Trieu became a dentist because he liked working with his hands and helping people - he got into UCSF's dental school as the very last student accepted, number 81 in a class of 81. Then the job started breaking his body. Aching neck, aching back, and mentors around him retiring early from surgeries.
So he tinkered with some prisms until he could sit up straight and see like he was looking through a microscope, filed a patent, and built Hero Loops - ergonomic loupes that do the job of a $20,000 wall-mounted unit. He launched it one month before the pandemic hit. He still practises dentistry full time while running the whole thing.
In this episode, Trieu gets honest about the brutal timing of launching right before Covid, the years it took to crack marketing after nailing the product, and how he thinks about building - including a psychology framework he borrowed straight from dentistry.
What you'll learn in this interview:
The origin story: how his own neck and back pain, plus watching colleagues retire early from surgery, drove him to prototype an alternative to the bulky $20K microscopes on the market
Why he left dentistry income on the table for product income - and the scaling logic behind it: a product has quality control and consistency, while a dental chair only makes money when you're in it
The painful timing lesson: launching one month before the pandemic, doing $20K in the first month, then watching competitors use the downtime to copy his product - and why he still says launch before it's perfect
The plateau most founders hit: stuck at $5-6K a month with a great product because "you can be the best dentist, but if nobody knows about you, they won't come"
The single change that broke the plateau: a new website and platform that did $50K in its first month
How defining what "success" actually looks like - and watching that target keep moving from $50K to $100K to $200K - helped him appreciate the milestones instead of always chasing the next one
The core ads skill that drove the growth: learning when to turn ads off, when to turn them on, and when to increase budget - and building the confidence to do it
The "five Ps" framework he uses to judge whether a product will sell - pain, profit, prestige, preservation, and pleasure - and how Hero Loops hits several at once
Why static ads outperform video for his analytical, detail-oriented audience - and how live customer-reaction reels hook attention at the top of the funnel
What's next: bringing manufacturing in-house for faster delivery and expanding worldwide beyond the US - and the licensing and distribution hurdles that come with it
If you're a professional with deep expertise in a field, sitting on a product idea but unsure whether you can build something outside your day job - this episode is for you. Trieu's story is a grounded reminder that the product is only half the battle: learning to market it is the skill that actually compounds, and you don't have to quit everything to start.
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