 Being in this thing with your brother as your confidant is a massive asset because there are times when things are not all rosy and things are not all, oh my gosh, where everything is working and we're selling through everything. There are serious problems out there that happen in entrepreneurship. They happen almost daily and there are times when you just get so fed up with it, you're like bro should we just sell this thing and be done with it. This kind of sucks today, but that tomorrow is great. This is Started to Store Front, the podcast where we inspire entrepreneurship through truth. Today's guests are the comfy brothers, Brian and Michael Special. As you may have guessed from their nickname, they co-founded the comfy and they are indeed brothers. The two of them took their idea for a wearable blanket and straight up sprinted with it. They knew that they were sitting on such a hot ticket item that before they did just about anything else with their company, they were appearing on Shark Tank. They left the tank with a deal in hand and set to work on actually manufacturing the product. It took some time to get their supply chain and distribution figured out, but once they did, the brothers turned the comfy into one of the most successful companies to ever come out of Shark Tank. What follows is a captivating and energetic conversation about the grit and determination that led them to where they are today. So listen in as we cover everything from why getting their product into retail stores was the best decision they ever made, how Brian spent the early days of his company flipping people from angry customers to supporters of the brand, and why it's imperative to own up to both the mistakes and successes of your business. Brian and Michael are on Brian tell us a little bit about what your company is and what it does. Yeah, the comfy we my brother and I somehow a couple single dads from the desert in 2017 managed to invent the world's first truly wearable blanket. That's what the comfy is. It's a gigantic, I've got one sitting right here. I'm not going to be able to show it that well, but it's a gigantic blanket, Sherpa on the inside. It's incredibly soft, least on the outside microfiber and it's a gigantic blanket that you wear. You know, it kind of looks like a gigantic oversized wearable blanket. And again, a couple of single dads from the desert back in 2017, my brother just kind of had an aha moment when he was going through a divorce and he was staying with me. He saw my son Saxon seven years old the time sitting on the couch in one of my old hoodies. And he's like, bro, you think they make those for adults and then there was a blanket lying over the back of the couch where Saxon was sitting. And we just kind of put two and two together. We thought it sounded like an incredible idea. We thought surely there are a million other people who have had this exact same idea. We did all the research turned out that no one had had the idea. So we said, you know what? We're going to go for it. We put everything into it. Six months later after having the idea in February of 2017 by September, we were on the set of Shark Tank, got a deal with Barbara Corker, and it's just been a whirlwind ever since. Just your average startup. I love it. I wanted to ask you a little bit about what were you guys doing prior to this? And so I've started companies in fashion. I have no business in fashion. I'm not that guy. And then I did data analytics. Same thing. Business and data analytics. Were you guys doing anything similar? Like were you guys in clothing or in any particular like close skill set to this or no? I had a swimming pool service business. No, nowhere near what we're doing right now. Obviously, Brian and I were both kind of entrepreneurs at heart. He had a TV production company that he was doing on his own. I was doing the swimming pool service company that I had, which was great. We were just normal lives and just kind of doing what we do. But it's funny because it actually drove our parents pretty crazy how entrepreneurial we are. They're not. They're the nine to five. They get your 401K done, get your retirement set up and all that and retire comfortably. That's just not who Brian and I are. So when we came up with this idea, it was just like, let's just go for it. And it was incredible doing it with your brother. And we could just feed off each other. Not just feed off the excitement, but also the down times as well, where you have your little pity parties and one of us will pick the other one up to keep pushing and moving forward. And I can tell you one thing, doing it on your own is extremely difficult, but having your brother with you helps you so much to push things forward and take it to the next level. I wouldn't have made it on my own and Brian would have made it on his own and we'll test to that. For sure. So true. It's such a good person to mirror and then also just bounce things off when things are low. When I first saw the product, I was like, this is exact. I could totally see my nephew have two nephews and they just love wearing, you know, they love being warm, but not a onesie because it's restrictive. And so I immediately thought no brainer with the kid market. As you guys were launching your first iteration, did you go right to kids first or were there multiple right to adults? What was the first step you guys took? It was never meant to be a kid's product. I mean, this thing is modeled. We modeled after a five XL sweatshirt to start out and we've only made it bigger since then. So we made it truly one size fits all. It fits the entire population and kids. It just so happens, you know, maybe eight, 10 years old up, they can wear the adult size and it swallows them up. It's gigantic on them, but it wasn't until down the road a