How a First-time Founder Overcame Launch Challenges

0:00You see the people that start companies out there, you see anybody that's been successful, they all say the same thing. And it's, if you don't take that shot, nothing, nothing is ever going to come. Hey, what's going on? I'm Benjamin Gottlieb back with Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and building a business. You know, founders sometimes spend years working up to this very moment, launching your first product and your first Shopify store. This is all very fresh for my guest today, David Levy. He's the founder of Bola Grills, and he launched his Shopify store, what, a month ago? He built his own Shopify site and he's doing his own fulfillment.

0:39So he's here with me today in studio to talk about this one man shop of his, plus what he's learned about product development and launch. David, what a treat. Thanks for being here, man. Thank you so much for having me. You're so welcome. So excited to get into all of this. But first of all, congratulations on opening your first Shopify store. How did it feel to finally hit that launch button? It's unbelievable. It really felt like getting to the end of a journey, but then realizing that the journey is really just starting. But it felt like there was so much that went into it. It was almost just did not seem real.

1:15Also, a lot of things that just came out of nowhere that were not planned for. And I could talk more about that in the interview. Absolutely. Well, you know, David, like many entrepreneurs, folks that listen to this program, you are still working your full-time job, right? You work in construction. and contracting. And I would imagine that this has been difficult since this moment while, you know, still having your full-time job, right? Yeah, absolutely. It's, I'm working, I feel like I'm working around the clock. So if my mind is not on something, I feel like there's a problem. There's always something to think about, something to remember.

1:51I wish I could be in two places at one time as of right now. Who doesn't? Well, so let's talk a little bit about the product, right? This is a tabletop grill, right? And it has a number of attachments. You're also selling, I think, fuel for the grill. It's a charcoal and wood grill. You're selling it online as well. How long did it take you to get to launch day from this idea? So we're getting close to two years now from the idea. Two years from the idea. And what made you kind of want to get into this? Okay, so how I really came up with this product, a few years back when I first got into my first home, I had a backyard of my own for the first time.

2:36Got a grill, like many people in this country do, and started grilling hot dogs and hamburgers and quickly realized that there's an entirely bigger world out there when it comes to grilling. And so I expanded my collection of grills, went to a smoker, got another smoker, then a grill that is called a Santa Maria grill. And then I - It sounds like every wife's nightmare, by the way. Yeah, it was like, what is this collection that just keeps growing? But yeah, I started getting really into it. And I started realizing that my cooks have a ton of versatility in them. So I'm able to do a lot with my grills basically I'm able to cook anything that I could think of.

3:21Now, there was one night, and I should say, aside from just my grilling addiction, my wife and I love to host, and so we have people over all the time. So we had people over for dinner one night, and I was on the grill, and they were at the table, and they were getting into some really good conversation. And I love to be a part of good conversation. If I'm not, I get major FOMO. So when I know people are talking about something that I want to get involved in, it's very hard not to be there. And so I was going back and forth between the grill and the table, table, grill, back and forth. And that was frustrating.

4:00Then I stayed at the table for too long. And when I went back to the grill, it was like a lot of the food had burnt. And I was like, wow, it would have been really nice to be able to grill on the table right now. And it would have made this so much easier. And so what I did after that, after those guests left, I started looking for tabletop grills. You were searching online for these. Yeah, yeah. And so there are some out there, but none with the versatility that I like in my cooking. So I realized that there's something here that doesn't exist. What I found was basically just charcoal with a grill grate on top.

4:42Not much ability to cook anything else other than just food directly over charcoal. So I started thinking of what are the things that I like in my outdoor cooking and started envisioning a grill that I would love to be able to cook on a table with. So let's get we'll get to the products and the actual things you have on the grill in a moment. But I want to take a step back to this idea of innovating. Right. Tabletop grills exist. And you knew that, but you didn't have the features that you wanted. And I think for a lot of our listeners, we talk about this a lot. But entrepreneurship is problem solving.

