Home » $100K/Month Building a Durable and Portable Guitar Brand – Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars

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$100K/Month Building a Durable and Portable Guitar Brand – Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars

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Founder

Adam Klosowiak

United States

klosguitars@gmail.com

Full-time

Open to opportunities: Yes

Business

KLOS Guitars

Physical Location - Country: United States

11-50 (Medium Business)

https://klosguitars.com/

Established: January 2015

Business Type: Product

Category: Retail and Consumer Goods

Subcategory: Music

Niche: Musical Instruments

Segments: B2C (Business-to-Consumer)

Structure: Private

Business Socials

$1M - $5M

Annual Revenue (USD)

Sales
Marketing

Business Book

  1. Shoe Dog by Nike co-founder Phil Knight

Productivity Tool or Tip

  1. Slack

Inspirational Peers or Entrepreneurs

  1. Hamdi Ulukaya

Innovative Product or Idea

  1. Flux Marine

Startup or Business

  1. Not directly mentioned in the clip

Best business advice

“Starting a business is hard, and if it were easy, someone else would have done it already. Things will go wrong, but don’t get discouraged. Remember your passion, keep a level head, work hard, and keep solving problems.”

INTERVIEW VIDEO (Length – 51:20)

PODCAST AUDIO

Intro

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars shares his journey of creating sleek and durable carbon fiber guitars and ukuleles designed for portability and great sound, with their flagship product being a foldable mini-dreadnought travel guitar.

Hackathon to Startup

While studying electrical engineering at Princeton, I found the curriculum to be highly theoretical. I enjoyed the degree and found the material fascinating, but my classmates and I often felt we lacked the ability to build real, tangible things. Despite our strong grasp of theoretical concepts, we weren’t developing practical engineering skills—the kind you’d expect from an engineering program.

That changed when two friends and I entered a 24-hour hackathon. We built a Bluetooth-enabled power strip that could be controlled via a phone, and to our surprise, we won. The prize was a spot in a summer accelerator designed to help teams launch their hackathon projects. We ultimately turned it down because it required us to take a year off from school, but the process of preparing for it—doing market research, competitor analysis, and cost projections—was eye-opening. I realized I was more passionate about building and evaluating products than studying theoretical engineering.

Around the same time, I took an entrepreneurship class at Princeton, which further sparked my interest in startups. Meanwhile, my brother—who was studying mechanical engineering at BYU—had built a carbon fiber guitar as part of his coursework. He’s always been great at creating and designing things, and he was combining his interests in guitars and advanced materials.

He needed help entering the guitar project into a business competition, so I stepped in with my growing experience in entrepreneurship. Together, we submitted the idea and ended up winning $1,000. That prize marked the creation of our very first guitar—and the beginning of a new direction for both of us.

Winning Guitar Journey

Yes, all of this took place during the second semester of my senior year—right at the end of college. That’s when we entered the competition with the guitar my brother had built, and we ended up winning a summer accelerator from Princeton for the guitar company.

We accepted the offer and participated in the accelerator the summer after I graduated. I remember the timing vividly—I graduated, packed up my things, drove home, and then just three days later, I was back on campus to start the program.

Brotherly Guitar Venture

Exactly—the very first guitar was entirely my brother Ian’s idea. Since then, we’ve launched many more products, but that original guitar was something he had been working on for a while. Interestingly, Ian had been teaching me how to play guitar for several years over Skype, since we lived in different places.

So we already had a strong bond, both personally and musically. It’s kind of funny in hindsight that we ended up starting a guitar company together—what began as guitar lessons between brothers eventually turned into a business.

Fibers and Frets

Around the same time my brother was building that first carbon fiber guitar, the wooden guitar I had been using to learn actually cracked during the winter. A large crack formed from the bridge to the bottom of the body, and that incident played a big role in inspiring my brother to explore carbon fiber as an alternative material.

You hit the value proposition exactly right—carbon fiber is incredibly durable and far more resistant to changes in temperature and humidity than wood. It’s also lighter than many strong alternatives. We’d seen carbon fiber revolutionize other industries—bikes, hockey sticks, golf clubs, car and airplane parts, even tennis and racquetball rackets. While carbon fiber instruments have existed since the ’80s, they were always ultra-niche and extremely expensive.

Our goal was to change that. We wanted to make carbon fiber guitars more accessible and mainstream. So our first design combined wood and carbon fiber, offering the structural advantages of carbon fiber while keeping costs lower. That hybrid approach allowed us to hit a more affordable price point for musicians who travel or are on tighter budgets—something that’s been a core part of our mission from the start.

Filling the Market Gap

It was really a mix of educated thinking and educated guessing. My brother and I were both engineers, but at the time, we knew very little about business—we didn’t even fully understand what terms like “marketing” or “supply chain” meant. Still, our logic was sound. We saw that several carbon fiber guitar brands already existed, but they were all extremely expensive—typically starting around $1,500 and often going up to $2,500 or more. That told us there was demand and a proof of concept at the high end of the market.

At the same time, we noticed that travel guitars made from wood were in high demand at much lower price points. So our hypothesis was that there was an underserved gap in the market: musicians wanted the durability and reliability of carbon fiber, but there were no affordable options. It was a niche space, but a clear gap we believed we could fill.

We focused on building a product that was both practical and more accessible in price. And while the market opportunity seemed small on paper, it addressed a real need. I believe our early success came from solving that very specific problem—one that no one else was targeting at the time.

The takeaway from our experience is this: even if you’re solving a small problem, if it’s real and your solution is specific and thoughtful, it can be enough to get you your first few thousand customers. And often, that’s exactly what you need to get a business off the ground.

Sound of Innovation

When people ask how carbon fiber sounds compared to wood, it’s important to remember that “wood” isn’t just one thing. There are hundreds of different types of wood used in guitars, and each one sounds different. African cherry, spruce, mahogany, ash—they all have unique tonal qualities.

So while carbon fiber does have its own sound, the tonal differences aren’t more dramatic than the differences between types of wood. In fact, if you listened to two guitars—one carbon fiber and one wood—you might not be able to tell which is which. You’d more likely notice the tonal differences between two woods or even two carbon fiber builds than be able to definitively identify the material.

One of the major advantages of carbon fiber is the control it offers in manufacturing. Unlike wood, which has natural imperfections and variation, carbon fiber allows us to design with precision. For example, our soundboard uses a composite sandwich panel—carbon, foam, carbon—which gives us a perfect balance of strength, resonance, and durability. We can control the thickness and density exactly, which is nearly impossible with natural wood.

Once we find the perfect configuration, we can replicate it consistently. That level of stability and repeatability is a huge asset, especially compared to wood, where even the best manufacturing process can’t prevent variation from one guitar to the next.

Portable vs. Premium

Right now, most of our customers are already guitar players. While we do have some beginners, the majority own at least one other instrument—usually a full-size guitar—and are looking for something more portable. Our travel guitar appeals to those who want a smaller, durable option to bring on the go, while still having their main guitar at home.

For customers interested in our full-size guitar, performance tends to be the priority. This model still travels well, but it’s designed to sound much better than a travel-sized guitar, simply because it has a larger body and better acoustic resonance. It’s good enough to be someone’s only guitar and offers a high level of sound quality.

Then there’s our ukulele, which is a bit different. It’s a premium instrument in its category—one of the best-sounding and most durable ukuleles available. While it’s extremely travel-friendly, it also appeals to musicians looking for a top-tier uke regardless of travel needs. It performs so well that it competes as a best-in-class instrument, not just a durable one.

Most customers find us through keywords like “durable guitar,” “best travel guitar,” or “portable guitar.” Our travel model continues to be a key driver for discovery and sales. Though it’s not our top seller anymore, it’s still the gateway product for many. As more people learn about and review our full-size guitar and ukulele, those models are gaining traction too.

Entrepreneurial Guitar Journey

That’s a powerful story—and such a classic example of how a bit of naïveté can be an unexpected asset for early-stage founders. You didn’t wait for perfect conditions or complete knowledge. You saw a gap, believed in your product, and ran with it.

The idea that guitar is like fashion—where no one product is objectively “best,” but there’s room for strong branding and personal taste—is so spot on. Your early conviction, even in the absence of experience, allowed you to build momentum. And that first Kickstarter, while modest in the grand scheme, was massive in validating not just your idea, but your approach. Those 70 early adopters didn’t just give you money—they gave you proof that trust in the brand and product was possible.

By the time you hit that third campaign and sold 500 guitars in a month, it wasn’t just validation—it was market confirmation. That leap from 70 to 500, with added product complexity and an evolving customer base, shows how effectively you were solving a real problem in a passionate niche.

The takeaway here is not just “trust your gut” or “jump early”—it’s about listening closely to feedback, iterating quickly, and scaling conviction with each earned win. You didn’t try to be everything to everyone. You started by solving one specific problem really well—and let the market pull you forward.

Listening to the Market

When we started, we made the first 2,000 model units ourselves near Salt Lake City, Utah, where we are now. That early phase was a huge learning experience—setting up the manufacturing plant, building molds, laying up carbon fiber, and creating an assembly line. Those first two years taught us so much about what makes a good product and what really impacts the customer experience. We learned where it’s worth investing time and where it’s okay to rely on suppliers. Eventually, we partnered with a supplier to make the carbon fiber parts, and now we focus mainly on assembly. We found that whether we make a part or a supplier does it, what really matters is that the final product feels great, plays well, and is perfectly finished.

Our product development is driven by listening closely to our customers. For example, we started with the first travel guitar, and then many customers asked for an acoustic-electric version. That became the next step. On that campaign, we offered a more premium, expensive model, and we were surprised at how many people chose it. At the time, we were just recent college grads and budget-conscious, but we realized a lot of customers want a higher-end product that lasts longer and offers better quality. That insight shaped our approach to pricing and quality. We then designed even more premium models, including full carbon fiber versions, which performed very well.

Customer requests have continued to guide us. When people asked for other instruments, like ukuleles or larger guitars, we took that feedback seriously. Now, on our website’s “Coming Soon” section, we list instruments that customers want us to make. Visitors can sign up to express their interest, and we only develop instruments when there’s enough demand. This approach ensures that every new product has market fit before we build it.

