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198 | Visualizing Your Success and Your Opportunity | with Mike Mayer

Honest Ecommerce
Honest Ecommerce
Episode • Nov 7, 2022 • 22m

Since launching in 2020, Mike and his team have built one of the most exciting names in appliances since the 1950s, when window ACs first hit the mass market. The problem? Manufacturers have barely changed a thing in 70+ years. 

Enter Windmill - the first company to bring "sexy" "convenient" and "air conditioner" together in a sentence - reimagining the next generation of ye olde ACs for today's modern customer with covet-worthy designs, smart (energy-efficient) technology, and an exceptional experience. 

In just a few short years, Mike has scaled his business by more than 5,000%, raised $14M in capital from top VCs all over the world, and inked retail partnerships with big box stores like Walmart, Home Depot, and PC Richard & Son (thanks to a long list of relentless cold calls). 

Next week, Mike and his team will launch a first-of-its-kind program to customers that rewards them for smarter energy use during times of peak heat - potentially curtailing tens of thousands of kW of energy this summer to help prevent blackouts, lower energy bills, and stop the use of dirty power plants. 

This visionary approach to combining hardware and software is the breath of fresh air the AC biz has so desperately needed to clean up its act, and it can't come soon enough - as the EPA projects that the number of 90 degree days in NYC alone could triple in the next 30 years, putting the city's energy grid at major risk.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

  • [00:00] Intro
  • [01:16] Products that Windmill offers
  • [01:35] Having the “entrepreneurial bug” at a young age
  • [03:09] Where the idea of Windmill came from
  • [05:09] The difficulties of air-conditioning in New York
  • [05:38] Looking up to see users of Windmill products
  • [06:21] Getting a factory to work with Windmill
  • [07:58] How long has Windmill worked on their prototype?
  • [08:53] Prototyping wasn’t an easy experience
  • [09:39] Windmill’s go-to-market strategy
  • [11:19] The “SaaS” approach to products
  • [12:20] Sponsor: Electric Eye electriceye.io
  • [12:40] Sponsor: Mesa apps.shopify.com/mesa
  • [13:29] Sponsor: Rewind rewind.com/honestecommerce
  • [14:00] Sponsor: Klaviyo klaviyo.com/honest
  • [14:57] A disaster of a demo
  • [15:46] Windmill’s crazy one week pivot
  • [16:09] How Windmill got its first customers at launch
  • [17:18] Media and PR marketing for Windmill
  • [18:03] PR is an overlooked strategy
  • [18:54] Reflecting on success and looking to the future
  • [20:46] Don't sleep on retail channels
  • [21:38] Where to find Windmill ACs

Resources:

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