I vividly remember the Thanksgiving sale in Nov 2012 back in Rhode Island! Back then, my pain point was to cook as efficiently as possible. I was working during the day and pursuing my part-time MBA at Bryant University. So, I really didn’t have the time to cook for more than 30 minutes. We use a lot of pressure-cooking with Indian cuisine. With the traditional pressure cooker, you have to be vigilant in regard to the number of whistles and ensure that you have put in an adequate amount of water so that you don’t burn the bottom. I do have burnt-bottom cooker stories. And so when I saw the InstantPot on sale, I quickly saw a few reviews and gave it a try! And viola, it turned me into an instant pot fan, which I use multiple times a week even today.
“Put an instant pot in every kitchen”
“Initial mission statement of the Instant Pot – Robert Wang”
Initial days – What was Robert Wang thinking?
Robert Wang is a computer scientist and back in 2008, his wife and he were both busy professionals and didn’t have time to cook healthy meals. They had a lot of takeout food but that wasn’t healthy.
The pains he was trying to solve were very relatable pains around the kitchen.
- Able to cook meals under 30 minutes.
- Don’t want an overcrowded kitchen (Space is a constraint in many kitchens around the world) and so wanted many functions in the same appliance.
- Burn protection – Traditional pressure cookers can be dangerous if they explode (due to not having adequate water or too much heat or not using the whistle properly.)
What did building his first MVP i.e. minimum viable product look like?
- He had taken a huge risk in 2008 by financing his new venture with his own money. He pumped in $300K to start his venture for the instant pot. His partners kept changing throughout the 1st 2 years but he stood his ground.
- It was a novel product which had sensors to monitor and control heat. It didn’t require you to stand around and monitor it. Using his computer science background, Wang built different functions around pressure cooking, slow cooking, fermenting, saute, etc which eliminated the need for several kitchen appliances.
- They improvised the product to cook dishes that their family and friends frequently made. His team looked at the prominent pain points and added safety features to his product. It took Wang 18 months to come up with the 1st model of the Instant Pot.
- He initially drove around Montreal and other places around Ottawa to sell his units. Selling individually to small local stores was time-consuming, leaving less time for design. Selling a novel product (that no one knew) locally was tedious. Wang thought of partnering with Amazon to market and seek feedback on his product. This worked out well because it opened his product to non-Ottawa markets in Canada. The secret sauce for marketing was word-of-mouth. When people talked about the product in gatherings, they initiated a sale to their group.
- Ultimately, it turned out to be the blockbuster product in 2015 for Amazon. On prime day, they sold 215K units. Eventually they also found shelf-space at the bigger stores like Walmart, Target.
- 2015 was also the year where Instant Pot had product recalls when they received a few complaints from users reporting electric shock and the pot overheating. The company recalled over 100K units based on this. It was a manufacturing defect leading to these issues. Safety is their primary focus.
- Since it isn’t publicly held, we don’t have the revenue numbers for the instant pot. However, this has been reported by Walmart to be one of its best selling items! Starting from practically one employee back in 2010, the company has about 90 employees in its Ottawa office as of 2019.
- Feedback loop with users
- Launched a Facebook page in 2015 to interact directly with users.
- Many of them gave their feedback and suggested enhancements for the future – One example is the yogurt mode.
- The official Facebook page for Instant Pot has over 3.1 million followers in Jun 2022! (And of course there are many other Fan group pages)
- Wang also roped in food bloggers to try out new recipes with the Instant Pot. These functions with the Instant Pot have been so generic and people cook different cuisines with that. From rajma chawal, choley in the Indian cuisine to dough, yogurt, cakes and Thanksgiving Turkey, there is a variety of dishes that people cook around the world. Many food bloggers have launched Vlogs, Youtube channels and are generating a steady income from the same.
Product learnings
- Solving a real problem – Focusing on real problems got him traction from his friends and family. Being able to cook under 30 minutes is fairly a universal problem and so Wang did have the foresight that this product could go viral! He talked to his friends and family to identify pain points and experimented realistically.Having a clear understanding of the customer pains / gains will help generate traction for your product.
- Continuous feedback loop – Early on, Wang made a
smart choice by using the online medium for selling his product. His
niche was engineering and this product was something which practically
every household could use because it is a timesaver and not too pricey
if you think of the benefits.
- His team regularly reads the customer reviews. It is famously known that he read almost 40K reviews and stopped counting after that. His customers gave him suggestions of what else they would like to see with his product. So much so that people were willing to buy another pot when the feature became available. (I can attest to that – I use one for veg cooking and the other for non-veg).
- His product evolved to a point that he also got shelf space with big retailers like Walmart, Target etc. Great product and word-of-mouth is powerful.
- Staying in regular touch with the customers helped them recall products very quickly before more people faced issues. Having traceability helps recall products and ensure customer loyalty.
- Product strategy
- With the customer reviews, you also get the idea of what is frequently requested and they come up with the features for the next version of the instant pot.
- Release a new version of the instant pot every 12-18 months. This means people can’t wait to see what you have to offer next!
Closing remarks!
2008 was a tumultuous time with the recession but Wang decided to fund his venture on his own. It was indeed a brave decision but as they say “Fortune favors the brave”!
Cook more with the instant pot.