We also use Kickstarter for every new launch, which removes financial risk and lets us gauge real customer interest upfront. This strategy keeps us grounded in the market and prevents us from creating products no one wants. It’s impossible for us to launch something without a proven customer base, which is key for staying successful and relevant.

Learning Through Innovation

My brother is a phenomenal engineer. Since we were young, he’s always been designing and fixing things. His first job was fixing bikes at a local bike shop when he was just 14. By the time he was 16, he had built a mechanical paper shredder that used a rope and razors to cut paper—something most people wouldn’t think to create at that age. Both of us, as engineers, share a knack for learning new things. If we don’t know something, we find experts, learn from them, and test our ideas. Some experiments go well, others don’t, but we keep learning and improving.

Most of our product development followed this approach. When Ian faced an engineering challenge, we’d find someone more experienced in that area or test different solutions ourselves. The scientific method—forming hypotheses, testing, taking notes on what worked and what didn’t—has guided us throughout. This methodical, hands-on approach is partly why we’ve grown slowly and organically, doing almost everything ourselves.

The same learning mindset applied to the marketing and business side. In the early days, I didn’t have much experience, but I got good at finding people who did, asking tons of questions, and learning from them. Over time, I built enough expertise to move the business forward, and at each new stage, there was always more to learn. This process of continuous learning has been key to our growth.

That said, some technical knowledge is necessary to really understand complex areas like carbon fiber. Ian had enough background to pick up the details, but if you start with zero understanding, even talking to experts won’t help much because you lack the language and context to absorb the information. So having some foundation is important to effectively learn and grow.

From Kickstarter to Retail

Our transition to selling our product was pretty fast. We did our first Kickstarter, which took about a year to fulfill. After that, we launched our website and sold roughly the same amount, or maybe double, compared to what we sold on Kickstarter. Then we ran a second Kickstarter while still selling the first product on our website. This became our usual approach: launch a product on Kickstarter, then move it to our website. Over time, this method proved efficient—Kickstarter generated sales and brought new customers who also bought other products directly from our site.

For the first five years, we focused entirely on direct-to-consumer sales. After that, we decided to open up and sell through retail stores. Unfortunately, not long after we started this retail push, COVID-19 hit and pretty much crushed our retail strategy. It stalled for about a year and a half. It wasn’t until reports started showing that brick-and-mortar stores were bouncing back that we decided to revive that channel.

Now, we sell through both brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce. From the data we’ve seen, I believe the best strategy is to use both channels because they complement each other. They serve different customer segments and sales paths, but they help each other grow.

Looking ahead, I’m confident that this synergy between online and retail sales will only get stronger in the coming decade, making our business more resilient and diverse.

Crafting Careers

We hired builders right away, starting with interns from the college Ian attended. At the very beginning, we didn’t even have enough money to pay people, so we compensated them with guitars instead. For about 80 hours of work, they’d earn a guitar to keep. It was a small, passionate team where each person built their own guitar and also worked on others alongside it. This setup helped us get started and build momentum.

As we grew, we transitioned to more established hourly workers to help with building guitars. Manufacturing was our biggest challenge during the first four years. It took a lot of focus and effort to refine the process and scale production while maintaining quality. On the marketing side, our team was always small—usually just one person handling videography and marketing tasks.

Our first employee, who later became a co-founder, had a videography background, which was essential early on. He quickly picked up marketing skills, and we worked closely together to build our brand and audience. Having someone who could handle both content creation and marketing really helped us get traction.

Eventually, that first employee officially became a co-founder, reflecting how important his role was in growing the company. It was a gradual evolution from a small, scrappy team to a more structured operation with specialized roles.

Business Growth Challenges

Over time, the first employee I mentioned really proved his value, so we gave him the co-founder title. He stayed with us for about three years before moving on. Throughout that period, we consistently had just one marketing person on the team, whose main skill was videography. This was crucial because I was still coding the website myself, mostly using simple website builders and Shopify, and every Kickstarter launch required good video content to succeed.

It wasn’t until around year five that our marketing team grew beyond just one person. Despite that, our biggest challenge for a long time wasn’t sales—it was manufacturing. We struggled to keep up with production for years, and it wasn’t until 2021 that we finally had more inventory than we could sell. That was a major turning point, shifting from a manufacturing bottleneck to a sales challenge.

Now, we focus on balancing manufacturing with sales carefully. We don’t want to create so much inventory that it becomes a storage problem or that we get overwhelmed with too many models and units sitting unsold. Our manufacturing team size fluctuates in sync with our sales, allowing us to keep things tight and efficient.

This balance between production and sales is delicate but essential. We aim to maintain just enough inventory to meet demand without overextending ourselves, ensuring the business stays nimble and responsive.

Fueling Growth with Ads

Now, paid advertising plays a much bigger role in our growth strategy. As any brand scales, investing in paid ads becomes essential to reach new audiences and boost sales. But we see SEO and paid advertising as two sides of the same coin. SEO builds the foundation—the organic highway that customers can find us on when they search for terms like “carbon fiber guitar.” If we’re not showing up organically, that’s a big problem we need to fix.

Once the organic foundation is solid, paid advertising acts like pouring gasoline on the fire. We target those same audiences with ads on social media platforms and search engines, driving more traffic and awareness. It’s a way to amplify what’s already working in SEO and attract people who might not find us otherwise.

We also sell across multiple platforms now—not just our own website but also Amazon and other instrument-related sites. Diversifying sales channels helps us reach customers wherever they prefer to shop and strengthens the brand presence overall. It’s about creating multiple touchpoints where people can discover and engage with our products.

This multi-channel, multi-platform approach has been really effective. The different channels support each other, creating a network of exposure that builds momentum and drives growth across the board.

Global Market Expansion

Right now, about 75% of our sales come from North America. Early on, it was closer to a 50-50 split between North America and international customers, mainly because Kickstarter has a big global community. But over time, our market has shifted to be mostly U.S.-focused. That said, we still plan to keep expanding internationally and grow in as many countries as possible, even though the majority of our business remains in the U.S.

International Business Challenges

Doing international business definitely adds a lot of complexity. Shipping costs are higher, and there are often duties and taxes to consider. Plus, different countries sometimes have unique rules or product specifications we need to follow. So it makes things more complicated, but it’s not impossible—definitely achievable with the right approach.

Right now, we ship guitars internationally when customers order directly from our website. In some countries, like Australia, we also have inventory stocked on Amazon, so orders there are fulfilled locally. We have some inventory in Amazon’s EU warehouses too. We also work with a few stores outside the U.S., but not as many as we’d like yet. Expanding our international presence is still a work in progress, but it’s something we’re actively improving.

Creative Ad Concepts

We experiment with a lot of different angles in our advertising because our product has multiple features and benefits. For example, our guitars are extremely durable, so some ads highlight that aspect. But since it’s also a musical instrument, it’s important to showcase how great it sounds — so we have ads with people simply playing the guitar.

When it comes to durability, we try different approaches. Sometimes it’s a scientific style, showing data or tests proving the toughness. Other times, we take a more creative or humorous approach — like the golf video where someone “golfing” with the guitar is a funny, unexpected way to show how tough it is, even though you’d never actually do that.

Portability is another big selling point since the guitar folds in half and fits in a suitcase. So some ads focus on that, showing how easy it is to take it anywhere. We also highlight the high-quality craftsmanship and premium finish, giving people a sense of the care and skill involved in making each guitar.

A big part of our marketing is aspirational — we want customers to imagine taking their guitar on adventures, playing in cool places, and being carefree because the instrument can handle it. Our message is: we’ll worry about the instrument’s durability, so the musician can just focus on making and enjoying music.

Overall, our ad strategy is broad and covers all these features to connect with different kinds of customers.

Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned

One of the biggest challenges we faced early on was managing the supply chain. Once you start working with suppliers who produce components for you, the complexity of the business increases dramatically. We had several supply chain hiccups — nothing catastrophic, but definitely enough to cause delays and frustration.

For instance, with one of our first major orders from a supplier, we skipped some critical steps like pre-shipment inspections and checklists. As a result, we received a batch of parts that didn’t meet our specifications, and that meant starting over, which cost us months.

That experience was a huge lesson in how vital it is to have clear instructions, a robust inspection process, and sometimes even to hire inspectors on-site, especially when dealing with international suppliers. Language barriers and logistics add layers of complexity, too.

Supply chain management is a massive challenge, even for huge companies like Microsoft, which dedicate entire teams to quality control and supplier coordination. For us, learning to navigate this was a steep but necessary part of growing the business.

Rapid Fire Segment

In our rapid-fire segment, I was asked for a book recommendation for entrepreneurs. I’d say Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, the founder of Nike. It’s a great story about perseverance through many challenges and shows that building a successful company is anything but easy. Nike took over a decade before gaining real traction, which debunks the myth that success comes quickly or easily. That story really keeps entrepreneurs grounded and reminds us that hard work and patience are essential.

When asked about an innovative product in the current e-commerce or tech space, I mentioned Flux Marine. They create electric motors for boats—kind of like a Tesla for boats—and their work in the renewable energy space really excites me. Renewable innovation is something I’m very passionate about, so their battery-based tech stood out as a cool breakthrough.

For business tools, I can’t recommend Slack enough. We’ve integrated it so deeply into our system that I can’t imagine working without it now. It really streamlines communication and productivity. As for people I admire, I recently got inspired by Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder of Chobani. His story on the How I Built This podcast was phenomenal and really resonated with me.

Finally, the best business advice I can share is that starting and running a business is hard—it’s a lot of work. If it were easy, someone else would have done it already. It’s important to remember why you’re doing it, stay level-headed, and keep pushing through problems with passion and dedication. Oh, and about playing guitar—I play much less than I’d like, maybe one to three hours a week, despite owning hundreds of guitars!

Best Business Advice

That one’s tough, but in line with my book choice, the thing that’s helped me the most is simply accepting that starting a business is hard. It takes a lot of work, and if it were easy, someone else would have already done it—or you wouldn’t be doing it. It’s important to remember that things will be challenging and setbacks will happen, but you shouldn’t get discouraged. It’s worth it because you’re doing something you’re passionate about. The key is to remember why you started, stay calm, keep working hard, and focus on solving problems and creating solutions.

Episode Summary

Adam Klosowiak, co-founder and CEO of KLOS Guitars, discusses the inspiration behind the company and the value proposition of using carbon fiber as a material for making guitars, highlighting its durability and resistance to changes in temperature and humidity. He also talks about the customer journey and how they prioritize product-market fit by evolving and expanding their product line based on customer demand. Klosowiak emphasizes the importance of balancing inventory levels with sales and discusses their marketing strategies, including aspirational marketing and showcasing their guitar’s features. Finally, he shares his lessons learned in supply chain management and the importance of inspections and checklists when dealing with international suppliers.

Overview

  • Host: Sushant Misra
  • Guest: Adam Klosowiak, Co-founder and CEO of KLOS Guitars
  • Podcast: TrepTalks, a show interviewing successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and leaders about their business stories, strategies, and tactics.
  • Company: KLOS Guitars, a manufacturer of durable, portable, and high-quality carbon fiber guitars and ukuleles designed for travel and performance.
  • Date: Not explicitly stated (assumed prior to June 22, 2025, based on context).
  • Duration: Approximately 50 minutes (inferred from timestamps and content depth).
  • Objective: Explore Adam’s entrepreneurial journey, the founding and growth of KLOS Guitars, and the strategies used to carve out a niche in the musical instrument industry.

Episode Structure and Key Sections

1. Introduction (00:00 – 01:00)

  • Podcast Introduction: Sushant Misra welcomes listeners to TrepTalks, emphasizing its focus on in-depth interviews with e-commerce entrepreneurs and business leaders to uncover their business stories and actionable strategies.
  • Guest Introduction: Adam Klosowiak is introduced as the co-founder and CEO of KLOS Guitars, a company specializing in innovative carbon fiber guitars and ukuleles that are portable, durable, and great-sounding.
  • Episode Goal: Sushant outlines the intent to dive into Adam’s entrepreneurial journey, the inception of KLOS Guitars, and the tactics used to build the business.

2. Adam’s Background and Path to Entrepreneurship (01:00 – 04:00)

  • Educational Background:
    • Adam studied electrical engineering at Princeton University, describing the curriculum as highly theoretical, focusing on physics and engineering principles but lacking practical application.
    • He and his classmates felt they couldn’t translate their knowledge into building tangible, useful products, which contrasted with the common perception of engineering as a practical discipline.
  • First Entrepreneurial Spark:
    • Participated in a 24-hour hackathon at Princeton with two friends, where they designed and built a Bluetooth-controlled power strip.
    • The project won the hackathon, earning a summer accelerator program as the prize. The accelerator required participants to pause their senior year, which Adam and his team declined.
    • However, the process of evaluating the accelerator opportunity involved conducting market research, competitor analysis, and cost assessments, which Adam found more engaging than his academic coursework.
  • Academic Influence:
    • Enrolled in an entrepreneurship class at Princeton, which formalized his interest in business and product development.
  • Collaboration with Brother:
    • Adam’s brother, Ian, a mechanical engineering student at Brigham Young University, was passionate about designing and building physical products.
    • Ian combined his interests in guitars and carbon fiber to create a carbon fiber guitar for a class project, leveraging his technical skills.
    • Adam assisted Ian in entering the guitar into a business competition, where they won $1,000, marking the initial validation of the KLOS Guitars concept.
  • Degree Completion:
    • Adam graduated from Princeton, with the guitar business gaining momentum during his senior year’s second semester. He returned to campus shortly after graduation to participate in a summer accelerator for the guitar company.

3. Founding and Vision of KLOS Guitars (04:00 – 10:00)

  • Idea Genesis:
    • The concept for KLOS Guitars was inspired by a personal issue: Adam’s wooden guitar, purchased from Ian (who taught him guitar via Skype), developed a significant crack from the bridge to the body’s end during winter due to temperature changes.
    • Ian’s carbon fiber guitar was designed to address the fragility of wooden instruments, offering a durable, lightweight alternative.
  • Value Proposition:
    • Carbon Fiber Benefits: Compared to wood, carbon fiber is more durable, resistant to temperature and humidity fluctuations, and lighter than strong alternatives like aluminum.
    • Market Gap: Existing carbon fiber guitars were niche and expensive (starting at $1,500, with most priced at $2,000–$2,500+), while affordable travel guitars were made of wood and less durable.
    • KLOS aimed to fill this gap by creating hybrid guitars (half carbon fiber, half wood) at a more accessible price point, targeting musicians who travel frequently or need reliable instruments for outdoor use.
  • Market Research Approach:
    • Described as an “educated guess” informed by engineering logic rather than formal business training.
    • Identified proof of demand for high-end carbon fiber guitars and affordable wooden travel guitars, hypothesizing that a lower-priced carbon fiber hybrid would appeal to a niche audience.
    • Focused on solving a specific problem: providing durable, portable guitars for traveling musicians, which contributed to early traction.
  • Early Product Development:
    • Ian’s mechanical engineering expertise drove the initial guitar prototype, built for his class project.
    • Adam’s role was business-oriented, leveraging his hackathon experience to analyze market fit and competition.

4. Product Design and Acoustics (10:00 – 13:00)

  • Impact of Carbon Fiber on Sound:
    • Sushant inquires whether carbon fiber affects the guitar’s acoustics compared to wood.
    • Adam explains that carbon fiber produces a distinct sound, but the difference is comparable to variations among wood types (e.g., African cherry vs. spruce, mahogany, or ash).
    • In blind tests, listeners would struggle to differentiate carbon fiber from wood or distinguish between different woods and carbon fiber configurations.
  • Engineering Advantages:
    • Consistency: Unlike wood, which has natural imperfections, carbon fiber allows precise control over thickness, density, and material composition, ensuring consistent quality across units.
    • Design Flexibility: KLOS uses a composite sandwich panel (carbon-foam-carbon) for the soundboard, balancing durability, strength, and resonance for optimal sound production.
    • Stability: Carbon fiber’s uniformity eliminates variations common in wooden instruments, enhancing reliability.
  • Customer Perception: The acoustic quality is not a compromise; carbon fiber guitars sound comparable to high-quality wooden guitars, making them viable for professional use.

5. Customer Journey and Target Audience (13:00 – 16:00)

  • Target Customer Profile:
    • Primary Audience: Existing guitar players who own larger instruments and seek a durable, portable travel guitar or a high-performance full-size guitar.
    • Travel Guitar Buyers: Typically own standard-sized guitars and want a compact, durable option for travel (e.g., camping, touring).
    • Full-Size Guitar Buyers: Prioritize performance over portability; KLOS’s full-size models are suitable as a primary instrument due to superior sound quality compared to travel models (limited by smaller body volume).
    • Ukulele Buyers: Seek premium, travel-friendly ukuleles. KLOS’s ukulele is among the best in its category, nearly indestructible, and appeals to both travelers and performance-focused musicians.
    • Secondary Audience: A smaller segment includes beginners, but most customers are experienced musicians.
  • Customer Discovery Channels:
    • SEO: KLOS ranks in the top five for search terms like “durable guitar,” “best travel guitar,” “portable guitar,” and “carbon fiber guitar,” driving organic traffic.
    • Word-of-Mouth and Reviews: As newer models gain traction, customer reviews and recommendations amplify visibility.
    • Online Presence: Social media, blogs, and music forums contribute to brand awareness.
  • Future Goals:
    • Expand reach to attract new guitar players while maintaining focus on the niche of traveling musicians.
    • Increase visibility for full-size guitars and ukuleles to diversify the customer base.

6. Launch Strategy and Early Validation (16:00 – 20:00)

  • First Kickstarter Campaign:
    • Launched on Kickstarter, raising $33,000 with a $1,000 advertising budget targeting keywords like “travel guitar” and “carbon fiber guitar.”
    • Secured 70 pre-orders, with customers willing to wait nine months for delivery, despite the team’s lack of business experience.
    • Validated the concept, as 70 early adopters trusted an unproven team, signaling demand for the product.
  • Subsequent Campaigns:
    • Second Kickstarter: Sold approximately 160 units of an improved model, refining design based on initial feedback.
    • Third Kickstarter: Two years into the business, sold 500 units in one month, including a premium acoustic-electric model. This success prompted Adam to quit his day job and focus on KLOS full-time.
  • Key Insights:
    • Naivety as an Asset: Adam’s youthful optimism and lack of business knowledge allowed him to persist without being deterred by potential obstacles.
    • Market Dynamics: The guitar industry is saturated but open to new brands, similar to fashion or apparel. Strong branding and marketing can create demand, even in a crowded market.
    • Early Validation: The 70 initial customers were a significant milestone, proving that people were willing to invest in a novel product from an inexperienced team.

7. Product Development and Manufacturing Evolution (20:00 – 25:00)

  • Initial Manufacturing:
    • The first 2,000 guitar units were built in-house near Salt Lake City, Utah, by Adam, Ian, and a small team.
    • Involved setting up an assembly line, creating molds, and learning carbon fiber layup processes, providing critical lessons in manufacturing efficiency and quality control.
    • Focused on aspects impacting customer experience, such as playability, finish, and feel.
  • Transition to Suppliers:
    • After two years, KLOS partnered with suppliers to produce carbon fiber components, allowing the team to focus on assembly and final quality checks.
    • Prioritized in-house efforts on elements critical to customer satisfaction (e.g., neck shaping, fretwork) while outsourcing parts with less direct impact (e.g., raw carbon fiber panels).
  • Customer-Driven Development:
    • New products were developed based on customer feedback:
      • Acoustic-Electric Guitar: Launched after numerous requests from early customers (~250–300 at the time).
      • Premium Models: Introduced after noticing strong demand for a higher-priced variant during the third Kickstarter, challenging the initial “affordable” focus.
      • Ukulele and Full-Size Guitar: Developed in response to customer demand for additional instruments.
    • Learned that not all customers prioritized affordability; many valued premium, high-quality products, prompting a shift toward higher-end offerings.
  • Current Development Strategy:
    • Website features a “Coming Soon” section where customers can sign up for desired instruments (e.g., bass guitars, banjos).
    • Only develops products with sufficient pre-launch interest, ensuring product-market fit and minimizing financial risk.
    • Continues to use Kickstarter for new releases, securing pre-orders to eliminate financial risk and engage early adopters.

8. Team Building and Early Challenges (25:00 – 32:00)

  • DIY Approach:
    • Adam and Ian initially handled all aspects of the business, leveraging their engineering backgrounds.
    • Ian’s technical expertise in carbon fiber and mechanical design was pivotal, complemented by Adam’s business analysis skills from the hackathon and entrepreneurship class.
  • Seeking Expertise:
    • Lacked formal business knowledge (e.g., marketing, supply chain) but adopted a scientific approach: hypothesizing, testing, and learning from experts, YouTube tutorials, suppliers, or forums.
    • Example: When facing engineering challenges, Ian consulted experts in related fields or tested solutions iteratively.
  • First Hires:
    • Builders: Hired part-time college students (interns from Ian’s university) to assist with manufacturing. Initially, couldn’t afford salaries, so compensated with guitars (80 hours of work = one guitar).
    • Manufacturing Team: Scaled to hourly workers as production demands grew, focusing on guitar assembly. Manufacturing was the biggest challenge for the first four years.
    • Marketing Team: Kept small, with one videographer/marketer for the first three years. The first employee (later co-founder) had a videography background, aiding Kickstarter campaigns and website development.
  • Co-Founder Evolution:
    • The first employee transitioned to co-founder status after demonstrating significant contributions (no financial investment, purely skill-based).
    • Left after three years, after which KLOS maintained a single marketer/videographer until year five.
  • Scaling Challenges:
    • Manufacturing constraints dominated early years, limiting sales potential. Only in 2021 did inventory exceed sales capacity, shifting focus to marketing.
    • Balanced inventory to avoid overstocking, which could lead to storage issues or model proliferation.

9. Sales Channels and Retail Strategy (29:00 – 32:00)

  • Kickstarter to Website Transition:
    • After the first Kickstarter (fulfilled in ~1 year), launched a website selling the same volume as the initial campaign.
    • Adopted a dual-channel strategy: new products launched on Kickstarter, then moved to the website, while existing products remained available online.
    • Each Kickstarter campaign boosted website sales, as interested customers purchased readily available models.
  • Retail Expansion:
    • Operated as direct-to-consumer (D2C) for five years before introducing retail partnerships.
    • Retail strategy was disrupted by COVID-19 shortly after launch, pausing efforts for ~1.5 years.
    • Revived retail when brick-and-mortar stores showed resilience during the pandemic, establishing a network of dealers (listed on the website).
  • Synergy Between Channels:
    • Believes D2C and retail complement each other, creating multiple touchpoints for customers.
    • Retail enhances brand credibility and accessibility, while e-commerce drives direct engagement and higher margins.
  • Current Sales Channels:
    • Website (primary), Amazon, other instrument-related platforms, and physical retail stores.
    • Diversifying channels increases visibility and customer acquisition.

10. Marketing Strategies and Customer Retention (36:00 – 43:00)

  • Marketing Evolution:
    • Early Days: Relied heavily on SEO, ranking high for niche keywords like “carbon fiber guitar” and “best travel guitar.”
    • Current Approach: Combines SEO with paid advertising (social media, search engines) to amplify reach. Paid ads target the same audience as organic searches, acting as “gasoline” on the SEO “highway.”
  • Advertising Tactics:
    • Durability: Highlighted through creative campaigns, e.g., a humorous video showing a guitar used as a golf club to emphasize indestructibility.
    • Sound Quality: Ads featuring musicians playing KLOS instruments to showcase acoustic performance.
    • Portability: Demonstrated by showing guitars disassembled and packed into suitcases.
    • Craftsmanship: Videos of the manufacturing process to convey premium quality and attention to detail.
    • Aspirational Marketing: Ads depicting musicians playing in scenic locations (e.g., mountains, beaches), encouraging customers to take their guitars on adventures.
  • Influencer Marketing:
    • Implied through website content featuring musicians playing KLOS guitars, but not explicitly detailed.
    • Likely collaborates with established musicians to build credibility, though specifics weren’t shared.
  • Customer Retention:
    • Focuses on creating a carefree, experience for musicians, emphasizing that KLOS handles instrument durability so customers can focus on music.
    • Repeat purchases occur as customers buy additional models (e.g., travel guitar owners purchasing full-size guitars or ukuleles).
    • Engages customers through the “Coming Soon” feature, fostering a community of early adopters.
  • Multi-Platform Presence:
    • Sells on Amazon, instrument-specific sites, and through dealers to maximize touchpoints.
    • Diversified channels reinforce brand visibility and trust.

11. International Expansion and Logistics (37:00 – 40:00)

  • Geographic Reach:
    • Currently, 75% of sales are in North America, down from a 50/50 split (North America vs. international) during early Kickstarter campaigns, which attracted a global audience.
    • Plans to grow internationally but prioritizes the U.S. market for now.
  • Fulfillment Process:
    • Direct Shipping: For most countries, orders placed on the website are shipped from the U.S.
    • Amazon Inventory: Maintains stock in Amazon warehouses in Australia (Amazon AU) and Europe (Amazon EU) for faster local delivery.
    • Retail Partners: Limited international dealers, with plans to expand.
  • Challenges:
    • International shipping is costlier and involves duties, taxes, and varying product regulations.
    • Language barriers and travel for supplier coordination add complexity.
    • Aims to improve international logistics and retail presence but acknowledges it’s a work in progress.

12. Supply Chain Lessons and Mistakes (43:00 – 46:00)

  • Biggest Mistake:
    • Early supply chain errors, particularly with the first supplier partnership for guitar necks.
    • Failed to implement proper inspection processes (e.g., pre-shipment checklists), resulting in a batch of non-compliant parts, requiring a restart and delaying production.
  • Lessons Learned:
    • Importance of clear instructions, detailed inspection checklists, and third-party inspectors for international suppliers.
    • Supply chain management is complex, requiring ongoing attention to quality control and communication.
    • Even large companies (e.g., Microsoft) face supply chain issues, highlighting the need for dedicated resources.
  • Ongoing Challenges:
    • Supply chain remains a learning process, with iterative improvements to processes and partnerships.
    • Balancing supplier reliability with cost and quality is critical for scaling.

13. Rapid Fire Segment (46:00 – 50:00)

  • Book Recommendation:
    • Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (Nike founder).
    • Why: Chronicles Nike’s challenging journey, debunking the myth that building a successful company is easy. Emphasizes perseverance through over a decade of struggles, resonating with Adam’s experience.
  • Innovative Product/Idea:
    • Flux Marine: Electric boat motors, likened to a “Tesla for boats.”
    • Why: Excited about innovation in renewable energy, a sector Adam finds inspiring.
  • Productivity Tool/Tip:
    • Slack: Deeply integrated into KLOS’s workflow for communication and collaboration.
    • Why: Essential for team coordination, streamlining operations.
  • Inspiring Entrepreneur:
    • Hamdi Ulukaya, founder of Chobani.
    • Why: Inspired by Ulukaya’s story on the “How I Built This” podcast, highlighting resilience and innovation in building a yogurt empire.
  • Best Business Advice:
    • Starting a business is inherently hard; if it were easy, someone else would have done it.
    • Emphasizes resilience, problem-solving, and staying passionate despite setbacks.
  • Personal Question:
    • Guitar Playing Time: Plays 1–3 hours per week, less than desired due to business demands, despite owning hundreds of guitars.

14. Closing (50:00)

  • Sushant thanks Adam for sharing his inspiring story and insights.
  • Appreciates the time spent and highlights the value of Adam’s journey for aspiring entrepreneurs.
  • Adam expresses gratitude for the opportunity to appear on TrepTalks.

Additional Insights and Analysis

  • Entrepreneurial Mindset:
    • Adam’s engineering background fostered a scientific approach to business: hypothesizing, testing, and iterating. This mindset helped overcome initial ignorance of marketing and supply chain management.
    • Naivety as a young entrepreneur was a strength, enabling bold risks (e.g., launching on Kickstarter with no experience).
  • Niche Strategy:
    • KLOS’s success stems from targeting a specific problem (durability for traveling musicians) in a saturated market, proving that niche focus can yield significant traction.
    • Customer-driven development ensures product-market fit, reducing risk and aligning with market needs.
  • Growth Challenges:
    • Manufacturing was the primary bottleneck for four years, highlighting the complexity of scaling physical products.
    • Transitioning from D2C to retail and international markets introduced new logistical and regulatory hurdles.
  • Marketing Evolution:
    • Early reliance on SEO and Kickstarter evolved into a multi-channel strategy with paid ads, retail, and Amazon, reflecting a maturing business model.
    • Creative campaigns (e.g., golfing with a guitar) balance humor and functionality to stand out in a crowded market.

Potential Follow-Up Questions

  1. Product Development: How does KLOS balance innovation with cost control when designing new instruments?
  2. Customer Feedback: What specific tools or processes does KLOS use to collect and prioritize customer input for new products?
  3. International Expansion: What are the next target markets for KLOS, and how will they address logistical challenges?
  4. Influencer Strategy: Can Adam elaborate on partnerships with musicians or influencers to boost brand credibility?
  5. Sustainability: Does KLOS incorporate sustainability into its use of carbon fiber or manufacturing processes?

Conclusion

This episode of TrepTalks provides a comprehensive look at Adam Klosowiak’s journey from an engineering student to the CEO of KLOS Guitars. Key takeaways include the importance of niche focus, customer-driven development, and resilience in overcoming manufacturing and supply chain challenges. Adam’s story is a testament to how technical expertise, paired with entrepreneurial curiosity, can disrupt a traditional industry like musical instruments.

  • 00:00:00 In this section of the video, Adam Klosowiak, the co-founder and CEO of KLOS Guitars, shares how he got started in entrepreneurship while studying electrical engineering at Princeton. He explains that he found his degree to be theoretical and wasn’t getting much practical experience with building things. He entered a hackathon with two friends, where they built a power strip controlled by Bluetooth that won the competition. This experience inspired him to take a class in entrepreneurship, and around the same time, his brother built a carbon fiber guitar and entered it into a business competition. They won a summer accelerator and launched their first product. The idea for KLOS Guitars was his brother’s, and the two have worked together with Adam leading the business side and his brother leading the product design.
  • 00:05:00 In this section, Adam Klosowiak, co-founder of KLOS guitars, discusses the value proposition of carbon fiber as a material for making guitars. He notes that carbon fiber is stronger and lighter than wood, making it more durable and resistant to changes in temperature and humidity. Klosowiak explains that their mission is to make affordable instruments that are durable for people who travel and use them often. They identified a gap in the market for affordable carbon fiber instruments and successfully filled it by creating a product that solved this specific problem.
  • 00:10:00 In this section of the video, Adam Klosowiak discusses how solving a small gap in the market helped KLOS Guitars get its first several thousand customers. He also talks about how the use of carbon fiber in guitar making affects the acoustics of the instrument. According to Klosowiak, the difference between carbon fiber and wood is not noticeable compared to the differences between different types of wood. However, carbon fiber offers greater consistency in the design process, which can improve stability and minimize variations in each unit. Klosowiak also explains the customer journey for KLOS Guitars, stating that most customers are already guitar players who want a smaller, more portable guitar.
  • 00:15:00 In this section, Adam Klosowiak talks about the focus of KLOS Guitars and how they started. He explains that while their travel guitar is the most popular, they are also expanding to produce premium ukuleles and other guitar models. Klosowiak mentions that being naive as a young entrepreneur can be helpful, as it allows one to be convinced of the potential of their product even in a saturated market like guitars. He adds that their first successful launch on Kickstarter with only $1,000 in advertising spend was a big validating moment and led to early adopters being willing to wait nine months for their guitar to be delivered.
  • 00:20:00 In this section, Adam Klosowiak talks about the product development process of his company and how it evolved over time. Initially, they made the first 2,000 units themselves, learning how to manufacture and assemble their product. Eventually, they found a supplier to make carbon fiber parts for them. They prioritize making things that have the biggest impact on the customer experience, whether they make it in-house or not. They also take customer feedback seriously and have a “coming soon” section on their website where customers can click on instruments they would like KLOS Guitars to make. Through this approach, they have been able to evolve and expand their product line based on customer demand.
  • 00:25:00 In this section, Adam Klosowiak, the co-founder of KLOS Guitars, talks about their product development strategy and how they prioritize product-market fit. KLOS Guitars always stays true to listening to the market, tries to not make something that no one will buy, and relies on early adopters to launch their new instruments. Klosowiak also discusses how they have grown their business slowly and organically by doing almost everything themselves, finding experts when needed, and transitioning from Kickstarter to having their own website and dealers who carry their products.
  • 00:30:00 In this section, Adam Klosowiak, co-founder of KLOS Guitars, discusses the success of using Kickstarter to launch products and move them to their website for direct-to-consumer sales. They also discuss opening up to selling their products in stores, but the pandemic quickly slowed that strategy down. However, as brick and mortar began to perform well again, they turned that channel back on, and found success in both e-commerce and working with retailers. Klosowiak also talks about how they built their team, starting with part-time interns and eventually hiring hourly workers for manufacturing and marketing, with videography being a crucial skill set. One of their first employees was eventually given the co-founder title after bringing a lot to the table.
  • 00:35:00 In this section, Adam Klosowiak, the founder of KLOS Guitars, talks about the challenges he faced growing his brand in terms of manufacturing and sales. He shares how it took years to switch from a manufacturing challenge to a sales challenge and how they now balance their inventory levels with sales. He also discusses their marketing strategies, emphasizing the importance of SEO and organic traction, and how they have diversified their sales channels to include their website, Amazon, and other instrument-related websites. Klosowiak also reveals the complexity of doing international business, including the higher cost of shipping and duty and tax implications. Nonetheless, they plan on expanding their brand around the world.
  • 00:40:00 In this section, Adam Klosowiak discusses the different marketing strategies that KLOS Guitars uses to promote their product. Klosowiak highlights the various features of the guitar, such as durability and portability, and creates ads that showcase them. He also mentioned the importance of aspirational marketing and how it encourages customers to take their guitars on adventures. Additionally, he talks about the difficulties that come with supply chain management and shares that in the past, they’ve had cases where a whole batch of parts did not meet their specifications.
  • 00:45:00 In this section, Adam Klosowiak, founder of KLOS Guitars, discusses the challenges and lessons he learned in supply chain management, particularly the importance of inspections and checklists when dealing with suppliers from different countries. He emphasizes that even big companies like Microsoft encounter supply chain errors despite having many full-time employees managing the supply chain and quality control. In the rapid fire segment, Klosowiak recommends the book “Shoe Dog” for entrepreneurs, suggests Flux Marine as an innovative company in the renewable space for its electric motors for boats, and endorses productivity tool Slack. He also mentions Chobani’s founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, as someone who currently inspires him, and shares the advice to expect hard work when starting and growing a business.
  • 00:50:00 In this section, the interviewer asks Adam Klosowiak about the challenges of starting a business and how one should deal with the inevitable difficulties that come with entrepreneurship. Adam emphasizes the importance of keeping a level head, solving problems, and remembering why you started the business in the first place. He also mentions that despite having hundreds of guitars, he only gets to play for about one to three hours a week.

People & Resources Mentioned in the Episode

Book: Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

What You’ll Learn

Interview with Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars

00:08Introduction
00:53Starting the business
05:19Value proposition
07:44Market Research
13:04The buyers
20:31Product development process
29:23Sales channels
32:06Team
37:56Shipping
40:13Marketing
43:59Mistakes made, lessons learned
46:30Rapid fire round

Rapid Fire

In this segment, the guest will answer a few questions quickly in one or two sentences.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars

  1. Book recommendation that you would make to entrepreneurs or business professionals (Response: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight)
  2. An innovative product or idea in the current e-commerce retail or tech landscape that you feel excited about Response: (Flux Marine)
  3. A business or productivity tool that you would recommend (Response: Slack)
  4. A peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you (Response: Hamdi Ulukaya)
  5. Best business advice you ever received (Response: Things will be hard, things will go wrong. But don’t be discouraged. It’s worth it because you’re doing something you’re passionate about.)

Interview Transcript

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there, entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant and welcome to Trep Talks. This is the show where I interview successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and leaders, and ask them questions about their business story, and also dive deep into some strategies and tactics used business. Excited to Adam to show Adam is the co-founder and CEO of Close.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Close guitars build terrible, portable, and great sounding sleep, carbon fiber, fiber guitars and UKs. And today I’m gonna ask Adam a few questions about his journey and some the strategies tactics he used his. So thank you so much for joining today, Adam. 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Yeah, thanks for having. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So I did a little bit, uh, for research on you.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, and, uh, I think you have an interesting story. I think you [00:01:00] were studying, uh, engineering and then somehow you, uh, fell into entrepreneurship. Can you share a bit about, you know, what made you start this business? How did you get the idea and how did you get into entrepreneurship? 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Of course. Yeah. So I was studying electrical engineering at Princeton and um, I found electrical engineering there to be quite theoretical.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, it was very interesting and I loved the degree, but all my classmates and I consistently felt like we couldn’t actually build anything. We were very good at theoretical physics and engineering, but we weren’t very good at actually building, you know, useful things. Uh, which you think engineering, you often think practical and tangible.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, devices and and such. And so I, I got into a hackathon with two friends where we were supposed to design this [00:02:00] something in 24 hours and then present it, and we built this power strip that you could control via Bluetooth from your phone in 24 hours, and we actually ended up winning the hacka. And the prize was a summer accelerator where you were to try to launch the product that you built.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And that was the first time that, so we ended up not taking the accelerator because, uh, it had a caveat where you had to take off your senior year, uh, of college and we didn’t wanna do that. But the process of evaluating if we. We’re going to accept the accelerator. We did all, all the market research, competitor analysis, you know, cost analysis, and I actually thought that process of analyzing a product and building a product was far more interesting than.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: What I was studying in my degree and that kind of got me interested in [00:03:00] entrepreneurship, um, at the very beginning. And so I then took a class at Princeton in entrepreneurship and around the same time, my brother was studying mechanical engineering at Brigham Young University. And he’s always been really good at making things and designing things.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And so he was combining his interests in guitar and carbon fiber at the same time, and he built a carbon fiber guitar for one of his classes and he needed help entering the, the idea into a business competition. And so I kind of paired my experience with what he built. Into this competition and we won a thousand dollars and that was the very first guitar.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Whoa. So did you actually end up finishing your engineering degree or did you say, this is not really helping me not 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: build this business? No, I did. I did. Yeah. So the, all this happened my [00:04:00] s uh, my senior year, my second semester. So right at the end of college is when that guitar competition or the competition happened where we built that guitar and we ended up winning a summer accelerator from Princeton for the guitar company.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And we did that the summer right after I graduated. Uh, and that, that’s exa, you know, I graduated, I drove home with all my stuff and then three days later I came back to campus to start that. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Cool. So, so idea for close, kind of the business, uh, business mind, uh, to take that. So he’s kinda like the product, product person, product manager, 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: and you’re the business.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The very first guitar was, was his idea. And you know, since then we’ve launched many, many more products. But yeah, that very first one, uh, Ian had been working on it and Ian actually, [00:05:00] uh, was teaching me guitar for several years already on Skype, cuz we’re, you know, we’re brothers and so, Uh, we already had a, a good relationship and yeah, he was my guitar instructor, so it was kind of funny that we ended up making a guitar business together.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So did your brother or you, when you started getting onto the business side of this business, like. How did you know that this, you know, one guitar that he had created this idea of creating a guitar? I’m assuming the value proposition is really the, the material. Is it, what is the value proposition? Is it the carbon fiber material or, 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: right, yeah.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: So around the same time, I forgot to mention this, but around the same time that my brother was making this carbon fiber guitar, the guitar that I actually bought from him, that I was using to learn, It had cracked during the winter, uh, and there was, there was a big crack, um, going from the bridge to the end of [00:06:00] the guitar, and that was one of the influences that my brother had on building his guitar.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And you hit it exactly right. The value proposition of carbon fiber. For many industries, but specifically guitar is that, uh, it’s much more durable and resistant to temperature and humidity changes than wood. And it’s much lighter than strong alternatives. You know, carbon fiber has taken over so many industries recently.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Um, road bikes to then mountain bikes to then hockey sticks, golf clubs, car parts, airplane parts. So many things incorporate carbon fiber that people don’t even know. Uh, tennis rackets or racquetball. Um, and it’s just kind of entered, you know, there have been carbon fiber instrument. Made since the eighties, but it’s always been an extremely niche and extremely [00:07:00] expensive, uh, material to use for instruments.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And what we were trying to do is try to make it a little more mainstream. And so we were trying to design a product that incorporated at first, just some parts out of carbon fiber. So our first guitar was half wood, half carbon, uh, and we wanted to make it a price point that was more main. And, and that’s always been sort of a mission that we’ve had, was to make actual affordable instruments that people who travel and use them and generally might not have a high budget, uh, can afford them.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And, uh, and that’s why we chose the half carbon Halff wood route initially. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And, and so, To go back to the question that I was going to ask initially. So is that something that the research, you had already done the market research or your brother had done the market research and identified kind of like this gap, um, that, you know, [00:08:00] the people, musicians who are traveling or who, who travel a lot more, uh, you know, and their guitars or these musical instruments are more prone to breaking.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So this, this, this, um, Guitar, you know, house wood, half carbon fiber, it’s, it’s gonna fit them well. Like did, was there any sort of, uh, market research or was it more, more like, uh, intuitive that, you know, my guitar broke, this was the solution for me. Yeah. Other 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: people can also use it. Right. It was a combination of, um, is kind of an educated approach and an educated guess I would say.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Um, you know, again, we were both engineers, so we actually knew very little about business. Um, we didn’t know what the words marketing meant. We didn’t know what supply chain was. Uh, we were extremely ignorant at the time, but this was the logic. The logic was that there were several [00:09:00] carbon fiber brands out.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: But they were all really expensive. Like 1500 was the minimum, but that was just one brand. And for the most part it was two, two and a half thousand plus. And so we knew there was proof of concept and there was demand at that price point. And then we also knew that travel guitars were in high demand, made out of wood at a lower price.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And so the hypothesis was that if we could be the first to fill the gap of, you know, it’s a great material, but there’s just nothing at the lower price range. Uh, so it was a very niche gap, uh, you know, a good product with a good material, but not available at that price point. That’s the gap that we were trying to.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And although it was a small gap, it was a gap. And that is, I think, a huge part of why we saw early success because we, we targeted a very specific problem and we solved a [00:10:00] very specific problem. And, and for a while we were the only ones who, who solved it. And so we, we, that carried us into the first few years of our business.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And I think the logic there and the takeaway there is when people are designing something and making something, even if it’s a small gap, but if it’s a big enough problem and, and you make a specific enough, enough solution, you know, it, it, it can get you your first several thousand customers. Hmm. Cool. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, I, I don’t know, music.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, so I’m, I’m curious, like, does, does the material affect the acoustics of, you know, when somebody’s playing it, does it actually change the, the quality of music or something, or that’s not really a consideration 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: of this? Uh, yeah, it’s a great question. We get that question a lot. The, the thing to keep in mind is that there are, you know, hundreds of different types of woods out.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And so a lot of [00:11:00] people will ask, you know, well, how does carbon fiber sound compared to wood? And it’s so difficult to summarize wood by just saying wood. You know, like an African cherry will sound so sound different than a spruce or. Uh, Ash or older or, you know, mahogany. So what, what I would say is the difference.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: You, you can tell a difference with carbon fiber, however, it’s not anything different than differences between woods. So I’d say if you heard two different woods and two different carbon fiber guitars, you wouldn’t be able to tell which one is carbon. And which one is wood? And then you would probably have a hard time distinguishing between the different woods and different carbons, uh, and carbon fiber.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: You can design from the ground up and you can, there are many advantages of using carbon fiber in designing, because you’re not chopping down a tree to shape [00:12:00] and, and each piece of wood as imperfections With carbon, it’s exactly the same every time. You can control the thickness, you can control the density of material that you put in between carbon.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: So for example, our soundboard is carbon, foam carbon, and that’s called a composite sandwich panel. Hmm. And that gives you durability and strength, but it also gives you resonance and the ability to flex, uh, and produce good sound, uh, and you can control all the variables. And then once you nail it, it’s exactly the same every time.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And so there’s really great stability and consistency across each unit. Whereas with wood, you can get great variation, even if the method of manufacturing is the. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So in terms of the customer journey, um, with everything that you’ve discussed so far, [00:13:00] uh, and you know, you said this is kind of like a niche product.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Can you share a little bit about who the customer is? Like is it someone who’s already a guitar player but they’re looking for one additional guitar, but which has like the specific quality, you know, they can travel with it. Yeah. Uh, you know, the, the then, you know, they will go online and search for like, you know, guitars for travel, or they would already have heard of carbon fiber guitar, so they would search and look for your business or, uh, yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: How, how does, how does one get to know about your business, this, this particular product, and, and so what, what does that, uh, 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: customer journey look like? Right. So I’d say there are kind of two versions. There’s the current snapshot and then the goal, um, the current snapshot is that most of our customers are already guitar players.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, it’s not someone who [00:14:00] wants to learn guitar and they don’t know anything. Some, some customers are like that, but the majority are already guitar players. The majority already have another instrument. And if they’re getting a travel guitar, then they most likely have a larger guitar. Uh, majority will have a larger guitar, but they want a smaller one that’s more portable.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: They could take with them everywhere. Um, the customers that are buying a, our full-size guitar, which is a big guitar, uh, those customers, um, also want a guitar that can travel well, but they emphasize performance more are, our guitar are big. Guitar sounds much better than our travel because the, a small guitar will inherently have, it’ll be very difficult to make it sound good because the volume of the body is so.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, and when I say good, I say good compared to a big guitar. Um, and [00:15:00] then our ukulele, so the bigger guitar is less about travel and more incorporated into performance. And our big guitar can be someone’s, I would say, only guitar, and it would be a very nice, good single guitar to have. Our ukulele is a very premium ukulele.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: It sounds incredible. It’s, uh, one of the more expensive ukuleles out there. There’s, it is very travel friendly because it’s virtually indestructible. But even if you’re just looking for one of the best ukuleles out there and you want one of the best in the category, our ukulele is one of the best. Um, and so that kind of deviates a little bit from travel and it’s just plainly one of the better in the market.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And so each one’s a little different, but how people find it, uh, the travel guitar generally, you know, [00:16:00] durable guitar, uh, best travel guitar, portable guitar, all those keywords will land with close guitars, uh, and will be ranked, you know, top five on a lot of those lists. Um, That is the main driver still for our business.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: The travel guitar isn’t our most popular guitar, but I think as our other models, uh, gain more popularity and there’s more views about them, um, they, they’ll become more popular as well. Um, so yeah. Cool. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, can you hear a little bit about your launch, uh, you know, the launch period itself? Um, how did you launch, how did you get your first customers and how did you know?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: That there is, there is some, uh, there’s some links to this 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: idea. Yeah. You know, I, I would preface answering that with, it helps to be incredibly naive [00:17:00] as a young entrepreneur because you, you almost don’t take no as an answer or as an. Mm. Um, and if you’re so convinced that your idea’s amazing in certain categories, and I would say guitar is one of these, you almost can, uh, you can create that reality because, you know, guitar is one of those categories that’s interesting.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: It’s, it’s, um, there are so many different brands that there could still be a new guitar brand that launches today. That in 10 years could be very popular just because the branding is good, the marketing is good. Uh, it’s a very saturated market and there are many, many brands and there’s room for many brands and just like apparel and fashion, um, you know, there’s no best shirt.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, people have a lot of different styles and whatever you like. [00:18:00] So with that being said, at the, at the very beginning, Uh, we knew that we had a cool product when we compared it to what else was out there from a style perspective. And as guitar players. We had some intuition there. I think it was our first launch when we launched and we spent.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: A thousand dollars on advertising and halfway through the campaign is when we learned what advertising was. So we launched on Kickstarter and we raised $32,000 for that first campaign, or 33,000 and, and yeah, we spent a thousand dollars on it. We got our first 70 customers that way. Targeted travel, guitar, carbon fiber, guitar, you know, all the obvious search terms.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Hmm. And those 70 customers were our early adopters, and they were willing to pre-order, they were willing to wait nine months for their guitar. Hmm. And [00:19:00] 70 to us at the time was huge, you know? Mm-hmm. 70 people are gonna play this guitar every day once they get it, and they’re willing to trust a team with no experience.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, to build this product. And so that was, that was a big validating moment for us. Um, I would say it wasn’t yet, you know, I still had another job, um, the first year and the second year, and so it wasn’t yet enough for me to drop everything and, and say, you know, the a hundred percent I believe this idea is gonna go off.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: But we launched two more models. We made an improved model of the. 1.0. Uh, we sold, I think 160 or so on that second Kickstarter, and then we launched a third model that had a premium model included in the campaign. And. It had electronics in the acoustic guitar and we sold [00:20:00] 500 in one month. When we launched that one, our third Kickstarter, that’s when I truly knew.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: That was two years in. That’s when I quit my other job and went a hundred percent full-time, and that’s when I knew that if you could do that in one month and with how little experience we had, Then you could, I think, build a company around this. And I think although it’s niche, I think it could be sustainable and you know, it’s turning out to be true.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. I mean, um, very curious to learn a little bit more on the product side. So it seems like, you know, your brother created the first guitar with his mechanical engineering. Yeah. Um, you put it on Kickstarter and then you created other versions. Yeah. Did you also get into creating, like building some of the electrical components and things like that?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Or was it that once you got your 70 orders in the first Kickstarter, you found a manufacturer who can, [00:21:00] uh, design and build this kind of thing? So can you share a little bit on your, how, how your product, uh, or your product development process and where, where, where it’s right now? 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Yeah. Yeah, it’s, it’s a, it’s a really interesting development over the years.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: So we made the first 2000 model units ourself, uh, in here near Salt Lake City in Utah where we are now. And that was a hu we learned so much doing that, you know, setting up a manufacturing plant, setting up an assembly line, um, building all the molds ourselves, laying up the carbon fiber. The first two years were huge in learning how to make the product, what makes a good product, what makes a big impact on the customer, and what doesn’t make a big impact.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Where is it worth putting a lot of time into? Where can you put less time into who can? And then eventually we had a supplier who [00:22:00] made the carbon fiber parts for us, and that’s what we do now. Uh, we receive the different carbon fiber parts and we start with the assembly. And that, and that is as an example, part of the question, the thing that customers care the most about is picking up an instrument that feels really good.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: It plays really well. Everything, every final touch is perfect. Uh, whether we make that carbon fiber part initially before it’s assembled, or if a supplier makes that, that doesn’t impact the final user’s experience much. And that’s how we kind of prioritize to what we make and what our suppliers make. Uh, but our product development history really evolves from the customer, and I find that to be really cool because, you know, we made the first travel guitar and then the reason that we launched an acoustic electric travel [00:23:00] guitar is because.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: So many of our customers, even though we, you know, we had maybe at that point 250, 300 customers, so many of them were asking, can you make this, but acoustic electric? And so that to us was the next step. Okay, let’s make an acoustic electric. Once we did that, and on that campaign we had a more premium version, we were shocked at how many people bought the more premium version.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Because it was a little ironic. We were trying to be the affordable carbon fiber guitar and we had this expensive model and, and so many people were buying the expensive model. And so that was the first time where we were like, okay, you know, we’re, we just graduated college. And so we’re poor young adults, but not everyone is a poor, young adult.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And actually a lot of people like buying expensive things. Because you know, there’s a totally different [00:24:00] value creation around having something that’s nicer, more premium, longer lasting, better quality. And so then that was a, you know, that was a big lesson in price point and quality. And so we designed a more premium version.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: We then designed full carbon models, so even more premium. And even better quality, and that worked really well. Then people asked, can you make a Yu Ukulele? Can you make a big guitar? So that’s pretty much how we product develop. Now we wait if, if you go to our website and you go to the Coming Soon section of our website, we have a very large list of instruments that are coming.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And, and customers are able to click on whichever instrument that we don’t make and sign up for us to make it. And we plan to make every instrument that there’s enough demand for. And what I like about that [00:25:00] strategy is, one, it’s, it’s automatically developing something that has a product market fit. Uh, it, we inherently won’t make it unless there’s enough of a product market.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Two, we already have early adopters right when we launch it. And so there’s, there’s almost no risk. And, and we, and we also do a Kickstarter for each one. So there literally is no financial risk with the launch of a new instrument. Um, and, and that way we’re able to always stay true to listening to the market.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Well, with this strategy, we find it impossible to make something that no one will buy whi, which I think is important to remember because sometimes you could get misguided from the market or kind of detached from a product market fit by thinking that the market will want it, but then they don’t. Uh, and so that’s our current strategy.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And, uh, [00:26:00] initially were, were you and your brother doing everything with your own two hands, like using your own engineering knowledge and doing the research? Or did you actually go out and, and get some help or, you know, consult with people who, who had more experience? You know, as you said, you know, you both who you and your brother.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Pretty much, uh, new to this. Yeah. Did you get any help, like in terms of the design and product development, or was that, uh, uh, completely just, you know, you two trying to figure it out and Cause that would be, I mean, I’m, I’m just trying to ask you, I mean, that would be pretty impressive, you know, two people coming up Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Completely new product. 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Yeah. Yeah. My, my brother is a phenomenal engineer. Um, he, you know, since we were young, He’s always been designing things and fixing things. And his first job was when he was 14, fixing bikes at a local bike shop. And you know, he would build, [00:27:00] he would build devices that no one would really think to make at a young age.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Like at 16 he built a paper shredder where he pulled a rope and razors would cut a piece of paper they’d put in. This was a mechanical device. Um, But I would say we both, you know, en engineers are, are good at learning things and if you don’t know something, then you have to find an expert and learn from them and then test it.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: You know, some things go well, some things go poorly. You test again, you know, learn more from another expert, whether it’s finding experts or YouTube or talking to a supplier. Learning from. So pretty much all of the product development happened in that way. Um, when Ian encountered an engineering challenge, uh, yeah, we cons, we found someone who was better at it, maybe in a different space or, or we tested things.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: But yeah, the scientific method will, [00:28:00] will take you very far as far as hypotheses and tests and taking notes and learning what went well, what went poorly, and, and just going from. Um, but yeah, it’s part of the reason that we’ve grown slowly and organically is because we’ve done almost everything ourselves.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And, you know, it’s the same way on the marketing and business side. Um, especially in the early days when I didn’t really know what I was doing. Um, But I was good at, I was good at finding people who did and just asking them a million questions and learning from them. And eventually I developed some sort of expertise that was enough to get to the next stage.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And then at the next stage there was always new things to learn. Uh, so it, I think that approach can, can take you quite far. Obviously certain industries have more of a technical. Challenge than others. [00:29:00] Um, but Ian had the, the right amount of technical experience with carbon fiber to be able to learn. I think you do need to have a certain level of competence to be able to learn.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: You know, if you have no experience with carbon fiber, you can talk to a carbon fiber expert and you won’t learn anything because you don’t have that language and that understanding. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, at what point did you transition from Kickstarter to having your own website? Uh, I, I see that in terms of your sales channels, you have a website.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I also see on your website you have like a bunch of dealers who carry your products. Um, can you share a little bit about how you transitioned, you know, from just doing, I’m assuming you were just doing business on Kickstarter and then you at a certain point where you went, uh, completely. 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Yeah. The transition was pretty fast for us.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: The, we did the first Kickstarter took about a year to fulfill that. Then we launched our [00:30:00] website and we sold, I think it was about double what we sold. Or or about the same amount that we sold on that first Kickstarter, but on our website. Then we did a second Kickstarter while we had the first product on our website, but the new product was on Kickstarter, and that’s always been our approach.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Basically launch on Kickstarter, move it to the website, launch on Kickstarter, and move it to the website. And so with time, that became a very efficient way to advertise and use Kickstarter. The Kickstarter would generate sales, but then people interested in our other products that are readily available, they would buy it on our site.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And so every Kickstarter we did, we always, we also had a bump on our website. Um, we made the switch, so we were direct consumer for the first five years, and then we opened it up to sell our products to stores. [00:31:00] But it wasn’t too long after we started retail that Covid hit, and so our retail strategy was quickly crushed by the pandemic and it laid dormant for about a year and a half, and it wasn’t really until kind of news started coming out that brick and mortar was actually doing quite.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: About a year and a half into the pandemic, um, that we then decided to turn that channel back on and, and now we have, you know, the brick and mortar and the brick consumer channel. And in my opinion, based on the data that we’ve seen and, and how the two work together, I, I think the best pairing is to do both e-commerce and work with retail.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Because it’s just two different sales channels and they both help each other a lot. And so that synergy, I think, will only continue to get better in the next decade. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, definitely. Uh, I [00:32:00] mean, one thing that you mentioned at the beginning was, you know, you were right out of college and you didn’t really have a lot of business experience.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I’m very curious to know once you started getting some success, like at what point did you start scaling your team? Like at what point did you start making, um, hiving and. Okay. What roles did you hire for first and what does your team look like right now? Yeah. 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, so we, we hired builders right away. Um, at first it was kind of the intern type employee.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, we hired interns from the college that Ian went to part-time. And initially we didn’t even have enough money to pay people. And so what we, what we paid people with was a guitar. Uh, so the initial employees, it was, uh, I think 80 hours of work was equivalent to a guitar. Okay. And so, so that’s, and that was the Yeah.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: At first it was, you know, a small team build your own guitar and you get to keep it and own. And then you’re also working on other guitars alongside your guitar. And, uh, we quickly then moved to more, um, you know, established hourly workers. Uh, building the guitars and manufacturing really was our biggest.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Our biggest challenge the first four years I would say. Um, and the marketing team was always quite small. Until then. We generally had one videographer, marketer, um, kind of someone in that role, and it was always just one person. The first three years we had. Uh, our first employee slash co-founder, he had a mar, he had a videographer background and so that was essential initially, and he was also good at learning marketing things, and so we worked closely together.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And then, um, your co-founder, you Yeah. He became a co-founder after initially being a first employee. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So do that. Like did he invest some money or did you just say that he is, you know, he’s bringing a lot of skills to let scale a certain 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Yeah, it was, it was the latter. So over time he brought a lot to the table and so we gave him that title.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Okay. Um, and, and yeah. And then after he left, after three years, um, and then we always had one marketing person. And their main skillset was videography. And the reason for that was because one that helped develop, that helped build the website. I was still doing, I was coding the website and usually it was simple Ws and Shopify.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Um, but we were launching a lot of products on Kickstarter, and for that we needed a videographer. It wasn’t until I think year five that we had more than, Person on the marketing team. Uh, so it was really quite late and we always had a manufacturing challenge, not a sales challenge. I think in 2021 was the first time that we had more inventory than I could sell.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Okay? So it really took a long time just switch from a manufacturing challenge to a sales challenge, and now, Um, now we try to balance that and have a fine line between that. Cause you never want so much inventory that you don’t have an inventory problem, but now you have a storage problem and, and too many models and too many units.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, and so our manufacturing team kind of ebbs and flows, uh, and we try to keep this, keep it tightly, uh, intertwined with our sales levels. [00:36:00] 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Now, initially you did mention that your SEO does a lot of the, the heavy lifting in terms of bringing the traffic to your website. Uh, can you share a little bit about marketing?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: What is working, you know, whether SEO or advertising or. Social media, what, what really brings new customers and, and how do you, uh, keep those customers? Do you have like, uh, customers who, who buy again and those kinda things. Can you share a little bit about your marketing? 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Yeah. So now there’s a much bigger, uh, paid advertising component.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Definitely. Um, yeah. I think as any brand grows, that becomes a part of it. Um, I think, you know, SEO and paid advertising go hand in hand. Uh, SEO and organic traction is almost the highway that you have to build and that has to make sense. You know, if someone searches carbon fiber guitar [00:37:00] organically, they should be able to find us.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: If they can’t, then that’s a glaring red flag. Uh, and then you kind of pour gasoline on top of that. You advertise for that audience, whether it’s on social media or on search engines, through search terms. Um, so yeah, now we do both. We, we also try to sell on several different platforms. You know, our own website, Amazon, other instrument related websites.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Um, Yeah, in general, diversifying, you know, stores, um, diversifying sales channels and driving traffic everywhere creates, you know, a multi, multiple touchpoint system where people are learning about the brand in different places and that all helps, all the platforms do well. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Are you, are you study mostly in North America or is it like, uh, international fulfillment?