5:17You had a problem. Man, this awesome killer conversation, whatever it was. And you couldn't be a part of it. And then you ended up burning the food, right? Yeah, exactly. So you had this great idea. How did you convince yourself that you were capable of doing something like this? Making a table side grill. So I had absolutely zero experience in product development. But I've always been very entrepreneurial at heart. and I find it fun to take on a challenge like that. I really didn't know anything, so I didn't know what I was getting myself into, but I started researching how to do it right away.

5:54And then I started a crowdfunding campaign and that was kind of the validation to the idea. So yeah, the crowdfunding campaign, this came after you had said, okay, I want to do this, I'm interested, let me put this idea out there. Yes. You decide to make the products and how did you go from idea to like putting something down on paper? Well, I started researching companies that can basically take you from A to Z in terms of idea to manufacturing. I would actually highly advise against doing that because I'm a part of a lot of groups out there, like social media groups where it comes to creating your own product or inventing.

6:39a lot of people out there that have done it will say the same thing. A lot of times those companies will add their own fee on top of every aspect of the, you know, from ideation to design and engineering and development. So just to be clear, this is like a consultant that helps walk you through the process. Yeah, it's a company that has their hand in every aspect of it. That's the route you went first. That's the route that I went first. Yeah. And then what happened? Why was that not a good fit for you? So, first of all, it's you're spending way more because you're you have that company basically walking you through everything.

7:15So, I mean, I wish I could go back and save some money there because a lot of people will tell you that have been through it that you can do it alone. You just you find the people. There are plenty of resources online to find a designer, to find an engineer, to find a manufacturer. But I chose to have the help. And so I feel like I spent more than I should have. It was the biggest mistake I've made to date when they set me up with a manufacturer. The manufacturer that I was set up with this company, they were terrible. And I worked with them for about a year. I spent a lot of money. After about the fifth sample that they sent me, I made one of the most difficult decisions of my life.

7:57And that was if I wanted to pull the plug altogether or push through and find a new manufacturer and basically start over.

8:09This was a manufacturer based in India, right? Based in India, yeah, correct. The issue with them, I mean, they were very nice. They're great. And another thing, they specialize in stainless steel. And they're actually located right near the Whirlpool factory, which is one of the bigger appliances that's sold around the world. So there was some trust there because of that. But, you know, the first sample came and it was scary because a lot was wrong. So I thought I fixed it all with them. What was wrong? So very sloppy. Any, you know, the paint job, any, you know, things that need to be painted just did not look good.

8:49Things were uneven. Loose screws, loose handles, things like that. Just a ton of things that were wrong. It scared me. But again, I'd never done this before. So I just, I rolled with it. Second sample, you know, they had corrected the things that I found originally. And then there were new things that were wrong. Loose screws, came with a, you know, broken handle. So it got to about the fifth sample. That's when I said, I can't, I can't trust this company. And if I actually sell this product, if I get, you know, hundreds of them from this company, from this manufacturer, I'm going to get terrible reviews.

9:26It's going to kill the company right away. So yeah, I pulled the plug. You pulled the plug and here we are today, one month in starting your Shopify store. My guest today is David Levy, the founder of Bula Grills. It takes so much courage to know that something is not working and then to pivot away from it. So you have these manufacturers that you were set up with through this consulting company in India and you had to move on. You had to move on and you ended up finding a manufacturer in China. Walk me through that process. How did you get there? and what did you learn from that experience? Yeah, so the crowdfunding campaign, when I did that, I had several manufacturers reach out to me.

10:07But at the time, I had already been in communication with this company that was eventually going to set me up with a manufacturer in India. So I didn't want to take on an outside manufacturer. I just wanted to stick with the direction that I was planning on going in. But I had several manufacturers that reached out to me. And when I started realizing that it wasn't going to work out with the manufacturer in India, I reached back out to these manufacturers that had reached out to me. One in particular... So leaning into those contacts you were making through the crowdsourcing. Correct, yeah. One of them in particular, I didn't just say, okay, this is not working out in India, I'm giving it to you.

