How A 17 Year Old Turned Slime Into a Multi-Million Dollar Idea.
I will set the scene. I’m down a pretty deep social media wormhole when I stumble across an account that takes satisfaction to a new level. It’s this phenomenon called “slime” but this account’s making me hungry and intrigued in equal measures… Still unsure, I’m inclined to dig deeper. Fast forward 25 minutes and I’m on a post from 2018, have watched 85 videos and I’m obsessed.
Introducing Snoopslime — the account you never knew you needed to follow until now. Snoopslime boasts almost 2 million instagram followers, and has already amassed 58 million likes on TikTok. What’s even more impressive, it was founded by Jungmin Kang (Jay to her internet community), a 17 year old from Round Rock, Texas. Upon finding this out, I had to contact her and find out more about the journey.
The Goo-revolution
“Snoopslimes sells slime, a satisfying goo that is fun to play with. It not only makes it a satisfying toy for children to squeeze, stretch, and play with but also a great sensory relief for adults. Snoopslimes specializes in eight different varieties of slime textures- from crunchy to buttery- in order for customers to enjoy the ultimate satisfaction of slime.”
It’s the creativity of it all that makes this business so unique. Take one quick scroll through the Instagram feed and you will find Jay collaborates with household brands to recreate our favourite Starbucks drink, a delicious looking Oreo fudge brownie or even mum’s famous spaghetti.
“I get inspiration from so many different aspects of my life- from the food I eat to music I listen to, and my hobbies like playing my instruments and baking. I plan the videos on how I can make the slime look more realistic and creative, so for food slimes, I create ‘slime baking’ videos where I would pretend that I am baking that food with slime ingredients.”
Whilst Jay might now have the privilege of posting her engaging content to millions of people across the globe, this idea all stemmed from humble beginnings. She’s wanted to be an entrepreneur since she was 6 — it’s in her DNA. The idea was dreamt up when Jay just started high school, in 2017.
“I came across a satisfying slime video on my Instagram explore page. I quickly became hooked to this world of weird yet satisfying goo. I decided to see what the hype was about and made a homemade slime myself. Slowly slime became a hobby, and I started creating my own slime recipes, with many trials and errors, that were worthy to sell. I decided to invest $200 and start my own slime business.”
Setting up was only phase one. Jay needed to find a way to advertise and sell her product. What might seem obvious today (Shopify, SquareSpace etc..) was less straight forward in 2017.
“I opened up a shop on Etsy, a platform that is dedicated to selling homemade items, and an Instagram account, @snoopslimes, to post my own satisfying autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) slime videos. After a month of consistently posting on Instagram, I got my first sale, and soon after, my videos quickly became a viral sensation, gaining over one million followers on Instagram in just over a year.”
Spotting An Opportunity
What impressed me so much was Jay’s awareness when it comes to growing her brand across social media platforms. Part of this is down to timing; however, she was a relatively early adopter to Instagram and this paid dividends for growing her account quickly. When it comes to TikTok, she can 100% be considered a very early adopter and can boast 2 million followers and almost 60 million likes across all her videos on the platform.
“I realized that TikTok was going to be a vital social media platform after seeing the overwhelming increase in the number of downloads (especially with Gen Z) of this app during our first COVID-19 lockdown (during March — April of 2020). I realized that TikTok will be the next growing platform for all users- from influencers to small businesses.
Although I have already seen success with my 1.9 million follower fan base I have built over five years on Instagram, I realized that incorporating a new social media platform would help boost my sales and target more diverse audiences.”
The growth profile for a lot of the new social media platforms follows quite a similar trajectory. At first, users are quite “follow happy” and will hit that like button a lot more frequently. This helps early adopters grow accounts quickly to begin with and then it starts to plateau out as users’ feeds begin to get populated. The threshold is upped and people will be less inclined to add more accounts onto their highly coveted list of followed accounts.
Thus brands or personalities who join the platform later would have missed out on the more low hanging fruit of growth. So, in a world where growing accounts can be very hard, the content strategy is KEY to maintain interest and engagement. However, Jay has navigated this challenge well.
