Afleveringen
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This is not a growth hack. It is not going to go viral on a Twitter thread. But I genuinely believe it is one of the highest leverage things you can do for your brand right now, and most founders never do it properly because it is not exciting.
Here is what a mentor told me years ago that I keep coming back to: a dollar saved is a dollar earned. And depending on your margins, that dollar saved is probably worth $1.30 or $1.40 on the bottom line.
In this episode, I walk you through a full line by line expense audit covering every major cost area in a typical e-commerce business, the same process we have run at Foundr that has saved us tens of thousands of dollars a month.
Here's what you'll take away:
Why the average growing Shopify store is paying for 15 to 30 apps but actively using only eight of them, and how to fix that fast
How to negotiate your SaaS tools, 3PL rates, merchant fees, and supplier costs in ways most founders never think to try
Why agency retainers are one of the most expensive line items you can cut, and what to build in-house instead
How to use AI and Claude Code to replace tools and creative spend that is quietly draining your budget every month
The Meta ads Net 30 arrangement that can make a significant difference to your cash flow if you are spending at scale
Why businesses waste an average of 26% of their marketing budget on campaigns that are not performing, and where to redirect it
If your margins are tighter than they should be or you have not done a proper audit in the last six months, this episode will show you exactly where to look and what to do about it.
If you're loving this solo series, I'd love to hear your feedback. Email me directly at [email protected] — I read every reply. Hope you enjoy it.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Jay Klein lost $2 million on a gum nobody wanted. He sold the remaining
stock to a pig feed company for $13,000 - then used every cent of it to
launch Pur. Sixteen years later, Pur is the fastest-growing gum in North
America, the #1 selling gum on Amazon, sells in over 50 countries, and
does over $250 million in retail sales annually. All bootstrapped. All
founder-owned. And built in a $20 billion industry controlled by fewer
than ten giants who still haven't managed to take him out.
In this interview, the founder of The Pur Company breaks down how he
discovered his winning product insight for free at 30,000 feet, why he
deliberately ignored Walmart and Tesco to win thousands of tiny
independent stores first, and how he absorbed a brutal 39% tariff -
without raising a dollar or passing a cent to his customers - and still
grew 30% that year.
What you'll learn in this interview:
• How losing $2 million on his first gum brand rewired everything - and
why getting back to zero was his greatest victory
• The airplane focus group: how he discovered the aspartame insight for
free that became the entire Pur thesis
• Why he targeted independent health food stores instead of big
retailers - and the "major league attitude in a minor league setting"
strategy behind it
• How he convinced his manufacturer to extend 30-day credit on a $250K
first order with only $13K to his name
• The "assemble the crumbs to make the cookie" philosophy: why Pur has
never been built on a single big retail relationship
• How duty free airports became his global expansion engine - and why he
treated them like his version of New York City
• Why he turned down the Dragon's Den deal even after it went through -
and what he got out of it anyway
• The 39% Swiss tariff crisis: how he absorbed the full hit rather than
disrupt his retail relationships - and why scale actually amplified the
problem instead of solving it
• Why he keeps the lowest possible balance in his checking account on
purpose - and what it does for his hunger as a founder
• What he looks for now as a Dragon's Den investor: the two things that
matter before any unit economics conversation
If you're building a CPG or retail brand, trying to figure out how to
grow without giving away equity, or looking for the real story behind
what bootstrapped category-building looks like across 16 years and 50
countries, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think
about distribution, resilience, and what it means to outwork the
competition one crumb at a time.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
CONNECT WITH JAY KLEIN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/iamjayklein/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-klein-92b93319/
Website → https://thepurcompany.com/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Dr. Angela Casey spent nearly 15 years treating skin cancer before she had her business idea. She didn't come from entrepreneurship - she came from molecular biology, medical school, residency, and a clinical practice. When the idea hit her, it was so obvious she couldn't believe nobody had done it properly. She searched every major retailer - Ulta, Sephora, Target, Walmart, Macy's - and found nothing worth recommending to her own three daughters. A Macy's assistant tried to sell her 12-year-old an anti-aging eye cream. Bright Girl was the answer to that gap, and it cost her $350,000 and three years to bring it to life.
In this episode, Angela gets completely honest about what it takes to launch a product the right way from scratch - the hundreds of surveys, the thousands of patient conversations, the Covid shipping crisis that sent her costs up six times overnight, and what nearly $120,000 in packaging sitting in a warehouse actually feels like when you're still flying the plane as you build it.
