Swallowing mouthfuls of bland, soggy oatmeal while raising a family led him to found Fuller, where you can find his first product, a breakfast blend that’s a complete clean meal. He aims to help other busy dads like himself live their best lives.
Once you read his story, you won’t doubt for a minute why our Community and Product Manager Justus Murimi selected him as The One Percent Member of the Month. But no one was more shocked than Dane himself. “It’s a hell of a surprise!” he exclaimed during his interview. Let’s examine how Dane’s steadfast, determined, and gracious attitude fits perfectly with our GIVE acronym:
G-Grit: Dane got out of his previous brands to start FULLER and didn’t have a backup income. He decided to sell an investment property he owned for many years. It felt like a bad breakup and hurt his ego, but Dane had to commit. He used the money to invest in the new business. “I had to bleed a bit and cut off a piece of me,” he recalls.
I-Investing: Dane is self-funding his brand. Doing so gave him the time, energy, and finances to start. He believes in the business and doesn’t mind investing himself. Once the brand becomes more valuable, he may seek outside investors. “I can start climbing the hill by myself.”
V-Value: Dane’s passion is helping people, and he strives to help everyone in TOP. He supports fellow members to see and reflect upon their dreams so that they can take action and go in the direction they want to go. And it’s not a one-way street. As he says, “There are really generous people in the group. When I see people like that, it’s the worst-kept secret not to share it.”
E-Expanding: Dane plans to expand by serving different solutions to the same person. He wants busy fathers to be their best. Healthy breakfast foods are a place to start, but Dane knows there are other ways to serve his audience. He hopes to offer a 12-week weight loss program, online support, and other digital products to help dads reach their goals.
“You sacrifice the rest of your day without breakfast.”
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and oatmeal is one of the healthiest things you can eat. But Dane grew tired of forcing spoonfuls of the sloppy, mushy substance into his mouth each morning. “It was bloody awful. I just hated it,” he recalls of his morning ritual.
Dane dislikes everything about traditional oatmeal—the taste, the texture, the appearance. He understands why kids can’t stand it. Nothing is appealing about a bowl of gray, runny, somewhat questionable slop.
Oatmeal provides a lot of health benefits. It aids with digestion. And if you want to drop a few pounds, it even decreases fat absorption. Further, adding a bowl to your morning regimen can help lower cholesterol, reduce blood pressure, and prevent those awful blood sugar spikes you get after devouring a bowl of sugary breakfast cereal. “It really is a superfood,” Dane declares. Too bad it takes so long to prepare (especially when you’re a dad) and is absolute torture to eat.
Snap, Crackle, Pop!
Reinventing oatmeal wasn’t always on Dane’s mind. As a kid, he was a picky eater—and an unhealthy one at that. His parents owned two fish & chips shops, and the family enjoyed lots of fried leftovers. From childhood to University, Dane ate a bowl of Rice Krispies for breakfast. Every. Single. Morning. It was the only thing he would eat, but he did have one stipulation. The Rice Krispies had to be soggy.
When he entered University, Dane realized his diet needed an overhaul. He was on the rowing team, and Rice Krispies weren’t cutting it. His body required more stamina and energy than the soggy cereal could provide.
Ironically, this picky eater majored in nutrition. Dane researched which breakfast options would be most suitable for lightweight rowing. That’s when he first learned about the power of oats. Porridge was a low-calorie meal, but it would also give him the energy needed to race to the finish line. And, even more importantly, it was filling.
After leaving school, Dane used his nutrition degree to start a weight-loss consulting business. Although he still hated oatmeal, he encouraged his clients to eat it daily. Oatmeal helps people feel less hungry and cut back on random snacking. It gave his clients back power and control and helped them lose weight.
The benefits of oatmeal were impossible to ignore. But Dane still hated it.
Twenty Years Later…
Dane lives in beautiful New Zealand, but mornings are still a rushed fiasco. As a married man with three kids—Dane could never find the time to prepare a healthy breakfast. And he quickly realized why it was hard for his clients to commit to oatmeal in the morning. He had to find a way to make it easier.
Dads Deserve the Best
Seeking an alternative, Dane decided to create a better-for-you oatmeal. He founded Fuller with that goal in mind. The brand’s hero product is a high protein breakfast blend that’s convenient and tasty. It’s insanely easy to make—just add water, shake well, and put it in the fridge overnight. And if you buy the optional steel flask, there’s no clean-up either!
Fuller is all about fast breakfast food for fathers. As a busy dad himself, Dane knows guys just don’t have time in the morning to eat a well-balanced meal. But they still want to stay healthy and fit to prevent that slide that happens in their 30s and 40s. In his 40’s, Dane is his target audience.
Too many men get lost in fatherhood and work. There’s no time to find out who they are, and they lose their identities. Instead, they sacrifice health for wealth. Too many end up overweight and in poor health. And when this happens, dads become less tolerant and grumpier. They become broken. As Dane states, “If we can prevent men from being broken, then we are succeeding.”
