Entrepreneur Intel

Our guest this week is a CPG innovator who disrupted an entire industry. While he may have started out small, he quickly grew, selling over 500 Million units. Joining the show this week is Founder of Hearos and Founder and CEO of D.A.P Ventures, Doug Pick!

Wes sits down with Doug to dive into his 30 plus years of entrepreneurial experience. Listen in as Wes and Doug discuss entrepreneurship, the challenges of disrupting the marketplace, and the journey of an innovative business from concept to successful exit.


Takeaways:
  • Entrepreneurs need to understand that in order to be successful, every aspect of their business must be executed with excellence. This level of commitment is crucial for driving customer satisfaction, and ensuring the overall success of the company.
  • When faced with economic challenges, it is crucial for entrepreneurs to evaluate their business strategies and consider innovative approaches. This includes assessing opportunities for growth and differentiation in order to thrive in the market.
  • It is important for entrepreneurs to recognize the value of adapting their business to meet customer needs. By discovering a niche market in the sleep space, Hearos found success by providing solutions for people's sleep-related issues.
  • It is crucial to recognize the signs early on when someone is not the right fit for your business. Proper vetting and thorough communication with potential team members are essential to ensure success and avoid costly setbacks.
  • The emergence of store brands in the retail marketplace led to a shift in profitability for brand owners, as retailers recognized the potential to control customer traffic and generate higher profits through their own affordable store-brand offerings.
  • Retailers prioritize high sales and profitability by strategically selecting products that maximize revenue, such as gift cards. Entrepreneurs should aim to offer items that generate significant profits and efficiently utilize store space to ensure financial success.
  • Perseverance and finding the right expertise can lead to remarkable success, even in the face of tough competition. One person's determination can result in significant business growth and opportunities.


Quote of the Show:
  • “The more you learn about something, the more you scratch,  the more you find out, whoa. I'm on to something here.” - Doug Pick


Links:


Ways to Tune In:

Creators & Guests

Host
Wes Mathews
KC
Producer
Kyle Conover

What is Entrepreneur Intel?

Welcome to Entrepreneur Intel, a podcast where we discuss the most important strategies for success from amazing entrepreneurs. Host Wes Mathews sits down with business owners to learn about how they got started running their own business, what helped them succeed and the biggest lessons they learned along the way.

Be sure to catch new episodes every Thursday morning, and to make sure you never miss out on any insights, don’t forget to subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, You Tube or wherever you get your podcasts.

This show is sponsored by Stealth Consulting, your Fractional CMO. Stealth provides the roadmap and accountability to reach your business and marketing goals. Learn more at https://stealthconsulting.com/

Wes: I am really excited for today's guest. Uh, he is a skilled founder who has started and built multiple successful companies. He is a unique retail product innovator. So in 1992 with 15, 000, he founded Heroes Earplugs and has sold over 500 million units. Uh, today he's empowering consumer packaged goods, brands to scale profit as founder and CEO of DAP Ventures, Doug Pick.

Welcome Doug. Thanks. Thanks so much for

coming on.

Doug Pick: What an intro. I think we can just wrap it up right there.

Wes: So there's a lot to pick from that, but I got to first ask the question. So you've been an entrepreneur for over 30 years. What is the most important lesson you've learned throughout this journey?

Doug Pick: Well, you know, I think it, all comes down to one word and people, have asked, what do entrepreneurs need to get right in order to be successful? And it's everything, everything one does has to be spot on because the business world doesn't accept a minus. activities A plus is the only standard and that requires a lot of intensity, passion to, really just drive hard for your customer, your vendors and all that are associated with your company.

That's what I found.

Wes: So that's a great answer. But for a guy like me, an entrepreneur, like I didn't do very good in school. So like I wasn't getting straight

Doug Pick: Neither did I, by the

Wes: that's a little scary. Like at what point, you know, with your intro, there's a lot to pick apart here. But like going back, you know. Was Hero's Earplug, was that your first entrepreneurial journey?

Was that your first company? Oh, wow.

Doug Pick: story goes back to when I worked at A& M records, it was my dream to work in the music business. When I was a teenager at 14, I was taking pictures for Motley Crew on the Sunset Strip, and that was a total blast. I was friendly with Nikki Sixx and the band, four of my pictures ended up on Decade of Decadence.

