A $10 Website Makes $200M+

NEW STARTUPS

Startups that you can invest in with as little as $100 right now:

🌲 Modern Mill - It’s like beyond Meat, but for trees (LINK)

👻 Eli Roth’s Horror Studio - Famed filmmaker launches a horror-focused studio (LINK)

🏋️‍♀️ Keep On - The Duolingo of fitness (LINK)

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PLNT BURGER

GROWTH ENGINE DISCOVERED

Powered by the backing of Whole Foods, PLNT Burger has reigned in over $11M+ in revenue for their plant-based food concepts.

The company has found a new lever of growth that could put them on an even higher trajectory: catering.

PLNT Burger’s catering service arm grew 100% from 2022 → 2023 as demand for the brand grows.

PLNT Burger is allowing its earliest fans to invest in the business - up until April 30th, you can get equity in PLNT Burger, check out the link below!

THE MAN THAT TOLD KEVIN O’LEARY NO

The beady eyes of Kevin O’Leary remained trained on Ryan Duey, waiting for an answer. O’Leary was one of 4 Shark Tank investors to pitch an offer for his cold plunge company.

Duey broke eye contact briefly to exchange a look with his cofounder Michael - $1.2M would be wired to their company coffers if they just said yes.

For a company that was built off of a $10 GoDaddy website with products that were originally hand-made in their garage, that sum of money was almost inconceivable to Duey.

But by now Duey and Michael were far off the script and operating on the fly.

They had entered the Shark Tank believing Kevin Hart would be a guest Shark - and specifically tailored their pitch towards him in preparation.

But Hart was nowhere to be found. Due and Michael adjusted as best they could, and still managed to rally 4 sharks into making bids for their cold-plunge company.

Snapping back to the moment, Duey shifted his gaze to Robert Herjavec.

Robert had traded in his suit & tie for a bathrobe, having recently tested out Duey’s cold plunge for himself. And to the dismay of O’Leary, he snuck in an offer with more favorable terms.

“Robert…we got a deal.”

Duey had just agreed to $1.2M + a $1.2M financing loan for 12% of the company.

That’s not the end of the story though.

The deal fell apart in the aftermath of the show - here’s what went down, plus now you have the chance to get equity where Robert Herjavec couldn’t.

$10 WEBSITE STRIKES GOLD

Ryan Duey and Michael Garrett had each separately founded successful wellness centers in California.

That is, until COVID happened.

In true Uno Reverse fashion, their sensory deprivation tanks were deprived of people.

Michael took a step back and began tinkering in his garage on a prototype for a state-of-the-art cold plunge system. Tinkering soon led to obsession, and he convinced Ryan Duey to join his efforts - at this moment Plunge was born.

And if you’ve never heard of cold plunges, they’re essentially bathtubs that fill with extremely cold water, as low as 39 degrees Fahrenheit. By resting in the frigid waters for 1-5 minutes, proponents claim benefits to muscle recovery, stress management, immune systems, energy, and much more.

Michael & Duey handcrafted the first 10 units in that garage, and bought thecoldplunge.com on GoDaddy for $10.

The plunge tubs sold like hot (cold?) cakes and they knew that they were on to something.

PLUNGE GOES ON VIRAL TOUR

In a stroke of genius, Michael and Duey decided to bring their cold plunge on tour.

Tapping into people’s curiosities, they would transport a cold plunge to popular podcasters, vloggers, and celebrities.

Everyone wanted to try it, and Plunge was shared with their massive audiences as a result.

More than that though, many of these thought leaders bought Plunge for themselves and became leading proponents for the cold plunge movement.

All this momentum led to their appearance on Shark Tank where they verbally committed to an investment from Robert Herjavec (video here).

I talked to Ryan Duey, and asked him why the deal fell apart in the aftermath of the show. He attributed the collapse to two factors:

• During a lengthy negotiation process, Plunge was fairly disorganized as it related to financials and didn’t have the same rigor that they employ now. This elongated the process, which leads to point #2

• Plunge was taking off so quickly that the valuation initially agreed to months ago no longer made sense for Michael & Duey - their company was already worth more and growing every day.

The two walked away from the deal, but now they’re offering equity in Plunge to everyone via their community round on Wefunder. 

The investment minimum is $500 - I’m going to kick the tires and decide whether I take the plunge myself.

DO YOU WANNA SAUNA?

Unlike some of the smaller startups on Wefunder, Plunge has some serious revenue pouring into the company coffers.

In their ~5 years of operation, Plunge has sold $200M+ worth of equipment to over 30,000 customers.

Pretty early on, they moved production out of the garage and into a 150,000 square foot production facility in Sacramento, California. In our conversation, Duey hinted at exciting updates to the production process, which could help offset incremental costs caused by tariffs.

On the growth side, Plunge has expanded its product skew to include saunas.

