It takes a special kind of entrepreneur to go into a saturated market. It takes an even more special entrepreneur to dominate that market and come out on top. Josh Elizetxe, also known as Josh Snow, is one of those entrepreneurs. With just $20, he developed an idea that netted him a $100 million-dollar business.
Learning The Power of the Internet Early
Most people realize how powerful the internet is today. Even in its early days, entrepreneurs knew how easy and quick it was to make money using the internet. A 12-year-old Snow was one of those who saw the power underneath the initial draw of the internet.
He quickly taught himself how to build websites; before long, he already had one making a tiny bit of money. But that wasn’t enough for this self-described serial entrepreneur. No, he knew there was a lot more he could do with the internet.
Using The Library to Bolster His Skills
Young Snow understood the power of information and how it could help a business when put to good use. That’s why he spent hours poring over the books at his local library and teaching himself all he could about the power of the internet and what information it could give him.
This data-based approach stuck with him as he understood the basics of internet traffic, how to leverage it, and how it could affect his overall earnings. The icing on the cake? Playing around with his website and watching the traffic numbers grow was a lot of fun. Still, playing as a teenager on the internet was significantly different from running a business.
“Don’t Tell Me The Odds”
When Snow started his teeth whitening business, he knew what he was getting into. The market was already dominated by oral care brands that had established lines and high customer loyalty. Yet he persisted because he knew he could do what they were doing, but better.
The fact is that most startups fail within their first year of operation. If a business survives that first year, it may need to change and revamp as time goes along to remain profitable. No one told Snow all of this; all he had was the knowledge of what he could do and the belief that he could offer a better product.
Going The Extra Mile
The first thing Snow did was look at what the established players were doing and change the game on them. He noticed that many brands dominated the oral care bracket for so long that they were complacent in what they did. This was a market that was ripe for disruption.
He looked into what people wanted in their oral care brand. Teeth whitening was a massive deal at the time, but much of the information surrounding it was murky and misdirected. He decided to look at marketing messaging as one of the things he would do better than his competitors.
Asking The Experts for Help
While a lot of brands claim that experts recommend their product, Snow actually went to talk with the experts to find out what they would suggest for a safe teeth-whitening product. He realized people would come in often to get their teeth whitened, but what if they had an early-warning system to help them know when it was needed?
With this question in mind, Snow took to the design board. He knew about several technologies he could reference to build something unique. The Snow Teeth Whitening system was born by combining Bluetooth connectivity with a unique interactive system.
Setting Goals For Yourself
If Snow had listened to others, he would never have entered the oral care market because everyone was convinced it was too saturated for any real growth. By seeing where growth could happen and making his own decisions about what he could do as a business owner, he showed that even the most saturated markets can be disrupted.
These goals have to be informed by the consumers. One of the most significant reasons startups fail is the lack of demand for their product. Part of a disruptive company’s success comes from making that demand. To do this, Snow leveraged the power of celebrity.
Serving The Visible People First
It’s not the first time influencer marketing has been highlighted as a powerful initiative, but in this case, it took a new brand out of obscurity and into public notice. By offering his product to celebrities first, he built hype and had people whom others listened to talking up his product.
Snow has always been about networking, and he believes for success to happen, networking needs to occur along the way. Yet he never leveraged his networking to fund his work. His approach was to use his networked contacts to learn from. His eagerness to learn brought him the connections he eventually used to get his product out to the public.
Diversifying and Offering The Buyer More
These marketing pushes would be useless if the product were no good. Snow underlines that the product’s viability must be the most crucial thing in the business. If the product is good, you only need people to experience it once. And he went to great lengths to make his product good.
By using LinkedIn and other marketing and networking tools, he connected to professionals in the oral care industry, learned from them, and had them help him design a product that is not only sleek and fancy but also works as it’s described. In a world where so many people see advertising as lies, it’s a pleasant surprise to get a product that actually does what it says it does.
Powering Forward Into New Directions
Snow Teeth Whitening isn’t going anywhere, and the product is already one of the most popular new brands on the market. Snow, however, is switching gears with his public image. He’s pitched and created a show called “Going Public,” discussing new companies looking to enter the public market.
Snow says that he thinks this will offer opportunities to savvy investors and give much-needed financial support to disruptive startups. His advice on leveraging the internet and networking to build a business remains one of the most insightful peeks into the mind of an entrepreneur.