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, we’re now mostly in North America, about 75%. Uh, initially we actually were 50 50 North America and outside of the us. Um, and, and I think that’s because there’s a large international community on Kickstarter. Um, but yeah, now it skews more us. Uh, you know, definitely the plan is to keep growing everywhere in as many countries as we can, uh, but still majority us.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Are there challenges to growing in other countries? Like how, how would a customer in, let’s say Europe or Australia would buy this? They would just go to your website and place the order and you basically ship that out? Or do you have like your own fulfillment centers in those countries or, or distribution channels?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: I would say the complexity with doing international business just increases significant. Um, you know, with everything, with every aspect, um, shipping’s more expensive, sometimes there’s duty and tax that you have to follow. Sometimes there are different rules, uh, for product specifications that you need.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Um, So it definitely, it definitely makes it, um, more complicated, but not, not too complicated. You know, it’s definitely achievable. Um, we, at the moment for most countries will ship the guitar if they buy it directly on our website. Some countries we have inventory in Amazon, in those countries. So Australia, for example, you can buy it.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, Amazon Australia and we shipped to there and then it ships to the customer from, from there. Uh, Amazon, eu. We have some inventory there, but all those areas are, you know, we want to [00:40:00] improve in all those areas. We have a couple stores that are outside of the us, uh, but not yet as many as we like, so it’s still a work in progress, but it’s definitely doable.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Cool. Uh, in terms of messaging or in terms of, you know, just, uh, attracting people to your website or product? I mean, I see one, one, uh, campaign that you’ve done is like, you know, playing golf with your guitar, which I’m assuming it’s kind of like you’re highlighting how durable your guitar is on your website.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: You have a lot of, it seems like, uh, musicians who are playing your guitar, and that could be one strategy. You know, really just the, the quality of music and functionality of the product. Yeah. Um, and I’m not sure if you’re trying like, some sort of influencer marketing also where you’re bring like more established, uh, musicians who maybe who are endorsing your product and things like that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Can you share a little bit about, you know, in terms of your messaging, what, what are the different things you’ve tried, you know, in terms of different value propositions of your product and what has really stuck in the market? Like what, what. Talks to 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: consumers. Yeah. Um, we try a lot of different things and I, I think, you know, every product, our product has several different aspects to it.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, it has several different feature benefits. Uh, for example, it’s very durable and so some ads we highlight durability, but it also sounds really good and it’s an instrument, so, uh, you have to show people so that they can hear how good it sounds. And so we have ads where people are just playing them. Um, the durability, you know, there are def different ways to showcase durability.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: You could do kind of a scientific ad where you kinda show the data on how it’s durable or you can kind of go the humor route, which we tried with the golf video. You know, obviously you would never golf with your guitar, but it’s kind of this, um, funny, creative way to showcase durability by combining it with something you would never think.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Um, and that kind of is a new spin on an old idea. Um, so yeah, you know, portability, our guitars are very portable. You can fold them in half. And so sometimes we have an ab where you, the guitar is disassembled and goes into a suitcase. Um, yeah, there are a lot of, and the high quality and premium finish is another feature benefit.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: And, and so sometimes we’ll have an ad where we show how they’re. And, and people working on them. So they kind of feel the craftsmanship. And then a big one is kind of aspirational, but [00:43:00] uh, the benefits of all this is that you can take your instrument to a cool place and play music there. And so a lot of our ads will be people playing in cool places.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Um, and that’s kind of aspirational marketing. I. In the sense that we want our customers to, from day one think, okay, I now have this guitar that I can take anywhere. So let me take it on an adventure and test it to its limits. Uh, I’ll be carefree with the instrument because the instrument’s strong and we kind of have this idea that.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: You know, we’ll worry about the instrument. That’s our job. The musician and the customer. Their job is to worry about the music and, and enjoying it. And so that’s kind of the relationship that we want with our customers. But yeah, the, the advertising strategy is very wide and we try to cover all the features of the product.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Cool. Um, in every entrepreneur’s journey, there’s always mistakes made, lessons learned, failures, uh, in your journey, um, can you think of like one big mistake or one failure, big failure that was, that really sticks out in your mind? What did you learn from it, uh, as an entrepreneur, as a business, and what can other entrepreneurs learn from 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: it?

