If you are on Instagram at all and are into golf, then you may have seen a divot tool recently that peaks your interest. One that can open your beer, keep your grips or cigar dry, can draw a putting line on your ball, has custom ball markers and looks incredibly sleek. Kind of like the swiss army knife of divot tools if you may.

Introducing Brian Kang, founder of Birdicorn Golf, the brand behind the amazingly simple yet awesome golf product. And this is just the start for Birdicorn as they continue to grow. From the divot tool, they now have 22 products in their arsenal and believe in offering great functionality to their customers.

Not to mention that they may have one of the most clever brand names you have ever heard. One part birdie. One part unicorn. Two things that tend to be very hard to come by.

But let’s rewind a bit and give you some background on how Birdicorn came to be.

Brian grew up in Southern California, playing golf for most of his life. During college, he really got hooked on the game, often visiting the driving range twice a day. But as many of you well know, upon graduation, reality hits you hard and your new job may take up that precious course time you had just a year ago.

After bouncing around between a few career paths and receiving an MBA from the University of Southern California, Brian landed in consulting. While in consulting, there are periods of times where you are not on a project. Known as being on the bench, or for Brian in Southern California, it’s called being on the beach.

During this downtime, Brian had a chance to reflect on what he wanted out of his career and life. He knew he wanted to invent something, but was not sure yet what that would be. 

Inspiration From Sheet Metal

For many entrepreneurs, the desire to create a business comes out of passion and need. For Brian, that passion was golf. The need, create a side hustle that would help him carve away at his MBA student loan.

He started with the question, “what can I make that is a relatively low investment but can have some good upside to it?” As inspiration, Brian remembered seeing this multi-tool made out of a single piece of sheet metal. It had a screwdriver, saw, bottle opener, wrench and more. He thought it was an amazing yet simple product, with margins that must be remarkable.

With the multi-tool as inspiration, one day the divot tool came to mind. “How can I cram as much functionality into one thing with as few moving parts as possible to take away the possibility of malfunction?”

From this question, Brian and his team ran with the idea for the divot tool. They started with an original prototype made from clay to a plastic version via a 3D printer. Birdicorn experimented until they got it right.

And they nailed it!

The result of their many trials is the incredibly sleek divot tool we see today. With their motto in mind of providing their customers with products that have great functionality, the team has also released their golf towel with a scrub brush to easily keep your grooves clean. And Brian mentioned in the interview they are working on a third flagship product now!

Not to mention he is also dabbling in custom putters as well.

Episode 23 of G&E The Podcast | Golf & Entrepreneurship

Check out this week’s episode with Brian Kang as we discuss his love for golf, the process of creating a great product, how to build your brand on Instagram, Birdicorn’s upcoming charity golf tournament, and so much more. Enjoy!