From Creative Director to Dirty Bastard: Maximus Mattuchio’s Big Bet on a Masculine Laundry Brand

[00:00:00] Basically, if I'm going to make laundry detergent exciting and I'm going to call it the brand Dirty Bastard, I'm not going to market it like Tide does with their laundry detergent to moms and to, you know, yeah, basically just to moms. I'm going to market it like it's the best beer in the entire world and speak directly to the male consumer in a way that they've already been proven to resonate with, with, you know, humor and irreverence and, you know, like all of, you know, even like the Dos Equis commercials.

[00:00:27] Those are, you know, serious, but they're intended to be funny and men really identify with humor. And I think if we're going to call our brand Dirty Bastard, that's a bold thing to do. And we have to align with that in terms of how we speak to the consumer, which is in all aspects, whether it's the box design or even the packaging that the box comes in. This is it. It says, holy sheet, it's here as it shows up at your door.

[00:00:54] And, you know, the brand voice is super, super important for us. And yeah, it's just how can we make laundry as fun and exciting as possible? Welcome to the En Factor Podcast, conversations with entrepreneurs who started, stumbled and succeeded. I'm Rebecca White and I'm your host. And I'm really excited that you've decided to join me today.

[00:01:22] Our guest is Maximus Matuccio. Maximus is a 21-year-old recent graduate of the University of Tampa. And as many of you know who listen to the podcast, I've been a professor at the University of Tampa now for about 17 years. And I run the entrepreneurship program there.

[00:01:42] And it's really fun for me today to share this story with you because Maximus is one of our recent grads, actually just graduated about a month ago at the time of this recording. And he's already launched a pretty successful brand called Dirty Bastard Laundry Sheets. And, you know, it's really a company that's as bold as his name suggests.

[00:02:08] He's taking cologne-infused laundry detergent sheets and building a brand around them. And, you know, he's very clear on what that brand is. And he's just got a nose for marketing and for branding. And he's building a company that I think has some real possibilities. What I love about Maximus is that he's not following a playbook.

[00:02:33] He's built creative credibility working with Jake Paul's W Brand. And he understands how his market thinks. And he's using all kinds of resources to bootstrap this company and build something amazing. And I think it's going to be really exciting to watch where this brand goes. So this is a conversation about timing, about identity.

[00:02:59] And really, it's a message in what it takes to bet on yourself. So let's get into this conversation with Maximus Mattuchio. So, Maximus, thank you for joining me today. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Yeah, this is a real treat for me. You know, we were talking a little bit beforehand that both of us have actually... You've had a podcast.

[00:03:29] And I've been doing this podcast out of the University of Tampa for about seven years now. And I have not had that many students on my podcast. Of course, you are now, as of a month or so ago, a former student, right? Yes. Yes. I just graduated. Yes, just graduated on May 9th. And I was supposed to launch my company on May 9th. But it actually turned out to be a blessing.

[00:03:58] Our inventory got delayed. And we ended up having to launch on July 1st, actually, which is just about eight days from today, which is exciting. Well, I've been watching you do a lot of work. So even though you're just now getting around to launching, you have already had some real success with this business. And like I said, it is a real treat because I haven't had the chance to have that many University of Tampa students.

[00:04:25] So you are 21, ripe old age of 21, starting a business. And you've already got some great experience behind you. And if I remember correctly, you're from Massachusetts. Is that right? A little bit north of Boston, about halfway between the southern border of New Hampshire and Boston. Okay. And you came to the University of Tampa. What brought you to the university? So it's a funny story, actually.

[00:04:51] I had applied to like the University of Massachusetts, University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island, all of like the New England colleges. And in my high school spring break, I was 18 years old. And I approached my mom with my best friend from high school and said, hey, mom, I want to go tour the University of Tampa. I want to drive my car, my 2011 Ford Taurus, 1500 miles down to Florida.

[00:05:17] And my excuse was I wanted to go tour the University of Tampa because I had applied there. But what I really wanted to do was to go on spring break in Florida and be there down here with my best friend. And we had only planned on really going for like a weekend. And to my surprise at the time, looking back, it's really not that much of a surprise. My car broke down when I got down to Tampa. And actually, this is an interesting story. We were talking about my podcast.

[00:05:46] And I had started that podcast when I was in high school. And I wanted to promote my podcast. And we had stopped at a few different colleges along the way on the drive down to Florida to promote my podcast. And I had these wristbands and my car had broken down. I had like basically no money at the time, actually. Me and my friend were at Waffle House in Tampa. And my car got declined. And I called Bank of America. And I said, hey, I think somebody might have hacked my bank account.

[00:06:14] Like, I don't my car just got declined. I thought I had money. They're like, okay, did you make this transaction? I was like, yes. Did you make this transaction? I was like, yeah. So they went through all the transactions. I had basically run my account dry. And all I had was a bag of these. The name of my podcast was called Diesel University. It was like a sports podcast. I had a bag of like 100 Diesel University wristbands.

[00:06:36] And I walked around the University of Tampa campus and sold these cheap little rubber wristbands for $5 each to students on campus just walking around. And I think I sold 100 wristbands in like an afternoon. And I was like, okay, I think I need to go to school here, honestly. And I had made enough money to pay for my car to be repaired to drive back to Boston with a little bit of help from my mom, of course, because $500 wasn't going to get the full job done.

[00:07:03] But after that experience, I was like, yeah, I need to go to school down here. It was just the people I was talking to, like, you know, were just so receptive to my passion and me just hustling and doing my thing. I just loved it so much. So you were selling before you ever got here. Was that something like in high school where you always – has this been something you've loved from the beginning?