year or two that we came up with the comfy junior, which is a just a fun size, a junior sized version of the company. But no, the company is truly made for everyone. Men, women and children, all shapes and sizes, everyone in the world. And that's why, you know, when we look at it, we're like, man, this thing, it's just the product of a lifetime because you don't have sizes to worry about. You know, you just got your colors and your patterns and it's something that fits everyone and makes everyone happy. And it goes back to that day on the couch when Michael and I were like, you know what, we're just, we're instead of just sitting here talking about it and going, man, this is a great idea. You know, man, should we do it? Should we do it? We need to come up with a business plan. We need, no, no, no, go for it. Figure it out on the way. And that's exactly what we've done from day one and we're in our 50 year now and things couldn't be better. I love that. I got a lot of people who say, hey, can you help me do a business plan? And I'm like, I've never done a business plan in my life. I'm like, you want a business plan? Go outside and make a sale. Just go ask somebody what they think of your product. Get rejected 10 times and then figure it out, iterate, iterate. The business plan really, I'm like, it's a good analysis. Don't get me wrong. But if it's just you or one other co-founder, you'll burn so much valuable time trying to figure out everything and you're going to be wrong, like you're going to be wrong the whole time, right? Yeah, the business plan, it fits in there in that, in that world of trying to be perfect, right? And perfection is the true enemy of progress when it comes to entrepreneurship. So if you're always going to sit back and just wait for, my business plan has to be perfect, my numbers have to be perfect, this prototype has to be perfect, you're never going to get started, you know? It's all about taking action and if you have a great idea, taking action on it and kind of figuring it out as you go. And it's Michael's point, thank goodness that I had him and he had me to kind of bounce things off of and keep things going in the right direction. But if we had waited for everything to be perfect before we launched, we'd still be sitting here. That's exactly me. We'd still be sitting there. That's exactly right. When you guys first launched, was it just a website? And then you guys were getting orders from, you know, friends and family or how, how quickly did you guys realize, oh, like you're all of a sudden running to USPS 20 times a day? Like at what point were you guys like, oh, this is getting kind of crazy? Well, that happened very early on. You know, we knew we had a good idea. We were just like, how do we get this out to people? Obviously. So that's why early on we decided to go for Shark Tank right away. We're like, we think this will be a perfect Shark Tank product. Not only did we want to get on Shark Tank, but we wanted to get on the holiday episode, the Christmas episode, basically. And that was our goal from the very beginning. Now, we had no idea that we could, I mean, we believed that we could do it, but the timeline to set that up and everything to actually get product on the water, you know, coming from Asia over here to LA, and then getting it actually out to customers in that time frame, everybody told us we're absolutely nuts. There's no way we can do it. They were talking, it's going to take at least a year to do that. Well, we said screw that. We don't care. We just keep pressing. And like Brian said at the beginning, we're from idea to in front of the sharks, staying in front of those five sharks in six months and getting a deal with Barbara Corcoran. And then it aired about two months later after that. And our goal always was once it airs, we knew sales are going to go up, not just up, but that's when we officially launched the website. We went in front of the sharks with no website, no sales, no history at all, no crew really, and just went in front of them and got a deal with Barbara with nothing, not one product sold. We went in front of them with basically five prototypes that we gave to them, gave to the sharks as a gift. Got a deal and two months later we launched on Shark Tank and that's when it really took off and we absolutely knew that we had something. But we weren't able to ship those first products. It was December 3rd of 2017 when we launched on Shark Tank. We weren't able to ship our first products to the actual customers until mid to late January of 2018. It's like a month and a half later. And all the customers knew when they were ordering up the website that there was a delay and they were still willing to buy the product. So we ended up being, we didn't get caught up until May of 2018. People were waiting up to four to five months for this product. We knew we had it. And then we just had to get caught up and there we are four years later with still incredible sales getting the comfy out to the world, making the world a happier place. It's a bold move. I mean, and I love it. I think most people, to your point, not so much product or perfection will impede your progress, but this is like bold 100%, right? This is, we have no sales. We just had this great idea. Let's go ahead and ship. And we believe Shark Tank will understand that too. And then to get them to air it, I mean, right? And then even close the deal with Barbara. That's awesome. I mean, honestly, that's like, I've never heard that story. That's so, so good. So when you guys were negotiating your valuation, what on earth was that like? So you guys just want a deal I can imagine, but walk us through a little bit of what that was like to get Barbara to commit. 