Kenny Morgan: In a world where adversity often dictates our limits, some individuals redefine the boundaries of possibility. One such pioneer is Jack, whose journey with Duradry turns personal battles into wins for all of us. Driven by Jack's fight against hyperhidrosis, Duradry now empowers millions to embrace life confidently.

Jack Benzaquen: Happiness comes from fulfillment. Fulfillment comes from building something worth building. Not only a business, but also a family, also, a community. Give of yourself towards a higher good that creates fulfillment. Lasting fulfillment, fulfillment, which creates lasting happiness. 

Kenny Morgan: This is one episode you won't want to miss.

Well, Jack, I just want to say thank you so much for being on the podcast today. We've, I feel like we've already had like a private episode before he jumps on here. It's so good. And I think it's, to me, a reminder of there's, there's still a lot of great people on this earth. And, I can tell you're one of those people, but you've got, 20 years of experience in DPC and CPG.

I got some more details before we kind of kickstarted, but you're from Venezuela, but you've been here in the U.S for 11 years. I've seen that you are a serial entrepreneur. You're an investor and currently, you're the founder and CEO of a beautiful brand. We'll get into that more but Duradry that you founded in 2014.

But man, I just want to say thank you so much for just being on with me today. 

Jack Benzaquen: Thank you for having me. Thank you for the compliments. Not sure if, if, if they're well earned, but thank you regardless.

Kenny Morgan: For sure. Well, I, we got into a little bit, but I, even before the Duradry conversation, I, I really love hearing how people, you know, kind of got their start and you can go back as far as you want.

And it sounds like you've got a really interesting story even just coming to the U.S but I'd love just to hear more about your personal story and how it brought to brought you where you're at today. 

Jack Benzaquen: Sure, sure. So as you said, I'm from Venezuela, born and raised, in a, in a, you know, beautiful community, big family, middle class, have always have, have always had that hunger for making money.

You know, don't, don't, don't ask me why, but it started working when I was very, very young, maybe at 15 years old, making websites for other people, of course. Started a few businesses with friends and by myself that didn't go anywhere, but, but, you know, definitely, definitely, you know, you, you gain a lot of experience, especially when you start very young.

That would be my first recommendation for everyone. Start young because the, the curve, you know, if, if it's an exponential curve, the, the sooner you start the, the faster you're gonna, like when you're 25, you're gonna get to the exponential part of the curve, right? 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. 

Jack Benzaquen: Which is more or less what I think happened to me, although Venezuela got trapped into, into political, into political fight between the left and the right, the left won, you know, destroy the country and I had to leave 11 years ago, came to the U.S. By the way, when I was in Venezuela, I started my first CPG company with very little money that I had from making websites and I grew it to, you know, a few million in top line revenue, but I had to leave and start from scratch in the U.S. No network, no, no understanding of the market. No, basically not much, right. So I started from really scratch. Like I didn't have an ID. I didn't have a social security. So like even to transact, to transact credit cards on the website, I couldn't do it because I didn't have a social security. Which, which takes me to what I was telling you before, which is that the real privilege that people in the U.S have is, is being born in the U.S, right?

So if you, for some reason, you feel that you don't have opportunities or you're being discriminated against, or, you know, the family that, that you got in the, in the, in the random. You know, world of, of, of possibilities is not the best, you know, know that the actual privilege is being born in the U.S . You have it so much better than anyone in the world.

So, you know, stop complaining and start doing. Just adding a little bit of, of, of commentary there because, you know, when I tell my story, I, it really takes me back to how difficult my path has been. Of course, you know, I'm not, you know, by far, I'm not the, the, like, I didn't have it as some people like, let's say crossing the border have it, but you know, definitely so much easier when you are American born, right?

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. I couldn't agree more. 

I'm grateful to be in this country. So, so Duradry, it's a brand that you founded and you've managed today. It's focused on anti sweat and odor control, which you had mentioned that it's a, it's a personal struggle that you had with, I think it's hyperhidrosis, am I saying that correctly?

Jack Benzaquen: Correct. 

