Brumate's Zero-Employee Scale
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Brumate scaled to $20M+ in revenue without full-time employees by leveraging contractors and agencies to sell drinkware products (koozies, tumblers, water bottles). This demonstrates how to build a highly profitable business with minimal overhead and maximum flexibility.
Key Points:
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Revenue Growth:
- 2016: Launch year, minimal revenue
- 2017: ~$100k-1M revenue
- 2018: Nearly $20M revenue
- 2019: $25M+ revenue
- 2020: $100M revenue
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Zero-Employee Model:
- Used only agencies and contractors
- No full-time employees until after $20M in revenue
- Leveraged external expertise instead of building internal teams
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Product Strategy:
- Started with a simple product (koozie)
- Expanded to related products:
- Tumblers
- Water bottles
- Hot/cold drink containers
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Business Model Benefits:
- Minimal overhead costs
- High flexibility
- Ability to scale quickly
- Lower operational complexity
This model shows how a simple product category can be turned into a massive business while maintaining lean operations through outsourcing and contractors.
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.