20%, 50,000 for 20%, like that sounds good. Talk to the producers and all that, like that sounds about right. That's really all it was. That's really all it was. Yeah, we just wanted to make it fair and we didn't want to say 200,000 or something like that and where the sharks would just be completely turned off. We wanted it to, okay, they just have to put a little bit in here and they're going to get a substantial part of the business. Barbara ended up with 30% for 50,000, but she took a flyer on us. We're now her most successful Shark Tank company in her 12 years being on Shark Tank. And we're number three, total all time. Overall, just in four years. You know, that's really smart too. I mean, because in reality, they're getting a real slice of the pie, but at the same time, it's like proof is in the pudding for them too, right? It gives them the ability to really leverage that network and that symbiotic relationship is, it's honest, right? It's like, okay, we're giving you, you got to give it to us now and we believe we have the product, little flourish. That's amazing. It's a huge ego play for the sharks too. I mean, they love talking about the ones that they saw that the other sharks didn't see. And, you know, Michael and I think naturally have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder when it comes to Lori and Mr. Wonderful and Robert and Mark, all the ones who decided to pass on the company. Because if they had a second shot in that, none of them would. And the exact, the lesson to be learned in that whole thing is that the sharks are brilliant. It's a master class in business every time you listen to them and you watch the Shark Tank. Yeah, but they don't know everything because if they knew everything, they all would have taken a flyer on the company and realized that this was a product for everyone. And this stood to be one of the most successful products at Shark Tank History, but only Barbara because she believed in us probably more than she did the company. She saw that, she took the chance on it and now she gets to brag about it. So the sharks don't know everything. So out there, if you're in business and you got all these people telling you, hey, it's a bad idea, it'll never work, blah, blah, blah. If you believe it, hey man, go for it, right? Because if the sharks aren't always right, the people who are consulting you, they might not be right either. Totally. I'm an investor in companies and I'll tell you, when people ask me what do I look for, I'm like, honestly, it wouldn't even make any sense. I just believe that this person's gonna run through a wall to solve the problem, whatever problem that they've decided. And if they show me a business plan, I might skim it, but I'm just really betting on them. And the thing is, I'm gonna be right and I'm more often gonna be wrong, but that's how it goes, you never know. But it's still fun. I mean, the journey's still amazing. And I think in a bigger picture, it's just important to support entrepreneurs out there or people in general who are just trying, right? They're putting their livelihood on the line for a guess. And that's not always that easy. So once you guys close the deal with Barbara, what was the first thing? Was it instant QVC? What was the thing that she started to tee up for you guys? It's interesting because, again, Michael and I have always just followed our own path and Barbara and the rest of the sharks told us on the set of Shark Tank and then even after when we're going through the due diligence and ultimately closing the deal with Barbara, that we didn't need to go to retail, that we didn't need to go to brick and mortar stores, that we needed to focus 100% on our direct and consumer on our website business. And Michael and I remember, we were in New York City visiting Barbara for the first time. And I remember we were in that hotel room, bro, and we're still sharing hotel rooms back in the early days. And I remember saying, man, I'm a Costco power user. This product belongs in Costco. It's the perfect Costco product, right? It's unique. It's affordable quality. It's for everyone. This needs to be in Costco. I don't care what they say about the sharks or Barbara says about DTC, direct and consumer, we need to figure out a way to be in Costco. So we got to hold with Barbara's people. They connected us with someone who is a salesperson who was ultimately able to get us into retail, get us into Costco, Bed Bath and Beyond, Coles, Target. And honestly, that is probably the thing, Michael, I don't know if you agree with this or not, but that's probably the most important decision that you and I made was to go into retail because had we not done that, there are so many knockoffs out there and there were so many people who are out to rip us off. It would have been someone else, one of those big as seen on TV brands who would have ripped us off. They would have gotten the foothold in all of the retail channels and they would have become the brand. They would have been the comfy and we would have just been this cute little direct to consumer business saying, yeah, but we invented this whole thing, right? But they would have just completely run us over. So if we had followed the sharks advice, I truly believe that we wouldn't be out of business today, but we would not be nearly the company that we are today. And that's because we decided to go into retail, which was a scary and a dangerous decision to make, but I'm glad we made it. A little more on that too, is one thing Brian and I always said, we did not want to be the slanket. So most people have not heard of the slanket. The slanket is the original, what's the name, bro? Blanket with sleeves. Yeah, the slanket with sleeves, the snuggie. We've all heard of the snuggie, right? Right, I've heard of the snuggie. The snuggie came after the slanket. Some guys invented the slanket over