You're welcome and good luck!!

Yes, I am self taught conversant mandarin speaker and reader and typer (I can't hand-write).

You don't need to learn Chinese to do business there. You just need to have the balls to go.

This was 12 years ago so I don't remember all the details sorry! That included packaging, but I don't remember if it included logistics. You are correct re: main market and where I was living.

I could've done that for much much less than $20k. It could've been $1-2k.

Watch this video: it could change yoru life https://www.tiktok.com/@molsonexplains/video/7178703908506783018?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Our first container was 20,000 pieces at around $1 a piece (this was Kikbo, our first product, not Brain Flakes) if memory serves. So I used it all, but I was able to convert that into more money by selling those products. As I said, I kept my expenses crazy low!

Out of respect for the mod, I won't share the private conversation, but I did repost my AmA here after they gave me some direction wrt the rules!

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/zrr4kt/im_molson_hart_the_inventor_of_the_educational/

While I think our quality could be better (I'm a Brain Flakes perfectionist), we have 4.8/5 stars on Amazon which is pretty good for a plastic toy on Amazon.

Try our product. If it breaks, report that on reddit or e-mail support at viahart dot com and we'll give you a refund without a return.

That's cool! If he can play Lego and meccanno he can definitely use Brain FLakes too!

Thank you that means a lot to me, I'll share with our team!!

I won $16,000 in a chess tournament, had a little bit of money saved up from a job, and I lived in China (very inexpensive) and with my mom (free!).

So I didn't need any.

I appealed it!

Thank you!!

Yeah, seriously, go!

It's one of my favorite things about ATX!

Amazon just launched. They might get better over time no?

I think Brain Flakes is available on Amazon and Catch down under!

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Brain Flakes is an interlocking plastic disc toy that teaches kids spatial thinking while giving parents some much needed peace.

Watch our awesome video produced by my team!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko0Xf07HaVY

Haha, no because these guys do such an awesome job in Pease Park in Austin: https://www.facebook.com/groups/866344480633533

I think that there is an element of that, but, it's money just money printing that's causing inflation, not corporate greed nor supply chain.

None because we have a patent and a strong brand. I would also KILL THEM on social media :)

Seriously, unless they played unfairly, Brain Flakes would crush Amazon Basics Building Discs.

I agree that 3rd party is free market research (better than free, they make a ton of money from it) for Amazon.

I've written a long blogpost about how to use IP to protect your business here: https://medium.com/swlh/starting-a-physical-product-company-youre-gonna-need-a-lawyer-13b2eecebc9f

lol

I know what you mean; that's why we do these 3-d GIF renders: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0531/2633/2567/products/BrainFlakesDrevnarTheDragonProductListingGIF_110x110@2x.gif?v=1669408936

Sorry, no coupons today, but if it's any consolation I am constantly told our prices are too low: https://www.amazon.com/VIAHART-Interlocking-Educational-Alternative-Childrens/dp/B00N7CD4BK/

That's a really good question!

From what I've seen in my life, I think that who you are is a combination of nature and nurture. Educational toys are the nurture component. You're never going to be good at something if you don't practice it and educational products like Brain Flakes enable you to practice spatial thinking, visual pattern matching, counting etc. so I'm pretty sure it makes kids smarter.

1. Got fired for writing fan fiction about the executives at the company I was working for
2. Realized that I wasn't going to do well in corporate America, so I decided to become an entrepreneur
3. The first idea I had was to take a product that was really popular in China, jianzi, and sell it in the US. I thought I'd be a billionaire in a year. That product was a failure.
4. Other products after it succeeded which created a nice little business.
5. One day I was on Taobao, which is China's biggest e-commerce marketplace and I realized that I could sort all the products by their sales. I then thought that I could identify the products which sold very well in China, but not in the US for potential launches in the USA. Interlocking plastic discs were one of those products.
6. Interlocking plastic discs sold okay in the US under a bunch of names, but like 100x better in China and I couldn't figure out why, so I decided to try. I came up with a good name: BRAIN FLAKES® and good packaging and just launched.
7. They launched at Toy Fair 2014 and were a failure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnOO94NVAAU (possibly because everyone knew that interlocking plastic discs had been around and there was no novelty to them besides our name and packaging)
8. I said "fuck it" and launched them on Amazon and they were an instant success!
9. Over time I and my growing team would read reviews and constantly improve the product. We've got all this amazing educational content, some of which is free on our website brainflakes.com (of course it comes in the booklet too)
10. Very importantly after continuously trying to improve the product, we got a patent of which I am VERY PROUD! Our discs connect better than everyone else's because of this.
11. Our goal is to be the number #1 building toy brand in the world and I increasingly think it's possible.

Because I was surprised by the sudden rise in wages caused by government money printing.

We had been paying $10/hour for temporary labor and it jumped up suddenly to $14/hour and at that time, we couldn't get people for $14 either. That was surprising to me. It wasn't an accusation of laziness.

We probably pay $12-$14/hour now for temporary unskilled labor right now, but it's been a while. All our full-time employees in the warehouse earn significantly more than that.

You can read a ton about the local economics of where we are here: https://twitter.com/Molson_Hart/status/1449573538294378499

People don't understand how much farther your money goes in rural Texas than it does in a city like San Francisco or New York.

The early years were extremely rough. At one point, a factory in China that I was dying to work with told me they didn't want to work with me and I contemplated suicide. In retrospect that seems really dumb, but at the time, it felt like a disaster.

So the answer to your question is: it's really hard to start a business without venture capital because everyone looks down on you and when you don't get immediate sales success it's really depressing, but you have to KEEP FIGHTING!

The easiest part of building a business? The few times I got lucky.

You're going to get lucky if you keep doing something for a really long time. The key is to recognize when you've gotten lucky and then to commit effort and energy to taking advantage of that moment, but in general, building a business is never easy. It's constant headaches and stress.

The biggest upside is the attention it brings to our brands, like Brain Flakes.

The main goal is to drive eyeballs, which drive sales.

I also like this type of thing. It doesn't bother me when people make fun of me or call me stupid or whatever. It's fun for me :)

There is nothing wrong with not taking a job that you think doesn't pay enough.