How Terra Kaffe Pre-Sold 10,000 Espresso Machines With No Reviews

How do you grow a DTC brand without a big brand awareness budget? Terra Kaffe founder Sahand Dilmaghani pre-sold 10,000 espresso machines from a single page with no reviews, and word of mouth has been the top reason customers buy every month for five years.On the DTC Podcast, Sahand tells Eric Dyck how he left investment banking to bootstrap a super automatic espresso machine, what he cut to get it shipped with $2.5 million already spent, and why Terra Kaffe now puts its money into community and performance marketing instead of brand awareness. Terra Kaffe has 70,000 machines in homes today.Get the DTC Newsletter: https://directtoconsumer.coWHAT YOU WILL SOLVEYou sell a high-ticket product and cannot seed it to a thousand creators a month. Sahand built word of mouth by calling customers himself, and it now drives well over a third of Terra Kaffe's orders.Your brand awareness budget is too small to register. Why $15K to $20K a month will never make you a household name, and when to hold that money for one campaign big enough to count.Your best video flopped on Meta. A $30K shoot that never converted on Instagram or Facebook became one of Terra Kaffe's strongest performers on CTV.Your investors want proof of demand before the product is finished. One pre-order page, a teaser campaign, an email to the subscriber list and a booth at a New York coffee festival produced 10,000 orders.Your product is over budget and behind schedule. The features Terra Kaffe cut in a do-or-die meeting to ship in six months, and which ones came back later as a fast follow.Your outside partner has spent double to go half the distance. How Sahand replaced his engineering firm mid-build while it still held most of the product knowledge.You cannot afford tooling or a production deposit. The trade he made with his manufacturer on the first machine's design rights, and what it cost him later.ABOUT SAHANDSahand Dilmaghani is the founder and CEO of Terra Kaffe, the Brooklyn-based maker of super automatic espresso machines, including the TK-02 and the Demi. Before Terra Kaffe he worked in investment banking and at an electric vehicle startup. https://www.terrakaffe.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/terrakaffeSTAY CONNECTEDDTC Newsletter, daily ecommerce marketing and ecommerce growth tactics: https://directtoconsumer.coYouTube: https://youtube.com/@dtcnewsletterLinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/directtoconsumer00:49 From Wall Street banker to "barista"02:25 Carrying a 30 pound espresso machine on the subway04:40 The only espresso brand anyone could name05:22 The Larry David campaign idea06:13 Building complex hardware during COVID08:52 $2.5 million in, with no guarantee it ships09:09 Funding one milestone at a time10:42 The meeting where the features got cut13:36 Replacing the engineering firm mid-build16:33 Giving the manufacturer the V1 design rights20:44 Answering the dropship accusations21:32 The investor test: does anyone want this23:22 10,000 pre-orders from one page25:11 The Terra Kaffe manifesto26:16 What a super automatic machine does29:39 Why people bought before they could try it32:33 70,000 machines in homes33:25 Word of mouth, every month for five years36:28 Brand spend versus performance marketing38:23 The three problems every operator hits40:39 Why a small brand awareness budget is a trap41:15 Coming for Nespresso42:37 CTV and the $30K shoot that flopped on Meta46:34 Survival by a thousand band-aids47:34 Raising $2.6 million in 13 days48:03 You are going to get punched in the face