in the UK, and the Huggy guys picked it up over here. And well, they launched the Huggy, and it became that absolute phenomenon, back in the snuggie, back in the late 2000s, I guess it was, 2010 around there. And it became an enormous product. They sold tens of millions of those things. I think last check, it was like 600 million in total sales over the last 10 years or something like that. And we just kept telling ourselves, we don't want to be the slanket. And that was so motivating to us. We didn't want to be second. Like this is our idea. This is our invention. And we wanted to keep pushing forward. And I tell you what, three months, four months after Shark Tank, I think it was, the knockoff started coming. We were seeing 800 commercials, the 800 infomercials on TV with our product, basically. So we immediately had to start fighting that back. And it's motivated us. It still motivates us to this day with all the knockoffs that are out there. There are thousands of them out there. One thing in mind, we went for a patent very early on. It took two years before we got our first patent on our product. We now have five patents and a lot patent pennings as well. So we put the money in upfront, which was very hard to do when you're starting up like that. You know, to put those tens of thousands of dollars in, we don't have that much. You don't have that much revenue coming in, but we did it because we believed in it that much. And it is paying off big time now by having those patents and being able to protect our IP. What a game changer. That's crazy. Smart. I mean, smart for you guys to be aware of that. That makes a lot of sense. It seems smart now, right, Michael? It seems smart now that we did all that, but initially we decided to go for the patents before we went on Shark Tank, just for when the sharks asked us if we had any IP or anything. We said, yes, we're patent pending. That's the only reason that we did it in the very beginning. And then of course, when we got on the show, nobody even asked us about it. So it's a good thing that we ultimately followed through with it and have all the patents that we do now because now we were able to build a wall around our brand and we fight people viciously. Anybody who wants to come in and try to steal our IP, it's like, no, you know what? My brother and I invented this. You exist only because of us. So we are going to fight you with everything we have. So tread carefully, knock off. It's funny, we had the TheraBody, the TheraGun founder on the muscle percussive therapy gun and same thing for him. I mean, they have everything patented from the gun, the machine to even the heads because you can swap out different heads of it. And so they're the originator of that but it's the same battle. It's the same thing. They're always dealing with it and they have competitors that make things a little bit different and blah, blah, blah. And, you know, they'll get athletes also, you know, sponsor athletes. And so it's this constant battle that's going on but it's tough. It's good that you guys are aware of it though and you guys are doing what you can to mitigate. You know, it's funny. I always try to like put on like a private equity hat when I talk to people because it's annoying to certain founders. For example, an easy, if you guys met with a private equity person which I'm sure you have at some point, they'd be like, okay, cool. So you have this one product, what's next? Like, what are you going to make next? What's your next product line, right? And I'm sure your answer is like, no, no, this is it. But do you guys have- No, that's not it. Okay, cool, cool. That's great. What else is on the horizon or what else are you guys experimenting with in terms of different products? Just to grow your line, grow your brand. Well, it's funny you say that because actually from the beginning, Ryan and I always think extremely big. We always have. And we have, of course, it starts with the comfy, the comfy original, that's our first product. But we always thought like, you know, we're going to make the world just a happier place. We're going to become a household name with the comfy. Like we need to turn this into a lifestyle brand, okay? Anything comfortable. So not just the comfy, but we want to expand into all areas of comfort basically and become that lifestyle brand. So we've only been doing this for just over four years. We have the comfy original, which is the Sherpa line one. We have the comfy dream, which is just a single fleece layer. It's the same design and everything. It's a little bit lighter weight. We're coming out with all different types and iterations of the comfy, whether it's outdoor. There's all sorts of things we can go into. We're going to do slipper socks. We'll probably do some pants. And the half you have on right there, you know, we can stamp, you know, stamp a comfy on that. It's just, it's really endless. Just regular blankets. It's absolutely endless where we can, where we can go with this thing if we continue to push forward. So, but we want to make sure everybody needs to know about the comfy first. Right. And that's what we're trying to get out there. You know, we asked 10 people, maybe one person has actually heard of the comfy and what it is. So we're trying not to get too broad, too quickly. And that's hard for Brian and I because we just want to keep pushing forward and go, go, go, go, go. But we have incredible executive team now strategizing with us on how to launch these new products moving forward. So we get that question for sure from private equity people all the time. And they like their answers that they're hearing now and they can, they can see our development as well. One of the things I'm doing is I'm hosting a chat soon with VP of Bombas. There's a company called Brevity