Mark Cuban’s Favorite Shark Tank Product Was Created Just For ‘Dudes’ And Is Raking In Over $100 Million A Year: ‘Wipe Early, Wipe Often’

By Investor Empires On Dec 8, 2024

Mark Cuban’s favorite Shark Tank product was created specifically for ‘guys’ and makes over $100 million a year: ‘Scan early, scan often’

When Mark Cuban was asked about his favorite Shark tank investment During an interview on Good Morning America, he didn’t hesitate: DUDE Wipes. In a video posted on Instagram in October, Cuban joked: “We all have to wipe, right?” He added: “It’s all just a petty joke to them. Business is great. They’re killing it. They’re going to make over a hundred million dollars this year. So wipe early, wipe often.”

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This offbeat humor is at the core of DUDE Wipes’ success. Launched in 2011 by childhood friends from the Chicago suburbs — Sean Reilly, Ryan Meighan, and Jeffrey Klimkowski — the company has gone from a quirky idea to seriously disrupting the $11 billion toilet paper industry. In 2023 alone, the brand generated $110 million in revenue, up from $70 million the year before, and now holds a 1% market share in a space dominated by giants like Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble.

The concept for DUDE Wipes started as a simple hack: Riley stocked their shared apartment bathroom with baby wipes. The roommates realized that although traditional toilet paper wasn’t effective, baby wipes, let alone men’s, weren’t marketed to adults.

From that lightbulb moment, they sketched their prototype, pooled $30,000 in savings and ordered their first batch of wipes. With only $5,000 left over for marketing, they began distributing samples on college campuses, music festivals, and fraternity houses.

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“We didn’t have any marketing money, but we had a product,” Riley explained.

DUDE Tissues got that Big break on Shark Tank In 2015. With their bold – expressive speech Mark Cuban That “ah** hates him” for using dry toilet paper – they received a $300,000 investment for 25% of the company. The Cuban investment remains the only external financing they have ever received.

Fast forward to today, DUDE Wipes are now a staple in more than 20,000 stores, including Walmart, Target, and Kroger. This year, they expanded to include Sam’s Club and Costco. They’ve also doubled down on their irreverent marketing efforts, including Super Bowl billboards that mock pop culture figures like Taylor Swift (“This is me. Hey. I’m the solution. It’s me. Not TP.”) and Travis Kelce (“We are.”) ). I like the clean tight end too.”).

“They created a culture and a community around the fun product,” Cuban said, according to an article published by MyForbes.

DUDE Wipes relies not only on simple humor, but also on clever strategy. Despite their rapid growth, the founders have kept their operations lean, with just over 20 employees. They outsourced manufacturing to a shared Arkansas facility with their competitors and remained focused on their core product, developing plans for DUDE-themed deodorants and body washes.

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This simplicity has allowed them to expand profitably. The company, which has been profitable since 2016, expects annual sales of $500 million over the next five years. “We were absolutely crazy to go from zero to $100 million,” Klimkowski said in a Forbes article. “Based on the new distribution alone, we will have $500 million.”

Although the brand is male-focused, about 50% of DUDE Wipes’ customers are women, who say the product simply cleans better than traditional toilet paper.

“It’s a simple, cheap product built on a fairly radical concept,” Megan said. “Toilet paper doesn’t get the whole job done.”

So, what’s next for DUDE Wipes?

With ambitious goals to reach $1 billion in annual sales, the founders know that increasing household adoption is the next big challenge. For now, they are focusing on expanding into new markets, introducing the brand to more consumers and continuing to embrace their irreverent, fun-loving style of marketing.

As Cuban said: “They’re killing it.” And with a target of the $1 billion mark, DUDE Wipes isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

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This article Mark Cuban’s favorite Shark Tank product was created specifically for ‘guys’ and makes over $100 million a year: ‘Scan early, scan often’ Originally appeared on Benzinga.com