The Journey of HatLaunch: From Living Room to Thriving Business
The story of how one man’s passion for cars and entrepreneurial spirit led to the creation of the premier custom hat provider.
Robert Hamm, the founder of HatLaunch, transformed his passion for cars into a thriving business. In 2017, Robert’s enthusiasm for cars motivated him to start selling t-shirts featuring his personalized car designs to people who shared his interest on Facebook.
The venture was a success, but Robert soon realized that there wasn’t an option to sell hats online—and that’s where the idea for HatLaunch was born.
Starting out, Robert wanted to sell enough hats to turn his passion into a fully-fledged business. Through Facebook, he sold 100 hats within the first couple of days, and realized he had stumbled upon an actual business opportunity—an opportunity he was determined to seize.
With his vision in mind, he started to build the basis of what would soon become HatLaunch. He began writing the code for the website himself and, after investing eight long months into its development, it was ready. By March 2018, the website was launched, and the rest is history.
Robert’s journey to success was far from easy. He started out working from his living room and gradually transitioned to his basement where he set up his first embroidery machine.
It took a lot of hard work, dedication, and numerous sleepless nights to get the business off the ground. Concurrently, Robert was working a full-time job as a software engineer, utilizing all of his free time to build his business. He had to force himself to grow and put himself in uncomfortable positions to achieve his goals.
Robert’s commitment and dedication eventually paid off. He purchased a large six-head embroidery machine and moved it into his garage, where he spent a lot of time operating the machines at night. Additionally, he received immense support from his wife, Natalie, who not only assisted but also ran the machines when he was at work during the day. This was also around the time his daughter Rowan was born. But the grind never stopped.
As the business expanded, Robert decided to take the leap and hire his first part-time employee. This was a daunting decision, as it meant additional expenses on top of the machine payments. Nevertheless, this was a decision that paid off, as it allowed Robert to focus on building the business on the back end while his employee ran the machines during the day.
HatLaunch continued to scale and prosper, transitioning from Robert’s home into a 8,400 square feet commercial space in Collinsville, Illinois, just outside St. Louis. Currently, HatLaunch employs over 30 people and has tens of thousands of customers from all over the country who entrust them with their hats for their businesses.
When asked about his journey, Robert said:
Starting a business is like driving a car—it takes focus, determination, and the ability to navigate through rough terrain. Just as damaged roads can impact your driving, hardships can affect a business. But with hard work and perseverance, you can overcome any obstacle that stands in your way and turn the passion that drives you into a successful venture that not only fulfills your dreams but also helps others achieve theirs.
Robert’s passion for cars may have started him on his entrepreneurial journey, but it has turned into something much bigger. HatLaunch is now about much more than just selling hats. It’s about the well-being of his employees and the satisfaction of his customers.
Robert’s journey has certainly been quite the ride, and he has no plans of slowing down anytime soon. HatLaunch was founded on the basis of providing people with a way to express themselves and for businesses to be able to set themselves apart from the competition.
Now, five years later, Robert and his team continue to deliver on the mission they established from the start — to create quality custom hats at fair prices, available to anyone, anywhere.
For a more in-depth look at Robert’s story, check out this documentary video by Chris Conrady (Involving Chris).
About HatLaunch
HatLaunch, formerly known as LidLaunch, is a custom headwear company located in Collinsville, Illinois, near St. Louis. The company was founded in 2017 with the aim of creating a superior online source for quality custom headwear due to the lack of good options available online. HatLaunch has grown significantly since its launch in 2018, starting with a single-head embroidery machine in the founder’s basement, and now operates from a state-of-the-art 8,400 square-foot production facility. HatLaunch prides itself on providing the highest quality end product for its customers, made possible by their proprietary technology that powers all their custom-developed processes in-house. The company’s ultimate goal is to become the number one custom headwear business on the web.