What you'll learn in this interview:
How Angela validated Bright Girl before spending a cent - surveying hundreds of people on SurveyMonkey, questioning thousands of patients over two years, and physically visiting every major beauty retailer to confirm the gap was real
Why she interviewed dozens of cosmetic chemist teams around the world before finding the right fit - and how three years of clinical research meant she only needed three rounds of formula revisions
The real cost of a custom, premium launch: $50K for the first filled run, $120K when you include the 36,000 empty bottles in reserve, and $350K all in when you add branding and design
What it felt like to order 40,000 bottles and jars across four SKUs in 2020 - just as Covid hit and shipping costs multiplied by six
Why she spent the first year of DTC sales proving market fit before ever approaching dermatology practices as a distribution channel - and why that sequencing mattered
The exact moment she knew the product had real credibility: when other dermatologists - notoriously skeptical of new skincare brands - started recommending Bright Girl not just to patients but for their own children
How selling through dermatology practices built the trust that made mass retail possible - and the retailers Bright Girl is now stocked in
Why Amazon, launched just over a year ago, is now growing at 10-20% month over month - and how TikTok Shop became an unpredictable but consistent additional channel
The email marketing lesson from her Founder mentor that unlocked 15-20% of website revenue from a channel she had barely touched
What two full-time jobs actually looks like - five days a week in clinical practice, seven days a week on Bright Girl - and the non-negotiable routines that hold it together
If you're early in your journey and wondering whether your idea is good enough to back with serious money and serious time - Angela's story is a masterclass in what deep validation actually looks like before you commit. She still wants more. She's her own harshest critic. But $40K a month on a brand she built from scratch with zero business experience, while running a full medical practice, is not nothing.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH BY DR ANGELA CASEY
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/brightgirlbeauty/
Angela's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/angelacaseymd/
Website → https://brightgirl.com/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
After interviewing over 700 founders, including more than 100 billionaires, I kept noticing something that never made it onto the podcast. When the recording stopped and I asked privately how they were really doing, so many described the same thing. The weight of carrying something you cannot put down and cannot hand to anyone else.
Here is the truth I wish someone had told me earlier: entrepreneurs are five and a half times more likely to experience loneliness than the general population. And the founders who are struggling the most are almost always the last ones to say anything about it.
In this episode, I share things I have never talked about publicly before, including losing half a million dollars in a single month, showing up for my team the next morning like nothing happened, and what losing my best friend Aaron taught me about what actually matters on this journey.
Here's what you'll take away:
Why founder loneliness is not about being physically alone, and why that distinction makes it so much harder to recognise and address
The moment that almost broke me at Foundr, and what it actually felt like to carry it without anyone to call
Why the skill of showing up calm and projecting confidence eventually becomes a wall that keeps out the people who could actually help
What Scooter Braun, Steve Huffman, and the co-founder of Airbnb all said privately about whether it ever feels like enough
Why the wins can feel just as isolating as the hard moments, and what to do about that
The one thing that has made the biggest difference: surrounding yourself with founders who are a few steps ahead of where you are right now
If you have been carrying something heavy lately and telling everyone it is fine, this episode is for you. The gap between what you are actually feeling and what you let anyone see will keep growing unless you actively close it.
If you're loving this solo series, I'd love to hear your feedback. Email me directly at [email protected] — I read every reply. Hope you enjoy it.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Jennifer Fisher started with $5,000 and a dog tag she sketched on a
piece of paper for her son - a son she almost never had, after
chemotherapy, failed IVF, and years of surrogacy attempts. She knocked
on doors on 47th Street, got Uma Thurman to wear her piece on a Glamour
cover, and bootstrapped the brand for 20 years without taking a single
dollar from investors. Now Jennifer Fisher Jewelry is on track for nine
figures, growing 50% year over year, and targeting 200-300% growth by
2028 - with a $20 jar of salt as her secret customer acquisition weapon.
In this interview, Jennifer breaks down the Instagram pivot in 2017 that
tripled sales overnight, how 6% of salt buyers convert to jewelry
customers, and the manufacturing mistake she made after Covid that
nearly broke the entire business.
What you'll learn in this interview:
• How a dog tag she sketched for her son became Hollywood's go-to
jewelry brand - starting with Uma Thurman on a Glamour cover
• Why she launched DTC before Shopify existed - and what running a
jewelry brand on Magento in 2005 actually looked like
• The 2017 Instagram pivot: how showing her real life - cooking, dogs,
kids - tripled sales overnight
• How a $20 jar of salt she made in her kitchen became a full customer
acquisition funnel - with 6% of buyers converting to jewelry
• Why founder-led creative outconverts every influencer she's ever
worked with - and why she still does it all herself
• The manufacturing mistake that nearly broke her: why not moving
production out of NYC fast enough after Covid was her biggest business
regret
• How a JV with Centric Brands unlocked the operations, manufacturing
scale, and systems she couldn't build alone in 20 years
• Managing 4,000 SKUs (cut from 10,000) - and the inventory planning
challenge that still costs her sales every season
• Why she's launching men's jewelry, silver, sunglasses, and home as
category expansions - and how she decides what's actually her
• What surviving chemo, years of IVF, and the loss of her father taught
her about handling fear in business
If you're building a DTC fashion or lifestyle brand, trying to figure
out how founder-led content and creative actually works at scale, or
just want 20 years of hard-won bootstrap lessons from someone who built
nine figures without ever raising a round, this conversation will
fundamentally change how you think about brand building, customer
acquisition, and what it means to show up as yourself.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
CONNECT WITH JENNIFER FISHER
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/jenniferfisher/
Website → https://jenniferfisher.com/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Most founders make their first hire reactively. They're overwhelmed, stretched across every function, and they just want someone to take the pressure off right now. So they bring in a generalist, hand them a list of everything they hate doing, and a few months later they're more frustrated than before.