10:45It wasn't like that. I actually had this particular manufacturer design some attachments to the grill. So it was kind of like a test to see what they're capable of. and they nailed it. I mean, they were sending me stuff that I was like, wow, this is what I wanted in my product. It's clean, it's not sloppy, it feels like it's great quality. And these were just attachments, like simple attachments. And then you ended up going with them. Yes, so once I decided to scrap the manufacturer in India, I said, okay, I know where I want to go now. And I was able to pivot pretty quickly. So the decision was really just, do I want to pull the plug altogether, lose the time and money I'd put into it, have a lot of pissed off people that had already purchased the grill?

11:35Do I want to go that route? Or do I want to lean into this manufacturer that kind of proved themselves to an extent and keep going with it? And that was the decision. David, let's go back to this crowdfunding campaign. I think you went with Indiegogo, right? Yes. Now tell me, how did you go about starting that campaign and why was it so important to do that in terms of kind of getting yourself set up? So I would highly recommend crowdfunding to anybody that's starting a product. Reason being, you're able to sell the idea and actually get some revenue in without having a product.

12:17That's kind of invaluable because, you know, you're selling your idea. People are willing to, you're able to see if people are willing to pay for your idea before you actually spend all this time and money to actually make the idea or make your product. It's not easy. There is a lot of work that goes into crowdfunding. You basically have to sell your product and sell yourself. So people that find you, they know that they're buying an idea, but they also have to be able to trust you enough to be able to purchase this product and believe that they're actually going to get it.

12:55You need to have a very clear plan and clear ideas and you really need to be able to put that all out there and essentially sell yourself without having a product. And I would imagine you also need some multimedia, right? Did you have some photos, some product images? Yeah, so once you get to crowdfunding, you can't do it with renderings. you actually need some sort of prototype. I was able to actually find some college students off of a Facebook group. They're in Idaho. And just random college students are like, we make prototypes. I was like, all right, well, I don't even need this grill to function.

13:30I just need it to look like the finished product. And so they were able to do that for me. And I made a video with food that was cooked off to the side, like how they do in the movies, and put it on that prototype and film that way. Wow, it's incredibly scrappy. So I love that story. So you find the college students off of social media. You've got them building the grill for you. You've got the photos. The crowdfunding campaign launches. How does it do? So it did really well. It didn't go viral or anything. Well, how much were you able to raise? So I was able to raise about$22 ,000, sold 94 grills in 30 days.

14:10and I was spending about$100 a day in advertising. So I spent about$3 ,000. So the return was really good. It's also, it's a very unique looking grill. I'm really focused with this product on staying in this lane of tabletop grilling. So it's this combination of grilling and hosting. So I'm not trying to compete with other standalone grills or smokers that are on the market. So I really tried to make this unique product in this very specific niche. Yeah, and clearly, if you go to the site, it's bulletgrills.com, right? If you go to the site, you can check out the grill itself. You also have a package that has a number of attachments, other things that come along with it as well.

14:52Let's get to the product. We've been talking a lot about it. It's super, super interesting. Tell me, so you have this idea. You want to sit at the table and be there for the conversation and cook at the same time. Yes. Great for hosting. But I would imagine that as someone who got really into grilling, there are some things you need to actually physically cook the food, right? I mean, it's got to function properly, right? So let's talk about the grill and how you were able to balance those two things, the convenience and also the functionality. Yes, so from what I've seen in other grills, grills that I have, grills that I follow online, I know the components that are important to make the grill function as it should or function to its full capability.

15:36One of the things that I created, essentially this grill is like one big bowl, right? It's double-walled with a layer of ceramic insulation in between the walls that can withstand 1250 degrees Fahrenheit. So that was my first thing that it had to be tabletop safe. So it doesn't burn through the table. Yeah, so there was functionality involved and safety was a big thing. now inside of that bowl there is a removable charcoal grate so it's what i like to call raised fins they're um these fins about half an inch high so the charcoal sits on there and then there's airflow underneath so the the charcoal does not just sit at the base of the grill charcoal needs airflow underneath to burn properly so that was one of the features that we put in there.

