Pitch Please

00:01.73
Dr Justine Luchini
And then after you submit to health canada for approvals, you pretty much just have to wait and it can take up to a year and during covid things were definitely not going as quick as they could so we launched into the us market. We had like products. Made labeled everything like selling in the us and we still had like nothing to ah we couldn't sell anything in Canada and um, we then actually worked with a separate manufacturer in Canada because I didn't want to have to figure out how to also do import export. While we were kind of trying to figure out this thing of like yes, which um I think probably a lot of people who you know have experienced in this business maybe immediately would be like why would you do that because you're kind of our.

00:37.50
mike_flywheel
So you had to find a us and a Canadian manufacturer separately. Alright.

00:53.71
Dr Justine Luchini
Shooting yourself in the foot in terms of economies of scale but it just meant that we had kind of other problems that we didn't have to deal with right like importing and exporting and like doing all that is its own whole beast and since it was pretty much just me at the time I was like I'm not I'm not even going to try and figure that piece out. Because at least I've figured out how to do like the working with the manufacturer piece and getting something like ready to ship. We hired third -party logistics companies that we were working with as well to do like the pick pack and shipping our our product out so that we could then focus all of the attention on just like how do we acquire. Customers now tell a brand story build a brand and actually like sell this thing in the market without having to go to the post office every day.

01:39.36
mike_flywheel
That's cool. Well um, power to you for powering through these steps that you've never gotten through but so you're able to so actually that's a perfect maybe seggue so where wheres thirds yet today like Canada us.

01:44.54
Dr Justine Luchini
Um, and.

01:54.29
mike_flywheel
How many customers are like how how big is this operation. It sounds like you've been doing it for a few years this is 2019 so like 3 years maybe now and into this journey.

02:02.38
Dr Justine Luchini
Yeah, so honestly, so many things took so much longer just because like supply chain everything with covid so I actually didn't leave my last job until 20 towards the end of Twenty twenty and then we started working on things in 2021 and we actually launched like so little like little side note. We launched into the name in the us sleep hack. We had filed for trademarks for the name in Canada and the us we were told at that time that in Canada somebody else had also filed a trademark for sleep hack. But our ip lawyers were like you know what go ahead apply like It's you it's not in use yet that things's been in the system for a few years if you just start using it like use case actually is really important for trademark law. So just like go ahead with it. Um, while we were shipping in the us and not in Canada yet literally the week the week that we got our health canada approvals.

02:57.70
Dr Justine Luchini
We got a note from our lawyer saying that the product sleep pack was now in use in Canada we were not gonna be able to use that name so we actually then had to like pods everything rebrand full ah completely so that's where we became thirdsy. And we had to take all of our us product. Get it all repackaged all rebranded read our whole website the whole that was like that was a moment of like maybe and maybe we don't don't want to keep doing this but anyway so then we officially launched. As thirdsy. Both sides of the border February Twenty Twenty two so we've actually not been in market quite 2 years yet it's been a little over a year and a half. Yeah yeah.

03:42.76
mike_flywheel
Okay, amazing. So how how's the momentum been in Canada and the us or maybe maybe one's been better in the other.

03:52.84
Dr Justine Luchini
It's actually been. It's been pretty great. So we um, we do about twothirds of our sales in the Us and which I mean it just there're so much bigger than can help totally and I think part of the reasons there's like really a lot fewer.

04:00.31
mike_flywheel
Yeah, but proportionally that's actually really impressive for Canada to be honest, so.

04:09.90
Dr Justine Luchini
Competitors and stuff at the canadian market too right? Canadian consumers just have fewer options in this space as well. But also because we're based here we have a lot of network here. We go to a lot of events so we've really targeted Crossfit because that was a community that I was familiar with a lot of crossbidders track their sleep people. Invest. In their health in that space and so we thought okay where can we go where we can actually like get in front of people so we started going to like crossfit competitions and stuff like that that was how we got a lot of our like early kind of first traction was just like being there in person letting people like see the product talking to them about it that kind of thing. Um and then also. Where like we started kind of like doing more like niche publications. So like sponsoring podcasts and newsletters and stuff that we're going out to crossfitters versus trying to win at running like broad swath Facebook ads and that's been actually great. It's probably been slower than you know, a lot of brands will. Grow really big buying market share kind of at a loss if they have the budget to do it like if they have funding. They'll just like to run a ton of ads and then grow really fast, but it's not necessarily profitable growth. And so we because we're bootstrapped we like well we need to actually make money off every salal that we make so I can't afford to spend more than our cart size acquiring a customer. Um, so so we've been growing and we've literally been growing like every single month um month over month since we started.

05:41.85
Dr Justine Luchini
And we're at the point now we have a team of 5 and we're we're not going to sell a million dollars this year in total revenue but definitely over half like we're we're probably in that like three quarters of million dollars revenue um, for this year which is pretty cool since we've in a market for 2 years yeah so it's been like you know a little month over month. Our first month I was like thrilled we did $10000 in revenue I was like this is amazing. Um, but it it felt it felt.

06:02.46
mike_flywheel
Grass. Ah, it's huge.

06:12.77
mike_flywheel
That is impressive.

