At Hover, we’re pretty lucky to have the customers we do. Our customers are incredible entrepreneurs who start their own businesses and turn their ideas into a reality. So, we thought, why not feature some of these talented and hard working founders and explore the person and the business behind the domain name?
Our first peek behind the domain name gives us insight into Adulting FTW. This company is centered around awarding the toughest and most impressive accomplishments within the realm of adult responsibilities – or adulting. We wanted to introduce you to the founder, Dan Fallak, who is a founder of many interesting companies and products, right here in Canada.
Hi Dan! Please, introduce yourself:
My name is Dan Fallak and I’m the founder of VTILE.co which is a consumer product launching platform that I’ve been running for 7 years since I quit my government job in 2012. Essentially, I look for product-market-fit opportunities for consumer goods, and launch my own brands which I then wholesale and direct sell to consumers.
Why did you pursue this career choice and what sparked your interest?
I’ve always had a knack for identifying consumer and pop culture trends, and then figuring out a way to monetize on them. Back in 2012, I wanted to capitalize on the popularity of Instagram. At that time they only allowed square photos, so I launched Coasterly which allows users to connect right to Instagram (and other platforms) and print their photos onto square drink coasters. In 2015, I noticed the word “Amazeballs” was becoming very popular, so I decided to trademark it and worked backwards to find a product that would fit well with the brand name Amazeballs. That led to the creation of Amazeballs Premium Beverage Chillers and the launch of getamazeballs.com.
Most recently, I took the millennial driven phenomenon of “adulting” and also turned it into a brand and product. Adulting For The Win is a line of satirical participation award ribbons for mundane and trivial achievements in the life of a modern adult. AFTW lives online at AdultingFTW.com but also is fed via redirects from adultingribbons.com and my newly acquired domain adultingawards.com.
How did you come across your domain name and what made you choose it?
I’ll just focus on Adulting For The Win here. At the time I was registering, the domain name adultingawards.com, which was my first choice, was taken and parked. I decided to go with AdultingFTW.com as I felt it was simple and memorable enough and also conveyed the overall theme and tone of the brand. After a couple of years selling AFTW ribbons, competitors started to appear and so I wanted to cement AdultingFTW’s status as the leading brand in this adulting award ribbon category. That’s when I decided to go after the parked domain adultingawards.com. I made an offer via a broker to get the domain but the offer was either rejected or ignored. About 6 months later, for fun I searched it on hover and saw it was available for $12.99 so I jumped on it!
As a busy entrepreneur, what does your day look like to you?
I like to go to a local coffee shop and work off my laptop for a few hours every day. I like the background noise and the action of people coming in and out – I find if I am in complete silence working from home alone or at my workshop I actually get more distracted. Seems counter-intuitive but it’s how I operate!
What’s the most exciting thing about running your own company?
Landing large purchase orders and the chase for sales is really fun. There’s nothing more rewarding than closing a wholesale deal that I’ve been pursuing for a while.
What’s the most challenging thing about running your own company?
The uncertainty and cash flow are definitely up there. Working on my own can also be isolating, since a lot of decisions need to be made and there’s not a team around me to bounce ideas off of.
What’s the most incredible thing you’ve been able to do thanks to running your own company?
One of the highlights has to be my appearance on the TV show Dragons’ Den (Canada’s version of Shark Tank). I got to pitch my brand, Amazeballs on the show, and actually got a deal in principle from one of the investors during taping. It was a surreal experience and even more so to see myself on national TV.
What do you do to step away from work and relax?
I like to travel. My wife works for an airline so we have some pretty great flight benefits and because I work for myself I can sometimes have a bit more flexibility to arrange to get away with her and the kids!
We can’t thank Dan enough for sharing his story with us! We know how hard founders work to get things off the ground and we love seeing the cool domain names that are the jumping off point for so many businesses. Back to chugging more coffee for me… hey, I should get my award for that!
