In 2015, a group of women threw a bachelorette party in a bar somewhere in Canada. The bartender on duty said "they had dick everything – straws, inflatables, glitter — and of course — Dick Candy." At that moment, the bartender was struck by an idea: why not monetize the age-old insult "eat a bag of dicks"?
While the crude phrase had been around for decades, no one had actually turned it into a literal product you could ship to friends or foes. In a post on Imgur, the bartender said he found bags of dick-shaped candy at a sex for $13. "They were….ok. Not great candy, but it's not meant to be great, it's meant to be funny," he said. More importantly, the bag contained the name of the supplier for the candy. "I found a wholesaler, and placed an order for about a dozen bags," he said. "This cut my cost in half vs reselling from a sex toy store, so I was pretty happy to be able to order those first 12 bags and see where it got me."
He built a Shopify website using a free two-week trial account. "I used a template website builder and set everything up, after just enough drinks to be funny, I was happy with the site, and set it live."
He had a modest start with friends and family, until he set up a photoshoot of "what it would be like to get one of the packages, and post it on Imgur one night to see what happened. Yeah, we made a fake post and just lied to everyone on the internet. I'm not sorry, because not only was it popular — it became the top post of the day. We added the link to the site for people to order, and boy did they order."
Within three days he had over $70,000 in sales. The sudden success created inventory challenges: "I didn't have the inventory to fulfill these orders. I may have need to refund EVERYTHING." The founder found a solution by acting quickly: "I contacted several suppliers and asked around about pricing. One company both HAD the stock, and was able to offer a great discount on the bulk order." They secured financing through family, with "dad to put it on his credit card" for a "$10,000 worth of Gummy Dicks" order.
He says that a year after launching his site, a number of copycat sites launched. "One event went hardcore into saying I ripped them off (and they privately threatened me like a year after I started!) Luckily, The WAYBACKMACHINE shows that they started after me, so threat or no, I at least had the truth on my side."
Eventually he sold the company for a handy profit.
Previously:
• PSA: always read the labels on your THC gummies
• Nurse banned for life from Carnival Cruise over CBD gummies
• Elementary school students sickened after eating gummies with fentanyl — couple arrested
• Here's what happened to a girl who mistakenly ate 96 potent cannabis gummies
• A Texas kindergarten teacher resigns after doping students with melatonin gummies
