His Invention Launched from a Flea Market to The Today Show!

In this episode of the Business Pulse podcast, host Candice Jarrett (founder of XKOVA) interviews Nick Barrett, the inventor of CordBrick, an innovative solution for managing cords. Nick shares his journey from experiencing a common problem with tangled cords (which he calls table top spaghetti) to creating a product that addresses this issue.

He discusses the prototyping process, the challenges of obtaining a patent, and the unpredictable journey of funding his startup. Nick also highlights his go-to-market strategy, which began at flea markets and eventually led to selling on Amazon and recognition on the Today Show.

In this conversation, Nick shares his entrepreneurial journey, detailing the early success of his product during the holiday season, the challenges faced in prototyping and manufacturing, and the importance of customer feedback.

He discusses his decision-making process regarding product design, including color choices and market research, and recounts a memorable encounter with Damon John from Shark Tank. Nick also highlights his philanthropic efforts and mentorship initiatives aimed at helping others in recovery and aspiring entrepreneurs.

For more info about Nick's invention, visit https://cordbrick.com. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Cordbrick and Its Creator
• 2:23 The Aha Moment: From Problem to Invention
• 5:47 Prototyping the Cordbrick: The Evolution of Design
• 7:33 Navigating the Patent Process
• 11:59 Funding the Startup: A Messy Journey
• 14:27 Go-to-Market Strategy: From Flea Markets to Amazon
• 19:38 From Retail to the Today Show: Achievements and Recognition
• 20:32 The Holiday Rush and Early Success
• 22:57 Prototyping Challenges and Manufacturing Decisions
• 27:25 Customer Feedback and Product Iteration
• 30:34 Color Choices and Market Research
• 32:27 A Surreal Encounter with Damon John
• 35:25 Philanthropy and Mentorship

Transcript

Candice Jarrett (00:01.166)
Welcome to the Business Pulse podcast where we will be talking to Nick Barrett, founder and inventor of Cordbrick, an award-winning device featured on the Today Show that does what it says, helps you manage cords for your devices. We'll dive into his story, inspiration and invention right now in episode three.

Candice Jarrett (00:41.02)
Okay, hi Nick, I'm so excited to have you here today.

CordBrick Nick (00:44.067)
Thanks for having me, Candice. Really glad to be here, too.

Candice Jarrett (00:47.789)
So if somebody doesn't know what Cord Brick is, can you explain to us first, like physically, what the product does?

CordBrick Nick (00:54.211)
Yeah, absolutely. So it's a small brick shaped silicone rubber steel weighted cord holder. So I know that was a lot, but it just looks like a tiny brick that holds your phone cord and it has cord channels, six of them, two on the top, two on the bottom, and then one on the left side and one on the right side making six. And again, it has steel on the inside, so it's weighted and it's made of silicone rubber and that's because

Candice Jarrett (01:03.004)
you

CordBrick Nick (01:20.399)
It's flexy and you want the channels to kind of flex to accommodate the cords and it also helps with the grip. So they come in different colors and they're sort of like symmetrical and reversible so you can flip it upside down or right side up and you just pop a cord in and it should hold the cord on any surface. The problem I had with my cord was falling off my nightstand all the time and I was in bed. I didn't want to get out of bed, pick it up off the floor. I'm like, what if I just had a little brick?

No adhesive, just the weight of it could keep it wherever I put it. And that's what I invented.

Candice Jarrett (01:53.104)
I love when I hear from founders that they are their own customer. Like you had a pain and you know, like lots of other people had that pain and you're like, I'm going to be the one to solve it. And then you did. I'm excited to dive into some of like the deep details about the prototyping and about like how you got your patent. But I want to, guess, go a little bit like earlier than that and talk about like, what was the moment? What was the aha? Like I need to create this.

CordBrick Nick (02:23.844)
Yeah, so I originally thought of the, or had the problem, experienced the issue of, know, cord falling on the floor and thought of the idea of a brick that didn't have adhesive in 2015. I didn't actually start the company until 2020, right when COVID was going on and things were shutting down. I thought this is a perfect time. Everyone's going to be at home. But I do remember the moment actually, I was in bed and I used to struggle to sleep a lot and fall asleep at night.

Candice Jarrett (02:42.461)
yeah.