And, um, that kind of gave me the music business bug. And so it was my dream to work in the music business. I was very fortunate to be recruited to A& M Records by their chairman of the board, Jerry Moss, after I wrote him a cold letter. And I maintained a relationship with him for 35 years after that single meeting.

Um, but when I was 24, um, I had been on the side managing rap artists, if you can believe that. And I wanted to be the next Jerry Moss or David Geffen. And so I left the company with my 15, 000 I had saved up. I knew I was going to leave, um, the company, even though it was a wonderful company. It was a family environment, great to be a part of, but I just wanted to become an entrepreneur.

I had that burning desire to be my own boss. And so I left to manage a very talented, charismatic rap artist. And as it turns out, about four months into trying to motivate this person to be the next, at the time, MC Hammer, Ice T, um, I found out that for me, artist management was a lot about being in adult daycare.

And the, and the biggest takeaway was, I, um, couldn't control another human. And so because of that, I just started looking at different opportunities. And when I was in college, my brother introduced me to the idea of wearing earplugs. to sleep. And I was like, what? Earplugs to sleep? He said, yeah, you got to try it.

So I tried and I was like, oh my God, I had the best night's sleep ever. And, and I came back to this space because being, uh, my mom used to refer to me as curious George because I asked a lot of questions. And so as I would buy earplugs over the years, what I saw was a great opportunity to disrupt the marketplace because nothing was happening from a branding, packaging, marketing, sales, promotion perspective of the silly little product.

And what I loved about it from having been through USC's entrepreneur program is what we learned in that program was a viability study. What, what makes sense. When you approach a new business and there are very, there are metrics that you can look at. This one was very unique because number one, I wouldn't have to create my own manufacturing company, which would have cost more than a million dollars to do.

I later found out. Um, the package was lightweight. The category was under the radar, so I wouldn't have to compete with a Gillette, a Procter and Gamble, a Unilever. The product was highly consumable and it was in a sector that I felt people would always need. And, and those needs included hearing protection, water protection, and noise reduction.

So I just started researching this marketplace, started that in April of 1992. And by November 1st, Of that year, I had my first customer. And then for the next 16 years, I just worked my ass off, invested everything back into the business. And I grew Heroes, the brand that I created, which we spelled H E A R.

Like I hear you, OS, um, we grew that and a sister brand called Sleep Pretty in Pink. Um, by 2009, it was the number one, we, we had the number one and number two best selling foam earplugs in the retail space with multi decade relationships or coming up on multi decade relationships with Walmart, Target.

Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, Kroger, Albertson's, Whole Foods, Guitar Center. We sold them on tours. Fantastic business, Wes. It was so much fun. I was making a lot of money. Um, it, the category managers at, at the retailers, they only wanted to see me for 30 minutes a year. So as long as I delivered on, on their purchase orders, they 12 months.

So it was great. And then the economy corrected in 2009. And that necessitated my taking a very close look at the business because essentially the heroes enterprise at that point was just a glorified distributor of somebody else's earplugs. Now they were made exclusive for me and they were distinct, but I would never have access if I stayed with that relationship with cost reductions or access to innovation.

So I looked at it and I wrote an article about it, which was called Double Down or Die. And that was about coming to the decision of. Do I go down the path of building a manufacturing facility, which had a tremendous amount of risk associated with it, or do I stay as a glorified distributor of 3M earplugs and watch my baby die?

So I took the road less traveled. I took my save pennies and I built a manufacturing facility. Ultimately, in Mexico, with 125 full time employees, uh, the machine was capable of producing 120 million earplugs a year. And I kept trucking forward and in late 2018, I had the good fortune to successfully exit the business, stayed on with a billion dollar platform company for a couple of years.

And that kind of brings us up to where we are today with DAP Ventures and other things that I'm working on.

Wes: Wow. There's a lot, there's a lot in there. I want to go back to your mid twenties and yeah, I'm thinking you go the college route. Your brother, your brother gives you some earplugs and I'm thinking back to like, was there nobody in the marketplace? Like what led you out of all the things out there, right?

You're coming from music, you're doing adult babysitting, consulting ish in the music business, you know, cause I would imagine that this, this market is probably under 10, under 5. Like it's a, it's, it's a very one off niche thing that you started to pursue. Like what, what, what drove that, right? Versus, you know, you went to college to go the traditional route.

Doug Pick: You know, I believe in life. We get these things that I call little whispers. They're those things that sometimes they're not on the surface. They're kind of under the surface. And I just developed a passion based on research. So you know, the more you learn about something, the more you scratch, the more you find out.