They’ve reoriented the company to address the broader health & wellness category, outgrowing their old URL which was laser-focused on cold plunges.

Michael & Duey set out to acquire Plunge.com, but there was an issue.

The domain was owned by Plunge - a New Orleans jazz band that was on hiatus but had dreams of getting the crew back together. I think they were fine staying in retirement.

The band owner resisted for 2 years before giving in, but the selling price was steep: $250,000.

Nevertheless, the expansion to saunas proved hugely successful ($9.1M in revenue during first full year, 2024)

The market for saunas is much larger by comparison, and it brought new customers into the brand - 75% of sauna purchasers in Q4 were new to Plunge.

Taking the inverse of that statistic, 25% of purchasers were existing Plunge customers. This is also a good sign, Plunge is seeing strength in cross-selling its products.

Cross-selling is C.R.I.T.I.C.A.L. to a business like Plunge. Their business is low volume, high-price equipment (a plunge sells for up to $9k).

As a result, their customer acquisition cost is likely $300+. 

When you cross-sell a product to existing customers, this is normally done through free media channels that you own; an email blast, app notification, etc.

Each cross-sell then saves Plunge $300+ in acquisition costs, greatly improving the profitability of their operation.

CROSS-SELLING AS A GROWTH LEVER

There’s two reasons I foresee Plunge being able to cross-sell with great efficiency.

The first is that they’ve built an enthused fanbase that trusts the brand (364 investors in the opening days of their campaign, many of which have invested because they love the product).

The 2nd is their app, which tracks all Plunge/Sauna sessions and allows users to control temperatures.

The more devices they can bring under their app, the stickier their brand loyalty becomes. Consumers want to operate their devices from as few apps as possible, especially health & wellness trackers since the data is so interconnected.

There’s a lot of growth opportunity here, from sauna blankets to shower heads, so their ability to cross-sell is a major selling point for me.

IS IT A FAD IF IT’S BEEN AROUND FOR 15 YEARS?

There’s two arguments that detractors of Plunge can make:

• Cheap competitors will steal their market share

• Cold plunging is a fad

On the cheap competition front, Plunge isn’t involved in a race to the bottom.

They’ve established themselves as a leader in the premium space, and the high dollar signs don’t scare customers away. In fact, their highest-price unit is their best selling model.

I think cold plunging in general is for people who are very serious about investing in their health, and this isn’t the type of audience that typically buys cheap gear in that regard.

Now onto cold plunging being a fad. I thought a good amount on this topic and I’m not as concerned as I once was.

There are a long list of benefits that cold plunging provides - as research around this practice evolves we may come to learn that a couple of these aren’t as pronounced as we once thought. But will we find that all 10+ benefits don’t exist?

Specifically on inflammation, I think the research community is mostly aligned that cold water immersion reduces inflammation. That alone makes them extremely useful to a large swath of the population.

This is also not new science - I used to work for my college’s basketball team, and in the locker room we had two tubs that they would fill up with ice for player baths.

This was 10+ years ago, and likely was around before my time. Plunge is merely the productization of filling tubs with ice cubes.

PLUNGE’S B2B FLYWHEEL

The last thing I want to touch on is their B2B flywheel.

Plunge sells a commercial version of their tub that is more durable and chocked full of features like self-dosing chlorine distribution.

They’ve sold tubs to notable customers like LifeTime Fitness, Equinox, The Yankees, U.S. Army, The UFC, Hilton, and Four Seasons.

This part of their business notched 111% growth in 2024 reaching $13M in sales. It also helps on the consumer side.

A Plunge tub is a large investment for most people - the option to try it at a gym or hotel introduces the product to new customers and makes them more comfortable with purchasing one for their home.

Plunge’s B2B channel is more than a revenue stream for them, it’s a way in to the masses.

SUMMARY + WILL I INVEST?

Plunge is way more than an idea - they’ve got revenue & customers that really like the brand. There’s ample expansion opportunities within B2B, as well as adjacent products.

Plunge is also in a great spot with profitability. On the heels of a profitable Q4 in 2024, Duey expects the company to be fully profitable in 2025. By 2026 they expect $10M+ in profits.

Plunge has a valuation cap of $90M in this round (with 15% discount on the next priced round for Wefunder VIP members), so you’re essentially paying for 9x forward earnings should they hit their goals.

The last 15 years were a land-grab for the home - Nest & Ring Cameras were gobbled up for billions of dollars.

I think there’s a sizable chance that health & wellness becomes the next land-grab opportunity. Being able to weave together data across numerous equipment will lend an advantage to profiling a human’s comprehensive health.

Deep-pocketed corporations could very likely spend their excess cash flow on health & wellness brands that are trusted by consumers, and unify them under one platform to drive synergies for both consumers (usability) and themselves (costs).

I am comfortable with the risks I outlined and will likely invest in the company in the coming days.

This is not sponsored by any way by Plunge, but if you want to check out their raise, click below!