Hi to all my ResetEra brethren. Some of you may remember me from the "old" site. I finally got a chance to stick my head out from the sand to say hello and provide an update for those that find this sort of thing interesting. I'm the TubShroom guy (who was previously the MSXbox/TeamXbox guy). Long story short... my partner and I launched a Kickstarter at the end of 2015 for a new kind of drain protector and it's blown up since. We've expanded the line to cover other drains, did a couple more Kickstarters, and have hustled like crazy since to get our product(s) into as many homes as possible. Here's a recent Forbes contributor piece that was written about us and here's a clip of our fourth HSN appearance.
Instead of blowing all our earnings on parties, cheap thrills, and McMansions like we originally planned, we've been reinvesting to grow the company and product line. Success is fleeting, especially if you rest on your laurels. We don't want to end up being one-hit wonders like Right Said Fred. The old thread turned into a sort of AMA. If the mods don't mind, I can answer some Q's in here. We recently launched our fourth Kickstarter campaign which has been keeping us busy. We're also moving into a new warehouse by the end of the year. Fun (and hectic) times!
The Original Post (August 28, 2016):
I've been on **redacted - the old site** before some of you were born but I've mostly just lurked. I've trolled some sony/ms fanboy threads here and there (and got the occasional ban for it) but these last few years I put my head down and became something of a workaholic. I needed to prove to my self that I could put my mind to something and make it into something that can thrive.
Plus, I was getting bored at my profession so I said screw it let's go do something. My long time colleague and friend always bounced ideas off of me, and I him. We're both tinkers. So we collaborated on this bathroom accessory and it turned out really great. I mean, works better than any of the alternatives and wasn't crazy expensive to get into production. Gave some prototypes out to friends and they loved it.
So we put it on kickstarter and worked our butts off to get the word out and the feedback was promising. It did pretty well on there and we knew we had to get some more investors on board to try to make it big while the opportunity presented itself. Fast forward 8 months later and we're on track to break 7-figures in 1st year sales, got large PO's from at least one major retailer, and have been scheduled for an HSN appearance next month. We've been approached by multiple reality entrepreneur shows as well recently and a few large companies for licensing.
It feels sort of surreal at times, but mostly we feel lucky/blessed/fortunate. Now I feel like I just wanna go and try my hand at something else to see if this wasn't just a fluke. I tried coming out with stuff before (different inventions, businesses, etc.) and it was a whole lot of fail. Thankfully I was too stubborn to give up and I learned how powerful the gained experience from your failures can be. So now I'm browsing that McMansions thread in the hopes of buying something that says "I'm living the american dream".
There is a problem with becoming a workaholic, though... it's hard to shut it off. The mind constantly races. When you're doing something non work-related, you always think "I could be doing something more productive right now". It's pretty messed up. I feel most alive when I'm creating something, so I'm probably going to step away from this project sooner than later. Just thought I should share while I had a free moment.
tl;dr came out with an invention for the bathroom, it's selling a lot, and the money may or may not be spent on extravagant things. also, being a workaholic is a trap.
edit: since mod seems to have OK'd linking to it, the invention is called TubShroom
Instead of blowing all our earnings on parties, cheap thrills, and McMansions like we originally planned, we've been reinvesting to grow the company and product line. Success is fleeting, especially if you rest on your laurels. We don't want to end up being one-hit wonders like Right Said Fred. The old thread turned into a sort of AMA. If the mods don't mind, I can answer some Q's in here. We recently launched our fourth Kickstarter campaign which has been keeping us busy. We're also moving into a new warehouse by the end of the year. Fun (and hectic) times!
The Original Post (August 28, 2016):
I've been on **redacted - the old site** before some of you were born but I've mostly just lurked. I've trolled some sony/ms fanboy threads here and there (and got the occasional ban for it) but these last few years I put my head down and became something of a workaholic. I needed to prove to my self that I could put my mind to something and make it into something that can thrive.
Plus, I was getting bored at my profession so I said screw it let's go do something. My long time colleague and friend always bounced ideas off of me, and I him. We're both tinkers. So we collaborated on this bathroom accessory and it turned out really great. I mean, works better than any of the alternatives and wasn't crazy expensive to get into production. Gave some prototypes out to friends and they loved it.
So we put it on kickstarter and worked our butts off to get the word out and the feedback was promising. It did pretty well on there and we knew we had to get some more investors on board to try to make it big while the opportunity presented itself. Fast forward 8 months later and we're on track to break 7-figures in 1st year sales, got large PO's from at least one major retailer, and have been scheduled for an HSN appearance next month. We've been approached by multiple reality entrepreneur shows as well recently and a few large companies for licensing.
It feels sort of surreal at times, but mostly we feel lucky/blessed/fortunate. Now I feel like I just wanna go and try my hand at something else to see if this wasn't just a fluke. I tried coming out with stuff before (different inventions, businesses, etc.) and it was a whole lot of fail. Thankfully I was too stubborn to give up and I learned how powerful the gained experience from your failures can be. So now I'm browsing that McMansions thread in the hopes of buying something that says "I'm living the american dream".
There is a problem with becoming a workaholic, though... it's hard to shut it off. The mind constantly races. When you're doing something non work-related, you always think "I could be doing something more productive right now". It's pretty messed up. I feel most alive when I'm creating something, so I'm probably going to step away from this project sooner than later. Just thought I should share while I had a free moment.
tl;dr came out with an invention for the bathroom, it's selling a lot, and the money may or may not be spent on extravagant things. also, being a workaholic is a trap.
edit: since mod seems to have OK'd linking to it, the invention is called TubShroom
