Lucas Cao is the President and CEO of Squid Industries, an American manufacturing company with a focus on the butterfly knife and trainer industry.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

• [00:49 ] Intro
• [01:48 ] Getting interested with the idea of balisong
• [03:00 ] Becoming a collector & joining the community
• [03:57 ] Seeing the barriers for interested newcomers
• [04:44 ] Trying to make a balisong trainer
• [05:37 ] Discovering the popularity of balisong
• [06:30 ] Testing the waters and the success rate
• [07:37 ] Gaining traction bit by bit
• [09:03 ] Planning things ahead and investing on manpower
• [10:27 ] Running the business remotely
• [11:15 ] Purchasing their first manufacturing equipment
• [12:29 ] Continuing the business full time
• [13:09 ] Vertical integration and quality control
• [13:53 ] An unexpected success in hindsight
• [14:32 ] The meticulous process of picking a brand name
• [17:26 ] Investing on passion and in the community
• [18:34 ] The goal is to make the best product possible
• [20:05 ] Sporadic growth, full of highs and lows
• [21:26 ] A shift on the velocity of production
• [22:18 ] Leveraging the resources available to you
• [22:52 ] Episode sponsors
• [26:17 ] The challenge in manufacturing and prototyping
• [27:46 ] The importance of versatility
• [28:50 ] Maximizing influencer marketing
• [30:20 ] Standing out from the competition
• [30:54 ] Trying different avenues of advertising
• [31:39 ] Effectively conveying your idea to manufacturers
• [34:05 ] Talk to manufacturers with different processes
• [35:14 ] Where to find Squid Industries Co.

Resources:

• Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
• High performance and community-driven balisongs squidindustries.co/  
• Follow Lucas Cao linkedin.com/in/lucas-cao-6a3412b1/
• Schedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connect
• Take your retail business to the next level today https://shopify.com/honest
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• Schedule your free consultation with a Sendlane expert sendlane.com/honest

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