Kenny Morgan: Which is just, you're sweating, you may not even exercise or do anything, but you just, you're sweating a good bit. So, tell us a little bit more about the inception, how you got into that. And then also, does it feel a little bit different when it connects back to a personal thing that you have in your own life?

Jack Benzaquen: 100%, and that's also something that I would recommend everybody do. If you want to start a business, start from problems that you understand yourself. That you live, right? Because you're going to have so much insight. Even if you think, hey, I can't learn everything there is to learn about, I don't know, you know, manufacturing vitamin gummies, right?

It's so much different when you, when you suffer through it, right? And when I say suffer, I don't mean like actually like, you know, suffer like, like bad pain, but suffer in the sense of you've identified the problem very clearly. I understand that you can almost like read the mind of your, of your target market. Right? And that's super valuable for part of development, for marketing, for everything. Right? But the way I started, and this is, this is, you know, almost, almost funny, right? So, I had this CPG company that I started by selling pregnancy test kits, and then I added other products including, you know, shaving gel and cotton swabs and hand sanitizer and body creams, et cetera, et cetera.

And then I had this problem and I, and I asked a few of American brands that make products for excessive underarm sweating to give me the exclusive rights to distribute the products in Venezuela. But none of them paid attention, just they disregarded. So I said, you know what, I'm going to do my thing.

So I did the research on the ingredients and I found a quantum manufacturer and a chemist. And that's where Duradry, so then you might see gel version one was born, was actually born in Venezuela. And then, you know, with time it arrived into the U.S, but that's, that's how it started just by basically trying to, to just figuring out what it wanted, regardless of the conditions.

Which is, Hey, you're in Latin America, you don't know much about ingredients. These people are not giving you the time of day. So do it yourself. And now, ironically, I'm competing against them, right? Yeah. 

Kenny Morgan: That always gives you a little more momentum, right? 

Jack Benzaquen: Well, it definitely, definitely fires me up, right?

 There are many ways, or there are many types of, of let's say people. If you divide people into two categories, there's people that if you tell them, Hey, you know, you buy me, you might be a little bit chubby. Some people might get depressed and some people will say, Oh yeah, I'm going to show you.

Jack Benzaquen: Right? So, I'm more on the, on the camp of, I'm going to show you. Right? So when they told me, Hey, Well, basically they didn't tell me anything because they didn't pay attention to me. 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. 

Jack Benzaquen: Just disregard. The fire was like, you know, I'm going to show you, right? 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. I mean, I can look at my own life. There's been two, two times I can remember where someone just doubted me. One was like a, Eighth grade teacher who said I plagiarized in a children's book that I wrote and I, I didn't. And I was like, one day I'm going to be an author and I'm going to mail you a copy of the book. 

Jack Benzaquen: Yes. And you're going to be a teacher for the rest of your life.

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. Yeah. And I kind of, I'm kind of grateful for it because it kind of spurred, you know, an opportunity to do something that I'm really passionate about. So I love that. 

Jack Benzaquen: Yeah. You know, between you and I, we can make up, we can create a quote. Doubters are the fuel of entrepreneurs basically. 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. Totally believe that. 

Jack Benzaquen: Right? Because if you're like, if, if. Also, if you're trying to push something new, you're usually going to have more people saying no or dissuading you not to do it. Some people just cheering for you. Right?. 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. 

Jack Benzaquen: So, if you are on team A, which is what I was telling you before, that when someone criticizes you or doubts you, you get sad and depressed and disencouraged.

 You wouldn't do anything, right? So the only way to be an entrepreneur is to use doubters as fuel. 

Kenny Morgan: Totally. Totally. Well, one I've seen a, seen a few, a good handful, but one of my favorite quotes of yours that I've found was, you said you need to spend 10 percent on your product and 90 percent on your marketing, not the other way around.

And he said a great product without good marketing won't get you anywhere. And I've, I've literally been saying that for years. Like I, I talk about that famous, Kevin Costner movie, build a dreams. And, the, this ghost in a baseball field says, if you build it, they will come. And I'm like, that's halfway true.

Like you build it yet you might build something, but if you don't tell people it exists. But one thing I want to say about you, I'm a, I'm a creative guy. I come back, same building websites, brands. But the first thing that I thought when I saw Duradry, I was like, this is a beautiful brand. And so just tell me a little bit about like, why that's been important to you and, and, why it matters in the marketplace?

Jack Benzaquen: Yeah. But just, just one second to, to go back to what you were saying. So, that's what I didn't come up with, you know, the 10 percent on product and 90 percent of marketing is just something that it's out there. I don't know who said it, but, but I've actually like now I would say that. Well, I wouldn't say that I'm flipping those percentages, but I'm definitely increasing the amount of, of effort and focus that I'm putting on product.

 Especially in today's world, because everything became so transparent buying online, that the product became more important than it usually ,that that, that it used to be. Right? Because just let's think for, from, for a second, right. From first principles, you have, you know, back in the day, maybe 30 years ago, you have products on the shelf, you go to, you know, target, let's say, and you see a bunch of brands and you're going to grab, you know, the one that you recognize from ads on TV.

Or, or the one that looks, you know, the coolest or whatnot. Right? But it didn't mean that you were going to choose the best. And honestly, as long as those products keep selling, either because of ads or because of packaging, the manufacturer or the brand didn't actually get the correct feedback as to what could be proven the part of what was wrong. Right? 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. 

Jack Benzaquen: So marketing definitely took a bigger percentage. But nowadays, everything is so transparent. 

You have Amazon reviews that even though they're still being manipulated, let's say that they are 80 percent true and definitely directionally correct. So, that's forcing those brands to go back into the product and making sure that it's actually an exceptional product.

 And if you want to take this a step further, acquiring customers online, at least in direct to consumer, I'm not in retail site that's a different story, but at least direct to consumer and Amazon. 

Kenny Morgan: Right. 

Jack Benzaquen: Online acquisition cost, keeps going up, right? So it's very difficult nowadays to be first order profitable.

That means that you need to rely on LTV. And to realize a good LTV number, you need to have a good product that people are willing to, you know, repeat again and again. 

Of course that's on, on CPG consumables, right? That doesn't apply necessarily to, to durable goods, but that's a different story. 

Kenny Morgan: Right.

Jack Benzaquen: And can you repeat your question? Because I went 

Kenny Morgan: Well, mostly it was just admiring the beautiful brand that you've built and just, you know, why do you think that matters in the marketplace today? 

Jack Benzaquen: Oh, dude, like that matters so much. I don't know if it's because of a new consumer or because of, of the, you know, Instagram, TikTok generation.

But definitely you want something that looks beautiful in your countertop, in your bathroom and that goes with your lifestyle, right? Like something that connects with how cool you are, how different you are or whatnot. Right? Like definitely we are, we're past the times of, of ultra generic brands from the big CPG companies, Procter & Gamble, Unilever at all, right? Like this is it, just buy or, or like, just take it or leave it. And it was very, you know, one size fits all, let's say. Now I think we're going a little bit more granular, but, but, you know, going back to the, to your, to your question, there's so much competition. You need to be different. You need to be aesthetics is definitely another way or another, another one of the few factors that consumers analyze before buying a brand, even if it's not conscious, even if it's just unconscious. You know, you have prize, you have, you know, product ratings, you have the product descriptions, you have, you know, all the, all the assets around it. And then one of them is definitely, aesthetics.

Kenny Morgan: Yeah, totally agree. Well, you've got a, you've got a beautiful one. So keep up the great work. 

Jack Benzaquen: Thanks. 

Kenny Morgan: So, I read a little bit about or I'd heard, and this is probably to be expected, but, you know, moving from Venezuela to the U.S. Like your network was basically zero and you had to rely on a lot of people, you know, giving you chances and stuff.

But I, I wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, what it was like to, to build a network and then also why you think relationships, professional and personal matter when it comes to, you know, launching and putting yourself out there. 

Jack Benzaquen: Yeah. So, so, you know, first of all, we, we do business with people, not, not with companies, not with, not with machines, right? So, the personal connection, even within a professional setting is really important, right? And going back to building the network, I actually think it's rather easy today because of the internet. and if you want to algorithm that you could, that you could deploy, let's say to get connected in your industries, just find a few podcasts or a few newsletters from people in your industry.