and then the third company around give back programs. And so kind of like Warby Parker where it's like they donate something, you know, you buy and they donate. Have you guys given any thought to maybe doing something like that where it's like, if you buy one and it doesn't have to be like a comfy goes to somebody you need, but it can be something else. Like you're still to that happiness still to the brand piece of it where you're still spreading that joy. Has there been any consideration on maybe, okay, cool, this is gonna be our new philanthropic effort and we're leaning or thinking about these ideas. Yeah, we're actually doing that. We actually have our company cares initiative which we launched this year. And one of the things that we're starting out with is we're sponsoring a young LPGA tour rookie golfer named Haley Moore. And Haley's a little different than most golfers. She's a big girl. She's dealt with bullying her entire life. And so that's one of the, and that's her mission. That's what she's known for on the tour. She looks different and she's trying to get that message out there about how bad bullying is and how if you just, you know, be yourself that look what you can become. And she has the Haley Moore Foundation which we also support. So we're supporting those anti-bullying initiatives but there are also other easy things that we can do such as when the big ice storms hit Texas just about six weeks a month ago, we were able to send an entire, a whole batch of companies down there to the Red Cross or Salvation Army to be able to help people out who are displaced by their home. So there's always opportunities like that. We're always looking for opportunities like that because our product, it makes people happy but you know, we heard from people who are like, my God, your product saved my life because my heat was out and all I had to do was wear my comfy and I had, you know, I had a blanket on all day. And so you hear things like that and you realize that we do have a product that just transcends comfort, you know it can help change people's lives. And so yeah, the philanthropic efforts we're gonna keep getting more and more into them with our comfy carers initiative and we're excited about it. Yeah, Texas was hit so hard, it was crazy without hour for like three, four days. I mean, nuts. In terms of like COVID-19 hits I would imagine this could be probably one of the best times ever for a company now that everyone's at home. I'm sure maybe there was some supply chain issues but what has that time been like for you guys and what did you lean into or what did you see that was working? Well, the supply chain definitely affected us big time. You know, the backup and the LA ports and everything that everybody heard making national news and all that that definitely affected our delivery times and things like that and getting the products in but you know, the pandemic we kind of call it this is a kind of the perfect pandemic product, honestly, you know and it's been, business has been good for sure during the pandemic but more than anything, it's nice and we hear from our customers all the time it's helping them helping a lot of people get through this as well. You know, though they hear about it and they order it and they put it on and that's, you know the magic happens when you actually get one of these companies and actually pop your head through the neck the first time and it's a big smile on your face and you're like, and then you get it. You're just like, oh my gosh, this thing is incredible. This is what I'm going to wear every day all day if I can and all that and everybody's at home everybody's working from home and all that so it just brings a little comfort, a little joy to everyone. So obviously we're happy to do that and it's been good for business. With that being said, it's almost over too so we're excited about that. Hopefully. Has there been anything about your customers since the day you started that has surprised you? So like maybe you guys thought, oh, our customer is going to be this person or these groups, this demographic and then it's been somebody completely, shockingly different. Have you guys seen any interesting data from your customers? No, it's been just that it's been everyone. I mean, men, women and kids and I don't know if it surprised me it still gives me the chills every time when I read a review and people are like, this is the best purchase I've ever made. This is the best money I've ever spent. This thing has changed my life. This is a complete game changer. I don't know if we expected it to resonate like that but we're now on Amazon nearing 45,000 reviews and we're 4.8 stars and holding. So we're one of the highest rated products on all of Amazon with that kind of volume. So hearing that from our customers I mean, we read every single review. We live and die with every single review. So to hear that it's making that kind of an impact is kind of the thing that that's what keeps us going. I'm always taking screenshots sending them off to Michael. Good and bad of the reviews but we live and die with them. So it's awesome that everyone has really embraced the company. That's awesome. And just for people listening, how much does it go for? $39.99 for the company original we wanted to keep it under that $40 price point. At least to start it's going to be hard to keep it there for long because things change. But yeah, that under $40 price point best money ever spent. That's what people say. We love it. It's the perfect gift. Yeah. I was just thinking of getting a bunch for my nephews and obviously myself too. We've got some bundle packs where you can save a little bit more as well. I think we're going to we're going to launch that even larger bundles coming up here because we hear it all the time where