The Evolution of Donavelli: A Fresh Approach to Creator Merchandise

Yeah, hey guys, my name is Daniel, student here at University of Washington, but also run a business. Its name is Donavelli. Yeah, and then I guess we can go from there.

Yeah, so we’ve a couple years old now, started my freshman year of college. So what it was originally, we were a clothing brand. You know, I’m sure many of you have seen on Instagram or Facebook, you know, ads for clothing brands, you know, small shops created by people who just have a passion for design, creativity, sort of creation there. So we started, like I mentioned, the clothing brand our first year. So we made a couple of t-shirts, pants, hoodies, what have you, just basic designs, cool sort of street wear, sold to our local community, like in pop-up shops around the area.

What have you. And then last year we sort of had an internal meeting, me and my co-founder Jackson say, we were like, okay, what is the hardest part of this business? What is our biggest challenge? Our biggest challenge was marketing. How do we prove to people that, you know, this brand is something worth buying? Cause we had, you know, relatively figured out everything else pretty successfully. So we sort of sat down and, you know, credit to Jackson. This was his idea. He said, you know, look, man, we can do everything but the marketing. Why don’t we create brands for other people?

And so then that turned into, okay, well, what does that look like? Who are these other people? So then we sort of thought about it, thought about where do you see brands? Where do you see people who need help with brands? Like, well, creators, influencers is the perfect market. They have these big audiences. They have very little time with editing, video creation, all that sort of creative things that they do. So why don’t we build out brands for creators?

So this last, you know, eight months, I’d say we really turned a pivot in the business. And now, you know, we build out merchandise and you know brands for creators. So just today, I’m not gonna show you my feet with the socks I just got on, but I will spare you, but just literally 10 minutes ago we got in a sample for a product we’re building out for one of our creators, The Sole Drop, and we’re making out like a sock brand for him essentially, because he’s an athletic shoe basketball YouTuber. So yeah, so that’s sort of what we do now. We build out creators merchandise lines.

Yeah, so the ideal target audience, so there’s in terms of competition, there’s a lot of, not a lot of rather there’s a handful less than a hand’s worth, but there’s a couple brands like Killer Merch, Warren James, a lot of these companies that do the really big guys, these really huge YouTubers, like multi-million subscribers and these really, really big creators. We sort of try to stick in the smaller markets. So like around 250,000 subscribers, that’s about the low, or maybe like 100,000 is about the lowest you can go and still see sales numbers.

And then we try to, you know, a million is our high end. So between like a hundred thousand, a million subscribers is where we find we want to, you know, really focus on these middle market, smaller creators that still have that passion and are sort of just themselves, maybe an editor. And they’re really trying to build out a brand, not just, you know, a lot of merchandising companies with these influencers, they just put like a single word on a hoodie and that’s what they sell. We really try to build a brand and something specific to a creator.

Like I mentioned our current client or one of our current clients The Sole Drop, he’s a basketball shoe YouTuber. So we’re building him out a sock brand and athletic apparel brand. So that’s, you know, a good example of how we try to really make something that can sort of last longer than the creator’s channel.

Yeah, what makes us better than our competitors? I would say, well, you know, I guess this goes without saying, but really just the passion because we’re, you know, we’re a few college units. We’re very passionate about our work. We’re very, you know, we’re diving deep into it. Sort of it’s all or nothing with us. Whereas, you know, a lot of these companies are huge, giant companies. People are there to get paid. You know, their work is reflective of their paycheck, you know, so that sort of, you know, goes without saying it’s, you know, we have that passion. We have that drive.

But also say in terms of the business level, it’s sort of the business model that we use, which is why this is relevant for smaller market creators. So, you know, the big guys, they do really, really unfair profit shares and they also charge like retainer deals. It’s like you’re paying these guys, you know, multiple thousands a month to run your merchandise site. On top of that, they’re taking like 70 % of take-home. So what we do is we offer sort of a risk -free project for our clients. So it’s like, hey, nice to meet you. You know, we shake hands, sign a preliminary contract.

And all that says is that, okay, so we’re going to come up with the first project for you. You know, let’s say you’re a gaming creator. We’re going to build out a product line of mouse pads and we’re going to see how this first project goes. They pay no cost there. So we build them out their website, their branding. So logo brand guide, you know, website and essentially. And we build out a whole company for them and then they pay nothing. They don’t pay, you know, the fees, they don’t pay us a retainer, nothing. So then we build them out. We publish it to their audience.

We like that our creators are in charge of marketing, but we assist them. And then from there, they put it on their website, we publish it, and then we quite literally just take 50 % or less of take-home profit. So it’s really just creator-driven, focused on our clients, really focused on creating the best experience for them rather than just trying to maximise how much money we’re making.

Yeah, so like I said, just because we’re in relative infancy, the best selling product would be, you know, our clothing brands products. But just an estimate for the socks, like I mentioned, that we’re creating for our current clients The Sole Drop, you know, we expect across just the initial drop anywhere from like 500 to 1000 units being sold of like just pairs of socks. We’re selling those in single packs and three packs. So a thousand cumulative pairs.

