Dylan Jacob - Building A Better Beer Cozy Into A $36 Million Business

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Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. Today we have Dylan Jacob on the show. He is the founder of Brumate. And before we get into it, I'm going to be giving you some insight into who he is. So overall, Dylan Jacob has built a better beer cozy into a 36 million dollar business. To get an idea of just how good of a mousetrap Jacob built, consider his sales numbers since starting his company in 2016 in Denver. That year he did 270,000 DOL. But bear in mind, that was in two months because he launched in November. In 2017, Brumate did $2.1 million. In 2018, it did almost $20 million. And last year, Brumate brought in $36 million. Even better, Jacob, 25 years old, owns the company 100%, although he's getting ready to raise $10 million in venture capital as part of a planned global expansion. Overall, I am very excited to have Dylan Jacob on the show today. We have a lot of mutual friends and he is the absolute beast. So make sure you subscribe to the episode, check out Brumate and screenshot this podcast, post it on Instagram, tag Dylan Jacob, tag myself, and other than that, enjoy the show. All right, what's going on, everyone?

Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. Today we have the founder of Brumate, Mr. Dylan Jacob. Thanks so much for coming on the show.

Hey, what's up, Casey? Thanks for having me on.

Absolutely. So, first off, I've been following you for quite some time. Love your product. We have a lot of mutual friends. But real quick, I just want to kick it off and say I absolutely loved the recent Forbes article that came out on Brumate. And for those who don't know what it is, can you tell us about what Brumate is and why you started it?

Yeah. So in a short glimpse of, like, what we do as a company and what our ethos is. So if you look at the typical drinkware that's on the market. So like Contigo, your typical coffee mug, tumblers, things like that. When I came into this market, I just noticed that no one was really focusing on what mattered, and that was like, ultimately creating a better drinking experience for adult beverages. So our goal at Brewmade is to create a drink where it's designed to keep your adult beverages at the perfect temperature for the time you open them, until you finish them, and ultimately provide a better drinking experience to what's currently out there. So we do like insulated wine tumblers, growlers, insulated beer koozies, things like that, that are all designed to keep your alcohol perfectly chilled.

Where did this idea come from?

Dude, I hate warm beer. So as soon as I turned 21, I had this phase. Not really a phase, but I started getting into craft beer naturally. And there was a local brewery in Indiana, that's where I grew up. And all the beer that they served was in 16 ounce cans. So, like, I was drinking out of these tall 16 ounce cans. And craft beer wasn't cheap. Like, it's like $5 a can. And I'm like a broke, you know, 21 year old at this point. So I like, we were at Indy 500, and, you know, Indy 500 every year is hosted in Indy, obviously. And we were at Carb Day. And like, my beer, every time I'd open it up, I'd get halfway through and it was warm, and I was like, there's gotta be a better way to do this. Like these regular foam beer koozies that people hand out at, like, weddings and events and stuff like that just don't do anything. They're designed to keep your hands warm, but not actually to keep your beer cold. And so there was a disconnect. And so I just started doing research. I was like, is anyone creating a product to keep beer cold in a can? And the answer was no. So that's kind of where I stepped up and created Roommate.

Very cool. I referenced this article and I want to start off by just saying the headline. It says, dylan Jacob built a better beer cozy into a $36 million business. And why I want to say that is because I'd love for you to take us through the process of, you know, when you started it, to how it scaled over the years up to this point.

Yeah, I mean, so do you want, like, full background on, like, how I even got in Entrepreneurship in the first place or do you?

We'll get there. I just want to give the people some, like, instant business world now type of knowledge.

