1. Tell Your Story: The most successful brands have a good story behind them. Brandon believes that brand storytelling is powerful and helps to attract attention, build community, and grow a customer base.
2. Understand Fulfillment and Shipping: Don’t rely on 3PLs to use the most cost-effective methods. Brandon stresses doing your own research to fully understand the logistics of fulfilment, optimize packaging and reduce shipping costs.
3. Just Get Your Idea Out There: Many entrepreneurs get caught up with spreadsheets, analyzing data, and raising capital. Brandon believes if you are passionate about your business idea, get it out there with as little capital as possible to test it. You want to launch MVP ASAP. The market will dictate quickly if it’s good or not.
4. Leverage AI: Brandon views AI as an invaluable tool for both leaders and team members in E-Commerce. AI helps isolate information quickly and efficiently, ultimately streamlining processes and operations throughout the organization.
5. Make Your Customer Feel Valued: Brandon believes the customer is always right. Do whatever it takes (within reason) to make sure people have a great experience with your brand. Let customers know that you appreciate their business and support.
Brandon Castaneda, along with his sister, Nichole Munoz, launched EZ Bombs in November 2023 from their mom Tina Castaneda's kitchen. The family-owned brand made $32,299.50 in sales thanks to Tina’s popular cooking videos on TikTok. You’ll want to read how EZ Bombs rose to the top of TikTok Shop and, in July 2024, banked $2.5 million in sales through the platform.
Meet Brandon Castaneda, Founder of EZ Bombs!
At EZ Bombs, our passion for authentic flavors and easy cooking merges to create a culinary revolution. Born from the love of traditional Mexican dishes and the desire to simplify the cooking process, we've reimagined seasoning with our Birria Bombs. Every bomb is a blend of handpicked spices, capturing the essence of Mexico's rich culinary heritage. From our kitchen to yours, we aim to make every meal an effortless explosion of flavor, bringing families and food enthusiasts closer to the joy of authentic cooking. Dive into a world where tradition meets convenience, only with EZ Bombs.
Brandon’s entrepreneurial journey began at age 20 when he founded his first company that focused on a cash rewards app for small-to-midsize restaurants. Brandon’s next venture, an NFT project, was met with success – “we sold out the collection in less than 24 hours and grew a community of over 80,00 people in our Discord,” he says. While positive and insightful, the experience left Brandon with a desire to start an E-Commerce brand that was sustainable, selling products that people loved and would make their lives easier.
Brainstorming took Brandon back to memories of family and friends gathered at the table relishing over meals made by his mom. “That’s when I got the idea for EZ Bombs,” he reveals. EZ Bombs makes ‘bombs’ packed with a blend of herbs and spices inspired by his mom’s traditional Mexican dishes. Building a community around food, love, and family, the business has grown organically since launching in November 2023 with Brandon’s mom maintaining a big role. “She’s now the face of the brand and still the one behind all the recipes. And she’s been doing an awesome job taking care of our social media,” he says going on to note “it’s about letting the product speak for itself and bringing people along for story on the way.”
In the beginning, Brandon’s mom’s kitchen was the site of EZ Bomb’s production. It was manageable, he says, “but by January, we had 10 people working at our house and we were making 3,500 bombs a day.” With the business scaling rapidly, they moved production to a manufacturer and secured a warehouse for fulfillment and shipping – the space is now used as a studio where half of the team creates content and runs lives on social media. The remaining members work remotely.
EZ Bombs is a customer-focused brand and wants people to have a great experience from the moment they see Brandon’s mom sharing recipes on TikTok to when they sit down to a home cooked meal flavored with its product. Asked about their CX philosophy, Brandon answers directly, "the customer is always right.” Should a package arrive damaged or not meeting expectations, a replacement and gift card are quickly sent to resolve the issue, leaving the customer with a positive attitude toward the brand. “We want them to know that we appreciate that they have made a purchase with us and support our business,” Brandon adds.
