading?
Customers searching for your brand on
Problems - Harm to Organic Placement
We observed organic placement tends to fall when top ad placement is paid for. It makes sense that Amazon doesn't want duplicate listings at the top of a keyword.
If this is true, it is a major disincentive to paying for placement.
At the time we began Simple Modern, S'well was a category leading brand.
Today, our Google search volume is comparable to S'well at their peak.
This is a cautionary tale for us.
Evolving customer preference demands that brands also evolve over the years.