Here's the problem: hiring to relieve pressure is not the same as hiring strategically. And when you get it wrong early, it doesn't just cost you money. It costs you trust in the whole process of building a team.
In this episode, I walk through the framework I wish I had when I made my first hire at Foundr, including the question that reframes the whole decision, why attitude always beats skill, and how to use freelancers and AI agents to buy back time before you are ready to bring on a full time team member.
Here's what you'll take away:
• Why hiring reactively is the most common and most expensive mistake solo founders make
• How to identify what only you can do in the business, and why that answer should drive every hiring decision
• Why focusing on outcomes instead of tasks completely changes how you set a new hire up to succeed
• The case for starting with freelancers and AI agents before committing to a full time salary
• How to run a test project that actually tells you whether someone is the right fit before you sign them on
• Why trust is earned over time and what happens when you hand over too much too fast
If you are doing everything yourself right now and wondering whether it is time to bring someone on, this episode will give you a clear framework for making that call and help you avoid the mistakes that set most first hires up to fail.
If you're loving this solo series, I'd love to hear your feedback. Email me directly at [email protected] — I read every reply. Hope you enjoy it.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Ryan Duey was living in an RV with his float spas closed and no backup
plan when he and Michael Garrett built their first cold plunge from a
retrofitted $100 bathtub in a garage. They turned their Shopify store on
with zero marketing—and got a sale. What followed was one of the most
unlikely scaling stories in DTC history: $30 million to $80 million in a
single year, $250 million in cumulative revenue, four sharks bidding on
Shark Tank, and a category they essentially created from scratch—all
bootstrapped, all assembled in-house in California.
In this interview, the co-founders of Plunge break down the real cost of
scaling a high-ticket inventory business, why they lost an estimated
$20 million in revenue from lead times alone, and the organic influencer
strategy that built the brand before they ever ran a paid ad.
What you'll learn in this interview:
• How they got their first sale with zero marketing—and the Black Friday
that showed them how big this could get
• The cash flow trap every inventory-heavy founder hits: why a great
P&L and an empty bank account can exist at the same time
• How customer prepayments funded growth for years—and what forced the
switch to holding inventory
• Why long lead times cost Plunge an estimated $20 million in lost sales
• From buying parts on Amazon to co-designing a custom chiller in
China—the full supply chain evolution
• How a single Instagram comment to Aubrey Marcus started a chain of
organic gifting to Huberman, Tony Hawk, and Rich Roll
• The Shark Tank deal that never closed—and why they still got the PR,
the airing, and the exposure
• How they bought plunge.com from a New Orleans jazz band for $250K—and
why the trademark was the bigger win
• Why nearly half of all orders close through a phone call or SMS, not a
checkout button
• How they raised $1.3 million from their own customers in under two
weeks via Wefunder
If you're building a high-ticket DTC brand, navigating the brutal cash
flow realities of an inventory-heavy business, or trying to grow without
burning cash on paid ads before you're ready, this conversation will
fundamentally change how you think about scaling, supply chain, and what
it actually takes to build a category from a garage.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
CONNECT WITH RYAN DUEY
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/ryanaduey/
Website → https://plunge.com/
CONNECT WITH MICHAEL GARRETT
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/michaelrgarrett/
Website → https://plunge.com/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Alisha dropped out of year 10 to become a hairdresser, opened her own salon at 20, and ran it for nearly a decade - applying five different products to every client's hair, every single day. By the time she sold the salon, she already knew exactly what was wrong with the industry. What she didn't know was how to start an e-commerce brand. James Jade, her all-in-one leave-in conditioner that replaces up to five separate products, took two years and close to $21,000 to get off the ground. She doesn't regret a cent of it.
In this episode, Alisha walks through the full build - the custom formula she landed on her second sample, the five delays before launch, and the first two years of selling almost entirely through word of mouth, mystery notes left in cafe bathrooms, and conversations at the World Surf League. She gets honest about what held her back, how slow it actually was, and what finally started to move the needle.