God. I mean, so I'm obviously like, you know, I'm friends with a lot of entrepreneurs, you're friends with a lot of entrepreneurs. And I think that you find, like, anyone that has a really high growth company, they have the same factors that ultimately, like, you have to have these factors in order to have high growth company. And it's like, right product fit at the right time. And so for us, it was like people were starting to get educated on, like, insulated stainless steel drinkware. And it was like one of the fastest growing sectors of the drinkware industry. But no one had identified that. No one was doing anything for alcohol. And so that was when we stepped in. It was like, perfect timing. We didn't have to really educate the consumer, and we came in with a product that people were yearning for and they couldn't find. So, like, I would like to say that I'm like, a genius and all this stuff, but, like, at the end of the day, I think it's more about just like, when you're innovating a product, you really have to ask yourself, you know, is the market big enough? And also, has anyone else done this before? Like, if you're just launching a different product and you're coming into it, like, oh, we have a different brand ethos or we're donating to this charity or whatever, like, your market caps gonna be limited because you're only gonna get so many people that resonate. But if you come in with a product that no one's ever seen before, like, I actually. I think one of the best things that I'm good at is, like, creating products that people don't know they need yet. And that's where, like, you see the gold is. Like, if you can look at a market and go, I think not. Not I think, but, like, I know people will buy this. And then you create it, and then your bet pays off, like, in dividends. And that was kind of what happened here. It was like, I made a bet. I was like, I can't be the only one that hates warm beer. And. And so I came in with this idea and it's just, like, taken off.

That's so sick, man. So take us back now. When did your entrepreneurial journey start? Where you. Where are you from? What is your upbringing? Like, give us the, you know, Dylan Jacobs origin story.

Yeah. So if you listen to these podcast, Detour, he did A little shout out during, I think it was like, end of the year, top hustlers or whatever. And he said it perfectly, like, I'm from Bumblefuck, Indiana. Is that a real place? I was like, no, but it describes where I grew up. So I grew up literally in a town called Whiteland, Indiana. It's 30 minutes south of Indianapolis. It's a farm town. Literally, like people drive tractors to school and shit. And so I just had a lot of downtime. And in my younger years, I spent a lot of that downtime getting in trouble. I was actually expelled from school twice. In eighth grade. I was in juvenile detention for two months. I was on house arrest for six. I went through a phase where I was putting all of my energy into things that were ultimately bringing me down. So skip back a little bit. Even before that, my parents split up when I was in fourth grade. I grew up really poor. My mom was a single mom supporting three kids on a minimum wage job. You know, I spent a lot of my time trying to figure out ways to make money and just buy things to help, like, alleviate the burden from her. And that was kind of what, like, sparked. Not even. I don't even call entrepreneurship at that point. It was more just like hustles, right? Like, I found any way I could to make another $20, another $100. And that really stuck with me. Like, it taught me that, like, you can go out and create value and ultimately make money from. And so like going into middle school, you know, ultimately I was, I was selling things that I shouldn't have been. And you know, I made a switch like that two months of juvenile detention really was like two months of solid meditation for me to kind of reflect on, like where I had been, where I was headed and kind of make a shift in my life. And so when I went into high school, like, it was the same thing. I wanted to save up for my, for a car. Like all the typical things that I got 14, 15 year old kids talking about. And so my grandpa, when he moved to the US in the 1950s from the Middle east, he started a small TV repair shop. And so he created or he would fix, like TVs, VCRs, you know, things that you've probably never even seen, like old dinosaur shit. But. But he created a really solid living out of, like, he supported, you know, my dad and my three uncles. And, you know, from that, like, I grew up working with him. Like, you know, I was in the shop fixing tv, stuff like that. So I knew there was A market for that. But, like, that was phasing out. Like flat screen TVs were coming and phones were coming and stuff like that. And so freshman year, I like, kind of did the same thing, except for phones, iPads. So in 2009 and 10, you couldn't go into a repair shop or like an Apple store and get your phone fixed. So if it was broken, you would just sell it for parts, basically. Or there was like mail in services where you can mail in your phones. And so I would just buy up all those broken phones, iPads, whatever, and I would fix them myself and then just resell them. And so that was like my hustle from, like freshman year to sophomore year. I probably made like 20 or 30 thousand dollars from it with, like, you know, looking back, it's not a lot of money, but at that age, it was crazy money.

And.

