From $0 To $100M in 18 Months w/ Moiz Ali

Hey, I'm Ryan Daniel Moran. I'm the founder of Capitalism.com, where I help entrepreneurs build 7-figure businesses that they can scale and sell. Have helped well over 100 people build million-dollar businesses and become millionaires. My formula for building million-dollar businesses is very simple. In one, about one year, you can build a million-dollar business by having 4 products at 25 sales a day at a $30 price point. And you fill in those variables, you have a million-dollar business, and we just try to fill in those variables as fast as possible and it takes about 12 months. But there's one person in my life that absolutely fascinates me because he did a similar model, but he got $100 million. He got $100 million instead of $1 million. I've helped over 100 people build million-dollar businesses. That's really impressive. That's really exciting. But when there's somebody who does it with $100 million, okay, maybe we should pay attention to this person. And that person's name is Moiz Ali. Moiz is the founder of a company called Native Deodorant and he had a $100 million exit. Exit in just 18 months. And the crazy thing is that he did it with just one product. That's nuts. So today I want to share with you the time that I invited Moiz to come on our stage at our annual event called the Capitalism Conference. And we sat down and reverse engineered exactly how he had a $100 million exit in just 18 months. One of the things that I wanted to get out of Moiz was how would he do it today if he was starting all over? It's fun to hear about somebody who makes $100 million in 18 months, but That was a few years ago. So coming from somebody who sees a lot of deals, advises a lot of entrepreneurs, and has a $100 million exit, what would he do now if he were starting today? Here's what he had to say.

You've got a business with a great product that is like on its way up. It sounds like you're saying the same playbook that got Native to where it is may not be the playbook that you would use today. So what would that be?

Yeah, it would probably be very similar to that playbook still, to be honest. I just don't know how long that playbook will get you, and I don't know if it'll get you to the same spot that it got native to. So for instance, I would diversify into— we didn't sell on Amazon before we sold the business. I would get on Amazon earlier today. Whatever gets eaten up, like, you know, in the next 6 months, I can imagine myself selling all of my Facebook stock and taking all of that money and putting it in Amazon stock. The tailwinds to— or the headwinds to Facebook are tailwinds to Amazon. Because it's harder for people to discover new brands on Facebook, and so they go to Amazon where they do their shopping. So I would diversify into Amazon much earlier than we did. It took us years to do it. I would do it as soon as I thought I had product-market fit and genuine reviews, or when I sent out the product, I would get genuine 5-star reviews and didn't have to gain those 5-star reviews. So that's probably the first thing that I would do.

So just to clarify, are you saying that you would have sold on Amazon? Would you have started on Amazon as a platform and then pivoted over?

No, I would have still started on a direct-to-consumer channel, because it allows you to figure out, hey, do I have something wrong with my product? How do I iterate on this? And then once I thought I had product-market fit, I would shift onto Amazon.

I'm glad you said that, because Amazon can be a bit of an illusion of product-market fit, because you can game your exposure. It's harder now, but you can show up enough to have 50 to 100 people find you and buy, and you get caught in this trap of you're not really gonna break out because you just have like a little bit of a foothold in the marketplace. And you can get good reviews, and sometimes you can game your good reviews, and you can kind of hold on to that, but you never really break out.

Sure.

Because it's almost the illusion of product-market fit. And you're saying if you can get product-market fit according to a cold acquisition strategy, that will translate over, but the opposite is not necessarily true.

Definitely. And like, you know, you understand repeat purchase rate when you're selling on your own website. You understand cadence of repeat purchase rate. You understand why you're getting 5-star reviews and why you're getting 1-star reviews. And, you know, you can work with people to try and figure out, how do I turn this 1-star customer— how do I make this 1-star review a 5-star review? Do I just work with this person and say, hey, I'm gonna send you more product because we're iterating on our formula? until you become a 5-star customer, or is there something else that I need to change about my business in order to improve?

Yeah.

