If you’ve been paying attention, you might have noticed that not much has happened recently with Vape Gourmet.
That’s because, as we ran out of initial investments, we have been focused on keeping a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. That’s not to say we haven’t been working on our company.
In fact, we have been reevaluating what we are doing and where we would like to go.
Do One Thing and do it well.
From the very beginning, we decided to keep our selection od electronic cigarettes very small. Initially, we worked with the “good better best” philosophy, where we would offer three product lines, of increasing levels, with an economical beginner kit through a top of the line system for those really into vaping.
Since then, though, we have reevaluated this idea. New eCigarette styles come out almost daily. The city of Shenjen seems to crank out a new manufacturer about every month. Through it all, we’ve seen a few trends emerge:
- Manual batteries trump automatic systems for all but the very new users.
- People don’t like refilling cartridges all the time.
- People don’t like having to recharge batteries all the time.
- Disposible eCigarettes are wasteful.
- Non-refillable cartridges are just as wasteful.
- Cartridge subscriptions do not work.
- Everyone has different flavor preferences.
- Most vapers use a nicotine strength of none, low (6mg/ml), medium (12mg/ml), high (18mg/ml) or extra high (24mg/ml) with a very few die-hards using higher.
We have evaluated several eCigarette types and heard from users of many, many more.
Initially, our main workhorse eCigarette style was going to be based on the Joye 510 model. This is a good started kit. The price is low. The parts are easy to find. It can come with a manual battery and it is easy to refill. After more testing and market research, the Joye eGo system began to trump the 510. Soon after that, they introduced the eGo Tank system. As with anything coming out of China, knock-offs emerged almost instantly, and some of these are just as good if not better than the originals.
At this time, until something better comes out, we will be focused on the eGo Tank systems and similar products as we search for a reliable manufacturer and appropriate funding.
Gourmet eLiquids
There are a LOT of companies and individuals out there producing a staggering range of eLiquids to refill electronic cigarette cartridges. In the rare scientific studies out there on the effects of electronic cigarettes on health, it seems they all fail to differentiate between the different types of eLiquid. We feel that this distinction is essential to evaluating the safety of these products as well as their potential for use as a smoking cessation aid.
At Vape Gourmet, we believe that safety of the products we sell is essential to doing good business. This was one of our founding philosophies and it is why we developed our own brand of gourmet eLiquids from scratch. We plan to continue in this direction, as our customers need to know what goes into their eLiquids. We plan to continue to develop the finest, purest eLiquids available, including a selection of all-natural products.
Strategy
At first, we hoped to start off as just another online supplier of eCigarettes, eLiquids, and accessories. It didn’t take long to realize that the competition is fierce. We will need to do something that will set Vape Gourmet ahead of our competitors. Our first plan was to become an exclusive US (and eventually North American) wholesale distributor of some manufacturer. We had plans to eventually move manufacturing to the USA and continue totally independently. Sadly, there was not one single manufacturer who would even consider an exclusive deal, despite the obvious and powerful benefits of marketing and distribution we offered. We also tried several methods of raising the capital we would need to begin wholesale operations. These were woefully inadequate, yielding us all of $15 which didn’t even cover our web hosting costs.
It was time for a new strategy.
We still have the home field advantage. Being based in the USA, we know our market a lot better than anyone in China possibly can. Out executive team has experience with street team marketing in the entertainment and night life industry as well as online promotions. If we can come up with the capital to start a marketing campaign, we can take America by force and quickly dominate the electronic cigarette market here. While we won’t be the first US company to offer wholesale pricing, we believe we can operate in a way that our wholesale prices can offer two major advantages for our products: First, that we will build a name brand recognition that will out pace our competition and second, that with the right amount of buying power with the Chinese manufacturers, we can offer a much larger profit margin to our wholesale customers. By adding US based dropship capability and real marketing, it won’t be long before Vape Gourmet will emerge as the market leader.
Action
We have a sound plan. What we lack is the financial capital to make it happen.
That’s where YOU come in.
We need your help to line up a proper investor for Vape Gourmet. This is a daunting tas for us because we are talking about more money than any of our executives make in a year. It is very unlikely that any bank of venture capital firm would be willing to finance that much to two people on a completely new project such as this. We believe our best bet lies in a private individual who has good business sense and would like to come on board as not only an investor, but a third partner. As much as we hate to give up that much control, we firmly believe that it is the only way to make Vape Gourmet really work. This third partner can be as involved as he or she desires. It’s all about making a successful company that will provide a great benefit to our customers and a decent profit to our shareholders/partners. If you would like to join us in this regard or know of someone who would, please use this contact form to get in touch with us.
We look forward to hearing from anyone who might be able to help us out. We are excited that we CAN make this work and we’ve already invested what little money we have into this project. It’s time for your help.
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