And so that was like, what ultimately led into my first business. Like, sophomore year. Again, this is a hustle. Like, I was just buying up every broken phone I could off Craigslist, fixing it, flipping it. And then all these repair shops started popping up and I was like, shit, like, they're taking my business. Like, I can't find broken phones anymore. That market kind of dried up. So I went in and made friends with the owners and like, found out they're all getting their parts off ebay and stuff. And, like, most people aren't super familiar with this market, but, like, for cell phone repair parts specifically, you have like ABC grade parts. And like, your A grade parts typically are like pristine oem. Your B grade parts are gonna have like, dust under the screen, dead pixels, things like that. And that's what they were selling to their customers. And I was like, you can't be giving that to your customers. Like, I have access to A grade parts. Let me supply you. And so my first company was called GB Supply Company. And so by senior year, we were working with over 100 repair shops around the US supplying them with LCD screens, batteries, flex cables, pretty much anything they needed for cell phone repair. And I think the biggest thing from that was like, I had gone through all of high school still not even thinking that I was capable of being an entrepreneur. Even when I was running my company, it was like I was preparing to go to college to be an engineer. You know, I got accepted to Purdue. I had a full ride to Purdue for their engineering program. I had an internship. And it was like I still looked at my business even though, like, we were rolling in, you know, we had a ton of different retail Stores that were working with us, we were making over $200,000 a year. Like, it was a great business, But I still looked at it as a hustle. It was like, this is a hustle, right? Like, I'm not gonna sustain this for 10 years. This isn't gonna be a real company. Like, this is just a side hustle. And I grew up poor, so, like, naturally, I never want to be poor again. So I was like, I need to get, like, a good paying job and, like, a 401k and, like, all these things. And what I found was, like, I ended up going to school for a semester, and I was running this out of my dorm room. And we ended up getting a contract with a company called CPR Wireless. So they are a large franchise at over 100 stores to do cell phone repair. And we doubled our size overnight. So I dropped out of college. I was like, I'm not going back. Like, I'm going to take a semester off and just see where this goes. And then four months later, I sold that company for $100,000. And I was like, okay. Like, I've been spending all of my time trying to find that stabilization in my life, trying to find something that. That would, like, just pay the bills and get by. When I had been running something that was really valuable, valuable enough for someone to ultimately buy us and integrate us in their supply chain. And I just had a blind spot because my risk tolerance was still really low, and I didn't believe in myself as an entrepreneur. And so after that sale was made, things really shifted. That was when I ultimately decided, this is actually what I enjoy. This is what I want to do and pursue for the rest of my life. And my, you know, over time, like, I had a lot of different businesses and things like that kind of before brumate too. And every business that I had, like, my risk tolerance got a little bit higher. My confidence in myself called a little bit higher. And then leading in the roommate, you know, I'm gonna skip over the second business. Like, it's gonna take 10 minutes just to talk about that. And, like, long story short, I bought a house. It was a terrible idea. I spent a year remodeling it. In the process, started another company. Then roommate was like, actually a side hustle to, like, I was running another company. Roommate was started as a side hustle. Like, I just. I didn't know.

Just for reference. Well, you have this side hustle roommate.

Say that again.

Year. Did you start it as, like, a side hustle?

2016. Okay, so like beginning of 2000. So I sold my first company 2014. I spent about a year remodeling this house and started my second company in the process in 2015. Then I was running that company for about a year before like Brewmate kind of came on as a side hustle. I always tell these hustles, but it wasn't a business, it was an idea for a product which is not a business. So at that point it was just a product. Roommate. The name did not exist like the brand, our goal as the brand didn't exist. None of those things were formed and I didn't know anything about the insulated drinkware market. But as soon as I came up with this idea, proved the concept and then from there I was like, I'm going to be the best at this. And that was when things really changed. So very cool.

I want to just jump into Roommate because it's fascinating.

I.

And I want people to. I'll make sure to link this article because I think it's fascinating what they touch on. But it says you own 100% of the company and you're potentially looking to raise some venture capital. I would love to touch on that because someone like myself, I'm interested in that world as raising capital, but also eventually investing in early age startups. So what does that process look like with Broomate right now? And why are you deciding now to raise funds and not early on?

