I create a Carstache prototype and drive around San Francisco. My wife wanted to kill me, but people LOVE IT. Proof of concept!

I don’t have the cash for product validation testing, so I keep an “Inventors Journal” where I hand-write all of my testing, including baking it in the oven at increasing temperatures.

I teach myself soft-goods manufacturing, hire a pattern-maker, and find a cut-and-sew in Oakland, CA, to make my first production run of 500 units in a variety of colors.

I sign-up for a Shopify E-Commerce site and hire a front-end developer for design and development. This was the EARLY days of Shopify, and I had white-glove service.

I write all of the copy and create key-art with the help of some creative friends.

I am ready to launch the website and start selling. My friend ran all of the Kardashian’s social media at the time, and Khloe agreed to Tweet out a link to my website to millions of followers.

Khloe’s Tweet Goes Viral and Carstache is all over the news, trending on Twitter, and I’m giving interviews all over the world.

I cold-email Urban Outfitters, Spencers Gifts, and other retailers, and they all start selling Carstaches.

I quit my job at Tencent to go all-in on the mustache game

After about a year of full-time mustaching I have an existential dilemma, asking myself “what have I become? I’m a mustache maker?”

I license the Carstache business to a 3rd party to deal with manufacturing, distribution, inventory, etc…

I raise money and found a mobile gaming studio called RunWilder Entertainment Inc and we develop titles for iOS and Android.

I reclaim the license to Carstache two years later, at the same time that John Zimmer, Co-Founder of Lyft, reaches out about buying pink mustaches. He was a fan of Carstache in the early days and had an idea for Lyft which had just been built in a two week with his prior company, Zimride.

I go from selling Lyft 10 Carstaches to 10,000 Carstaches.

Lyft reaches out to discuss purchasing Carstache. I have great IP Lawyers at DLA Piper for my gaming startup, and they help with the negotiations.

I sell the Carstache IP to Lyft and join the company where I innovate for the next 10 years.