And you will know, because they have, you know, the most followers, the most views, the most everything, right? Then follow those people, those hosts or those, you know, writers of those newsletters, follow them on LinkedIn and Twitter. And then also follow the hosts, the hosts, not the guests they have in the podcast, right?

Or the companies they mentioned on their newsletters. And then you're going to, slowly by slowly, the graph on Twitter and LinkedIn is going to reveal itself. You're going to start seeing who's commenting on who and who's reposting what, and just, you know, start following those people. Then, start, you know, interact with those people commenting on their posts.

Definitely go to trade shows and you're also going to understand which are the important thresholds. The important trade shows to go to by reading these people on their, on their feet, right? Like who's going to grow or who's going to this other thing. And then you're going to start being invited to founder's dinners.

 You know, before you know it, you're going to know, you're going to meet a bunch of people, right? It's a very small industry. Once you, once you're, once you see the inside, right? 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. Totally. So, I think this is a good continuation. But I know when you start building your network, launching a business, your schedule gets pretty busy. I also know that like me, you are a dad. And so I'm always really curious how people balance, work life and the personal life. So, talk about that and then maybe what your routine looks like a little bit.

Jack Benzaquen: What do you say at the end, the team? 

Kenny Morgan: Your, your routine. 

Jack Benzaquen: Oh, my routine. So, you're going to think you're going to like, some people think that I'm crazy, right? A, I work from home. 

Kenny Morgan: Yep. 

Jack Benzaquen: And yes, the kids, you know, arrive from, from school or camp, let's say at 3:30, 4:00, it's just a disaster. They interrupt me and if my wife needs not something, she'll interrupt me as well. 

So I have a lot of interruptions, but you know, I couldn't care less. That's the way I have balance, you know, with my family, because, you know, if not, I would work 24/7, right? So I do try to work a lot, because, you know, what you didn't do today, you're going to have to do tomorrow, right?

So you're actually falling behind if you, if you don't work a lot. Also, you know, I bootstrapped or I'm bootstrapping this company. So, I have to counteract how much money my competitors have by putting in more work myself, right? And of course my team. So going back to where I started, I'm working from home. That gives me more time with the family. Even if I have 10 minutes between calls, I can, you know, go give my girls a kiss, just ask them how the day was, whatnot. And then I come upstairs again and be on another call. 

I try to wake up early, but if I wake up a little bit later, I couldn't care less. You know, that's one of the reasons I want to be an entrepreneur. I, I, I'm in charge of my time, right? And of course, you know, you compensate, like if you wake, if you woke up a little bit later, maybe, you know, you stay a little bit longer, you know, the day, you have short lunches.

You, you don't have a commute when you're working from home. Right? So I can keep going but I think you got the idea. Everything is, is together, you know, in, you know. I don't know the word in English, but very well, integrated, right?

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. 

Jack Benzaquen: I work on Sundays, let's say half a day, a little bit. The only day that I'm not working is from Friday night to Saturday night.

Kenny Morgan: That's so good. I just, this was on the list. Wasn't sure I was, I was going to ask it, but you just seem, like someone who's always like learning and growing. So, tell me, in this season of life, what do you feel like you're learning?

Jack Benzaquen: Business related or, or whatever? 

Kenny Morgan: Either one, either one. If it, if everything in your life's integrated, I think you'll probably impact both. So yeah, it could be either one. 

Jack Benzaquen: Yeah, on the business front, I've been forced to start learning more how to build a team and delegate. I'm also being forced to learn how to create content, maybe video, maybe writing.

It's definitely one of the biggest free opportunities of leverage that all of us have, right? Because it's virtually free. And leverage only to build your company, but to build a network, to, you know, meet people that could help you along the way to, even like to exit, right? Like for everything. And on the personal side, Kenny, , I'm Jewish.

So after October the 7th, I got much closer to my spiritual side. You can see, or at least I see, see what's going on in the Middle East and in the world at large as some sort of like evil forces. Or at the bare minimum people with moral, with a moral compass that's compromised or, or is relativistic, right? So that, that, you know, has brought me back to kind of like get, get in touch a little bit more with, with my spiritual side. 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. What, I think this is a good next question to ask now, because I think we're kind of in that that setting. But this podcast is called, we will kind of have to once called Fulfilled and once called Fulfilled and Five, but we, we really, we talk a lot about the fulfillment space, e-commerce, but also just like, what does it mean to be fulfilled in this life? And everybody has a different answer. So for you, what does being fulfilled look like? 

