#127 Rasmus Barfred from TheMagic5: Business Lessons From A Shark Tank Brand

Hey Budai Nation,

We’ve got a celebrity joining us for this episode of The Ecom Show!

You may recognize Rasmus Barfred and his company TheMagic5 from the huge splash they created with their show-stealing speech on the popular business reality show, Shark Tank. Their pitch threw all the sharks into a feeding frenzy, and the co-founders walked out of the tank with a deal from Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec.

He’s here with us today to share the business lessons that helped him land the deal, and of course to get candid about his experience in and beyond the tank.

Join Rasmus Barfred and our founder/podcast host Daniel Budai to learn more about:

✅ The Story Behind TheMagic5

✅ How To Prepare For Shark Tank

✅ TheMagic5’s Marketing Strategy

Let’s dive right in!

The Story Behind TheMagic5

TheMagic5 is a made-to-measure swimming eyewear brand co-founded by Bo, Niklas, and Rasmus. All three of them were swimmers that struggled with finding a good long-lasting pair of swimming goggles. United by their passion to solve this issue, the three of them set out to create a brand new technology that completely revolutionized this space.

TheMagic5 uses optimal fitting technology to map a customer's face and then creates a completely customized pair of swimming goggles. Their technology is so precise and advanced that they have a return rate of only 1%.

TheMagic5 was founded back in 2017, and soon after Rasmus moved to the USA to expand their business further. Magic5 has spent a lot of time researching and developing its product. They started out by surveying over 450 athletes, swimmers, and triathletes to understand the core issues that people faced with swimming goggles. They then purchased all the different kinds of swimming goggles available in the market to understand the design aspect better. After their primary research, they were clear that they needed a customized product to solve this issue properly, and hence put all their resources into developing the technology they needed. And all that research paid off well for them as TheMagic5 has successfully sold over 100,000 pairs of their personalized swimwear, and has two wonderful sharks as investors to help them scale their business to newer heights.

How To Prepare For Shark Tank

It’s impossible to watch Shark Tank without visualizing how you would go about pitching your business to the Sharks. Rasmus got candid about his experience on and beyond the tank. Here are some of the highlights from this episode:

Why did you decide to take your business to Shark Tank for an investment?

There were two things that drove Rasmus and his co-founders to pitch on Shark Tank. The first was awareness:

“Our customer base is everyone from top Olympic athletes, to regular swimmers that swim once a week. We wanted to reach that audience through a mass consumer television show that was super interesting.”

The second was the need for a strategic partner. The optimal technology TheMagic5 uses can be adapted to work with other products as well, but expanding to new verticals requires some strategic guidance which drove Rasmus and his partners to approach the tank. They were particularly interested in getting a deal with either Mark Cuban or Robert Herjavec for their expertise in technology, and they were fortunate enough to walk out of the tank with investments from both the sharks.

How did you prepare for the tank?

The key thing is to know your numbers. If you don’t know your numbers the sharks will see right through you. Secondly, have an explanation to justify any questions that may arise after you share your numbers.

Prepare and practice your pitch several times before you go in. Run yourself through all the different scenarios before walking in, and make sure that you discuss how low you’re willing to go during negotiations beforehand. This makes you look more decisive.

Who should go into Shark Tank and do you have any advice for them?

Shark Tank gives you access to an audience of 5 million viewers on primetime US television. All the press, tension, and visibility surrounding your business make Shark Tank the ideal show for several businesses. Especially those that have a consumer product, tangible product, something that's easy to relate to and can be easily bought online. But the tank has also worked great for transactional websites, apps, and vending machines in the past.

The key is to go in if you know your numbers, strengths, and weaknesses. You need to know your business in and out before you go in for a pitch because only the first minute of your time on Shark Tank is uninterrupted, post that the sharks question you on all the aspects of your business, and depending on their interest this can last from anywhere between ten minutes to an hour.

TheMagic5’s Marketing Strategy

TheMagic5’s main focus has been on getting their Facebook, Instagram, and Google PPC ads in order. They focus a lot on SEO and have used their Shark Tank fame to compete for better keywords as well. They’re also very building their social media presence on multiple channels like Pinterest, Tik Tok, Facebook, and Instagram.

Apart from this, they’re exploring how traditional marketing channels like offline advertising and strategic partnerships with swim clubs can help them gain more visibility. Their main goal is to reach the customers while they’re experiencing issues with their current swimming goggles to drive instant conversion, and in order to do so, they need to increase their visibility and awareness.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, make sure to be back here next Thursday for our next episode.

Meanwhile, you can check out some of our previous episodes of The Ecom Show to uncover other interesting e-commerce stories.

Visit TheMagic5 to order your own pair of custom swimming glasses:

https://themagic5.com/

Follow Rasmus Barfred to know more about his journey:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmus-barfred-38a5b636/

Follow Daniel Budai

Daniel’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/budaidaney/

Daniel’s YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtHC2ojO_7mhMHXQ-qZcHQ

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