286: How Annex Products Co-Founder Rob Ward Used the Power of Prediction to Build a Multimillion-Dollar Company

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 662 Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2020

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rob Ward always seems to be one step ahead. Before Kickstarter took off, Ward and his co-founder Chris Peters launched two successful campaigns on the platform, funding Opena and Quad Lock—the two products that led to the founding of Annex Products. Then Ward was early to the Shopify game, which he successfully used to sell his products for several years. Ward was also quick to see the potential of Facebook Ads and has used them to scale Annex to a multimillion-dollar business. This ability to spot trends, paired with his finely-tuned approach to product development, has helped Ward find tremendous success as an entrepreneur. While Opena is no longer active, Quad Lock has become a leading device mount and accessory company, serving a wide variety of users—car commuters, motorcyclists, kayakers, even hang gliders. As a result, Quad Lock sells hundreds of thousands of units each year in over 100 countries. We’re now thrilled to have Rob Ward as one of the five instructors of our latest online course, Ecommerce Masters, teaching advanced ecommerce strategies. If you’re curious to learn more about Ward’s approach to trendspotting, product development, and more, we highly recommend you check out this episode! ATTENTION: We’re excited to announce that Rob Ward has partnered with Foundr to teach one of the modules in our course, Ecommerce Masters. Get on the Free VIP Waitlist to be notified when we open enrollment! Get a FREE Lesson from Our Course: Ecommerce Masters! Learn the FASTEST Path to a Million-Dollar Store Key Takeaways An overview of Ward’s prior entrepreneurial experiences with everything from laser machines to 3D printers, and how they helped him get to where he is today How he and his co-founder, Chris Peters, founded Annex Products in 2012, building on two successful Kickstarter campaigns Why the duo decided to eventually focus their resources on Quad Lock How Ward stays on the cutting edge and predicts trends Insight into Ward’s approach to the product development process—when to start thinking about the next product, the iterative process, and more Why Ward isn’t too worried about Quad Lock copycats Why Ward doesn’t believe in following other people’s blueprints for success A sneak peek into the module Ward will be teaching for Ecommerce Masters

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is episode number 286 with Rob Ward of the Founder Podcast.
0:07.1	What you need is thirst.
0:08.9	You need to be a thirsty human who is intent on learning.
0:13.0	It's a really fascinating exploration of human potential.
0:18.7	The Founder Podcast.
0:21.8	Even the greatest entrepreneurs had help.
0:24.8	If you want to learn from the most successful founders on the planet,
0:28.2	you are in the right place.
0:30.4	Branson, Mark Cuban, Tony Robbins, Jim Ferris, Arianna Humphington,
0:33.4	Steve Case, Gary V, Sophia Amorosa, Erica Corcoran, Damon, John.
0:37.5	Learn from the greatest minds in business today with interviews hosted by Nathan Chan.
0:42.1	This is not your average entrepreneur podcast.
0:45.8	The Founder Podcast.
0:52.8	Hey guys, thank you so much for tuning in. Before we start today's episode, I just want to let
0:58.9	you know that our goal at founder is to help entrepreneurs succeed however we can by giving
1:04.5	away high quality content in the form of interviews, blog posts, podcasts, YouTube videos,
1:10.7	you name it. We put out so much content to help you.
1:13.9	And another interesting project that we're working on right now is partnering with world-class
1:18.7	founders like Damon John, Alexa von Tobel, Greta Van Riel, and so many more to teach crucial
1:24.7	skills like negotiation, finance, e-commerce, and so much more.
1:30.9	So if you'd like to get access to these free trainings with founders like this, which is
1:36.4	100% free, just go to founder.com forward slash free.
	...

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