717: We Started Dad Gang with $750 and One Hat - and did $40M in 4 Years

Nathan Chan (0:01)

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Ejay O'Donnell (1:03)

One guy posted in that group that he got a full coverage calf tattoo of our Dad Gang logo, like his entire calf. It's so surreal to like really think somebody really put our logo on their body for the rest of their life.

Nathan Chan (1:15)

Yeah, that's wild. Three dads started with $750 and turned into $40 million selling hats. But that's not even the craziest part. So you guys right now have zero employees, correct?

Ejay O'Donnell (1:27)

That's correct.

Nathan Chan (1:27)

Correct. No ads?

Ejay O'Donnell (1:29)

No ads. No print on demand either. For about six weeks, we turned my entire house into our shipping facility. I had my in-laws coming over, my kids were helping.

Nathan Chan (1:38)

And then I also know that you guys have partnered with Gary Vee. I think he invested, right?

Ejay O'Donnell (1:42)

We've all been obsessed with Gary since the early days. I call it like if you were a basketball player and you love LeBron and LeBron's like, I want to play on your team. We have a shirt that says you only get 18 summers.

Grant Eastey (1:53)

Dads go through so much that have really not been spoken about. That hat just really helps them get through some of life's toughest moments.

Nathan Chan (2:02)

How far do you think you can go before you have to hire like teams?

Ejay O'Donnell (2:05)

That's a really good question.

SPEAKER_4 (2:09)

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Welcome to The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan.

Nathan Chan (2:23)

Hey, I have a quick ask. If you're loving these episodes, leaving a quick review is honestly the best way to support us. It helps the show grow and means we can keep bringing you the founder stories and insights you tune in for. Please share it with a friend. Thank you so much. Now, let's get into it. Well, boys, welcome to the show. You set up this business four and a half years ago. You started with $250 each, so $750 in total investment to start this brand. You printed 100 hats in 2022 purely to represent what fatherhood actually felt like to you.

When the first 100 sold out, did you have any idea that you would have did over $40 million in revenue a few years later?

Ejay O'Donnell (3:09)

I don't believe so. Initially, it was like we started out of my garage with that 100 hats, and there was no initial pressure at all to, if there's no business plan, there's barely a business idea. It was just like, hey, we feel like dads deserve something much more than just funny frumpy products that say dad on them, and dads are represented in this goofy dorky way across social media.

Just out of our tech threat of venting to one another and being there for one another, we had used the term dad gang for such a long time that we made those hats, posted them up, and then a bunch of friends and family initially supported. So just from that fact alone that you're seeing a bunch of friends and family support, you can't think, oh, we have a $40 million business on our hands here. It was more like, oh, this is awesome. I guess we got to make more hats they sold out, and then organically lean back into making content around them, and making more hats, and then posting them up again.

I don't think we had that thought, but it was awesome to see those sell out very quickly.