In short
This was my third try at a business with 2 friends, still improving my skills in e-commerce. We white-labelled iPhone cases and sold them using social media. But I left the project after a few months because I couldn't keep up with school and my job at the same time.
Why ?
A few months before starting this project, I went to a café with a friend, and she really liked a phone case called XOUXOU, I found the product funny, and told her that I could find the same thing at a wholesaler for a few euros. She didn’t believe me, so I made some research and found it for pretty cheap. I decided to build a similar business in France before XOUXOU decided to expand into other European countries. I thought it could work because many people seemed to love the product, and the margins seemed good.
Challenges
- Getting traction quickly without a huge marketing budget is hard. We tried sending free stuff to influencers.
- It's not always easy doing business with friends.
Notes
- I left the project due to a burnout, and when I gave it some thought after a few months, I just shouldn’t have started a project I wasn’t willing to fully commit to. Moreover, I had short term goals with this business, and it did not solve a real painful problem for the customer.
- I think that to launch a company fast, you do not necessarily need to have many co-founders. Going to market quickly to get customer feedback is the most important thing.
Here is what Minimo looked like:
