The CMO and cofounder of Cubii, a multimillion-dollar elliptical company making fitness accessible for all, shares how she built her business after raising almost $300,000 in a Kickstarter campaign
- 28-year-old Shivani Jain is the cofounder and chief marketing officer of Cubii, the first-ever seated and compact elliptical that facilitates low-impact exercise.
- Cubii, she told Business Insider in an interview, was launched as a result of a very successful Kickstarter campaign, where she and her cofounders raised just under $300,000 in six weeks. They had only expected to raise $80,000.
- Cubii's revenue is set to hit $20 million in 2019. Jain shared how she got her multimillion-dollar business off the ground, including a pivot in her customer base.
- The initial audience for Cubii was desk professionals, but after discovering that people were buying and using Cubii for rehabilitation and recovery, Jain and her colleagues decided to expand the product's brand identity.
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Every successful business begins with a great idea. For 28-year-old Shivani Jain, that idea was to make the first-ever seated and compact elliptical that facilitates low-impact exercise.
Today, Jain is the cofounder and chief marketing officer of Cubii (otherwise known as Fitness Cubed Inc.). Cubii's revenue is set to hit $20 million in 2019, and the company has started selling internationally, headcount has tripled (from six employees to 21), and sales have doubled, with 200,000 units already sold in 2019. The company reports that when their elliptical miles are taken in aggregate, Cubii users to date have literally "pedaled past the moon" dozens of times.
Cubii was also listed as No. 180 on the 2019 "Inc. 5,000," a ranking of the most successful and fastest-growing companies in America, and as the sixth fastest-growing company from Chicago.
"Cubii's revenue has grown almost 250% in 2018 and is on track to see similar growth in 2019," said Jain.
The CMO shared the behind-the-scenes scoop with Business Insider on how she and her two cofounders got their idea off the ground.
A competition begets a business ventureThe concept for Cubii came to Jain and her cofounders while they were completing their undergraduate degrees at the University of Chicago, where Jain earned her BA in economics.
The trio hatched the idea as part of a student-only business competition through the University of Chicago's Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship called the "College New Venture Challenge," which is recognized as one of the top-ranked accelerator programs in the nation. Companies that have been successfully launched through the New Venture Challenge include household names such as Grubhub, Braintree/Venmo, and Simple Mills.
For the competition, Jain and her cofounders created the first-ever model of the Cubii and presented the prototype along with a business plan. Despite the fact that they placed second for their idea, the three students said they "never imagined that it would turn into a real business."
"While my cofounders and I were always interested in entrepreneurship, we hadn't thought it would happen so early in our careers," admitted Jain. "We call ourselves 'accidental entrepreneurs.'"
However, after spending time after college in sedentary work environments, they were convinced more than ever that a more active professional lifestyle could be possible - and in high demand - if only they put their ideas into action.
"All three of us were working eight-plus hours a day, and had a one-and-a-half hour commute each way," explained Jain. "By the time we were back home, we were too tired to go to the gym. To lessen our guilt from not exercising, we decided to come up with a device that would help us stay more active at work."
So they got to work on creating some functional prototypes and conducted some initial user tests. Jain spent the next year moonlighting toward these efforts on Cubii while also working full time - first for the Cook County Government, and then as a business analyst at Sears Holdings Corporation.
Her cofounders joined her in these after-hours entrepreneurial efforts: Once they finished work, they would start work on their "second" job - getting Cubii off the ground - until 11 p.m. or midnight and on weekends.
Jain and her cofounders next decided to validate the idea through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. She explained that at the time, Kickstarter was one of the most popular platforms for crowdfunding campaigns.
"It was tracked closely by many reporters and publications, which helped the campaigns on the platform get some good early traction in the press," said Jain. "Also, unlike its competitors, Kickstarter campaigns had more urgency around them since you only get the funds if you reach your pre-set goal."
Jain described the Kickstarter campaign as the "make it or break it point" for Cubii. Each cofounder had been saving carefully since graduation, and they even lived together to make moonlighting on Cubii easier. Jain quit her day job in June 2014 to focus on Cubii full time during the lead-up to the launch of the Kickstarter campaign.
"One person was needed full time to [move our] best work forward at this critical moment for the campaign," recalled Jain. "[We] did not want to have any regrets if the campaign wasn't successful and wanted to give it [our] best."
When Jain and her cofounders launched the Kickstarter campaign for their fitness machine named the Cubii - which was named as a play on the word "cubicle," as they'd envisioned building a product that was compact and easy to use even in a small space - they set an initial goal of raising $80,000.