What you'll learn in this interview:
How 16 years on the salon floor became the most credible form of product validation - and why Alisha already knew her formula before she ever met a cosmetic chemist
Why she got the formula right on the second sample when most founders go through 20 - and the one thing that was actually the hardest to nail
The real cost of custom formulation: $7,000 for packaging, ~$14,000 for 1,000 units at $15 a bottle, and why she was told to double her budget - and it ended up being triple
What she did during the two years between starting development and actually launching, including freelancing to fund each invoice one at a time
Why refusing to be the face of the brand in the early days made everything slower - and the exact moment she realised the product alone wasn't enough
The scrappy, offline community tactics that built early brand awareness - leaving minis in nice bathrooms, mystery notes in cafes, street conversations at events
How she started posting four times a week on Instagram with no ads, no influencers, and no email marketing - and what eventually changed
The decision to build weekly emails around real hair advice rather than promotional content - and why her salon background made this the easiest part of the whole business
Why she waited until she'd recouped her initial investment before developing the shampoo - and what the waitlist looks like before it's even launched
Lessons from nearly $21K invested in a first run, five launch delays, and two years of slow, deliberate building before the business started to accelerate
If you're in the early stages and wondering whether the slow growth means you're doing it wrong - this episode is for you. Alisha's story is a reminder that domain expertise is an unfair advantage, that the long, unglamorous build is often the only way to get it right, and that $7K a month on a single product with a shampoo waitlist already building is not a small thing.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH BY ALISHA JADE
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/jamesjade.au/
Alisha's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/alishajades/
Website → https://jamesjade.com.au/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
I've wasted so much money over the years running Foundr that I don't even want to know the number. And if I'm honest, it came down to one thing: when it's the business's money, it doesn't always feel like yours. So you spend it like it isn't.
Here's the problem: when your personal and business finances are tangled up together, revenue starts to feel like income, a good month makes you feel like you can relax, and before long the business account becomes a piggy bank. You can't read your own numbers, you can't make good decisions about hiring or inventory or marketing, and you have no real idea what the business actually has.
In this episode, I share the exact framework I wish someone had handed me earlier, including the Profit First model, how to pay yourself properly, and the software audit we just ran at Foundr that is saving us tens of thousands of dollars a month.
Here's what you'll take away:
Why treating business money as separate from personal money is harder than it sounds, and what it actually costs you when you get it wrong
How the Profit First model works: splitting every dollar that comes in across dedicated accounts for tax, operating expenses, and profit
Why paying yourself a fixed salary, even a modest one, forces you to run the business like a real business
The one question to ask before any significant spend: can I measure the return against the risk?
How a simple software audit can uncover thousands of dollars quietly leaking out every month
Why a quarterly P&L review with an external accountant is one of the highest leverage habits a founder can build
If your business finances and personal finances are still mixed together, or you have money in the bank but no real clarity on what the business actually has, this episode will give you a clean, practical system to fix that and start making decisions from a place of clarity.
If you're loving this solo series, I'd love to hear your feedback. Email me directly at [email protected] — I read every reply. Hope you enjoy it.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Demi Marchese started with $800, no investors, and no fashion
background—just a clothing rack in the back of her car and 30 sororities
to pitch in 30 days. She made $40,000 in her first month dressing girls
for Coachella out of her living room, turned $800 into $40K, and never
took a dollar from investors. Ten years later, 12th Tribe does close to
$50 million a year with $250 million in lifetime revenue—fully
founder-owned, profitable, and competing head-to-head with VC-backed
brands like Fashion Nova and Revolve that have raised over $100 million.
In this interview, Demi breaks down the contrarian playbook she calls
"living in the group chat," the mass micro-influencer strategy that
turned free product into serious revenue, and what it actually looks
like to build a fashion brand from the ground up with no money, no
partner, and no safety net.
What you'll learn in this interview:
• How she made $40K in 30 days dressing girls for Coachella out of her
car and living room
• Why vintage thrifting at 90–95% margins funded her first $1–2
million—and when it became impossible to scale
• The "living in the group chat" strategy: how she anticipates what
customers want before they know they want it
• Why founder-led content has consistently outperformed every other ad
format at 12th Tribe
• The mass micro-influencer playbook: how to reverse-engineer gifting
volume from revenue goals and posting rate
• How she balances one big six-figure creator launch per month with mass
micro gifting—and what actually converts
• Why she's leaning offline as everyone else leans into AI—and the Tribe
Table dinner series building real community
• What a warehouse crisis during peak season taught her about crisis
communication and customer retention
• The imposter syndrome of being a 24-year-old solo founder running
eight figures—and what finally made it go away
• Why she competes on soul, storytelling, and founder personality—not ad
spend—against brands with 100x her funding
If you're building a DTC fashion or lifestyle brand, trying to grow
profitably without outside capital, or looking for the real story behind
what founder-led marketing actually looks like at scale, this
conversation will fundamentally change how you think about community,
content, and what it means to build a brand with genuine soul.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
CONNECT WITH DEMI MARCHESE
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/demimarchese/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/demimarchese/
Website → https://www.12thtribe.com/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Most founders are still thinking about AI as a faster way to do their work. But that is not what is happening anymore. AI agents do not help you do the task. They do the task for you. And if you have not started asking which roles in your business actually need a human, you are already behind.