CordBrick Nick (02:53.067)
And so minor things would annoy me and wake me up and cause me to then stay up for a few more hours. And one of those things was my cord falling on the floor, me having to get out of my bed. mean, in 2015, you may remember phone cords were usually a lot shorter. Now they've got like 10 foot long ones, but there weren't that many of them back then. It seems crazy, but there wasn't. And so, you know, from bed, you know, the cord and the plug down, you know, a foot or two off the ground on the floor and the light weight of the cord tip, you know, it doesn't

lend itself to staying in place. wants to just kind of gravity wants to pull it off any surface and onto the floor. And I remember thinking like, I just need a little brick. You know, I don't want adhesive because for a couple reasons. One, I didn't want to have to stick it in a certain spot. Furniture, you know, could bring the paint off or something like that and just leave adhesive goop or whatever. And then I thought, you know, no, I literally want to like put it on my bed sheet too. you know, even closer to me than my nightstand, maybe I won't have a nightstand where I'm moving around.

Candice Jarrett (03:41.764)
yeah.

CordBrick Nick (03:52.249)
And then I kind of had the second, part of the idea, is like, all right. and I guess I had looked at some competitors online and I saw what they did and I thought, how could I do something that gave this product a competitive advantage? And I thought, well, the other problem with cords is when you take them and put them in your bag, they get tangled. have to like put them in a separate bag just for cords. And even when you do that, you got to wrap them up a certain way. And even when you do that, they get tangled in each other when you're undoing it. So maybe I could, you know, wrap the cord around cord brick so you can snap.

wrap and then trap your cord on cord brick. And the cool part is because you can do that, it sort of stays with your cord all the time. And then when you get to your destination, you just unwrap and then you have your little cord holder right there. Later when I was designing the product, yeah.

Candice Jarrett (04:36.09)
Wait, I just want to I just want to jump in for one second. When you say the snap trap and rap, I saw that on your website and I was like, that is brilliant. So like, do you have like marketing that you work with? Or did you come up with that yourself? The snap rap chat?

CordBrick Nick (04:49.998)
No, yeah, I just kind of came up with that on my own. and yeah, it works well because the trap really makes sense. You're actually trapping the cord on the brick and you're using the, the, ends to prevent it from coming off. So that's how the cord stays wrapped on the brick. Cause you sort of trap it on there with that second end and then you snap wrap trap and unwrap. And then it does come undone untangled. And to be honest, I didn't know it would do that cool unwrap untangled trick when I first

Candice Jarrett (04:52.26)
it's good.

CordBrick Nick (05:19.954)
was thinking about how to do it, but I quickly discovered after prototyping it, wow, that's actually better than I even thought it would be. And then later again, I realized that it could stand phones too. So then I was like, wait, core tool for your phone that stays with your phone core that also works with your phone. think we have a winner here.

Candice Jarrett (05:37.414)
Yeah, that's brilliant. Actually, that's a great segue because I want to talk to you about your prototyping. So how different was the first chord break from the one that we see today?

CordBrick Nick (05:46.354)
pretty different. let's see. I went to Michael's and I got modeling clay and then I just, you, you take two different, tubes of material, you open them up and then you mix them together and you have a certain amount of time, like 30 seconds or a minute until the stuff starts hardening, cures. And, so I did that. And the first one I made, I remember I made it until like a little log and that I, you know, had it kind of had flat sides, but it was really rough.

And then I kind of cut a groove in it with a knife and a big groove on one side and made it like a little alligator jaws. And then I cut a smaller groove in the other side. And I was like, this is kind of good, but it's really ugly. Like it doesn't look pretty at all. I you know, I need something a little smaller. need to use less material. So then I just worked on it a few more times, kind of got it down to the simplest form of the design that I could think of. Cause my thought was

I want to make something that's very inexpensive to manufacture because I don't think people are going to pay a ton for this product. I how much do you pay to solve this problem? I just want something that's cheap, make a lot of margin, and be able to sell it for a low price.

Candice Jarrett (06:53.062)
Did you have to go back to Michael's multiple times or did you get everything you needed that first time? Yeah, it was, I thought it might be a multi-trip endeavor.

CordBrick Nick (07:00.787)
yeah, and you know, at this point we've re-engineered the product a dozen times or so in four years. So I've been constantly tinkering with it, making improvements, figuring out the manufacturing process, which was a whole story in and of itself, and making it better, making consumers appreciate the product better, giving them better value for their money, et cetera.

Candice Jarrett (07:22.822)
So over that four year period, you did get a utility patent. So congratulations on that. Can you talk a little bit about your process in order to get that?

CordBrick Nick (07:28.476)
Thank you.