"We set a goal that would help us validate that there is a need in the market, while allowing us to kickstart the manufacturing process," said Jain.
But what results followed led to what Jain identifies as one of the most successful Chicago Kickstarter campaigns of all time: The group raised just under $300,000 in six weeks from over 1,000 supporters, or three-and-a-half times their initial crowdfunding goal.
"Our Kickstarter campaign caught the attention of the press and was covered by many major publications," said Jain. "That really helped us get more awareness toward the campaign."
She added that the cofounders were "very proactive" on their Kickstarter page, taking steps like answering people's questions and comments about the product and posting regular updates and stretch goals.
"That helped keep people engaged and kept the excitement of the campaign live," she said.
While having a few hundred thousand dollars on hand went above and beyond their expectations, Jain and her cofounders quickly realized that they would need even more money to turn their idea into a reality. So in 2016, they sought venture capital, raising $650,000 in a seed round for production, inventory, marketing, and hiring.
Jain described the company as "mostly bootstrapped" - she and her husband have maintained majority ownership of the company. In addition to the Kickstarter funds, they also began taking pre-orders on Cubii's website, which helped them raise more capital.
"The company is self-sustainable and has been profitable for 2018 and 2019," confirmed Jain.
The company in total has also managed to raise around $1.5 million from angel investors to fund some fixed costs for manufacturing such as tooling and molding. The Cubii is available in a range of options, priced from $249 to $399, with the ability to add bluetooth enablement and a fitness-tracking app.
Jain leads marketing and sales for the company, working on Cubii's growth strategy, sales channel expansion, branding, and fundraising. As CMO, she has successfully expanded online sales to include retailers like Amazon, Staples, Walmart, Costco, and Grommet. Some employers have even incorporated Cubii into their employee wellness programs, partnering with Jain and her team to boost workplace fitness.
Jain explained that she and her cofounders initially built the Cubii elliptical to help busy professionals stay more active throughout their workday, so the company started out by targeting this group with their marketing. However, once the cofounders began reading their customers' reviews and comments, they realized that people were using the product for reasons far beyond what they'd expected.
"Around 50% of our customers were buying and using Cubii for rehabilitation, recovery, and low-impact exercise at their home - and were seeing some life-changing results," said Jain. So she and her colleagues decided to expand the product's brand identity - the company's marketing messaging has changed from "workout while you work" to "fitness for all abilities, ages, and lifestyles."
"We have not yet changed the product, but these inputs are guiding our design process as we prepare for new updates and launches coming very soon next year," said Jain.
Today, physical therapy and injury rehabilitation customers - such as people who have been in car accidents, had knee or hip replacements, or had traumatic brain surgeries, cancer, or other crippling conditions - make up 70% of the company's business. The Cubii has a Mayo Clinic certification for active sitting and reportedly allows users to burn up to 150 calories per hour. The device can be used while seated on a couch as well as at a desk, which greatly expands the range of physical abilities that can effectively use and benefit from the fitness tool.
"I think it's critical to maintain a feedback loop with your customers so you can be realistic about their needs and tailor your products and brand to best fit them," said Jain. "Since this change, Cubii has not only seen exponential growth, but is changing people's lives by being able to help them where they need it most in their lives."
It takes a villageJain emphasized that the company couldn't have reached its current level of success without a strong network of advisors and mentors. "As three young college graduates, we turned to this support system as a sounding board to guide us as the business grew," said Jain.
When they started the business as recent college grads, they leveraged the University of Chicago's alumni network heavily to connect with entrepreneurs and experts in their industry.
"One person introduced us to another expert, and that person introduced us to another," said Jain. "We probably have four or five degrees of separation to some of our current advisors! Done right, the network effect can be extremely powerful. Advisors have helped us with strategic decisions as well [as] day-to-day operational challenges."
Jain and the Cubii team aren't all about business, either. The company offers a program called CubiiCares, which donates the mini ellipticals to "those who would benefit from using one, but may not be able to obtain one by their own means," she explained. Cubii also partners with nonprofits to fundraise for worthy causes and recently raised over $5,000 for Cradles to Crayons, which helps underprivileged children.
"We conducted a study with the Market Strategy Group, and they found from AARP and MSG analysis that approximately 95% of people within this enormous market cite lacking time, motivation, or ability to be active," said Jain. "Today, fitness companies help enthusiasts get fitter, but no one has focused on serving the larger, rapidly growing population of people who are not getting enough physical activity."