And so I'd still start with direct-to-consumer. That's really the only communication, it's the only way you're gonna be able to communicate with a bunch of people, hundreds, or if not hundreds of thousands of people at the same time, and get product feedback. And once I had that, I would shift to Amazon much faster than we did at Native. I think about product a lot more than I think other people would think about product. Like, if Mark Zuckerberg was like, hey, we're gonna start urinating in bottles and sell this to customers, I'd be like, I don't think that's a good idea. I'm going to pass on that investment, although you're Mark Zuckerberg. And so, really, I think that I focus more on product than I think a lot of other investors do. That's not always the case. And generally, I think, especially with e-commerce, you should be able to find some product-market fit before you're raising a ton of money. And that doesn't have to mean that you've actually sold $250,000 worth of merchandise. But some people will be like, here's this idea I have. I want to raise money. The first thing I say is, why don't you start a website, which will cost you virtually nothing, and run some Facebook ads, or do whatever advertising strategy you were hoping to do to try and get some product-market fit and show that this business will be successful? I was having brunch with somebody who works at a company called FIGS. And if you're not familiar with FIGS, FIGS is basically scrubs that nurses wear on a daily basis, except they're much nicer than traditional scrubs. And he was like, the way they started, the girls who started this business were, like, 2 of them were at lunch one day. One of them was a nurse, and the other used to work at Levi's. And she was like, your scrubs look terrible on you. Why don't you give them to me, and I'll hem them so they look much better on you? And so that happened, and she hemmed the scrubs. And when the nurse went back to the hospital, all of the other nurses were like, those scrubs look great. I want those as well. Can you get your friend to hem mine, and I'll pay her to do that? And that's how the business was born. There was product-market fit before that business was born. With Native, we sold the first 50 units of deodorant before we ever had a single stick of deodorant in our hand, and the first 250 before we actually got the sticks, actually. And so I knew the business would work, or at least I thought the business would have some sort of legs, before I even spent money on products. And I think in e-commerce, it's one of those rare industries where you can do that. And so if you're launching something new, test it out before you spend a bunch of money. And when I'm investing and people are like, I've got this idea, I want to raise money, and I'm like, what have you done to show that either the idea is good or you work and you're not just lazy? And when people are like, well, here's my deck, I'm like, OK, this is where I pass, because you haven't put in enough effort.

Notice how important product-market fit is to somebody like Moiz. And as an investor, somebody who runs a fund that invests in these types of businesses, I have noticed that when you have a product that has product-market fit where it's just starting to grow on its own and people are recommending it, it's so much easier to scale that business. Now sometimes you need to launch 4 products before you have the one that is the screaming winner. But when you have that screaming winner, your ads convert better, your emails convert better, you— it's an easier time getting influencers, you have more organic growth. So finding that product that solves a problem for as many specific person is a core part of my thesis of helping somebody build a million-dollar business. When you can have a product that is specific to one person, that is product-market fit. And that's what Moiz says is the difference maker between those that he sees wins and those who die out. Okay. The next thing that I asked Moiz was where does he see opportunity right now? What markets does he think are hot? What does he look for in entrepreneurs? What is changing in the marketplace? So now that he's been out of the game, After having a $100 million exit, where does he see opportunities right now? And here's what he had to say about what he looks for in entrepreneurs and what markets.

So what spaces are you interested in right now when somebody comes to you with a pitch deck, or you're just looking from a consumer standpoint? What industries are you looking at now?

You know, I'm an investor in a bunch of businesses that I have no idea what they're doing. So for instance, I'm an investor in this business called Pepper. It's wearpepper.com. They make underwear for smaller-chested women. I've never tried the product, and I have no idea. These people, the founders came to me and were so green. I remember the first time I met with them, it was funny, except that it was actually happening. We started talking about retention, and they're like, we don't know what retention is. And so I was like, okay, think about how many people purchase your product again. They're like, that's not something we've been paying attention to. paying attention to. I'm like, that's something you gotta look at. And I'm like, this is how you should think about it. You should think about it in terms of if somebody purchased in January 2021, what percentage of those customers have purchased again? And a lot of times people will talk about retention and they'll say, 30% of my revenue this month came from returning customers. I don't know if that's good or not. That doesn't mean anything to me. What percentage of your customers from January 2021 purchased again? That's a number that will mean something to me. And so that happened like 18 months ago when I made that investment. And then, you know, we have these board meetings every month, and like 6 months ago, they were just like, Moiz, you don't understand these analytics any longer. Like, you know, they were so on top of their numbers, they were putting me to shame in every single instance. I'd be like, what about this? And they're like, we've thought about that. Here are the 3 things that we've done as a result of that. You're thinking about what we did 6 months ago. You guys are thinking about the future. And I was like, wow. These girls are fantastic at what they do. They've grown their business, and it's wonderful to see them go from, we have no idea what retention is, to, Moiz, you dumb fucking idiot. You don't understand these numbers. Stop getting on fucking calls with us. I saw that all in 18 months, and I was like, wow, these are the entrepreneurs that I want to get behind.

Yeah, that's exciting as an investor, when the entrepreneur starts to surpass you.

The next question I asked Moiz was kind of funny. Said, why are you here? The guy has, you know, $100 million plus. He's had other exits too. So why is he here on our stage talking to the couple hundred entrepreneurs who are still on their ride up? You know, most of them have $1 million businesses, sometimes less. So what prompts him to come to an event like this and share with this audience? His answer was interesting. Here's what he said.

