Great heights, zero waste: How scaling Mount Everest inspired Lucent Globe and its 5900% growth

In the 18 months since launching their zero-waste cleaning brand Lucent Globe, Gold Coast twin brothers and entrepreneurs Roger and Brodie Cook have achieved surprising success. With no practical business experience skills, the duo has achieved 5900% growth year-on-year and upscaled from working in their home garage to a 1,200 square metre warehouse with 13 staff.

In a recent conversation with SmartCompany, the Cook brothers chatted about how they disrupted the cleaning market, achieved rapid growth, and expanded into New Zealand.

Business entrepreneurs on an ethical mission

When Roger and Brodie Cook came up with the idea for their first product — a zero-waste, plant-based, biodegradable laundry detergent sheet – the brothers had few practical business skills. They both had business degrees, but Brodie was working in the fresh food department of a supermarket, and Roger was teaching high school chemistry. Yet the brothers felt certain that they wanted to create a brand with a difference.

“When we were finishing our degrees around 2017, we went on a trip to Mount Everest,” Brodie says. “There was no one around in the places we visited, but there were stockpiles of rubbish everywhere. It was a real eye-opener to the impact of plastic rubbish. When we finally sat down to plan what sort of business we wanted to create, we knew we wanted to create a positive impact. And that’s how we landed on plastic-free detergent sheets.”

With their concept sorted, the brothers founded Lucent Globe in late 2021, plunging themselves into a six-month product and development phase before launching in March 2022 with their laundry detergent sheets. Six months later, they launched their second product – dishwashing detergent sheets.

Disrupting the cleaning market

In the eyes of the Cook brothers, the detergent market in Australia was “quite old and pretty stagnant”, which made the idea of disrupting it “very appealing”. But to do that, the brothers would have to overcome two significant hurdles: they would need to explain how their product works and also shift loyal customers away from the brand they had been using for years.

To launch Lucent Globe, the Cook brothers spent a lot of time creating educational digital content. “When we first started, no one knew what a detergent sheet was,” Roger says. “Even now, a year and a half later, a large percentage of people still aren’t familiar with the concept.” But with no budget for influencers or marketing gurus, the brothers had to create the content themselves.

“We’ve bootstrapped everything,” Brodie explains. “So our content involved just the two of us talking about the brand. It was actually pretty rough initially. But I think that has helped to show that we’re genuine and allow people to connect with us. We’re not just talking the talk; we’re taking a chance and doing it.”

The Cook brothers. Source: Supplied

While the pair figured out the intricacies of Meta advertising, they relied on connecting with customers through Facebook community groups. The strategy was simple: join a group, share a post about Lucent Globe with a photo, and generate customers. It was a simple but effective tactic that landed them some free PR on national TV. However, they knew that relying on organic growth could only take them so far. So, the Cook brothers started to carve out a few hours daily to dedicate to learning new business skills, triggering a turning point in their business.

“Once we sat down and invested time into learning each day, rather than just working, we achieved exponential results,” Roger says. The brothers did courses in Facebook and Google ads and joined entrepreneur’s courses online that covered the fundamentals of starting a small business. 

Eventually, their results began to plateau again despite their hard work, so the brothers hired an external advertising agency to help push them to the next level.

Success, but not without strife

In their first year of business, Lucent Globe made 2,000 sales. In 2023 so far, they’ve secured over 60,000 orders and are currently recording over 4,000 orders per week. Lucent Globe has a repeat clientele of more than 5,500 customers, and that number is rapidly increasing. At the moment, Lucent Globe is attracting around 100 new subscribers a day.

The fast uptake of their zero-waste cleaning products has required prompt adaption and upscale of services. To assist, they’ve hired 13 new staff and moved into a 1,200 square metre warehouse. However, the brothers say that managing stock expectations and cashflow continues to be one of the most challenging parts of running the business.

Apart from the genuine connection the brothers have fostered with their customers, they believe the cost of living crisis has contributed heavily to Lucent Globe’s success. “The dishwashing sheets received a lot of traction when we launched, particularly because of the price of dishwashing pods at the major supermarkets. We’re definitely cheaper,” Brodie says. But not everyone was a fan of their dishwashing sheets. 

Choice magazine rated the product poorly, devastating the brothers but not stopping their ambitions. “We’ve tried not to take it personally, but it’s hard and felt like a kick in the guts. We’ve just had to use it as an opportunity to improve,” Brodie says. “Since the review by Choice, we’ve launched a new formula that’s stronger and even more effective. We’ve had the new formula tested by independent labs, and it’s outperforming much more expensive brands of dishwashing pods. It’s frustrating that Choice didn’t get to review this new formula.”

Despite the minor setback, the brothers have launched Lucent Globe in New Zealand, and last month, they won Gold Coast Young Entrepreneurs Start-Up of the Year. The brothers are now forging plans to expand their cleaning range to cover the entire house while maintaining their zero-waste values.

The Cook brother’s tips for budding entrepreneurs:

1. Just start. You can spend a lot of time workshopping ideas, but at the end of the day, you just have to launch. It might not be 100% solid, but you can build through trial and error as long as you get started.
2. Experiment. A lot of our business success has come from a willingness to give almost anything a try. Whether it’s creating content, marketing, or using influencers – try things out, and you’ll learn a lot along the way.
3. Be prepared to put in a lot of hours, especially if you need to gain background experience and build your knowledge bank.