Yeah, I mean, so for a few reasons, like when I first started the company, you know, I sold everything. Like, okay, so just kind of give you an idea of timeline. Like I came up with the concept for this January 2016. We did our full scale launch November 2016, 100% pre order. So like I didn't really invest that much into the company. Like customers were paying for this. We delivered over $300,000 in orders before Christmas 2016. That was 14 days in sales. Like we launched day after Black Friday 2016 and sold out in less than two weeks and delivered before Christmas. So like that was when the concept for Brummate was proven. And from there like the first year I wasn't focused on raising. Like I just, to be honest, I'm a control freak. I didn't want to bring someone in early on because I just knew that like if I didn't prove the concept first, I'd be giving up a large portion of the company and ultimately like if it did turn it, if it turned out to be something successful, then like I would own barely anything in the company. And then it also Says something about me as an entrepreneur, right? Like, if I am not comfortable enough, like, investing everything that I have into my own concept, then, like, why should someone else, right? And so that was like, I sold my other company. I sold my house. I sold everything I had. I moved into a small apartment. I invested everything in a roommate that I had. And I was like, let me prove this concept first. And. And then it was like, we just skyrocketed. Like, our first year, we did $2 million in sales. The yet next year after that, we did 20 million. And at this point, like, I still hadn't taken making any money. And I was like, we still have a crazy growth trajectory. And, like, I've been able to make it work. You know, we really crafty with the way that we use bank financing and credit cards and things like that. And so ultimately, it was just, like, I wanted to see how far I could get. It was kind of like a personal, like, challenge for me. I was like, I want to see how big I can scale this without taking money. And you also have to, like, weigh that with. Is not taking money hurting our growth?

Right.

And so that was where I kind of drew the line, was like, if I started to notice that, like, we actually need extra capital, and at this point, like, my personal goals don't really matter, like, I need to be thinking about the company, then that's when I'll start thinking about it. And so we started to feel the growing pains last year. Like, we were struggling to get increases on our lines of credit. You know, we were growing at a pace which, like, I couldn't really keep up with financially. And so we were running out of stock and, like, paying extra money for air shipping and things like that. And so I was like, okay, the company at this point, I mean, we're on track to do over $40 million in sales. I was like, I feel like this is a good time to really bring on investors. And not from so much a VC standpoint, because, like, VC is usually pretty early stage. They would have came in at, like, the $2 million mark and hoped that we're gonna turn into a $200 million company. Right. Whereas, like, we're actually raising with, like, growth equity. So it's more like private equity side of things. Probably 15 to 20% equity stake in the company. Very cool. They still have, like, skin in the game, but they don't have majority share. So, like, I get to still, like, steer the ship as CEO.

Yep.

They still have say in certain things financially, but they act as bumpers for the business. And like, it's not really about the money. Like, we're continuing to get lines of credit and things like that. It's actually more about like guidance. And so when I first started raising, like, all the questions that I got were like, why do you need money? I was like, I don't actually need guidance. So the way that we've been talking with all the investors and looking at potential partners is not so much from a financial standpoint, but can they add value to the company? I'm a young CEO. This is my third company, but this is my biggest by far. And I have a lot to learn and I don't want to make. Even though obviously as entrepreneurs we're pretty risk averse. I take risk, but at the same time, I do not want to look back in 10 years and be like, my pride or ego got in the way of me taking advice because I just thought I was right or whatever. And ultimately that was like what led to my demise. And so from an investment standpoint, like, if you can sell off enough of your company to get like a growth equity firm, in our case that has experience with like a CPG company, experience with like building $100 million plus brands, like what goes into that team structure, things like that, that's way more valuable than the cash. Because for me, it's like we're headed there and I want to make sure that we get there as efficiently as possible and like, with, with the least amount of mistakes in between.

You know, I love that. What's been the. In terms of leadership and, you know, company culture up to this point, going from, you know, starting it as a side hustle to doing 2 million, 20 million, 36 million. Obviously, like yourself as CEO, like you've had the great leadership to bring it up to this point now where you can go raise 10, $15 million. So what would you say to, you know, a young entrepreneur who's starting a company now regarding leadership and team building? What advice would you give them?