Scaling CX to Accommodate a Growing Business
Customer experience has been a top priority from day one when Brandon was solely providing service and support by email. Internal changes were made to accommodate the rapidly growing business. “It’s started to become overwhelming,” Brandon explains. “We brought in some additional help and now use Gorgias and different VAs to facilitate our approach and operations.”
How Brand Authenticity Builds Customer Loyalty
Brandon credits authenticity, convenience, and quality to EZ Bomb’s success. An organic approach to content helped the brand stand out on TikTok. As the face of the brand, his mom not only demonstrates how to make delicious meals using EZ Bombs, but she also shares her story and how it inspired the business. “We get a ton of support from that,” Brandon says about how she connects with followers. Finally, selling a great tasting, easy to use product helped to establish the brand’s loyal customer base.
Despite EZ-Bombs being profitable, Brandon knew from his past experiences running a start-up that it’s important to reinvest, have a plan, and take a minimal salary (and only once the business reaches a stable financial position). “Things can always go south really quick and as business gets bigger, then the more reserves you need to have,” he discloses. At present, balancing reinvestment, tax optimization, and strategic pre-payments, and expansion (buying more equipment) are Brandon’s focus.
How EZ Bombs Is Handling Rapid Growth
After launching in November 2023, EZ Bomb’s saw steady growth until April-July 2014 when sales on TikTok skyrocketed from $250k to $2.5-2.6 million. Brandon admits that it was hard keeping up and fulfillment was an around the clock endeavor.
Nearly all sales are in North America due to high shipping costs at $19.99 for a single unit (bulk orders have come in from 30 different countries.) Overseeing fulfillment during those first months allowed the company to optimize packaging and reduce shipping costs. “When you go into these 3PLs, they’ll help you, but they’re not necessarily looking at how much they could save you,” Brandon warns. Making slight adjustments to box size and packaging brought the weight of a standard order to 10 ounces, significantly saving the company on materials and postage fees.
le Customer Retention Plays at EZ Bombs
As a specialty food product in the E-Commerce space, EZ bombs relies on customer retention to drive revenue. Brandon reveals that on a monthly basis, 28-30% website sales come from returning customers. “I think that is really awesome,” he states. “We’re getting people to try EZ Bombs for the first time and come back.” TikTok is a notable revenue channel with 15% of customers returning each month.
In addition to organic retention, the brand is set to launch a subscription plan offering various options and bundles in early January 2025. “It’s for those customers who want to have EZ Bombs in their pantry at all times. They can subscribe and an order arrives each month – they have new recipes and will be part of our club where we send new items that haven’t been released yet.”
Processing all the growth and changes EZ Bomb underwent in such a short period, Brandon has taken the last few months to plan and set goals. He elaborates, “It wasn’t until just recently when we had the bandwidth to assess what’s currently going on in the business, asking ‘What’s working? Why is it working? And what are some of the things that we want to do for the next year?’” Whereas the launch phase was about ‘try everything and watch how it lands,” they are now focused on identifying and refining strategies that drive revenue. Outlining team members' responsibilities to eliminate distractions is another objective.
Brandon is also excited about EZ Bombs move to retail. “We should be in about 300 stores by the end of January, starting off with doing road shows with Costco,” he says optimistically with an eye on up to 1,000-2,000 stores by the end of 2025.
Brandon’s sage advice to anyone looking to get their business idea off the ground is to channel their passion and just run with it. He believes too much focus is spent on drafting spreadsheets, analyzing models, and forecasting projections, leading people to think they must raise major capital first. Rather, focus should be placed on getting that first sale at low investment – the market will tell you if people care about the product or not. “The last two businesses that I started have been very successful. I did it with an initial budget of $5,000,” he reveals and goes on to say, “Not having a lot of money might be better, because it's going to teach you a lot more along the way. It’s like people who win the lottery – you’ll learn how to be more disciplined with it.”
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