[00:07:29] Like were you one of those kids that were, you know, 10 years old and you had a lemonade stand or you were doing something to make money? Yeah. There's a funny story. And it's better when my mom tells the story. But basically when I was, I think, six years old, I had done a lemonade stand maybe a week before. And I made like $40 doing a lemonade stand. So I just became – and I'm a very like – I have ADHD, so I get very like hyper fixated and obsessed with like little things that, you know, make me excited.

[00:07:57] And I became obsessed with doing lemonade stands. And at like 6 a.m. one day, I had made a thing of lemonade and went door to door in my neighborhood knocking. I had like broke – like unlocked the door, went outside and started knocking on my neighbor's doors and selling them lemonade. And it was like super early in the morning and my neighbor who we weren't like that close with actually had come into the house and woken up my mom to let her know that I was knocking on all of the neighbor's doors trying to sell them lemonade.

[00:08:26] And that's just like nobody taught me that. But I was just – I've always been a very – my grandmother used to say that I could sell sand to a guy in a desert or sell ice to an Eskimo. Yeah, you know, my mom used to say that about my son. He was like that too. So, well, that's great. I'm excited, you know, for anybody listening. You have your hat on right now, Dirty Bastard. Right. And you started a consumer products company, right?

[00:08:56] Yeah. Called Dirty Bastard Laundry. So, tell us about that. How did that get started? And, you know, what kind of success have you already had before you've launched the company officially? Absolutely. I'll try to keep it somewhat short because it is somewhat of a long story. But basically, I had been doing a lot of stuff in social media after my podcast. I had realized that, you know, I was kind of going broke.

[00:09:23] And I had developed a lot of good skills through podcasting like video production and content creation. So, I started to advertise myself as, you know, like a producer or like a creative director. And I had the opportunity to work with some pretty cool influencers. But most notably this past summer, actually around a year ago this time, yeah, almost exactly a year ago, I had the opportunity to live in an RV and work as a creative director for Jake Paul. He's like a big social media influencer.

[00:09:53] He has his own personal care and like men's hygiene brand. It's called W. And I was, we were living in an RV, me and three other content creators. And it was our job to come up with creative ways to make this deodorant brand as exciting as possible. And we did 40 states in 50 days, 15,000 miles across the country. We'd wake up in Idaho and have to come up with a way to make deodorant the most exciting thing in the entire world.

[00:10:19] And, you know, through the dynamic nature, like that was just such a dynamic experience for me. And it taught me so much. I mean, it was our job to interact with male consumers around the country. And we had an experience where we got to work with Dude Wipes, which if you're not familiar with them, they're exactly what they call themselves. They're baby wipes for men.

[00:10:41] And I was talking to one of their marketing directors and we were talking about their growth that he's seen the company go through over the past couple of years. And I found out that Dude Wipes did $350 million in revenue last year because they made baby wipes masculine. And I started to look... $350 million? $350 million? $350 million, yes. That's crazy. That's crazy.

[00:11:04] So before you go on with your story, I just have to ask you, what's the craziest thing that you all did on that ride? Because I know the story is a great one, but what's the craziest thing that maybe you're willing to talk about? To get people to get excited about deodorant? So we were in Las Vegas and you're not supposed to talk about what happens in Vegas, but this is a relatively good story.

[00:11:33] We met this guy out in the desert and this sounds like this story is going somewhere sideways, but he is like a fireworks guy and he's like a pyrotechnics guy. And we had been given a budget to like shoot off like $25,000 worth of fireworks. And this guy made these like firework cannons. Like basically he took all these like Roman candles and strapped them all together and it was like a giant bazooka that you would hold like this.

[00:11:59] And we drove out to the Las Vegas desert and shot off like $25,000 worth of fireworks. And it was like the coolest experience of my life. And there's, I don't know if you can add a little video, but I have a little video of me like I was standing there holding the camera and I was like, there are so many ways that this could go wrong right now. And I'm just standing right here. And yeah. They can, this is crazy, but we're here, we're doing it. And did it have an impact? Yeah.

[00:12:26] So actually fireworks ended up being one of our highest performing kind of content formats. It was also one of the most expensive because those things aren't cheap. And, um, but yeah, one of our firework videos got like 20 million views or something like that. Wow. Wow. Yeah. So you've, you've got this experience and what happens next? So we work with Dude Wipes. We did a little collaboration with them and I just became fascinated with, and this was towards the end of the trip too. So I had already been compartmentalizing and I'm always been an entrepreneur.

[00:12:56] So I'm, I also like sat in on a meeting with, uh, like Walmart and their buyers at the Walmart headquarters in Bentonville. Wow. And I'm sitting like a fly on the wall and I'm just listening and taking in, you know, here's what we think the product could be doing better. Here's where like they're talking about placement and stuff like that. And I'm just sitting there and I'm taking all this in and I obviously was an entrepreneurship major and I had no intention of, you know, getting a job after college. I always knew I wanted to start my own business.

[00:13:24] I didn't know what it was going to be, but I just became fascinated with the masculine CPG space. There are brands like Dr. Squatch, which just sold to Unilever for $1.8 billion in 2025. Um, there's brands like Dollar Shave Club that sold for a billion dollars in five years. They sold in 2016. You know, the, the, the phrase I like to use is men have brands for their body, their beard, their butt and their balls. But when it comes to their laundry detergent, they're left with no masculine identity.

[00:13:54] And once I'd kind of come to that realization, I wanted to go all in on the concept. And I had actually, uh, in Professor Hertz's class in last semester, probably around November, um, I had started to do the feasibility analysis for the idea. And, you know, actually it's, it's funny. I was going back and forth with him. I wanted to call the brand initially Maximus for obvious reasons, but we were talking about Dirty Bastard.

