The owners of the leading hookah brand, MOB Hookah are excited about the future of the industry. You would be too if you were projected to sell over $10 million this year. Celebrities like Justin Bieber, Fabulous, Migos, MGK, Big Latto, Tyga, Brody Jenner, Dan Balzarian, Xzibit, Wakaflocka, Miguel, Shaq, and more have been spotted smoking the infamous AK-47 Shaped Hookah. The owners say Drake was the first celebrity to purchase it.
The brand started back in a garage in 2014 with a unique hookah design and an investment of $15,000. Mehdi and Karim began promoting the brand organically on Instagram, and it just took off from there. MOB Hookah features its designs on its social media platforms and shows live demonstrations on YouTube. It’s this kind of marketing that has helped the brand take off. MOB Hookah is now projected to sell over $10 million this year, and they say they are just getting started. The brand has become one of the most popular hookah brands in the world, with 122k Instagram followers, 13k Facebook Likes, and 40k subscribers on YouTube.
It all started when one of the business partners came with a design; it was an AK-47 shaped Hookah, and that was the moment MOB Hookah was born. The brand is now planning to take its hookah designs beyond the internet and L.A. “In the next few years, we plan to expand the business to South American and European markets.” MOB Hookah states. “We have a lot of vendors who are ready to invest in a franchise, so that’s something we are also considering.” The brand’s priority is establishing more shops in L.A. and other major cities like Miami and Dubai.
Products and Accessories
MOB Hookah’s site features over a hundred different products and accessories. MOB Hookahs are beautifully crafted to be the centerpiece of any room. They are all unique in style and design, with raving reviews about the quality and craftsmanship. There’s a design for every personality type, such as Diamond: an elegant German-designed hookah; Onyx Venus: made out of beautiful bone material for an extra sleek look; and the futuristic Halo Tray: designed to teleport you to another dimension. These products can be shipped all over the world and across North America.
Business Partners Mehdi and Karim
Both Mehdi and Karim immigrated to the U.S at 19. “We didn’t know it yet, but we would become a deadly business duo,” Karim says, laughing. Mehdi was studying to be an engineer when he realized that to maintain his status as an honor student he needed to make more money so he could work less.
He started a limo business which at the time was a great solution given his schedule and income. That’s when his friend and now business partner, Karim Elamrani, came to him with a design; it was an AK-47 shaped Hookah! “I don’t like the violence associated with guns,” Karim clarifies. “When I created the AK-47 shaped hookah, I just thought it would be cool.” He didn’t even own a gun when he started working on the design. “I thought this was a great idea, but no one else did,” Karim laughs. “No one took me seriously, and I needed start-up money.”
Karim approached Mehdi Marrakchi, whose mind was immediately blown by the concept, and he decided to partner with him, using all the money they had at the time, which was $15,000. After that, the business partners contacted a couple of factories overseas, found one that was the right fit, and took a flight to vet their idea.
They worked with a 3-D model, and then the design was ready to mold. They tested out the product and came up with all the color combinations, and then started manufacturing. The first production batch was only about 250 pieces. “The first time we introduced our AK-47 hookah to the public via Instagram, people went crazy, and we sold out of the 250 pieces of retail on our website in a couple of days,” Karim says. “We even had buyers from different parts of the world like France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, and Australia, and we were just operating out of Mehdi‘s garage.”
Karim continues, “After generating about $45,000, we re-invested all of it again to manufacture another batch of 1000 pieces that we mostly sold online and to some hookah stores and smoke shops.” Wholesalers then started to approach the business partners. Mob Hookah continued to create more hookah designs and has slowly supplied North America and other parts of the world.
Advice for Others in the Industry
MOB Hookah believes that the hookah industry is blowing up and that it will only continue to gain popularity. “The only thing affecting our growth are the regulations surrounding hookahs and tobacco, but we can work with that,” the owners say. Their advice for other entrepreneurs is to take charge and persevere. Mehdi ends by saying, “You never know when you’ll see the fruits of your labor, but when you do, it makes it all worth it.”
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