Yeah, I mean, I think leadership, like you always hear the term natural born leader. And like, I think that as long as you believe in your vision and people can really feel that, like your employees feel that you believe in the vision and you hire the right people, they'll believe in the vision too. Right. If your employees get the idea that you're just in this for the money or you're not actually passionate about what you're doing, why should they be passionate? Think of any corporate company. You go to work, you're sitting at A cubicle. You're kind of just crunching numbers, doing whatever. There's no company culture. You're just a cog. You're part of a cog, right? Whereas, like, in our company, like, everyone owns their role. Like, I really give people the free range to be able to, like, be the best at their craft. Like, I hire people. Ultimately, they're like. So let me step back. When I was first hiring, like, I actually wrote down a list because I think this is really helpful. I wrote down a list of, like, everything that I was good at and everything that I thought I was bad at. Like, as a leader in marketing, customer service, like, whatever it was. Because in the beginning, like, I'm doing everything right. So it's like, what do I enjoy? What do I not enjoy? What am I good at? What am I not good at? And so that was kind of how I hired was like, we were hiring out positions that were, like, taking things off my plate, allowing me to focus on what's good for me or what I'm good at, what I enjoy. And when I was hiring people, I wasn't just hiring people that were looking for, like, a pay raise or they were just unhappy at their jobs. They were looking for something new. I was like, our whole team is made up of, like, really scrappy hustlers that, like, reminded my. Like, reminded me of myself. When I'm interviewing these people, like, I'm like, do they have a fire? Do they have a passion? You know, did they DM me on Instagram rather than just, like, filling out a resume? Or did they, like, get crafty with the way they reached out to me? Like, did they actually go above and beyond? And, like, what I've been able to do through all of that was, like, ultimately hire people that are crazy about the brand and they believe in what we're doing. So, like, there's not a whole lot of, you know, all I have to do is continue to lead the brand and, like, follow my own vision and naturally, like, everyone else in our company follows. So I feel like as long as you have a clear brand vision and, like, you actually believe in it, like, the rest will just kind of follow. Every company is different. Every team structure is gonna be different. I mean, it's really. It's really.

What'S been some of, you know, like, the biggest growing pains as you went from, you know, idea side hustle to 2 million to 20 million to now, just throughout that journey, what's been some challenges or, you know, growing pains that you had to go through that you'd want to pass on to someone that may go through them later.

Yeah. Financially, obviously, I think the two biggest hurdles for most companies, honestly, when you're a consumer brand and especially direct to consumer, are going to be fulfillment and finances. Like you're trying to figure out. As long as you have a good idea and product, like, it's not going to be too hard to find customers. What most people struggle with is, like, keeping up with demand, making sure that things are kept in stock, making sure that orders are going out the door in a timely manner. And so, like, our biggest hurdle from day one was actually fulfillment. So, you know, we were like, growing like crazy, right? Which naturally means, like, we need a bigger warehouse to store our products. And you have to balance it between, like, I don't want to be paying for warehouse space that we're not using because then we're just burning money. And I want to make sure that we have a warehouse big enough to sustain our growth for the year. And so, you know, when we were a $2 million company, I was like, oh, we're probably going to be $10 million company next year with our growth. Right. And then we went to 20, and it was like, we grew out of three warehouses in one year. And, like, trying to keep up with that was a nightmare because then it shifted my focus from what I'm good at, which is like, product innovation and design and marketing, to, like, how are we getting orders out the door and trying to hire, like, warehouse managers and stuff like that. And so I outsourced that. We actually use a company called Chipmunks. Actually, one of my best friends, his name is Jan Bednar, super cool guy, but he started a company called Chipmunk, and they specialize in working with, like, e commerce companies to do their fulfillment. And we started working with him in May 2017, and it allowed us to grow exponentially because I didn't have to worry about warehouse space. We were only paying for the warehouse space that we used. I didn't have to worry about seasonal hires or if we had a new launch and our orders doubled overnight trying to find people to fill those orders. And so it really allowed me to focus on what I'm good at. So that was like, the first one. And then financially, like, kind of the same thing. I mean, it's this. You're always chasing growth, but at the same time, you have to make sure that you can sustain it. And, like, your money is not just going towards. Towards inventory, right? Like, you're. You're paying for employee Costs and, like, all of your other overhead that you have, and so that you're really reliant if you don't have investment on being profitable and using that money and, like, rolling it back into the company for growth. And so we were really limited like that. Like, looking back, Hindsight is, like, 2020. But I do wish that we would have taken investment maybe a little bit earlier just so I didn't have to worry about, like, I've spent a lot of the last year just, like, getting lines of credit and doing company audits and, like, trying to find all these different ways to pay for inventory where I feel like it probably wouldn't have been bad just to work with an investor early on or a little bit earlier on to really, like, free up my time to continue to focus on what I'm good at. And, like, it's kind of a reoccurring trend throughout this call and, like, something that I talk about a lot, but it's just, like, doubling down on what you're good at and outsourcing what you're not.

