Bootstrapped Growth: Inside Tumble’s DTC Journey With Justin Soleimani and Zach Dannett

Justin Soleimani is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Tumble, a Los Angeles-based company specializing in machine-washable, spillproof rugs designed for modern living. Before establishing Tumble in 2021, he worked as a consultant at Bain & Company, advising clients across various industries. Justin holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from Emory University, where he met his Co-founder, Zach Dannett. Under their leadership, Tumble has grown significantly, scaling to high eight-figures in revenue within four years.

Zach Dannett is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Tumble. Before Tumble, he served as the General Merchandise Manager and Buyer & Merchandiser for Outdoor Furniture at Noble House Home Furnishings, LLC and as an Investment Management Associate at BBR Partners. Zach earned his BBA in Finance from Emory University's Goizueta Business School in 2011, where he met his Co-founder, Justin Soleimani.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [2:49] How Justin Soleimani and Zach Dannett launched Tumble using a crowdfunding campaign
• [4:01] Why Justin and Zach spent over 15 months on product development before launching
• [5:40] How Tumble reengineered rugs for DTC by designing a modular, collapsible rug pad
• [7:06] Zach describes the foam-based design inspired by knock-down furniture for efficient shipping and warehousing
• [8:15] Optimization strategies for FedEx/UPS dimensional pricing to boost margins
• [9:40] Leveraging product design for marketing differentiation and higher engagement on social platforms
• [12:53] The impact of being bootstrapped on profitability and economic efficiency

In this episode…

Breaking into the ecommerce ecosystem with a physical product — especially a large one like rugs — comes with unique logistical and financial hurdles. From expensive shipping costs to supply chain inefficiencies, many startups fail to develop a sustainable model. How did a product-focused, bootstrapped brand scale successfully without sacrificing profitability?

Justin Soleimani and Zach Dannett, experts in DTC product development and operations, tackled this challenge head-on by designing a modular, collapsible rug that’s easier and less expensive to ship. Justin and Zach spent over 15 months perfecting their design before launching, focusing on optimizing everything from the product’s dimensions to its warehousing footprint. They emphasize the value of focusing on profitability from day one by cutting out unnecessary SKUs, refining your supply chain, and tailoring offerings to fit consumer needs and carrier constraints.

In this episode of the Minds of Ecommerce podcast, Raphael Paulin-Daigle interviews Justin Soleimani and Zach Dannett, Co-founders and Co-CEOs of Tumble, about building a nearly nine-figure DTC brand. They share how product-first thinking drove early success using the value of modular design, shipping optimization, and bootstrapping strategies. Tune in for insights on crowdfunding, curated product assortments, and manufacturing challenges.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Raphael Paulin-Daigle on LinkedIn | X
• SplitBase
• Justin Soleimani on LinkedIn
• Zach Dannett on LinkedIn
• Tumble: Website | TikTok | Instagram
• “From Tackle to Tech: The Omnia Fishing Strategy With Matt Johnson” on Minds of Ecommerce ‍

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Quotable Moments:

• “We're 100% D2C online through our website, and we've scaled the business to close to nine figures in revenue at this point. “
• “We came up with a product that we believed was better, more cost-effective, and then ultimately patented [it].”
• “We basically applied that same approach to the rug category — how do we knock it down?”
• “We were product-first and very much profitability-first, which led to sustainability.”
• “Our rugs are exactly eight feet by 10 feet, and then we have the best designs.”

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Action Steps:

1. Optimize product design for shipping efficiency: Meeting carrier size thresholds reduces shipping fees and improves margins across the supply chain.
2. Focus on profitability from day one: A profit-first approach supports sustainable growth without relying on outside capital.
3. Limit SKUs to simplify customer choices: A curated product line enhances conversions and streamlines inventory management.
4. Leverage crowdfunding for market validation: Testing product demand early reduces risk and helps secure initial funding.
5. Highlight product uniqueness in marketing: Showcasing distinctive features boosts engagement and sets your brand apart.

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by SplitBase.

At SplitBase, we design, test, and manage high-converting landing pages and on-site experiences for fashion, luxury, and lifestyle ecommerce brands. Our optimization program pinpoints exactly where your store is losing money most, and then we help you fix that.

The result? Increased conversions and profits for our clients.

With our team of conversion optimization specialists, performance marketers, and conversion-focused designers, we've got your back when it comes to testing and optimization.

Request a proposal on SplitBase.com today, and learn how we can help you get the most out of your marketing spend.

