Live from Amazon Accelerate With The Happy Start’s Jerry Tsai & Phillip Guerra

Summary

Podcast Summary: The CPG Guys – Live from Amazon Accelerate with The Happy Start’s Jerry Tsai & Phillip Guerra

Episode Date: December 29, 2025
Hosts: Sri Rajagopalan (CRO & Co-Founder, Think Blue Consulting)
Guests: Jerry Tsai & Phillip Guerra, Co-Founders, The Happy Start
Location: Amazon Accelerate, Seattle

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Episode Overview

In this live episode from Amazon Accelerate 2025, Sri Rajagopalan sits down with Jerry Tsai and Phillip Guerra, the co-founders of The Happy Start, a mission-driven baby products brand. They discuss their founder journey, how their backgrounds influenced their brand, navigating Amazon as a sales platform, and the lessons learned as early-stage entrepreneurs in the CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) space. The episode is packed with insights about scaling as Amazon sellers, building consumer loyalty, the value of expert input in product development, and the importance of giving back.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Birth of The Happy Start

Timestamps: 02:24–03:53

• Origin Story: Jerry and Phillip, long-time friends from the University of Cincinnati, were inspired during a double date as they discussed the overwhelming choices faced by new parents.

  “As a new dad, first time parent, I...was a little overwhelmed just watching her get orders off Amazon and whatnot. I’m like, wait, what do we need this for?” — Phillip Guerra (03:15)

• Personal Mission: Their journey as new dads motivated them to simplify baby products selection and design.

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2. From Idea to Market

Timestamps: 04:45–06:56

• Speed to Launch: Six months from conception to launching on Amazon.
• Networking Value: Attending events like Amazon Accelerate offers key insights and networking with other sellers, even from unrelated categories.
• Learning Curve: Interactions with other sellers about scaling challenges are invaluable.

  “You’re not necessarily meeting sellers in your category, but they’re very likely going through the same scaling issues that we’ve had.” — Phillip (05:09)

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3. Product Development and Sourcing

Timestamps: 07:07–09:53

• Early Steps: Immediately filed their LLC after the initial idea and began sourcing in Asia.
• Expert Input: Pediatric occupational therapist Maria joined the team—found serendipitously at a gym—to ensure products support developmental milestones.

  “She would tell you...if you put this product out there...you’re going to put a great product out there that’s actually going to help babies.” — Jerry Tsai (08:32)

• Design Process: Researching existing products, reading customer feedback, and focusing on vision and cognitive development for infants.

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4. Iterating for Inclusion and Feedback

Timestamps: 10:00–11:15

• Unique Value: Incorporated color science into product design (e.g., black/white/red contrast for infant vision), responding to feedback from hospitals (allowing use in NICUs).
• Listening to Experts: Added low-contrast options to cater to pre-term babies based on hospital feedback.

  “We believe we’re the only ones in the market doing it...low contrast, which is nothing crazy. But now the vision card product can be used both in the NICUs and outside of the hospital.” — Phillip (11:02)

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5. Social Impact: The Give Back Pledge

Timestamps: 11:15–12:44

• Commitment: The Happy Start donates at least 10% of all units sold annually to clinics and hospitals.
• For-Profit Model: Balances profitability with commitment to impact.

  “If we sell a thousand units, we’re going to give at least 100.” — Jerry (11:32)

• Message to Industry: Encourages big CPG companies to adopt similar give-back models.

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6. Product Safety and Affordability

Timestamps: 14:02–16:20

• Safety Focus: All products are independently safety-tested before launch.

  “...before we even knew Amazon was gonna require...we had them tested down.” — Phillip (16:20)

• Affordability: Target entry price was $9.99 for accessibility.

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7. Growth, Assortment, and Brand Strategy

Timestamps: 14:36–15:59

• Range: Three main products, currently over 20 SKUs, with plans to eventually reach over 100, leveraging variations and consumer feedback.
• Recognition: Awarded by The Bump (board book) and Baby Innovation Awards (vision cards).

  “Two of the three products so far are award winning, which that makes us feel pretty good.” — Phillip (16:02)

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8. Operations: Navigating Amazon

Timestamps: 17:28–19:47, 21:03–23:45

• Why Amazon: Chosen for its logistics, reach, and seller support, to balance scaling without overshadowing family life.

  “Our number one jobs are husband and father...Can we build and grow and scale a company using primarily, if not almost exclusively, Amazon?” — Jerry (17:39)

• Challenges: Dealing with listing compliance and keyword triggers (e.g., “germ-free” being flagged as a pesticide).

  “That was a little frustrating. But that was probably the only downside recently we’ve had.” — Phillip (20:36)

• Brand Registry: Prioritized for IP protection; Vine reviews jump-started the review process; Project Zero for counterfeit protection.