The Challenge of Packaging On-the-Go Oatmeal
Like all great businesses, Fuller hit a few bumps along the way. In fact, it started off as whole other brand with a different name and logo. Now, it’s come full-circle and Dane’s last name made for an obviously perfect brand name. Packaging and ingredient sourcing became his main challenges post-Covid. Dane liked the idea of packing his oatmeal smoothie in a bottle. But he quickly learned this wasn’t possible. Oatmeal is a dry good, and dry goods go into a sealed pouch—not a bottle.
This news disappointed Dane, but he rolled with this challenge and worked around it. Finding top-quality organic oats, a non-negotiable, was another challenge… one that resulted in several postponements of his launch date. Dane documented his journey and kept his hungry audience in the loop via a weekly email update. They’ve stayed with him through thick and thin and are now rooting for him harder than ever.
Dane Fuller Comes Out of the Entrepreneur Closet
The Capitalism Incubator has been a valuable resource for Dane, and members helped him overcome his own roadblocks. For example, creating a pitch deck was a chore. It required a ton of research and was boring at times. However, he persevered, but making the pitch deck public became the most difficult part.
Scared was not an emotion Dane felt very often. But he found himself putting off going live because of fear. After talking with Damien from Effin’ Good Snacks, Dane finally got the courage to do it. He went live on Facebook and got tons of supportive and encouraging feedback. Putting it all out there helped him make connections he wouldn’t have found otherwise. It was his way of coming out of the closet. Normally, he would’ve done it all alone, but it’s better with others rooting for you.
Advice for Fellow Entrepreneurs
Discipline and determination are Dane’s biggest strengths. But strengths can also be your weaknesses. Determination can push you forward, but it can also morph into stubbornness. Sometimes you find yourself pursuing something that’s not working. And instead of throwing in the towel, you keep pushing and investing time.
This mindset is the difference between managers and leaders. Stephen Covey once described managers as pushing through the jungle while sharpening their machetes and writing policies. However, leaders climb the tallest tree, evaluate the situation, and shout, “Wrong jungle!”
Sometimes, it’s best to stop and see that you’re moving in the wrong direction. Sure, you put a lot into it, and it hurts to admit defeat. But it’s not as painful as losing time. As Dane reiterates, “Time is life.”
Change Your Morning Routine
Ready to change your eating habits? Head to Fuller to be one of the first to try Dane Fuller’s high protein breakfast meal replacement.
Chapter 2: After Much Ado, Dane Fuller Launches FULLER In The $389B Breakfast Foods Marketplace
“My God, has it really taken this long?”
Dane Fuller is lighting a fuse under dads who’ve been fueling themselves with… crap. He’s also about to inspire you on your own entrepreneurial journey because he’s faced and overcome so many frustrations and challenges along the way… and he’s become the poster child for what it means to “document your journey” and “bring your audience along for the journey.”
Dadding may be one of the toughest jobs on the planet. I mean, it’s hard work coming up with horrible jokes – much less to inspire, be present, and play Legos with their kids for hours on end.
Dane’s building Fuller to support dads like nobody’s business. And that begins with the kind of breakfast that’ll turn the crankiest “GET OFF MY LAWN” dad into the strong, fit powerhouse of a man he was meant to be.
Disciplined and dedicated are two words anyone would use to describe Dane – especially if they were watching him skim across the surface of a lake in his rowing shell. It’s hard work physically, but the mental game of rowing may be even harder. It takes a tremendous amount of patience… and that is a quality that has served Dane very well.
Bumps in the Road
He’s faced – and overcome – significant obstacles on his road to $1 million – first in positioning his brand (whole new brand name and logo, anyone? FUN!) His original plan was to create a high protein, clean breakfast and deliver it in a glass bottle. The customer would add water, shake, refrigerate overnight, and grab it on their way out the door in the morning.
But… something as seemingly innocuous as a bottle can cause major problems in manufacturing and shipping. Dane eventually switched his packaging to pouches, a much more economical option for a new brand with a plan to scale.
But that wasn’t the final hurdle Dane had to clear to get to launch day. The supply chain strikes again! Finding the single most important ingredient for his first product – oats! – caused several delays. Did you know there’s a global oats shortage right now? And finding organic oats, in particular? Good luck. Especially if you’re a startup and can’t swing enormous MOQs.
So when Dane started feeling the weight of the 18 month delay, he got on a coaching call with Ryan. You simply must watch this – you’ll get unstuck, too.
Dane tapped some fresh, young influencer talent to help him perfect his recipes. OK, it’s his kids. They’re freaking adorable. And the best thing about having tiny taste testers? They will not hold back on their feedback. Dane videoed his kids tasting the samples as they came in from the manufacturer, then shared the videos with his audience… which fell in love with the brand immediately purely on the basis of AWWWWWWWW.
Where’d that audience come from? Dane committed himself to posting one video per week in a series he called “23 Weeks to Launch.” And he followed through – even though at the start, he only had about 18 subscribers. The audience has grown 10x, and its growth is a big focus for Dane. He’s all-in, and in it for the long haul. You can hear his passion for his person, and it’s the knowledge that he can change lives, families, and ultimately, the world, that keeps him going.
