Jake McKeon is a 28 year old entrepreneur from Melbourne and is encouraging Aussies to be more aware about sustainability, eco-friendly products, reducing waste in our homes and everyday lives and, of course, how we can introduce healthier habits to benefit our health and lifestyle.
Jake has been running Coconut Bowls for just over two years and has grown a social media audience of over 1 million people who are interested in organic products, eating healthy and making small consumer choices to have a positive contribution on the earth.
All of this came about from a short surf trip to Bali.
Last month, Jake impressed the panel on Shark Tank, pitching his products to key business investors to make ‘sustainability sexy’ and it worked. He secured a $300,000 investment and is using this to grow his products range further.
Jake has built a brand that Aussies and others all over the world are getting on board with and the company is projected to make $3million this year. We chat with Jake about what inspired him to start Coconut Bowls, how he manages his daily schedule, and what’s next.
Tell us about Coconut Bowls.
Coconut Bowls is a brand that turns discarded waste into everyday products that people can enjoy at home. As our name suggests, we started by reclaiming coconut shells, and turning them into bowls that people can eat from. This has extended to using the shells as planters and candles too. We also turn wooden furniture offcuts into spoons, forks and chopsticks, and have also begun making amazing bamboo straws, which are a great replacement for single user plastic and paper straws.
We see ourselves as a brand that integrates content with commerce, as every relationship we start with customers, begins with great content – particularly content that focuses on educating or being inspirational to audiences. By providing people with great content, we give ourselves the opportunity to share our key values and things that we care about before suggesting a purchase of our products.
Our mission is to help people live a healthier life, which in turn enables a healthier life for the planet. The fact that we sell beautiful eco-friendly products which helps reduce waste, is a bonus.
What inspired you to start Coconut Bowls?
I first discovered coconut shell handicrafts originally being sold as souvenirs to tourists (me) at a market in Bali. At the time I had a superfood business, many of my customers made smoothie bowls with these superfoods, so naturally the idea came to me that they could potentially make beautiful bowls that my customers might like eating from. So, I asked the craftsman if he could make some for me without the paint and holes (the original handicrafts were painted and had little tea light holes). I packed 100 of these coconut shells into my suitcase and made my way back to Australia. The inspiration for the business has always been customer focused. I wanted to provide something different for them to enjoy their meals from.
Tell us about your career and background.
After completing a business degree at university, I landed a job working as a business advisor at a financial management company. Strangely enough, most of my time was spent working with “baby boomers”, giving them my “no business experience” feedback on what I thought they could do to improve their business. It thought it was strange for a kid straight of uni to be given so much responsibility, but it was a fantastic experience for me. I learned a lot about various businesses, taking note of what worked and what didn’t. What I learned most, was just how many expenses that come with running your own business, in particular brick and mortar businesses. I had one client who turned over more than $5 million a year, however they were still making a loss. This inspired me to look at ways businesses could save money, focusing on online marketing and sales strategies. Cutting this story short a little, two years into my role with this company, I had the genius idea to try and create the next Facebook.
I invested the $40,000 I had saved to go travelling into the production of a social networking app, quit my job when it launched, and did absolutely everything I could to get people to register as a user. It worked, and we had over 100,000 downloads within the first 3 months. Unfortunately, not many of these people continued to use the app long term, but I learned so much about user activity on a “social network” and how to build a community through social media. Next, I created a social media agency, where we ran (myself and an employee) health, food and hospitality businesses Instagram and Facebook pages. We had some great success, working with over 35 clients and helping them drive new business and growth through social media. While running this business, I also started the superfood business that I mentioned earlier. This business also did okay, and we were selling to dozens of countries via ecommerce but I decided to close in late 2016, when Coconut Bowls had grown too much for me to handle both.
Describe a typical work day for you.
I’ll wake up around 6am, make a smoothie and then do some form of exercise, gym, swim, yoga or surf if the waves are good and I have no meetings (it’s an hour drive each way). I’ll then meditate for 20 minutes before heading into the office around 7:30. I’ll try and work through all my emails from overnight (usually 25 – 30) until 9am when I will then reward myself with a coffee at one of the cafes in walking distance from my office. After my coffee, my team are either in the office or online (some staff work remotely) and we’ll have a chat about what I need from them for the day, and what they need from me. The rest of my day is usually spent working through my to-do-list, with some time set aside for one larger project (1-4 hours) to complete for the day.
My office day usually finishes around 5pm, when I’ll usually head home or do some more light exercise before cooking dinner for my partner – who usually gets home around 7pm. I’ll usually stay online until then in case there is anything else I need to action. Then it’s phone and computer out of reach until the morning when it starts all over again.
What advice do you have for those wanting to start a business?
If it’s your first business, try and keep your investment as small as possible. Coconut Bowls was the business I put the least amount of money into out of all my businesses. There are two terms that are really important for entrepreneurs to consider with their startups, MVP (minimum viable product). It’s important to test your idea with a MVP to prove that there is a market for it, before you invest a significant amount of money into it. The second term is product market fit, which means you have introduced your product to the market and people are buying it organically. By doing this, you can make sales that are not influenced by paid marketing. If you’ve achieved product market fit with your MVP then I’d say go for it!
What’s next for you, and Coconut Bowls?
I’m in the process of building a team around me who can help me have the biggest impact and the most success as possible with Coconut Bowls. We’re a profit focused brand with purpose, meaning I want to do well by doing good. We have a community of more than 2 million people across social media platforms who come together over the shared values of health, food and sustainability. We’ll be introducing a range of new eco-friendly products that fit in those three niche’s and continue to integrate products with our fresh content.