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9. Marketing & Customer Experience

Timestamps: 21:48–22:55

• Bootstrapped Marketing: Did their own product photography (using their kids!) and initially managed their own listings and ads.
• Key Advice: Start hands-on to build understanding, then outsource ad and listing management once a baseline is established.

  “You need to have a baseline. You need to know how to do it yourself.” — Phillip (21:51)

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10. Scaling, Agencies, and Looking Ahead

Timestamps: 24:25–26:18

• Agency Support: Now work with an agency for ads and listing optimization; stress the importance of understanding tools before outsourcing.
• Vision: Potential expansion into specialty retail (gift shops, airports).

  “There are some potential in-store things. Like, we know that there’s certain opportunities that are a little bit different than traditional retail. For example, zoo gift shops...” — Jerry (26:25)

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11. Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Timestamps: 27:53–29:17

• Start Small & Focused: No need to launch everywhere at once; scale methodically.
• Strategic Pricing: Would start with higher pricing for better margins if starting over.
• Embrace Opportunities: Be engaged and open to opportunities Amazon or others provide.

  “Start as small as you can and then slowly scale at your own pace. Don’t get outside your lane. Just stay focused.” — Phillip (27:53) “Be strategic about your price point...And then I think saying yes when Amazon or anyone else who is kind of part of the ecosystem says, ‘hey, I’d like to learn more.’” — Jerry (28:41)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Big CPGs Giving Back:

  “I think they could probably give 10% back too.” — Phillip (12:39)

• Serendipitous Partnership:

  “She’s like, yeah, I’m an occupational therapist...I have a fellowship at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. She was like the very first fellow to do that...and so then we start working together on this.” — Jerry (08:18)

• Keeping Family First:

  “Our number one jobs are husband and father...Are we able to create a business that is going to scale and grow but not take over our lives...” — Jerry (17:39)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:24] – Brand origin and founder backgrounds
• [04:45] – Value of Amazon Accelerate and seller networking
• [07:07] – Product creation process and expert involvement
• [11:15] – The Happy Start’s Give Back program
• [14:36] – Current and planned product assortment
• [16:20] – Product safety practices
• [17:28] – Choosing Amazon as sales platform
• [22:13] – Bootstrapping the marketing process
• [24:39] – Tools and agency usage
• [26:21] – Expansion vision (retail, specialty shops)
• [27:53] – Final advice for new sellers

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Summary Takeaways

• Jerry and Phillip's journey is anchored in family values and a mission to simplify early parenting.
• Their product design is evidence-based and iteratively improved through expert and hospital feedback.
• Commitment to social impact (10% give back) is central to their brand’s identity.
• Amazon is both a scaling platform and a source of challenges; brand registry and knowledge of seller tools are crucial.
• Starting small, remaining focused, and gradually scaling are repeatedly emphasized as key success factors.
• Their story illustrates how purpose-driven, agile brands can find their place and voice in the modern CPG landscape.

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Useful for listeners that want:

• Inspiration from emerging CPG founders
• Insights into Amazon-first brand growth
• Lessons in building purpose-driven, family-oriented businesses
• Tactical advice on launching, scaling, and protecting an ecommerce brand

Transcript

[A]

Hey, it's PVSB with the CPG Guys. You know, we talk a lot about this on the show. For CPG marketers today, it's not just about reaching consumers. It's about connecting with them meaningfully at every touch point. Here's the reality. Shopping isn't just an event anymore. It's woven into daily life. And with consumers spending over 90 minutes streaming content, daily entertainment has become central to the shopping journey. Amazon ads unifies commerce, entertainment and open Internet to reach 86% of US households, turning trillions of consumer signals into powerful results both on and beyond Amazon. So visit advertising.Amazon.com to learn more. Welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast. Your host, Sree Rajagopalan and Peter Vs. Bond explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in an increasingly digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys.

[B]

Hello and welcome to this episode of the CPG Guys Podcast. This is one of several episodes I shot while up in Seattle. I was invited to Amazon accelerate 2025. Of course, Sri, your co host and also CRO and co founder of Think Blue Consulting, your trusted partner in your omnichannel development journey. Get in touch with me at shreenkblueconsulting Co. Please do listen to my older daughter's music at www.rearaj.com and follow laraj, my younger daughter as a member of the world's fastest growing global girls group, Cat's Eye now winner of an MTV vma. Excited to be here and recording live today with our guests or guest unable to join me today is my co host and co founder of pvsp who also moonlights his head of industry and client engagement at Flywheel, the E commerce acceleration division of Omnicom. Make sure you're subscribing to our podcast on our preferred listening platform where you can get our latest episodes and even go back to consume some of the 530plus episodes we've already published. You know that the CPT guys have a great relationship with Amazon, what we consider one of the best e commerce retailers we have ever seen. So we're excited that we were invited to Amazon Accelerator. And here we go. Please enjoy this episode.

