Mojo Underwear: Startup Marketing Lessons That Sell

Most startups don’t lose because the product is bad. They lose because nobody understands why it exists.

Mojo Underwear is a clean example of the opposite: a founder with a blunt, specific problem (“underwear that never fit right on the job”) turned that frustration into a brand story everyday Australian men instantly recognise. Then he used that story to compete in a category dominated by big budgets.

This is part of the Startup Marketing Australia series, and I’m using Mojo as a case study for one reason: it shows how product positioning + authentic storytelling + smart distribution can drive growth without pretending you’re for everyone.

“We couldn’t outspend them, so we focused on authenticity — real people, real movement, real stories.”

Start with a real problem (and say it in plain English)

Answer first: Mojo’s marketing works because it begins with a problem the target customer already feels, described in the customer’s language.

Adam Rakowski didn’t start with a mission statement. He started with a lived experience: tradie work means bending, climbing, sweating, moving all day — and typical men’s underwear isn’t built for that. That’s not just product insight; it’s positioning.

Here’s what many early-stage brands miss: if your “why” sounds like it came out of a pitch deck, it won’t travel. Mojo’s origin story travels because it’s the kind of complaint people share over a beer.

What to copy as a startup

• Write your positioning as a complaint. “I hate that…” is often the best first draft of your value proposition.
• Anchor the product to a high-frequency scenario. In Mojo’s case: worksite movement, long days, real wear-and-tear.
• Choose one primary audience to earn first. Mojo chose “everyday blokes” with an emphasis on tradies and active lifestyles.

If you’re doing startup marketing in Australia, this approach matters because it gives you a shortcut to relevance. You don’t need a massive ad budget if your message sounds like the customer wrote it.

Product development is marketing when you test with the right people

Answer first: Mojo built trust by iterating in public with a brutally honest customer base, then letting the product create word-of-mouth.

Rakowski’s comments highlight something practical: he tested fabrics, prototypes, and fit by getting feedback from tradies who “would tell me the truth.” That’s a product process, yes — but it’s also a marketing strategy.

Why? Because the first 100 customers define your reviews, your referrals, and your social proof. If your early adopters are polite but not obsessed, you’ll struggle to scale paid acquisition later.

A simple “tradie-grade” validation loop you can use

1. Recruit testers from your tightest niche (not your friends who’ll be nice).
2. Ask one question repeatedly: “What would stop you buying this again?”
3. Track the same 3 metrics every iteration: comfort/fit score, durability feedback, and repurchase intent.
4. Only market what you can consistently deliver. If the product feels “average,” you’re buying churn.

This is especially relevant in January: plenty of Australian startups set ambitious Q1 growth targets, then pour money into ads before retention is healthy. Mojo’s approach is the safer order of operations: earn retention first, then scale reach.

Competing against big brands: stop trying to look big

Answer first: Mojo didn’t try to out-polish incumbents; it used authenticity and specificity to cut through.

Men’s underwear is a noisy market. Big brands dominate shelf space, sports sponsorships, and top-of-funnel visibility. Mojo’s response was smart and disciplined: it didn’t pretend it could win a budget war.

Instead, it positioned itself as a brand for real movement and real life, featuring “tradies, athletes, surfers, everyday guys.” That’s not random casting — that’s a proof strategy.

The marketing principle: “proof beats claims”

If your claim is “doesn’t ride up,” the proof isn’t a slogan. The proof is content where people are bending, climbing, squatting, working.

For Australian startups, this is a repeatable play:

• Demonstration content (show the product under real conditions)
• Customer-led language (use the words buyers already use)
• Community feedback loops (turn reviews and DMs into ad creative)

Mojo also nailed a subtle but powerful point: once customers tried it, “the quality sold itself.” That means the marketing job becomes: create more first-try moments.

Practical ways to create “first-try moments” on a budget

• Bundle a “starter pack” with a simple guarantee (reduce risk)
• Run micro-influencer seeding in one niche (e.g., trade pages, surf clubs)
• Use retargeting ads that focus on fit and feel rather than brand fluff
• Put sampling into partnerships where the audience already trusts the host

Brand storytelling that scales: make the founder useful, not famous

Answer first: Mojo’s story works because it explains the product’s purpose and customer identity, not because it turns the founder into a celebrity.

The founder story is simple: plumber gets frustrated, builds a better option, tests it with honest customers, refuses to ship “average.” That’s compelling because it’s a quality standard, not a personal highlight reel.

In startup marketing, founder-led content tends to fail when it becomes motivational content disconnected from the product. Mojo avoids that by constantly tying the narrative back to:

• the problem (fit, comfort, durability)
• the context (work, movement, everyday adventure)
• the customer identity (“everyday blokes”, Aussie roots)

A founder-story template that doesn’t feel forced

Use this structure for a landing page, pitch deck, or “About” section:

1. The moment the old option failed (specific scenario)
2. The standard you couldn’t compromise on (“won’t ship average”)
3. How you validated it (who tested, what changed)
4. Who it’s for (and who it’s not for)
5. What to expect every time (the promise that scales)

That “who it’s not for” line is underrated. It’s a positioning weapon, especially in saturated categories.

Growth isn’t just more ads: it’s smarter distribution

Answer first: Mojo’s next phase focuses on retail partnerships and category expansion—distribution decisions that change the marketing math.

Rakowski mentions retail partnerships starting with Best & Less, expansion into women’s, and building a broader lifestyle category. Whether you love the idea or not, it’s strategically coherent: if you’ve proven product-market fit and repeat purchase in one core item, you can:

• expand into adjacent products (socks, tees, shorts)
• increase customer lifetime value
• reduce reliance on paid acquisition

Retail partnerships do something else: they create credible discovery. For a lot of mainstream buyers, especially in basics like underwear, seeing a brand in a known retailer lowers perceived risk.

What Australian startups should watch with retail expansion

Retail can accelerate growth, but it also introduces new constraints. If you’re considering this path, plan for:

• Tighter margins (and higher volume requirements)
• Inventory risk (cash tied up in stock)
• Merchandising reality (you’re competing for attention on a shelf)
• Channel conflict (pricing and promos across DTC vs retail)

The win is real if your brand is built on repeat purchase and consistency. The loss is brutal if you treat retail like a trophy rather than a system.

A startup marketing checklist inspired by Mojo

Answer first: If you want Mojo-style traction, focus on positioning, proof, and first-try moments before you worry about “brand awareness.”

Here’s a practical checklist you can apply this week:

1. Positioning: Can you describe your product as a customer complaint in one sentence?
2. Audience: Do you know the exact “everyday scenario” where your product matters most?
3. Proof: Do you have 10 pieces of content showing the product working in real conditions?
4. Social proof: Are you collecting reviews in a structured way (post-purchase SMS/email + incentives where appropriate)?
5. First-try moments: Have you reduced risk with bundles, guarantees, sampling, or partnerships?
6. Retention: Do you know your repeat purchase rate (and what drives it)?
7. Focus: Can you clearly say who the product is not for?

If you only fix one thing, fix the proof. Most brands over-invest in “creative” and under-invest in showing the product doing the job.

Where this fits in the Startup Marketing Australia playbook

Mojo Underwear is a reminder that good startup marketing is mostly clarity: clarity about the problem, clarity about the customer, and clarity about what makes you worth switching for.

Rakowski’s final advice — “Start before you feel ready” — lands because it matches the way Mojo was built: messy action, constant iteration, and a refusal to ship something forgettable.

If you’re building your 2026 growth plan right now, here’s the question I’d be asking: what’s the simplest, most specific “real life” moment where your product wins — and how quickly can you show that on every channel you run?