Whoa. I'm on to something here and I just saw Opportunity West and I saw this vision. Initially, what's interesting is my vision was initially to utilize my relationships that I had from working at A& M Records because at that time there was no internet, right? And the way that we purchased tickets was through record stores, which don't exist today, right?

So I had all these relationships with various record Retailers because of the A& M relationships. And I thought that through those retailers, along with a relationship that I thought I could establish at Ticketmaster, which was, and probably still is the king of selling concert tickets, that I could really corner the market.

And as it turns out, Heroes was the first earplug to be successfully sold at places like Tower Records, if you happen to remember Tower, or Sam Goody Musicland. And how, and, and what was always, what was so great about the business as well is that because water protection, hearing protection, noise reduction really covers so many different needs states that people have, I was able to.

in my early days, sell these products to smaller distributors and retailers that would allow me to establish the footing to be old, to ultimately be able to secure relationships with those national big box retailers. Because A lot of them require proof that you can service their stores and we can get into that as well.

But the other interesting thing about how that business evolved was I started off thinking that I would be in, in the music business still. And I was. And remained, uh, actually until I sold the business, but where the core of the shopper was for heroes and Sleep Pretty in Pink was in the sleep space. So as much as I was selling little pieces of foam and we sold about 20 million pairs a year, sometimes more, um, I was in sleep.

So I became an expert in that space because the average consumer, and today it is a global epidemic, um, people have difficulty sleeping. And if you don't sleep well, that's just a primal need, just like food and water, that if you don't get a healthy dose of it, Your life is going to be somewhat difficult.

So I really enjoyed becoming an expert in that space. At one point, um, Heroes was a sponsor, sponsor of the Washington DC based National Sleep Foundation. And, and I was fully immersed in that space and it, and it was really, it was rewarding because people didn't know it, but, but I read all of the emails that would come into the company.

And it was the coolest thing to receive notes from women and men that said, your hero's earplugs saved my marriage. I can now sleep with my husband again. I can now sleep with my wife again, or I can sleep because those, let's say that lived in New York City, hearing sirens was common at two in the morning, four in the morning.

So people needed Hearing protection for that. So it was just a great business and, and it was really, I, I believe it was kind of God sent to me.

Wes: So you're in your mid twenties. You mentioned something about like building a manufacturing facility back then and the cost. So you had to make a decision to like, how did you, so you've got this idea. And then you've got to take it to the next step. I mean, is this, are these made overseas or like, what was your next step to like, okay, I've got to fulfill now my, my idea.

How did you go about doing that?

Doug Pick: Yeah, that's a great question. So bear in mind, the business at that point was, um, 17 years old. Um, it had had an incredible trajectory upwards. We were a national leader and my mindset when the economy corrected was how can I help? My retailers with access to innovation and perhaps cost reductions because at Walmart, their vendors are known as vendor partners.

And I really, I looked at all my customers as like family. So whatever I could do to help my customers and their customers. I'm there to do it. So, um, in the earplug space and, and you and those listening to this, um, podcast may find it remarkable, but making little pieces of foam is one of the most difficult things to do. Now, I didn't know that even though I had bought hundreds of millions of foam earplugs from 3M and Honeywell, um, I actually was invited to 3M's Corporate headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota by their business unit manager, a guy responsible for 3 billion in sales. And when I went to the factory, I'll never forget sitting in the boardroom of the factory and I was like, okay, guys, let's go see the factory.

And, and everyone at the table, there are about nine people in the room. They all looked at each other, totally perplexed. Like, what's this guy talking about? And I was like, let's go. I want to see how earplugs are made. They wouldn't let me get within 500 feet of the manufacturing facility. And that was, that is to this day, um, that is a common practice across earplug manufacturing companies.

And you might ask why that is. And it's because every manufacturing facility is built from scratch. Every machine is different. And if I was to make a guess today, Wes, I would, I would guess that there's maybe only five to seven people in the world that know how to do it well. And part of my journey was that the first person I selected that I was introduced to, which I couldn't vet because all engineers that were in the space were under non competes, NDAs.

And I couldn't exactly call up at 3M and say, Hey, I just wonder if you might tell me how you do what you do. That wasn't going to happen. So I literally walked into this direction for my company with knowing nothing. And what I'll tell you in full transparency is I got my head handed to me. I had invested a million and a half dollars.

