Growth Bomb make $10m with Priceline, Chemist Warehouse hair treatments

Two friends from Melbourne made a huge $250,000 gamble but it paid off, with them raking in $7 million in the past six months.

Australian entrepreneurs Blair James and Hamish Buckley had always wanted to launch a business together but were waiting for the right idea to come along.

During Australia’s nationwide lockdown in April last year, the idea came to them – a natural hair brand called Growth Bomb.

“Our focus is on scalp health (because it’s a) growing trend around the world, tipped to be the next big thing,” Mr James told news.com.au.

Since launching in October 2020, Growth Bomb has made $7 million in sales and is on track to reach $10 million by the company’s one-year anniversary.

On average, they sell one of their products every two minutes.

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The pair sunk $250,000 of their own money to start the business.

By June, Mr James and Mr Buckley were presenting Growth Bomb to retailers.

They got a lucky break – both Chemist Warehouse and Priceline snapped it up.

In October, they officially launched, and haven’t looked back since.

They currently have seven products on shelves, and by March next year that number will have doubled to 14, which makes it one of Australia’s fastest growing hair brands.

“It’s very rare for a brand to find itself in retail within the first six months of trading,” Mr Buckley told news.com.au.

“Usually you’ve got to crawl before you can walk.

“(Growth Bomb) is definitely moving in the right direction in a short amount of time.”

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They credit part of their success to a “hero ingredient” in all of their products – the Yerba Maté leaf.

The leaf is harvested in the Amazon Rainforest, and has the highest level of natural caffeine than any other substance – which makes it great for stimulating hair growth.

It’s often used in energy drinks, a point not lost on the two entrepreneurs.

Once they discovered the Yerba Maté leaf, they “could see the brand emerging before our eyes”, according to Mr James.

“We wanted to make a hair care brand that looks like an energy drink,” he added.

“Our products are really targeting the hair itself.

“Hair is dead about 2cm above your scalp.

“To improve hair growth, you really have to improve your scalp.”

The Yerba Maté leaf was perfect for that.

It’s not the first success for the two friends who are already well-established entrepreneurs and millionaires.

“We’ve both been in the cosmetic industry. We had a good understanding of trends and hair care,” Mr James said.

He is best known for creating global self-tanning brand, Bondi Sands, which made $65 million in revenue last year and a $8.6 million profit.

Mr Buckley isn’t far behind, as the founder of three successful brands, creating alcohol, body scrub and teeth whitening products.

It’s lucky they both had a surplus of cash behind them, because getting a new business started was not cheap.

“We did fund the development of our brand out of our own pockets, from product development, brand design, website design, it was all self-funded,” Mr James said.

It cost them “hundreds of thousands”, with the original design costing $25,000, and then having to fork out a quarter of a million on stock.

With their new businesses and old businesses to juggle, the pair said they were often working 6am to 7pm, most days.

Mr James and Mr Buckley have been friends for 15 years, ever since they met in Melbourne’s “small world” of aspiring entrepreneurs.

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