CordBrick Nick (07:33.362)
Yeah. So with the utility patent, oftentimes you file a provisional patent first, not always, but it's the one that you can file a provisional for, which basically means, before you have to pay the full amount to file the patent, you can get like a temporary hold on that idea. And, so that's I did. I filed a utility patent or provisional patent, that made, that was very broad in general and, you know, not very specific. However, it was written by me and I use legal zoom. So it probably wasn't ideal.

We actually ended up abandoning that original patent first because I wasn't ready within one year, which is your time limit on a provisional patent to do the full filing and pay ended up being 15 to $20,000 to file that full patent. So I eventually got to a couple, went through a couple of different attorneys and found someone that, you know, after I'd done a patent search was able to help me write the full application.

for this patent kind of right at the last minute. I mean we really rushed to get it in with you know a few months, know, just basically I think we fought on the last day that I had available. And it actually was because the last day I had available was a Sunday. It was even a Monday. So it was a one day later than the last day. It was the last business day. it was a very challenging and you unique.

Candice Jarrett (08:38.843)
Wow.

CordBrick Nick (08:51.838)
process and I'm fortunate I've got a very good patent attorney that has done an incredibly thorough job and give us some very broad protection. So my patent isn't, I don't think it's too narrow. We'll see if it's too broad. I don't think so, but it gives us a pretty good amount of protection in the area.

Candice Jarrett (09:08.101)
How difficult was it for you to find your patent attorney? Did you interview a lot of people or did you... What was that process like?

CordBrick Nick (09:15.069)
Yeah, I mean, and then you come up, like, you know, I think I think the most difficult part for me is, know, you don't really know anything about our people telling the truth. How good are they? How much are they going to put into it? What do you get for this amount of money? They kind of just throw a big number at you and then it's like that, you know, take it or leave it. But depending on the attorney and the skill of the attorney and also

what the attorney's experience is in. Because there's so many different types of patents, intellectual property and technology that you want a patent attorney that's experienced that kind of your category, your niche of what you're looking to file on. Maybe they're more familiar with that type of intellectual property. And maybe they can kind of describe your item in a way that puts it in very broad and general terms. Because if you get too specific,

and you narrow it down too much, then people can kind of copy your idea and not be infringing on your intellectual property, which makes it a little less valuable.

Candice Jarrett (10:15.356)
That's really great insight. So do you think that in the beginning you had first used legal zoom to try to file that patent yourself and then it didn't work out. Do you think that there was any advantage to you being able to in your marketing say patent pending at that point or, there was, okay.

CordBrick Nick (10:30.506)
Totally. Yeah. Yeah, it was still worth it. I I think anything with patent associated with it adds a perceived value to the consumer so they understand. And then of course, it also deters people who might consider knocking it off because they don't really know where you are in the patent process at that point. They don't know what your intellectual property is. So if you say patent pending, you know, in business, it's all about risk, right?

You want to reduce the amount of risk and increase the potential. But if there is a higher risk, if there's a patent that you might have to fight against, your risk goes way up. And if you don't know what that patent is yet, then your risk is even higher because of the unknown and maybe could be very good protection. You won't be able to get around it. So your investment in trying to knock off an item like cord brick could be wasted.

Candice Jarrett (11:23.74)
So what did the trajectory of your funding look like from the point when you were going to Michael's and getting the stuff yourself and building it? See, I've been to Michael's many times and I just have this feeling like the lady seeing you buying all this stuff, wondering what it was for. And I bet that she couldn't have imagined that it was going to be for this and that we were gonna be here talking about it today. And that was gonna get so much attention. mean, we'll get into the today show. I wanna, you know, ramp up to that, but I'm curious about.

that how you got from that point to actually getting the funds to make the product.

CordBrick Nick (11:59.073)
I would say it's a very messy journey when you're launching a startup. You think it might be smooth and you'll have a bunch of cash that's just sitting there waiting, but really that's usually not the case. You're just kind of doing it as you go, especially someone like me that was trying to kind of bootstrap my startup. I had never done a startup before and my plan was not to go fundraise in the beginning and give a bunch of equity. My plan was to kind of test and see, is this even going to work? And if so, can I keep as much of the business as possible for as long as possible? And so because of that,

I didn't want to take money from anybody that was going to ask me for equity. So I asked at first for $5,000 here, $1,000 here, $2,000 from a bunch of different people and was able to obtain that before I really had any prototyping or any product whatsoever. And then I promised them a huge return on that investment, which I've been paying back to some investors. And I've already paid some of them back more than they originally invested. And then I'm going to pay them a multiple on top of that just because they were so early investors.

