12 hours ago
YouTube Woodworker Lands VC Funding For Multi-Million Tool Brand
Jonathan Katz-Moses's journey to building a multi-million-dollar woodworking brand didn't start with a business plan, it started with a near-death experience.
In 2010, while walking his golden retriever through his Santa Barbara neighborhood, he saw a young couple being surrounded by gang members armed with bats and knives. 'Something in me just snapped,' he recalls in his YouTube video. 'Suddenly, I was in a fight for my life.'
He survived with broken bones, 80 stitches and staples in his face and lasting trauma. 'I realized life is short… I was done surviving. And I wanted to chase my dreams.'
Those dreams? Making things. He walked away from his construction business, kept just $15,000 and began building in a powerless 120-square-foot shed.
'I ran extension cords from the garage, powered up some tools, and said to myself, I'm going to make things and I'm never going back to that old life.'
That shed became the birthplace of the Katz Moses Magnetic Dovetail Jig, a product born out of frustration and shared on YouTube.
'I posted a YouTube video about it,' Katz-Moses told me. 'That day, I sold 27 jigs… it was like I'd climbed Mount Everest.'
From there, he built a cycle that fuels the business today: create tools, share them on YouTube, listen to the feedback and refine until they sell themselves.
'The feedback of being a creator is so much better than any company could ever get,' he says. 'I answer the same questions day in and day out. That's where I find the gaps in the market.'
The Katz Moses Jigsquare, now his best-seller, came directly from audience questions. 'The number one question was, 'What was that countersink you used?' I hated it… so we designed a new one. We filed a patent. That's coming out now.'
It's this responsiveness and deep understanding of the woodworking audience, that caught the attention of Billy Parks, a partner at Slow Ventures.
'He had built an amazing audience that really trusted him and loved him,' Parks told me. 'On woodworking forums and Reddit, his name comes up again and again: 'Check out this guy's tools. He won't lead you in the wrong direction.''
Today, Katz-Moses Tools manufactures more than 100 products in a 33,000-square-foot facility, employs more than 15 people and generates most of its revenue from in-house tools.
But for Parks, it wasn't just the sales figures that mattered, it was the infrastructure behind them.
'When you have someone who's built a supply chain, has a warehouse, has achieved velocity with product sales, that's not easy,' Parks says. 'That's a moat.'
Katz-Moses uses that infrastructure to help other creators launch products without the headache of fulfillment. 'Don't ship from your house,' he tells them. 'Give it to me, we'll do it… for less than it would cost you to build your own.'
One of those collaborations, a folding pocket chisel knife, sold over 13,000 units in its first 14 months.
After a decade of bootstrapped growth Katz-Moses brought in outside capital to accelerate product launches, expand his team and scale his educational content.
Parks says Slow Ventures' role is intentionally light-touch. 'Our job is to pick great creators that are building their own businesses… and then stay out of their way,' he says. 'We're not investing in just the company; we're investing in the creator.'
For Katz-Moses, that trust matters. 'I've bet on myself too many times to give up the reins now,' he says. 'They answer the phone whenever I call, but they don't try to run the business for me.'
1. Know Your Niche and Own It
'YouTube is where you get to know somebody,' Katz-Moses says. 'I don't focus on virality. I focus on the people who will click anything I put out and trust me.'
2. Let Content Drive Product Development
His best-selling products came straight from recurring questions in the comments section.
3. Build More Than a Channel
Manufacturing and logistics capabilities can be as important as audience size.
4. Collaborate to Expand Reach
Partnerships with other creators have produced seven-figure product lines.
Katz-Moses has greenlit 30 new products, partnered with other makers and is expanding into live events. At the Texas Woodworking Festival, where he's the platinum sponsor, attendance is expected to '5X' this year.
The goal remains the same: to grow without losing sight of why he started. 'We've built a company that empowers makers all over the world… without sacrificing any of the values that got us here,' he says.
Or, as he puts it more bluntly: 'Don't wait for life to kill you to start chasing your dreams.'
This article is based on an interview with Jonathan Katz-Moses and Billy Parks from my podcast, The Business of Creators.