Now you've had all this. What draws you back to like the starter entrepreneur? or the person who's still scaling from 7 to 8 figures?

Yeah, that's a great question. I guess there's a few answers. One, conferences like this, I hope they give you energy. Whenever I attended conferences like this, I always got super pumped. And after a conference like this, there'd be dinner, and I'd be like, fuck dinner, I'm going to go home and work, because right now I've got the energy to do it. So they still give me that type of energy. And 2 is, I learn a ton when I'm at conferences like this. Those Pepper, the girls who run Pepper taught me, or teaching me, like every time we get on a board call, I'm the one who's doing the learning. I don't think they know that yet, and when they do, they'll stop, they'll start canceling those calls. But like, I learn a ton on conferences like this. Like what's working for people? What are the strategies that are working? What isn't? Is everyone else experiencing the same Facebook issues that everyone else I know is? Or are there people that are immune to it, and why are they immune to it? And what's scaling? Has someone figured out, okay, TikTok ads are gonna work because the pixel is great, they're figuring out targeting? When we launched on Facebook, lookalike audiences were amazing. We were lookalike audiences only and Facebook desktop only, and we'd meet with our Facebook account reps and they're like, you dumb idiot, Facebook is all mobile now and you're the only company still advertising on desktop. And I'm like, Maybe, but it's working for me. And then it stopped working, and then we were mobile only, because what they said was right 6 months after they told me that. So they said that in June, and by December I'd seen the effects. But in June, desktop was still printing us money. And so only at conferences like this, speaking to like-minded entrepreneurs who are in your industry or in your category, can you figure out, okay, what is working with businesses and what isn't? And what should I be doing with my life for the next 10 years as a result of this?

Events and meetups are where you meet people. We love to think that we connect behind screens on Zoom calls, but business happens so much faster when you're in the room with the people who are movers and shakers. In fact, there was this really interesting moment at this event where there was a woman in the audience who had a deodorant brand just like Moiz did, and they were sitting over in the corner around a campfire talking about the deodorant industry, and it was like, oh look, there's a deodorant mastermind happening And guess what? Within a year, that woman had an exit of her deodorant brand, and it was a massive one. Getting one little piece of advice from somebody who is in one of these rooms, especially if the room is fairly small and you can connect with people, it can completely change the trajectory of your business. And that's why we do these events. That's why they're so impactful for people. The last question that I wanted to ask Moiz was, what drives you? What keeps you going? Now that you've got $100 million in the bank, why are you still playing this game of entrepreneurship? Because a lot of people would say, "I got my hundred milli. I am done." But Moise is still going. He's still looking at new projects, and his answer was not money. Instead, here's what he said.

Yeah, I mean, it's not like I don't want a private plane and I don't want a yacht. Those aren't the things that drive me for. It's like building businesses and getting to hang out with people who have those, who have that passion. Like when the first business I started, you know, everyone wanted to leave at six p.m. Including me, 'cause it wasn't going very well. But at Native, no one felt that way, 'cause the business was going well, and it felt like we could take over the world, and it felt like nothing could stop us. We'd have a product manufacturing issue, and we'd get over it. We'd have a scent that everyone hated, we'd get— nothing could stop us. And that was what was really amazing about the business. It just felt like we were the Roman Empire and invincible. And that's the feeling I'm chasing.

The thing that Moiz just shared is a common theme among these videos, especially with the ones who are most successful. It's not about the money to them anymore. It's about the game. It's about solving problems. And the interesting thing is that when your mindset goes there, you actually see much bigger opportunities and you end up making more money. The people who are in the pursuit of money often are pursuing $1 million projects versus $100 million projects. Now that's fine because, you know, you can get to $1 million with a very proven plan. 4 products, 25 sales a day, $30. Let's go. Take you 12 months to get there. But once you are no longer in the I need to get money mode, it becomes about the game and solving problems. And that's actually when you start to get rich. So how often do you get to sit at the feet of somebody who just had a $100 million exit or $50 million exit or just crossed $10 million for the first time? First time. That's what we do at these events. We pack the stage and pack the room with entrepreneurs who are movers and shakers so that you have access to them. And our next one is in April in Austin, Texas, and it's called the Capitalism Conference. If you'd like to join us, it's at capitalism.com/capcon. And if you can't make it or you're not ready for that, I hope you subscribe to the channel because we release a lot of the talks, including this series, which is some of our favorite ones from the past 5 years. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Ryan Daniel Moran with capitalism.com. Hope to see you on the next video. Take care.