Yeah, I would say the biggest challenge is just, you know, always adapting and, you know, really believing in yourself and not doubting yourself. Because I think there’s always, you know, in the back of your mind and, you know, especially as an entrepreneur, it’s, you know, it’s on you, right? Your success is on you. And, you know, there’s no one there guiding you and telling you what to do. So I think the biggest challenge is, you know, not doubting yourself when you’re when you have days where, you know, you don’t feel like you’re performing or days where you don’t want to show up.

It’s just, you know, making sure like, hey, you know, I got to bring it today. I got to bring my A game because, you know, this is all me, this is my job. It’s like you have to be the athlete and the coach at the same time. So I think that’s really just been the biggest challenge is just that, building that consistency and that discipline to get, like I like to say, you get 1 % better every day. And I think based on that, the biggest thing I like to keep my frame of mind is just, it’s a very uncomfortable world being an entrepreneur.

My favourite quote I like to say is, be comfortable in the uncomfortable. Because if you can learn, to really just be comfortable and never being comfortable. Like you’re always sort of on edge, you’re always stressed about this or this or that, or how are you gonna get that done? Or how are you possibly gonna do this in time? Finding comfort in that zone, I think, is where like an entrepreneur truly succeeds. So that’s like my thing.

Yeah, future plans right now, like I said, we’re sort of creating clothing specific products for creators. But the ultimate goal is to be able to really create brands that go beyond the scope of the creator. So like with Younghoon, our The Sole Drop brand that’s creating a basketball apparel line that you know, we put into Target, we put into Dick’s Sporting, goes into this big retail brands, or you know, we get let’s say a cooking YouTuber creating them like a cookbook or like a knife set, and actually building out a physical product and company base that makes them money forever and makes us money forever and just stays on shelves. And we just become this national distributor of creator products. Because I really think the creator economy, the way it’s growing and the way it’s going, that the future of products and the future of how products sell, that’s really the game right there.

Yeah, in terms of promoting, like trying to get, I would say, clients, the biggest thing we’ve done is on YouTube, you can sort of find emails for creators. So it’s just hard work. It’s just going through YouTube, using whatever databases you can find, sorting through like a thousand YouTubers, going through one by one. Do they meet our current criteria? What’s their email? And then once you get a big spreadsheet of that, it’s just going through the diligence, handwriting each email. Hey, you know, whatever their name is, nice to meet you.

We’re at Donavelli, you know, we’d love to work with you. Here’s a couple ideas we have specifically for your brand. It’s just really trying to get a meeting there. That’s sort of been our process of how we get clients. And in terms of getting our name out there, my biggest thing I always like to think about is, or not like to think about, just another sort of frame of mind, is I’m not the expert at anything. I’m no expert in, you know, whatever it is that I believe that I excel in. There’s always someone that can do better. So in terms of getting our name out there, especially in the industry, I’ve been trying to do a lot of networking. So it’s just using LinkedIn, using people in my area, just trying to get meetings. Hey man, CEO, whatever company, love what you do with the company. You won’t have 30 minutes to chat. And you go through their history, see what they are, who they’re about, and what they’re about, and you’re just asking a bunch of questions. You just try to learn. I think soaking up as much knowledge and learning as you can is key. I think that’s really big.

Yeah, that’s a great question. I think starting out specifically, I think, like I said earlier, I think just to believe in yourself, but believe in yourself while always sort of having that critical thinking of how can I do better or what can I do differently and how can I adapt? Because in our business, you know, again, credit to my partner, Jackson, if he didn’t adapt and we didn’t think about how we can change what we’re doing, we wouldn’t have succeeded and been at the point where we are now. So it’s really, you know, believing in yourself.

Trust that you can do it and trust that you can get where you want to be. It’s just all about envisioning. How do I get there? But you know, with every step and with every little win that you celebrate, it’s okay. Now we’re here to get here. What are the ways that I can adapt to what I’m doing? It’s just constantly adapting.

It’s like a good example of that in our business is like I mentioned, we do our cold emailing. Our like cold email template, like the generalised template we use. Of course, we have a bunch of custom stuff we do, but our generalised template by now, and this is just in the last, what, three, four months, has probably seen 20, 25 different revisions. And that’s because every time we send the emails, we’re thinking, how could it be better? What can we do better? But it’s believing in ourselves that it’s working and that we’re doing the right thing and that we can succeed. So I would really say it’s, you know, believing in yourself, trusting that you can do it, but also understanding that, you know, things take time to adapt and to, you know, always try to think of how you can do something better.

Yeah, I would just say look forward to big things, you know, whether it’s a year from now, two years from now, five, 10 years from now. Hopefully, you know, everybody listening, everybody who hears this now or eventually that they’ll, you know, one day buy our products off a store on a shelf. And, you know, that’s my goal. That’s my drive. And, you know, that’s where we’re going to end up being.

Yeah, of course. Thank you.