“I’ve learned that using each platform for different types of promotional content does exceptionally well. For example, the current platforms I use, TikTok and Instagram, have different purposes of advertisement. The type of content that does well on Instagram differs from TikTok as Instagram favors high quality, well-developed content, and TikTok favors more relatable, personal content with fans. For this reason, I use Instagram strictly for posting satisfying slime videos, while TikTok allows me to dive into my personal story, showcasing my personality and the back story of my brand.”
Building The Hype
In addition to the content strategy, Snoopslime also has an innovative sales model that revolves around limited release “drops”. It’s a tactic that is employed by many successful brands and helps generate hype, scarcity and interest. For every business that has made this work, there are thousands that have failed. Snoopslime has navigated this well and sees huge interest in it’s weekly product launches.
“I have been using this strategy since late 2018 where I would restock the limited availability/quantity of slimes every Friday at 8 pm CST and decided to stick with it because it allows customers to be excited with the hype of new slime releases every week.
Having an exclusive availability of slimes for customers creates an idea of urgency and excites the customers. However, I understand that although this business model brings novelty to my brand, many customers prefer easier access to my products where they can purchase them with more convenience. The future plan I have for my “drops” model is to allow customers to have few staple products available to purchase at any time for convenience while still keeping my Friday restocks for new items to build hype.”
A Young Founder
Growing a business is not easy. You face daily challenges and are expected to jump over many hurdles along the way. Something that really sets Jay, and Snoopslime apart is that this is a 4 year old business, run by a 17 year old. Youth can be a huge advantage and it has played a huge role in Jay identifying the importance of social media platforms for sharing her message.
“I believe that being a teen entrepreneur allowed me to really closely connect with users on TikTok because I was able to share my unique experiences and life of being a teen entrepreneur. By sharing behind the scenes of my daily life using TikTok, I am not only able to promote my business but also inspire others to chase after their dreams as I did.”
Age can also be a barrier and Jay has not been without her doubters.
“As a 17-year-old entrepreneur who goes to a public high school and participates in clubs and sports like DECA and marching band, it was important for me to really find work and life balance to manage my time between school and business. I made sure to establish a steady ground for my business operations by hiring employees to fulfill shipping duties during my school hours and purchasing industrial mixers to maximize production efficiency.
Another hurdle I had to overcome was the doubts I’ve received during the start-up years of my business. Many people doubted that I was going to go anywhere due to the lack of time I would have balancing school and work and told me not to have false hopes. However, I continued to stay determined and never gave up. When I was stressed, my dad was one of the biggest mentors. He always motivated me and taught me to always be goal-driven about the passion I had for my business. “
It has been a whirlwind journey for Jay and Snoopslime. With a huge fan and customer base, this is surely the start of something really special for this young entrepreneur. There are ambitions to take the concept further than just an online only offering too; which is sure to excite.
“There are many things planned for the future of Snoopslimes. Once the pandemic is over I hope to open a sensory slime pop-up shop where people can feel the slimes in person and purchase it here in Austin, Texas. I also am looking into releasing merchandise like hoodies and shirts for my fans and followers! Finally, with the drastic growth I have seen with my sales within the past year, I am planning to move into a new warehouse space in the following months.”
A Bright Future
Jay is a glowing example of a Gen Z teenager who has followed her dream and leveraged hard work, a good idea and social media, to create a brand that has millions of dollars worth of potential. I am excited to see her take the world by storm, one delivery of slime at a time.
“I’ve always been a ‘just do it’ person. Try it out first, and see if it is something you actually want to do. Before I started my business, I had no idea how to create my own website, ship out a product, or how to even build a brand. However, I did my research. Life is short and I think that if there is something one is truly passionate about, they should just go for it.
If I told my 13-year-old self why she did it, she would simply say that it was because this was a chance for her to achieve her dream of being an entrepreneur.”
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This is instalment 1.9 in the mini-series, “Why’d You Do It?”. A chain of interviews where I ask a simple question to the founders of some of the most exciting up-and-coming businesses.
Follow along for more.
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