How Dylan used customer research to 6x his revenue and become an entrepreneur in three years
“When you focus on the customer, you make a product for them, not yourself. I learned you need to create a minimum viable product that accomplishes a goal or solves a problem for people in order to sell it.”
The founder
Dylan Veilleux is the founder of Tree Free Fire, where he manufactures and sells all-natural portable campfires: tabletop fires that are quiet, easy to use and made for good times.
The challenge
Dylan built brilliant products, but struggled with next steps
Dylan was an MBA student at Thomas college in Waterville, Maine. He was tired of doing part-time jobs and wanted to pursue entrepreneurship. Creativity was his strength, so he had lots of ideas: biofuel made from hemp, a fire emergency guidance light, and a backpack designed to eliminate the hassle of binders and folders, to name a few. He loved to bring his ideas to life, but he didn’t know what to do when none of his products or business ventures took off.
“I always thought it was my fault when the company wasn't growing fast or making enough money to give me a salary,” says Dylan. “You know, I was caught up on the whole YouTube craze of these people saying, ‘Hey, if you get into this business, you'll be able to do this on your own, making $10,000 a month.’”
Dylan started one business where he resold shoes and clothes. Then, he made an aromatherapy pillow using organic tea. Neither of those projects fueled his passion, so he eventually moved on to other ideas.
“I was the person that tried to perfect, perfect, perfect. And, you know, that just doesn't work,” says Dylan. “I didn't really know how to talk to customers, I didn't know how to find customers, and I didn't know where to find what customers were talking about.”
He was also overwhelmed with little tasks like organization, drafting emails, and making plans.
“I was terrible at planning small steps,” remembers Dylan. “I could do the things that are right in front of me and that's about it. Even if I sat down and tried to think of the right small steps, I would oftentimes pick the wrong thing.”
Dylan knew his ideas were good, and believed in himself enough to come up with idea after amazing idea. He just needed a little help figuring out how to bring a product to market in a way that would catch.
“I would be the person that tried to perfect, perfect, perfect. And, you know, that just doesn't work. I didn't really know how to talk to customers, I didn't know how to find customers, and I didn't know where to find what customers were talking about.”
The process
Make a perfect product. Make a product that works and get feedback.
Dylan was introduced to Nick Rimsa, owner and product designer at Tortoise Labs, through a mutual entrepreneur friend. Dylan pitched Nick a few of his business ideas. He had spent years studying hemp and was particularly passionate about hemp biofuel, so they got to work on building hemp biobricks.
When he couldn’t find a manufacturing partner to scale their hemp biobrick business, he pivoted toward a product that would be easier to manufacture: hemp-fueled fire starters. Nick shifted Dylan’s focus from making something perfect to making something they could test with customers.
[Image suggestion: a hemp-fueled fire starter]
“The goal was to make it work. That’s it,” says Dylan. “And then sell it and get some feedback. In general, think lean.”
The first step to building a minimum viable product was research. Dylan familiarized himself with the hemp industry and competitors.
He learned from Nick that he needed to know five things:
The problem he was solving
Who would purchase the product
Why a customer would purchase his product over existing products
How he was going to make it
How much it was going to cost
Then, Nick and Dylan started a checklist of things Dylan needed to do to bring his product to life. He sourced hemp stalks by working on a hemp farm and built a prototype. The next step would be testing the product.
Dylan had a small budget, so he didn’t have time or funding for numerous in-depth customer investigations. Instead, Nick encouraged Dylan to read reviews of profitable competitor products. They used their takeaways from those reviews to guide development for their own products. One of these products was the hemp-fueled tabletop fire pit that became Tree Free Fire.
“We learned to experiment and prototype products that can make lots of money, and we did it with oftentimes less than $100,” says Dylan. “That was a really big deal because we created a cycle of revenue. Nick had the tools to make the scaling process not so scary and a lot more calculated.”
As they built products, Dylan also learned to talk to customers about features, so he could improve his products based on their feedback instead of starting from scratch.
“When you focus on the customer, you make a product for them, not yourself,” says Dylan. “I learned you need to create a minimum viable product that accomplishes a goal or solves a problem for people in order to sell it.”
The small, portable fires that Dylan created sold. After he completed his first successful selling season, they agreed it was time to start aggressively scaling up their operation. When Henry Gilbert, a fellow entrepreneur with expertise in mass market outdoor branding and large wholesale account management, reached out, they knew it made sense to bring him on as a partner. Together, they worked toward adding new products to their store, putting together a long term branding strategy, getting PR, and scaling.
“When you focus on the customer, you make a product for them, not yourself. I learned you need to create a minimum viable product that accomplishes a goal or solves a problem for people in order to sell it.”
The results
“Our revenue is far, far beyond what we ever did before. Things have literally never been better.”
Since adding Henry to the team, Tree Free Fire is doing better than ever.
“It's good to find people that can help you work through the things that you're very unfamiliar with,” says Dylan. “Working in a group, especially with older people, is a massive change. You learn so much about yourself and how to work with others. Having those soft skills in your arsenal completely changes your confidence.”
Dylan still loves brainstorming ideas for new products. Only now, he’s confident about the entire product development process, including customer research.
“I can do the small steps on my own,” he says. “I'm a lot more customer focused and problem focused. I understand that I can work with customers to learn to improve my products. When I test a product, I can recognize patterns and see the next stage.”
Dylan’s putting all that customer research to good use. Tree Free Fire is rapidly growing, they have a loyal customer base, and they’ve nearly boosted their revenue by 6 times in the past year. They aim to boost their revenue 10 times by April of 2022.
“Our revenue is far, far beyond what we ever did before,” says Dylan. “Last year, we did about $20,000 in revenue. And it took us only about nine weeks to get to that same number this year. Things have literally never been better.”
Going forward, they plan to continue taking opportunities that arise within their niche, grow their team even more, and eventually acquire a space.
“By listening to customer feedback, we developed into a sustainable, outdoor patio entertainment company,” says Dylan. "Since we have gained expertise and customer insight throughout our product development system, we now have the ability to grow within the patio, fire, and hemp industry."
Dylan achieved his goal of becoming an entrepreneur, and it’s only the start.
"The skills I have developed through working with my team and Tortoise Labs have shaped my entrepreneurial capabilities. Even though I have grown tremendously, I am still trying to develop my skill sets wherever I am weak." says Dylan. “Just like product development, my personal learning and growth will continuously progress."
“Our revenue is far, far beyond what we ever did before. Last year, we did about $20,000 in revenue. And it took us only about nine weeks to get to that same number this year. We’ve gotten so much press. Things have literally never been better.”
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