Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Scott Zeida. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Scott thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.

We really do appreciate Charities like Make a Wish Foundation and No Kid Hungry and Plant a Billion Trees and we are happy to give back. Yes. Being profitable is necessary yet giving is also a must. A little here and there really does help.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?

We are most proud to have products that are guaranteed for life. Tees that are used on the PGA and LPGA Tour and tees that help all golfers. We make practice tees and tees for kids. And our tees never break so there is never any waste! Who can say that? We can!

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

We are the manufacturer! We own our tools. Interesting decision that we chose. We decided early on to keep all the tools all manufacturing in the United States. Though the cost to tool manufacture overseas is very tempting. We felt we would have best control of the quality of our products if we kept manufacturing and printing in the United States. That decision means we pay more for tools, for materials and labor. Ten times more at the startup! However, we don’t have to worry about ocean freight, and most importantly we do CONTROL the quality of materials and labor. When you guarantee that your product will never break, you must CONTROL the quality! We launched our rebranded company two months before the coronavirus pandemic, and we quickly learned many lessons! And most recently we have learned just how fragile overseas supplies can be, and we are thankful at this time that we have not been adversely affected by material shortages! However, we have seen a 30% increase in material and labor increase over the last 4 months! What do you do? You keep at it. If your product is great, all is good.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Most recent reports indicate that over 66 million people live on this beautiful planet…..Golf! In order to play this wonderful game, you need: Golf Clubs, Golf Balls, and perhaps a Golf Glove, Golf Shoes, and with a Golf Club, comes a Golf Shaft and a Golf Grip. All of those items cost money. And absolutely for sure, when you play a round of golf, your goal is to not lose any of those items, and you certainly do not want to have any of your golf items to break! Yet, there is a component that is not yet mentioned, what is it? It is the golf tee. And for the last 100 years it has been viewed as the one item that you can break, leave behind, and or not as important as the other key components. The golf tee had its start as a ‘shot glass of dirt’ turned upside down, and the golf ball placed on top of it, to give the ball some height off the ground. Then in the early 1900’s a patent to make a wood tee was introduced. Interestingly it was a young black man who helped introduce the golf tee to pretty much what we have now. Yet, there was a paradigm shift about 15 years ago, when various golf tee shapes became more widely seen and used. Such as tees with brushes, or tees with prongs. Why? The science of what happens at impact (when the club hits the ball) began to be seen on slow speed cameras, and the ability to determine spin and friction velocity. Many golf tees began to emerge. Many have appealing qualities, yet we began to see more and more broken wood and plastic tees on the tee boxes. One day we literally said, “why is there so much tee waste”, and “what can we do about it” Resilience? “The golf tee does not matter!” Making a golf tee that never breaks is bad for business!” “You won’t succeed, as making an unbreakable golf tee will not be profitable or sustainable!” and “most golfers like using a wood tee, even if it breaks, it is what they are used to using!” However, we know this, cutting down one birch tree to make 200,00o wood tees that end up breaking after one swing, or on average, lasting 3 holes. No matter that they cost one penny per tee, is this really smart? Is this really helpful for the tree, the planet, and even the golf course that ends up with broken tee parts? Our model is sustainable, and our product is absolutely the best golf tee on the planet. Yet, it takes time for our model to be seen and heard. We are patient and excited to see our product gain exposure and acceptance. The tee does matter.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Tee4Life.org
• Instagram: Tee.4.Life
• Facebook: Tee4Life
• Twitter: Tee4Life@prolaunchertee

Image Credits
Marisa Messana for her photo.