Here is the thing: this is not a big tech problem or a future problem. Small and medium sized businesses are rebuilding their teams around this right now, and the ones doing it well are not replacing people for the sake of it. They are freeing up their human team to focus on the things that actually require judgment.
In this episode, I break down what AI agents actually are, how we are using them at Foundr across customer support, lead qualification and ad optimisation, and the practical first steps any e-commerce founder can take today.
Here's what you'll take away:
Why AI agents and AI tools are completely different things, and why that distinction changes how you think about hiring
How one founder cut his team from 48 to 30 people, replaced four software subscriptions, and saved $250,000 a year without losing any revenue
How Klarna deployed a single AI agent to do the work of 700 customer service reps
The repeatable, process-driven roles in every e-commerce business where agents are already outperforming humans
Where to start if you are a solo founder or small team: the customer support use case that pays off fastest
The one question to ask before every single hire from this point forward
If you are growing your team right now or thinking about your next hire, this episode will completely change how you evaluate that decision and what a lean, high-output operation can actually look like in 2026.
If you're loving this solo series, I'd love to hear your feedback. Email me directly at [email protected] — I read every reply. Hope you enjoy it.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
While every brand was raising prices during inflation, Elina Wang cut hers—and nearly tripled revenue. The co-founder of ESW Beauty turned a juice bar epiphany and a $25,000 bank loan into a $20 million business across 10,000 retail doors, fully bootstrapped and profitable from day one. She did it by making the contrarian bet on retail-first when every founder around her was chasing DTC—then survived Covid wiping out every purchase order overnight while going through a co-founder breakup at the same time.
In this interview, Elina breaks down the real cost of getting into major retail, why she deliberately chose wholesale over DTC from day one, and the pricing move that took ESW Beauty from $4 million to $11 million in revenue.
What you'll learn in this interview:
• Why she bet on retail over DTC from day one—with just $5,000 left after her first trade show
• How a $25,000 SBA loan, a scrappy juice bar booth, and aggressive hallway pitching landed $250K in purchase orders
• The contrarian pricing move: why cutting price from $6 to $4.99 per mask nearly tripled revenue
• How Covid wiped out every PO overnight—and how Faire and gifting programs kept the business alive
• Why 95% wholesale requires 70%+ gross margins—and the hidden retail fees most founders discover too late
• The in-store promotional math: clip strips, end caps, and PDQ displays that cost $25–75K each but drive real velocity
• How she navigated building a business with her co-founder after they broke up—and why they kept going anyway
• Why it took three years of persistence to crack Target—and what metrics finally convinced the buyer
• The leadership shift every founder dreads: how she learned to let go and trust a team after running everything herself
• What she'd tell founders about choosing a co-founder before anything else
If you're building a CPG or beauty brand, trying to crack retail without burning through cash, or wondering what profitable bootstrapped growth at eight figures actually looks like, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about distribution, pricing strategy, and what it takes to survive the moments that would end most companies.
Ready to scale with Meta Ads the right way?Join Nick Shackelford (BREZ $90M+), Phoenix Ha, and Nathan Chan LIVE on 19 June (EDT) / 20 June (AEST) for a FREE 2-hour workshop packed with proven strategies for creative testing, customer acquisition, and profitable scale.Save your free spot: https://foundr.com/pages/fom-workshop
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
CONNECT WITH ELINA WANG
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/esw.beauty/
Website → https://eswbeauty.com/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Tori Gill was still cutting hair on weekends when she sold her first 20,000 sunscreens. A former hairdresser with two kids, no e-commerce background, and a product that took two years to develop, she launched Sun & Daughter on Boxing Day 2024 and hasn't really stopped since. This is the follow-up episode - and a lot has happened.
In this episode, Tori gets real about what scaling from $100K to a million-dollar brand actually looks like from the inside: the stockouts, the 54-hour Facebook ad account lockout, the $20,000 orders she had to back herself on, and the retail decision she's made that could either be her smartest move yet - or, in her own words, "the biggest mistake of my life."