But then I had to find indeed more investors. We even did a fundraising pitch thanks to a local angel fund here in Naples, Florida that kind of gave me the spotlight in front of all their members. And I got more interest up to $100,000 of investment for a certain percentage of my company. I decided not to take it. I was able to find and secure an investment from friends and family to give me a better deal that didn't involve me giving up equity to the company. Just sort of a promise of payback plus interest.

and more. But yeah, it's been a one step at a time sort of journey. We may do some more fundraising next year, but I think as a founder, you're kind of always thinking about how fast are you growing? Where's the money coming from? How are we gonna balance our credit cards? Things like that.

Candice Jarrett (13:45.52)
You know, I was recently talking to an investor and I asked him what the most major mistake that a lot of startups make. And he said, what you avoided. He said that giving up too much of their company for cash, like that'd be better to try to raise it other ways rather than, you know, give up your company. So I think that it is the like, slow and steady type of, and it requires a lot of, you know, tenacity because you're

you know, keep, yeah, gotta keep pushing. So I wanna ask, but actually I think it's a brilliant strategy. So I wanna ask you, how did you start with your go-to-market? Like who were your first customers and how did you reach them?

CordBrick Nick (14:18.103)
Thank you.

CordBrick Nick (14:27.704)
Great question. And I mean, I think it's an exercise that any entrepreneur needs to really think about and consider. I thought, I'm just going to put up a website. Well, then what? You need to advertise, it turns out. It takes a while to build up organic traffic on search engines for people converting and buying on. So Google and other search engines think that you're a valuable source to send customer traffic that are looking for that sort of thing.

I found out pretty quickly I was competing against Amazon. And I thought, wow, I can't really compete against someone like that, you know, one the biggest companies in the world. And so then what I did was, you know, just to answer your question, I started with a website and I thought this will be a good start. But then I realized pretty quick that wasn't going to do it by itself. So I went to a flea market and believe it or not, that was really the thing that got me going.

I went to a Flamingo flea market in Bonita Springs, Florida, and I set up a little aisle table for $20 a day. And I stood there and I remember the first day I went, I sold like 15 of my product for full price for about 10 bucks. And I was elated. I remember calling my mentor the next day and just like hollering him because it was a Friday and I was going back on the next day, Saturday. I'm like, I can't believe it.

They pulled out money and they bought my product. They loved it. They were not complaining about the price. They loved the different colors. They said they experienced the same problem as I was trying to solve with this product. And so it slowly grew over about three months from about 15 to a day to about 50 a day. And so I was selling 50 a day at the same flea market. And I kind of started to realize, like, dang, if I'm selling this many to the same

people in the same area, how many flea markets could I be selling these at throughout the whole country? Then I should be able to reproduce this pitch somewhere online or in other stores. And it does seem like with this kind of sample size, a little bit of anecdotal evidence, but it seems like this is a mass market product that a lot of people are going to like.

Candice Jarrett (16:37.808)
That is, I love this story. That's absolutely fantastic. So how did you bridge that gap then from like selling locally in flea markets to then moving into other markets?

CordBrick Nick (16:49.603)
So one of the next steps was getting onto Amazon. If you can't beat them, join them. And then I realized too, from selling on Amazon, which was in 2022, we finally got the product on there. We were able to convert for the keyword stocking stuffer for Cord Brick. And if you know anything about keywords and what you should be advertising for, it needs to be something that is exactly what your product is. You don't...

Candice Jarrett (16:54.033)
Right.

CordBrick Nick (17:14.542)
You might think that you want to advertise for words that are related to your product, but really you don't. They're not going to convert well enough for you. However, stocking stuffer is a pretty general term. And the fact that we were able to convert for people searching for an idea of a gift to buy people really showed me that this product wasn't just a core management product. And it was something bigger than that. was kind of what I had predicted. It would be sort of the pop sockets of its category, kind of a new product that no one had ever seen before.

that was going to be much more popular than any of other existing weighted or adhesive cord holders that just did one thing. This thing kind of did several things and because it does several things that made it super giftable.

