022: Lick my Dip’s Dave Rotheroe on using Crowdfunding and Thunderclap to launch 2 subscription businesses in 6 months

Dave Rotheroe is the proprietor of Lick My Dip and co-founder of Cheese Posties. Clearly a man who can name a business well! Lick My Dip is a subscription discovery service for hot sauce and chilli lovers – each month customers receive a parcel of surprise spicy goods. The first orders went out in May 2015, and they are already shipping globally. Cheese Posties is almost 2 months old, and has been described by Aol.com as “the uber of grilled cheese sandwiches” – and yes you guessed it you can subscribe to receive a toasted cheese sandwich in the post each week, week one had 600 subscribers and grown from there.

Click to Tweet: Founder of Lick My Dip & Co-Founder of Cheese Postie talks about the power of Kick Starter campaigns on @eComMasterPlan podcast

About the business

• eCommerce Business Structure – Online Only
• Product Range Scale – VERY niche
• Lick My Dip
  • Started a Kicker Starter campaign to launch the business
  • Started shipping in May 2015 and now ship globally
  • Dave runs Lick My Dip on his own remotely
• Cheese Posties
  • Only 2 months’ old
  • In week 1 had 600 subscribers
  • Currently only post within the UK
  • Dave works with his co-founder Danny remotely, and with a data guy that is in charge of creating the algorithms and databases that work alongside the Crate Joy API
• Both on Cratejoy

Listen to hear how Dave managed to successfully launch two businesses within a year, and his tips to help you do the same

Dave’s Recipe for a Business Launch

• Research your market
• Build a community
• Plan a Thunderclap
• To promote your Kick Starter – the cash is handy but it’s the community that’s the deal breaker

Most Awesome Thing Right Now

Lick My Dip

• Shipping produce from UK small passionate artisan manufacturers and exposing them to a global audience

Cheese Postie

• Riding subscription trends and a product that seems to be hot right now (especially a demand from the US)
• Having a versatile product allows for various combinations of the grilled cheese sandwich, which they are keen to keep as wild and wacky as possible.

On the Radar for the Coming Months

Lick My Dip

• Building the community and getting more people involved
• A new bigger box product in the New Year to include products from Europe

Cheese Posties

• Optimizing Cheese Posties work flow
• Premium subscription model for Cheese Posties

eCommerce Book Top Tip

• The Automatic Customer by John Warrillow

eCommerce Traffic Top Tip

• Instagram

Tool Top Tip

• Zendesk  to manage customer service, with an onsite chat widget from Zopim

Start Up Top Tip

• Find a niche
• Start to build a community
• Build a relationship with suppliers

If your business didn’t exist, which eCommerce Business Would you like to be Running?

Loot Crate another subscription box company based in the US, each month, Loot Crate ships a themed mystery box of the best geek, gaming, and pop culture gear to a subscriber base of over 400,000 Looters.

Interview Links

• Lick my Dip
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
• Cheese Posties
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
• Dave’s Twitter