Yeah.

And. Yeah.

So delegating. Love it. When you dropped out of college, was that something that affected family dynamic and how did that look? Because I know I just did a podcast with this kid earlier, and he was like, yeah, man, I might jump out of college. I might do this. And I'd love to ask you, you know, full ride, prestigious school, what was that transition like, and how did your family respond?

So my family, like, on my dad's side, specifically, my uncle's, like, the VP of Citizens Energy in Indiana. He went to Purdue. His two sons went to Purdue. Big Purdue family. A lot of, you know, engineers in our family. My grandpa, again, like, he came from the Middle east with nothing. And so education was really, really important to him. My other uncle is a doctor. My dad was an auditor. But, like, education is really important. And so my parents, like, they obviously got to see all the crazy stuff that I did from, like, the time that I was in fourth grade through, like, senior year. You know, like, they understood what I was doing. Like, they knew that I wasn't just blowing smoke, but, you know, from an outsider's perspective. Like, the rest of my family, they thought I was insane. Like, when I left school, you know, obviously this wasn't something I just did overnight. Like, we were on Christmas break, and I sat down with my family, like, specifically, like, my mom, dad, sisters, and brothers, like, people I'm close with, and just told them, like, hey, this is what I'm thinking about doing. Like, do you think I'm insane? And they were like, no. Like you're. This is something that you're clearly good at. Like, just take a semester and you know, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. And if it does, like, that's awesome. But the rest of my family, like, literally until I made Forbes 30 under 30 list, like, I think that they still thought that I was just like, they had no idea what I was doing. Yeah, they just, I was like a college dropout loser.

And.

And then like the dynamic really shifted at that point. They're like, oh, wow. And now it's like everyone actually understands it kind of. But there was definitely like a two year period where like I was not depressed, but it was just like this weird dynamic. I went from being like congratulated at every family occasion, like, oh, congrats on making it a PRU and this and that. And then I left to do something that I thought was more exciting. And then they were like, you're crazy. What are you doing? You're throwing your life away. And it was like, why can't they see what I see? You know? And so it's been nice to like, see it come full circle where they finally get it. But there was definitely a period where like, I ultimately just had to believe in myself and like, just kind of say, okay, like, I'll prove it to them.

Right?

Like, they think that what I'm doing is stupid. I'll prove that it's not. Yeah.

Speaking of Forbes 30 under 30 for the people that may not know what exactly that is and requirements and just overall, just what it is. Can you give us some insight into Forbes 30 under 30?

Yeah. So Forbes 30 under 30 really celebrates and highlights entrepreneurs that are under 30 years old in a bunch of different sectors that are ultimately like what they consider best in class. So there's like healthcare, there's retail and E commerce, which is what I was in. There's technology, musicians, whatever. So they really like highlight the top 30 in their own category every single year. So it's a really cool way. Just kind of see who the shakers and movers are that are under 30. And so I met a lot of my really good friends actually through that. It was amazing networking platform for me because like, again, I grew up in the middle of nowhere in Indiana. Like there are no like cpg, like entrepreneurs in Indiana. It's all really tech. And so all of the good friends that I have now, I mean, that's how I met you. Like some of my good friends Taylor and Parker. They're with like feed socks and la. I don't know if you know them. So Taylor, Parker, and then also Jan with Shipmonk. We were all on the same list. And the first time we met was in Israel. We like got a house there for the global summit for Forbes and all stayed together and like we became really close. But like I met D through Taylor. So like a lot of the connections that I have now all stemmed back to like Forbes because it allows you to connect with like, like minded younger people that ultimately like are going after the same things as you. And I would have never had access to that without it. So it's really, really cool.

