SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

He Made $750k in November, 2015 From Tee Shirt Quilts in Episode 189 with Nathan Rothstein

06 Mar 2016

22 min

3882 words

2 speakers

06 Mar 2016

Audio

Description

Ep 189 Nathan Rothstein, the co-founder at Project Repat, a custom quilt blanket design shop. Listen as Nathan and Nathan talk about not only the latter’s business numbers but also how they’re affecting American manufacturing. YOUR $100: Remember to subscribe to the show on itunes then text the word "nathan" to 33444 to confirm that you've done it to enter to win $100 every Monday on the show. Do this now. Stop reading this and do it! Click here to join the top tribe and instantly learn how Nathan made his first $10k at 19 years old: http://nathanlatka.com/startertribe Top Entrepreneurs join Nathan Latka daily inspired by, Art of Charm, Pat Flynn, John Dumas, Entrepreneur on Fire, Chalene Johnson, Lewis Howes, School of Greatness, HBR Podcast, the StartUp podcast, Mixergy, Andrew Warner, AskGaryVee, and the great hosts of BiggerPockets! 3 Key Points: Without the help of a big company like Groupon it’s a mystery whether Project Repat would have nearly as much success as they do today. They were able to be featured for less cost because they were a social good company. The market for repurposed t-shirts as quilt already existed, but Project Repat excels because they have affordable pricing and has more ad spend. Nathan uses the online tool Klaviyo to more effectively use his email list to reach new customers. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show 01:39 – Rothstein joins the show. 03:01 – Rothstein’s business partner was in Nairobi where Project Repat was inspired. 04:09 – Project Repat makes money by repurposing old t-shirts into keepsake quilt blankets. 04:38 – Depending on the size, each quilt costs from 75 to 250$. 05:25 – After expenses, Project Repat clears about 35-45% margin on each quilt. 06:05 – They’ve made about 1,000 quilts per week in 2016. 07:10 – Project Repat’s goal is 7.5 million in topline revenue. 08:22 – Project Repat was part of a social good accelerator called Better Ventures in 2012 – they’ve contributed to the revival of the textile industry in the U.S.. 09:33 – It was difficult to get investment money for a quilt business. Rothstein and his partner had to sleep in the office at times. 10:21 – They ran into a big boon when they Groupon featured them without taking a percentage because they were a social good business. 12:02 – In 2012-2013, Project Repat acquired a lot of customers through flash sales. 13:17 – Project Repat spent about 750K on Facebook advertising last year. 14:00 – Repurposing t-shirts into quilts isn’t a new idea, but Project Repat expanded the market by making their products more affordable and visible through advertisements. 15:00 – Rothstein spends from 5-7$ to get a new email. Last year they got about 50K emails and 7.5K customers from their list. 15:32 – Project Repat uses Klaviyo to expand their email marketing list. 17:36 – Find out what Nathan’s doing after selling his business Heyo at nathanlatka.com/whatsnext on February 4th. 18:37 – Famous Five Famous 5 Favorite Book? – Do the Kind Thing What CEO do you follow?— Howard Schultz and Hamdi Ulukaya What is your favorite online tool?— Klaviyo Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Be more open to different stages of life – everyone’s going through their own thing. Throughout the course of your life you’ll be doing different things. Resources Mentioned: Edgar – Nathan uses Edgar instead of other scheduling tools for Twitter because Edgar cycles through content over and over (buffer/others you have to re-input content over and over – time consuming). In the last several months, Edgar has driven Nathan over 3728 clicks that he didn’t have to work or pay for. Project Repat – Nathan’s business Howard Schultz and Hamdi Ulukaya – CEO’s Nathan follows Do the Kind Thing – Nathan’s favorite book Klaviyo – Build your email list, Nathan’s favorite online tool. Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews! Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop The Top is FOR YOU if you are: A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4) STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7) An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1) The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14). Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries. Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

Chapters

1. What is the main topic discussed in this episode? 2. What inspired Nathan Rothstein to start Project Repat? 3. How does Project Repat transform old t-shirts into quilts? 4. What are the pricing and profit margins for Project Repat's quilts? 5. How did Groupon impact Project Repat's growth? 6. What marketing strategies does Project Repat use to acquire customers? 7. How does Project Repat utilize Klaviyo for email marketing? 8. What social good initiatives does Project Repat support?

Featured

Nathan Latka

Nathan Rothstein

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 18.389 Nathan Latka

This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base. You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have. I'm now at $20,000 per top.

Chapter 2: What inspired Nathan Rothstein to start Project Repat?

18.409 - 19.39 Nathan Latka

Five and six million.

Chapter 3: How does Project Repat transform old t-shirts into quilts?

19.41 - 21.212 Nathan Latka

He is hell-bent on global domination.

Chapter 4: What are the pricing and profit margins for Project Repat's quilts?

