Nathan started his talk by engaging with the crowd. He asked people to raise their hands if they had an ecommerce business. Then, he asked if they didn’t get any sales yet. Nathan continued by saying that it is normal to have zero sales for a long time at the start. Even Nathan himself took many attempts to get his first sales. He moved on to talk about how he got his very first sale.

His story started in 2014. He was working 60 hours a week with a one-year child and another child coming. Nathan was dissatisfied with his work. He realised he wanted to do something different. That was after reading a book called The 4-Hour Work Week. It piqued his interest in entrepreneurship. He was already familiar with building websites. He just needed to learn how to strategise for the new business.

There was an incident that opened his eyes to a niche market. His wife was pregnant with their second child. One day, she had a headache and realised that her sight was failing. They went to a gynecologist, and the doctors said she had meningitis. They immediately went to a hospital. Gladly, both his wife and second child ended up safe. After this incident, Nathan became curious about the nutrition and health sector.

Nathan also read a book called the 7-Day Startup. It was like a playbook on how to get from zero to sales in seven days. Nathan thought he could follow this procedure. Again, he knew how to build websites and became passionate about nutrition and health. The product that pushed him forward was Bulletproof Coffee. He had found a minimum viable product and a niche marketplace that fit his passion.

The next step was to make an actual sale. Nathan first let his friends and family know about his new business. What he did was similar to a pre-sale. He initially contacted the Australian distributor of butter coffee to get bulk orders. However, they declined. Their reason was, “we don’t want any competition.”