You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Don’t miss out on our exclusive podcasts at Minds of Ecommerce.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:06

Welcome to the Minds of Ecommerce podcast, where you'll learn one key strategy that made leading ecommerce companies grow exponentially. We cut the bullshit and keep the meat. In a 15-minute episode, founders and executives take us through a deep dive of a strategy so you get to learn and grow your online sales. In the last episode, you heard from Matt Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Omnia Fishing, who shared how they've leveraged user-generated data to both grow the e-commerce store and actually build a software platform, both of which feed into each other. It was a unique and mind-blowing conversation. I highly recommend that you give it a listen now. Today, on episode number 46, well get ready. We've got Justin, Justin Soleimani and Zach Dannett, who are both co-founders and co-CEOs of Tumble, a high eight-figure DTC brand that makes beautiful, spill-proof proof and washable rugs. Now, today we'll actually be talking about how they've used, how they've used crowdfunding to start the company and how they've optimized their product design process to set the brand for success. Now I'm your host, Raphael Paulin-Daigle, and I'm the founder of SplitBase. This is Minds of Ecommerce. Now this episode is brought to you by SplitBase. At SplitBase, we help leading eight and nine-figure brands such as Dr. Squatch, Hyperice, and Amika grow through customer-focused conversion optimization programs. Our programs pinpoint exactly where your store is losing money most and then, well, we help you fix it. The result you get increased conversions, higher AOV, and of course more money, which in return allow you to scale advertising profitably. We've been at it for a decade and can help you manage your CRO process from A to Z, from customer research, conversion design, strategy, copywriting, and development. We focus on growing your ecommerce sales so you can focus on what you do best. Go to splitbase.com to request a proposal. Today and learn how we can get. How we can help you get the most out of your marketing spend. All right. Justin. Zach, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here.

Justin Soleimani & Zach Dannett: 02:15

Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. It's great to be here.

Raphael Paulin-Daiglet: 02:18

Yeah. Now you guys are co-founders and Co-CEOs. You've had a lot of success building this brand. And what I would say is probably a bit of a difficult market because we're talking big products, products that are, you know, not $5, of course. And there's a bit more of a consideration process that probably goes into buying these products. Just to give our listeners maybe a bit of context, can you tell us what type of growth you've had over the past couple of years and when the company was founded?

Justin Soleimani: 02:46

Sure. Exactly. You want to kick it off?

Zach Dannett: 02:48

You can.

Justin Soleimani: 02:49

Sure. Yeah. So Zach and I co-founded the business in late 2019 is actually when we incorporated the business, but we spent about a year, year and change in product development, which we'll talk about on this call. But we actually launched with a crowdfunding campaign in October of 2020, and then we went off and manufactured the goods for those crowdfunding backers. And then we actually launched the brand in April of 2021. So we're approaching our four-year anniversary in just about a month or so. And yeah, you know, business is growing really well. We're 100% D2C online through our website, tumbleliving.com, and we've scaled the business to close to nine figures in revenue at this point, with plans of, you know, exceeding the nine-figure mark in 2025.

Raphael Paulin Daigle: 03:39

Amazing. Now four years close to nine figures. Obviously, there's been a lot of brands in this category that also haven't been able to get the type of growth that you guys have had. What would you say when you're kind of looking back at when you started the business? What did you guys do that was maybe unique to Tumble that really got you guys to where you are today?

Zach Dannett: 04:01

Yeah. I think the first thing that comes to mind is how thoughtful we were about the product itself. We spent somewhere around 15 months, 15, 16 months developing the product. And a lot of other companies that we've seen in the DTC space, from concept to launch, is just a couple of months, because they're much more focused on the marketing side of the business. We started very much with a product-centric approach, and what we did over that period of time is we looked at the competitive landscape. We wanted to understand exactly who was in the space, what they were doing, how they were doing it, and then we wanted to differentiate ourselves and create a better product. And so in that 15, 16-month period of time, we came up with a product that we believed was better, more cost effective, and then ultimately was patented. We could patent it. And actually, it was just a couple of months ago that we got our patent. So it was a very long process. So, you know, 15, 16 months to develop it. And then four plus years going back and forth with the patent office. But we're proud to say today that we have a utility patent to protect the product itself.

Raphael Paulin Daigle: 05:22

Amazing. Now, I know when we were talking earlier, you said there are specific steps and specific things that you've done to optimize the product. So it is optimized for DTC and for selling online. What are some of those things that you guys have done that you also think is probably core to your success?

