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Welcome to the first season of Go Pitch Win!   Each week Greg is joined by a guest judge to hear 2 entrepreneurs pitch their business or product.  After hearing the two pitches they will pick the weekly winner to move on to the final 6.  At the end of the 6 weeks, Greg will select the top 3 and then we need you to help us pick the winner!  Once the 3 finalists are announced we will open the voting for you #FreedomBuilders to choose our $10,000 winner!

Host

Greg Mercer, Jungle Scout Founder

Greg is the founder and CEO of Jungle Scout, a suite of tools that empowers freedom builders. As a successful entrepreneur, Greg leads a team of 65+ employees. He is also an influential educator, offering free and inspirational content that has helped thousands of people build their own businesses and freedom.

Guest Judge

Scott Voelker, from The Amazing Seller

Scott is the founder and host of the Amazing Seller Podcast, a top ranked business show, where he helps regular, everyday people start selling products that make money on Amazon.com in their own e-commerce stores. Scott has built and helped others build six and seven figure brands selling physical products and has now taught and inspired thousands of new entrepreneurs through his take action approach.

WIN NurtraBaby vs CoolNES

Greg: This is gonna be a lot of fun, we just listened to two different brands of businesses pitch their businesses to Scott and myself, we got to ask them a whole bunch of questions. If you missed those two shows, you can go back to the past two days to watch them, but Rob and Ivana pitched to us NurtraBaby, and David pitched to us his CoolNES face mask and a business. And they were both really fascinating businesses, they were really fun to learn about, both of the contestants, just as overall people and what they're doing with life were very fascinating and super fun to learn about. So Scott, to start, can you just give the listeners, if they haven't watched the show yet about NurtraBaby, can you just give us a one minute recap of NurtraBaby?

Scott: For everyone to kinda, if they haven't watched yet, really what they're doing is they're building a baby brand. That's what they're going after, they've already launched two products, or actually one, soon to be two. And then they want to launch two more with the investment if they get it, and they are really trying to create a brand around more of natural baby products that are also safer. And really, they're just going out there and trying to build that brand in that market, and they're starting with those two products and then soon to be four.

Greg: Yeah. So it sounds like, I think right now they have a clutch that holds diapers and wipes and whatever else. If I remember right, I think on the way is their, like a baby teething type necklace. Was that amber? What was that, amber?

Scott: Yes, I believe it was. I don't know the actual terminology, but yes, it's not even supposed to be something that ... it goes around their neck but it's not necessarily for teething, it's more for I guess, calmness.

Greg: Okay. Yeah, I guess that particular rock has a certain type of natural type of acid that lets out that helps calm the baby. So they have one product already on Amazon, it's only been there for a couple weeks, they've sold about 30 of them. The next product's kind of on its way, they're still working on it. They're a really cool couple, they're married if I'm not mistaken. Rob and Ivana recently moved out of their house, or apartment, or wherever they were living, they bought an RV and they're just traveling around America right now, while working on this business. Rob also has another full time job and Ivana's also a full time student. So this is kinda like both of their side hustle, they're working on it nights and weekends and whenever they get a chance. And yeah, were super excited to us, very fun to learn about them and their background. So, it was a great show, I recommend you check it out if you haven't done so already.

So Scott, tell us about the other contestant that pitched to you. David with CoolNES, give us a little more insight of what CoolNES is all about.

Scott: CoolNES is all about, really, sun protection. It's really about how to protect your skin while playing sports or fishing or just being outdoors. And I thought it was interesting that he created this out of his own need and his own pain point, he was an ex tennis player and he was always trying to figure out a way to keep his neck from getting burnt, and then also his face. So, he went out there and invented something from scratch and now has built a brand around that. And at this point, he's really trying to figure out how to get it out to the masses. And yeah, really I mean, his mission is to go out there and bring more awareness to some protection.

Greg: And Dave is just an all around hustler, prior to this he was just a tennis coach, and he came up with this idea, he got a patent on his CoolNES face mask, he's pitched to Shark Tank twice, the guy's in 30 shops in the southern Florida area, he's going to all these different golf or tennis events, and other stuff to really just hustle and bring exposure to his product. So David's just, he's working on this full time and he's just doing whatever it takes to try to make this work, this is his dream and he's just out there with pure hustle, just trying to make this work. So, really cool to hear about. Right now, all the original CoolNES face mask is his best selling product, he also has a few other products up on Amazon that are doing well, but not as good as the face mask.

