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Mimi & Co Making $100K in a Day From Diapers

Craig Ruckus

I love this story as it’s a clear blueprint on how to start a successful company without a bunch of money.

Aami Mills first child was only 2.5kg when he was born and the disposable diapers the hospital used were leaking.

“Just use two” was the advice she received.

That didn’t make sense to her. Heck, even without using double diapers a child goes through 6,000 diapers in their lifetime. That’s a lot of waste.

6,000 diapers

While laying in bed at the hospital the lightbulb went off. Aami got home and started sewing. She put a ton of buttons on the front of a diaper, which allowed her to adjust the fit. And… It didn’t leak!

She made more and started selling them on Facebook marketplace. She was sewing and selling 15 a day and knew she was onto something.

She went to Alibaba to find a manufacturer and ordered 300 of their ready stocked units to test the quality and their communication. Aami quickly sold those and with her first $1,000 placed her first custom order.

The factory had a minimum order quantity of 100 per design, but she convinced them to let her do five designs and only 30 diapers in each. She promised she would come back.

When they arrived she posted on her Facebook page… and they sold out that night. Her flywheel had started. Mimi & Co was born.

She quickly increased her orders and placed an order three times the size of her first. She asked for photos of the product to share with her community. Her heart stopped. All the diaper and button colors were mismatched. The factory had messed up the design file. They wouldn’t budge. If she didn’t pay for them they’d sell them to someone else, with her logo on them.

She decided to be open and told the community about the issue. They didn’t care. They bought them anyway. They didn’t care about the color. They wanted a product to solve a problem.

Now the diapers are definitely different with all the snaps, but they also have an innovative Poonami Protector that protects from blowouts.

And the economics? They sell for $38.99 for one diaper and the average family buys 24. They cost $16.65 landed.

The revenue is growing nicely too.

2021 - $125K (net $50k)

2022 - $305K (net $110k)

2023 - $550K was the projection from her latest interview

Best part. 79% of sales are from organic traffic. Aami started posting about the diapers and her business 18 months ago on TikTok and now has over 15 million views.

She has also started doing paid ads. And they’re crushing. She spent $30K over 10 months and had an 11x return on ad spend. She said she didn’t know what she was doing so didn’t spend more and started looking for help.

I love this. A scrappy entrepreneur finds a better way to do something. Tests the market. Reinvests in the company and creates a flywheel. And she did it with the sustainability long term trend as a tailwind for the foreseeable future.

Aami was recently on Shark Tank Australia, which no doubt led to her $100K revenue day. She sold 30% of the business for $100K, but did get two experts to join her in the adventure.

Mimi & Co. Tech Stack:

Sources:

Business Ideas of the Week

Now this one’s a bit different than normal. But when I start hearing of products talked about in mom groups my ears perk up. This is free advertising for someone.

And last weekend I hear “TruHeight”. Supplements to help your kids grow. Now it’s controversial to some, but I wish I knew how many millions they were making! And fun fact, it looks like one of the founders used to make $80k a month selling smelling salts.

Now there was AG1 that went DTC. Then Bloom took the product and put it in stores and in Amazon. Lesson there.

And now for the rest!

Business Success Stories of the Week

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