[00:14:22] And I was like, oh, I don't know if, you know, I don't know if that's like, if it's too much or whatever. And he actually convinced me. He's like, no, I think you should call it Dirty Bastard. I think that that would really catch people's attention. So I went on, on the Dirty Bastard concept. And this is actually, I think it was the fall venture showcase. I had to, you know, create a mock-up of my product and I actually have it right here. And it started as dryer sheets. Um, yeah. And I taped it together. On the back of bounce box. Yeah.

[00:14:50] But the concept started as dryer sheets just because, you know, I had never even heard of laundry detergent sheets before. Um, but I was talking to one of my mom's friends and she was like, uh, you should do laundry detergent sheets because dryer sheets are like an add-on. Like not everybody uses dryer sheets, but everybody uses laundry detergent. And I started to look into it and I found out that laundry detergent sheets are actually the fastest growing detergent format.

[00:15:15] And, uh, actually what's, what's funny is that Tide probably six months into me kind of developing the concept for Dirty Bastard, Tide had released their own liquidless detergent format. And they've only innovated their detergent format just only four times and it's 80 year history. So they did powder in like the 1960s or 60s. They did a liquid in the 1980s and then they came out with pods in 2012. And then this is another time that they've innovated the format.

[00:15:43] And every single time they've innovated their format, the rest of the market follows. So, you know, people will ask me, they're like, Hey Max, like, are you worried about Tide coming out with a liquidless detergent format? I'm like, absolutely not. Because, you know, I didn't know what laundry detergent sheets were before. And as I'm talking to people, a lot of people are unfamiliar with a liquidless detergent format. But when you have a multi-billion dollar company subsidizing our consumer education, that takes a lot off my plate for sure. Yeah, I used to live in Cincinnati.

[00:16:13] And of course, you know, the Tide is a Procter & Gamble product. And I was going to ask you if it ever scared you to go up against, you know, the big players in the industry. But one of the things I'm thinking about as you're talking about it is your market. And you're talking about men. And probably a lot of men that would be doing their own laundry are going to look for the easiest, simplest way to do it. Right?

[00:16:43] And so you don't have to measure anything, right? You just grab one of those and throw it in. Yeah, I have it right here. So all you do is open the box like this, super easy. Take out a sheet. Throw it in the washing machine. That's it. Like, I think of, so I created this product basically for myself because I am the, like, that typical male consumer that uses a dude wipes and Dr. Squatch and all those brands. And I just, you know, created it to be as simple and streamlined as possible.

[00:17:09] Like, you know, liquid detergent is, you know, it's not an extremely complex process. But us men, we like things to be very simple. Like, even just doing the liquid and measuring and, you know, it gets messy and it drips down the side of the bottle and it gets all over the washing machine. And it's like, it's just, you know, an inefficient way to do it. And I wanted to, you know, bring a product to market that made it as efficient as possible for men to get their laundry done.

[00:17:35] So, you just graduated and this was in a marketing, I mean, an entrepreneurship course that you, just a year ago, right? Or less than a year ago because you were doing the internship in the summer. And so, you came back to school in the fall and you came up with this idea. And you needed it, you needed an idea for class, but you'd already been thinking about it. So, you have already manufactured this product, right?

[00:18:04] I mean, you know, you're selling it. Yes. So, talk us through what you learned and how you went about figuring out to get this product to market. Because you had the brand and you had the name and the marketing pitch, but there's a lot more to it, right? Yeah, product development.

[00:18:24] And I just want to say, like, everything that has been done for this company, it's been just me figuring it out with, you know, ChatGPT and AI and stuff like that. And, you know, what's great about where we currently sit and where we're entering the market is AI is getting increasingly, you know, more available. It's getting increasingly more advanced. And, you know, for some companies, that's somewhat of a concern.

[00:18:51] But for me, as a solo founder who doesn't have the budget to hire and, you know, AI is never going to replace laundry detergent. It's only going to enhance our ability to sell it. And in the product development process, I literally just asked ChatGPT, how do I get this product made? And it took me to a, like, international wholesaling website. It's called Alibaba. And I went forth and found a few manufacturers. I think we had five manufacturers send us samples.

[00:19:21] And we were going back and forth with them. And, you know, I picked one that I really liked, one that was pretty cost competitive over in China. And, you know, if you can see here on my initial concept, I really wanted it to be made in the USA. But, you know, I kind of, you know, I was very naive at that point. I didn't realize how much more expensive it would actually be to do it in the U.S. But, yeah, we worked with the fragrance lab to develop the fragrances, sent them over to the manufacturer. They sent us some samples.

[00:19:51] And then they sent me a dye line template for a box design. And I was like, I had no idea how to even approach it. I had no idea how to even approach it. And I was like, how do I design a box? I had, you know, I had some basic graphic design background. But, yeah, I think I took a class made my freshman year on graphic design. And I used to do, like, thumbnail designs for, like, YouTube and stuff like that. But nothing too advanced.

