From Being Fired to Inventing the Product of the Year and Generating Millions in Sales
A story of an engineer who fought for his ideas, faced criticism, and overcame setbacks in order to break through
Enis glanced at the little shiny bottles and the jury in front of him on their chairs. Now the years of sacrifice and effort came down one moment.
In another time and place, he could have been one of the guys who told him the idea wouldn’t work, and that it would be better to look for a job instead of struggling with his unpromising projects. Some of them were watching him for a misstep to justify their prejudice.
It took him a few seconds to re-focus and smile. Then words poured from his mouth.
It was February 2020, and the young man’s efforts took him to the “Das Ding des Jahres” (The Thing of the Year) TV show to present his product to the jury.
It was a fateful day, and he wasn’t sure what would happen. Had he convinced them?
31 years earlier, the man was born into a mid-class family in North Germany. He was gifted. Technology, science, engineering, and mathematics all delighted him. Soon, school became easy, and he received his high school diploma in just two and a half years.
After graduating and earning an engineering degree, he worked in two permanent positions, but each one of them didn’t last more than six months. Losing these jobs despite his high qualifications let him decide to take another direction and follow bigger plans.
Later, he founded his first startup, a water filter system for pharmaceutical companies, but he stopped it after two years to start another project: a bakery shop. He bought from large bakeries what was left of the previous day and sold it for a bargain price.
To grow the business and increase his income, he stood with his mobile truck shop in front of the Kiel University of Applied Sciences, where he had studied years earlier, to sell bread rolls to students.
Criticism swirled around him. His mother was concerned. “You’re an engineer and have a future. You were doing well in your permanent job, don’t give it up for such a risky gamble,” she argued. But despite this, he managed to stay focused on his endeavor.
Four years later, he gave up the bakery shop. A new venture grabbed his attention, and he needed more time to concentrate on it.
The Night Light System
In January 2019, Enis became obsessed with a new idea. His wife was six months pregnant, and he was facing the same problem as many other parents do: he had to get up at night and hand his baby the milk bottle. But the glowing room light would wake up his son and bother him.
This challenge inspired him to create a night light system that fits on every standard children's drinking bottle:
He needed a colored silicone cover with a LED light that makes a drinking bottle shine with 3 light levels.
The built-in LED panel should be so easy to use that the child can switch on the light himself without relying on mom or dad.
The light source should last up to 100 hours before it needs to be recharged with a micro-USB-cable just like a smartphone.
“You want to build an empire by selling glowing drinking bottles?! You’re either crazy or a visionary,” some friends and acquaintances told him. Yet, he used such feedback to feed his persistence and forge awe-inspiring attention to detail.
Within less than four weeks, he built the first prototype. A 3D printer helped him to create various models and learn how to deal with the material.
After ordering the first silicone covers from Alibaba, he took his savings and switched his expensive car to a cheaper one to have enough money to order 5,000 night light panels from Chinese manufacturers with low-cost production.
The First Marketing Campaign
A Facebook group with over 75K people from his hometown, Kiel, helped him to sell 8 items on the first day of promotion — which he delivered by himself — and 127 items in the first month.
He recorded his son holding the bottle in his hand at night and invested 50K € to promote the video during the first three months.
By the end of 2019, 90% of his marketing expenses were on Facebook. The rest was in Google Ads and Pinterest. Nevertheless, he didn’t succeed in achieving the required outcome and was forced to increase his budget to face the grim reality.
“At the beginning, I thought I can do it. I have studied marketing,” Enis said. “I wanted to spend one to two thousand euros a month on marketing. Yet I’m spending that amount on a single day,” he added.
He tried everything out. And learned that vouchers perform best to increase the conversion rate. “It’s a tip that no marketing guru can explain,” he told to a reporter.
The Thing of the Year
In February 2020, Enis appeared on the German inventors' TV show “The Thing of the Year” to present his invention.
Before revealing the winner’s name, he suddenly turned to the audience and offered them a 3-for-2 discount. The gathering and the jury laughed, and it was clear that he was a born salesman.
After an hour of waiting and heartbeating, the result was announced. His two competitors, inventors of the Bobby product, got one vote from the jury just like him. But 53% of the audience voted for Enis Ayari.
It was a yes! Yes, the brand finally earned its name, and he won the competition.
Tears came to his eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief and a grin spread across his face. It wasn’t a pipe dream. His persistence has paid off…. The critics who had downplayed him for years had to face the truth — he proved to himself and everyone else that the idea was worth it.
But what’s more important is that he expects a vast increase in post-show sales, and he is ready for it.
Shortly before the broadcast of the TV show, Enis noticed he had an insufficient inventory to handle a large number of orders. To fix the problem, he took a loan of 100K € and pre-produced 30,000 items to be prepared for the opportunity. It was a risky decision because he sold only 1,464 packages in the 24 hours after the show instead of the 30,000 he hoped for.
But later, his product became well known across the country and attracted more public who loved the friendly design of the drinking bottles and the innovative light system which gives quieter nights to young families.
Within 14 months, he generated 1M € in sales.
From Facebook to a Multichannel Marketer
The experience of selling less than his expectation after his appearance in “The Thing of the Year” taught the young man that he should never rely on a single channel like a TV show or Facebook.
To empower the business and get the right people on board, he hired five permanent employees and three working students and started outsourcing tasks:
For affiliate and e-mail marketing, he used agencies on board.
For Facebook campaigns and SEO optimization, he employed freelancers.
He collaborated with Youtubers.
And cooperated with a large drugstore chain.
And the outcome was:
Amazon listed his product as the second one under the search query “children’s drinking bottle.”
His website with its own Shopify shop got around 100K unique visitors a month with a conversion rate of around 3%.
He expects 10 to 15% of his sales in the current year to be generated only with affiliate business according to his plan.
Looking Ahead: Crowd Investing
To turn his startup into a leading children’s brand, Enis expanded the product range to include lunch boxes, rompers, children’s dishes, and other product ranches.
In March 2021, he started a Seedmatch campaign to have a larger network and get more financial support. This approach helped him to collect 190K € right now.
“Seedmatch is one of the leading platforms for corporate crowd investing in Germany. It offers the opportunity to invest online — 250 euros or more — in dynamic established startups, high-growth companies (also called equity-based crowdfunding) and participate in their economic success.”
Crowd investing is a form of financing that allows many people — micro-investors, investors, piers — to participate online in startups with generally small amounts of money. Often, this would be through silent partnerships, profit participation rights, or profit-sharing loans.
Today, the bumpli startup has a team of over 20 employees and made around 50,000 sales in 2019, and over 1M € in 2020. Enis is planning to achieve eight-digit sales in the next two to five years and he prioritizes, of course, the customers' satisfaction.
Final Thought
Enis’s story is a powerful reminder that with hard work, faith, passion, and determination… anything is possible. The entrepreneurship journey won’t be easy. But there is a reward in solving problems and making an impact that improves the quality of life for others.
If you are seeking to create new things and facing rejection, Enis has some words that might help:
“If you have a good idea and a vision, believe in yourself. I had to fight for my idea and face a lot of critics — even from the closest circle. Today, they all believe in it. With good ideas and a healthy amount of naivety, we all can do it. It’s also important to get up again if you fall. Mistakes are the best teachers for how to perform better at the next opportunity.”
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