Um, into the manufacturing facility and after I made that investment, that, that was about a year and a half into it, I came to the very sobering moment that the engineer that I had counted on didn't know what he was doing. And so here I was cost rising in purchasing earplugs, um, and I've invested a million and a half bucks.

into this new company that I'm trying to get off the ground. The competition has gotten fierce. The retailers, a lot of them have moved to store brand and, uh, no joke, this grown man was brought to tears over what to do, but I persevered and I was able to find someone who actually did know what to do and I was able to figure it out.

To get to that other side of creating that state of the art manufacturing facility that I spoke of earlier. So, um, truly I didn't know what I didn't know. And as it turns out, one of my biggest man, uh, my competitors at the time, coincidentally went down that path as I did, because they came to the same conclusion as I did in 2009.

But they gave up. And as it turns out, in 2009, we both went down that path, and yet in 2018, nine years later, because I had persevered and they gave up, I took away 70 percent of their business in one year because I had the power of the manufacturing facility.

Wes: Bring up a good point. So as an entrepreneur, you have a vision, you're shifting directions in your company. You're going down this manufacturer path. And you can't just pluck out of these companies as you suggested, 3M. So you hire somebody, you delegate, right? You always hear in the entrepreneurial world, delegate what you don't know, hire people that are smarter than you.

So here you did that, right? Or at least you thought you did. Like you've got your engineer that's going to go in and do this. Like at what point did you realize like, Uh oh, I got to call an audible or Yeah. What was that indicator and how did you find that? Right. Cause you've invested a ton of money. You said yourself, you weren't really sure, like you're kind of learning as you go and he's got all the answers, but he's not doing the right job.

How did you discover that? How'd you come?

Doug Pick: You know what, um, if I'm being honest with you and myself, I knew early on, very, very early on that he wasn't the right fit for me. And, and in that time, um, you know, you have to understand my business was leading up to those moments. Mine was a completely outsourced company. So for the first 17, 18, 19 years of the company, I outsourced everything.

So I had no employees, no overhead, and we were utilizing the services of the mentally and physically handicapped to assemble our goods. And it was a great relationship. When we shifted into this new direction, you asked, when did I know? Well, you know, I talked about that little whisper, the little whisper was like scratching my head when I asked this engineer who was referred to me.

And by the way, I had no other choice. If I was to go down this path, this was the only guy that I found. So part of it was, I was told he was the guy, I couldn't vet him. And the other part of it was. I had to believe he was the guy because the evidence was right in front of me. And the first piece of evidence that I would tell you was that I said, I'd like to see a budget for the buildout of the machine. He never, he never supplied that. And there were many instances where he just dropped the ball. And I continued to really fool myself until it just got to a point where I'm just like, This guy is not going to hack it and he's not going to get me to the promised land. And so I had to, I had to find somebody else.

And through the graces of LinkedIn and LinkedIn has saved my ass many times with finding people that I otherwise have, could not have found, I met somebody who was a real pro. Just an incredible engineer and knew how to tackle the manufacturing on polyurethane foam.

Wes: Yeah. No, that's great. And it's interesting that, you know, you found that individual on LinkedIn too. So obviously you kind of learned what you dealt with and what you could overcome hiring this new individual over here. So, so fast forward. So you mentioned as a 2018, you, you ended up selling that business.

Did you sell a hundred percent of that business, a portion, or

Doug Pick: Yeah. I sold the whole thing. I, um, uh, was able to meet a CEO of a safety company. Very savvy guy. Great guy. Love the guy. Um, we, we had just a great. Kind of common ground for what we wanted to accomplish in business. And he had a 250 million business that, um, he received an investment from a 16 billion private equity company.

We had been talking prior to that private equity company engaging. Uh, and buying into his company and mine was the first of, uh, nine purchases that accelerated that business from 250, pardon me, 250 million in sales to 1 billion in about 18 months. So I worked in that company and learned a lot. Um, really learned I'm, I'm a true entrepreneur that loves to just follow my passions and my dreams.

And, um, that, that said I grew my 26 year old company post acquisition. I grew the sales 50 percent and led the company in gross margin contribution and annual sales growth. So that was cool and rewarding.

Wes: so you'd mentioned earlier on, you know, you, you a hundred percent outsourced. Sounds like you would agree, you know, the, the, um, who you mentioned is putting together your product and packaging that like, it sounds like you built a great relationship there. So like what, you know, you've built this very successful company.

