Squatch Huntin'

In late 2013, Jack Haldrup had a quarter-life crisis and joined the mile high club. No—not that mile high club, you sick f***. The entrepreneur’s version of the mile high club...

At the time, he was working as an IT consultant. He looked at everyone at the "top" of his agency. They seemed miserable. Is that really as good as it gets? As he boarded his flight back from LA to Chicago, he swore to himself he would write down a list of business ideas before the plane landed.

Jack struggled with really dry skin. He had been diving into possible solutions. Turns out that “Big Soap” had been taking out all the good stuff and putting in fake crap to mass produce their products at low cost. The skin is the body’s largest organ—you have to treat it as such. So what did he write down? Just one thing: “natural bar soap for men”.

He landed. He set a time frame for himself. 45 days. He told his sister about the idea. She's a talented artist. She drew a logo. He reached out to soap makers in the area. One agreed to work with him. He made a website. He used $5k to order inventory. And he launched Dr. Squatch Soap Company. All while still working as an IT consultant.

At first, he was only selling 3-5 bars a week. His friends laughed at the idea, but he kept at it. Eventually the brand gained traction with its "soapscription" service. In 2020, Dr. Squatch did $100 million in revenue. Jack Haldrup quit his IT consulting job a long time ago. So next time you’re crammed into your seat on a flight and dreaming about what could be or might’ve been, join the mile high club by writing down an idea or two. You could end up with your own Dr. Squatch.

**Read more FS Stories here.

---

If you liked reading this article, you might also like The Wedge: a quick-to-read weekly e-mail newsletter with awesome business stories that'll increase your creativity and resourcefulness just by reading them. Learn more and sign up here.

---