Loading...
February 5, 2025 • 1hr 14min
The craziest rags to riches story I’ve ever heard ($1/day to billionaire)
My First Million
Nick Mowbray is the founder of Zuru, which has grown from a small toy startup to doing over $2 billion in revenue as one of the most profitable toy companies in the world. Starting by selling DIY hot air balloons door-to-door in New Zealand, Nick and his brother Matt moved to China with almost no resources to build their own toy factory. Through relentless hustle and persistence over many years, they built Zuru into a global success and have since expanded into multiple other consumer categories.
The craziest rags to riches story I’ve ever heard ($1/day to billionaire)
0:00
-0:00
Key Takeaways
- Started with extreme naivety and bootstrapping - Moved to China with no money, contacts or language skills to build a toy factory from scratch
- Built everything from first principles - Their naivety led them to build things differently than industry standards, which became an advantage
- Relentless persistence and hustle - Would email/contact buyers constantly, do whatever it took to get meetings and orders
- Focus on profitability - Made a rule to never lose money in any month, which allowed them to self-fund growth
- Automation and innovation expertise - Developed deep capabilities in automation that could be applied across industries
- Serial entrepreneurship model - Used learnings and infrastructure from toys to expand into diapers, beauty, pet food and more
- Moonshot vision - Self-funding ambitious Zuru Tech project to revolutionize construction industry through automation
Introduction
Nick Mowbray is the founder of Zuru, which has grown from a small toy startup to doing over $2 billion in revenue as one of the most profitable toy companies in the world. Starting by selling DIY hot air balloons door-to-door in New Zealand, Nick and his brother Matt moved to China with almost no resources to build their own toy factory. Through relentless hustle and persistence over many years, they built Zuru into a global success and have since expanded into multiple other consumer categories.
Topics Discussed
Early Days Selling Door-to-Door (0:00)
Nick started his entrepreneurial journey selling model hot air balloons door-to-door with his brother in New Zealand:
- Learned key sales lessons early by dealing with constant rejection
- Developed persistence - His friend Fraser taught him the power of immediately moving on after rejection
- Built sales strategy - Targeted specific neighborhoods and looked for signs of children
- "Learning how to sell door to door is a great life lesson because you never know who's behind that door and you never know what response you're getting" - Nick Mowbray
Moving to China (5:55)
The brothers made the bold decision to move manufacturing to China, despite having no experience or connections:
- Extreme naivety - Didn't know about contract manufacturing, tried to build their own factory
- Bootstrapping survival - Lived on less than $1/day, slept in bushes and airport
- Built from scratch - Set up small factory on river, welded own production line
- "When I say we were naive I feel like that is even an understatement...we built a toy company from first principles" - Nick Mowbray
Early Product Failures (21:32)
Their first major opportunity came with a David Beckham licensed product that ultimately failed:
- Got $30M Walmart order for David Beckham Tamagotchi product
- Order got reduced from 2.2M units to 300k units after buyer was fired
- Complete failure - Product didn't sell at any price point
- Blacklisted by Walmart for 5 years after refusing markdown money
Building Distribution (30:18)
Started focusing on distribution and sales rather than product innovation:
- Licensed other companies' products to sell internationally
- Constant hustle for meetings - Would email buyers daily until getting response
- Built global network of retail relationships
- "We would sell a product to someone and then we wouldn't get a reorder...we didn't know what a reorder was because the product wouldn't sell through" - Nick Mowbray
Robofish Success (36:18)
Finally had major success with Robofish product but faced more challenges:
- Licensed innovative design that became a global hit
- Factory went bankrupt mid-production
- Dramatic rescue - Organized midnight operation to retrieve tooling
- First big win doing $100M+ in sales
Expansion into Diapers (41:43)
Leveraged toy company learnings to expand into consumer products:
- Started in New Zealand as test market, gained 40% share in first year
- Expanded to Australia then US
- Built automated factory with 4B diaper annual capacity
- Reached $1B+ retail sales in 5 years
FMCG Strategy (48:44)
Developed systematic approach to entering new consumer categories:
- Test small markets first
- Focus on price/performance or innovation-driven categories
- Build automated manufacturing
- Digital-first marketing focused on platforms like TikTok
- "Success is a bad teacher...in our business now I'm a huge believer in firing bullets and failing fast" - Nick Mowbray
Zuru Tech Moonshot (1:00:07)
Ambitious project to revolutionize construction industry through automation:
- Custom design software built on Unreal Engine
- AI-powered architecture assistant
- Fully automated factory to produce custom homes
- Self-funded massive investment with 700+ engineers
- "We are building a house for $5 square meter and it's the best quality in the world" - Nick Mowbray
Leadership Philosophy (1:03:28)
Key principles that drive their approach:
- Leadership must be "on the dance floor" with hands-on involvement
- Focus on "grit density" over just talent density in hiring
- 2% weekly improvement mindset for continuous progress
- "Fire bullets, then cannonballs" approach to testing new ideas
- "It's not really how capable you are, it's how willing you are" - Nick Mowbray
Conclusion
Nick Mowbray's journey shows how extreme persistence, frugality and continuous improvement can build a global business empire from scratch. Starting with no advantages beyond determination, he and his brother built one of the world's most profitable toy companies through relentless hustle and learning from failure. They've since leveraged those capabilities to disrupt multiple consumer categories and are now taking on ambitious moonshot projects. The story demonstrates that success often comes not from brilliant strategy or innovation, but from the willingness to outwork everyone else over long periods while maintaining profitability and reinvesting in growth.