06:16.96
Dr Justine Luchini
Good. It felt big. It felt like a lot of traction like more than we were anticipating and I've always kind of tried to keep my expectations low and just like be like all right if we're delivering a good product and we're delivering good service and we're telling more people about us then we'll grow and that's um, it's been working.

06:35.27
mike_flywheel
So well, where um, where can people get it. How much does it cost. Where should we send people to we'll put it in the description as well. But I'm sure by now people if they haven't dozed off ah through the podcast. Hopefully we can help them those off tonight.

06:48.95
Dr Justine Luchini
Um, yeah.

06:52.95
mike_flywheel
Um, where can they go where can they find you and how much does it cost.

06:55.29
Dr Justine Luchini
Yes, our our website is thirdz.com so t h I r d z y dot com. We do have a dot ca as well for our canadian customers but they will both point you in the same place like if you land on the dot com. It'll give you the option to come for a canadian store. We sell for $72 for 30 servings in the us and $76 for 30 servings in canada and we do have a subscribe and save option as well where you can save 20% off if you want to get it delivered to your door every month.

07:29.21
mike_flywheel
Awesome! So just order online ships directly to you um, sounds fairly simple based on where you're at. Is there anything in the next year of milestones that you've been planning for.

07:30.39
Dr Justine Luchini
Um, yeah.

07:43.87
mike_flywheel
Um, that you're excited about that.

07:44.12
Dr Justine Luchini
Yeah, so we actually just also launch travel packs which has something that we've been asked for quite a bit by our existing customer base which is cool when people are asking you for more So we we do have travel packs that.

07:48.10
mike_flywheel
Okay.

07:59.53
Dr Justine Luchini
Are already live in the us and there are a couple of weeks from being live in Canada so people can get 7 serving travelout packs take it on the road with you in like little single servinging sessions and we are going to be starting to run paid ads next year like on Facebook instagram Youtube so like. We haven't been doing any of that so I'm really like curious and excited to see how you know opening out those channels that almost all ecommerce stores rely on for all of their grove where that's going to take us next year

08:33.56
mike_flywheel
Amazing. Well those are big milestones and it sounds like you're also going to be cracking that million dollar number in the year ahead um you've had amazing success Justine any like final.

08:37.77
Dr Justine Luchini
Yeah, that's the goal. Yeah.

08:46.39
mike_flywheel
Thoughts or words of advice like obviously this has been a ah world of pivots in your career. It sounds like you guys are doing amazing and you're really thriving in this space. Um, but to any others as we kind of like come to the tail end any advice from that journey that you would kind of impart on others. So.

09:01.71
Dr Justine Luchini
Yeah, like this maybe sounds really cliche but like not comparing yourself to other people and other businesses because you know every business is going to be different how you finance your business. What your team looks like and what your strengths are going to be different and I Think. We've really leaned into what we know and what our strengths are and that's been always the thing that's worked for us and any time we've tried to emulate what somebody else is doing that didn't feel that didn't really add up to like where our strengths were.. It's kind of had um. Not great. Results made us had to take steps back or been a big waste of Money. So I think it's really hard when you see these like companies that seem like overnight successes and massive like unicorn companies that you everybody wants to like be yeah I think a lot of people want to be that company and it's easy to try and be like.

09:47.25
mike_flywheel
Yeah, yeah.

09:50.58
Dr Justine Luchini
Okay, well they did a plus B and that equaled C So we're gonna do that and I realized really early on that you know everyone's journey is gonna look really different and doing what you do well is going to lead to the best success over time if you can if you can afford to do it over time which hopefully once people aren't. Rushing to the finish end finishing line. Um, yeah, That's probably the biggest one for me is like is that and then also realizing that most of the advice that you hear are even the stories that you hear from a lot of people are just their highlight real right? like there's.

10:22.83
mike_flywheel
So yeah.

10:25.45
Dr Justine Luchini
There's a lot of tears. There's a lot of setbacks. There's a lot of waste of money that happens along the way and it's definitely not this linear line of idea to success or idea to failure.

10:37.45
mike_flywheel
Great advice I think that the take your own path. Don't necessarily try to always be comparing yourself to others. Um, and it's not just going to be the highlight reels you hear there's there's challenges along the way like having to rename repackage your brain.

10:51.14
Dr Justine Luchini
Um.

10:53.46
mike_flywheel
Overnight to to get distribution at the final mile which is is obviously a massive setback that now you laugh about. But I'm sure it wasn't a laughable moment back then.

10:59.84
Dr Justine Luchini
Yeah, at the time it was not a laughable moment. But yeah now we're like oh we got through that. So what? next yeah.

11:08.49
mike_flywheel
Amazing. Well well thanks so much for joining us today. Justine I'm going to have to order myself some third z we'll make sure everything is in the description for everybody to to order themselves some as well and put any other contact information that's going to be useful to you to everyone that joined in today I hope you had a blast. I learned a ton not just about third z and the ability to career pivot but also some important elements that are going to be more useful to sleep and I think to the name you know a third year day should be spent sleeping so you might as well do it right. Ah, thanks again for tuning into the pitch please podcast and we're happy to have you on today. Justine.

11:46.84
Dr Justine Luchini
Um, cool. Thanks so much for having me Mike I appreciate it.