That's it. And you kind of answered my next question. I was gonna ask, like, how did you get involved? Like, for example, we found a lot of same people. We're friends with a lot of the same people. Number one. Now, when did you as a personal brand start utilizing social media? Obviously I've been following you and you know, we've been back and forth on social and that's how we had this podcast. But as a CEO and founder, when did that become important to you and how have you been building a personal brand as you're building a company?

Yeah, I mean, so the personal brand like for me really wasn't that important in like year one and two. Like, I didn't utilize social media very much. I used to be really into social media actually, like back when I was in like high school, I had two or three Twitter accounts that had, you know, hundreds of thousands of followers. And like I would trade and buy like Instagram accounts and Twitter accounts, like hundreds of thousands of followers and use them to like shout each other out. And this is back when like if you had a big page and you posted at the right time, you could gain 30,000 followers on the explore page. Like it was easy, it was fun. It was like a little again, a side hustle. Like I just had a bunch of different stuff that I did to make money. And I was in a bunch of like kick pages where like, you know, we would just like message each other and buy and sell pages and whatever and. But like my personal Instagram was never like a thing. Like I had a bunch of crazy pages, like dogs, you know, travel pages, like whatever it was. And so like my focus for the first couple years was really the company. And then like, as I really shaped as an entrepreneur and like figured out what I wanted to do in the future, that was when personal branding became important. To me. And so people always ask, like, what is your end goal with Brummate? What do you want to do? And the answer with Roommate is really like, I'm still passionate about it. I want to grow this thing to the moon. But after Roommate's over, like, whether that's an exit or like I kind of step back or whatever it is, I want to work with other entrepreneurs hands on. Whether it's in a consulting role or kind of like from an investment standpoint where like I can take younger entrepreneurs who have maybe 100, $200,000 companies specifically for consumer brands and they just kind of need guidance, like helping them not make the same mistakes I did, helping them with fulfillment, helping them with marketing, like helping them with supply chain, helping them with getting early on financing when like banks won't typically finance you, like navigating those hurdles. And like, in order to do that, like, people have to know that like, I'm not blowing smoke. And so if I'm just like this random guy that like, you know, on Instagram, I have a thousand followers and I never post about what I do or anything about the company. Like, and then two years from now I sell it, People are gonna like, who are you? Like, where did you come from? And so it's really been about, like getting people to understand, like kind of letting them in on the journey of like, what it's like to run this size company and like not your typical, like run of the mill entrepreneur. That's like how I built a $20 million company in a week, you know, and like, not just telling people everything they want to hear, but really focusing on like, what it's really like to be an entrepreneur and like get down and dirty and ultimately like, what it takes to kind of get to where I've been, which ultimately is like 10 years of really, really hard work and three companies to teach me the things that I needed and like, take all that experience and ultimately like help the younger generation kind of not make the same mistakes I did, but also be able to do what I like. Like, I don't want to start another company from scratch in the future. It's a lot of work, to be honest. Like, it really is. Like, this is my third one. I mean, we are really far along and I think that we have a lot of Runway left. But after this, I think my resources are going to be better dedicated to helping other entrepreneurs rather than continuing to start things for myself.

Just question for two more questions just with what's happening currently Coronavirus and the economy, how do you believe E Commerce brands are handling this not only internally in your company, but how do you see the current situation of the world affecting E Comm brands and overall what you do moving forward from a, you know, distribution, manufacturing, fulfillment perspective?

Yeah, I mean to be honest, like direct consumer brands right now are in the strongest position compared to any other like sector. Like if you look at retail as a whole.

Yeah.