And right now, I would say he is jumping around all over the place a little bit, like he built the site but then maybe realized that he didn't want to spend money trying to drive traffic to this site. He's in retail stores but it sounds like maybe that's not really working that well. What has worked well for him is Amazon, he wants to double down on that, which I think Scott and I both agree would be a good step, but he also thinks that maybe it would be worth launching a bunch of other products under this brand, and that's gonna help bring overall exposure to the CoolNES brand and then hopefully to the face mask as well. He's also talking about potentially licensing this to big brands. So I guess there's a lot of different avenues that he can go down, I don't know if he for sure knows what's best, but more so like I said, just hustling to make this thing work, right?

Scott: Yeah, he's totally hustling. And I think sometimes hustle can be good and it can be bad, right? Because in the same breath you're hustling in a whole bunch of different areas versus hustling in the one right area. So, I think that's what he struggles with, I think ... we'll talk more about it, but yeah, I just think he needs to get clarity on his vision but he's got a great product, he's got a great cause, I really think. Which I think we should probably bring more awareness to, and I just think that he's got a ton of contacts because of his background and his history of what he's done for the past 10 or 15 years, so I think he's got a great opportunity, but again, we gotta look at where that focus is happening.

Greg: So, before we compare these two businesses and choose which one that we think would be better to move onto the final round, let's jump back to NurtraBaby, this is Rob and Ivana's business. What do you think are some of the challenges that they're having, or some of the things that maybe raised red flags with you, or hurdles that you think they're about to reach?

Scott: Well, I think coming out of the gate they might've not approached it with the mindset or the idea of, "How am I going to get product number one to start getting those natural sales?" And I would think that you would know that number that, "You know what, I'm competing with these other bags, and you're also at a higher price point, by the way." So we definitely need to be able to get that exposure and we also need to have good pictures, but I think not estimating what they would need to do for that first product, but then immediately launching the second product without having that fully done. And the only reason why that concerns me is because if you don't give those products the amount of attention, then you're probably going to have four products that are just doing okay. If you get that one product to do really well, that could help to support the second, third, and fourth, but we gotta work on that first one. So that would be something that I would, again ... or that was kinda brought to my attention.

Greg: I totally agree with you, Scott. Me and you both have quite a bit of experience on Amazon, right? And one thing I think that we both know and understand is, these products, especially in the beginning, let's call it the first two or three months, they take quite a bit of love, right? You can't like, "If you build it, they will come.", that doesn't exist on Amazon. You can't just put products on Amazon and assume that they're gonna do excellent right from day one. In the early days, they take quite a bit of love and nourishment to get them selling, either through promotional coupons, you can use a platform like Jump Send for that, or through driving outside traffic to them, or through heavy PPC.

There's different ways to do it, but you need to force sales on these products in the early days and that sounds like something they haven't done too much of. And it's not too late, they can still do that, but I had the same concern as you, is they have this grand plan of already a whole bunch of products in the pipeline to launch and it's like, "Whoa." I think we were both thinking the same thing, like let's make sure this first one does well. I'm sure that it can, but we need to give it the love that it deserves to make sure it does well before you start getting carried on with launching a whole bunch of other products as well.

Scott: Yeah, because here's what happens, right? It's like, it's great to say that you have four products and I'm a big fan of that in the same market, but the problem is, is you're gonna start pulling money from the one launch that you're doing because you have to fund the other thing. Until you can start having that cashflow come through the business, or if you just have deep pockets to begin with, that's another story. But I don't want to hear that, "I can't do more pay per click." Or, "I'm spending $100 bucks a day and I can't continue to do that because I'm launching this other product." That's where it becomes a problem.

So again, that would be my only concern is that, you know, maybe pause those couple of products and really double down on the one or two that you think is going to really get you traction.

Greg: Yeah. And you brought up a good point there that the hardest part about scaling these physical products companies, especially when you're importing from China, is the cash flow and the cash that it requires. And everyone has to keep in mind that when there are purchase products, it's not only the inventory costs but there's also some costs associated with launching these products because those first 50, 100, 200 products, expect to lose money probably on those first ones.

In return, you're building out a listing that's gonna get sales for years and years to come, but it is expensive in the early days. And then, after it starts doing well, all of a sudden it requires more cash to replenish your inventory, right? So, that is something that I think Rob and Ivana need to be mindful of, and anyone listening to this show, just about the cash forecasting required to build up one of these companies.

So, let's jump back over to David's business CoolNES, which is the facemask that protects you from the sun. What do you think some of his challenges or difficulties are or gonna be, moving forward?

Scott: Well, he's got a product that doesn't necessarily get searched for. I mean, it may get searched for some, but it's not like someone is searching for a replacement part, or they're looking for that baby component, right? Baby sheets, or baby this, or baby that, they're in the market for it. They're not necessarily looking for this type of product. I think we looked at it a little bit, Greg, and there are some searches but not really. He's trying to use other products that people are buying and then having himself get in front of those people and they may buy it. I think for him, he's already so far along though, that he's done a pretty good job of bringing some awareness and starting to get some sales.