[00:20:18] And I ended up developing this. I'll show you, actually, this one's probably my favorite box design. This is the Coastal Drift box design. And you can see, like, on all sides it says tough on stains and stink. And then because men don't smell like flowers. And then on the back I was inspired by, like, Stetson, which is, like, a cowboy hat brand. And on the back of all their boxes, or actually it's on the front of all their boxes,

[00:20:44] they have a character that appears similar to the guy on the back of this box. Like a cowboy look, right? Yeah, like kind of like a Marlboro man type of thing, too. Yeah. And it's funny because, so if you'll see, as I was designing the boxes, I was like, what can I take away from brands that men already identify with? So, like, this is, like, Stetson. And it also is, like, somewhat of a depiction of maybe, like, the Marlboro man,

[00:21:12] which, you know, they had a massive marketing campaign in, like, the, you know, basically convincing men that it was masculine to use tobacco products. But this right here is, like, a depiction of, like, the Budweiser horse, which, you know, obviously men have identified with that brand for a very long time. And then right here is kind of like the depiction of Coors Mountain. I kind of took all of these little, like, innuendos or Easter eggs that, you know,

[00:21:40] were identifiable in men's brands that were already successful and incorporated into the product. And, you know, now we place an initial inventory order for 3,000 units in March. We have approximately, like, 2,300 units remaining. And we just placed another order for 6,000 units actually today. So it's been a really interesting experience. And it's been every day, like, going back to my ADHD, I always need new stimulus to stay excited.

[00:22:10] And this is, like, this is awesome because every day it's something is on fire and I got to put it out and I got to figure out how to do this and that. And it's been the most incredible experience. You're not getting bored, right? No. So I want to dig into the branding because there were some real nuggets in there, I think, with what you were talking about.

[00:22:33] So where did you get the idea to go out and look at all these male brands and take bits and pieces from each one of them? Is that just an idea you came up with or is that something maybe you learned through your internship or through some other, you know, class? Or how did you develop this?

[00:22:56] Because it feels like you've got a real instinct for brand, which is so powerful in consumer products. Yeah, absolutely. So basically I think it started with my ignorance and my, like, I didn't know how to design a packaging. So I started to look at, you know, different men's, like, hygiene brands. And I was like, okay, these designs are cool. But then I had actually talked to a gentleman who started a, and you might be familiar with him. His name is Roman.

[00:23:25] He started a seltzer company. It has, like, electrolytes in it. And he's local here at Tampa. And he was talking to me about how he designed his packaging and marketed his product. And he kind of brought up to me, he's like, it seems like you're kind of marketing this product as an alcohol brand. And that kind of, I guess I was subconsciously doing that because, you know, I was looking at all these male hygiene brands and I was like, this branding doesn't really resonate.

[00:23:50] So I started to look at, like, beer brands and, you know, like, brands like Marlboro that, you know, like, cigarettes are obviously not a good thing. But it's something that men have, you know, it's that marketing campaign that they did with the Marlboro Man. It's probably one of the most successful marketing campaigns of all time. So I just wanted to basically, if I'm going to make laundry detergent exciting and I'm going to call it the brand dirty bastard,

[00:24:15] I'm not going to market it like Tide does with their laundry detergent to moms and to, you know, yeah, basically just to moms. I'm going to market it like it's the best beer in the entire world and speak directly to the male consumer in a way that they've already been proven to resonate with, with, you know, humor and irreverence and, you know, like all of, you know, even like the Dos Equis commercials. Those are, you know, serious, but they're intended to be funny. And men really identify with humor.

[00:24:44] And I think if we're going to call our brand dirty bastard, that's a bold thing to do. And we have to align with that in terms of how we speak to the consumer, which is in all aspects, whether it's the box design or even the packaging that the box comes in. This is it. It says, holy sheet, it's here as it shows up at your door. And, you know, the brand voice is super, super important for us. And yeah, it's just how can we make laundry as fun and exciting as possible?

[00:25:14] You know, what I find really interesting about this, I've worked with a lot of entrepreneurs. Obviously, through and done things myself. And one of the biggest challenges is, I think, as an entrepreneur is really getting hyper-focused on that market and who they are. And that really resonates with me, what I'm hearing from you. Obviously, your marketing is not geared at me, for example.

[00:25:41] You know, you're very clear about who you're gearing it towards. I might buy it for my son or someone else, but it's not geared towards me. So you had to really put a stake in the ground and say, this is my market, and I'm willing to take a risk around it. And so have you gotten any pushback on the name? You know, we had the very first company that launched out of the Entrepreneurship Center.

[00:26:10] I don't know if you've ever heard this story. But it had a similar name, maybe a bit worse. But, you know, they ended up changing it. But have you gotten any pushback on the name? Yeah, so I actually had recently had a meeting at the Hannaford headquarters in Scarborough, Maine, with their VP of, like, grocery. And this was an awesome opportunity.

[00:26:36] But basically, the feedback that I had received from them was, you know, we are not open to putting a brand like this on our shelves right now because of the edginess and the irreverence of the brand voice. However, you know, I personally think that money talks.

[00:26:56] And if we have a extremely loyal, cult-like fan base and, you know, consumer base that are using our product and going up to the cashier and asking where our product is over the course of, you know, a year or so, I think that it would be impossible not to put us on the shelves. So that's almost been somewhat of a blessing for me as well. And I'm very big into, like, everything happens for a reason. Anything that happens was supposed to happen.

[00:27:24] And it's all, you know, for the benefit of, you know, it's just all supposed to happen. If I can't control it, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm going to see the silver lining in it. And I think that the pushback that I've received from retail is just my sign to go all in on direct-to-consumer because, you know, that's where the market's heading. I mean, I think it's by 2031, over 50% of all personal care products are expected to be purchased online.

[00:27:53] And if we're following that trend, you know. Also, we have a subscription model, too, which is super profitable long-term. The scalability of the subscription model is super strong. So I think that just focusing on direct-to-consumer is awesome because we can say whatever we want when we're speaking directly to the consumer. There's no middleman between us in that sense. Yeah, there's a lot of courage in that. But I think it also, you know, I think it makes a lot of sense.