What you'll learn in this interview:
How a consumer watchdog report on failing sunscreen SPF tests became an unexpected growth moment - and how Tori moved fast enough to capitalise on it
Why she packed every order from her spare room for a full year, alongside two kids and two days a week in the barber shop, before finally moving into a warehouse the week before Christmas
The exact moment a Choice magazine article turned into a sales spike, and how having your formula independently tested can become your most credible marketing asset
How Tori used a trending audio format - kids in hats, waiting for SPF results - to make an ad that outperformed every polished campaign she'd ever run
Why she treats her Instagram like a reality TV show, and what that means for how she handles UGC, consistent visuals, and the decision never to post other people's faces on her brand page
The average order value lesson she learned from Founder that led her to build out hats, brushes, wet bags, and bundles - and push her AOV from $75 to over $111
Why she skipped Black Friday, never ran a sale in year one, and then sold 1,000 sunscreens in 24 hours the first time she did - and why she hasn't done it since
Lessons from adding 5 to 10 new ad creatives every single week, and why she's changed her entire campaign structure three times in 15 months
How she uses Instagram Stories polls to let her community choose product colours, hat designs, and packaging - and why it's as much about solving her own indecisiveness as it is about building loyalty
What she's learned about going into major retail - the upfront stock commitments, the hidden marketing costs, and why she still doesn't know if it was the right call
If you're building a product brand and starting to feel like you're holding multiple plates in the air at once - ads, content, stock, manufacturing, team, retail - this episode is worth your time. Tori doesn't have it all figured out, and she says so. But the way she thinks through each decision, tests before she scales, and keeps backing herself anyway is exactly the kind of thinking that turns a spare-room operation into something real.
Ready to scale with Meta Ads the right way?Join Nick Shackelford (BREZ $90M+), Phoenix Ha, and Nathan Chan LIVE on 19 June (EDT) / 20 June (AEST) for a FREE 2-hour workshop packed with proven strategies for creative testing, customer acquisition, and profitable scale.Save your free spot: https://foundr.com/pages/fom-workshop
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH BY TORI GILL
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/sunanddaughter_/
Tori's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/@torigill__/
Tori's Barber Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/torigill_barber/
Website → https://www.sunanddaughter.com.au/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
I see it every single time. Great product. Solid branding. Ads running. And yet it won't scale. Conversions are flat, the economics don't work, and the founder is convinced it's the creative or the funnel or the targeting.
It's never the ads. It's the offer.
Here's the problem: most founders spend 90% of their time perfecting the product and almost no time on the complete package around it. The framing, the bundle, the guarantee, the AOV. And without that, no amount of ad spend is going to save you.
In this episode, I break down what a deliberately engineered offer actually looks like, why getting it right is the single biggest unlock for scaling, and the real-world examples from our Foundr Operators members and the brands spending $100K-plus a day that prove it.
Here's what you'll take away:
Why conversion problems are almost always an economics and offer problem, not a product, creative, or funnel problem
How IM8 turned a supplement powder into an irresistible offer and why every element of their bundle is deliberately engineered
How Foundr Operators member Emma tripled her brand's revenue with Sisu without increasing traffic, just by rebuilding her offer
The AOV floor every e-commerce brand needs to hit before paid ads can scale profitably
What makes an offer feel risk-free: guarantees, social proof, returns policy, and friction reduction done right
Why your customer isn't buying a product. They're buying certainty, value, and the feeling that this is the obvious choice
If your ads aren't scaling and your conversion rate isn't moving, stop tweaking your creative and start here. Getting the offer right is the thing that changes the trajectory, and everything else gets easier once it clicks.
If you're loving this solo series, I'd love to hear your feedback. Email me directly at [email protected] — I read every reply. Hope you enjoy it.
Ready to scale with Meta Ads the right way?Join Nick Shackelford (BREZ $90M+), Phoenix Ha, and Nathan Chan LIVE on 19 June (EDT) / 20 June (AEST) for a FREE 2-hour workshop packed with proven strategies for creative testing, customer acquisition, and profitable scale.Save your free spot: https://foundr.com/pages/fom-workshop
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
A Victoria's Secret Angel and a Goldman Sachs investor built one of the
most talked-about luxury body care launches in recent memory without
raising a cent or paying a single influencer. Jasmine Tookes spent two
decades on the world's biggest runways turning down incubator deal after
incubator deal, waiting to build something real. When she finally met
Sabrina Carstensen—who spent years evaluating consumer brands at
Goldman—they launched Brunel bootstrapped, profitable, and with a
two-person team that pushed their chemists harder than any brand they'd
ever worked with.
In this interview, the co-founders of Brunel break down how they built a
luxury body care brand from scratch on a lean budget, why organic
community came before paid ads, and what it actually takes to get
suppliers and manufacturers to take a self-funded brand seriously.
What you'll learn in this interview:
• Why Jasmine turned down 15 years of incubator deals before building her own brand
• How they kept capital in reserve for collection two before collection one ever sold
• Why word of mouth and organic TikTok drove their entire early growth—no paid influencers
• Why the three-oil bundle outsold every individual product on launch day
• The packaging crisis four months before launch—and how sheer persistence solved it
• Why they stayed fully organic for six months before turning on paid ads
• How Sabrina's investor background shapes every capital decision at Brunel
• Why they didn't hire until they were ready—not desperate
• Why their chemists said no brand had ever pushed them this hard
• What Miranda Kerr's 11 years building Kora taught Jasmine about legacy brands
If you're building a beauty or lifestyle brand, trying to grow
profitably without burning cash on paid ads before you're ready, or just
want the real story behind what luxury brand building looks like on a
bootstrapped budget, this conversation will change how you think about
product standards, community, and building something that lasts beyond
the founder's name.
