Jemima McEvoy is a staff writer who covers billionaires, and works on Forbes’ flagship Forbes 400 and World Billionaires lists. She joined Forbes in May 2020 and works in New York.
Dude Wipes’ potty-mouthed founders have already grabbed 1% of the $10 billion U.S. toilet paper market. Now the Mark Cuban-backed startup is aiming to swipe up to 10%.in the corner of the “Dump Room,” the actual name of his company’s conference room on the sixth floor of a modest multi-tenant office building in Chicago’s West Loop.
It’s not just the foul humor that’s paying off. Dude’s founders have been very conservative in how they’ve grown their business. Until 2016, Riley was the only full-time employee; the other cofounders kept their day jobs to fund the business while Riley himself drove Ubers and waited tables for extra cash. There are now just 21 employees as Dude outsources all its manufacturing to the same Arkansas-based facility used by its competitors.
Surprisingly it’s not just men enjoying the product. The company claims about 50% of its users are women, choosing the brand over traditional toilet paper because it “cleans better.” After sketching up the prototype , they found their manufacturer by researching where other flushable wipes brands made their products. They pooled together $30,000 of their savings and spent $25,000 on buying the wipes, leaving them with $5,000. The result, explains Riley: “We didn’t have any money really for marketing but we had product.” They began handing out wipes for free to anyone who would take them, including at music festivals and on college campuses .
This gave the founders an idea. Instead of existing “adjacent” to toilet paper as was their strategy previously, could Dude Wipes directly compete with it? The company commissioned studies looking at how consumers reacted to replacing dry toilet paper with wet and found 95% of toilet paper users preferred their experience with wipes. They put in place a plan.
Cuban’s take: “It’s not about changing habits but about filling a need that is already there,” the billionaire says.
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