Candice Jarrett (17:55.148)
yeah. And actually that's so brilliant about the stocking stuffer because it's literally the size that can go in someone's stocking. And I mean, and something that everybody can use. Yeah. Yeah. Also the bright color too, you know, that's funny about the coal. So I, that is so amazing. when you, when you got on Amazon, was that strategic about the stocking stuffer was it a happy thing? I mean, did the algorithm just pick it up or did you actually adjust your metadata keywords in order to

CordBrick Nick (18:01.923)
Yeah, a little brick of coal. Yeah, except it's a useful brick.

Candice Jarrett (18:23.984)
get it to rank for that.

CordBrick Nick (18:25.659)
I guess I should back up. So we tried to advertise for the keyword stocking stuffer, because I think people had told me at the flea market that this was a good stocking stuffer. And I had originally started selling in November of 2021 at this flea market. so leading up to the holiday season of 2021, then I continued to sell in the spring of 2022, which in Florida peak season down here in South Florida is January, February, March. And so that was when I got to the

50 and eventually I think I got to 65 units in a day at one point. then later in the year, I had decided to try to advertise online on Google ads for the keywords, docking stuffers. And my click-through rate was insane. It was like 25 % on my ads, which is very high. And so I knew, you know, just based on some limited data, like, okay, I need to go somewhere where people are looking to buy, looking to purchase on Amazon. That's absolutely what people are looking to do. They're coming there to shop and purchase.

And so, you know, I figured we'd try it out on Amazon and we were lucky enough to, you know, put a couple of videos on there that ended up converting.

Candice Jarrett (19:31.644)
That's wonderful. So now how did you jump from there to the Today Show?

CordBrick Nick (19:38.044)
Yeah, so we went on into retail in 2023. I went to the National Retail Federation show in New York City and we won coolest product in $10,000. It was actually voted on by attendees of the show. And so I touted the coolest product of 2023 by the National Retail Federation. I mean, what a cool award to win. And so I touted that all year and near the end of the year, I looked for a publicist and I cast her with

finding me gift lists and opportunities to showcase the product as a stocking stuffer. And she had had contacts through NBC in the past and emailed someone a pitch of my product. kind of last minute, they said, you know, we need someone for this spot, December 19th on the Today Show. And she emailed me with about a hundred exclamation points, you know, overnight this to them right away. And so we sent them up there.

Candice Jarrett (20:32.358)
Just before Christmas too. Yeah.

CordBrick Nick (20:34.275)
Yeah, it was kind of a, they were calling the segment last minute stocking stuffers in December 19th. That absolutely was so yeah, perfect timing. And we sold out on Amazon on walmart.com on my website. And yeah, it was a great finish to last year.

Candice Jarrett (20:38.832)
Quiet.

Candice Jarrett (20:48.454)
So in those early days when you were at the farmer's markets, where did you keep all of the cord bricks?

CordBrick Nick (20:55.502)
well, it wasn't that many. mean, at first it was only a few thousand and I was able to keep it in my closet at my house. you know, stack the boxes. they're pretty small. So you could fit quite a few, in a box. and about 30 pounds a box, about a hundred or so units in a box. So yeah, we, I stacked them in my closet. I've expanded to other rooms in my house. We have a warehouse now that I've got, I just kind of, you know,

a couple dozen pallets in there of product, know, it's 2,500 pounds of


So actually, I think that it's a great timing for us to have the show because Christmas is coming up. I mean, people are going to be going Black Friday shopping.


Candice Jarrett 
And I think that this really is a great stocking stuffer gift because it's so usable, you know? Like a lot of stocking stuffers are like, this is cute. But then you kind of put it on a shelf and you don't think about it. But this is something that's like, this is cute and I can use it every day. So I think that's really, that's amazing about it. I also, I think it's so, I don't know if we got cut off, but Nick was saying that he was keeping the cord bricks in his closet, but that because they're so small, he could put so many of them in there. So.

No inventory issues at the farmers market. I'm glad because they were selling like hotcakes. I guess now I kind of want to talk a little bit about the, you know, with the time that we have left, the prototyping, like how did you find a company to make them? Did you interview them? How many companies did you interview? Was that a very long process? Like just dive into that a bit.

CordBrick Nick 
Yeah, so just going way back a little bit, when I initially started designing the product in 2020, I reached out to some silicone manufacturers in the United States. I wanted to do Made in the USA. I'm a patriotic kind of guy and just thought, you know, it'll be better because of shipping reasons and the weight of the product as well. And so we started designing the product.