people there'll be a grandma that has to buy for 15 or 20 different people for the holidays and never knows what to get them on instead of just sending them a typical gift card or something like that. They say, oh my gosh, comfy. I don't have to worry about sizing. I can just pick the colors or pick all the same colors. Imagine that holiday photograph with everybody opening them at the same time having it on or Zoom meeting, you know, Zoom call whatever it is and everybody putting them on at the same time. It's seriously the perfect gift. You don't have to worry about sizing or anything, just get it. I throw it on and I swear our return rate is a fraction of a percent. These things do not come back once people get them. That's great. Everybody just falls in love with them and you know, you get one in the house and the kids, of course, the mom or the dad steals, steals whichever one is. So they end up having to buy, get more because everybody wants their own. That's really amazing. I really love the story. Do you guys ever just like pinch yourselves or is this exactly how you thought it would go? Man, I think we, I think we could say both ways, Michael, because you know, Michael and I both were like from the very beginning, which is why we got so excited and why we went for it is like, what are we missing here? This seems like the perfect idea. It seems like the perfect product. And so yeah, there was that side of it, but also yes. I mean, to this day when, you know, we see our numbers and the sales we're doing and the reviews and how many people are making happy. It's a pinch yourself moment almost every single day. And sometimes we got to check ourselves and be like, wow, this is really happening. It's a unicorn. Everybody calls us a unicorn company. And I guess that's what we are. So it's amazing. Yeah. So much work, you know, still now, but especially in the beginning in the first few years, how much work it was to get to this point. But Brian and I always, we always look at ourselves, you know, when we believed it was happening, but it was more of, we knew we had an incredible idea and how to get it out to market. It's, we just kept, we'd look each time and be like, how do we screw this up? Like, we still say that. We still say that. We still say that. How do we screw this up? Because we're going to mess this one up, bro. We want to take it to the entire world, companies, because we know that everybody will fall in love with it. So we still say it to this day, like, bro, how are we going to screw this up? You know, how are we not going to be able to take over all of Europe? You know, and all of Asia and everything else, it's like, and it's mainly the competitors that are coming and knockoffs and everything. That's always our biggest fear, but we just keep pushing. It's really smart. It sounds crazy, but it's actually really sound advice. I mean, if you focus so much on the product and you have a product that's sticky, it's really good to have that check-in with yourself of like, how can we screw this up? Because it'll force you to think differently or it'll force you to kind of just take a backseat to say, this product is doing so well. We just have to do a couple of things right. Do you guys ever plan to have like a retail strategy? So once you build that brand, and once you have all these products that let's say, I can envision going to the comfy. It's a store somewhere here. I can like get things that just make me happy, right? I can get slippers, I can try things on, I can buy products. Do you guys ever, and I know brick and mortar isn't always a great strategy, but it's certainly good for branding, right? That's one of those things we dream about. We've talked about having a comfy land in Times Square or something like that. It would be amazing, but I don't know. That's a scary one. That's a scary one to even conceive about getting into. But yeah, you could see that. Diego, I like how you see that, man. You could see a place where you go to get comfy and get happy. It's got hot cocoa. I'm like, I'm just seeing. Yeah. You see them things. Makes sense. Yeah, I think it's a great idea, but it's not in terms of sales or anything or revenue. It's more in terms of just the market. There's just the marketing side of it. Sitting in one of the big malls or at Times Square or something like that with so much vision and so many people walking through the store and just seeing like, what the heck is this thing? You know, that could just build that hype and everything. Definitely not about revenue, but just building, continuing to build the brand is what it's about. So I love that thinking as well. I just think about it like Santa, you know how every mall does like a Santa land, like Santa's land, like right next to it could just be like a cool little pop-up. That's the comfy. Comfy land. Yeah. It's like, it's perfect. No, we've talked about it. We can see ourselves in New York City at Christmas time, you know, and having a comfy land pop-up experience. You might see something like that because I'm guessing this year we could probably get some pretty good rates, vacancy, you know. Oh, big time. Might be a good time to try something like this. Big time. Yeah, I mean you see a lot of flexibility with real estate and I think a lot of pop-ups and it's the best time to test because you could probably do it for next a little, right? You're not gonna have you sign a two-year lease which would be dumb anyway. And so it could be like, let's see how this goes. And if anything, you get great content but I'm sure you get some customers too to try. Keep your eyes open. This Christmas time, man, it might happen. I'm excited to see that. And then as you guys think about scaling, so just to go back to it. So if retail is or isn't a strategy, what other things