Ready to scale with Meta Ads the right way?Join Nick Shackelford (BREZ $90M+), Phoenix Ha, and Nathan Chan LIVE on 19 June (EDT) / 20 June (AEST) for a FREE 2-hour workshop packed with proven strategies for creative testing, customer acquisition, and profitable scale.Save your free spot: https://foundr.com/pages/fom-workshop
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
CONNECT WITH BRUNEL
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/brunel/
Website → https://brunelbeauty.com/
Jasmin's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/jastookes/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Most founders think their product is different. But if your marketing sounds like everyone else's — better ingredients, better results, better formula — your customer hears nothing. Because when everything sounds the same, nothing stands out.
Here's the problem: customers don't just buy outcomes. They buy belief that your way of getting there is different. And without a unique mechanism, you're leaving that belief on the table — and handing the sale to whoever communicates their difference more clearly.
In this episode, I break down the concept of unique mechanisms — what they are, why the fastest growing DTC brands all have one, and how to find and articulate yours even if you think you don't have one yet.
Here's what you'll take away:
What a unique mechanism actually is — and why naming the process, not just the outcome, is what makes a product feel proprietary
How IMAÉ's "90-plus clinically dosed ingredients across nine organ systems" turns a supplement into a category of one
Why Instant Hydration's Sel Gris sourcing and Pillar Performance's triple magnesium are textbook examples of mechanism done right
How WHOOP repositioned from fitness tracker to "recovery-based performance system" — and why that framing is the whole game
The four questions to ask yourself right now to uncover the unique mechanism you already have but aren't communicating
Why most founders already have something differentiated — they just can't articulate it clearly enough to make customers believe it
If your ads aren't converting the way they should, or your product feels like it's competing on price instead of value, this episode will show you exactly what's missing — and how to fix it before your next campaign.
If you're loving this solo series, I'd love to hear your feedback. Email me directly at [email protected] — I read every reply. Hope you enjoy it.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Paul Tran started Manscaped with $50,000, a bloody problem nobody was talking about, and a category that didn't exist. The company hit $300 million in revenue in just 36 months, eventually turned down a $1 billion SPAC deal, and has become the #3 men's grooming brand in a category dominated by companies over 100 years old—while staying profitable the entire way.
In this interview, the founder and CEO of Manscaped breaks down the exact DTC playbook that got him from 10,000 units sold out in two weeks to nine figures in annual media spend, why he waited until $50–60 million in marketing spend before entering retail, and the counterintuitive brand decisions—including turning down better-performing ads—that built one of the most recognizable men's lifestyle brands in the world.
What you'll learn in this interview:
• How Paul identified a completely unaddressed category and validated it with just 10,000 units and $5-a-day Facebook ads
• Why Manscaped had lower revenue than Paul's other two businesses at launch—and the three signals that told him it had the highest potential
• The $18,000 mistake that wiped out a third of the starting budget in one hour—and what it taught him about brand vs. performance media
• Why he deliberately waited until $50–60 million in annual media spend before entering retail—and why most brands jump in too early
• The brand values decision that cost them short-term revenue: why they turned down better-converting ads that used provocative imagery
• How 66% of first-time buyers chose a starter kit—and the bundle-testing framework behind it
• Why he walked away from a $1 billion SPAC deal in 2021—and why that decision looks like genius three years later
• The post-purchase upsell structure that turns a single transaction into a lifetime customer
• Why consumer brands should never adopt the VC "raise and burn" playbook—and how Manscaped scaled to $300M while staying profitable
• What Paul would do radically differently if he started today—and why AI changes the entire early-stage playbook
If you're building a DTC brand, trying to figure out the right time to go into retail, or looking for the real story behind how a category-defining brand gets built from scratch on a shoestring, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about timing, positioning, and what profitable scale actually looks like.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
CONNECT WITH PAUL TRAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/paultran/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulhtran/
Website → https://www.manscaped.com/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Victor Chan bought a $2,000 engraving machine off Amazon to make his girlfriend Jess a necklace — a hand-engraved star map of the exact moment they met. She thought it was the most thoughtful gift she'd ever received, and two weeks later they had a store. Two years on, By Lumine is doing $30–40K a month and Jess has quit her accounting job to go all in.
A software engineer and a Big Four accountant — both with zero e-commerce or marketing experience — they started with $100 worth of blank pendants, cardboard packaging with a sticker logo, and a lot of figuring it out on evenings and weekends. What they built is a fully customisable, hand-assembled personalised jewellery brand where no two pieces are the same, consistently hitting 10x growth year on year.