Justin Soleimani: 05:40

Yeah, so I can chat about that. So when you think about a good category for the ecommerce kind of space, you know, typically what people look for are high AOV, so high-value products that ship very efficiently. So they're very small compact. And there's a lot of value in a small amount of space. Obviously when you think of rugs, you wouldn't think of it as a category that meets those criteria. Most rugs on the market, conventional rugs, they're very large, obviously, and they're typically rolled. So when we looked at the competitive landscape, a lot of the traditional rug ecommerce brands or even other washable brands, what they were effectively doing was they were taking a rug that that was designed and optimized for the physical world, rolling it up, putting it in a box, and then shipping it in an ecommerce environment. We looked at that and thought that that felt wasteful and that there was room to be optimized, and that by optimizing that and making it more cost-effective, we could then pass those savings on to our end consumers. And so Zach actually had a lot of experience working in furniture, what they call knock-down furniture, where they would take furniture for Ecom and knock it down into small boxes. And we basically applied that, that same approach to the rug category. So after that year, year and a change of iteration, what we landed on was a concept where the rug pad itself, rather than being one piece, is actually modularly designed almost like a gym puzzle mat.

Raphael Paulin Daigle: 07:05

Interesting.

Justin Soleimani: 07:06

Kids puzzle mat. So it provides just the right amount of cushion. It's a quarter inch thick. It's Eva foam. It has non-slip surfaces on both sides, but it can basically be disassembled and collapsed and stacked. Right. And then we are able to fold the rug and put the rug on top of it. And that way we can achieve a much smaller footprint on the boxes, which makes the warehousing more efficient. The inbound shipping from our manufacturers, and then the outbound shipping to the end consumers much more efficient, which you know, gives us basically a competitive edge on cost. And then also, you know, like another variable you might not think about is, you know, our business is bootstrapped. We didn't raise any outside capital. And so when we were starting and we were trying to find three rpl's third party logistics providers, many of them have size constraints. And they'll tell you like, like if you come to them with a ten foot long box or a ten-foot-long rug, you know, they'll just be like, sorry, we're not interested. And when you don't have the volume to convince them because you're just getting started. That can be a really hard conversation. So we were able to overcome a lot of those challenges by coming to them with like a really thoughtfully designed package that fits easily onto their shelves and, you know, makes their lives easier as well.

Zach Dannett: 08:15

And then just to double click on one aspect. So yeah, to optimize basically for inbound for storage and for outbound within the outbound space, you wouldn't know this unless you've been in the e-commerce world that Fedex and UPS, they have the same guidelines, but they're very specific guidelines. They will charge you more money if it's over £50, if the longest side is over 48, the second longest side is over 30. It's like a lot of what seems to be very arbitrary rules. But if you break one of those rules, you could pay upwards of $30, or if that $30, let's say, gets discounted, maybe it's $15. Well, $15 is a huge amount of money in an industry that typically has relatively low margins. And so we went rule by rule and just optimized it perfectly to fit on a pallet. You know, how many can we fit in a container. So to what Justin was saying. But we were very specific around each element of the product size, how it folds, etc..

Raphael Paulin Daigle: 09:22

Super interesting. Now you guys are, I think, talking a lot as well about that, that optimization process for logistics. I'm also curious, has there been any thought around the optimization of the product for the marketing part of things on a marketing standpoint? Are there things that you know, you know you have to do in a certain way versus other things?

Justin Soleimani: 09:40

Well, there are I mean, I do think that the unique design of, you know, of our rub pad is actually a selling point that works really well, you know, in the marketing realm. So having a differentiated product that stands out and that jumps off the page when someone's scrolling through an Instagram feed, I do think makes a big difference. And so when they see something that's a bit out of the box, you know, no pun intended, that catches their attention and makes it, you know, something that they're more likely to click on and want to learn more about. But in terms of like, yeah, I think, I think I think that kind of like element of how the packaging not only feeds into the logistics aspect, but also feeds into the marketing is something that we often overlook honestly, internally as a business. But I think it is definitely, definitely real.

Zach Dannett: 10:25

Yeah. Yeah. In terms of design, we've just really focused on creating beautiful designs that we think are going to sell well. We have a few of the best rug designers in the world that we've been very fortunate to work with. And we want to have a an assortment for everyone, but it's a highly curated assortment. We have less than 100 rugs today. Other companies have 10,000 rugs. And the buying experience is actually really complicated because you have different materials at different prices. And then 10,000 designs. We have one material. Each size has one very specific price. Our rugs are. If we say a rug is an eight by ten, it's exactly. Eight feet by ten feet. And then we have what we believe to be the best designs. And the other thing is that all. Of our designs are done in-house, and many of them are hand painted and hand drawn. And so. We're really proud of the fact that we've created all the designs that we're selling. Versus a lot of other companies, you know, they go to their manufacturer and just say, hey, could you. Could you show me the thousand rug designs that that you have? And then, you know, that's what they put forward to the market. We like having unique designs that are just specific to to tumble and most importantly, that are beautiful.

