In this interview, Eric Bandholz, founder of Beardbrand, explains how he turned a $30 bootstrap start into a premium men’s grooming brand with a strong mission to foster confidence through grooming. He describes the concept of the "urban beardsman" and how Beardbrand’s core values, design, voice, and premium positioning differentiate it from commodity products. The conversation delves into Beardbrand’s YouTube strategy—daily studio how‑to videos, a barbershop series, and a focus on watch‑time—to grow the channel to over 330,000 subscribers. Bandholz shares tactics for securing collaborations with other creators, emphasizing relationship‑building and scaling collaborations appropriately. He closes with his top entrepreneurial rule: prioritize progress over perfection, launching quickly and iterating over waiting for a perfect product or channel.
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Alright, so today we have Eric Bandholz, who is the founder of Beardbrand. So first and foremost, Eric, you have a really good name, by the way. So tell us a little bit about Beardbrand. Who are you guys? What do you guys do?
Yeah, Beardbrand, for all the entrepreneurs out there, is a bootstrap company. We started with $30 in our pocket and just hustled and grinded to To build this men's grooming company. And our mission is to foster confidence through grooming. So to really empower men to invest in themselves, and that investment in themselves, they can use that to tackle the day, to build relationships with their family, with their community, and to really make the world a better place.
Awesome.
So we're striving out there to give all the tools they need to feel confident, whether that's Education on our YouTube channel or some great men's grooming products.
Awesome, I mean, so what's the story behind it? I mean, you have this epic beard right now. I mean, how did the company start in the first place?
Yeah, I used to be a financial advisor, which was a terrible thing for me. It was like soul sucking, that all-American look, that suit, that tie. And I quit working there, tried up this other business, a freelance marketing business, and grew my beard out.
Hmm.
And it was during that journey of growing my beard out that I got the ZZ Top and the Grizzly Adams comments, but I never identified with those bearded stereotypes. And I met some other people similar to me, and that's when I realized there was an urban beardsman. And we coined the term urban beardsman to kind of describe me and people who have similar interests that don't fit those traditional stereotypes of bearded guys and really wanted to empower them to feel confident about wearing a beard. environments that traditionally you couldn't wear a beard, like as a financial advisor or entrepreneur or salesperson or whatever that may be.
Got it, cool. And I think, you know, Beardbrand, the whole name, I mean, when people talk about brands, it's what people say when you're not in the room at the end of the day, right? So when I look at what you've done with the business, you have this massive YouTube channel. How many subscribers do you have?
We're over 330,000.
Okay, so that's a brand right there, right? 330,000 subscribers. So I mean, what are your thoughts around how businesses should start with a brand first and then build a business around it?
Yeah, I think it's, uh, it's pretty challenging to start with the brand first because you really have to have that vision and you really have to have that guide for what you want that business to be. So to do that, you have to invest in your core values and your mission and, and really stick to those as you continue to make decisions down the road. But I do think that strategy is, is really like a foundational strategy that will help separate you from the commoditization of the products that you see on Amazon. So yeah, it's been crucial for us to set ourselves as a premium brand, and we don't discount our products, and we have high-end photography, and in my opinion, beautiful web design, and try to bring all that together with a voice that connects and relates to our audience.
Got it, okay. So you have, okay, you have a really specific design, and on YouTube too you have really, you have a very specific style as well. I mean, what else are you doing to build the brand right now aside from YouTube, aside from your site?
Yeah, and it's funny you mentioned design and stuff like that. When you think of branding, you really think of that, like the logo, how does it look, the colors, how is everything laid out. And that's an important piece of it, but it's so much more than that. It's like, what does that design Tell a story for and really like what is that voice and what is that mission and like all these variables come together to bring the brand and then the brand creates its own like living organization where now someone can be like, oh, Beardbrand is like this in terms of like a company, this is what Beardbrand means and I know when I go to Beardbrand I can expect this or that.
So Got it, cool. So I mean, I'm sure people are probably wondering in the audience too, you're watching a video right now, how do you go about building a 330,000 subscriber YouTube channel?
Oh man, I could probably talk all day about YouTube analytics and the algorithm, but a lot of content. We're up to daily content.
That's just one a day or 2 or 3 a day?
Right now we're at one a day. I would like to get up to 2 videos a day.
And why do you need to do so much?
I think it's just you have more options to show and connect with the audience. But beyond that, YouTube's goal, like Facebook, is to keep people on YouTube. And they have a metric called watch time. And that watch time is tied in where if you have multiple videos that someone could watch, they come to your channel and then now because you have so much content, they're like, oh, I'll watch this one, I'll watch that one, I'll watch that one. And then all of a sudden your watch time is increased.
Mm-hmm.
So that's probably like the big reason why, is just really kind of, again, tying into that brand of what your content's going to be like and then allowing your audience to connect with other similar videos.
Got it. And what kind of videos are you guys making on your site right now? Is it just mainly how-to? Is it vlog stuff? Like, what are you guys doing?
Yeah, so we found that the content that works best for us are studio videos where it's essentially similar to this. I'm talking, generally not an interview, but it will be either a how-to or I'll just give tips and advice on beard care, hair care, body care. And then we also have what we call a barbershop series. So we'll go into barbershops and we'll film guys getting their haircut or their beard trimmed to kind of give you like style inspiration. And also I guess to connect with other barbers and stylists who are looking to learn and grow their skills as a stylist.
I mean, I was having a conversation with Noah Kagan the other day and he's like, man, you know, the collaborations with other channels are by far the highest impact things.
Yeah.
So is that what you're doing?
Oh dude, man, we've collaborated with Alpha M or Aaron Marino, Real Men Real Style. We'll have one out pretty soon. We did one with YouTube Creators. I think we've probably done easily 10+ collaborations. Either we're on their channel or Or they come onto our channel as a guest as well.
So how do you go about facilitating those collaborations? Because getting with Alpha M has like, what, millions of subscribers?
Yeah.
How do you do that?
It's challenging, you know. I think building relationships is key in anything in life, especially business and especially YouTube collaborations. You can try to reach out to someone, and typically if they're a larger channel and you're just getting started, the collaboration doesn't make sense. So start off with like Collaborations that are more in your range. So if you have 5,000 subscribers, try to do one with like a 15,000 or 20,000 subscriber. And then also be willing to do one with like smaller creators who are passionate and up-and-coming. But the big thing you want to see is like, are they creating and have they been creating for a long period of time? Because you don't want to have someone come onto your channel and direct them to their channel and then all of a sudden they give up on YouTube.
Right, makes sense. Okay. Well, I mean, before we go, what other final tips do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs or anybody looking to build their brand?
Yeah, I would say like my number one rule for success, and plug, I just did a video on this, is progress over perfection. It's about finding ways that you can get stuff done, get it launched, get it out there, and then gradually improve it over time rather than having this perfect business model or this perfect YouTube channel or whatever it may be.