And at someone that responded to me, think one out of 30 manufacturers in the United States responded to me. I later figured out why. and so the one that did respond, we started working on it and we spent about six months doing the prototyping. We, or I ordered a mold. I ordered some product, well, some material metal and silicone to a manufacturer. And we began the process and the product did not work as I expected it.

basically didn't work nearly well enough. I mean, I, you know, got pretty quick responses from other people and I had sensed it pretty much right away when I started receiving the actual prototypes, that this was not going to work. I was not going to be able to sell it. People were not going to recommend it to other people. It just didn't perform as I had hoped. So we've had to scrap it. as I know now that's called a sunk cost. so, you know, a lot of that first investment that I had got from friends and family just ended up.

going to nothing, going to my time and a mistake. Yeah, failing is definitely the best way to learn for someone like me. I need to experience it myself. I try to listen to what other people say, but yeah, usually just experiencing it for yourself and seeing what happens. so then I went to reach out to some friends and family, asked anybody who had manufacturing contact.

Candice Jarrett 
We're going to education. I mean, I'm sure you learned from that process.

Candice Jarrett 
Yes.

CordBrick Nick 
particularly plastic or silicone injection molding and similar type molding, found a guy, he had a contact in China. We got a quote in China and the price was a little bit better than what I'd been paying. And I figured he could deliver on what we needed. I had done some prototyping in the meantime with another person who I had been connected with and I had tested a lot of aspects that I hadn't tested quite enough with the first.

mold that I made, I made a crucial error. I did not do a test mold. And so usually a one cavity, very inexpensive or relatively inexpensive mold, and they ship you actual parts of what your finished part will look like. But I hadn't done that the first time. And so I was sure to do that the second time we were able to get something that I thought worked and we went to production.

Since then I've switched manufacturers a couple times and I've gotten my costs way down from where it initially was ordering from China and If I hadn't done that honestly, I wouldn't have a business and if I hadn't gone to China, know I would have really struggled to sell the product at the margins I needed to make it in the USA the labor costs and other things associated with my product because it's so small and we need so many are very high and so

I've got a great supplier in China that is, I really enjoy working with. We got quality inspectors that go and check out the factory and the product quality and the working conditions and other things like that. So I've had nothing but great experiences with them. The one downside is it does take a long time. It takes about two months to ship it and about a month to make it. So we've had to hold inventory all year. I mentioned we're in this warehouse now with a couple of dozen pallets up in the Tampa area.

Candice Jarrett 
So during that process where you've been switching suppliers, I remember that you said that you had some iterations of the product. So how do you get customer feedback? I mean, I love that you listened in the early days to the people who were telling you that it should be a stocking stuffer when you were face to face with those customers at the farmer's market. But now that you're not face to face and you have a lot more customers, how are they reaching you?

CordBrick Nick 
So I think you're asking about like, how did I change my product design based on customer feedback? And I think my answer is almost none. I think that Steve Jobs said it best when it's like, when he said that the customer doesn't really know what they want, you have to show it to them. And I think I really resonated with the first thing or one of the first things you opened with where you were talking about how I had designed a product that I wanted.

Candice Jarrett 
Yes.

CordBrick Nick 
And so I value my own personal opinion quite highly when it comes to this product, because I was really designing the product for myself. And I think a common thread from a number of entrepreneurial journeys that you'll, if you talk to other founders is that that is absolutely what they were doing when they thought of their original idea was they were making it for them. And I think it's really difficult to make a product that's not for you. If you're not the user.

So I've tried not to do that with my second product, Desprick, and with another product that I'm working on next year. I have created products that I actually use, that I actually want, and in doing so, I almost don't need customer feedback because the product's so simple. It's like it either does it or it doesn't do it, or it's hard to do something with it or it's not. And so it doesn't really take a rocket scientist with my particular product, Cordbrick, a small little silicone weighted cord holder.

I, know, customers aren't going to be putting it into very unexpected situations. It kind of just sits there on their nightstand. so really it's about, you know, does the cord go in nicely? Does it pop out easily enough? Can you, you know, does the wrapping work? How many cords can you get in there? Does the cord come out too easily? Which it doesn't, you know, if it's being held by a wrapping channel. and you know, things like that, same thing with like a phone case, does it grip onto the phone case?

Candice Jarrett 
Yeah.

CordBrick Nick 
I tested different phone cases and see how it would grip on, if it was wide enough to flex open and grab. We made it so it could fit Apple AirPods and similar type dongle type earbuds. So you can kind of pop them in there and instead of putting them in your pocket, if you have a cord brick around any charging station, you know, at least pop them in there or something else too. You know, you can fit pens and other little things in the side channel. So it's the, you know, the customer feedback, I guess that I've received.

