Mojo Underwear: A Budget Branding Playbook for Startups

Most startups don’t lose because their product is bad. They lose because they can’t explain—fast and clearly—who it’s for and why it’s better.

Mojo Underwear is a tidy Australian example of getting that part right. Founder Adam Rakowski wasn’t a career marketer or fashion insider. He was a plumber who got fed up with uncomfortable, ill-fitting men’s underwear on the job, then built a brand around an unglamorous but powerful truth: everyday movement exposes product flaws.

For the Startup Marketing Australia series, I’m using Mojo as a practical case study in startup branding, product positioning, and growth on a budget—the stuff that actually brings in leads and sales when you don’t have a huge ad spend.

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

Positioning wins before you spend a dollar on ads

The fastest way to waste marketing money is to promote a product that isn’t positioned sharply. Mojo’s origin story basically writes its positioning statement for them:

• Target: everyday blokes (tradies, surfers, athletes, anyone moving)
• Pain: underwear that rides up, falls apart, doesn’t fit
• Promise: performance fit that holds up in real life

That’s not “premium comfort for men.” It’s a specific use case: bending, climbing, sweating, working long days.

A simple positioning template you can copy

If you’re building a startup in Australia right now—whether you sell SaaS, skincare, food, or tradie services—try this:

1. When I’m [context], I hate that [problem].
2. I want [outcome] without [trade-off].
3. So we built [product] that [proof/feature] for [who].

Mojo’s version reads cleanly: When I’m working on the tools all day, I hate underwear that rides up. I want comfort without it falling apart. So we built underwear designed for everyday movement.

That kind of clarity makes every channel work harder: your website headline, your Meta ads, your packaging, your retail pitch.

Product-led marketing: let the use case sell it

Mojo didn’t start from “what’s trending in fashion.” It started from function under pressure—and then tested relentlessly.

Rakowski describes years of fabric testing, sample cutting, design fixes, and blunt feedback from tradies. That’s not just product development. It’s product-led marketing because it generates the ingredients that make marketing believable:

• Real-world claims you can demonstrate
• Language customers already use (“rides up”, “falls apart”)
• Objections you can answer early (durability, fit, comfort)
• The beginnings of a community that feels heard

What to document during product iteration (so marketing writes itself)

If you’re iterating your offer right now, capture these as you go:

• Before/after moments: what changed for the user?
• Specific friction points: what did they complain about verbatim?
• Proof points: returns rate, repeat purchase rate, defect rate, customer satisfaction scores (even small sample sizes)
• Use-case photos/videos: “real movement” beats studio perfection in most categories

My stance: startups should treat early customer feedback as marketing assets, not private notes.

How to cut through categories dominated by big brands

Underwear is a brutal category for a small brand. The incumbents have:

• big budgets
• retail shelf dominance
• celebrity endorsements
• entrenched buying habits

Mojo’s workaround is the right one for most Australian startups: compete on credibility, not spend.

The “authenticity” approach (when you can’t buy attention)

Rakowski’s strategy is straightforward: real people, real movement, real stories. That’s not fluffy brand talk—it’s a channel strategy.

Here’s what it looks like operationally for a lean team:

• Use UGC-style content that shows the product in context
• Prioritise testimonials that speak to a specific scenario (“on site all day”, “surf check at 6am”, “gym + commute”)
• Build social proof loops: customer posts → repost → comments → more customers post

This works because people don’t trust generic claims anymore. They trust people like them.

A budget social proof stack you can run in 30 days

If you need a practical growth plan:

1. Pick one hero scenario (the most common use case).
2. Ask 20 customers for a 10–15 second video answering one prompt: “What changed after switching?”
3. Turn the best 8 into:
   • 8 Reels/TikToks
   • 8 paid social ads (small daily budget)
   • 8 website snippets (product page + checkout)
4. Add a simple post-purchase email: “Reply with a photo/video and we’ll send you a thank-you gift.”

Even if only 10–20% respond, you’ve built a library of believable assets without hiring a production team.

Building a team that protects the brand (not just the to-do list)

One underrated line from the interview: Rakowski hires for attitude and alignment—people who challenge him and keep the vision central.

For founders, this is marketing strategy, not HR philosophy. In small teams, brand consistency is a behaviour, not a brand guideline.

What to hire for when you’re scaling brand awareness

At the early stage, I’ve found three traits matter more than impressive resumes:

• Customer empathy: they care about the end user, not just the campaign metrics
• Taste + restraint: they can keep messaging tight instead of “saying everything”
• Speed with judgement: they ship, measure, and improve without burning trust

If you’re generating leads, the marketing team becomes your “front desk.” Every ad, landing page, email, and DM is either building confidence—or leaking it.

Retail partnerships: growth channel or brand risk?

Mojo’s next move includes retail partnerships (starting with Best & Less), expanding into women’s, and building a broader lifestyle category.

Retail can be a rocket, but it’s also a brand test. When you move from DTC to shelves, you lose some control and gain new constraints:

• packaging has to sell in 3 seconds
• pricing has to work for retailer margins
• your brand sits beside competitors physically
• returns, supply chain, and consistency matter more

If you’re pitching retail in Australia, don’t lead with your story

Lead with sell-through logic. Retailers care about rotation and repeat buying.

Bring:

• your top 3 customer segments
• your best-performing SKU(s) and why
• proof of demand (repeat purchase rate, email list growth, waitlists)
• the exact in-store promise (one sentence)

Your founder story helps, but it won’t replace the commercial argument.

“Start before you feel ready” is real advice—if you attach a system

Rakowski’s advice—start before you feel ready—is correct. But it’s only useful if you pair it with a feedback system.

Here’s a founder-friendly way to make it concrete:

The messy action loop (that avoids random activity)

1. Launch a Version 1 with one clear promise
2. Measure one primary metric (pick one):
   • conversion rate
   • repeat purchase rate
   • demo-to-close rate
   • trial-to-paid rate
3. Collect 10 qualitative feedback calls/messages per month
4. Ship one improvement per cycle
5. Update messaging to match what customers now say

That’s how you build momentum without falling into “busy marketing.”

People also ask: what can startups learn from Mojo Underwear?

What made Mojo Underwear’s marketing work on a budget?
They prioritised authenticity and social proof over polished production, and made the product’s real-world use case the centre of the story.

What is product positioning and why does it matter?
Product positioning is the clear, specific explanation of who your product is for and why it’s the better choice. It matters because it improves every channel: ads, website conversion, referrals, and retail pitches.

How do you compete with big brands without big spend?
You win with credibility: tight positioning, demonstrable proof, customer stories, and content that shows the product in context.

Where this fits in the Startup Marketing Australia series

This case study reinforces a theme I keep coming back to in startup marketing in Australia: you don’t need louder marketing—you need sharper marketing.

Mojo didn’t try to win every audience. They picked a believable promise for everyday movement, improved the product until it earned word of mouth, then used social proof to create trial.

If you’re building a brand right now, copy the parts that matter:

• pick a specific customer and scenario
• make the promise simple enough to repeat
• collect proof continuously
• scale channels that preserve trust

The next question worth asking is the one most founders avoid: If a customer had 5 seconds to explain your product, would they get it right?