21.252 - 40.748 Nathan Latka

We just broke our 100,000-unit soul mark. And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. Okay, Top Tribe, this week's winner of the 100 bucks is Dustin Goodwin. He's in the HR industry, specifically in the software as a service space, looking to increase his revenue. So congratulations, Dustin.

Chapter 5: How did Groupon impact Project Repat's growth?

41.129 - 56.565 Nathan Latka

For your guys' chance to win 100 bucks every Monday on the show to build your idea, simply subscribe to the podcast on iTunes now and then text the word Nathan to 33444. Again, text the word Nathan to 33444.

Chapter 6: What marketing strategies does Project Repat use to acquire customers?

57.203 - 71.908 Nathan Latka

Coming up tomorrow morning, Top Tribe, we hear from the Latergram.me founder, Matt Smith. Latergram is doing 50K per month in revenue, has over 500,000 users, and 1.2 million braised. Okay, Top Tribe, good morning.

Chapter 7: How does Project Repat utilize Klaviyo for email marketing?

71.948 - 94.496 Nathan Latka

My guest today is Nathan Rothstein. He's the co-founder at Project Repat. Repat makes it easy to preserve your T-shirt memories by turning them into T-shirt quilts for you. Every quilt is made in the USA, and the fleece on the back is made from recycled plastic bottles. Since launching in 2012, Repat has upcycled over 2 million T-shirts.

94.516 - 101.75 Nathan Latka

The company's been featured in Fast Company, Inc., Entrepreneur, MSNBC, and Fox News. Nathan, are you ready to take us to the top?

102.612 - 103.676 Nathan Rothstein

Yes, thanks for having me.

103.957 - 110.498 Nathan Latka

I am excited that you're here. So first off, how do you make fleece from recycled plastic bottles?

110.95 - 132.317 Nathan Rothstein

So the recycled plastic bottles are recycled into yarn, and then that yarn is used for the fleece. And I mean, we're amazed by the process, but it turns into a really soft and comfortable Polartec fleece. We use the same brand that North Face uses. It's called Polartec fleece.

132.601 - 141.111 Nathan Latka

So, I mean, I'm literally drinking out of a plastic water bottle right now, just trying to imagine how to turn this hard plastic into soft yarn, into fleece. That's a thing. People do that.

141.732 - 158.431 Nathan Rothstein

Yeah, it's a company reprieved in North Carolina. And so they've been doing this for, I think, in the past decade. And it's amazing that we can make a 100% recycled product. So it's with all of your t-shirts. And then the fleece that we're using is 100% recycled as well.

158.852 - 161.815 Nathan Latka

That's amazing. So first, what got you into this?

163.043 - 178.081 Nathan Rothstein

Yeah, it's always a funny thing to think about how two guys got into the quilting business. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, I think we started in the same way that a lot of people start businesses. You start in one place and then you kind of drift to another where you find market fit.

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Chapter 8: What social good initiatives does Project Repat support?

187.615 - 197.869 Nathan Rothstein

And so he was stuck in this traffic jam and it was because a guy had fallen off his rickshaw and that guy was wearing a t-shirt that said, I danced my ass off at Josh's bar mitzvah in 1997.

198.35 - 198.45

Yeah.

198.43 - 208.508 Nathan Rothstein

And so obviously that guy in Nairobi had not gone to Josh's bar mitzvah. And so we all, we started thinking about the global, uh,

209.281 - 233.938 Nathan Rothstein

supply chain of t-shirts and how to prevent some of these shirts from getting shipped overseas and maybe winding up in landfills and so we started making tote bags and infinity scarves and we would sell them at local markets and people would come up to us and they would say well what can you do with my t-shirts and after a while they started saying well what can can you turn my t-shirts into a quilt

233.918 - 255.207 Nathan Rothstein

And we were like, no, we don't really want to do that. That's not that cool. But then no one was really buying anything else we were selling. And so we figured out a way to make an affordable T-shirt quilt. And apparently that's what the market wanted. So how do you how do you make money on this? So, so, so people pay us to turn their own t-shirts into a t-shirt quilt.

255.768 - 274.641 Nathan Rothstein

And so you would, you know, a typical customer is a mom whose kid is graduating from high school. She has all of her shirts that she's gotten for sports. She sends them to us and then we turn them into a t-shirt quilt and we send it back. And so they pay for the service for us turning it into a quilt.

274.891 - 278.819 Nathan Latka

I see. I see. And so what do I pay for a quilt? How do you do pricing?

279.381 - 292.95 Nathan Rothstein

So it's between $75 and $250, depending on the size. And that covers the shipping of the quilt back to you, and then the customer pays to ship the shirts to us.

293.504 - 307.142 Nathan Latka

Okay. I see. So, okay. So what kind of like it's breakdown top of the, like total, total revenue and then kind of trickle it down to talk out the cost and then talk about profit. So total cost on a, on an, on your average size quilt is what?