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Thomas Skopek

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Thomas Skopek is an accomplished professional with a diverse educational background. He holds a BMath in Mathematics with a Statistics Major from the University of Waterloo, a BBA in Business Administration with a Marketing Major from Wilfrid Laurier University, and has completed his OSSD from the University of Toronto Schools.

Thomas Skopek has a wealth of experience in various organizations, showcasing his versatility and expertise. He has held key positions like Lead Software Engineer at Promise Robotics, Chief Technology Officer at TopHouse Technologies Ltd., Founder and CEO at Daily Water, Full-stack Developer at Lane, Back-end Developer at ZappiStore, Analyst at InfraRed Capital Partners Ltd., Analyst at Capital Investment Advisors (CapInvest), Business Intelligence Analyst at CIBC, Methodologist at Statistics Canada, and Account Coordinator at Young and Rubicam.

Highlights

Jun 25 · linkedin

I'm closing Daily Water this week. As my first side hustle, it was a fun journey with no regrets. Here’s the backstory:

💡 5 years ago, I realized I was super dehydrated at work. It was noon and I had 2 coffees but hadn't drank any water. I looked around and realized no one else in my office was drinking any water either. I ran a survey and 80% of my colleagues were dehydrated.

I couldn't stop thinking about this. After iterating on some ideas, like a slackbot with reminders (annoying) and an app (useless), I came up with a low tech solution - a jug with time markings down the side. Believe it or not, this was before those water bottles with time markings were a thing...

🔧 The first version had a camelbak style tube. I built a prototype out of a plastic jug. It was pretty effective!

I made an Alibaba account and contacted a few glassware factories in China to make a custom jug. After some back and forth, three factories seemed legit, so I paid for samples. After testing the samples with some friends, everyone found the camelbak style too dorky, and they all preferred the regular jug style.

I created a landing page and ran some Facebook ads to it, registering "add to cart" clicks. I got a couple bites, enough to convince me there was something here. Now I actually had to buy some inventory!

For my first order the factory required a minimum order quantity of 2000. I was able to negotiate it down to 50. The cost per unit at that order size was unsustainably high, but this was still an experiment.

🤑 I started a store with Shopify and ran some ads. My first sale! A random internet stranger wanted something I invented! What a rush!

Pretty soon I sold out. I ordered 200 the next time. When that sold out, 400. Then 1000. With each order I renegotiated the price per unit, improved the product and packaging, and figured out how to organize my own freight across the ocean.

🕊️ So why am I shutting it down? After iOS 14 released, my ads stopped performing abruptly due to Apple's privacy changes (which I'm completely in favour of, btw). We tried a couple different angles, but sales really slowed down, and I didn't adapt. We've had sales trickle in from SEO, but they aren't meaningful, and I'm trying to simplify my life.

Looking back, this was my first foray into entrepreneurship, and I'm proud that I took a silly idea and made it a reality. That aspect of creation is what I love most about programming, and why I love my job.

I hope you found the story entertaining and that this post inspires you in a small way to act on your crazy ideas. 😄

Finally, I would like to thank everyone for their support, and especially my wife Julia Skopek (Chelaru) for tolerating our warehouse in the basement! 📦❤️

💧 Today is the last day to buy a jug. Visit https://lnkd.in/grWQzTn7

Thomas Skopek
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Location

Toronto, Ontario, Canada