16:30Yeah. For anyone who's ever tried to light up some charcoal on, I don't know, 4th of July or Labor Day, you don't have those vents open on the bottom of the grill. It doesn't work. Yeah, exactly. So this is the ventilation underneath the charcoal. Now the grill is very shallow. So when designing a tabletop grill, I wanted people to be able to sit comfortably. If you have a grill that sits a foot above the table or, you know, it's, it's kind of high. So every time you have to stand up to get to the grill. Yeah, yeah. So I wanted to make sure one of the things that was important to me was that it was kind of low, you know, in terms of height.

17:07So it's about six inches off the table. So not too bad. You could still look down at the charcoal from your seat. And then the grill grate. So there are two packages. One is the basic. The other one is the grill master. The Grillmaster has two grilling surfaces, an open grate and then a closed one, which is basically a griddle. So you could cook anything from, you know, your hot dogs and hamburgers on your open grate to pancakes, bacon, eggs. How about that? Yeah, things that you wouldn't be able to cook on any other tabletop grill that I've seen. So you could have breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever you could think of just based on this upgraded package.

17:47and these grates are removable, they're interchangeable, they're adjustable, and they're rotatable. So a whole lot of functionality goes into adjusting these grill grates. So you can take it closer to the fire for higher heat, away from the fire for low heat, swivel it around so it's completely off the heat, and also a more sociable experience like a lazy Susan. So it's very social very geared towards hosting very safe and very functional David hold that thought we'll be back in a moment with David Levy the founder of Bola Grills before we get there I want to talk to you yeah you listening about this program and why we need your reviews and your support Shopify Masters continues to improve because of feedback from folks like you so if you have not already please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts It helps other entrepreneurs discover this program, and our team loves reading those comments.

18:51Thanks so much. David, we've been talking about the product, talking about how we got to this moment. You had this incredible idea, and I want to ask you about how you took that leap. This program is very much about taking a leap of faith, right? You have a family, presumably a mortgage, a child, and a full-time job. And to do this takes a lot of efforts. How did you convince yourself that you could do this? So the, as we spoke about the crowdfunding campaign gave me a lot of validation, but beyond that it was a huge risk. And I knew that going in, but at the same time, you see the people that start companies out there.

19:39You see anybody that's been successful. They all say the same thing. And it's, if you don't take that shot, nothing, nothing is ever going to come. And it doesn't come easily. I knew I had what it takes to put in the work. I'm also just very motivated to be able to have a self-sustaining business. And so all of these factors kind of played in just things that I've heard, things that I've read, things that I've seen online, other businesses that I've followed. You see a lot of these common themes and it's motivating. You know, it's like a lot of people have experienced success, have created their own product, have started their own business.

20:18And like I said, there's this leap of faith. You just have to take it. And that's what I just kept telling myself is I know it's a product I am passionate about in an industry I'm passionate about. I'm just going to continue working on the side. My wife is supportive of it. if I have the money to spend on it and to create a prototype and to create the design and the engineering and manufacture it, if I can do all that and get inventory, then I'm there. And I just need to push hard at that point and just work my tail off. Well, you're working your tail off right now, right? We're about what a month in your launch.

20:56And as I understand, you've already had some significant success. You've had orders, you've had people from the crowdfunding campaign, You're sending those out to them. Yes. I want to, you know, we're in an interesting position because usually we do talk to founders that are more established, but you're in it right now. Like this is launch time, basically. What did you do pre-launch to set yourself up for this moment right now? So it was kind of just getting all my ducks in a row, knowing that as soon as I hit the market, I'm going to need social media. I'm going to need content. I'm going to need a website that's set up to generate reviews.

21:38So all of that went into, for months, even up to a year, working on the site, making sure I have the right apps in place, right? Making sure that when someone comes onto the site, there are no broken links. There's an ability to chat if they need to, uh, clear contact information, FAQs. Uh, I knew the website had to be very, very well established. Um, I knew social media was important. I knew that I had to be set up for fulfillment so that there were minimal hiccups, if any, um, when actually, when I actually got the product. Uh, so it was just getting all of these things in place before I had the product so that when I got the product, I could launch on day one.