besides product and different products like Slippers you mentioned become top of mind as you really think about scaling this? Or is it just like more retail, more retail, more retail play? You know, where do you view the lever for growth for you guys? Well, I think that we need to get ourselves to around probably at least 50-50 retail and direct-to-consumer. I mean, DTC is where the future is. It's where everyone's going. Our direct-to-consumer business, especially in the last year has just completely skyrocketed. So, you know, as Michael was saying, it's about building that brand but it's also about showing restraint and about making sure that our team is restrained. That's kind of our job as founders now is to, you know, speak for the brand since the brand can't speak for itself and make sure that we're doing the right things as stewards of that brand. And that means we created the wearable blanket category. No one else created that. We created that. We have got to own that. So we can't get distracted and be like, Slippers socks here, comforters here, bedding products here. We can do all that stuff. It's all very low-hanging fruit. It'd be easy to do. But as Michael was saying earlier, he's like, you know, maybe one in 10 people knows what the company is, knows what a wearable blanket is. Well, it's its own new category. It's a big enough category that it could sustain itself. So we've got to make sure that our innovations and our new products think about the wearable blanket first and the other stuff can come over the course of maybe the next five or 10 years. But we've got to definitely show restraint because I think you can get yourself in real trouble if you start putting all this money into supplementary products and you lose focus on what it is that you do well and what no one else does. We have a real opportunity here that we've got to make sure we stay focused. Yeah, I think a lot of companies learn that the hard way during COVID-19. It's like they were experimenting on several different product lines and they were like, oh, this is the only one that was working. Let's just, let's go back to that, right? Go back to the basics. We have a hard enough time just keeping the companies in stock. So yeah, we got to be careful with how quickly we expand. When it comes to just like general marketing, you know, what do you do? What do you guys do? Do you guys do any heavy digital media, Instagram? Like what has been the approach in getting the buzz building? Man, we're into everything. The biggest thing that got us going though is a viral video that truly went viral. You know, if anybody out there is looking for video marketing and you run into a video firm that's like, we make viral video. No, you don't. No, you don't. No one makes viral videos. You just happen to have something that strikes a nerve and it goes viral but it's not because of anything that you did. We had a video that we shot just ourselves in our living rooms with our family and friends. Right after Shark Tank. And as soon as our Shark Tank, the bounce from Shark Tank started to die off, that video got picked up suddenly by the biggest Facebook pages and it was just, it blew up all around the world and suddenly we had sold into what, 70 countries or something like that, Michael? Based on that viral video. So the power of YouTube and the power of Facebook and the power of Instagram videos and the content you do yourself, that's something that we've had major success with. We've never gotten into TV commercials or any of the traditional media. I mean, it's all Instagram, Facebook, Google ads, advertising heavily on Amazon. I think one of the problems that we had is we have as we continue to grow out this brand is that it seems like everything that we do works because we're always sold out. Oh, shucks. That's a blessing. It's a blessing and a curse though because we're trying to build the brand the same way and sometimes we might get distracted because no matter what ads we put out there, they're working, they're moving product, but maybe we're not building the brand quite the way that we want to and the perception of the brand. So there are definitely always things to work on but in terms of advertising and marketing, everything's just, man, I don't want to sound like one of those, that guy, but it's all just kind of worked out for us. That's amazing. Yeah, no, I mean, you're very fortunate but I mean, you guys have the right attitude too, right? I mean, you're aware enough to understand you got to keep pushing and keep doing new things. When it comes to you guys, like personally, your brothers, I'm sure at some point maybe the thought of acquisition crosses your mind or do you guys view this really as like a family business and you hope to maybe pass this on to your kids? How do you view the future of your company in that way? Like what approach do you take a 30-year approach? Do you take a 10-year approach? How do you view that? I'm gonna let Michael answer this one because I'm very curious to hear what he's gonna say. Well, you can ask me this right now and I'll give you an answer and you can ask me in five minutes, I'll probably give you a different question. Sure. That's how this works. That's right, that's exactly right. That's how this operates and really what it comes down to and Brian and I know we agree on this, it's what's best for comfy. And when we say what's best for comfy, it's what's best for our families and everything else, the longevity. So, I mean, yes, if we were approached for a sale or something like that and it's a strategic buyer or something like that, we would look at it. We're open to anything if it makes sense for comfy. Okay, if it doesn't make sense, we're gonna keep doing what we do and keep pushing this thing forward as hard as we can where we