Only brands that I know of that are up during this are direct consumer brands. Like you have a captive audience. People are sitting at home, they're bored, they're starting to do more research on products that maybe have just been like in the back of their head for the last two, three months and now like I know I'm literally still doing it. Like these are like I'm just sitting at home all day, you know, working outside of that, it's like I'm still sitting at home. So I bought a lot of products that like I've wanted to buy for the last couple months but I like finally have enough time to do the research I needed to pull the trigger. And so I think the most important thing and like what we're really focusing on and for any company really is to just be in a strong cash position. I think any of the companies that were like just burning money to grow are gonna go bankrupt. You're gonna see a lot of these like VC backed companies that have just been burning and burning and burning money with the hopes that like eventually they would start making money are gonna go bankrupt. And I think we're gonna see a shift of like profitability first rather than just like all these companies that, that are like oh we grew to 300 million and we only spent 400 to get there. You know, it just doesn't make sense. And so any of the companies that like ultimately like have supply chain dialed in, aren't overstocked on inventory, you know, don't have a ton of money invested or don't have a ton of money leveraged against that inventory or whatever and like ultimately have a good balance sheet, are going to be able to kind of make it through this and the ones that don't probably aren't. So I think it's really just something that people should focus on even. I mean we've been saying this for the last like two years, but there needs to be a bigger focus on profitability and not so much on the top line revenue. And I think especially after this you're going to see people more doing that. Like you're even seeing with airlines and stuff like that. I mean, they do billions and billions of dollars in profit, but they were rebuying their stocks and not saving that money as a cash reserve. It's kind of crazy. It's like every, every U.S. citizen, you're like, oh, you should have two or three months, an emergency fund. Right. Like, as an individual. But then these companies don't have an emergency fund. And then, you know, something like this happens and it's like, shit, like, I wish I had an emergency fund. So, like, my biggest advice is just have an emergency fund. I mean, you don't have to be sitting on millions of dollars, but, like, make sure you have enough money to last you a couple months at least. To where, like, you're not laying off staff, you can afford to kind of like, cut back on things. And then also with direct consumer brands, you're also in a position where you can tone down your ads, spend overnight. Most of your costs that you have are gonna be pretty low. You might have an office for overhead, you have employees, maybe you have a warehouse, but you're probably using a 3 PL if you're a younger company. And so really most of your costs can be shut off overnight. It's like, you don't have to spend hundreds of thousand dollars on advertising unless you're getting the results that you're wanting. And so, yeah, I mean, I would just say really continue to focus on profitability. Love that.

Last question. To wrap it up, how has your daily routine habits changed with everything happening now? And what do you recommend to people that now have all this time they've been waiting to order that product or to start that company to see how has your habits changed throughout this crazy coronavirus pandemic time.

Yeah. So I have this. We actually talked about this the other day, but like you were telling me I need to make a TikTok for the brand and for myself and stuff like that. But I have this, like, weird relationship with phones where like, I feel guilty if I'm on it for too long. Yeah. And so like now being captive at home, it's like I'm trying to find things to fill my time without feeling it of just like aimlessly scrolling through social media or whatever. So been learning new things. Like, I've never played around in the stock market before, so I've started learning, like, just trading options and stuff like that. I learned how to do a Rubik's cube and then like, have been dialing it in, like, how to do a Rubik's cube in under two minutes. Just like random Things that I've always. It's like my list of things that, like, I've wanted to do for the last couple years, but I haven't had the time to do. And I'm trying to use those to just fill my time. So I would just say, like, anything that, like, ultimately you've been like, oh, I'll do that later. Like, do it now. You've got the time. You're literally like stuck inside doing nothing else. And rather than like spending five hours a day on Instagram or wherever, just like start kind of like jotting down a list of things that you've been wanting to do and like, start market things off the list. And when you come out of this, like, you're way more productive than most people.

Love it.

Dylan, where can people learn more about.

Roommate if they haven't already? Where can people stay up to date with everything you got going on?

Yeah, so my personal Instagram, it's pretty much all I post, whether it be my stories or just my actual posts. I post a lot about, like, where we're at as a company, things that are going on, stuff like that. So, you know, on our brand page, we don't talk a whole lot about the nitty gritty details. It's more just about, like, new product releases and stuff. So if you want to learn more about the brand itself, you can go to our Instagram. It's Brewbru, mate. And then my personal Instagram is Ylan Jacob.

Got it. Well, Dylan, thanks so much for coming on the show, everyone. I'll make sure to link that down below. And yeah, man, keep killing it.

Appreciate it.

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