[C]

Jerry and Philip, welcome to the CPG Guys. How are you both doing?

[D]

Thank you. Thanks for having us.

[E]

Doing well, Doing great, thanks.

[C]

Busy conference. Thanks for making time gentlemen, thanks for having us. Let me kick it right off both of you. What was the aha moment that led you both to start the happy start? And how did your personal background shape your vision for this brand?

[E]

So Philip and I have Known each other from college. And we were out.

[C]

Where'd you guys go to school?

[E]

University of Cincinnati. Go back.

[C]

I noticed the branding. Well done. Where's the branding?

[D]

Oh, sorry. Yeah, I. I left my hat over in the. In the book bag there.

[C]

Gotcha going.

[E]

Good thing this is a podcast.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So Cincy.

[E]

Yeah, we went to school.

[C]

Bearcats.

[D]

Bearcats.

[C]

I'm a hokie. That's why.

[E]

I know. Okay, well. But we've known each other since college. We were out on a double date with our wives, and over dinner, we were talking about all these different baby products that Philip and his wife were looking at because they were about to have their first child.

[C]

So wipes, that kind of stuff.

[D]

I mean, as a new dad, first time parent, I. Watching my wife buy all this stuff, I was a little overwhelmed just watching her get orders off Amazon and whatnot. I'm like, wait, what do we need this for?

[C]

Why?

[D]

You know, and so I. I just was totally overwhelmed as a dad. And I brought Jerry along because I'm like, we need to. We need to figure this out and focus in on a few products that are. Develop.

[C]

Are you primarily focused on the dad mission then? Making dads do what they should have been doing 500 years ago?

[D]

I wouldn't say we're primarily focused on dads, but we're. We're two dads. Brand new parents. Jerry just had his first kid, you know, a year now.

[C]

She'll be nine months.

[D]

Yeah, nine months. So we're, as. We're going through this Amazon journey together, we're also, you know, going through the parenting journey as well.

[C]

Son. Daughter.

[D]

I have a son.

[C]

Son.

[E]

And I have a daughter.

[C]

And tell me they're using happy Straw.

[D]

They are. You'll see on our website and even on Amazon.

[C]

Oh, they're models.

[D]

Yeah, they were. My son was one of the first just because he was using the products right away. And that was part of the. The whole test.

[C]

You guys go on a double date. Next thing you know, the happy start is born. When was this?

[D]

April of 23.

[E]

23, yes.

[C]

So it's been about two years and change.

[E]

Yes.

[D]

It took us about six months to go from inception to launching on Amazon, which is two years to this.

[C]

Two years have been selling on Amazon. That's why you're here. What brings you to the show? What are you looking forward to? What are the big takeaways you're hoping to get?

[E]

We really have enjoyed doing the connecting with other sellers element of it. Last year, we were here in person. The year before that we did it virtually. The difference is incredible. When you're actually here in person and you're able to just kind of impromptu, have a conversation with someone you're standing next to, and before you know it, you learn something new.

[C]

Who are those? Someone you're standing next to? Other sellers?

[D]

Yeah. Like, we met. I met a guy that does umbrellas. Last night, I met a guy that does fishing poles. Luggage. Like, you're not necessarily meeting sellers in your category, but they're very likely going through the same scaling issues that we've had.

[C]

You know, I'm lucky. And CPG guys is lucky. We get to do this every year and we get to talk to founders like you, because the big bad world of retail in CPG doesn't understand that you can sell umbrellas and actually make a pretty good living. You could curate baby products. I wish senior merchants of the largest retailers embraced it like Amazon has. It's a big deal. Yeah. Are there, like, tools and services you guys are more curious about here? Is this more about networking and human connections?

[D]

It's definitely networking. Meeting other sellers, figuring out where they are in their journey. We're still very early. Two years. A lot of the sellers we met last night, they're 5, 10, 20 years in. So we hope to be there one day.

[C]

Yeah, I talked to one today. Is 14 good for that person? Very well scaled.

[D]

Yeah. And so that's where we're at. We've launched a few products. We want to start scaling. We had specific meetings with Amazon today, just with the seller support account, health, just making sure we're gonna file some patents and trademarks, and we're just, you know, going through those. Yeah, going through that whole process.

[E]

But in regards to the tools, though, like you pointed out, there's also so many different things that we've learned by coming to this conference, whether it be about buying reviews or the logistics between, you know, AWD and FBA and, you know, Amazon Global logistics. Now, there's just so many different ways that if we lean, we're able to get like, almost like seems like insider baseball, because.

