🪥 Two people team for a million Euros toothbrush business: Mert Gönensay from Nano and Mate

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Sooooo, where were we?

🪥 Mert Gönensay, Co-founder of Nano and Mate

Soo, the part we like the most: Podcast highlights!

🪥 In the fifth episode we did with successful D2C entrepreneurs, Bahadir from D2CVille had a great chat with Mert, co-founder of two wonderful toothbrush brands, Nano and Mate, based in Germany.

🤵‍♂️🧳 After spending 10+ years in the consulting industry, traveling all over the world, and working with big corporations, Mert decided to do something else. That was when he started experimenting with Shopify - just because he had a natural interest in such things. After many trials and errors, he and his co-founder Damian found something that is truly solving the problem of customers: A toothbrush with 20,000 nano bristles!

For those of you reading this, you might initially think of Mert as a typical "former consultant turned entrepreneur." But let me tell you, he's so much more than that! Together with Damian, he's managing not one, but two thriving businesses, collectively valued in the millions of euros, and they've achieved this remarkable feat without any venture capital backing! 💶

And in his own words “Not only do we have 2 brands, but also Damian has 3 children and I have 2 children - and one on the way. So we have 2 brands and six children!” Now, isn't that a delightful twist? 😂

^{You can also listen to the episode on Spotify, Google, or Apple Podcast!}

And here are some highlights from our chat!

❌ It took him 15 failures to finally build something successful. After saying goodbye to the consulting world, Mert stumbled upon Shopify and fell head over heels for it, simply because he was a "tech guy" at heart! In the beginning, he didn't have any fancy products or genius ideas. Instead, he rolled up his sleeves, built websites, and learned the basics.

Looking back, he says he owns 15 other Facebook pages for 15 other business ideas that he had. Dedication!

💪 Building something that really solves a problem for your customers. According to Mert, a significant reason why his previous attempts didn't succeed was that he wasn't providing a product that actually solved a real problem for customers.

However, their luck took a turn when Mert found a new kind of toothbrush featuring 10,000 soft bristles during one of his trips to the US. It was great news, especially for Damian, who had been suffering from teeth issues for quite some time because the toothbrush was really good.

Damian was initially taken with the product, but after using it for a week, he noticed the bristles had bent over, making it impossible to apply any pressure to his teeth. What's more, these toothbrushes weren't even available in Germany!

“The biggest failure for us was trying to copy the big players in the market — it didn’t work. We needed to create something unique and valuable for the customers”

🕵️ Mert says they definitely didn’t invent the toothbrush, but they certainly made significant improvements to better meet customer demands! This reminds me of what Bryan -founder of WORN- said in one of our podcasts:

“There is an opportunity to improve any market that has been commoditized. People say they don’t care about an X product, but the second you give them a function, they become interested!”

More on that in the coming weeks!

Any other such examples of improving a basic product to make it a total hit? Share with us!

🧗‍♀️ Start simple. Competing in an old-school and quite saturated industry, Mert and Damian decided to start off with a quite simple one-page website that is all about the product and its features. The website was all about showcasing their product and its impressive features - along with actual customer testimonials.

To this day, they have a straightforward, in-depth homepage that tells you all about the product.

🫂 Listen to your customers. Upon hearing their customers' requests for an electronic version of their toothbrush, Mert and Damian sprang into action. They crafted Mate – a cutting-edge sonic toothbrush with nano bristles, all in direct response to the desires of their loyal customers! 🌟

👂 Customer service is at the heart of their business model. For over two years, Mert and Damian dedicated themselves to personally handling customer inquiries – and they became absolute MASTERS AT IT!

They've crafted a library of over 250 standard responses to customer tickets. And here's the kicker: they consistently reply to these inquiries within a lightning-fast 4-hour window!

Recently, after investing 2.5 years of hands-on care, they decided to outsource their customer service operations to free up time for more strategic things 🚀

💵 As long as the cash flow is positive, Mert doesn’t bother himself too much with other KPIs. While other metrics like LTV hold significance, there's no denying that cash is king in the eyes of Mert and Damian. After all, it's the lifeblood of their business! 👑💰

📺 Mate, being a more premium product with generous profit margins, relies heavily on the effectiveness of performance marketing. On the other hand, Nano, benefiting from an already established and satisfied customer base, thrives primarily through word-of-mouth recommendations. 🗣️✨

🆇 TWEETS OF THE WEEK

1. This is just a friendly reminder that the BFCM is just around the corner 🙂 

2. Nah, companies are still scary evils 👿

3. Agree?

🔥 Hot topic: Mr. Beast and Shopify Collab

Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify, often says that Shopify is a platform created by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs. So, the company is always deeply committed to its customers, who are fellow e-commerce business owners themselves.

But this… This is a whole new level! Check out the collab between Mr. Beast and Shopify, where they've arranged to feature a brand on Shopify for one entire minute in Mr. Beast's upcoming video.

Use the link above to go to this post, to get the chance to be featured in Mr. Beast’s video!

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