Jack Benzaquen: Fulfill. Okay. So, so not fulfill of a package, fulfilled, me fulfilled inside. 

Kenny Morgan: That's right. 

Jack Benzaquen: So that, that's a, that's a good question. Great question. So some people think the, the objective is to be happy and they think that to be happy, they need to seek, joy and pleasure. Like how delicious to be on vacation, how delicious to be in this fancy restaurant. . I'm, I'm by the pool and I'm doing, you know, this, you know, fancy thing or whatnot.

And I, and I think that happiness comes from fulfillment. So going to, going back to, to your question, what's fulfillment? So, I actually take it to, you know, in a, in a slightly different direction. And it is like happiness. Definitely. It's, it's. It's a goal, but happiness comes from fulfillment and from fulfillment comes from building something worth building. And not only a business, but also a family, also a community.

 So when you give of yourself towards a higher good, let's say, that creates fulfillment, lasting fulfillment. Which I mean, fulfillment, which creates lasting happiness. 

Kenny Morgan: That's so good. That, that's like the million dollar answer out there. So good. So, so good. All right. I got, I got two, two more, but I think these are a little lighter.

Jack Benzaquen: Yeah.

Kenny Morgan: You've already given us a ton of advice already, but, if you could, it didn't have to be one, but just, what's some advice for others that are in the space? It could be, you know, startups or even seasoned people. What's, what's that go to wisdom that you would share for those listening to today?

Jack Benzaquen: There's so much, but if, if we're thinking a little bit more holistically and, and industry agnostic. I would say, do not run your company based on what gurus, marketing gurus are telling you, or, or VCs are telling you, okay? Because if you fail, they're not going to be there for you. They wouldn't care.

They won't care. So you have to think about your business problems for, from first principles and understand the risk reward ratio yourself, because your future depends on it, right? You can't outsource your thinking to what the gurus or the VCs are telling you, right? And just to give you, you know, a small example.

So maybe 2021, if you were trying to raise money, VCs will tell you, Hey, if you are profitable, you're doing it wrong. You need to push for growth. Even if you're losing money, because now the rules of the game are growth and we're funding growth, right? And a bunch of people did so. And then, when it came to 2022, 2023, and you went to raise, no one was there to give you money.

Why? Because the interest rates, , were raised and you know, that's a different story, but the money was not there. So you, the entrepreneur, the, you know, you were giving your life for the business and all your energy, all your time, sacrificing time with your family and you know, all that it implies, you were left holding the bag.

The bag, meaning that you have a business that's not viable. Why? Because you paid attention to, you know, a schmuck VC two years ago that just told you to follow the sheet, which is, Hey, this is a, what you need to do, but then, it ruined you, right? It just ran out of money and that's it. You're gone. So don't, don't do things based on what other people are telling you.

 Don't be a sheep. Just think from first principles. 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. Dig into that a little bit more. Cause I'm, I'm like, you're, you're touching on, some realities that I, I live with my family. So it's real, but, we talk about not, not just doing everybody else's doing, how would, how would you get into knowing, Hey, what am I supposed to do?

Like, what would be your wisdom on that?

Jack Benzaquen: What are you supposed to do in life?

Kenny Morgan: Well, I think even on the business front you talked about, like, don't, don't necessarily just jump ship or jump in on board with the marketing gurus. Don't, don't just be someone that kind of walks aimlessly into the, into the, the future.

So if you don't do that, what would be your wisdom for the opposite of that? 

Jack Benzaquen: Yes. So, so I think that the framework should be making asymmetric bets. Meaning, hey, I'm going to make the product red, okay? And maybe some people won't like it, but the bet is that it's going to be so strong on the shelf, and it's going to be, it's going to have so much contrast against white on, on, online that the awareness or the, or the, whatever you want to call it. There's more to gain there than on the people that are not going to like it. Right? Just to give you an example, just asymmetric bets. 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. 