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Yeah. It’s hard to just pick one. Um, you know, I think, I mean the first that comes to mind is supply chain. Um, once you start working with suppliers who make one of the components for you, um, it adds a whole nother level of complexity to the business. So we had a big. Uh, we had several supply chain mistakes.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: None of them were massive. Um, but we’ve had mistakes where, uh, you know, a whole batch of parts that come are not [00:45:00] to spec. And so, you know, we, we were waiting for months and, and especially initially actually our first, our first order of next that we partnered with a, a supplier. We, we didn’t go through the, the correct process of inspection, a checklist, um, you know, pre-shipment items and we received parts that were not correct and so we had to start over.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: That. That I think, was a big challenge and I think many people making things will, will kind of attest to the difficulty of making things. And there’s just a lot you have to keep in mind. You know, you have to give good instructions, you have to have a good inspection checklist. Sometimes you have to hire an inspector if it’s in a different country, it adds another language component or a travel component.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Um, and so I think that was a, that, that was a big learning experience and it’s an ongoing experience, you know, uh, even companies as big as Microsoft who are making. Their products. They’ll have supply chain mistakes all the time, and they have many, many full-time employees just managing the supply chain and quality control and, and all that.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: It’s, it’s a massive industry. So that was, I think, one of our earlier kind of burns and lessons learned. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Cool. Uh, very. Yeah, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve heard, uh, those kinda horror stories in the past also. Yeah. So now we’re gonna move on our rapid fire segment and then this segment, I’m gonna ask you a few quick questions.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: You maybe, or two words or sentence or so. So the first one is one book recommendation for entrepreneurs and why. 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: I would say shoe dog, and I think it’s a great story of persevering through many [00:47:00] challenges, and it’s a good example of a now successful company, Nike, but debunking the myth that. To make a big successful company is easy.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: You know, it took over a decade before there was any real traction. And, uh, and so I think that I really like that story because it kinda reminds entrepreneurs that it’s, it’s really not easy for most people. And, and it keeps, keeps you. Rooted in that. Yeah. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, that’s, that’s actually one of the most recommended books on, on the chauffeur for sure.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, an innovative product or idea in the current e-commerce retailer or tech landscape that you feel excited about? 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: So for this one, I’d say Flux Marine, they, they make electric motors for boats. Um, sort of like not quite the Tesla for boats, but, uh, I think it’s a very innovative idea. In, um, in kind of the renewable space, and that’s one of the sectors that I like the most.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, kinda innovation and renewables. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Is it, uh, battery based or something 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: else? Yeah. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. A business or productivity tool or software, uh, that you would recommend or a productivity tip. 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: A lot of people probably use this, but Slack, I think. Um, okay. I, yeah, we’ve integrated Slack so tightly into our system that now I couldn’t imagine working without it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Cool. Um, a peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: inspires you? Um, I’d say this changes for me quite often, uh, just cuz you know, there’s so many successful. People out there. But I think the one, the most recent one that comes to mind is, uh, Hamdi [00:49:00] Luka, the founder of Chobani.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Okay. Uh, I listened to his, how I built this podcast interview. Okay. And it’s a phenomenal story that’s really inspiring of how Chobani came to be. So I think that’s currently the, the one that’s at the, for. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Cool. I mean, I, I’m surprised you didn’t say Elon much given that you from engineering broad background and building products, 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: but yeah.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Fi, 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: final question. Um, best business advice you ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs? 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Uh, that one is tough. I think, um, sort of in line with my book choice, I think the, the thing that really helps me the most is. Um, you know, and I’ve heard this from so many different people, but you know, starting a business is hard.

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: It’s a lot of work, and inherently, if it was easy, then someone would’ve already done it or, you know, you wouldn’t be doing it. So, yeah. Uh, I think it’s important to keep that in mind that, you know, things will be hard, things will go wrong. Um, but don’t be discouraged. You know, uh, it, it’s, it’s worth it because you’re doing something you’re passionate about and, and remember why you’re doing what you’re doing and keep a level head and keep working hard and, and solving problems and making solutions.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. And final question, how much time do you get now to play guitar? 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Or you, you know, less than I would like and less than you would think, uh, for having hundreds of guitars. Uh, I think probably on average I’m now playing about one to three hours a week maybe. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. Okay. Cool. That’s awesome. Well, Adam, those were all the questions that I had, uh, really enjoyed speaking with you.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Thank you for your time today. Thank you for sharing your, uh, very interest. Business story. So thanks again for joining Trip Talk and uh, yeah, really, really appreciated your time. 

Adam Klosowiak of KLOS Guitars: Yeah, thank you. Great.

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