[00:28:21] And I think the fact that you can narrow down and be very specific about your market is really a superpower of what you're trying to do because it enables you to get very focused. And you're right. I mean, I think the market you're focused on is going to buy a lot online anyway. So it's not your mom necessarily going to the grocery store, you know. Hannaford's a great company. And I think you're right.

[00:28:51] There is some possibility down the road. But let's talk a little bit. I know you've done some really cool marketing things here on campus. You had your washing machine that you rolled around campus. How do you dream up these ideas? And did you learn a lot of this in your internship? Or, you know, do you have a creative partner? I mean, where does all this come from? Yeah. So the washing machine in particular.

[00:29:19] So I'll go back to this summer. I came up with a campaign where we wrote the name of every new follower gained on the RV in Sharpie. And our premise behind that was like, you follow us and we'll do this for you in return, which you don't see a lot of online. It's kind of like follow us to see our content. But when we pair good content with, you know, that call to action where we're giving them something in return. And you can travel the country with us and you can be on the RV as well with us.

[00:29:48] And that was like a super successful campaign. I think we gained around 25,000 followers through that campaign. And, you know. Just because people wanted to write their name on the RV. That's really cool. You're right. Something like that that doesn't cost you anything. No. Well, it costs us a good amount of time, but still. Yeah. Yeah. But not a lot of money. Let me put it that way. And they become part of your campaign then too, right? Yeah.

[00:30:14] And that was like people would like love to like we would take pictures and post it on the story and people would see their name on the RV and they would get excited and post about it and share it. And when I was launching this company, I had just seen the success of that campaign and I wanted to find some sort of way to replicate it. And obviously I can't afford a $60,000 Winnebago and I can't do a cross country road trip.

[00:30:36] I mean, I had, you know, very, very little resources at that time, but I needed to find a way to create some sort of symbol of our brand that people could identify with. So I bought a $50 washing machine off Facebook Marketplace. It was broken. We cut the cords on it and we put it on wheels. And I had somebody at the university printing lab print out something for me for like $20 and we wrapped the washing machine with like adhesive spray.

[00:31:05] So all in that washing machine cost, I think, less than $75 to do. And I was like, okay, it's one thing to have the washing machine, but how can I make it iconic in the same way that the RV was? So I started to push it around campus. I would have like a little like mini basketball and people would try to shoot a hoop into the washing machine. And I partnered with a local sub shop. It's called Gateway Subs. And we partnered with them to give out 100 free sandwiches to students on campus from out of the washing machine.

[00:31:35] So you had to reach into the washing machine and grab your sandwich. And, you know, the washing machine became a universally recognized symbol of the brand in the same way that the RV had become the universally recognized symbol of W. And I was like, okay, now we have buy-in with the washing machine. So we launched a Kickstarter campaign and we set a $10,000 30-day campaign goal. And this was in early March.

[00:32:01] And in my head, I'm thinking, you know, $333 a day over the course of 30 days product that people have never heard about. It's not going to come for another two months. Let's see if we could do it. That would be, it was ambitious at the time. And I announced that we're going to be writing the name of every Kickstarter backer on the washing machine in Sharpie. And we fully funded the campaign, sold around 350 boxes in the first 48 hours. And that was like the most crazy experience.

[00:32:28] And going back to like when I made the $40 with that lemonade stand that I just became infatuated and hyper fixated on this one thing, lemonade stands. It felt like the same exact thing. I just became absolutely obsessed with this brand. And yeah, we did around $12,000 in our Kickstarter campaign before I even had my hands-on product. That's crazy. And, you know, you're ambitious, but you're also courageous, right?

[00:32:57] You're willing to push a washing machine around campus. And people can't miss it, right? Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I'm going to find another, I'm going to find another like kind of, another stunt like that to do with some sort of, I just made this, like this version of a coastal drift box. It's about probably this, this big, not like it's a giant version of the box.

[00:33:26] And I'm going to, I just made it and I was like, we'll find a use for it eventually. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, so the, the, this brand, this branding, you know, you've learned so much about that, that you could apply to virtually anything. But you're hyper-focused right now on building Dirty Bastard. And so you mentioned your Kickstarter campaign. What have been some of the other successes you've had?

[00:33:53] And what are you planning after, you know, this launch in July? Yeah. So the Kickstarter was definitely like kind of like the first big milestone for us. And that was what kind of kicked us off. But towards the last, you know, in the last two months, I've had the opportunity to enter a lot of pitch competitions to being at the University of Tampa.

[00:34:15] And another one, you know, you guys were kind enough to select me for the, the Governor's Cup down in Fort Myers, which was an awesome experience. And then I got to go to the Space Florida Venture Forum or the Florida Venture Forum. And that was super awesome. And we won $4,500 from the New Venture Showcase in April, I believe that was. We won another $2,000 from the University of Tampa.

[00:34:45] I think it was like the final business plan competition. Yeah. So that was like $6,500. And then we went down to Fort Myers to compete on the statewide level. And, you know, I had some decent confidence going into it. But so I was on the latter half of people who presented. And, you know, another thing about the brand, too, is I wear a green tuxedo. And I almost wore it today, but I want it to be a little bit more casual today. Yeah. I wore a green tuxedo and an orange bow tie and a black cowboy hat.

[00:35:14] And we showed up to the Governor's Cup. And a lot of the other companies were like in, you know, full suits, suit and tie talking. You know, there were some companies that were, you know, using quantum computing technology to detect and remove like brain tumors and stuff like that. And I'm standing here with my washing machine and I'm like, we just need to be different. We need to break the ice of the seriousness of this entire event.