[C]

So this is the mothership of insider baseball. That's what these two days.

[E]

Yeah, it really is.

[C]

Where are you guys coming in from?

[D]

Columbus, Ohio.

[C]

So you kicked us off in Columbus, Ohio. Everything couldn't have been smooth sailing. You got to fundraise, you got to put the money down. You know, the idea is awesome until you actually have to create the product. So take us to the story. How did the product get created? What were the early pitfalls?

[D]

Sure. We left dinner that night. I went home and filed the. What were you doing? We were. We were out at. What was the place called? Or what were we doing?

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Were you guys already out of college? What was going on?

[D]

Oh, we were out of college. Yeah. This was two. Two and a half years ago. So we. But we filed the llc, started on the website, but then simultaneously we were looking for suppliers. We ended up in Asia a lot of.

[C]

So you had a product vision, you knew what you wanted.

[D]

And Jerry may want to tell that he met a friend of ours.

[A]

Really?

[D]

A friend of his from the gym. I. Maria, who's one of our pediatric experts.

[E]

Pediatric experts that help us essentially do.

[C]

The science behind pediatric expert. At the gym?

[E]

Yeah, I was at the gym. We were working out.

[C]

What's your favorite workout?

[E]

Well, at the time, I was doing CrossFit. I've gotten a little older now. My body can't handle the workouts quite as well.

[C]

They tell me, the old man that I am. Strength training is the only way, really. So I'm doing isolation training.

[E]

I mean, it makes sense because after.

[C]

A certain point, literally tonight, it's like chest and shoulders.

[D]

Really? You do lightweight, low or low?

[A]

Higher.

[C]

Higher weight, lower reps. That's.

[D]

I'm doing lower weight, higher reps. Where I can.

[C]

Gotcha. So you meet at the gym.

[E]

We meet at the gym. And, you know, just talking about life. And she's like, yeah, I'm a occupational therapist. I focus in on pediatrics. I have a fellowship at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus. She was like the very first fellow to do that.

[B]

And.

[E]

And she's like. And so then we start working together on this bracket. I'm like, okay, you should be. You have all the expertise to know is this sounded in science. Does it actually help babies with their developmental milestones? And so she did and kind of signed off on all that part of it to say, yeah, if you put this product out there to what Philip was saying, you're going to put a great product out there that's actually going to help babies.

[C]

How did the sourcing happen after that?

[D]

Yeah, so the first two products were. It's a board book that stands on its own and then some vision cards that are bounded by a ring.

[C]

Who designed all this board book? Like, I mean, you could look at. And sketched it out.

[D]

Like, how did that. Yeah, you can look at competitors. So we looked all over the Internet, Alibaba. Like, there's other websites for traveling home. Yeah, we didn't actually have to go over. We hey, send us some samples. We.

[C]

This is the beauty of the Internet.

[D]

The Internet these days, you can literally do almost anything. Yeah.

[C]

How much of that is Instagram? Social media versus websites?

[D]

Ah, that's a good question.

[E]

Personally, Philip and I aren't very big on the social medias.

[D]

Yeah, I'm going the other way.

[E]

We're leaning more towards the websites and seeing Amazon. I mean, Amazon was a great resource for us just to see what's in the market.

[A]

Right.

[E]

We could kind of see what was already out there, what people were not so happy about with the products that were in the market already and say, well, we can do a little better. We just look at the feedback and say, well, people would like it to go this direction, these type of things.

[C]

And we haven't stuck to the script at all, by the way, that we designed for you both.

[D]

No, no, no.

[C]

We're just having fun.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

And I. Going back to the two products, though, we decided via Maria, vision and cognitive were the two.

[C]

So that's your two.

[D]

So we said, look, vision and cognitive. Let's, let's focus on those two developmental, you know, or that developmental thing that your baby, when you're born, all of us are born, you can only see gray, black and white. When you're born for the first three months, and around three months or so, you start to see red. So that's why in our products, you'll see red sprinkled in and then green is the second color.

[C]

Always a method behind them.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

And that came from Maria. We added yellow just because it's part of our brand and the, in the logo. But all of our products are either high contrast and then via, you know, we can talk about our donation pledge. But some of the feedback we received, some from the big hospitals across the country, they said, hey, we want to use these in the NICUs. Like I was a preterm baby. I was born before 37 weeks. You can't use high contrast with preterm babies. It's too stimulating. So we added to our vision cards, for example, off that feedback, and we believe we're the only ones in the market doing it. Low contrast, which is nothing crazy. But now the vision card product can be used Both in the NICUs and outside of the hospital.