In this episode, Jess and Victor get completely honest about what the first two years actually looked like — two weeks with zero sales after launch, wasted batches from engraving errors, influencer gifting that went nowhere, and how US tariffs hit them just as they were finding their feet.
What you'll learn in this interview:
How a personal gift sparked a business idea — and the Etsy research that validated there was a real market for it
Why starting with $100 worth of blank pendants and a $50 sticker logo is a legitimate launch strategy
The early production mistakes that wasted entire batches — and the lesson on communicating with manufacturers down to the millimetre
Why two weeks of zero sales nearly broke them — and what finally turned things around
How Victor's software background became an unexpected competitive advantage — and the live preview tool that changed their conversion rate
Why Meta ads outperformed every other channel for an emotional, personalised product — and how they learned it all from scratch
The honest truth about influencer marketing: what they tried, what it cost, and why it didn't convert
How they grew 10x in a single year while both still working full time jobs
What getting hit by US tariffs mid-growth actually feels like — and how they kept going anyway
Why Jess wishes she'd started earlier — and what she'd tell any founder sitting on the fence
If you're thinking about starting something with your partner, building a brand in a saturated market, or just trying to figure out whether the grind of evenings and weekends is actually worth it — this episode will change how you think about what a real start looks like. Jess and Victor prove that the scrappiest beginnings can lead somewhere genuinely remarkable.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH BY LUMINE
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/bylumine_/
Website → https://bylumine.com/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
I still remember the day I launched Foundr. After all that work, all that effort — I made $5.50. And when I told someone close to me, they laughed. I was embarrassed, jaded, and genuinely questioning whether any of it was worth it.
Here's the truth: that feeling never fully goes away. It just shows up in different forms. And if you're avoiding it, you're avoiding the exact things that grow your business.
In this episode, I share why embarrassment isn't a sign you're doing something wrong — it's a sign you're doing something that matters — and walk through the real stories, including one of our Foundr Plus members who went from terrified of founder-led content to selling out her brand in days.
Here's what you'll take away:
Why visibility isn't about confidence or personality — it's about reps, and what happens when you commit to showing up before you feel ready
How Foundr Plus member Donna launched Journey, put herself out there, got a shoutout from Brittany Saunders, and sold out in days
The pattern every successful founder shares: awkward beginnings that nobody sees, and what that means for where you are right now
Why avoiding embarrassment doesn't protect you — it just slows your growth
How the discomfort of posting, launching, pitching, and hiring compounds into a skill set that gets easier over time
The reframe that changes everything: stop asking "what if this is embarrassing?" and start asking "what if this moves my business forward?"
If you've been sitting on a piece of content, a product launch, or a partnership pitch because it doesn't feel ready — this episode will show you that the discomfort you're feeling isn't a warning sign. It's the starting point.
If you're loving this solo series, I'd love to hear your feedback. Email me directly at [email protected] — I read every reply. Hope you enjoy it.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast -
Eric Ries wrote the book that changed how the entire world builds startups. Now he's back with a more urgent argument: the way we're taught to build companies is quietly turning them against everything that made them worth building in the first place. The creator of The Lean Startup has spent years watching mission-driven founders get fired from their own companies, watching the spark that started everything get extinguished by the very success they worked so hard to create—and he's finally written the blueprint to stop it.
In this interview, Eric breaks down the core ideas behind his new book Incorruptible, why your corporate charter was designed to sound boring so you'd ignore it, and how the loyalty of your best customers is the most valuable—and most endangered—asset your business has.
What you'll learn in this interview:
• Why the metrics you're tracking are actively destroying customer loyalty—and what to measure instead
• The IMVU pivot story: how six months of data finally broke through Eric's stubbornness and forced the pivot that saved the company
• Why product improvements that don't change customer behavior aren't improvements at all
• How to know when it's time to pivot—and why the real problem is never the decision itself but getting your team to agree on the facts
• Why DTC brands are systematically burning their most loyal customers with re-acquisition marketing they've already earned
• The Saul Price story: how the founder of Fed-Mart was locked out of his own company—and came back to build Costco
• Why only 20% of founders are still CEO three years after IPO—and the governance decisions made at founding that cause it
• Why your corporate structure was deliberately designed to sound boring so you'll ignore it until it's too late
• The two paths every mission-driven founder must master: the path of ethos and the path of integrity
• How Novo Nordisk's 100-year-old governance structure—built by a Nobel laureate in the 1920s—accidentally created the most profitable pharmaceutical in history
If you're an early-stage founder, a DTC operator who cares about building something that lasts, or anyone who's ever wondered why the companies that start with the most idealism seem to end up the most corrupt, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about structure, loyalty, and what it actually means to build a company worth protecting.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
CONNECT WITH ERIC RIES
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/ericriesactual/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/
Website → https://theleanstartup.com/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast - Laat meer zien