[00:35:41] And we need to, if I'm going to walk up with a brand called Dirty Bastard, I need to embody that brand in my pitch. So we were cracking jokes. I was, you know, I had the judges laughing. And we ended up taking home first place in the Governor's Cup, which was awesome. And we got to bring the trophy back to the Entrepreneurship Center. And that was cool. And I was kind of, I had thought that that was maybe my last pitch competition. But I was then invited to the Space Florida competition.

[00:36:10] This was, I think, around three weeks ago at this point. And honestly, we were like one of the last groups to, or I was one of the last people to present. And everybody else there was like, we're using this AI technology to develop these rockets to do this. And we have this healthcare, medical healthcare technology software blank and this. And we're saving lives.

[00:36:35] And I go up there once again in the black cowboy hat and the green tuxedo and say, men have brands for their body, their beard, their butt, and their balls. But they don't have brands for their laundry. And, you know, I'm making jokes with the judges and brought my washing machine up in the big box for Coastal Drift. And we took home $5,000 from that pitch competition. And that was, you know, super awesome. But I'm honestly seriously going to miss those pitch competitions because I just love that. Like, I loved, that's my personality.

[00:37:04] I've always been that way to be able to, like, go up in front of a crowd and just talk about something that I'm passionate about. And there's never been anything in my life that I've been as passionate about as this brand. So any opportunity that I have to, like, talk about it and speak about it and then win money to talk about what I love to already talk about, that was an awesome experience. But, yeah, I've had some pretty cool PR placement. We got to be in the Tampa Bay Business Journal. And, you know, University of Tampa has done some cool articles on us.

[00:37:32] And then I had a Fox 13 interview. It was like a 30-minute interview, which was, like, that was super cool too. And just give me an opportunity to talk about my brand. Even this podcast, I'm like, I love it. I'm so excited to be here. Well, and there is a lot of competition out there for attention, for money, for customers. So you have to stand out, right?

[00:37:56] And I can imagine it was intimidating at times to see some of the scientists and engineers and to go up with your product. But good for you. And you have done really well. And we're all really proud of you. What do you have ahead of you? How do you plan? Because, you know, being a student and involved in an entrepreneurship program and getting to do these competitions is kind of a unique situation that not every founder gets.

[00:38:23] So, you know, how are you going to leverage that? And I know you went to the Venture Forum. Are you hoping to raise money to get partnerships, financial partnerships? Or, you know, how are you going to build this thing out and scale it? Yeah, so absolutely. So our margins are really healthy for this brand. I'm like, I won't say our exact margins, but they're healthy enough to scale organically.

[00:38:51] And we've already seen that from the money that we generated from the Kickstarter and some of our early sales. We're already able to double our inventory amount in our second order. So a lot of... Are you the only owner in this company? Yeah. So I actually, I have one investor who is actually a professor at the university. And she was never even one of my professors. I just was talking to her about the idea and the concept.

[00:39:16] And this was actually right after the Fall Venture Showcase, after I'd lost. And I was actually pretty upset about losing. But I think it was just too early. I hadn't had enough time to develop my concept yet. But she's like, I think it's a good idea. I think you should have won. What do you need to get started? And this was... All I had was the feasibility analysis. I'm like, let me go check my feasibility analysis. And I got her phone number and we were just talking back and forth.

[00:39:43] And I ended up giving her 10% of the company initially when she gave me a good amount of money to basically place the first order of inventory. And she'll give some money here and there on an as-needed basis. But yeah, she's been so awesome. Like, for example, I'll have FaceTime calls with her and my mom to discuss. Like, that's the team.

[00:40:09] It's my investor, who's a professor, and my mom, who is actually a marketing genius. She's a pharmacist. But she hasn't given herself enough credit. She is a marketing genius. I'll give you an example. So this past week, she joined over 30 different incoming freshman mom Facebook groups under an anonymous Facebook account called Mom of Four Boys.

[00:40:33] The University of Alabama, University of Georgia, University of Texas, University of Tennessee, all the schools are, like, massive and have, you know, massive numbers of students. And she's joined those incoming mom freshman, incoming freshman mom groups and posted about our product. And we did our first $1,000 day besides the Kickstarter. We did our first $1,000 day just from these organic Facebook posts. And that was her idea completely. And she's, like, we will talk about that. How do we scale that?

[00:41:03] And how do we scale it out? And now we're actually, she got her Facebook account, like, temporarily banned for doing it. I love it. I love it. She's so awesome. But, yeah, we, now we're doing, like, actual paid posts in these Facebook groups because I think they kind of caught on. But the early success of it just made me, like, kind of realize that.

[00:41:23] So what's interesting, too, is 70% of all DudeWipes purchasers are actually women, which is kind of fascinating because we are kind of targeting our marketing right now towards, like, back to school and moms. That, you know, maybe their son, they've been doing their son's laundry for the past 18 years. And he's going off to college and they're worried about him not being able to do it himself.

[00:41:48] And, you know, he'll probably figure it out whether he uses a liquid or pods or dirty bastard is, you know, statistically probably the most, has the highest likelihood that you can't mess it up. You can't mess up your laundry when it literally comes in a little box and, you know, you're not going to spill it. The sheet's not going to pop and make a mess everywhere. And, you know, we're marketing very heavily towards the college mom right now, actually. Actually, that's a great idea. You're right. I mean, it's already free measured, if you will.

[00:42:18] So you won't overuse or underuse detergent. So that's great, you know, buying it for other people. So you're working with your mom and you have a very early stage investor. Where are you headed now? Like, what are you thinking about? What are you working on? And what do the next six months look like? Yeah. Basically, like, our website is done, which took me a long time to figure out how to, you know, build a website and whatnot.

