Fleshlight's Unlikely Origins
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A story about how a former SWAT officer built the Fleshlight company into a $100M+ business with an unexpected side venture.
"Let me tell you about this guy Steve Schubin. He's one of 13 kids, played college football, went into the army, then became a police officer with SWAT in LA. He retired from SWAT in his 30s because it didn't pay well and decided to start a business. His wife was a pro tennis player.
They invested over $2 million and he believed in it so much he ramped up production to 1,200 units a day before selling anything because he was convinced the world would love it. Turns out he was right - Fleshlight now does about $100 million in revenue annually, definitely above $50 million. They have over 100 employees and dominate the male sex toy market.
They opened manufacturing facilities in Austin, Spain, and somewhere in Asia. Here's the best part - with their excess manufacturing capacity, they make prosthetics for elephants who have had their legs blown off from mines in Southeast Asia. They're now the top maker of elephant prosthetics in Southeast Asia as their side business.
Interesting connection - Steve Schubin's son is Aubrey Marcus, the founder of Onnit. And Fleshlight was actually Joe Rogan's first sponsor that Aubrey secured."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.