22:24Another thing is, is ads, right? So I have some background in web development and in advertising online. And so I have connections there. So it's, it's people that I've worked with before, basically ran them through what the product is about, what my vision is. And these are folks that make ads. Yeah. Yeah. They're, they run, you know, pay-per-click ads. and so we created campaigns before I even had the product. So you were prepared for this? I was prepared, yeah. So I was able to, as soon as I had inventory, I launched. I got inventory on a Friday. That Saturday I had ads running, ready to fulfill.

23:06I want to get back to the website in a moment but let's get to fulfillment because I know you're talking about it like, yeah, I had products ready to fulfill and yeah, these are tabletop girls but they're heavy, right? And you don't have any employees, do you? No. So what are you doing? How are you fulfilling these orders? Yeah. So where I started, I started researching warehouse space. And I found a warehouse that I was pretty comfortable with. And they kind of rent out sections of the warehouse. So it's subdivided, right? And I knew I was getting a 40-foot container coming from China full of product.

23:4540 foot containers, a lot of inventory, right? And I knew I had to have sufficient space. I was not going to put this in my garage or my wife would, would kill me. Um, so my plan was the warehouse. Now when I was getting closer, so about a month and a half before actually getting the product, I went to the warehouse and the space that they had available at the time was much bigger than what I need. Not much bigger, but it was about 800 square feet. I needed probably half of that. and it was about$1 ,600 a month, which to me was a massive expense. Sure. That really scared me. That's a lot. You know, it's like paying rent to live.

24:26And so I decided to go the route, instead of the warehouse route, I went the storage route. Storage unit, you mean? Storage unit. And I found a unit that rented for under$400 a month. So significant savings, but I knew it would be a huge hassle unloading the 40 foot container. So I went to U-Haul and found guys at the U-Haul that were, these guys are experienced in moving. I hired four of them and I was like, all right, we got to unload a 40 foot container today and get it into a storage unit. So yeah, it was, it was a crazy day to say the least. We were all drenched. It was so hot outside. We're all going back and forth.

25:05This is the summer here in Los Angeles. Yeah. Yeah. We're all going back and forth from in the hot sun, the 40-foot container, to the storage space. And yeah, they all hated me at the end of the day, but we got it done. When you're an entrepreneur, especially in this day and age where selling is really omni-channel, right? You might put all this effort into the website, but there's still a physical product behind what you're selling, what you're shipping to people. It's so interesting to think about how different your experiences is, is like tinkering over maybe the product description for hours and then in the hot sun lifting stuff out of a truck and a container into a storage unit.

25:42Love that story. Back to the website if we can. Not that I don't love talking about you sweating in the sun so much. But you mentioned you have some experience in web design and also in advertising. So you kind of know your way around a website. why did you choose Shopify for this product, which really is a passion project of yours? Yeah. And back to the web design. So I did teach myself out of college how to build sites. And that was a huge advantage starting this business because I did the website completely on my own. I didn't need any help with that. Shopify. So at the time it, I did my research, but it really almost seemed like a no-brainer just based off of the research I had done, what I had seen other people using, knowing that Shopify is one of the leaders.

26:36You know, it's a publicly traded company. It just, there was a lot of trust there without having used it before, just based on what I had seen. This is your first time using it. Yeah. Yeah. Another thing, when I first got into it and got under the hood, it was so easy. And I'm not just saying this because this is a Shopify podcast. Which it is, but yeah. But it is so awesome. It's such an awesome product and it is so easy to use. You know, I do have the web design background, which helped. You know, there are times that I needed to plug in some custom code, but it was so easy to use. And not just the design portion of it, but also, you know, setting up for fulfillment and putting in your packages, the weights and the sizes and getting all that going and knowing exactly what shipping is going to cost.