Candice Jarrett
that's really smart, yeah.

CordBrick Nick
did sort of result in me launching a second product, Desprig, which is a heavier model. For those people who did want something that was a little heavier, mean, people kind of made it known that if I had something heavier, they would buy it. And so I thought, okay, more expensive, they want to pay me more money. Should I let them? Yes, I should.

Candice Jarrett 
Yeah, that's, I mean, that's such a great answer on both fronts because you didn't feel the pressure to like cave to, you know, if someone had like little like nitpicky things, I guess about like your main product, but you saw through your main product, it opened the door to an additional need that was separate from the original thing. And then you listen to those customers. So, I think that's great. So how did you decide on the colors? I mean, did you just, did you do it yourself? Did you go in and just look at the different palette and say, I think these will be popular?

CordBrick Nick
Yeah, exactly. you know, I mean, I've certainly looked at other competitors and, I tried to figure out why they chose certain colors. And then I, you know, looked at some Amazon data from some of those competitors to see what's selling. Cause you can easily see on Amazon public data about sales for competitors. and, then I just kind of, so, you know, someone had said I should make one color at first. And, this was a very trusted advisor as well.

And I went against them immediately. I mean, I didn't even consider doing one color for a second. I pretty much knew right away if I'm going to create a little bit of interest with this product, people got to be able to choose at least a few colors. And then I kind of found out later something I didn't expect that customers told me is that they tell me all the time, I want to be able to see it. And I think, that's interesting. You don't want it to blend in.

And we sell a lot of black cord breaks. Don't get me wrong It's actually a number one seller and that definitely blends in especially at night, but at night when the light goes off You know, it's actually easier to see something that's not black that's sitting right next to your nightstand Additionally like your eye kind of catches the bright color So when you're looking over for a charger you want to just be able to spot where it is and you know I guess you think like how long could it take you to spot where it is but

when there's all these white chords kind of all over the place, like finding where the end of it is, if it's like countertop chord spaghetti, it does take a few extra seconds and it's just an odd inconvenience that can be solved.

Candice Jarrett
Yeah.

Candice Jarrett 
I like how you say countertop spaghetti. I'm gonna think of that now, like when I see a tangle. Yeah, that's brilliant. So I know that you have a story about Damon John from Shark Tank. that is it, that it's, you know, something happened. Do you want to go ahead and share that with us?

CordBrick Nick 
countertop cord spaghetti. Yep.

CordBrick Nick 
Sure, yeah, was totally surreal, right? mean, I'm an entrepreneur still. I've been watching Shark Tank for years. I mean, I used to record episodes back on DVR, first one, yeah. And I was at a promotional products trade show. So we entered the promotional space this year. Cordrick makes a great logo product, great logo placement on people's nightstands, good for a giveaway, especially because it does a lot of things. So people actually use it, as you mentioned. And at this promotional show in Orlando,

I was just out front of my booth and I saw Damon John walking right towards me. And he had a big bodyguard that was, you know, almost twice his height walking behind him. And I said, Damon, he said, yeah. I said, can I get a picture? It was the first thing I thought of. And he said, yeah, hurry up. And so I handed my phone to the bodyguard who took the photo. And then I was whispering in Damon's ear as we're taking this photo, I looked like frantic in the photo.

And I said, you gotta come check out my product. So he comes over to my table. He's like, hurry up. All right. He's a going somewhere. I he was walking past my booth. He's, know, he's on a mission going somewhere. And he, I started doing my pitch, going through it he goes, stop. I was like, no, what have I done to upset Damon John? Shark from shark tank. And he said, can I record that? I said, yeah. So he pulled out his phone and he actually spent the time to have me go through the pitch again, recorded it, recorded my face.

and, yeah, it was a pretty surreal moment, you know, because people had to said to me thousands of times at that point, have you been on shark tank? Are you going to go on shark tank? you know, when, when are you going to shark tank? So, and, know, my answer had been no. And I think it probably still is for now because I'm not sure that we need it. maybe in a few more years, if we kind of stall and need some more expertise, that could be a good route for us.

Candice Jarrett 
or even just the marketing of it. Like if you go on, but then you don't take a deal, I mean, that's still like a lot of people that saw the cord brick, just saying.