[C]

So giving back and uplifting others is an important part of life now. So tell us about the give back pledge.

[E]

Yeah, yeah. So 10 or more of the units we sell each year, we pledge to give back to hospitals, clinics.

[C]

In kind.

[E]

In kind.

[C]

10%.

[D]

Yeah. So if we sell a thousand Units. We're going to give at least 100. At least 100.

[C]

Big number.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

And we hope to continue that. It's been.

[C]

And you're a for profit business.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Believe it or not. So the books, let's be honest, like the books are a little cheaper to source than the, the vision card. So if you had to ask, well, what, what products are you donating so important these days?

[C]

They are. Education is getting to be more of a challenge worldwide.

[D]

And I, I think the book itself, it's one that's accordion style, they call it. And you, you set it on the floor and if Maria was here, she would tell you. But you lay your kid down and they do tummy time on their stomach. It builds your muscles, your neck and developmentally it's very important, I guess during those first six to 12 months. And our product will help not only vision and cognitive, but it's built for tummy time is what.

[C]

Let's send a message to other CPG companies, startup founders, you guys are hungry. You're giving back 10% of your units.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

What message do you want to sell to the big behemoths I come from like PepsiCo, Johnson and Johnson, Revlon Generals. What's your message to them?

[D]

I think they could probably give 10% back too.

[C]

Imagine if they did.

[D]

That'd be crazy.

[C]

I hope people listen up.

[D]

Yeah, but. And it's worked for us. Yeah, we, we, that's where we come from. We both volunteer our time. I worked at a dog shelter and I volunteer.

[C]

You got pets?

[D]

I do. I. My dog have dogs. My dog, I have one dog, Maple. She, we just got her certified for a pet therapy dog this year. So we go to the hospitals when I, when I can, and it's just another way to dog.

[E]

Yeah, I have one dog as well.

[C]

What are the names?

[E]

Maple and then my dog's Kaya.

[C]

I have three cats, Zane, Zora and Zumi, and they're immortalized on my hand.

[B]

I love that.

[D]

That's nice.

[C]

And we just got a puppy called Bala, which is of course the love of the house since he's only 8 months old.

[D]

How you doing with that? With the awesome.

[C]

Loving it every single day.

[D]

What kind of dog?

[C]

It's a multi stair, you know, easy to carry with us, that kind of thing. But people don't realize what a big deal having a pet is. You know, I used to hate pets.

[D]

Sure.

[C]

Never wanted one. It's been four years since we've had this combination of pets. I tell people that if you don't have a pet. You miss something out in life. So that said, let's jump back into the pediatric occupational therapist that coached you all into this so much. What role does expert input play in your product design and validation? And then how do you back that expert vision with quality and price points?

[D]

Yeah, I think like the price obviously matters. You're not gonna move units if the price isn't right. And we.

[C]

Plus affordability.

[D]

Right. And from the beginning, we've affordable, accessible, which.

[C]

What's the opening price point?

[D]

9999 for the board book.

[C]

And what's the Most expensive?

[D]

The three pack of the board books.

[E]

$24.99.

[D]

Yeah, we were looking. We. It's not that we did it the wrong way, but when we first started on Amazon, we thought 2, 3 products under 10, 90 or 9.99 would be the affordability aspect.

[C]

And what's your vision for the assortment? How many SKUs do you want to have?

[D]

I think we could get over. We're at 20 plus now. So I would imagine in the next.

[C]

Small shop then, if you've got 20 SKUs.

[D]

Yeah, but we only have three main products. But they're variations of.

[C]

No, I understand.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So skus.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. I meant, like, if you go back to your question on number of SKUs, I would say over 100 here in the next two years would be good.

[E]

What we're finding is that with starting at a price point that's so low for our original products, adding more products because we now have brand loyalty, brand awareness, and they know what we stand for, why we're doing the work we are, that will then allow us to scale the company to have more impact ultimately.

[C]

And what attributes do you think are helping you secure that loyalty from your customers? Where they want to come back and buy that second SKU from you?

[D]

Yeah. I think one is the giving back. People love that we're a small business.

[C]

Making the world a better place.

[D]

Right? Yeah. And we're a small business. Two guys, two dads running this. American owned.

[E]

Yeah. We also recently were acknowledged with a couple of awards. So the bump awarded us for our board book product, saying we were.

[C]

Congratulations.

[D]

Thank you. Yeah. That was July.

[C]

How special was that?

[D]

Oh, it was a big one.

[E]

Wild. So cool.

[D]

We didn't expect it either. That was just totally random. Someone nominated us and then we got to it.

[E]

Yeah, that's great. And then the Baby Innovation Awards also acknowledged our vision cards as a Premier product in 2020.

[C]

Congratulations again.