Jack Benzaquen: Another thing is never bet everything on one idea, no matter how much you trust that idea. Right? Because more often than not, we're wrong. I would say that, that probably like 1 out of, out of 10 things that I do are worth my while and actually make us make progress.

The other, the other 9 just pulls us back or just makes the progress super slow. 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. 

Jack Benzaquen: So you have to try a bunch of things and if you want to try a bunch of things, you need to make each bet small enough so that you won't go bankrupt. Right? 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. Yeah. 

Jack Benzaquen: Because if you survive long enough and you're putting in the work, you're going to get somewhere.

Maybe you don't get to, you know, a billion dollar outcome, but, you know, maybe you get to 10, to a 20 to a 30 and that's, you know, life changing money, right? Like you don't need to get to a billion to be successful. 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. 

Jack Benzaquen: Right? So I think, you know, I went, I was thinking out loud, but it, you know, there are a few things there that, that I think make sense together.

Kenny Morgan: That's so good. I always jokingly said, but it's partially true. I say like 90 percent of the time I got horrible ideas, but maybe, maybe 10 percent of the time I'm brilliant. So you validated that for me today. 

Jack Benzaquen: No, but, but think about it. Like, and honestly, everyone that actually puts in the work will know this and we'll feel it close to their heart because that's the truth.

You make a lot of effort and then, you know, most of the things that you do, do not pan out. 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. 

Jack Benzaquen: A tiny bit. 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. 

Jack Benzaquen: And some of those tiny bits are just out of luck, if you want me to be honest. 

Kenny Morgan: So that's true. So true. All right. One, last, just kind of regular question. Cause I can tell you're, you're like me where you're always just kind of evolving and growing and thinking of new things, but what would you say is next for you?

What are you most excited about?

Jack Benzaquen: I do not know necessarily what's next because, all in into Duradry. I do think that there's something here and I need to explore it all the way. And I'm, I'm giving it, you know, 90, more than 90 percent of my time. Something that I'm exploring now is creating content. So, yeah, honestly, you know, in real life, I'm, I'm super introverted, but, but, you know, I, I'm being forced to, to become extroverted on camera, right?

To be able to create some content. It's just that it's such a big leverage, such a big lever, that it would be foolish not to at least try it. Yeah. At least, you know, dip your toe into the water to see if you find something more than what it's just a plain sight because it's such a big lever. 

Kenny Morgan: Well, you're, you're doing it really well. So you've let your kindness and charisma come through quite well. So I would just say, keep up, keep up the great work on that. 

Jack Benzaquen: Thank you. Thank you brother. 

Kenny Morgan: So, well, for those, I mean, I, again, from the minute we jumped on, this is just really easy to talk to you. I've held a kindred spirit for sure. But for others that listen, they're like, Hey, I like Jack.

I'd like to follow along with him and also Duradry. What's, what's the best way to point them where they can stay connected to you? 

Jack Benzaquen: Go to Twitter, jackybh. That's my handle. 

Kenny Morgan: Awesome. And then obviously Duradry.com, which again, you land there, you're going to be like blown away by the brand and website and the products he's created. So 

Jack Benzaquen: Thank you. Still a lot of work to do. It's funny, but, but the one that's working on, on the thing can see all the, all the, all the issues, right? That we need to address. But thank you for the compliment. 

Kenny Morgan: Yeah. I remember I tell this sometimes, but you know, we owned a company for a while that helped others create custom websites and beautiful websites.

So we were really proud of, but initially when we started out, we didn't have a budget to even do it for ourselves, you know, and so I had to use a template site. People would like compliment us on our template site. I'm just like, don't tell me that. Usually the, you know, the general public's a little bit more forgiving on, on how we treat ourselves, but it's, it's, it's really beautiful and you've done something really special. So

Jack Benzaquen: Thank you. I really appreciate it. 

Kenny Morgan: But, yeah, I mean, I just want to just say thank you once again for, for being on. It's definitely been an encouragement to me and I know other people, so I appreciate you and, and, I'm grateful for this conversation. 

Jack Benzaquen: Thank you. Thank you for doing this for everybody, including myself.

Kenny Morgan: Appreciate you, man.