[00:42:46] But now I'm on to the email marketing, which is, you know, like, for example, when you go on a website, you put your email in to get a discount and then you leave the website. Those emails that, you know, can bring you back onto the website and bring you to the point of purchase. You know, there's a lot of lost revenue in those that you kind of recapture process that a lot of brands kind of neglect.

[00:43:09] And, you know, right now, as a solo founder, before I launch, I want to have all that infrastructure in place to be able to, you know, it's like that's something that's kind of like a one time setup thing. If I can get a good conversion rate on a win back email or something like that, then, you know, that's kind of you just set it and forget it. And that takes a lot off me as a solo founder, as opposed to having to go to an agency to do something like that.

[00:43:32] I'm also in the process of developing scent boosters because the only negative feedback I've received on the product, which I think is actually positive feedback, is that the scent is not strong enough, which means people really like the sense, but they want it to be even stronger. So we're working on scent boosting scent booster bees right now. It's like a, you know, like a little canister, maybe like maybe like this size. And you just open the cap and dump the beads in and then put them into the washing machine. So I'm working on product development for that right now.

[00:44:00] And yeah, right now, the focus on July 1st is to start running meta ads and to start is to launch on TikTok shop as well. And to just really scale up our organic content and become more irreverent and start to do like more street interview style stuff. I'm starting to realize that a lot of the stuff I'm reading online is, you know, do this type of ad, do this type of ad. But what I've seen to work best is the street interview style ads where you're actually going up to random stranger and saying, what do you think about this product?

[00:44:31] The only reason that's not advertised as one of the best type of ads is because you have to have a certain personality type to be able to go out and do that. What I've realized is that a lot of founders are, yeah, maybe good on camera, but it's a whole nother beast. Even for me sometimes to like go up to a random stranger that's, you know, just walking around with a microphone and be like, hey, try this and let me know what you think. And there's a camera right there if you can't see it. It's a very unique experience.

[00:44:56] But yeah, we're just trying to, you know, put the product in front of as many people as possible, start seeding some influencers. And yeah, the long term growth plan is to sell a dirty bastard for a billion dollars by 2031, which it's definitely possible. It's obviously going to require a lot of work. For example, right before this call, I had a meeting with 3PL, like a third party logistics fulfillment center in Tampa.

[00:45:25] Because as a solo founder, I can work from anywhere in the country, but the one thing I can't do is pack orders. And to have another company be able to handle that for us, that definitely takes a lot off my plate, especially as we're scaling our marketing. And, you know, we could get to the point where we're getting hundreds of orders a day and I'm sitting there fulfilling all of them. And, you know, some things are slipping under the cracks and five things are on fire while I'm sitting there just packing orders, smiling along. So we need to make sure that that's taken care of.

[00:45:55] But yeah, I mean, I'm very happy with the way that the product is. And now it's just finding ways to enhance our offer. And with e-commerce, average order value is super important because, you know, it costs a certain amount of money to acquire a customer. And if your average order value is, you know, less than what it costs to acquire a customer, then, you know, maybe you'll be profitable over time, especially if you have a subscription model.

[00:46:22] But in terms of immediate profitability, we need to introduce another product so that their order value is higher. So right now our average is like $39 because a lot of people are buying the bundles. But if we add some scent boosters in there, it could be $60. And, you know, then we could afford to acquire a customer for $35 or more. So, yeah, it's all very – again, I had no idea what any of this stuff meant even two months ago because I was focused on designing the product.

[00:46:51] But it's very – like I said, it's such a dynamic experience and it's so awesome. I'm so, like, happy to be going along this journey. Yeah. So what's the process for getting your product to your customer? Do you store it or do you go direct from manufacturer to customer? How does that work for you? Yeah. So we have our – we have to store it. So we'll have shipment come in.

[00:47:17] Like, for example, our 3,000-unit shipment came in maybe four weeks ago or so. And we were storing it in an abandoned strip club in Ybor City. And that was a facility that my investor – so she owns part of Tampa Pickleball Crew, which is – it's a pretty popular facility down here in Tampa. That's like an indoor pickleball facility. And across the street is this old strip club that had been basically completely gutted out.

[00:47:47] And they just rent it for the parking because they need some overflow parking. And they're paying for the building and they had nothing to put in there. So we put our inventory in there. And it turns out it doesn't have AC. Like, these are the little things that you don't think about, but it doesn't have AC. And our product requires to be temperature regulated. Temperature control, yeah. Yeah. So that was like an emergency situation that we had to figure out. And we ended up putting it in a new spot actually inside of the Pickleball facility.

[00:48:16] And it's – there's a humidifier in there and it's temperature regulated. But, yeah, like I have a couple boxes at my house so I can pack them at my house as they come in. But the majority of our inventory is being stored or there. But a third-party logistics company would be super beneficial because we're not getting any preferred shipping rates at all. We're paying like what anybody else would pay for shipping.

[00:48:41] And while these third-party like fulfillment centers, they'll take a fee to pack an order. Like they'll maybe take like a dollar or so. But they're also getting a $2 discount on shipping because they're shipping out, you know, 20,000 boxes a week. And they'll have much more leverage with negotiations with these shipping partners. So it ends up actually being more profitable for us to go to any third-party fulfillment center at this stage in the company.

[00:49:09] Which, like I said, had I known that earlier, I probably would have just had the units just go right to there. Because we wouldn't have had the headache of moving all the stuff out of our old facility into the new one. But, you know, it's the little bumps and bruises that I think you have to make at this stage so that you understand your processes. Like I understand what the process should look like for packing orders now. And when I go in just toward that facility, I can, you know, obviously I don't know it as well as they do.