[D]

Yeah. So two of the three done.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Two of the three products so far are award winning, which that makes us feel pretty good.

[C]

I mean since you're in the business of child and pediatric kind of product, how have you handled product safety? Durability, inclusivity is a big deal. How do you think about all those things in your design and manufacturing?

[D]

I mean with us both having children, I wouldn't want my wife or me buying a product that I knew wasn't safe. So before we even knew Amazon was gonna require. If you sell toys.

[C]

And so Amazon has certain safety.

[D]

Yeah, absolutely. I would imagine all the retail or e commerce platforms have them because you know, liability wise. But yeah, we had them tested down. I think that lab's in Georgia, outside of Atlanta. So that's where we go and get them all tested.

[C]

Where do you source everything from?

[D]

Right now it's mostly China or Asia.

[C]

And so are the tariffs impacting you? We're still in the good talk phase of tariffs.

[D]

Yeah, we were smart enough I guess. October ish. We placed a pretty big that we're.

[C]

So you're holding on to where your warehousing inventory.

[D]

Yeah, a lot of it's in Amazon but we weren't sure who was going to win. So we're like, well you know, we're safe either way and that's held us for now. But if you look at China like and not to get into tariffs too much but they keep punting it. They keep. It's 90 day. 90 day extension seem to be a.

[C]

Date when that's going to actually happen?

[D]

I don't know.

[C]

So far at least.

[D]

Yeah, it's a little frustrating that part. But you know, and we'll see what happens in the next couple months.

[C]

So let's go back to why Amazon? Why'd you start selling on Amazon? You could have gone to other places. You could have been D2C. You could have tried retail in store first.

[E]

Right.

[C]

What was the anchor that drove you there?

[E]

So we did consider a lot of those other options. Right. And trying to figure out which one's the right match for us. But intentionally at the very beginning Philip and I were like we our number one jobs are husband and father and so are we able to create a business that is going to scale and grow but not take over our lives or we can't be great husbands and great fathers. And so with Amazon they have the enormous marketplace logistical superiority over any other really kind of E marketplace place. And then they have great support for new sellers. And so with that combination we're like Amazon's the right place for us. To start. And we kind of made a commitment, like a thesis, if you will. It's like, can we build and grow and scale a company using primarily, if not almost exclusively, Amazon?

[C]

It's interesting to hear you say that because every startup founder that I meet, if it's a male, I always ask them, are you being a good dad if they have a child? Yeah, number one. My own number one mission, my kids are 25 and 20 is to be a good dad and then to be a good spouse after that. So sounds like you guys are being good dads. Is that fair to say?

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

I mean, you can build up.

[C]

Wife are going to listen to this podcast.

[D]

Yes, they will. They will bless our wives too. I was going to say, like, without their support either, like you can't. I wouldn't be able to do what I do.

[E]

And they actually provide pretty good feedback for us too.

[D]

Yeah, their moms. They.

[E]

Their moms.

[C]

You got a natural feedback mechanism.

[D]

Sure. Like we're not going to launch a product without running them through the wives either.

[C]

Yeah, kind of makes sense. So what are some of the upsides and downsides of selling on the Amazon sellers platform? I can't imagine. It's all roses and daisies.

[D]

Yeah, I'll take the downside. Just there's. We had some problem with one of our listings went down months ago. And it just, you know, you have variations of the same product, but one of them got taken down, then the others were still up. So I was getting a little frustrated. I'm like, well, can you give me a better reason? It was just a product compliance, but we had all the documents. It was just back end. Something was getting tripped up, but we figured that out. That can get a little frustrating sometimes. But I feel like every seller is going to go through that at least once. And it's good to know how to handle those cases.

[C]

Start a case when that happens. Is it easy to get relisted again and be back in business? Do you lose your reviews all the.

[D]

We didn't lose any reviews. No, they just. They took it down and then there was like a couple days later it went back up, but then they would get. It just kept getting taken down. It was. I think what happened was. And we figured it out. Somebody. Rogue complainer on the back end or front end. One of the keywords was germ free. Because we can. Our. Our books can be wiped down. They're used in hospitals, so they're easy to wipe. They're not waterproof, but they're water resistant. And so if you put germ free. I think something on the back end of Amazon flagged it as a pesticide product.

[C]

I gotcha.

[D]

And I'm telling Amazon support, I'm like, we don't sell pesticides, we're selling children's products. So that was a little frustrating. But that was probably the only downside recently we've had.

[E]

But some of the upsides with our experience too is even though we're a smaller seller, the team is at Amazon. Once they know what your story is all about, they're really helpful in trying to share your story story with, you know, the entire ecosystem of buyers out there. And so we've had the privilege of being able to do fun things like this podcast and, you know, be on seller partners and on the website, on the support small website. So that's been a really fun journey as well.

