From 9-5 to $1 Million Business: How Marwan Barakat Built and Sold His Amazon Brand as a Solopreneur

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The flexible lifestyle of an online entrepreneur appeals to many people, including Marwan Barakat. After leaving the corporate world and failing with a few dropshipping businesses, Marwan achieved incredible (and quick) success by launching and growing an Amazon brand to seven figures in revenue. But, like many solopreneurs, Marwan’s journey involved significant obstacles.

After launching Baby Sunnies, a brand of sunglasses for babies, in early 2021, Marwan quickly grew monthly revenue to $100,000+. Then, in August of the same year, Amazon removed Marwan’s product listing because of an alleged patent infringement, leaving him with $100,000 of inventory that he couldn’t sell.

Despite the setback, Marwan persevered and devised a creative solution, which he shares in the interview below. A few months later, Baby Sunnies was back and selling better than ever. In 2022, the brand reached $1.1 million in sales. And in 2023, Marwan sold the brand for around $500,000 to focus on new projects that he’s more passionate about.

In the interview below, Marawan shares his experience growing an Amazon brand to seven figures in revenue and overcoming significant obstacles along the way.

Please tell us about your background and how/why you got started with E-commerce and Amazon.

I come from a digital marketing background, though my first business was in iOS app development, which involved a lot of programming and tech.

In 2019, I left my 9-5 role as a digital marketing manager and launched a one-man digital marketing agency in China. I worked with over 70 freelancers and contractors to serve clients, while personally handling ad campaigns, strategy, and account management.

By mid-2020, after three failed dropshipping stores a year earlier, I decided to return to e-commerce. This time, I focused on building my brand instead of selling generic products.

How did you design your product and find a manufacturer?

With Baby Sunnies, I simply took an off-the-shelf product and improved it.

Most competitors sold the same shape but only offered UV400 protection, without polarization. Their packaging was low-quality, often brown boxes or poly bags.

So, I made Baby Sunnies with polarized lenses, ensured they were the best quality possible in that price range, and designed premium packaging that made them perfect for gifting.

At the time, I was living in China, so finding a manufacturer was easy. I already had a connection with a supplier for sunglasses and ended up using them to source the product.

You grew sales for Baby Sunnies pretty quickly. How did you market the products and get the initial momentum?

While Baby Sunnies were being manufactured, I focused on creating the best listing possible. Most competitors had mediocre listings, so with my digital marketing background and experience building and managing eCommerce stores for clients, I knew I could create a superior listing and price my product higher than the competition.

My first order was 12,000 units across 2 parent listings with 10 variations in total. I launched using Amazon’s native ads (PPC) with the goal of becoming the best seller in the category from day one. Initially, 100% of our sales came from paid ads on Amazon. Within a week, Baby Sunnies became a best-seller, and Amazon began ranking our product at the top of page one organically.

After that, I gradually reduced PPC spend and eventually achieved a balance of 70% from organic sales and 30% from paid ads.

💡Most of the Amazon sellers we’ve featured have emphasized the importance of PPC campaigns for gaining momentum on Amazon. Read the stories of Jon Elder and David Holmes for more on the topic.

Please tell us about the patent issue that arose, the challenges it created, and how you overcame it.

I launched Baby Sunnies in February 2021, and three months later, the main competitor in the category patented the off-the-shelf product design. They filed patent infringement reports with Amazon, affecting about 50% of the sellers in the market. In August 2021, I received an email from Amazon stating that my main listing was removed, and just like that, my million-dollar business was gone.

I tried to fight the infringement claim. My attorney said the patent was illegal because the design had been publicly sold for over 5 years (USPTO allows patent applications within 12 months of public sale). However, invalidating the patent would have taken 2-3 years in court, so we didn’t pursue it.

Two months later, I came up with a plan to save my $100,000 of unsellable inventory. The patent covered both the sunglasses and the strap that keeps them on the baby’s head. If I manufactured only the strap in China, sent it to the US, and had my 3PL provider swap the old strap with the new one, I could relaunch with a new listing that didn’t infringe the patent. (I even applied for my own design patent for the new strap.)

⚠️ Intellectual property issues can be a major obstacle for e-commerce brands and Amazon sellers. Read Ben Leonard’s story about a similar issue that nearly destroyed his brand, Beast Gear.

What did you learn through that experience that will help you with future brands and businesses?

Resilience! I learned that the most important part of being a solopreneur is mindset. If you’re resilient enough, you can turn the lowest lows into incredible wins.

As for patents, I had already done thorough patent research before deciding to sell the product, but the patent got approved and went public three months after I started selling. So, while there weren’t any new patent-related lessons, it’s still a good reminder—always do your patent research, ha-ha!

After a few months where you couldn’t sell your product, what did you have to do to get your Amazon rankings back and get sales up again?

I actually never got my old listing or reviews back. In December 2021, I relaunched Baby Sunnies with the new design as a brand new listing, and it performed even better than the original listing.

I used the same best-seller strategy with the new listing, launched only using PPC, ranked my product on top of page 1, and then reduced ad spend and budgets to depend mostly on organic sales.

Why did you decide to sell Baby Sunnies?

To be honest, the main reason is that I wanted to buy a house. I also wanted to build something new and exciting for me. A brand centered around the person I’m serving instead of the product. 

For my new brand, Deskello, I focus on serving people who work from home and are getting more health conscious. 

How did you find a buyer?

I received the first exit offer for high 6-figures in May 2021, 3 months after launching Baby Sunnies, but the acquisition didn’t go through.

At the beginning of 2023, I got in touch with Empire Flippers and listed the brand for sale there. Three months later, Baby Sunnies was acquired by a European aggregator.

From your communication with potential buyers, what are most buyers looking for in an e-commerce brand acquisition?

I think the most important thing for buyers is profit and how scalable or optimizable it is. Also buyers, especially aggregators, love brands and businesses that can be run on auto-pilot or require minimal resources and workforce.

What were the keys to your success with Baby Sunnies?

“How you do anything, is how you do everything.” I think that’s the most important key to success. If you do every single thing right, you get the product, the quality, the inspection, the visuals, and the designs, done properly and thoroughly, you’ll beat most of the competition. 

Every little thing you do right increases your chances of success and reduces your risk of failure. Take no shortcuts! 

What are you working on now?

These days I’m building a community for eCommerce solopreneurs called ‘Solopreneur State’. I’m already so proud of everything this community is becoming and so grateful to be surrounded by such an incredible mix of like-minded people.

I’m also working on launching the second product under ‘Deskello’. It’s a brand I launched last year after the exit that focuses on desk accessories for people who work from home.

Interested in being featured on Flip My Site? We’re always looking for entrepreneurs with great stories. If you’ve bought or sold a website or online business, please contact us about being featured.