Number
Skincare FBA brand: $7K month one to $3M, targeting $6M
Tom Wang and his girlfriend launched a single face serum on Amazon in 2017. First month was $7K, first year $123K, then $1.7M, then $3M, with a $6M plan for the current year.
$3M
Annual Amazon FBA sales (third year) · USD/year
“We started with one product, which was a face serum that you put on your face. And we had no idea what we were doing. For the first month, we did like $7,000 in sales. And we're like, "Whoa, people are actually buying this product from us on Amazon. What is going on here?" We had no idea what we were doing. And from there, first year, we finished the year off at like $123,000 in sales. I was working a 9-to-5 job at that time. So I really, really wanted to quit my 9-to-5 so I could focus on Amazon. Then the second year we were able to scale that to $1.7 million. Then last year we did $3 million. This year if we don't sell our business, we have plans to do about $6 million.”
Number
30% EBITDA on an Amazon skincare brand
Tom Wang reveals his FBA skincare business runs at roughly 30% EBITDA margins, which is what makes it attractive to acquirers.
$30
EBITDA margin · percent
“Well, this year we're projected to do $6 million, but last year our EBITDA was about 30%.”
Fact
Amazon FBA brands sell for 2-6x EBITDA based on how branded they are
Tom Wang explains FBA businesses trade in a 2-6x EBITDA range: commoditized, unbranded products (rose gold balloons) fetch the low end, while a real branded product earns a premium. He's targeting at least 4x.
“The market value can go anywhere between roughly 2 to 6x. That's obviously a huge range. The ones that are on the lower end are just products on Amazon that are just like not branded. For example, like, like rose gold balloons or some random things like that, like very commoditized. But with our product that is branded, um, you can definitely get on a little bit higher end. So we're hoping to get at least a 4x of EBITDA.”
Steal thisBuild a real brand, not a commodity listing, to push your FBA exit multiple from 2x toward the 4-6x end.
Idea
Teach Amazon FBA via in-person local workshops, not online courses
Tom Wang's edge is teaching FBA through in-person workshops in Vancouver rather than competing in the saturated online-course market. A friend in Singapore showed him it was a 'blue ocean' with no local competitors; Tom now charges ~$3,000 CAD and has taught ~800 people locally.
“He's like, "Oh, I actually teach people how to sell on Amazon in person." I'm like, "That's interesting." I thought that was, gone. I thought webinars was the way, the funnels, the webinars, all that type of stuff. He's like, "Yeah, but it's blue ocean. I have no competitors." So I'm like, "That's interesting." So I ended up making a deal with him where he taught me how to do exactly what he does in Singapore. So I started doing it in Vancouver and I'd never spoken on stage or anything like that before.”
Steal thisTake a saturated online niche offline to one city and own the local 'blue ocean' instead of competing globally.
Tactic
Free intro workshop, then convert 15-20% of the room to a paid weekend
Tom Wang's course funnel: fill a room of ~150 with a cheap/free intro session, deliver real content, then pitch the paid workshop and convert 15% on a bad day, 20% on a good day. He kept raising the price on his coach's advice despite fear it was too expensive.
“If I can get about 150 people into the room, I can probably, on a good day, I can convert about 20% of the room. On a bad day, it's about 15% of the room. So the conversion rate kept on going up, going up, around 20%, and I was really, really scared. It was like an internal fear that I had to bump up the price a little bit more. Oh, it's already so expensive. My, um, my coach was like, hey, bump it up a little more, see what happens.”
Steal thisRun a cheap front-end event, deliver value live, then upsell a high-ticket workshop and keep raising price until conversion drops.
Story
The 'anti-guru': hoodie and shorts on stage to beat the sleaze stigma
Tom Wang addresses the sleaze accusation around course-sellers by positioning as the 'anti-guru'. As a broke Chinese immigrant who got no help growing up, he speaks in a hoodie and shorts, gives away free YouTube content, and frames the paid course as a fast track rather than the only path.
“So when it comes to sleaziness, I think I'm kind of like the anti-guru. I go up on stage wearing hoodie and shorts, 'cause I tell people, I'm like, this is the real me. I'm not like, This is the real me. This is what I wear on a daily basis. I don't wear a big suit, a fancy tie, a pocket square trying to sell you into a weekend workshop. If you want to come and learn from me, great. If you don't want to come learn from me, I have tons and tons of free information on YouTube that I'm going to share with you anyway.”
Framework
Go local to escape the whole-market competition of online courses
Shaan unpacks why Tom Wang's in-person model works: online lets you reach the whole market but forces you to compete against the whole market, while a single city like Vancouver has nobody teaching it, and the in-person experience is worth more than people pay.
“I love Tom's model where, like you said, blue ocean. So like the conventional wisdom is online course, but online, yes, you can reach the whole market, but you're competing against the whole market. Yeah. So if you're trying to be, hey, here's how you make money selling on Amazon, a lot of other people doing that. But what he realized was, look, in Vancouver there's nobody. And, you know, he turned out to be right with that insight, which was that every month he could get, you know, another 100 people to show up.”