You went down this manufacturing path. Like what prompted you as an entrepreneur to say, all right, I think it's time. You know, I think it's time to sell this company. You said 26 years, like that's a legacy. Sounds like you've got this, this market cornered, but you're like, hey, um, um, I think that's, uh, it's an interesting concept for entrepreneurs at some point.

Was it to like be Dun Dun and play golf and, Do all these fun things or is your passion more, Hey, you had desires to start something else or what, what, what drove that?

Doug Pick: Part of it was necessity, Wes, if I'm being honest, the marketplace in retail had shifted, so where the profitability as a brand owner in retail, when I first started was fabulous and again, leading up until 2008, 2009, when the economy corrected, the retailers. Discovered something very quickly and it was like a ubiquitous discovery that they, that they all came to very quick, which was prior to that store brand was kind of an afterthought.

And then they looked at the economics of it and they looked at the traffic flow. And I believe that the retailers recognize number one, they own the traffic. So as much as people are loyal to brands like Tide Detergent, Coca Cola, Budweiser Beer, Crest Toothpaste. That customer is entering the stores and that customer is primarily driven to visit Walmart and Target and Walgreens and CVS.

So they said to themselves, I believe, you know, we're, we're giving up profitability to these brands when there's a very unique formula that we can pursue. And what that formula revolved around was they're being able to, um, go to vendors that manufacture, let's say, uh, in the case of, I'll never forget Planters Peanuts.

Um, I used to see, you know, 20 at Walgreens of Planters Peanuts. And one day I walked in and I see this. Brand called nice, nice peanuts and planters is gone. You can imagine what a sizable business planters had within those wall green doors and they were just wiped out. So the way that the formula played out for the retailers. And, and how it worked and it ultimately made it to my category as well. Um, and I turned the lemons into lemonade because I had the manufacturing that I can uh, speak to if you'd like. But what happens in store brand is the retailers tend to put their categories where the store brand is used, they put it up to bid.

So let's say for example, I'm just going to make up a silly example. There's a six ounce package of salted peanuts. And, Walgreens normally pays 1. 50 for Planter's 6 ounce peanuts. Well, they put out to bid, Hey vendors of peanuts, quality peanuts, We have a 6 ounce package of Planter's peanuts we would like to replicate.

What's your cost? And the fun begins. So, first they see a bid of 1. 47. Vendor number 2 comes in at 1. 45. Vendor 3 is 1. 41. Vendor 1 comes back and comes in at 1. 35, and you get what's happening. So ultimately, they arrive at a cost, and then 12 months later, after they have this relationship, remember, the packaging is their brand.

So what they can do is if let's assume that they arrived at a final cost for that year one bid of 1. 21 for that six ounce package of salted peanuts. In year two, vendor three that didn't win the business might come back with a bid of 1. 15. Now, Walgreens just picked up incremental profits and they still have a quality product in their package.

So that's kind of how store brand in my experience worked. So, um, What happened was, my market had shifted, um, the profitability had been reduced, the costs of managing, operating, and self funding, because I funded the whole thing, um, the manufacturing facility, while recognizing that the earplug market space from a global standpoint is dominated by three companies.

It's an, it's a recognized oligopoly that's dominated by 3M, Honeywell, and another company. Metrics and, and my little, uh, budget, my ability to fund it just was never going to be able to compete. So I reasoned, well, if I joined up with this 250 million company growing to a billion and I could afford to do new things, I'm all in on that.

And, and it, and by the way, it was time because I was 50 years old. Um, I had done the same thing for, uh, 26 years and I felt professionally as though I was a fish. In a droplet of a pond, and I wanted to know what it would be like to work in, in businesses that had bigger market sizes because, uh, the retail market for earplugs is very, very small, very small,

Wes: So in that, so is that always been the retail space or did that example sort of get more aggressive towards the end of, you know, when you sold your business,

Doug Pick: um, in terms of how store brand came

Wes: yeah, just like that dollar 50, they're shopping and around and now they're introducing brands. Like, was that something that didn't exist, but then, you know, 2014. It started to show its face or

Doug Pick: Yeah, like really around 20, for my category, it, it, it hit in 2010. I was unscathed until 2010. And, um, what I could tell you is. The cost of our branded product versus what store brand product went for, you're, you're looking at a 50 percent haircut on revenue. So it was, it was substantial and it just became unfun quite honestly, like I still love the business of earplugs.