If he was starting over again, and I think he even said this, he would probably have done it a little bit differently. And I think, again, he's not starting over so we don't have to really talk about that, but he is in a space right now, that is all over the place too. 'Cause he could target golfers, he could target tennis players, he could fishermen, he could target all these different ones, which is great, but I think for him personally, it needs to be more of a direct focus and then from there you can start to add those other ones to it. But I love where he's at, and I love that he's past that initial stage because in the beginning, if he was to come to me and say, "What do you think about this?" I'd say, "Why don't you just launch something right now that has some traffic and demand in that space, and then we can add your product after the fact."

But he's already done it, he's a go-getter, he went out and purchased 50 thousand units right out of the gate, so he had no choice. So you know what? Now you're rolling, I'd say go with it. But yeah, that's my take on David, he's a go-getter.

Greg: My favorite thing about David is he got $100,000 dollar commission check from a big real estate sale and he bought $100,000 dollars worth of this one product that he hadn't proven at all, that takes some serious guts and I love that. I wouldn't recommend listeners of this show to do that, but I mean, it's really fun to watch people who have already done that and kind of live life vicariously through them.

Scott: It's great.

Greg: Yeah. I think he is kind of like what I think of as a classic entrepreneurial syndrome, which is he has this idea, he goes all in on it, which is fantastic. And then it's like, "Okay, now I have to figure out how to sell this." And I think this is the hardest part about starting out as an entrepreneur is staying focused on one individual thing, you know? 'Cause I'm sure what happened is he probably started off with building this website and then it didn't really get probably too much traction day one or anything, right? 'Cause even right now when I search CoolNES on Google, his website doesn't even show up on the first page, and I'm searching for his brand name, he has some paid adwords there, which gets it to show up in the top slot, but it's not even on the first page.

So, he probably didn't have too much experience with that and he was like, "Okay. Well now I heard about this Facebook market thing." I mean, he didn't say this, but he probably experimented with that but maybe didn't give it the love that he deserved. Now he's actually going to events which sounds like it's probably working for him a little bit. Now, he has found Amazon which is working well for him, it sounds like, and now he decides that he wants to double down on it. But I think it's really challenging for young entrepreneurs or people getting started or whatever else, to try to stay focused and give one channel the love that it deserves. My gut feeling is probably any of these individual channels would work if you give them the love and attention they deserve. But I know that's one of the hardest things as an entrepreneur, it's always easier to think, "Okay, if I go for that different marketing channel, or different sales channel, it would be easier there, so let me try it."

Where in reality, all of them would probably work but you really need to choose one and really go all in on it and give it the attention it deserves.

Scott: Yeah, absolutely. And it's like you said, he's been focusing on Amazon, but he's also been focusing on retail, and events, and all that. And the one thing I would've loved to have heard from him and from the other contestants, is really exactly what you're going to do with that money. Not, "I think I'm gonna do this and I think I'm gonna do this." Like, you want a clear cut, "I'm gonna take that $10 grand and I'm gonna double down over here." That's again, I think where, if you don't have that vision and that plan, it's kinda hard. Then you're just throwing a little bit here and throwing a little bit here, like you said.

I can almost guarantee you, if you say, "I'm gonna try to get a Facebook ad to convert to an offer and that's all I'm gonna spend my time on right now. I'll let Amazon keep going, I'm running that but I'm gonna just focus on that." For a month and get your conversions right, you can probably make it work. But you gotta double down on something and then learn that one thing and just really ... or find someone else in your network to help you and tell them to only focus on that.

Greg: And actually, now thinking back on it, after all of the pitches that we've heard, that's actually I think a common theme in a lot of our contestants, that they're not really ... they won't give you a clear plan of exactly what they're doing with the $10,000 dollars. I don't know if that's maybe 'cause they're scared that we won't like what their plan is so they give a couple ones, or whatever else, but I totally agree, I would have loved for ... and David did kind of say this, but he had a few different plans, he backed away from a little bit. I would have loved for him to just say, "Hey man, my A cost is great, I'm making money on all these sales. I just run out of budget every day because I don't have enough cash for it. I just want to invest $10 thousand dollars into Amazon ads. It's profitable for me, I just need to put more one dollars in to get two dollars out."

Well all right. I didn't want to get off topic too much on this particular show but I would love to have David back on just to hear about Shark Tank too. He's done it twice, Shark Tank seems fascinating to me, this is kinda what inspired this particular show, so that would've been fun to learn about more as well.