Raphael Paulin Daigle: 11:52

Yeah, I think I'm getting some pretty good takeaways here. One one of the things is you guys started, you know, obviously at a time where a lot of DTC brands were marketing first and not actually product first. And a lot of those brands, right? They don't really exist anymore. Some of them manage kind of survive and and find their angle. But a lot of them are gone. I think that focus on product for you guys. It was very intentional. It sounds and what you're saying about the optimization, it sounds like there's the optimization of the logistics. But what you're telling me is that right now as well is there's really an optimization in terms like all across the product line, because I'm thinking for manufacturing, you're using one material. You, you know, kill your worst performers. Right. And I'm sure you only keep the top performers. Like, it does simplify the experience. And one thing you know, we've seen in conversion optimization is often the more SKUs you add, people tend to think, the more you're likely to convert. But very often you're just leading to analysis paralysis, right?

Justin Soleimani: 12:53

Yeah. I think to build on what you said, you said, you know, brands back then were marketing first and were product first. I definitely think that's true. I also think we are, you know, economics first, which those weren't. Right. Again, by working within the constraint of like where we were a bootstrap business, we still are. We didn't plan on raising outside capital. We had to be profitable from day one. It wasn't a choice, right? So we designed our product to be efficient for all the reasons I just mentioned, in part to give great value to end consumers, but also in part to keep our overhead low, to keep the complexity low. We didn't have the luxury of being able to offer a thousand SKUs on day one, because we had raised some war chests from VCs. You know, we had to be super thoughtful and targeted. And so we were product first and we were very much like profitability first. And that led to a more sustainable business model that obviously now we have more profit, that we can reinvest in the business and take a little more risk. But we are very, very thoughtful and targeted to start.

Raphael Paulin Daigle: 13:51

Amazing. We've only got a couple of minutes left, but I'm curious, what would you say? Maybe he's been one of the biggest challenges in scaling this type of brand. Is there like one challenge that sticks out?

Zach Dannett: 14:02

I would say that the biggest challenge today is relates to tariffs. We manufacture 100% in China. And we're looking to diversify our manufacturing base outside of China. So the last year has been extremely challenging thinking about where we could move our manufacturing, how to move our manufacturing. And you know, luckily we were pretty early here looking towards other countries. But it's been extremely difficult because people who aren't in manufacturing will always say, well, why don't you produce it in the US or just leave China? It's much easier said than done. I would say we're very fortunate in one sense that our manufacturer in China has opted to move his entire factory to another country in Southeast Asia. And so part of our plan is to just move with him instead of move away from him. But I would say that stands out to me at least, you know, just in terms of a recency basis. Like the most challenging thing.

Raphael Paulin Daigle: 15:19

Very relevant for sure. Now Justin. Zach, thank you so much for sharing everything you've shared today. Now if people want to learn more about you guys and about Tumble, where should they go?

Justin Soleimani: 15:34

I mean, check us out on our website, Tumbleliving.com. And then you can also find us on social. We're on TikTok. We're on Instagram at Tumble Living. L I v I n g.

Justin Soleimani & Zach Dannett: 15:49

Yeah.

Zach Dannett: 15:50

Yeah we're at @tumblerugs on social. We’re on tumbleliving.com.

Raphael Paulin Daigle: 15:54

Yeah guys thank you so much for today and have an awesome rest of your week.

Justin Soleimani: 15:59

All right. Thanks for having us. It's been fun.

Outro: 16:06

All right. Well, that's it for today's episode. And thank you so much for tuning in. Now, if you like what you've heard, and you don't want to miss any of the new episodes that are about to come out, make sure you subscribe to the podcast and well, bonus points if you also leave a review in the iTunes store or wherever you're listening to this. Now, if you're working on an ecommerce store that does over $1 million in revenue and you need help with conversion optimization or landing pages, well, I've got some good news because there's a pretty good chance we can help with that. Go to splitbase.com to learn more or even to request a proposal. If you have any guest requests, questions or comments, tweet me @rpaulindaigle and I'll be super happy to hear from you. And again, thanks again for listening. This is Minds of Ecommerce.

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