We were lucky to catch up with Jordan Stander recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jordan , appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?
The Tub Topper was born out of solving my own issue I had as a parent. Because of that, I was able to design a product that actually worked, and really solved the issue at hand – since I was solving it for my own problems. When we hear from happy customers claiming “this is a game changer” , “best product ever” , ” where has this been my whole life” , or “genius invention” – it makes it all worth while. The Tub Topper is unique in the fact that it solves a huge headache for parents, but also enhances a fun time for children. This win-win from our product, in addition to there never having been anything else like it, makes it a lot of fun to hear from parents all over the world who say we have made one part of parenting much easier on them. Being a parent is tough, so even to help just a little, feels really good. We get emails constantly, as well as thousands of customer reviews, telling us that it has made life so much better, and they’re telling every parent they know about us – you just cant buy that type of advertising, so it becomes a win-win for us as well.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
We used to give our kids a bath every single night. Mostly because they seemed to always be dirty, but also because it was a break for us. Our kids loved the bathtub and would play for long periods of time without wandering off to cause the next mess, as they were learning and exploring the world around them. In the bath, we were able to keep them in front of us and entertained, as we enjoyed watching them play and getting some much-needed reading in.
The only issue we ran into was they always played on the edge of the bathtub. Whether it was a high-speed chase with their toy cars, building their version of a sky scraper, or seeing how much water a cup could hold – there was always a flood of water coming over the edge of the bathtub. What did we do? We did what our parents did with us. We put a rolled-up towel on the bath room floor at the base of the bathtub. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before that towel was soaked, and water worked its way toward where we were seated on the bathroom floor.
After time passed by, and many-a-loads of laundry were done; the wet towels began to ruin our bathroom floor. So, one night, while my wife was out, I was putting one child to bed in the room next to the bathroom, while the other child was playing (very loudly) in the bathtub. While I’m not one to take my eyes off my kiddos in the bathtub, he was playing so loud I knew he was fine. After I shut my daughter’s door, I could hear my son cackling, so I ran down stairs to grab him a snack. As I entered the kitchen, I noticed water dripping from the light fixture. I went to get a closer look and stepped in a huge puddle in the middle of the floor. Once reality set in, and I realized what was happening, I turned and sprinted upstairs. Coming around the corner I was met with a few soggy footsteps across the carpet and a lake on the bathroom floor. Turns out the reason for my son’s cackling was because he was setting up all his figurines, then taking a giant cup of water and washing them all off the edge of the bathtub. Due to the prior damage of the floor from all the wet towels, water was just going straight through the floor.
That was the last straw, something had to be done. That night I searched the entire internet, knowing for certain there was a solution out there for this common problem. But – Nothing. More searching. Nothing. What? No way! This was the same problem my parents had. How was there nothing for this problem that’s been going on in millions of homes every night since the invention of the first bathtub? Ok, I’m a dad, I can fix this. The next day I went to the store and got some cardboard, waterproof duct tape, some suction cups, as well as a hot glue gun and some hot glue sticks. The first prototype was born. The crazy thing… it worked! It worked really well! After having the original prototype on the bathtub for several weeks, I knew there had to be other parents out there needing a solution to the problem we had. I had to get this thing out to other parents.
How do you make a product and sell it to the world? Good question… I didn’t know either. There was: figuring out how to get a CAD drawing, learning about molding and mold design, understanding supply chain of plastic manufacturing, 3D printing of a real prototype, testing materials, filing patents, setting up online market places, studying pricing, learning shipping processes, packaging, figuring out how market and sell the product, website design, logo design, trademark filing, where to get capital, how to measure risk, how to get insured, how to label, not to mention coming up with a name for the thing…. and many other obstacles. After all that, there’s still the question deep inside that won’t quiet down: “will anyone else even buy this?”
Fast forward 5 years, we are in our 3rd full year of selling, and have sold hundreds of thousands of Tub Toppers. God has blessed this business far more than I deserve. It has been an absolute trip, and He has guided every step. There has been loads of tough lessons learned, but we’ve persevered. We are very proud of where we are, but have so much more planned. We recently launched three new colors, and have two new iterations coming out soon. We are selling in multiple countries, and plan to continue the expansion of our reach, while trying become a household name in our niche. We want to provide every parent and child the opportunity to have more fun in the tub, without the cleanup at the end.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Tub Topper has been bootstrapped since the beginning. While it may be a very high risk and seem insane to most, I took a large chunk of money out of my 401K. Next, I had to sell my tuck and side by side in order to get me closer to the rest of my startup needs. To get the first run going and get product made, I had to take out a small home equity loan. As the business started, and began to get more and more busy, I had to quit my career and go all-in on Tub Topper. During this time, we sold our house to help make ends meet and give me the runway I needed. While this was all a big risk, I felt confident it could be successful and God would guide me along the way. While it hasn’t always been easy, and at one point I almost had to go back to a sales job, God has blessed the business with success. Looking back, I honestly can’t believe I took some of the risks I did, but thank God it has paid off. We are continuing to grow at a rapid rate, which brings its own new problems – but I’ll take those problems any day of the week. Tub Topper is completely debt free, profitable, and 100% owned by me. We’ve tried to do financial things a biblical way, which sometimes means not going as fast as we probably could, but we’re trying to play the long game and “not get too far over our skis”. We still feel like we are growing plenty fast, so it’s been a really fun ride so far.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
We mostly use social media influencers to market our products. It, by far, has the best ROI. We’ll scroll through Instagram or TikTok until we see a mom influencer. We’ll send them a message and see if the product is right for them, and if they’d be interested in sharing it with their followers. We offer these moms (and some dads) a free product for themselves in exchange for a video and a shoutout. We’ve found that offering for them to do a giveaway with their followers has been a great way to spread the word as well, and it’s a win for all involved. The influencer gets more activity and adds value to their followers, we get more advertising, and the followers have a chance to not only see a new product they could really use, but also have the chance to win one for free. While we’ve tried some other advertising, some expensive and known as “the best way to advertise”, we’ve learned that people just want to hear about stuff from people they know in a non-intrusive and genuine way. No one likes commercials, nor advertising shoved down their throat. But, if you can get organic videos from happy customers (or even fans), that show up in a lot of different creative and fun ways (since all the influencers are different) you tend to get a much farther reach and people are way more open to buy. They don’t feel pressured and your brand doesn’t become annoying to them. Instead of you saying “look at us and how awesome we are”, others say “this product is awesome and I love this brand”. That goes much farther with people. They know them – they don’t know you. It can also lead to a FOMO buy (fear of missing out). People see everyone else has one, loves it, and it posting about it, then they decide: “I want to be a part of that group too”!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tubtopper.com
- Instagram: @tubtopper
- Facebook: @tubtopper
