“Joe, no one will ever buy sunglasses through mail”

In 1987 Joseph Sugarman, a marketer from Chicago known as The Mail Order Maverick, set out to do something everyone thought was impossible: sell sunglasses through the mail.
 

The original BluBlocker ad

It may not sound crazy today, but until Sugarman did it no one believe it could be pulled it off.  

How would readers of the ad know if the sunglasses fit them? Would they be overwhelmed with returns? Don’t people want to try things on before buying?

These were a few of the questions Sugarman faced. People told him he was crazy. One executive said he was ruining his career.

But he did it anyway.

And it worked.

Within just 6 months of running his first ad in a magazine, Sugarman sold $4 million worth of sunglasses - a HUGE hit. Since then, his famous ad has sold over 20 million pairs of sunglasses.

Aarthi Ramamurthy, the founder of Lumoid and True&Co., is the modern day Joseph Sugarman.
 

Aarthi Ramamurthy

In 2012, Ramamurthy founded True and Co., a startup aimed to revolutionize the way women buy bras online. When she started it, Ramamurthy faced the same doubters Sugarmann had to deal with.

Finding the right bra size is hard enough in stores - would women really trust an online shop to get the fit right?

But she did it anyway. And it also worked.

Within just 36 hours of launching True&Co. had 20,000 sign ups and has raised over $6 million in venture capital.

Ramamurthy then went on to found Lumoid, a startup that lets users rent and use electronics before making a purchase.

Although Lumoid was only founded in January, they already have a $1 million run rate and are growing 30% month over month. Yeah - that’s really, really fast.

At Hustle Con, Ramamurthy will be discussing how Lumoid found its first customers using methods everyone thought were crazy (but effective).

Ticket prices go up on July 25th - so if you wanna save a couple bucks make sure to get your today!

See ya at Hustle Con!

Sam "The Story Teller" Parr

PS: If you haven’t heard, HustleCon has partnered with the Startup Sales Conference for their launch on July 24 in San Francisco.  Dozens of conferences tell you how to acquire leads and have conversations. This one actually tells you how to close deals. See Agenda.