Words of Wisdom
Had to ask for his best piece of advice to share with you. It’s this…
“If you want to build a million dollar business, don’t focus on a million dollars. Focus on the person you want to serve. Talk to them to figure out what product to sell rather than going on Jungle Scout (or other market research tools). Find out what journey they are on, get their feedback on your products. Take the long-term approach rather than just trying to generate cash.” Sound advice from a guy who’s taking the long view in a $389B marketplace.
Chapter 3: Dane Fuller Gives His Vivid Vision A Workout, And The Results?
*Chef’s Kiss
Dane’s a man on a mission to create the perfect breakfast – one that fuels dads and keeps them FULLER. But this isn’t just any breakfast, oh no. Dane’s vision is to create a delicious and nutritious meal that people will love and crave.
Since we last featured him, he launched! And while that’s a huge milestone, our follow-up convo revealed some wins that will have you cheering hard for Dane, writing some words of wisdom on a Post-It to yourself, and possibly feeling all the feels.
Let’s talk about his Vivid Vision first.
More specifically, how it’s working overtime for him. (BTW, it’s a document that outlines exactly what he wants his brand to be, where he wants it to go, and what he needs to do to get there. It’s super helpful for raising investor funds, too, which is one reason people join the Capitalism Incubator.) Dane’s vision is his secret weapon.
Scene 1: He’s sitting in the backseat, getting a lift from strangers – as one does – when the inevitable “So, what do you do?” conversation starts. Dane’s Vivid Vision is so ingrained in him that he uses it to answer the question. The upshot? They’re blown away. And get this… one of the other passengers happens to be a buyer for a grocery chain there. She says she wants to help him get FULLER on the shelves.
Scene 2: Dane needs more oats. Not just any oats. Really, really good ones. Easier to say than to find. But Dane did find oats. There’s a guy using Limitless Fulfillment, the same 3PL (owned by Daniel Lindsey, a member of The One Percent) who had two pallets of oats for his newly discontinued product (that the guy had made the classic “product first” strategic mistake so many make). Dane reached out and made a deal to get said oats. Cool. But it gets cooler. Dane shared his vision with Oat Man (can we call him that?) and asked for some oat-biz-specific mentorship. Oat Man loved this vision so much (and the fact that Dane’s building FULLER the smart way!), that he’s happy to mentor him.
Scene 3: (Warning… this one may require Kleenex.) Dane’s son Jasper has Prader-Willi Syndrome. In a nutshell, PWS leaves people feeling like they’re starving. All. The. Time. Without help, people with PWS can overeat themselves to death by age 20. Dane wrote about this in an email to his list. On said list? A local journalist. She reached out to Dane about an interview, and has heard snippets of his Vivid Vision in all of his emails. She’s writing up a story about Dane, Jasper, and FULLER. No way will this not grow his audience (and business, ultimately). Imagine trying to stay enthused about oatmeal. Now imagine staying enthused about being on a mission to save people’s freaking lives. See? Dane’s Vivid Vision for the win.
OK, now let’s talk about money, perfectionism, and time.
While Dane started with a decent war chest, he used most of it in product development, an early branding misstep, and paying for customer acquisition early on. He’d originally decided to go with Shopify rather than Amazon because of… perfectionism. As in, “I know my product is not perfect yet. I don’t want to get negative reviews on Amazon – reviews that could stick long after I make the product perfect.” (You get that, right?)
But he soon realized that was bunk. As in, Amazon has ready buyers already there. (Plus a host of other reasons it’s a powerful sales channel.) Dane knows how to turn an Amazon customer into a FULLER customer. And while his single-serving option costs him a couple of bucks for each sale, that’s pennies compared to what he’d spend in ads to build his list directly (then hope subscribers turn into customers). BTW, that “imperfect” oatmeal? All 5-star reviews. (Delicious and filling? Can confirm.) And it’s still way better than anything else on the market.
Time? Well, that’s the universally scarce resource for any founder – and especially for those raising young kids. Dane used his awareness of his time limitations to help him. He’s hired out a few tasks that he probably could have figured out… eventually… and had the lovely surprising realization that outsourcing saved him both time and money.
There’s one more bit of evolution that you’ll want to ponder from Dane’s story. When he started off, he’d constantly tell people, “I’m building this. I have no idea how to do it. But I’m going for it.” Telling people he had “no bloody idea” how he was going to do it was freeing. He knew he’d make mistakes. The combination of believing he had no idea what he was doing plus trying really hard to get it all right was a sure recipe for going s-l-o-w-l-y.
Now he knows some things. Maybe not all the things, but a lot of things. He owns that knowing. And it’s going to be pivotal in how FULLER grows from here. We’ll keep telling Dane’s story if you’ll keep reading!
Your Turn?
We’re rooting hard for Dane Fuller as he builds this brand that serves dads and helps them raise the next generation. He’s a real inspiration!
If Dane’s story inspires you to build a brand that makes the world a better place – and that has the power to create generational wealth – we’d love to help you.
In fact, we’re on a mission to make one million millionaires by 2028. We’d love YOU to be one of them.
That’s why we created this FREE course that will help you build a million dollar business in about a year. Join us now and let’s get started.