[C]

Talk to me about logistics. So you're shipping from Ohio home base?

[E]

Well, yeah, we, yeah, home base is Ohio. We get everything shipped from China essentially over to us. We store some of it in, in our Ohio complex, if you will. And then from there we really rely on Amazon. So we're sending it into the Amazon.

[C]

Are you a national at this point?

[D]

We've been using.

[C]

Customers are everywhere. Anybody and everybody.

[D]

We had somebody from Guam the other day order a book.

[C]

So Guam is considered an international.

[D]

I don't know, but I'm saying like as far.

[C]

But Amazon handles that for you.

[A]

Yes.

[D]

We did not have you just send.

[E]

It into Amazon and they kind of take it from there, make sure it gets to the proper distribution center.

[C]

And how involved are you guys in actually driving customer sales?

[A]

Right.

[C]

The actual product listing and managing it.

[D]

Actively in the beginning. And I would recommend this to any, anyone, you know, trying to do this for the first time or, you know, thinking about starting an E commerce business themselves. You need to have a baseline. You need to know how to do it yourself. So learn the ads, learn the listing optimizations. You know, do your own images. Figure all that out.

[C]

When you say do your own images, you mean the professional shots.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Or like I took my kid, for example.

[C]

What's some advice you can give? So go ahead.

[D]

Yeah, like I took Noah, my son. We, we used the product, took photos. I edited it the best I could. We got it up on Amazon. We, we did all of. We bootstrapped it pretty.

[E]

Yeah, we really did. But in regards to advice for that, the lifestyle photos seem to go the.

[D]

Furthest in regards to people want to.

[E]

See what the product does.

[C]

Is that an advice you'd give Other budding startup founders.

[D]

Yeah, like seeing it in use. Yeah, they want to see the. You got to show the product itself.

[E]

And how it works.

[D]

But how it works, how it's used, where it's used. And then. Yeah, we got that baseline and then we hired. We outsource all of that. Someone's managing our ads and someone, you know, the same company's managing both the ads and the listing optimization.

[C]

Tell our audience about the support and services you get from Amazon tools that you use actively. How important is Data Insights? Yeah, all of this stuff.

[D]

So the first thing I would recommend, like, we have intellectual property with the copyrights, trademarks, and soon to be patents. So brand registry is huge. Project zero. We just sold.

[C]

You guys completed your brand registry.

[D]

Yeah, that's very important to us. We're building a brand. If you think about it that way, you can sell whatever, but your brand, at least to us, is everything. So you have to protect it. Amazon provides that tool equity. Yeah. Correct. That's a great way to put it. And then I would say vine reviews has been really big for us.

[C]

That's how you get started.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Because when you first hit 100, what do you shoot for?

[E]

You get 30.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

For each product.

[D]

It was like 200. You get. Yeah, yeah. And it's at 30 or 40, whatever it is. And it's. It'll jump start your whole. Yep.

[C]

And these are people actually using the product?

[D]

Yeah, they're verified. Amazon handles that. They're not just. And we've had actually not. No fault of our own, but we've had reviews taken down. And I'm laughing, I shouldn't be, but somebody made a negative review, one star. And it wasn't necessarily like you could tell it was just a fake review. And we didn't, like, we flagged it, but I think that's happened two or three times now. But Amazon took care of it even before we knew about the one, the latest one. That was months and months ago. But like little things like that, it's like, okay, this was done by a bad actor. We didn't have to really sweat about that. We just stayed focused on that.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah, that's awesome. Gentlemen. So you're here at Accelerate. If I ask you to pick and choose the number one reason you're here, you already said it's networking in humans. Let's go to the tools and services side. What would that be? Is there one thing you came here.

[D]

To look for personally? I was. Yeah. We had a seller cafe appointment this morning. What is the seller cafe Appointment, the seller cafe.

[C]

They.

[D]

I think it's up where. Yeah, it's one more fifth floor upstairs. They have all these Amazon employees there and the different areas, they're literally there.

[C]

To help you correct, troubleshoot, diagnose.

[E]

One on one meeting.

[C]

Any seller can walk.

[D]

They pull up your account. Pretty cool on their end. You can't see what they get to look at, but they have your, I'm sure the whole dashboard. And then you ask them questions on if it's ads. They'll help you with just that. We focused on our account health today and then we asked more about the.

[C]

How important is ads to you guys?

[E]

Pretty critical in us trying to scale and grow.

[C]

So you place your own ads. You do it with the help of Amazon Ads Ads team. How does that work?

[E]

We have an agency.

[D]

The agency does it.

[E]

Yeah, we did do it originally.