CordBrick Nick 
You're right. Yeah. And that could be a good way for us to get out. I mean, I think if I went on, I would want to go with the intention of getting a deal. you know, they, I think they try to vet people for that too. But yeah, if I were going to go on, you know, I wouldn't want to go on again. And so I would want to go on when I could get the best deal for me. And I think, you know, as we discussed, I didn't want to give up a lot of equity and also just want to, you know, make a little more money so we can have a higher

Candice Jarrett 
of course, yes.

CordBrick Nick 
valuation once we get to that stage.

Candice Jarrett 
yeah. Yeah. I would say that the longer you can hold out, like the more, the more power you have at the negotiating table, you know, cause you have more users, you have more data, you have more everything. So, this is so exciting. so now that we're, we're going to wrap up the show is there, but I see you're so amazing to talk to you. There's like all these things on my list. I want to get to you. I definitely, we need to make time to talk about your build something initiative. can you go ahead and lay that out? What that is for us?

CordBrick Nick 
Sure. Yeah. nothing fancy. mean, we've got a charitable part to my mission, which is to donate enough money eventually to build a physical house for those in early recovery. And so I donate to a nonprofit that actually builds, manages, maintains overseas, is in charge of security and helping people who are coming off the street from addiction, from homelessness, get a job, get fed.

and get to some meetings and get some recovery and also be in a safe environment. it's, you're trying to get sober. A lot of people aren't coming from environments that are particularly safe. So it's also very, very expensive. And usually if you're kind of in rough shape, like I was seven and a half years ago, just getting sober, you don't have a lot of money to spend on sober housing, which is twice the price of regular rentals. So.

We try to donate a little bit to that. We actually just started selling some older versions of the product that I have. I didn't want to sell it like a liquidator or something like that. At their donation centers, they have little thrift stores and stuff. So they're selling some cord bricks in there now, raising some money too. And then the other thing we do is I just love speaking with entrepreneurial students. And I just offer kind of my mentorship if they're interested to any entrepreneurial student.

Candice Jarrett 
that's fantastic.

CordBrick Nick 
that is trying to build something themselves. And yeah, I mean, I would love to be a part of it and give them, share any wisdom or advice that I have, hopefully inspire people to kind of do the same thing. Maybe even folks that have went through something where they thought they kind of had screwed up and didn't have, weren't gonna have another chance, but have decided to put in some hard work and try to turn their life around.

Candice Jarrett 
That's so beautiful that you're doing that. I did see that on your website that you had mentioned that you donate to 501-3C's that provide housing for people that are recovering from some of diseases. I think that's amazing. So actually yesterday's episode, I had a guest who had gone from, he was homeless himself and then him and his wife started a nonprofit that gave housing for homeless people. And he mentioned most of them had substance abuse issues. then

Beyond that, now he helps men and women coming home from prison. So, but again, with the same thing. So he has several houses. I think that I should maybe connect you to because, you know, we both have a passion for helping people in, in, it's, beautiful that you use your, and both of you really, it's so beautiful that you use your success to help other people and lift other people up. So you had mentioned also that you're willing to talk to entrepreneurs. Is there a way they can contact you?

CordBrick Nick 
Yes, thanks for asking. Please email me nick at cordbrick.com. You can find us on social media at Cord Brick on all the main social media sites. I'm Nick Barrett on LinkedIn, founder of Cord Brick. And our website is cordbrick.com. I'd love if you buy from us there. You can also find us on Amazon if you want that quick shipping too.

Candice Jarrett
Awesome. And you know, as we mentioned before, the holidays are coming up. This has been a like well-known, well-loved stocking stuffer. So if you're looking for a stocking stuffer, please check it out. also, you know, follow Cord Brick anyway, because so when you come out with your new products, like the desk brick, is that all going to be under the Cord Brick website and brands? Like, can people find out about your new products in your existing channels?

CordBrick Nick 
Absolutely. Yeah. Everything's going to be on cordbrick.com. We have launched Desprick earlier this year. It's on cordbrick.com. It's on Amazon as well. I bought the domain deskbrick.com. So if you just remember that better, you can just go there. takes you right to cordbrick.com, the Desprick page. And then, I have a few other brick ideas and products that we're coming out with next year. So we're going to continue to build the brick brand.

Candice Jarrett 
Awesome. Thank you so much. It's been absolutely wonderful talking to you, Nick. I really appreciate having you here today and have a wonderful rest of your evening.

CordBrick Nick 
Thanks, Candice. Hope to talk to you again.