If you know, you know.
Spilled drinks, ground-in Goldfish bits, crayons spilled and melting into your carpet, and WHAT IS THAT SMELL??? It’s all par for the course when you put small humans or furry children in a vehicle.
But not anymore, not on Jake Lovasz’s watch.
How Jake Started
In 2019, Jake was in college pursuing a mechanical engineering degree and working a civil engineering job in Denver. His life? Driving from one construction site to another… and another… and another. Denver is DRYaf. So he had a gigunda water bottle, you know, so he didn’t die.
But there was a problem. Ever tried securing a huge water bottle in your car so it doesn’t end up rolling around on the floor?
Cup holder? Pffft. Balance between your knees? Meh. Weird bungee cord contraption? Who’s got time for that nonsense?
Jake went hunting for a solution. There were some but they didn’t really do the trick. So, Jake came up with something better and threw it up on Amazon.
People loved it! Product sales took off. So, Jake started looking for more products he could sell to expand his catalog.
Right there. That’s when Integral USA could have become just another product-first business. You know the drill… check Jungle Scout, try to find products with high demand, low supply, and deliciously high margin. Might start off great, but a race to the bottom price-wise is almost inevitable.
But Jake was smart. He knew he didn’t know what he was doing on the business end. So, he went looking for guidance, and that’s when he found The One Percent.
Enter, The One Percent
He vibed big-time with Ryan’s strategy of really getting to know a customer base, starting relationships with them, and deeply caring about a specific demographic.
So, he talked to them. He started asking them about their drive time. What problems were they having? What could be easier, better, cleaner? They told him.
Well, wait. They didn’t present these product ideas on a silver platter. It was more like they released the Kraken, a flood of complaints about their commutes. Lots of his ideas came from drivers starting sentences with, “I just wish…” Those words got his engineer brain’s gears turning. Sure, he’d do the research to validate his product ideas - but he’d found the magic formula for product development.
With a CAD and 3D printer in his laboratory (read that like Vincent Price, please), Jake makes his own prototypes. This way he can play around, get a feel for the product, and make sure it’s up to his liking before sending it off to a manufacturer. Sure, many manufacturers will make your prototypes for you, so don’t freak out. But he likes doing it this way. Inventing is fun!
Not only did finding Ryan’s work help Jake build a real brand, it also led to a beautiful relationship. He just got married, congratulations!! But we can’t take any credit for that… we’re talking about a beautiful relationship with the Capitalism Fund.
How did Jake find the perfect products to sell and scale to $1 million? Here's an interview he did with Ryan.
Jake had been rolling every dollar back into the business. It was growing steadily, but he wanted to grow faster. Getting funded was going to take capital, of course, but Jake was also eager for the strategic advice and connections. Right before Christmas of 2020, Jake quit his job and went all-in on his brand.
It’s a memorable moment when you kiss that steady paycheck and health benefits bye-bye. Jake says he leaned heavily on “borrowed confidence” at that point. Knowing the Fund believed so strongly that Integral USA was a winner helped him to move forward confidently.
He’s shifted into the Owner’s Model. He’s the CEO and visionary, but he’s not lost in the weeds. One way he made that shift was hiring an agency to help him scale.
August 2022
How’s it working? Integral hit 7-figures in about 18 months. Now it hits $250K months on the regular. The next goal is $500K months. Those numbers will do nicely to help him reach his goal of an 8-figure business. At that point, maybe he’ll sell… but if so, he’ll dive right back into the brand building pool and do it all again. It’s how he’s wired.
First, Jake borrowed confidence. Now he loans it out. He’s one of the coaches in The One Percent, advising students who are in the Growth phase of building their million dollar brands.
What’s his favorite thing about coaching? Jake says, “The enthusiasm of the people in the groups is so cool. Whenever we're able to really hit a problem on the head with a great solution for someone and seeing their reaction to that truly never gets old. If we can help them get where they want to go much quicker and easier… I know how helpful it is and how good it feels.”
It’s the entrepreneurial circle of life, folks. You do, you learn, you get help, you win… and then you help someone else do the same.
December 2022
Jake Lovasz 3x’d Sales, Optimized Systems, And Now His Days Are So Much Fun It Almost Feels Wrong
Well, the year was all about optimizing the systems the business runs on - especially marketing-wise, so they could expand the brand’s audience. Where they ended 2021 just shy of hitting a million dollars in sales, this year, they surpassed $3M and had their first $500K month in December.
Now, we get it… systems ain’t sexy. (Unless you’re an ops person, in which case you’re probably fanning yourself right about now.) But what these systems accomplished is downright hawt. So, two that they optimized: paid ads and a micro influencer program. Jake didn’t have to do it all; his team took the initial systems he’d built and made them better.
And get this - now Jake’s #1 job is dreaming up new products to serve his customers even better. You catch that? DREAMING.
“When you start to do the things you want to do, it almost feels wrong. It’s like you’re not supposed to be having this much fun. What about all the boring stuff I’m ‘supposed’ to be doing right now???” Jake had that exact question. Imagine if your mentor told you that your whole job is now to talk to your customers, listen for problems you can solve for them, and then go take a walk (or a shower) to wait for your next brilliant idea to hit. Nice!
Stay tuned for the next update as we watch Jake build an 8-figure brand (maybe 9!).
Are YOU Next?
Just like you, Jake started out with nothing more than a dream of building a million-dollar brand and using his talents and skills to make the world a better place. He's been an excellent student, taking action and advice, and sticking with his dream.
We count Jake among the one million millionaires we'll make by 2028. We'd love to help YOU build a business that makes you a millionaire, too.
That's why we created this FREE course that'll take you step-by-step as you build a brand you're proud of... one that can create generational wealth while also making the world a better place. You can get started building your million dollar brand right here.