[C]

Like a boutique agency.

[D]

Correct. They're out of town.

[C]

Do they also manage seller Central for you? Yes.

[D]

Now we, again, I would recommend to anyone we have that baseline, like we know how to get into Amazon Seller central work on all of that. We can question, well, hey, why did you do it this way versus you have to hold them accountable. Otherwise, you know, they're just.

[E]

Yeah, you just never know the agencies that Amazon typically vets for you and puts into the.

[C]

So Amazon was even able to recommend an agency for you.

[E]

There's a certain process they go through in order to even be in that ecosystem. But knowing the strategy and all that is different than executing on the logistics. So we have a certain strategy we're going to deploy on our company. Right. We have a vision of where we're going to go, where we'll be in five years, 10 years, et cetera, et cetera.

[C]

Tell our audience about the vision. Where you want to be in five years.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

You see yourself in store or you feel that's like the yesterday's way.

[E]

No, no, there, there are some potential in store things. Like we, we know that there's certain opportunities that are a little bit different than traditional retail. Like for example, zoo gift shops is one that we're very much looking into right now because it's kind of special.

[C]

You got the captive audience.

[E]

Yeah, absolutely. And, and you know, products that are a little bit more niche, like what we have, especially if it's. We can theme them. We, we have different themes when it comes to different books. We can do one around safaris and zoos and all that. No, there's, there's certain specialties.

[C]

I have nephews and nieces who are very Young, like one years, four years. Airport is the favorite place. I like airports.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

As I'm traveling to go see, literally walking into a WH Smith or whatever it is.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

I often find there isn't stuff for kids, and I'm like, why the heck don't like.

[D]

That's a great point.

[C]

And it's not just me. My generation, we just don't think of it. And they're like rats. I need a couple gifts.

[E]

Right. Because I'm about to go visit them. Yeah.

[C]

And you know what? We're buying chocolate instead.

[D]

I was gonna say you're buying food or.

[C]

So hopeful y' all are.

[E]

Getting into airports is a great idea.

[C]

That would be a great one. But let's wrap this up by asking you both if you were to give advice. You know, you guys have literally bootstrapped this from scratch, and you're a success story. You have 20 SKUs. You hear at Amazon accelerate for a reason. They put you on a podcast because obviously they think highly of you. What's your advice to other budding sellers who also want to bootstrap? Get going. Because like I said right up top, the big bad world of retail thinks this is impossible, and you've disproved it. What's your advice?

[D]

I would say you can do it. It is possible. Start small. Don't. You don't have to be in 100 stores right away. Just either pick a platform like we did or go in store. Just start. Start as small as you can and then slowly scale at your own pace. Don't. Don't get outside your lane. Just stay focused. Because we had the. We had the opportunity to go to Canada, Mexico, and it's like, that all sounds great. And one day we may be there, because it literally is just a click of a button with Amazon. But we're just. We're solely focused on the US we.

[C]

Want to get it right here, correct.

[D]

Yeah. And then we can continue to scale and then scale.

[E]

But then for me, I would say, like, it's specific to Amazon. Be strategic about your price point where you start with that first product. We're making it work. But in hindsight, we're like, well, we would have started 10 to $15 higher.

[C]

Learning is everything.

[E]

Learning is everything. It would have made a little bit more margin for us to grow in a different way. We're still doing okay in Garcia growth. And then I think saying yes when Amazon or anyone else who is kind of part of the ecosystem says, hey, I'm interested in learning more, or I'd like to learn more about you or feature you in some way and saying.

[C]

Yes to know that, raise your hand and say be present and I'm ready.

[E]

To share about what we do is just huge. We've done that from the very onset and it's just led to some really neat opportunities for us to share about what we do and why we do.

[D]

It and give back to your community when you can.

[C]

I think it's our mission in life is to uplift others, right? So, gentlemen, this is a busy week.

[B]

For both of you.

[C]

The next couple of days you're going to be busy, busy, busy in a good way. But thank you so much for taking a half hour and joining me on the CPG Guys in a busy week.

[D]

Thanks for having us.

[C]

Pleasure having both of you.

[D]

Thank you.

[E]

Thanks.

[C]

That's a wrap of this episode of the CPG Guys.

[B]

Wow. What a terrific conversation here at Amazon Accelerate 2025. Let me thank our audience for listening to this wonderful episode. Do leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite listening platform. It informs us how we're doing as well as if we're having the right conversations. To all of you, thank you from Peter and me. You make this show happen to all our sponsors, whether this podcast or parties at events, hosted dinners, having us speak at panels. Thank you, thank you, thank you. The show doesn't exist without you. That's a wrap. We look forward to speaking with you on the next episode of the CPG Guys.

[A]

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