This YouTuber is Now Selling ThermoHealth Temperature Screening
An enterprising 20-year old is mass marketing medical devices on Facebook and Instagram, selling the K3 (tested here) at a ~600% markup.
Inside this post, we examine who he is, how he told IPVM he "wakes up at 5 am and works until midnight", how he has made $127,000+ profits this month, the opportunity he is taking advantage of and the issues marketing FDA 'approval'.
Background Esqueda
Sebastian Esqueda is a 20-year old from Fresno, California who finds and markets various China products (from mini-fridges to fidget spinners to IR thermometers), has taught free 'dropshipping' sessions and is now showing his YouTube audience on a daily basis how his dropshipping is doing.
Background of ThermoHealth
Esqueda chose wall-mounted temperature screeners for his newest brand, selling Handsfree Infrared Thermometers for $299.95 on thermohealth.us.
The product page claims "over 3,000 Customers In The United States Have Already Began Using ThermoHealth™".
Relative to other recent relabellers of such products, his website is fairly professionally done, as the screenshot below indicates:
$178K Revenue in July
In his July 28, 2020 YouTube video he shows sales figures for July 2020, which include $178,416 in revenue and $127,150 in net profit:
He does not break out revenue by product and, while he shares some of his product offerings, he generally does not disclose current products being sold.
YouTube Channel
His eponymous YouTube channel has amassed 15.5K subscribers, with more than 90 videos on Shopify Dropshipping tutorials and strategies.
He previously made videos on web development, and explains in a YouTube description he has "pivoted to Alibaba dropshipping... pretty heavily for the past 6 months."
As seen below, the 10-20 minute dropshipping videos are well marketed and edited, and he posts 10+ per week, as seen below:
Alibaba Purchasing
In his video How To Shopify Dropshipping W/ Alibaba (SAVE MONEY) he credits the move to Alibaba with faster response times and shipping and better pricing than other suppliers:
Shopify 'Dropshipping'
Esqueda uses Shopify, a Canadian e-commerce platform, for dropshipping. He taught a Shopify Dropshipping Course for ~$400 online, saying in his bio "I have tons of experience in this business".
Shopify's website explains the meaning:
'$100K/Month' Through Ads
A key differentiator for Esqueda over other online temp screening sellers is his usage of Facebook and Instagram advertising.
Esqueda's How To Scale Your Shopify Store To $100K/Month W/ Facebook Ads says:
To do $100K/Mo, that is $3.3K daily, so at a 3 ROAS, you will need to maintain a $1.1K daily spend [emphasis added]
His Facebook page is running ~150 ads, including those seen below:
Selling K3 Devices
We specifically tested the K3 Wall Mounted IR Temperature Gun which is what ThermoHealth is relabeling. On Alibaba's "K3 temperature" results page, the devices are selling for under $50 and as low as $16 though it is not clear which supplier ThermoHealth is purchasing from.
FDA Not Approved
ThermoHealth's FAQ page claims the product is FDA approved; however, the FDA Establishment Registration & Device Listing returns no results under his or the company's name:
The original manufacturer, SHENZHEN QIANGWEI ELECTRONIC, has incorrectly listed the K3 device under the KPD category (covering "Strip, Temperature, Forehead, Liquid Crystal"), a product code that the FDA told IPVM is 510(k) exempt so no approval nor clearance is needed.
However, those strip devices are fundamentally different than the K3 and IR temperature guns, as they are stuck on a forehead, shown below:
IPVM has submitted this incorrect categorization to the FDA for review.
Esqueda responded to IPVM, explaining:
I would like to make it very clear that as of now, I had the understanding that the product was in fact FDA approved as that is the information the supplier provided me with and now will be doing massive research on this to solve this problem and I appreciate you mentioning this to me.
Also, I am discussing this FDA topic with the supplier right now and trying to work this out. If I’m able to provide the FDA Approval, I will. If not, I’ll have my web dev team make the changes needed on site in the next 24-48 hours once I get confirmation that the device is or is not in fact FDA Approved.
Booming Market
Esqueda has picked a booming fever detection market. Within this is the wall-mounted unit trend that delivers comparable accuracy to many of the much higher priced fever camera offerings that have significant problems of their own.
Outlook on Social Media Fever Detection Selling
While this certainly fits within the overall trend of various small entrants jumping into the fever detection market, his approach is different in that it is so heavily focused on social media marketing rather than a human sales force. However, the power of Facebook and Instagram to sell all sorts of products is clearly well established. Now, the question becomes how many temperature screening devices can he or others sell by social media?
Poll / Vote