could keep this thing for a lifetime and pass it down to our kids. Of course, I could see that happening. I don't see myself ever getting out of it completely but there's a price on everything as well. So, maybe you do, but we're open to anything, whatever the offer is, if it makes sense, the strategic buyer comes in and takes us to the next level worldwide or something, already has a supply chain and everything set up. We would consider that of course, but if not, we can just keep doing what we're doing and we're doing pretty damn well and we think we know what we're doing at this point. I don't think we are gonna screw it up even though we'll keep asking ourselves that. I love it. Brian, what's your answer? Good bro? I think though, I think that's pretty good. I mean, we, again, this comes back to being in this thing with your brother as your confidant is a massive asset because there are times when things are not all rosy and things are not all, oh my gosh, we're everything's working and we're selling through everything. There are serious problems out there that happen in entrepreneurship. They happen almost daily and there are times when you just get so fed up with it, you're like bro, should we just sell this thing and be done with it this kind of sucks today. But then tomorrow's great. So like Michael said, we change our mind every five minutes on something like that, but ultimately we know that we have a responsibility here to the people on our team, to our customers, to continue to grow this thing that people absolutely love, which is our product and whether that's us continuing to do it for the next 30 years or us selling part of the business to a strategic buyer who can help take it to the next level, as long as we always have our customers in mind first, I think everything else is just gonna take care of itself over the years and we truly do have our customers. They're number one to us and they always will be. So if we just take care of them, everything else will take care of itself. I love that, that's honest. It's a hard one, right? Cause it's obviously a fat check swings that decision in a pretty favorable way for you guys. Well, let me tell you something real quick. Yeah, about reason Brian's so passionate about that is because early on, he was the one that took every single email. And at the beginning, when people are waiting five months for their product, you can imagine the nastiness that was coming in. When people hide behind their email and they send these things, so Brian was answering hundreds and hundreds of emails every single day and he took every single one personally. And his favorite thing to do was to flip a customer. So that means they're so upset and they're yelling at him, they're cursing at him and all that and he was able to basically turn them with his unique way with words and get them to be a fan of the company and calm them down. And I think that kind of set the groundwork from the beginning of how we wanna treat our customers. And that goes all the way through the company at this point, but he was in the trenches from the very beginning, which you have to be an entrepreneur. It's so true. I mean, I remember we had a product one time and it was awful to say the least, our first product, we were making bow ties. And the thing, you put this thing on and it looked like a clown bow tie. Like it was massive. It looked like all of a sudden you just put this like, it was so dumb. And so we shipped these out with apology letters, saying we missed the mark, but here's a code for a free bow tie once we get iteration two. And people liked it. Like it created a real loyalty and it was honest. Like we were being honest. Like we were like, we wouldn't even wear this. Some people ended up liking the product anyway because some people are into bigger things on their neck which is totally fine. But at least everyone felt like they were being taken care of on the second round. And we played a lot of that. A lot of like, it's gonna be three months before it shows up. You owned it. That's awesome. I think from my perspective, like what I learned was like bring people into that journey because people love being part of a journey, right? Cause not many people get the opportunity to see something flower, right? We're all in our mundane lives. We all have a nine to five. And so you can get bored quickly. But if you start seeing a product like a comfy go through iterations and they getting better and better and better. And the email says from Brian and they see Brian on TV. Like that, that's sticky and it's so honest. And I think people need to lean into it. Entrepreneurs need to lean into that. And it's okay, it's gonna be ugly. It should be ugly in fact. Your first product shouldn't be awful, right? It should never match your expectation. Yeah, just ship it. Just own it, man. Just own it, just own it, just own it. If you got a problem, I mean, I think what you guys what you just talked about right there is perfect. You're honest and people see that. They know when you're being genuine and when you're BS of them. So just be honest. And most of them, when they know they're talking to a real person who's going through real struggles trying to make the world better. They're gonna get on board. So I think you had the perfect strategy there, man. That's it. Well, listen, I appreciate you guys coming on tell everyone where they can find you and obviously purchase the product. Yeah, we're at the comfy.com. You can find us on Amazon. You can find us in many, many retail channels more toward the fourth quarter when things get more like cooler comfy weather. But the comfy.com is the best place to go. I appreciate you guys coming on the podcast. Thanks guys. Hey, man, we appreciate you. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you.