Scott: Had someone on the podcast and I interviewed him and he was on ... and he got denied. And yeah, it was pretty cool to hear the inner workings. I did the same thing, I went totally off topic with him and I'm like, "Wait a minute here, let's just drill into this thing, I'm kinda curious." And he filled me in on all the details, he didn't get the deal so he was more than happy to tell me all the details. I don't know if he was supposed to, but.

Greg: Do you remember what podcast episode that was, Scott?

Scott: I don't. I can find it for you though.

Greg: All right. Well, google The Amazing Seller Shark Tank episode and it'll probably pull up. I'm gonna have to do that after and check it out as well, it sounds like a good one. As hard as this is, Scott, only one of the two contestants that pitched to you, get to move on to the final round to be eligible for the $10,000 dollar prize. So, let's talk a little bit, let's compare and contrast these two businesses a little bit and let's decide which business that you would prefer to move into the final round and ideally is a business that the $10,000 dollars would help more, or the business you just believe has more long term, it's just more long term viable.

Scott: Here's the thing, I'm looking at this like if I was to take one of these businesses and take my own $10,000 and invest in today, who would that be? That's how I'm looking at it. Now, that doesn't mean I didn't listen to all the other pitches, so I wouldn't be able to give you that answer, but if I'm taking from what we learned today from these two contestants, I would probably say right now, I would feel more confident ... and not because of skills or anything like that, I just think where they are in the process, I like a lot of things about both of them but the one that I really like is David. And the reason why I like David, is because I believe that he just needs a little bit more direction and he's almost there.

And I think that $10,000 dollars could probably help him get to that place, but I do put a little note in here, there's gotta be direction with that. And again, if it was like I'm handing him $10 grand, I'm like, "Here's the $10 grand, but here's what you need to do with it.", that's another discussion because I would probably do one thing with it and he might do another, or he might do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But I think he's got a great network of people in his market because he's part of that market and he can reach out to those people. And I think he can probably land a licensing deal. I mean, let's say Nike could pick that up, Adidas could pick up, any of the bigger ones, so I would start looking into, "Who can help me license? I'm not gonna maybe license, but I'm gonna try to find someone that does licensing and try to license mine. I can still mine as mine, but we're gonna market it on and Nike's gonna license it and pay us so much a piece."

That's a no brainer. So I think he's got that because he's got the patent, so that gives me hope that there's probably more that we can even do with that, with the right people. And I think just doing what he's doing but more of what's working and doing less of what's not, and taking that $10 grand and going there. And again, not to take away from the other contestant, but I would say David out of these two right now, has the most potential for that $10 grand, right this second.

Greg: Yeah Scott, I agree with you on this one. David is a little bit more proven, right? This recording may have came just a month or two a little bit too early for Rob and Ivana, they could really nail their launch and that product could really take off and that would give me a lot more confidence in their particular business. So it may have come a little bit too early for Rob and Ivana, but David's proven, he's done $50,000 dollars worth of sales, the guy went all in on this, he got some money so that he can focus on this full time for the next year, I mean he's all in. And I like that he has a patent on this product, it seems like he really is just on the cuffs of this thing, really taking off. Which is, we'll just see.

Yeah, so I agree with you. I think David is the choice out of these two contestants to move into the final round.

Scott: Yeah. I mean, you know, like you had said, it's kinda where you're at in that process right now and I think that they might just be a little bit early. And like you said, I think if they came here and said, "We already did $25,000 in sales, we've proven it, we've gotten ... that's again, a little bit more validation. But again, I think we just gotta double down on what is working and if I was to invest in a business today, it would probably be David's, but I didn't see all the other contestants either, by the way.

Greg: Right on. Well, for this one Scott, you only have to choose which two of these move on. So congratulations to David and CoolNES, we wish you the best of luck with it. If you guys are interested in checking out either of those products, you can find both of them on Amazon. David's product is spelled C-O-O-L-N-E-S, for CoolNES. Rob and Ivana's products go by the brand name of NurtraBaby. We appreciate them coming on this show and being vulnerable and transparent with us and pitching these. So if you want to help them out, that'd be appreciated.

Scott, thank you very much for coming on, being the guest judge. I know you're a busy man and for you to take a couple hours out of your day to chat with us and listen to these contestants is much appreciated. So, thank you very much. If you guys haven't already checked out Scott, you can find his podcast and all of his content at TheAmazingSeller.com. As you can tell both of our contestants were familiar with his stuff and really appreciate all the high quality content he puts out, so check it out as well. Scott, it's been fun man.

Scott: It has been a blast as always. And I'm excited to see where this goes. So, I'll be following along as well, I can't wait.

Congrats to CoolNES, our week 6 winner!

Join us Tuesday to hear Greg and 3 of our Judges decide on our finalists!