If I didn't have a non compete, um, it would be fun to jump back in because I still have a lot of great ideas for it. That said, the mechanics around the business, retail, Amazon, direct to consumer, cost of freight, the challenges of just distribution and, and profit erosion is not fun to me. Like I like. Big sales, big profits, and moving a lot of volume.

And, and one of those components got kind of pulled in my space and that's profit.

Wes: do you see with your example, right? Cause I, from my perspective with earplugs or like, I'm thinking around the register at like a Walgreens or just like lip balm or simple things. But do you see this going for lack of better terms, like upstream to other products, like keyboards? And I mean, maybe it's even happening.

Like I pretty much buy everything on Amazon. Cause I don't like going to the store, but. You know, laptops to, you know, I'm kind of looking around my office here, you know, picture frames, you know, is that, is that starting to, to happen?

Doug Pick: In terms of the, um, the, well, let me just say this. Retailers are business people. They are looking for what we call high rings. So for example, at Costco, Costco would love to see rings on average, bare minimum around 20 bucks. That that's like an ideal ring. And you know, if you go to your local supermarket today, um, going down the aisle, as you check out, it's called the gum rack.

And the gum rack is where you get gum and candy and all that stuff. And Wes, isn't it crazy? Like we used to buy Tic Tac containers for 50 cents. Now they're five and six bucks. Like, what happened to that impulse buy? Impulse buys now are five bucks. So in regards to the product assortment, wherever retailers can maximize profitability, and they should, they try to get.

And that's why, like, look, look at gift cards. Gift cards do not take up very much space, but think about the revenue and profit that those things generate. And that's why they always get favorable store location because they are producers of terrific revenue and probably some, some outstanding profit.

Wes: I went to the gas station the other day. I never go inside, but I had to go inside and I bought a pack of gum that like fits in your cup holder. It was like 4. 97. I could not believe it. But what do you do? I bought it. I mean, what am I going to do?

Doug Pick: Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. Like I think. I mean, not to get in the weeds on this, but I think I just bought a pack of Tic Tacs and they were, I don't know, three bucks. It's just for me. And I feel like the old guy in the room saying it, it's just like, what happened to the 25 cent pack of gum? What happened to the 25 cent Hershey bar?

You know, it's, uh, you know, it's inflation and it's just the cost increase, but that's, that's the gum rack.

Wes: So that whisper for you, right? Did a lot of great things. You, you, you saw an opportunity, you grew the company, you timed an exit perfectly. So then like, talk about the day you like leave the company or you're no longer. In the earplug business, right? You've been doing this for 26 years. Like what does that next year look like for you?

I mean, are you, you know, at the time, are you in California at the time? I know you're in Vegas now, but so are you like playing golf at Pelican Hill and everything's great? Like what, what does that look like for you?

Doug Pick: Well, you know, again, in full transparency, there are exits and, and several of my EO friends have had them where they are. Life on the beach. Let me count the granules of sand next to my right foot. Ha ha ha. Um, let me, uh, let me count my helicopters. I, I do have a couple of friends who have had those fantastic exits and I'm so happy for them.

Mine wasn't one of those, Wes. It was a good exit. And it has led me to some, um, comfortable nights of sleep, I would say, but, um, worked in, in the company that bought mine for two years post acquisition. And then at the, in the 28th year of being in the earplug business, I was like, okay, I just got to do something new.

And as it turns out. Um, I went in a completely opposite direction. I joined a dear friend of mine who is a tech genius, uh, in a Metaverse company. I made an investment into a Metaverse company, which you may remember it was red hot, uh, especially during the pandemic. And I thought, wow, this is going to be my new career.

And as fast as it caught fire, uh, it also, uh, fizzled out that fast as well. So then I decided, well, Um, tech is not for me and one of the learnings that I had in, in that time of being in the Metaverse company was that I didn't have the, the comfort and power of the network that knew me in CPG, consumer packaged goods.

So I ha I started another company, which is called DAP Ventures and DAP Ventures was set up to help me to explore. The build out of another, what I call delightfully disruptive product. And I don't know how delightfully disruptive came into my world. I think it might be something that Jeff Bezos talked about at one point or someone of that caliber. But what I love in business, and it doesn't matter whether it's in, uh, ear plugs. Uh, or services or other goods. I love to delight the customer and disrupt the competition. Innovation is what I thrive on. And, and it really gets me up in the morning. So, um, uh, DAP Ventures led me to the formation of my new agency, which is, which is actually coming out January, 2024, and it's simply called Delightfully Disruptive.