[00:49:37] But I can see, okay, yeah, this looks pretty solid. This looks good. It looks efficient. Which is definitely good. Because I feel like a lot of people that will have the manufacturer shipped directly to the consumer, they're not necessarily understanding their processes and understanding their margins. Because, you know, every little, like I understand how dropping one of these in a bag impacts our margins. And it's definitely beneficial to have that kind of bird's eye view of the business at this stage. Yeah, for sure.

[00:50:05] I mean, you have to know everything at this stage. You have to understand all the finances. You have to understand everything. But scaling is going to be your next big hurdle. And you're already working on it. But it's always a challenge. And there'll be a lot of things. It's a learning journey. You're going to learn something every day, as you pointed out already. So it's really cool. You know, I love your story, Maximus.

[00:50:32] I think it's, you know, I'm excited about where you're headed. And I'm excited that you've come out of the University of Tampa program. That's been, that's fun for us. And I hope we're able to continue to support you and work with you. And, you know, I just think this is great. If you were talking directly to another aspiring entrepreneur out there, what kind of advice would you give them? Or what have you learned?

[00:50:57] Like, what's been the most important lesson maybe that you've learned along the way that maybe you'd be willing to share? And there'll be a lot more I know that you're learning every day. Yeah. I think that there were so many rooms that I wanted to be in and get my foot into the door.

[00:51:16] And through the skills that I developed in content creation or, you know, whether it's like social media or, you know, whatever it might be for a young entrepreneur, especially like a freshman or a sophomore or whatever it might be, develop a skill and then offer it to people who know much more than you do for free and do it for free for as long as it takes to be impossible for you not to get paid because you're so good at what you do. And you're already showing the person that you're working for a return on their investment.

[00:51:46] And that has gotten me into so many rooms and so many opportunities just because I have offered to work for free and I had a high value skill that people had desired. And, you know, it just made me so many connections. For example, I was at American Social my freshman year. I was just waiting for the bathroom and I was speaking to the gentleman next to me in line. I was telling him how I do social media and he was telling me how he's a private jet or private aviation broker. And I was saying, oh, yeah, I do social media. If you ever want to do a video, you know, you just let me know.

[00:52:14] And the next day he gets my phone number. The next day he calls me. Hey, I have a jet waiting for you in Clearwater, my own private jet. He flew me to Miami and I did some videos for him and he didn't even fly me back. So I wasn't even old enough to rent a car at the time. I had to pay $400 for a U-Haul, but I drove all the way back in a U-Haul and I lost money on that experience. But because I said yes and because I offered my services for free, I was able to have like a super awesome, unique opportunity.

[00:52:44] And I also learned something about business to make sure that, you know, somebody's if somebody's offering something to you, make sure that they're delivering on the other end to probably be in a situation like that again. But I'll probably be a little bit more careful before going into it. But, you know, it's just you need to offer your services for free. You need to be surrounded by people that you want to be like or aspire to do what they're doing. And, you know, continue to build your skills until you've been around these people for long enough to say, hey, I think I could do something like that.

[00:53:12] And then go ahead and do it. And once you decide to do it, go all in and don't burn the – what do they say? I don't know. Burn the bridges. Yeah, burn the bridges. You don't want to burn relationships, but, you know. Yeah, that's – not to burn the bridges. But you're really – maybe you're saying, you know, there's not an option for failure. Just keep going, right? Yeah.

[00:53:32] If you just put your blinders on and you go all in and you decide that, you know, I'm willing to make sacrifices for this, I'm willing to work long hours, I'm willing to, you know, do whatever it takes. If you have that mindset and you're able to maintain that mindset, you can go so far. And even if you feel like you're not making progress on, you know, on a day-by-day basis, you know, there are some days I'll be like, I didn't make any progress this week.

[00:53:56] And then I'll look back from where it was, you know, a month ago and I'll be like, look at all that's been accomplished and that, you know, like it all incrementally adds up. So stay consistent. Just decide what you want to do and be consistent with it and go all in with it. Yeah, I loved what you're saying there. I think one of the things you're saying is that to offer your services out there is an investment in yourself too because you're learning, right? Yeah.

[00:54:26] There's always something to learn from that. Well, Maximus, this has been great. Tell everybody who's listening where they can find Dirty Bastard laundry sheets and all the other products that you're starting to develop and you're going to be developing to go along with that line. Yeah, absolutely. So our website is getdirtybastard.com and then we do have Instagram. Our Instagram is at getdirtybastard and my personal Instagram is at Max Tuch.

[00:54:54] I post a lot of content about, you know, more so like founder story and what it has kind of been like in the process of creating the brand, which is a cool behind the scenes view. But yeah, check us out. And if you're a young entrepreneur listening and you can see yourself being in a position like this, my only advice, if I can summarize what I just said is just go all in. Yeah, just go for it. All right, Maximus. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. And look forward to seeing all your success. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[00:55:29] So that was Maximus Mattuccio, founder of Dirty Bastard Laundry Company. And if you're not following what he is building, go do it right now. What struck me most about our conversation was the intentionality and the boldness behind what he's doing. It would have been easier to take a safe path. He had job offers that he turned down after graduation, but he decided he wanted to bet on himself.

[00:55:58] And as you heard, he's loving every minute of it, learning something new every day and working on building an amazing brand and an amazing company, I think will follow. So if today's episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to share it with someone in your world who is on the edge of a big decision. Sometimes the right conversation at the right time can make all the difference.

[00:56:23] You can find Maximus and Dirty Bastard Laundry Company at its website, getdirtybastard.com. And as always, you can connect with me and explore more resources at my website. And that's drrebeccawhite.com. That's drrebeccawhite.com. Until next time, keep building. I'm Rebecca White, and this has been The In Factor.