Digital Nomad Building a $5M+ E-Commerce Business: IntelligentLabs CEO Rus Hughes (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Who was this business partner? How did you become business partners?

Rus Hughes: I knew him when I was living in Brighton. He discovered a business model of how to market products online. He wasn’t sure what product to market. Given that we were both into health and fitness, we thought we’d start a supplement brand to launch supplements for athletes and weightlifters.

Sramana Mitra: What happens next? What form does this take?

Rus Hughes: I was living off of savings. He had some cash available. My rent in England was around 800 pounds. My rent in Thailand was 100 pounds. The cost of living is considerably cheaper. We both put 500 pounds into a company bank account to seed the business. Our first product was a fish oil supplement. We looked at what we were doing.

One of the problems athletes face is that, after training, they get inflammation and delayed onset muscle soreness. The biggest problem is recovery. Omega 3’s help with many things including muscle soreness and inflammation. We decided to make the best products in the world. I firmly believed that our product was the best commercially available at that time.

Sramana Mitra: Was somebody already selling that? Were you white labeling?

Rus Hughes: We were working with an Omega 3 manufaturer in Costa Rica. Throughout the process, some barrels would have a higher EPA/DHA ratio than later barrels. When fat settles, it’s less dense at the top than the bottom. We would intentionally pick the best barrels they had and we would send that to a different manufacturer who would get it encapsulated in soft gels for us.

Sramana Mitra: You were selling under your own brand?

Rus Hughes: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: How did you acquire customers?

Rus Hughes: We started on Amazon. People went to Amazon for a solution to their problem. They already have a solution in mind. They just didn’t know whose fish oil they wanted. When they would do product comparisons, ours would stand out as a market leader. Through engaging with customers, we got good reviews.

Sramana Mitra: How did you get to that place where yours would stand out as a market leader?

Rus Hughes: This was in 2014. If you went to Amazon in 2014 and typed in fish oil, you would get 24 bottles of fish oil on your page. The first thing we did was we had a black bottle. In a screen of 24 different bottles where 23 were white, we stood out. That was the first thing. We chose a specific branding that we thought would resonate with the audience. That was the first one.

Then there was the product description that had a specific ratio of EPA/DHA. None of the competition had that kind of ratio. Ours was notably better.

Sramana Mitra: Once you got to a certain amount of recognition, it became easier to get customers.

Rus Hughes: Right. It really is a flywheel. The better you do, the better you do. We launched a legitimately good product so we got positive reviews. Lots of people take Omega 3 for cholesterol issues. You can verify the result by a blood test. There were legitimate medical testimonies.

Sramana Mitra: It’s actually true about most platforms whether you’re selling on Amazon or Etsy. It all depends on how the product is doing. It’s a flywheel effect.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Digital Nomad Building a $5M+ E-Commerce Business: IntelligentLabs CEO Rus Hughes
1 2 3 4