And, um, the goal of that company is to help emerging CPG brands to leverage my really three decades of expertise, experience, and a loyal network to help them scale, de risk, diversify, and build enterprise value. And if they want to have. In exit, I can help with that too because I've been through the due diligence process.

I know how to prepare companies for those successful acquisition moments. So that's, that's what's coming up in the new year for me.

Wes: Yeah. You seem like you'd be a great like shark tank investor for somebody in the CPG space. Now, are you actively looking for, like, would you make capital investments in that company to go along for the ride? Or are you looking more just to consult and give your advice and not jump back into the weeds?

Doug Pick: I'm actually looking at a couple of different opportunities right now. You know, I think you're right after being in the space for 28 years. I can tell, I think I can tell what is going to lead to success in CPG. Um, and so yes, I will be offering consulting services, mentorship, um, as well as if the needs are there and the opportunity is made available to make investments into companies as well that are emerging and have high profitability.

Wes: Like, what is, I'm curious around, what is, so, you know, if an entrepreneur has an idea, is there like a specific stage where it makes sense for you to get involved? Or are you like, hey, pitch me the idea, or I like it to be at You know, sort of this point in the process.

Doug Pick: Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I can jump in it at conception. I can jump, jump in at the idea phase. And that I found is really fun because what I've realized in the last six months is I love to build. I love to look at a whiteboard and have an idea and say, how do we fill in this board? How do we make it?

How do we make it compelling? So I can get involved in those phases. However, my time is extremely valuable. So unless the idea was the greatest thing since sliced bread, most likely, um, I'm more inclined to engage, uh, post revenue where there is some funding. There is, there is some, um, uh, product market fit and, and there's demonstratable. Interest from the consumer that shows this person or this company is onto something unique.

Wes: No, that's interesting. You know, I, there's individuals out there, there's companies, there's, you know, taking a product, getting it to the next level, you have a wealth of experience and knowledge in your space. Now, if somebody that is listening, how do they get in contact with you? I think you're going to, you might say LinkedIn.

I think you like LinkedIn a little bit, but how can people

Doug Pick: is great.

Wes: with you?

Doug Pick: Yeah. I mean, uh, in today, there are three ways. One is LinkedIn. So just look me up. Um, the other way is through dougpick. com and that is live now. And then what's coming out in January is delightfullydisruptive. com. And for those that are interested, um, one of the things I, I did for delightfully disruptive is I.

I produced, I wrote and produced a 25 minute video that takes brands through my roadmap. So they can see the steps that they might go through with me if they were to partner up and if there was a fit.

Wes: Awesome. That sounds like a, that sounds like a great offer. They can find that on your website.

Doug Pick: Um, Delightfully Disruptive, and I'll probably have a link to it on DougPig. com. And so I've got Delightfully Disruptive will have actually three levels to it. There will be a done for you opportunity. So let's say Wes, you had this great idea, but you're busy with your own business. You could hire me. to take this thing from concept literally to exit.

If, if we were to work that out, then there's the done with you. So you have a product, but you need help getting to the next level. And, and I believe that there is a contingent of CPG emerging e commerce brands that have had success on Amazon, DTC, and. In order to grow that real enterprise value, they really need traditional retail.

That's where I come in. And then for those that are just in, God, I have this really cool idea, but I don't know where to start. Um, I'm actually starting to write the do it yourself video course for Delightfully on how to be delightfully disruptive. So that will be coming in the next few months. And hopefully I can, I can provide value and, and, and help people in, in ways that they otherwise don't know, because that's kind of one of my thesis is that a lot of people just don't know what they don't know and, and there are some painful mistakes that people can make.

Um, and if I, if I can add some help to have them sidestep pitfalls, I love doing that.

Wes: Yeah, well, it sounds to me, you're, you're definitely the man qualified for the job to sell over 500 million earplugs. I have to grab some. My wife, I snore and she hates it. And I'm sick of getting hit in the face from her every night. So I'm going to go grab some for sure. But Doug, thank you so much again for coming on.

I really appreciate it.

Doug Pick: Thank you, Wes. It's been a pleasure.

Wes: And thanks to the audience. If you learn something today or laugh, tell somebody about the podcast. Thank you, Doug. Uh, this has been an all exciting episode of Entrepreneur Intel. We'll catch you next time. Thanks.